The Arcanist Update Has Arrived!

29 Apr 2026Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Hello Settlement Leaders!

Our second major update: The Arcanist Update has arrived! In this update, you'll get to train a brand new player unit: The Arcanist. That Scorpion hurling attacks from the back of the Swarm will no longer be the threat it once was, not with a firing squad of long-range blasting Arcanists.

Patch Notes 0.2.4524

CHANGES & ADDITIONS

The Arcanist

Added the Arcanist, a powerful long-range unit that channels Arcana to unleash devastating attacks.

Trainable from the Barracks after completing the Stone Tier upgrade.

Base stats

Attack Damage: 125
Armor Penetration: 10
Movement Speed: 3.5
Attack Speed: 0.3
Attack Range: 16

Anyway, so she started blastin'

Essences

Overseer: Increases Gas, Wood, and Stone production by 40% for buildings within 10 range.
Spotter: Increases range of nearby units and defensive structures by +2.
Penetrating Shot: Attacks pierce all enemies, dealing 10% of total damage.
Weak Spot: Attacks apply a debuff that increases damage taken by 10%, stacking up to 5 times.
Ocular Implants: Increases attack range by +2 and vision range by +3.
Steady Aim: Reduces attack speed by 30%, increases attack damage by 30%.
Paralyzing Shot: Attacks have 10% chance to stun the target.
Devout: Grants +2 Arcana when cleansing a Shrine with an Arcanist.
Inject (Ability): Buffs an ally, increasing health, attack damage, armor, and scale for 40 seconds.
Mini Nuke (Ability): Throws a small Radiant Nova, costs 1 Arcana, and deals 2000 damage.

Upgrades

Barracks: Accelerator

Increases attack speed by 10%.

Blacksmith I: Quickstep

Increases movement speed by +0.5.

Blacksmith II: Truestrike

Increases armor penetration by +4.

Veterancy upgrade

Attack Speed: +0.5
Armor Penetration: +1

Elite upgrade

Attack speed: +5%
Armor Penetration: +2

Unit upgrades

Added Blacksmith and Barrack upgrades so all units now have three economy upgrades:
Added Priest Barracks upgrade: Greater Healing → Increases the Healing Power of Priests by 0.5.
Added Pyromaniac Barracks upgrade: Extended Flames → Increases the Range of Pyromaniacs by 1.
Added Priest Blacksmith upgrade: Rapid Restoration → Increases the Healing Speed of Priests by 35%.
Added Pyromaniac Blacksmith upgrade: Wildfire → Increases the Impact Radius of Pyromaniacs by 25%
Renamed the second Blacksmith upgrade for Knights to Bulwark.
Renamed the second Blacksmith upgrade for Arbalists to Penetrating Bolts.

Armor & Armor penetration

Armor now reduces damage by a percentage.
Total damage reduction is displayed in the Armor tooltip.
Additional armor provides diminishing returns.
Armor penetration reduces armor before damage is applied, making it more effective than flat attack damage.
Total stat values are now displayed in unit stat tooltips.

Pathing Update

Melee units now prioritize targets within attack range before aggro range.
Melee targeting now uses path distance instead of straight-line distance, preventing units from mis-targeting through walls.

Other

Updated healing tooltips to explicitly reference Healing Power.
Healing tooltips now display actual healing values and update dynamically.
Decimal values now display up to two decimal places when applicable.
Resource refunds from building removal now use the modified cost instead of base cost.
Karkadann Relic now also increases unit size.

BALANCING

Pyromaniac
- Attack Range: 14 → 13
- Splash Radius: 5 → 4
- Armor: 1 → 0
Increased armor for high-armor enemies, Walls, and Knights to account for the armor system changes.
Increased armor granted by the Iron Momentum Essence.
Increased Priest base Healing Power: 1 → 2
Increased Arbalist Penetrating Bolt upgrade Armor Pen: 2 → 3
Increased Swarm Armor scaling start level from 7 → 10
Decreased Swarm Armor scaling per level from 5% -> 3%
Radiant Nova now ignores Armor.
Burning debuff now ignores Armor.
Removed maintenance cost of the Blacksmith.
Increased Knight base health from 225 -> 250
Increased Wooden wall base armor from 3 -> 5
Increased Stone wall base armor from 7 -> 9
Increased Gates base armors to be identical to their walls.

FIXES

Fixed some missing or incorrect keybinds.

Fixed an issue where Blacksmith upgrades were shown as unit orders instead of upgrades.
Fixed a Trigger System issue where some overlap removal events were skipped (affecting aura removal).
Fixed an issue where Hold Position could increase attack speed, it now shares a cooldown with normal attacks.
Fixed dead tree props shifting one tile after loading a save.
Fixed an issue where the Matriarch could spawn eggs at the edge of the map.
Fixed an issue where production buffs were applied incorrectly, resulting in less of a boost than intended.
Fixed an issue where Marketplaces, after the first placed one, would have their buy/sell buttons enabled during construction already

Another update down, which means it's time to focus on the next deity: Yangwhu! Keep your eyes open for the news and teasers for Update #3.

We're also celebrating today's update with a week-long sale! Want to try out the new Arcanist or introduce your friend to the Swarm? Now's your chance at a discount!

Pick up Here Comes The Swarm at 20% OFF during the Arcanist Sale!

As always, thank you all for your feedback and bug reports. It has been a dream to develop Here Comes The Swarm with you. If you run into a bug or have feedback, please let us know on Discord or by using the bug report button in-game.

See you in Ulora,