Noble Kings!
The moment draws near - the gates to the Volcano will open on December 9th at 19:00 CET!
This entire update, including the new map and all Infernal content, will be completely free for everyone. We are incredibly excited to share it with you and can’t wait to read your impressions, strategies, and glorious tales of lava-fueled disaster.
Alongside the update, we will also expand the Official Soundtrack with brand-new tracks composed specifically for the Volcano. Prepare your ears for fire and fury.
But today’s decree focuses on everything arriving outside the Volcano - the improvements, refinements, and new features coming to the entire game.
If you wish to revisit our previous Volcano reveals, here they are once more for your royal convenience:
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Build Predictability
One of the bigger complaints we see in the reviews is how difficult it is to create certain builds. We have some interesting long-term solutions for that cooking and we are ready to start implementing some of them. The Volcano already introduces a more predictable structure (for example, Infernal Barracks appear at fixed rune thresholds rather than as random rewards). We have also prepared some additional mechanics and changes that will improve this.
Banning Rewards
You will now be able to ban specific buildings from appearing in the reward pool after unlocking this power via permanent Kingdom upgrades.
Free Reroll Upgrade
New permanent upgrades will grant you a free reroll, giving more chances to find the building you actually want.
Research Table Improvements
The Research Table will now be able to generate Levy Barracks (Tier 1 troop building) blueprints in addition to Basic Production (Tier 1 resource buildings) blueprints. To follow up on this change in the whole game, we will reduce the chance of the appearance of T1 troops buildings in optional waves. At the same time, we increased the likelihood of other rewards appearing there.
Advisor Sophy now allows you to construct a separate building - Research Laboratory - where you can roll any blueprint reward of any tier, instead of just upgrading the Research Table.
Together, these changes give you more strategic control while preserving the sweet unpredictability of a roguelite kingdom.
Mechanics changes
Morale
First off, let’s talk about Morale. We felt like Morale buildings are somewhat underused, aside from some specific Spellus runs. We want them to matter more. Most upgrades in these buildings will now grant passive morale bonuses, ensuring they remain valuable even when you aren’t staring at them.
Tavern will be changed even more:
While the building is active, it reduces wine consumption by 50%. Increases morale received from wine by 20. Only one Tavern can take effect.
You will also see more detailed information on what’s influencing your morale.
Trader Improvements
To make the trader more exciting, each visit will now feature one discounted item. Certain advisors, events, and artifacts will allow you to push those discounts even further - sometimes all the way down to free. A true delight for Kings who love bargains almost as much as victory.
New Troops
Four new troop buildings will join the kingdom in the Volcano update:
Pangolin Stump – Poison specialists assisting your Riders whose upgrades add crippling debuffs.
Paladin Campus – Warrior-mages who scale with your spell damage.
Barbarian Tent – A furious leader who buffs your ranged units while smashing foes himself.
Minotaur Camp – Tough bruisers who also empower your flying troops.
Fresh strategies await with each of these additions.
Advisors
Four new advisors join your royal council:
Moralin: increases morale by 1 for the rest of the run for each spell cast
Chicken basket: Summons a temporary chicken rider to fight for you at the start of every wave
Doctor: Your troops and buildings heal 20% more. Receive 1 Healer mage and Hospital blueprint at the start of the run
Gold digger: Places a Small gold mine in your castle at the start of the run
We have also adjusted several existing advisors to improve their viability and remove unintended interactions (looking at you, Basic Construction, Betty and Wise Tree). Full details will be in the complete patch notes.
Threat Levels
We’ve heard your feedback that the difficulty curve from Threat Level 5 to Level 6 is a bit too steep, while the final threat levels feel pretty similar to one another in terms of difficulty. We will make the following changes to address this.
Dark Rites amount of tiles covered changed from 100% to 80%
Modifier Enemies Damage II now gives a 40% bonus instead of the previous 60% bonus
Enemies HP III modifier was, on the contrary, slightly buffed and now gives 70% HP bonus instead of 50%
Some modifiers removed from Threat Level 5
Enemies damage I modifier gives 20% bonus damage instead of 30%
Until the Volcano Erupts…
Now you know almost everything that awaits you. The full update, with all the Infernal content and game-wide improvements, arrives December 9th at 19:00 CET.
Stay sharp, Kings — the mountain trembles, the lava stirs, and a new age of fire approaches.
With love
~ The Hypnohead Team