Greetings, Aspiring Dark Mages!
The time has come—it’s finally time to embrace a world of (mild?) competition in The Dark Horde with version 0.7!
Leaderboards have arrived: your performance in both DECK and DRAFT modes is now tracked. At the moment there is no distinction between difficulties ( but with future updates I will include difficulty selection for DECK runs, and with that feature having separate leaderboards might have more sense).
👉 To check your performance against other players, simply log in at least once! 👈
But that’s not all... This patch brings new decks, fresh mechanics, the long-awaited Codex, UI improvements, and much more!
🔥 NEW FEATURES 🔥
- Leaderboards: Show the world how wickedly good you are! Who rules DECK mode? Who has reached the deepest levels of DRAFT mode? Now you’ll know.
- Cloud Saves: finally? :D
- Codex 1.0: The first step toward a complete in-game encyclopedia. It currently lists all Minions, Villagers, Heroes, and Bosses. But beware: entries for Minions, upgraded Minions and Bosses must be unlocked through play! Future updates will expand the Codex with lore, mechanics, and keyword explanations.
- Updated UI: I added a (hopefully) clearer UI during the Battlerounds! The UI now will clearly show how much time is left for the Round, how much time is left before Day becomes Night (and viceversa) and the Rage Meter has been moved to the top-middle screen to make room for the new Contagion meter.
- Improved Options Menu: it was about time! The are few interesting options, expecially for experienced players, that will allow to disable tooltips and cast spells with a single click. And finally we have a windowed mode and a resolution selection!
🛠️ MECHANICS 🛠️
- Contagion: you will gain Contagion via cards and whenever a character affected by poison (friend or foe!) dies. At Night, Contagion resets to 0—and the higher it was, the worse things get for Villagers. Check the rulebook for details! Cards and skills have been heavily updated to accommodate this mechanic.
- 4 New Heroes: The Noxious Avenger, The Trapper, The Warlock and The Exorcist will try their best to stop your Horde.
- 7 New Bosses: I won't spoil their names or effects here thou...
- Soul Net Skill improved: while slowly ascending to the Heavens, Common Souls will also add 1 Devotion, Sacrifice, Contagion and Cold every 5 TUs.
- Saturday Night Fever (New Skill): Replaces Potent Necromancer. At the start of Night, all cards in hand cost 1 TU less for the rest of the Round.
- Frigid Shrapnel (New Skill): Ice Shards now explode when leaving the battlefield, damaging Villagers.
- Imlan's Gold Rush (New Skill): Gold Nuggets add +5 Cold upon entering the battlefield.
- Worthless & Mighty (New Abilities): Minions with these traits are unaffected by Oblation. Worthless minions also interact with many newly updated cards.
- Killer of Killers (New Achievement): With all 7 missing bosses now in play, you must personally KILL every boss to unlock it. Surviving isn’t enough—slaughter is required. Even veteran players must start fresh for this one.
- All meters have now cap at 99 (was 100): A small tweak for consistency.
🃏 CARDS BALANCE 🃏
- Midnight Terrors: now the cards works only with Necromancies, it required a nerf for sure.
- King of the Tribe: the peace with the Keen-Eye Tribe is no more. Now the king has only a Sacrifice related ability.
- Blood-Eye Wrathpriest: like for his king, the Wrathpriest will no longer generate Cold.
- Succubus: moved to Corruption, the only domain with effects that decrease Rage.
- Death Guard deck: the Deathwish cleric is not a Standard Bearer warrior. The ability is the same, but the unit is a warrior.
- Demoncaller deck: Cultist generates Sacrifice when hit (he loves pain!) and when Oblated. Also, the deck is now more oriented toward the Worthless mechanic of the Imps.
- Envoys of Ghor deck: Blood-Eye Possessed slightly nerfed. The uncommon card of the deck is now the Ghorspawn: a melee demon that creates small fighting demons called Blisters each time he takes a certain amount of damage. Heal it to keep the pests coming!
- Burn and Mischievous Imps swapped places: Burn is now a card in the Envoys of Ghor deck while Mischievous Imps is part of the Demoncallers deck.
- Keen-Eye Tribe deck: another (yes, another) complete overhaul of the deck! It keeps the "Night" theme but now the abilities are triggered via Rimewind sorceries (Necromancies, Pyromancies, Plagues and Frostbites). Also, the tribe is now all-women—contrasting with the all-male Blood-Eye.
- Farewell, Elementals: Lacking synergy, the Elementals have been devoured by demons from the Hell of Greed: Thul. Several minions lost the Elemental trait (e.g., Ice Elemental → Ice Sculpture).
- Corruption Decks Overhaul: with the exception of the Ratageddon deck, each Corruption deck is almost entirely brand new!
Thulan Debt Collectors (Tier 1 Corruption starter): Bureaucratic demons exact tolls on Villagers.
Trolls of Midbog (Tier 3 Corruption starter): Arrogant swamp trolls exploiting goblins with cruel magic.
The Cursed Forest (Tier 4 Corruption starter): A sorcery-only deck featuring witches, wisps, a wendigo, and the mysterious Leperchaun (yes, sic).
Sick and Tired (Tier 5 Corruption starter): Updated to embrace Contagion, nerfing Plague Cultist in the process.
- New Booster-only cards:
Flesh Tithe Arbiter (Destruction, Rare): a powerful demon that will help only if you sacrifice enough minions for him.
Ghoran Igniter (Destruction, Rare): a furious demon that cause the Village to enrage immediatly and adds Burn cards to your deck.
Voice of the Meek (Destruction, Epic): a human cleric that deals damage to the Village each time a Worthless minion of a Goblin Looter are slain.
Thulan Contract (Corruption, Common): a risky card! When you draw it you lose all your Gold. Then after 30 TUs it is discarded and you gain back the gold lost, +2.
Fetid Bloom (Corruption, Uncommon): a sorcery that generates Devotion, Contagion and Sacrifice per corpse on the Battlefield.
Curse of the Werewolf (Corruption, Uncommon): a twisted reimagining of the removed Werewolf card.
- Cards that left the game: the game has only a limited space. This means that for evrything new there are cards that must go... Below are the cards that permanently left the game. A minute of silence.
Gravedigger
Winds of Decay
Gust of Evil
Tainted Crystal
Corrupted Glitter
Elemental Vortex
Tainted Poplar
Werewolf
Scarecrow
GWAAAAR!
Syphon Soul
Covetous Demon
🐛 BUGS 🐛
- Nothing major. But with such a big patch, I expect a few little gremlins to sneak in...
🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰👨🏻🌾🏠👩🏻🌾 🏰
That’s a LOT of new content, right? Hopefully I didn’t forget anything (but if I did—oops!).
With patch 0.7 complete, we’re heading toward the final stretch before release. Here’s a little teaser of what’s still to come:
Final Difficulty Level: Will you claim the mantle of the long-awaited 5th Dark Mage?
New Vendors
Graphic improvements for characters, environment and an intro scene
New Limited Edition cards
More Lore
70% of the game done. Onward!
Stay tuned. Stay evil. 😈