This is the biggest update since the game came out, and you will see it from the first move: the match screen has been completely reworked.
The board at the center
On wide screens the match now sits on two columns beside the board: your opponent on the left, you on the right, with the moves, the chat and your perks. Perks are no longer hidden in a menu: each one is a medallion with its name, and the charges left are a row of golden dots. A spent perk stays there, dimmed, so you always know what you have left.
The black bar at the bottom is gone. The turn is shown by a lamp that lights up on the side of the frame of whoever has to move, and crosses over when it is your opponent's turn.
The frame and the smoke of the columns change with the kind of match: the Story has ember smoke, bosses a red one, online matches a cold thread. If you prefer them off, you can turn them off in the settings.
Perks
Fusion and Cloning can be played in matches, online and in the Story: two pieces become a stronger one, or one becomes two. You discover the recipe of a fusion by winning.
Revive now lets you pick the piece with cards, like a promotion, and under each card it tells you how many copies of that piece you have lost.
The computer has learned to use perks, and matches against the bot now count toward your rating.
In the Story, a piece evolved in battle stays evolved for the rest of the run.
Story
If the player you want to challenge is not around, you can challenge their ghost: the computer plays with the formation that player had built. It pays less than a real challenge, and there is a limited number per run. Challenging one earns the Ghost hunter trophy. On the map, the last node of finished runs carries a marker: someone fell there.
Winning a battle and ending a run now tell the story of your run: the reward front and center, the perks with their names, your estimated place in the hall of fame if you won, and where it ended if you lost. The hall of fame has taken on the same look.
The sheet of the Five Courts has become a path of five medals, which tells apart what you accomplished in this run from what you mastered before.
Everything else
The photo of your Steam or Google profile can become your avatar.
Gamepad and keyboard now also work on map markers, invite banners and queued proposals.
A favor
If you are enjoying the game, a review on Steam helps more than it looks: we are few, and reviews are how other players find us. Two lines are enough.
If something is off instead, tell us in the discussions or send a report from inside the game: we read them all.