ROYAL’S GAMBIT — PATCH 1.1 & SEASON 01 ARE LIVE!
Patch 1.1 is one of our largest updates yet, introducing Season 01, five dangerous Royal variants, in-game leaderboards, animated backgrounds, drag-and-drop card play, a rebalanced scoring system, and numerous controller and interface improvements.
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IMPORTANT SCORE AND SAVE NOTICE
Patch 1.1 introduces a major scoring rebalance designed to give us more room for future reward cards, seasonal mechanics, and other score-altering content.
Because scores earned under the original system cannot be fairly compared with scores earned under the new system:
Local high scores for every Chapter and Game Mode combination will be reset once when Patch 1.1 is first launched.
Any active in-progress run will also be removed. This prevents a score created under the previous rules from being submitted under the new scoring system.
Chapter unlocks, stage clears, achievements, and statistics unrelated to high scores will remain intact.
This migration happens only once.
Existing Steam leaderboard records have not been discarded. They have been preserved as Legacy Leaderboards, allowing everyone to look back at the highest scores achieved under the original scoring system.
Fresh leaderboards are now available for the new scoring system.
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SEASON 01 BEGINS
Season 01 introduces five new Royal variants, each capable of disrupting your strategy in a different way.
PLAGUED ROYALS
Their point value decays while they remain on the board. If the plague is not contained, it may spread to additional Royals.
SHIELDED ROYALS
Their shield completely absorbs an attack. If the Royal survives a later hit, its shield can reform.
BURNING ROYALS
Successful attacks against them can ignite cards in your hand. Burning cards gradually lose damage as you continue taking actions, and the fire may spread.
LIGHTNING ROYALS
Successful attacks temporarily disable cards in your hand that match the Royal’s suit.
FROZEN ROYALS
Overkilling one may freeze a random card in your hand. The greater the overkill, the longer that card can remain unavailable.
Royal variants award additional points and become increasingly common as you advance through a run.
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SEASONAL CONTENT WILL STAY
Season 01 is not temporary content.
When the season ends, its Royal variants will remain available in the game. Players who prefer the original Royal’s Gambit experience can disable Season 01 from the New Game screen.
Classic and Season 01 gameplay maintain separate high scores, statistics, and leaderboards, while chapter unlocks and stage-clearing progress remain shared.
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IN-GAME LEADERBOARDS
Steam leaderboards can now be viewed directly inside Royal’s Gambit.
The new leaderboard room allows you to:
View Global or Friends scores.
Browse every Chapter and Game Mode combination.
Switch between Classic and Season 01 leaderboards.
View the preserved Legacy leaderboards from before the Patch 1.1 scoring rebalance.
Scroll through leaderboard entries using the mouse wheel or controller right stick.
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DRAG-AND-DROP CARD PLAY
Cards can now be dragged directly from your hand onto a Royal to play them.
This works with individual cards or multiple selected cards, making mouse and touch-style play faster and more natural.
If a dragged attack is invalid—such as attempting to play a nonmatching suit—the cards return cleanly to the hand.
The existing drag-and-drop hand-reordering system remains available.
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NEW ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS
New animated backgrounds have been added throughout Royal’s Gambit, bringing more movement, atmosphere, and variety to each run.
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SCORING REBALANCE
Score values have been reduced across the game to provide more room for future rewards, seasonal mechanics, and score multipliers without approaching leaderboard score limits.
While scores will initially be lower than they were before Patch 1.1, future content will provide new opportunities to push them higher again.
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THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone who has played Royal’s Gambit, shared feedback, reported bugs, posted videos, streamed the game, or joined us in the Discord community. This update took longer than we wanted but just know we fully intend to stick with updating Royal's Gambit with new content. Development of 1.2 is well under way already!
Your feedback continues to help shape the game, and we’re excited to finally place Season 01—and all of Patch 1.1—into your hands.
Slay the Royals, rebuild those scores, and good luck climbing the new leaderboards!