WindHunter

Sadly, we do not own the rights to the game so we cannot put it on one of the standard distribution platforms. 

Keep your eye out in the future as we are getting fairly close to doing an official release for dPvE.

Speed runs do not take precedence when we are designing or balancing any part of the game. At the same time, yes we generally avoid major changes to campaign maps which would make the existing records impossible, though obviously this would be us making a map harder, not easier.
Irrespective of speedrunning, we have maintained a pretty hands-off approach to existing campaign maps, and when we did change things we wanted the changes to be mostly unnoticed. We fixed some major problems, like wave trapping on Guns of Lyr, and also did minor things like moving the T2 wells/orbs slightly on Sunbridge slightly south to prevent accidentally pulling the T3 camp. We did some more substantial changes to maps with long durations and high failure rates (Behind Enemy Lines, Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, Convoy). In each case the changes were careful and targeted, and in the case of Nightmare's End we were able to reduce average map time by 20+ minutes while significantly increasing the win rate. As another example, before our changes to Convoy, expert difficulty had a 15-20% win rate, and it is at least double that now. Yet, unless you read the patch notes or obsessively played a map, you likely would not have noticed these changes because they were so subtle. 
Maybe we will change our approach in the future, but for now we mostly want to reduce pain points in maps without changing their overall feel. This is also because making new maps just seems more worthwhile to us than going back and overhauling existing maps. An exception to this is when we feel like a map could really benefit from a substantial overhaul, to the point where it will feel like a new map, and we will soon be announcing a few of these reworks, including potentially one in our next major patch. 

Speed runs do not take precedence when we are designing or balancing any part of the game. At the same time, yes we generally avoid major changes to campaign maps which would make the existing records impossible, though obviously this would be us making a map harder, not easier.
Irrespective of speedrunning, we have maintained a pretty hands-off approach to existing campaign maps, and when we did change things we wanted the changes to be mostly unnoticed. We fixed some major problems, like wave trapping on Guns of Lyr, and also did minor things like moving the T2 wells/orbs slightly on Sunbridge slightly south to prevent accidentally pulling the T3 camp. We did some more substantial changes to maps with long durations and high failure rates (Behind Enemy Lines, Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, Convoy). In each case the changes were careful and targeted, and in the case of Nightmare's End we were able to reduce average map time by 20+ minutes while significantly increasing the win rate. As another example, before our changes to Convoy, expert difficulty had a 15-20% win rate, and it is at least double that now. Yet, unless you read the patch notes or obsessively played a map, you likely would not have noticed these changes because they were so subtle. 
Maybe we will change our approach in the future, but for now we mostly want to reduce pain points in maps without changing their overall feel. This is also because making new maps just seems more worthwhile to us than going back and overhauling existing maps. An exception to this is when we feel like a map could really benefit from a substantial overhaul, to the point where it will feel like a new map, and we will soon be announcing a few of these reworks, including potentially one in our next major patch. 

Probably a PvP balance thing. WIndhunter also costs 120 power compared to Skyfire Drake's 100. And they are commonly used in different decks and have different counters.
Offering also takes up a slot, and you might need offering targets (e.g. rifle cultists at T4), so even more slots. The point about offering is, that it is one card by one faction, which can bypass charges (plus I think Evil Eye?), while double slotting spells can in principle be done by each faction.

We fixed up and released Random Wall Defense in about 3 weeks. As such we could not make any real structural changes. At the same time, later walls have more health than earlier walls, and we did not want players to be able to just sprint to the better walls and build them right away, so we put fairly weak enemies there to discourage that. These enemies should all be killable by units you would bring for defending anyway. 

We fixed up and released Random Wall Defense in about 3 weeks. As such we could not make any real structural changes. At the same time, later walls have more health than earlier walls, and we did not want players to be able to just sprint to the better walls and build them right away, so we put fairly weak enemies there to discourage that. These enemies should all be killable by units you would bring for defending anyway. 

If/when we add a new affinity, it will likely be by keeping the existing card nearly the same and that becoming one affinity. There is not a randomization of which one you get, everyone will get the same affinity while the other affinity will start to drop from boosters. Having the player choose each affinity they want is a good idea, but it is likely to be too much work, and we don't really have the UI to support it. 

Affinity System Changes
Affinities have been part of the game since the Renegade edition. In some cases, they provide a great design tool where by making a minor modification to a card we can open up new playstyles and support multiple deck archetypes. In other cases, they are needless additions which not only hurt game balance, but also dilute faction identity. A big problem we have is that nearly every card added to the game since the game's initial launch has an affinity effect, and many of these affinities are very similar, with the same 5-10 effects used over and over again across all factions. This has lead to a steady homogenization of faction identities as we have rebalanced more and more cards, making it increasingly hard for us to keep each faction feeling unique. Many cards simply do not need multiple affinities (while some Twilight edition cards would benefit from having them), and this is particularly true with many spell cards where we have needed to nerf individual affinities to account for players being able to include both in their deck (and thereby bypassing the spell's designed cooldown).
While we have modified effects and swapped between affinities, we have to date not added any new affinities to cards which did not release with them, nor removed affinities from cards which once had them. This is largely because we view ourselves as stewards of the game and are therefore generally very conservative with our changes to the game's existing systems. At the same time, we feel like our choice to not directly add or remove affinities from cards has begun to hurt the game's balance and also damage faction identity. As such, we intend to begin adding new affinities or removing existing affinities from some cards moving forward as part of balance changes. To help explain our decision, we have included some examples of good and bad examples of the affinity system, as well as some clarifying questions. 
Good and Bad Examples of Affinities
[ Good Examples ]
Batariel - Batariel has a fire affinity and a shadow affinity. The fire affinity is designed to work as a solo-unit, while the shadow affinity is designed to enable other units to deal more damage. This makes the fire affinity good in Enlightenment decks and the shadow affinity good in Pure Fire decks, meaning that one card can enable or even create two different deck archetypes. Soul Splicer - The core function of Soul Splicer is to turn corpses into a buff effect. The nature affinity's healing has always been good, and with the release of Random Wall Defense we see that the fire affinity's damage buff has a good niche in empowering archers from behind walls.  Nether Warp - While Nether Warp likely does not need affinities in an absolute sense, the two affinities it does have both bring something unique to the table. The nature affinity's healing is better in PvE, while the frost affinity's slow buffs the spell's defensive capacities in PvP. Equilibrium - Equilibrium is a healing spell with a built-in scaling effect based on the amount of nearby life points. The frost affinity scales with enemy health and the nature affinity scales with friendly health. This means that one affinity is reliable when used with a friendly army, while the other affinity can scale even with single unit compositions so long as the player carefully places it around enemies. This allows each affinity to work with different decks and find its own niche.  [ Bad Examples ]
Sylvan Gate - Sylvan Gate's central identity is to bridge long distances between root network groups. Yet, because it started with an affinity, we had to give it mostly random affinity effects even after reworking it. Both effects buff units in a 25m radius around the Gate itself, but since the fitting affinity effects were already taken by Root Nexus we ended up adding two affinity effects which root network decks do not need or which are unbalanced. For example, the shield piercing on the shadow affinity is mostly insubstantial when used in campaign and random PvE maps, but it causes balance problems in defensive PvE and therefore needs to be removed. But what other shadow-like effect does the root network need and which would be fitting for a root connector card to convey? Additionally, Sylvan Gate and the root network are already very strong and do not need anymore buffs when used defensively. Therefore, it would simply be better to not have any affinity effects on the card rather than slapping on another random effect which would ultimately need to be so weak that it is ignored. Skydefender - Skydefender is a T2 Bandit anti-air tower and because it was released as a Renegade edition card it was given two affinities. If a player were to chose which one to use, it would always be the shadow affinity which can bypass shields. If the card would benefit from shield piercing, it could be incorporated into the base card design, and not added onto one affinity while the other affinity does little to nothing in comparison (The nature affinity effect would only be useful in PvP, but dedicated anti-air towers are not viable in PvP). Attempting to find a 2nd affinity which is comparable in strength to shield piercing and which also fits a Bandits T2 anti-air tower might be possible, but it is a lot of creative energy which is better used elsewhere. And in any case, simplicity in design is often better. Cluster Explosion - The primary purpose of Cluster Explosion is to do a lot of damage. Therefore, whatever affinity does more damage is the affinity which players are going to use, unless both affinities do so much damage that the affinity effect simply does not matter. Additionally, Cluster Explosion is purposefully designed with only 4 total charges as a way to balance the card. If we were to make the second affinity even somewhat comparable in damage, it would be slotted into decks as a way to bypass the card's inherent charge and cooldown limitations. We therefore are required to keep the shadow affinity purposefully weak, which is hardly a good design practice with an ultra-rare card.   Lost Dancer - Lost Dancer recently received some changes that moved her into a good spot, but as part of the balancing we also reduced the affinity effects to a mere +30% more damage to humans for the shadow affinity and a mere +30% siege for the fire affinity. The unit also has its own counter, so these additional counters are entirely superfluous to the card's central design. We only left them because the card has two affinities, but we had to make them so weak they are largely afterthoughts in the deckbuilding process.  Affinities are at their best when they enable new play styles and directly enhance the card's core function. They are at their worst when they detract from the core function, add unneeded complexity, or are randomly tacked on effects.
Clarifications
Question 1 - Does this mean you are removing the affinity system? Answer 1 - No, we will not be removing the affinity system. We think it has its place in the game and where it fits we will leave it or even expand it. Question 2 - Will you be changing all cards? Answer 2 - No, we will only be changing some cards, and we will do so slowly overtime and with community input, just like our present balance process. Question 3 - What happens when you remove affinities from a card? What if I own one or both versions of this card? Answer 3 - If a card has its affinities removed, any player who owns a copy of either affinity will have any copies they own swapped out for the new affinity-less version of that card. In this way, you will not lose any cards you own. For example, if we removed the affinities from Forest's Vim and you had 4 copies of the nature affinity and 7 copies of the shadow affinity, you would be given 11 copies of the affinity-less version after the balance change. Additionally, all upgrades the cards had will be removed and their gold refunded (in case you had both affinities upgraded).   Question 4 - What happens when you add a new affinity to a card? What happens to any currently affinity-less copies I own? Answer 4 - If a card has a new affinity added, all of the existing affinity-less versions will be transformed into one of the affinities. The other affinity will then begin to drop from boosters like normal.

Affinity System Changes
Affinities have been part of the game since the Renegade edition. In some cases, they provide a great design tool where by making a minor modification to a card we can open up new playstyles and support multiple deck archetypes. In other cases, they are needless additions which not only hurt game balance, but also dilute faction identity. A big problem we have is that nearly every card added to the game since the game's initial launch has an affinity effect, and many of these affinities are very similar, with the same 5-10 effects used over and over again across all factions. This has lead to a steady homogenization of faction identities as we have rebalanced more and more cards, making it increasingly hard for us to keep each faction feeling unique. Many cards simply do not need multiple affinities (while some Twilight edition cards would benefit from having them), and this is particularly true with many spell cards where we have needed to nerf individual affinities to account for players being able to include both in their deck (and thereby bypassing the spell's designed cooldown).
While we have modified effects and swapped between affinities, we have to date not added any new affinities to cards which did not release with them, nor removed affinities from cards which once had them. This is largely because we view ourselves as stewards of the game and are therefore generally very conservative with our changes to the game's existing systems. At the same time, we feel like our choice to not directly add or remove affinities from cards has begun to hurt the game's balance and also damage faction identity. As such, we intend to begin adding new affinities or removing existing affinities from some cards moving forward as part of balance changes. To help explain our decision, we have included some examples of good and bad examples of the affinity system, as well as some clarifying questions. 
Good and Bad Examples of Affinities
[ Good Examples ]
Batariel - Batariel has a fire affinity and a shadow affinity. The fire affinity is designed to work as a solo-unit, while the shadow affinity is designed to enable other units to deal more damage. This makes the fire affinity good in Enlightenment decks and the shadow affinity good in Pure Fire decks, meaning that one card can enable or even create two different deck archetypes. Soul Splicer - The core function of Soul Splicer is to turn corpses into a buff effect. The nature affinity's healing has always been good, and with the release of Random Wall Defense we see that the fire affinity's damage buff has a good niche in empowering archers from behind walls.  Nether Warp - While Nether Warp likely does not need affinities in an absolute sense, the two affinities it does have both bring something unique to the table. The nature affinity's healing is better in PvE, while the frost affinity's slow buffs the spell's defensive capacities in PvP. Equilibrium - Equilibrium is a healing spell with a built-in scaling effect based on the amount of nearby life points. The frost affinity scales with enemy health and the nature affinity scales with friendly health. This means that one affinity is reliable when used with a friendly army, while the other affinity can scale even with single unit compositions so long as the player carefully places it around enemies. This allows each affinity to work with different decks and find its own niche.  [ Bad Examples ]
Sylvan Gate - Sylvan Gate's central identity is to bridge long distances between root network groups. Yet, because it started with an affinity, we had to give it mostly random affinity effects even after reworking it. Both effects buff units in a 25m radius around the Gate itself, but since the fitting affinity effects were already taken by Root Nexus we ended up adding two affinity effects which root network decks do not need or which are unbalanced. For example, the shield piercing on the shadow affinity is mostly insubstantial when used in campaign and random PvE maps, but it causes balance problems in defensive PvE and therefore needs to be removed. But what other shadow-like effect does the root network need and which would be fitting for a root connector card to convey? Additionally, Sylvan Gate and the root network are already very strong and do not need anymore buffs when used defensively. Therefore, it would simply be better to not have any affinity effects on the card rather than slapping on another random effect which would ultimately need to be so weak that it is ignored. Skydefender - Skydefender is a T2 Bandit anti-air tower and because it was released as a Renegade edition card it was given two affinities. If a player were to chose which one to use, it would always be the shadow affinity which can bypass shields. If the card would benefit from shield piercing, it could be incorporated into the base card design, and not added onto one affinity while the other affinity does little to nothing in comparison (The nature affinity effect would only be useful in PvP, but dedicated anti-air towers are not viable in PvP). Attempting to find a 2nd affinity which is comparable in strength to shield piercing and which also fits a Bandits T2 anti-air tower might be possible, but it is a lot of creative energy which is better used elsewhere. And in any case, simplicity in design is often better. Cluster Explosion - The primary purpose of Cluster Explosion is to do a lot of damage. Therefore, whatever affinity does more damage is the affinity which players are going to use, unless both affinities do so much damage that the affinity effect simply does not matter. Additionally, Cluster Explosion is purposefully designed with only 4 total charges as a way to balance the card. If we were to make the second affinity even somewhat comparable in damage, it would be slotted into decks as a way to bypass the card's inherent charge and cooldown limitations. We therefore are required to keep the shadow affinity purposefully weak, which is hardly a good design practice with an ultra-rare card.   Lost Dancer - Lost Dancer recently received some changes that moved her into a good spot, but as part of the balancing we also reduced the affinity effects to a mere +30% more damage to humans for the shadow affinity and a mere +30% siege for the fire affinity. The unit also has its own counter, so these additional counters are entirely superfluous to the card's central design. We only left them because the card has two affinities, but we had to make them so weak they are largely afterthoughts in the deckbuilding process.  Affinities are at their best when they enable new play styles and directly enhance the card's core function. They are at their worst when they detract from the core function, add unneeded complexity, or are randomly tacked on effects.
Clarifications
Question 1 - Does this mean you are removing the affinity system? Answer 1 - No, we will not be removing the affinity system. We think it has its place in the game and where it fits we will leave it or even expand it. Question 2 - Will you be changing all cards? Answer 2 - No, we will only be changing some cards, and we will do so slowly overtime and with community input, just like our present balance process. Question 3 - What happens when you remove affinities from a card? What if I own one or both versions of this card? Answer 3 - If a card has its affinities removed, any player who owns a copy of either affinity will have any copies they own swapped out for the new affinity-less version of that card. In this way, you will not lose any cards you own. For example, if we removed the affinities from Forest's Vim and you had 4 copies of the nature affinity and 7 copies of the shadow affinity, you would be given 11 copies of the affinity-less version after the balance change. Additionally, all upgrades the cards had will be removed and their gold refunded (in case you had both affinities upgraded).   Question 4 - What happens when you add a new affinity to a card? What happens to any currently affinity-less copies I own? Answer 4 - If a card has a new affinity added, all of the existing affinity-less versions will be transformed into one of the affinities. The other affinity will then begin to drop from boosters like normal.

Patch #400056 - The Shifting Temple
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our 4th original Campaign Map, our 22nd balance patch, a new featured survival community map, balance changes to Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble, and more. 

Patch Preview
A brand-new campaign map! The Shifting Temple is our third 2-player campaign map and our fourth new campaign map overall, accompanied by two seasonal challenges. New Defensive PvE Map. Random Wall Defense is a featured survival map where you defend against one of randomized three factions in hopes of surviving to the end.  Balance changes for Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble. The lower difficulties of these maps have proven a bit too strong, so we are adjusting them accordingly. Several card balance changes, mostly to Stonekin and Frost cards.

New Campaign Map
The Shifting Temple, 2-player campaign map
In The Shifting Temple, a pair of Skylords battle against both Twilight and Shadow forces in an attempt to unearth the secrets of the mysterious Shifting Temple. Upon entering the temple, one of four paths is unlocked, giving the map a unique labyrinthian feel. And what would any labyrinth be without its Minotaur?

 
The Shifting Temple can be found on the world map after The Insane God:

Storybook pages can be found at:
Plot ➜ Twilight ➜ The Twilight Taint ➜ Page 17+

New Featured Survival Map (Beta Release)
Random Wall Defense, 4-player defensive random PvE map
Random Wall Defense is a featured community survival map. This means that players earn gold based on how long they survive, not whether they win the map. This map is a rework of our original attempt at what has been called dPvE or defensive PvE, first announced approximately 5 years ago. We recently dusted it off the shelf and gave it a full overhaul. Players can enjoy fighting against randomly chosen enemies from 3 factions with up to 3 other players. Comes with standard, advanced, and expert difficulties.

 

Map Changes
Unexpected Visitors (advanced difficulty):
1. Removed one unit from all incoming attack waves. 
2. Increased the time before the Amii city siege automatically begins from 5 minutes ➜ 7 minutes.
3. Rebalanced several Lost Souls camps in front of the Amii city and the northern Power Shrine.
4. Removed the patrolling Mountaineer at the player's T2 location.
Overall, these changes ought to make Unexpected Visitor's advanced difficulty more comparable to other official campaign maps and make it easier for players to overcome common failure points.
Heart of Trouble (standard and advanced difficulty):
Standard difficulty:
1. Removed the mine traps from the northern camps and the hurricane traps from the southern camps.
2. Reduced the life points of the Black and Yellow crystals from 2500 ➜ 1500 life points.
3. Increased the respawn time of all camp defenders and patrols by 10 seconds.
4. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 10 seconds.
Advanced difficulty:
1. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 5 seconds.
Heart of Trouble was our first attempt at making a standard difficulty map and it proved a bit too difficult for our new players. 

Game Balance Changes
[ Player Card Changes ]
 Battleship:
1. Barrage:
   A. Damage: 800, up to 2400 in total ➜ 1400, up to 3500 in total
   B. Now affects air units.
Battleship is still lagging behind other T4 options, so we are giving its ability a buff-up to reward using it wisely. Upcoming changes to Architect's Call will indirectly buff Battleship by making it easier to keep it moving swiftly. 
 Defense Tower: 
1. Frost Bolt attack speed: 2.86 seconds (683 dp20) ➜ 2.5 seconds (780 dp20)
2. Life points: 1500 ➜ 1400
Defense Tower has a wrong damage value due to a wrong attack speed. While we are not going to give it the 300 extra damage it claims to have, we will be adding another 100 damage in exchange for removing 100 life points, shifting the tower's power budget towards offense.
 Earthen Gift: 
1. Blessed Earth (b):
   A. Life points per second: 10% of its maximum life points ➜ 6% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per structure ➜ 6000 in total per structure
2. Gifted Earth (g):
   A. Life points per second: 5% of its maximum life points ➜ 3.5% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per unit (Unchanged)
Adjusting the healing thresholds and percentages of the two affinities. The building affinity will heal less per second but more overall, this should make it a better compliment for Tectonic Shift strategies. The unit version is too strong right now, so we are moderately cutting down its healing per second while leaving the overall cap intact.
 Grinder: 
1. Damage: 5000 ➜ 5500
2. Life points: 4500 ➜ 5000
3. Add XL-counter
These changes should help Grinder to tank better and focus down extra-large threats that Stonekin can sometimes struggle against, including bosses.
 Makeshift Tower: 
1. Grenade Launcher:
   A. Damage: 45 up to 65 in total (367 dp20) ➜ 54 up to 81 (450 dp20)
Makeshift Tower never had a correct damage value, so we are correcting that. Even so, it will remain the weakest tower in the game.
 Primal Defender: 
1. Power cost: 60p ➜ 70p
2. Earthstrike damage: 130 up to 195 in total (975 dp20) ➜ 155 up to 233 in total (1175 dp20)
   A. Fix attack speed description to say every 3.3 seconds.
3. Cloudstrike damage: 250, up to 375 in total (2030 dp20) ➜ 290, up to 435 in total (2355 dp20)
4. Life points: 1300 ➜ 1515
Primal Defender takes up more space than other comparable T1 towers, meaning that when placed behind a wall Nature T1 can fit less defensive towers than other factions. While a lower cost is often a benefit, when placed behind walls a wider but low cost tower is a hindrance because it has less stat density, which results in Nature T1 fitting less stats behind the wall overall. This is exasperated by most towers sight blocking each other, so you cannot simply place more towers in the back to make up for this. As such, we are increasing Primal Defender's cost and increasing its damage and health stats proportionally. These changes will allow the tower to be more stat dense and therefore better when placed in locations with limited space, while being power neutral in other situations.
 Shatter Ice: 
1. Power cost: 100p ➜ 70p
 Tectonic Shift: 
1. Ability range: 100m ➜ 150m
2. Ability cooldown: 20 seconds ➜ 30 seconds
We are increasing both the teleport distance and ability cooldown of Tectonic Shift by 50%. This should hopefully allow Stonekin lovers to better keep up with their fellow players in random PvE.
[ NPC Changes ]
 Moloch (NPC): 
1. Hardened Skin damage reduction: 90% ➜ 80% less damage from ranged and magical attacks
With the introduction of Random Wall Defense, Moloch's current damage reduction level is excessive and makes it nearly unkillable for many archetypes.

General Fixes
Fixed worm movement causing desyncs. Movement might feel slightly different from before. Skydancer should no longer be classified as an elf unit. Added tooltip "Presets completed" to challenges 2.4, 2.8, and 6.4 to help players better keep track of their progress in challenges requiring MotS presets. Fixed several grammar and typographical errors in the English lore book.  Introduced various new Shadow units & buildings with the release of the Shifting Temple. 

Patch #400056 - The Shifting Temple
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our 4th original Campaign Map, our 22nd balance patch, a new featured survival community map, balance changes to Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble, and more. 

Patch Preview
A brand-new campaign map! The Shifting Temple is our third 2-player campaign map and our fourth new campaign map overall, accompanied by two seasonal challenges. New Defensive PvE Map. Random Wall Defense is a featured survival map where you defend against one of randomized three factions in hopes of surviving to the end.  Balance changes for Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble. The lower difficulties of these maps have proven a bit too strong, so we are adjusting them accordingly. Several card balance changes, mostly to Stonekin and Frost cards.

New Campaign Map
The Shifting Temple, 2-player campaign map
In The Shifting Temple, a pair of Skylords battle against both Twilight and Shadow forces in an attempt to unearth the secrets of the mysterious Shifting Temple. Upon entering the temple, one of four paths is unlocked, giving the map a unique labyrinthian feel. And what would any labyrinth be without its Minotaur?

 
The Shifting Temple can be found on the world map after The Insane God:

Storybook pages can be found at:
Plot ➜ Twilight ➜ The Twilight Taint ➜ Page 17+

New Featured Survival Map (Beta Release)
Random Wall Defense, 4-player defensive random PvE map
Random Wall Defense is a featured community survival map. This means that players earn gold based on how long they survive, not whether they win the map. This map is a rework of our original attempt at what has been called dPvE or defensive PvE, first announced approximately 5 years ago. We recently dusted it off the shelf and gave it a full overhaul. Players can enjoy fighting against randomly chosen enemies from 3 factions with up to 3 other players. Comes with standard, advanced, and expert difficulties.

 

Map Changes
Unexpected Visitors (advanced difficulty):
1. Removed one unit from all incoming attack waves. 
2. Increased the time before the Amii city siege automatically begins from 5 minutes ➜ 7 minutes.
3. Rebalanced several Lost Souls camps in front of the Amii city and the northern Power Shrine.
4. Removed the patrolling Mountaineer at the player's T2 location.
Overall, these changes ought to make Unexpected Visitor's advanced difficulty more comparable to other official campaign maps and make it easier for players to overcome common failure points.
Heart of Trouble (standard and advanced difficulty):
Standard difficulty:
1. Removed the mine traps from the northern camps and the hurricane traps from the southern camps.
2. Reduced the life points of the Black and Yellow crystals from 2500 ➜ 1500 life points.
3. Increased the respawn time of all camp defenders and patrols by 10 seconds.
4. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 10 seconds.
Advanced difficulty:
1. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 5 seconds.
Heart of Trouble was our first attempt at making a standard difficulty map and it proved a bit too difficult for our new players. 

Game Balance Changes
[ Player Card Changes ]
 Battleship:
1. Barrage:
   A. Damage: 800, up to 2400 in total ➜ 1400, up to 3500 in total
   B. Now affects air units.
Battleship is still lagging behind other T4 options, so we are giving its ability a buff-up to reward using it wisely. Upcoming changes to Architect's Call will indirectly buff Battleship by making it easier to keep it moving swiftly. 
 Defense Tower: 
1. Frost Bolt attack speed: 2.86 seconds (683 dp20) ➜ 2.5 seconds (780 dp20)
2. Life points: 1500 ➜ 1400
Defense Tower has a wrong damage value due to a wrong attack speed. While we are not going to give it the 300 extra damage it claims to have, we will be adding another 100 damage in exchange for removing 100 life points, shifting the tower's power budget towards offense.
 Earthen Gift: 
1. Blessed Earth (b):
   A. Life points per second: 10% of its maximum life points ➜ 6% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per structure ➜ 6000 in total per structure
2. Gifted Earth (g):
   A. Life points per second: 5% of its maximum life points ➜ 3.5% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per unit (Unchanged)
Adjusting the healing thresholds and percentages of the two affinities. The building affinity will heal less per second but more overall, this should make it a better compliment for Tectonic Shift strategies. The unit version is too strong right now, so we are moderately cutting down its healing per second while leaving the overall cap intact.
 Grinder: 
1. Damage: 5000 ➜ 5500
2. Life points: 4500 ➜ 5000
3. Add XL-counter
These changes should help Grinder to tank better and focus down extra-large threats that Stonekin can sometimes struggle against, including bosses.
 Makeshift Tower: 
1. Grenade Launcher:
   A. Damage: 45 up to 65 in total (367 dp20) ➜ 54 up to 81 (450 dp20)
Makeshift Tower never had a correct damage value, so we are correcting that. Even so, it will remain the weakest tower in the game.
 Primal Defender: 
1. Power cost: 60p ➜ 70p
2. Earthstrike damage: 130 up to 195 in total (975 dp20) ➜ 155 up to 233 in total (1175 dp20)
   A. Fix attack speed description to say every 3.3 seconds.
3. Cloudstrike damage: 250, up to 375 in total (2030 dp20) ➜ 290, up to 435 in total (2355 dp20)
4. Life points: 1300 ➜ 1515
Primal Defender takes up more space than other comparable T1 towers, meaning that when placed behind a wall Nature T1 can fit less defensive towers than other factions. While a lower cost is often a benefit, when placed behind walls a wider but low cost tower is a hindrance because it has less stat density, which results in Nature T1 fitting less stats behind the wall overall. This is exasperated by most towers sight blocking each other, so you cannot simply place more towers in the back to make up for this. As such, we are increasing Primal Defender's cost and increasing its damage and health stats proportionally. These changes will allow the tower to be more stat dense and therefore better when placed in locations with limited space, while being power neutral in other situations.
 Shatter Ice: 
1. Power cost: 100p ➜ 70p
 Tectonic Shift: 
1. Ability range: 100m ➜ 150m
2. Ability cooldown: 20 seconds ➜ 30 seconds
We are increasing both the teleport distance and ability cooldown of Tectonic Shift by 50%. This should hopefully allow Stonekin lovers to better keep up with their fellow players in random PvE.
[ NPC Changes ]
 Moloch (NPC): 
1. Hardened Skin damage reduction: 90% ➜ 80% less damage from ranged and magical attacks
With the introduction of Random Wall Defense, Moloch's current damage reduction level is excessive and makes it nearly unkillable for many archetypes.

General Fixes
Fixed worm movement causing desyncs. Movement might feel slightly different from before. Skydancer should no longer be classified as an elf unit. Added tooltip "Presets completed" to challenges 2.4, 2.8, and 6.4 to help players better keep track of their progress in challenges requiring MotS presets. Fixed several grammar and typographical errors in the English lore book.  Introduced various new Shadow units & buildings with the release of the Shifting Temple. 

you guys cooked with the map!

Really grateful for the difficulty changes, thank you devteam! 

Patch #400056 - The Shifting Temple
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our 4th original Campaign Map, our 22nd balance patch, a new featured survival community map, balance changes to Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble, and more. 

Patch Preview
A brand-new campaign map! The Shifting Temple is our third 2-player campaign map and our fourth new campaign map overall, accompanied by two seasonal challenges. New Defensive PvE Map. Random Wall Defense is a featured survival map where you defend against one of randomized three factions in hopes of surviving to the end.  Balance changes for Unexpected Visitors and Heart of Trouble. The lower difficulties of these maps have proven a bit too strong, so we are adjusting them accordingly. Several card balance changes, mostly to Stonekin and Frost cards.

New Campaign Map
The Shifting Temple, 2-player campaign map
In The Shifting Temple, a pair of Skylords battle against both Twilight and Shadow forces in an attempt to unearth the secrets of the mysterious Shifting Temple. Upon entering the temple, one of four paths is unlocked, giving the map a unique labyrinthian feel. And what would any labyrinth be without its Minotaur?

 
The Shifting Temple can be found on the world map after The Insane God:

Storybook pages can be found at:
Plot ➜ Twilight ➜ The Twilight Taint ➜ Page 17+

New Featured Survival Map (Beta Release)
Random Wall Defense, 4-player defensive random PvE map
Random Wall Defense is a featured community survival map. This means that players earn gold based on how long they survive, not whether they win the map. This map is a rework of our original attempt at what has been called dPvE or defensive PvE, first announced approximately 5 years ago. We recently dusted it off the shelf and gave it a full overhaul. Players can enjoy fighting against randomly chosen enemies from 3 factions with up to 3 other players. Comes with standard, advanced, and expert difficulties.

 

Map Changes
Unexpected Visitors (advanced difficulty):
1. Removed one unit from all incoming attack waves. 
2. Increased the time before the Amii city siege automatically begins from 5 minutes ➜ 7 minutes.
3. Rebalanced several Lost Souls camps in front of the Amii city and the northern Power Shrine.
4. Removed the patrolling Mountaineer at the player's T2 location.
Overall, these changes ought to make Unexpected Visitor's advanced difficulty more comparable to other official campaign maps and make it easier for players to overcome common failure points.
Heart of Trouble (standard and advanced difficulty):
Standard difficulty:
1. Removed the mine traps from the northern camps and the hurricane traps from the southern camps.
2. Reduced the life points of the Black and Yellow crystals from 2500 ➜ 1500 life points.
3. Increased the respawn time of all camp defenders and patrols by 10 seconds.
4. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 10 seconds.
Advanced difficulty:
1. Increased the delay between cannon barrages by 5 seconds.
Heart of Trouble was our first attempt at making a standard difficulty map and it proved a bit too difficult for our new players. 

Game Balance Changes
[ Player Card Changes ]
 Battleship:
1. Barrage:
   A. Damage: 800, up to 2400 in total ➜ 1400, up to 3500 in total
   B. Now affects air units.
Battleship is still lagging behind other T4 options, so we are giving its ability a buff-up to reward using it wisely. Upcoming changes to Architect's Call will indirectly buff Battleship by making it easier to keep it moving swiftly. 
 Defense Tower: 
1. Frost Bolt attack speed: 2.86 seconds (683 dp20) ➜ 2.5 seconds (780 dp20)
2. Life points: 1500 ➜ 1400
Defense Tower has a wrong damage value due to a wrong attack speed. While we are not going to give it the 300 extra damage it claims to have, we will be adding another 100 damage in exchange for removing 100 life points, shifting the tower's power budget towards offense.
 Earthen Gift: 
1. Blessed Earth (b):
   A. Life points per second: 10% of its maximum life points ➜ 6% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per structure ➜ 6000 in total per structure
2. Gifted Earth (g):
   A. Life points per second: 5% of its maximum life points ➜ 3.5% of its maximum life points
   B. Healing cap: 4000 in total per unit (Unchanged)
Adjusting the healing thresholds and percentages of the two affinities. The building affinity will heal less per second but more overall, this should make it a better compliment for Tectonic Shift strategies. The unit version is too strong right now, so we are moderately cutting down its healing per second while leaving the overall cap intact.
 Grinder: 
1. Damage: 5000 ➜ 5500
2. Life points: 4500 ➜ 5000
3. Add XL-counter
These changes should help Grinder to tank better and focus down extra-large threats that Stonekin can sometimes struggle against, including bosses.
 Makeshift Tower: 
1. Grenade Launcher:
   A. Damage: 45 up to 65 in total (367 dp20) ➜ 54 up to 81 (450 dp20)
Makeshift Tower never had a correct damage value, so we are correcting that. Even so, it will remain the weakest tower in the game.
 Primal Defender: 
1. Power cost: 60p ➜ 70p
2. Earthstrike damage: 130 up to 195 in total (975 dp20) ➜ 155 up to 233 in total (1175 dp20)
   A. Fix attack speed description to say every 3.3 seconds.
3. Cloudstrike damage: 250, up to 375 in total (2030 dp20) ➜ 290, up to 435 in total (2355 dp20)
4. Life points: 1300 ➜ 1515
Primal Defender takes up more space than other comparable T1 towers, meaning that when placed behind a wall Nature T1 can fit less defensive towers than other factions. While a lower cost is often a benefit, when placed behind walls a wider but low cost tower is a hindrance because it has less stat density, which results in Nature T1 fitting less stats behind the wall overall. This is exasperated by most towers sight blocking each other, so you cannot simply place more towers in the back to make up for this. As such, we are increasing Primal Defender's cost and increasing its damage and health stats proportionally. These changes will allow the tower to be more stat dense and therefore better when placed in locations with limited space, while being power neutral in other situations.
 Shatter Ice: 
1. Power cost: 100p ➜ 70p
 Tectonic Shift: 
1. Ability range: 100m ➜ 150m
2. Ability cooldown: 20 seconds ➜ 30 seconds
We are increasing both the teleport distance and ability cooldown of Tectonic Shift by 50%. This should hopefully allow Stonekin lovers to better keep up with their fellow players in random PvE.
[ NPC Changes ]
 Moloch (NPC): 
1. Hardened Skin damage reduction: 90% ➜ 80% less damage from ranged and magical attacks
With the introduction of Random Wall Defense, Moloch's current damage reduction level is excessive and makes it nearly unkillable for many archetypes.

General Fixes
Fixed worm movement causing desyncs. Movement might feel slightly different from before. Skydancer should no longer be classified as an elf unit. Added tooltip "Presets completed" to challenges 2.4, 2.8, and 6.4 to help players better keep track of their progress in challenges requiring MotS presets. Fixed several grammar and typographical errors in the English lore book.  Introduced various new Shadow units & buildings with the release of the Shifting Temple. 

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

 
This one is filled to the brim with new things!
Whispers of the Void is reaching its final stretch, and as the final set of challenges unlock today. We will go over them in this Community Update.
Also, we worked on some quality of life changes as well and showed off one of our initial attempts at designing defensive rPvE.
And finally, as teased a few months ago, our new campaign map, The Shifting Temple, releases today with a challenge accompanying it! Read more to find out what you can broadly expect.
 
New seasonal challenges 

With the third month of our season, Whispers of the Void running, the final set of seasonal challenges unlocks.
Let's take a closer look at them.
General challenges:

4.1 - Win different campaign maps or featured community maps on advanced difficulty or higher. All units played must be medium or large units. No flying units are allowed. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
 

4.2 - Win the 1-player featured community maps, The Easter Tree and Town in Need on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed.

 

4.3 - Win the 2-player scenario, The Shifting Temple on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.

 

4.4 - Win the 2-player scenario, The Shifting Temple on standard difficulty or higher. All cards in your deck must not contain more than one orb of each element. These restrictions apply to all team members.

 

4.5 - Win the 2-player scenario, The Insane God and the 4-player scenario, Bad Harvest on advanced difficulty or higher. All enemy buildings on the map must be destroyed. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
 
4.6 - Kill enemies while playing the 4-player featured community map, Random Wall Defense on any difficulty. All cards except Enlightenment are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Killing enemies on higher difficulties awards more mission progress.
 

Nightmare challenges:
6.1 - Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on the 1-player scenario Heart of Trouble on advanced difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
 
 
6.2 - Win the 2-player scenario Nightmare Shard on standard difficulty or higher. No spells or flying units are allowed. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
 
 
6.3 - As a solo player, win the 4-player scenario Blight on standard difficulty or higher without losing a Monument. Only Shadow cards are allowed.
 
 
6.4 - Win random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets against 5 different factions on Adv (4) difficulty or higher. All units played must be extra large. Cards from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
 
• New Campaign map - The Shifting Temple

 
Today, after being teased in February's Community Update, we release our next two-player campaign map along with a seasonal challenge - The Shifting Temple. 

Story Introduction

"The Twilight have unearthed an ancient Shadow temple and even now fight to overwhelm its defenders. What the Twilight’s purpose is, or how they found the temple is unknown, but what is clear is that they must be stopped from gaining whatever they came to find."

About the map:

The map continues the story of the Church of the Twilight, previously introduced in Behind Enemy Lines. As we arrive at the mystical Shifting Temple, we find Twilight already attempting to breach its defenses, their purpose - unknown. We need to get inside the temple and keep the Twilight at bay while navigating one of four randomly chosen paths through the temple to prevent the Twilight from getting whatever they came for.
Like Empire, Behind Enemy Lines left us with a similar taste. The Ragged King left the limelight just as fast as he was introduced in Empire all those years ago. We felt the need to expand upon his lore, along with the aftermath of defeating Blight's squadron.
The Church of the Twilight is no different. The story surrounding this cult starts and ends in said map, and it felt incomplete with potential left on the table. Our idea was to continue this sub-plot and introduce the Church of the Twilight as a counterpart to the Church of the Rifle, the latter of which also has a lot of potential lore-wise.
While we do not want to spoil anything, to give you an idea of what to expect: if you like the general structure of Crusade with some Dwarfen Riddle sprinkled in, you should feel right at home.
 

We would also like to give a special thank-you to our map testers, who provided significant feedback and ensured the map will be an enjoyable experience for all skill levels. And of course a huge thank-you to Dreamlord and Vox once again who lended their voices as story narrator and Gaeron respectively!
 
• Art spotlight: The Shifting Temple Loading Screen

The artwork for the loading screen was created by our talented artist Spirit Alpha.
 
Exploration and sketching
Concept:


"I was thinking there would be some kind of Shadow boss, and I thought Shadow having Ironclad made by the cult of rifle could be cool and plausible. Additionally, I wanted to show the contrast of Shadow having some sort of magic tech versus the Twilight attacking as a swarm."
The sketch was already off to a great start, since the event depicted is something actually happening on the map. So the exploration stage concluded right away. However, a Shadow version of Ironclad is not present and, as such, had to be changed.
 
Iterating on and refining the concept
Refining the concept:


The Ironclad has been changed to a Death Ray, laying waste to the Twilight. Additionally, the Hulk was made more prominent to further emphasise its imposing presence and Twilight's relentless attempt at attacking the temple.
 
Locking in and working on the details
Shading and putting the scene together:


The scene comes along nicely, and some details have been added. The Stone of Torment has been exchanged for a certain individual.
"The tower didn’t look very good when I started detailing it. I just didn’t like how it was turning out. Him standing there in the moonlight felt better."
 
Challenges and finishing touches
Representation and source material:

 

In the current version the Hulk looked too humanoid and a reference from that angle was missing.
Also, Ashbone Pyro's artwork depicts the Nightfire Jet as an orange-red flamethrower, whereas the in-game unit shows the stream in a gray-purple colour. It was decided to stay faithful to the original artwork.

Applying the reference and adding more detail:


Ashbone Pyro's stream was given its appropriate colour and Hulk became less humanoid.
More entities were added and the whole fight is now a lot dirtier and more chaotic.
 
Finishing touches and high resolution version:


Lastly, some fog and finer details like debris on the impact of the Death Ray shot were added.
 
• An update regarding defensive rPvE

We think it's to nobody's surprise that announcing a defensive version of random PvE all those years ago was a grave mistake. Since then, we've been asked regularly what the progress is and when it will be released. It was answered in this Q&A Stream several months ago and long story short: we still have no release date. The mode in question is particularly difficult to design, because not only is defense challenging to design in a game like this but everybody has a different idea of how the game mode is supposed to look and play like.
 
Our initial attempt:

But after all this time we thought about showcasing our very first fleshed-out attempt at defensive rPvE, which is playable right now on the Community Map section called Random Wall Defense along with a seasonal challenge. It received some changes in order to be more playable and enjoyable. Feel free to give it a try!


 
• Quality of Life changes

Since our last Community Update, we have implemented some quality of life updates, which some of you players have already seen. But to those who haven't been active lately let us introduce you to the following:

Updated Launcher with improved technical
options and an integrated news tab:


The Updater for the game has been equipped with additional features. Namely, an integrated news feed, so you can immediately see if there are any news like this very important Community Update and a new sub menu with technical options like resolution or what DirectX version you want to run this game on, which should make troubleshooting a bit easier. The Verify Files button has also been moved there.
In addition to this, we added the SMJ.cards website for quick access as well - a nice website with neat tools provided by our great team member Maze!
 
Repair all buttons:


On some maps you will repair your buildings frequently. In certain cases, like Passage to Darkness, this can become tedious. There is a dedicated repair button below the minimap. However, this button didn't serve a practical purpose, because a player would rather click the respective building and repair it that way. So we repurposed the button to repair all damaged buildings with a single click instead. The default shortcut for this is CTRL + B.
 
• Team changes

After being part of the community for a while and regularly presenting herself in questionable lighting conditions, Min joined the team as a Trial Discord Moderator. Last month, we released her from the role of Trial Discord Moderator and made her a full-on Discord Moderator.  Congratulations, and good luck on your moderation journey!
R4bitF00t decided to step down as a Community Manager, with me (Bini_Inibitor) being his successor. He will still retain his former position within the map-making team. We want to thank R4bitF00t for his contributions as such. May he still bless us with his map-making craftsmanship.
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
 

 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
• Replay Old Events!
Our event organiser Ultralord made it possible to replay old events. You can upload your replays and see how you fared against other participants. While this gives no rewards, it can be a cool little task to challenge yourself with while waiting for other events to start.
Read the details on how to replay old events here.
 
Recent events:

• FINISHED Twilight Hunt
The tradition of the faction hunt continues once again!
You can watch the stream recording here.


• FINISHED 1v1 PvP Rookie Tournament #3
A 1v1 PvP tournament intended for lower-ranked players.
You can watch the stream recording here.


Upcoming events:
 
• Skylords Reborn Spring Cup 2026 -> Starts 10th May 2026
New year, new Spring, new 1v1 PvP Spring Cup!
Read the details here. Sign up here.
 

• Host your own tournament/ event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers @Metagross31 or @Ultralord. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us; we will gladly assist you.
 
• In conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: TEMP-LEMA-PREL-EASE
This code is valid until June 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update.
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us.
We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.


Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update April 2026

For fun, here is an already existing animation for Moloch's back volcano made by the original developers.  Haste_Mode_Activated.mp4  
 

Patch #400055 - Whispers of the Void
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our twenty first balance patch for the game, the release of Season 3, 5 brand-new cards, quality of life changes, and much more!


Patch Preview
Face 43 new challenges and earn cosmetic and card rewards over four months as part of Season 3, Whispers of the Void! Five new cards and one new promo are now available! Jump in-game to collect Nightmare, Dark Maiden, Dark Mind, Devourer, Phantom Stampede and promo Overlord! Players can now purchase two new borders in the Relic Shop as well as any Season 1 & 2 cosmetics they missed. Substantial balance changes and reworks to Shadow and Lost Souls cards.  A new way to organize your decks! Many fixes and QoL changes based on community requests.
Season 3 - Whispers of the Void
This patch introduces our third season. Our seasons system is based around challenges that the player will complete over a 4-month time period (in this case March 1st to June 30th). Shown below are all rewards available this season:

We were fairly happy with the changes we made to last season's challenge and reward structure, so there are fewer changes going into season 3 than there were going into season 2. The biggest two changes are the introduction of new Maps of the Season and community-wide challenges. Maps of the Season are rPvE maps which will be standard for the entire length of the season, allowing players to choose the factions they want to fight against in rPvE. The community-wide challenges will give the season a larger sense of community, with the intention being that more active players can help less active players achieve more seasonal progress. As an added bonus, if the community finishes all three community challenges a special border will be unlocked for everyone who participated. Talking about rewards, we have moderately reduced the bfp value of the reward track cards to avoid overly depressing the marketplace like happened at the beginning of season 2. Since the community wide challenges will add some more easily available season points, we took the opportunity to increase the difficulty of the Nightmare challenges to help differentiate players at the top of the leaderboard more. Additionally, we made it easier to earn progress for the repeatable challenge to help other players in challenges. 
[ Repeatable Challenges ]
These are repeatable challenges by which the player slowly accrues points while doing other challenges and simply playing the game. Available from March 1st. Only a maximum of 400 points can be earned from all repeatable challenges. While doing repeatable challenges beyond the 400 point maximum will not reward a player any points, completing any repeatable itself will reward a Relic. 
Challenge 1.1 Be among the 100 players with the most points earned at the end of the season.
Challenge 1.2 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Map of the Day on different days on any difficulty.
Challenge 1.3 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced difficulty or higher, or random PvE scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.4 Win random PvE scenarios that are the Map of the Month on different months on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.5 Play cards in any game mode. Playing Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, and Bandits cards rewards more mission progress.
Challenge 1.6 Win random PvE scenarios. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards you will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.7 Win official campaign or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.8 Spawn units via spell and ability effects (Lost Revenants count)
Challenge 1.9 Transfer void power into actual power (normal void return does not count)
Challenge 1.10 Be among the top 100 players with the most Elo-score in 1v1 ranked PvP at the end of the month.
Challenge 1.11 Win PvP matches (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.12 Spend time playing PvP (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.13 Help fellow Skylords progress in seasonal challenges. Progress is gained if a Skylord in your party progresses in a non-repeatable challenge up to or below the point where you have already progressed in that challenge.
[ One-time Challenges ]
The first set of three one-time challenges available from March 1st. The next set with 6 challenges unlocks on April 1st and the last set with 5 challenges unlocks on May 1st. Players will have until the season ends on June 30th to complete them.
Challenge 2.1 Win different campaign scenarios or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Demon and Undead units are not allowed. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.2 Win the 2-player scenarios Crusade and Convoy on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Only cards of T2 and below are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.3 Win the 1-player scenario Mo and the 1-player featured community map Rise of a Demon on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. No unit cards are allowed.
Challenge 2.4 Win 3 different 2-player random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets on Adv++ (6) difficulty. All cards played must cost 100 power or less. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.5 Win the 1-player featured community map A Thirsty Journey Home and the 2-player PvE scenario Sunbridge on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must cost between 70 and 150 power. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Frost cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.6 Win the 4-player scenario Empire and the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Frost or Lost Souls cards are allowed. All units T2 and above must be Lost Souls units. All buildings must be Shadow or Lost Souls buildings. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.7 Win the 4-player featured community map Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and the 4-player scenario King of the Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, Frost, or Neutral cards are allowed. All units must be undead units. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.8 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season or Map of the Month under 10 minutes on any difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
[ Nightmare Challenges ]
The first set of two "Nightmare" challenges. The other set unlocks on May 1st. These challenges are harder and meant for skilled veteran players, though most are still intended to be completable by the average player on lower difficulties, potentially with help from a guide.
Challenge 5.1 Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on a 1p random PvE scenario Map of the Season preset on Expert+ (8) difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
Challenge 5.2 Win the 1-player scenario The Soultree on expert difficulty in under 18 minutes. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
Challenge 5.3 Complete 3 different campaign maps on standard or advanced difficulty. Only Shadow cards are allowed. The only card allowed T2 or above is Shadow Phoenix. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 5.4 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season on Std++ (3) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 2 and below are allowed. All units and buildings played must be Shadow or Lost Souls cards. Spells from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
To get started with Season 3, go to the new in-game icon shown at the top of this section which opens the Seasons window. The second round of challenges will unlock on April 1st. 

General Changes & Fixes
The Bandit preset in random PvE has been rebalanced. Bandits should still be the easiest faction to play against, but with less of a gap between them and the other faction presets. As part of this rPvE rebalance, we added new units to the Bandit preset, such as Sand Skate, Bandit Cannoneer, both Raven ships, Bloodhorn, and Wasteland Terror. Additionally, we have added several new bosses, including Boggart and Ravenheart.  A new "Map of the Season" function has been added to random PvE. Upon choosing Map of the Season, players will be prompted to choose among any of the existing faction presets (Bandits, Stonekin, Lost Souls, Twilight, Nature, and Fire). Each of these presets will remain available for the duration of the season.  Added a new way to filter cards in the inventory and marketplace - "orbs": Typing orbs(na,sh) will search for cards that contain both Nature and Shadow orbs - matches T2, T3, T4 Amii cards Typing orbs=(na,sh) will search for cards that have both a Nature and a Shadow orb - matches T2 Amii cards only () Typing orbs<=(na,sh) will search for cards that fit a deck with 1 Nature and 1 Shadow orb in T2 - matches T1 Shadow () and T1 Nature cards () & T2 Shadow splash (), T2 Nature splash () and T2 Amii cards () Typing orbs<=(na,sh,na) will search for cards that fit a deck with 2 Nature orbs and 1 Shadow orb in T3 () Added inventory filter unique_orbs - Typing unique_orbs=1 will search for cards that require at most 1 Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow orb. Many new Shadow textures added to the map editor for use in community and official campaign maps.
New Cards
The following new cards have been added to the game. Please note that Nightmare, Dark Maiden, and Devourer are timely-exclusive, meaning they are tied to the season rewards and will not drop from booster packs or reforging while the season is active. After the season has concluded, the non-promo cards will drop as usual. Dark Mind and Phantom Stampede will drop from boosters as usual from the beginning. Players who log in before April 1st will receive a free copy of Phantom Stampede.
Nightmare - 70p T1 Shadow Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare Shard (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steads which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units and generate early corpses.
 
Dark Maiden - 80p T2 Shadow Support Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, she has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon designed to also heal allies. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while doubling her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
Dark Mind - 90p T2 Shadow Flying Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Dark Mind is a T2 M-sized flying unit that uses a scaled up version of Parasite Swarm's model. The card is designed to be used in both PvP and PvE, giving Shadow T2 some badly needed crowd control. When Dark Mind attacks an enemy, it automatically applies a confusion effect similar to Amok. In PvP this will allow Pure Shadow to better counter L and XL-unit attacks, and in PvE it will act as a good compliment to Dark Maiden, with its crowd control helping to improve the survivability of the otherwise fragile Dark Maiden and Shadow Mage combo.
Devourer - 230p T4 Shadow Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare's End (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
One of the project's first prioritizes was to make each pure faction viable in each tier. With the release of Devourer, we will have (hopefully) finally succeeded in achieving this goal. While T4 Pure Shadow already has two cards, it has always lacked a strong unit to become the primary vehicle for Shadow's powerful single target buffs. Shadow also has an identity as a swarm faction and Devourer's "Mincemeat" ability will enable players to turn those swarms directly into bombs. All in all, Devourer should feel like the apex Shadow unit which ties together most of the faction's major mechanics, similar to Frost's Dreadnought.
Phantom Stampede - 120p T3 Lost Souls Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Empire (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Ever wanted to have your own stampeding Lost Hulk? Phantom Stampede is a hybrid damage and support card which can damage enemy units and shield friendly units by summoning an revenant of a charging Lost Hulk. It can theoretically damage and shield an infinite amount of targets, which regards good targeting. The cards primary role is to give T3 Lost Souls an easy to use sustain tool which also synergizes with Blood Healing to let players keep their units in the battle for longer and with smaller downtimes between combat. 
Login Reward: As a bonus, every player who logs in during March 2026 will receive a free copy of this new card!
Overlord - Promo Card 
You can get this special promo card by earning 900 seasonal points. After the season has concluded, promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop, for those who did not get it during the season. 

 

Deck Tags 

BattleForge is the type of game which encourages the player to experiment with dozens or hundreds of different deck combinations. With the launch of seasons, this encouragement to experiment has become a requirement, and as such the amount of decks players have is multiplying. While the old deck menu was functional, we have long been unhappy with its organizational capacity. As such, we finally decided to sit down and rework the deck menu to give the player more tools. Players can now create and assign tags to each deck. Some tags come pre-included, such as tags for each official map and each official game mode. All tags can be customized with a plethora of assignable colors and icons. Additionally, as part of these changes, we are changing the "Suggested Decks" feature in the game lobby. Instead of showing decks you previously used on the map, it will now show decks with the relevant tags for that map. We hope this new system makes it easier for players to organize and find their various decks without resorting to endless scrolling, and that it encourages players to experiment with more types of decks in the future. 

Game Balance Changes
Ice Shield Disenchant Interaction:  All Ice Shields can now be disenchanted except for Avatar of Frost's in-built shield. 
[ Tier 1 Card Changes ]
 Ice Shield Tower:
1. Change the “Ice Shield” ability from auto-cast to passive.
Ice Shield tower should no longer have its "Ice Shield" ability blocked by line of sight and it should also now properly apply new shields to unshielded units and not just repeatedly reshield the closest target in range.
[ Tier 2 Card Changes ]
 Altar of Nihil: 
1. Power cost: 50p ➜ 65p
2. Add an initial cooldown (60 seconds)
Altar of Nihil has proven to be too strong and has become quite toxic in lower tier matches, so we are nerfing it accordingly. 
 Infected Tower: 
1. Virus:
   A. Now affected by population cap (150)
   B. Players can now suicide units under the effect of Virus.
   C. Ability power cost: 60p ➜ 90p
   D. Now longer retransforms existing Twilight Pests on death.
2. Slime Cannon now knocks back small units.
While we know that some people liked the Infected Tower infinite bug deck, we sadly must remove it due to the crashes and lag spikes it caused when the mass of bugs are teleported or knocked back. To compensate, we are making it easier to trigger the Virus effect by allowing players to suicide their own units. This should make the deck archetype more viable in T2. Eventually, we will be reworking Fleshbender to continue fleshing out the bug archetype in Twilight. Lastly, we are adding small knockback to the tower's auto-attack to help its survivability. 
 Gladiatrix: 
1. Disenchant cost (both affinities): 55 ➜ 40
2. Shadow affinity (p) now also has swift
3. Nature affinity (g) Disenchant cooldown: 10 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
Gladiatrix fell out of the meta for most factions as alternatives got buffed. This should give Fire splashes more counterplay to several buff and debuff mechanics and add a meaningful choice for affinity selection.
 Global Warming: 
1. Fire affinity (r) Ice Shield damage: 660 ➜ 1000
2. Frost affinity (b) Ice Shield damage: 55 ➜ 90 damage per second
3. Both affinities now work on all enemies, including Amii structures.
As the red affinity usually is the better one to play, Global Warming currently gets countered by the Ice Spike plus Ice Age combo. Since the cards sole purpose is to counter shield mechanics this needs to change and at least allow the player to break Ice Spike shields on activation.
 Lost Launcher (b):
1. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds and no longer regenerates by 5 life points per second.
2. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points ➜ 500 life points
3. An indicator now shows when the Ice Shield will refresh when the shield has been lost.
The frost affinity of Lost Launcher had a one-time shield while the fire affinity has a permanent rage ability. We have solidified the frost affinity's identity as the beefier version by allowing its Ice Shield to refresh itself similar to Avatar of Frost. 
 Lost Priest: 
1. Exhaustion debuff strength (both affinities): 40% ➜ 50%
While Lost Souls' T2 in PvE has become quite good, Lost Priest is still struggling to find his place so we can giving his ability another buff.
 Rippers: 
1. Cannibalize regeneration: 35 ➜ 40 life points per second
Rippers continue to perform poorly, so we are giving their regen another buff. This will also help the Rippers from Nox Carrier which is also receiving a buff this patch.
 Scorchlings: 
1. Life points: 940 ➜ 1080
With the transition from Wormlings to Scorchlings the unit lost the damage reduction from worm movement, so we are giving it a small health increase to compensate. 
 Whisperer: 
1. Blind ability:
   A. Removed immunity to Blind that lingered for 10 seconds after the effect ran out.
   B. Now properly works vs all enemies and not just units.
This change will allow Whisperer to perma-CC enemies and allow for the unit to disable building attacks.
[ Tier 3 Card Changes ]
 Gate of Akylos:
1. Life points: 4400 ➜ 3400
2. Give up the Ghost new effect: For each unit sacrificed in this way, 14% of each player’s current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.
3. Ethereal Anchor duration bonus: 25% ➜ 35%
Improve the Lost Souls unit economy. Producing Revenant armies costs a lot of tempo and generates lots of unbound power, so Gate of Akylos can now help move that power back into the player's hands. This change will also help in any future seasonal challenge scenario if Shadow and Frost cards are banned and therefore void return is not readily available.
 Ethereal Storm:
1. Bonus damage now also gets triggered by Undead units.
This change will make Ethereal Storm work with normal Lost Souls units, but also summons from Undead Army, making the spell easier to use overall.
 Lost Grigori:
1. Attraction General Changes:
   A. Ability type: Mode-change ➜ Active ability
   B. Now a one-time taunt that lasts 15 seconds
   C. Affinity effects unchanged
This change to Grigori should allow it to function better as a tank in PvE for Lost Soul's T3 ranged arsenal such as Ashbone Pyro, Lost Manabeast, or Lost Horror.
 Simulacrum:
1. Simulacrum can now teleport using Spirit Gate when even self-rooted.
This will allow players to mass port their Simulacrum armies without having to individually teleport or root/unroot each unit. It also makes it easier to use Simulacrum with other units, as you can walk the melee/tank forward first, then teleport all the Simulacrums to that unit at once. The ability to immediately re-teleport themselves with their own ability will play more into its identity as a kiting unit.
 Transcendence:
1. Spell type: Spell ➜ Arcane
With this change, Transcendence will remain usable even without ground presence. This will prove especially powerful in conjunction with Skydancer + Energy Core decks.
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Spit parasites: 20 damage per second ➜ 17 damage per second
We slightly overbuffed Twilight Creeper last patch and are now reining it back in.
 Twilight Infestation:
1. Twilight Dancer:
   A. Damage: 600 ➜ 900 dp20
   B. Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m
   C. Life points: 728 ➜ 800
Twilight Dancer was accidentally released with lower life points and damage than originally intended and we are rectifying that. Additionally, we are increasing its splash radius to allow it to more effectively kill squad units, hit moving targets, and to damage enemies positioned close to its target.
 Eliminator:
1. Size: M-sized ➜ L-sized
2. Orb cost: 1 Shadow, 1 Neutral (T2) ➜ 3 Shadow (T3)
3. Power cost: 60p ➜ 120p
4. Damage: 840 ➜ 2020
5. Life Points: 675 / 710 / 780 / 850 ➜ 1800 / 1860 / 1930 / 2020
6. Taming:
   A. Remove affinity effects
   B. Now works on Demons & Spirits instead of Demons & Undead
   C. Active ➜ Passive
   D. New effect - Reduces the self-damage of all friendly units in a 30m radius by 50%.
7. New affinity effect, “Tainted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, 6% of the current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.”
8. New affinity effect, “Gifted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, its corpses explodes healing all allied units in a 10m radius by 660 life points.”
We are moving Eliminator to T3 as we do not see a viable use case for the card in T2. It will maintain its identity as a hybrid brawler/support unit. The new Taming ability will synergize with Unstable Demon, Shadow Mage, Cultist Master, Mutating Maniac, and Ashbone Pyro. The idea is to make Pure Shadow's T3 a bit easier to pilot for the average player. Additionally, we have moved the affinity effects to a new on-hit, on-death ability. It simply seemed right that a card named "Eliminator" would do something when it eliminates enemies. As part of the changes, we have updated Eliminator's texture to make him a tad more handsome.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Tainted Necrostrike (p):
   A. Aura damage no longer affects orbs and wells
   B. Aura damage: 50 ➜ 230 damage per second
2. Push the Cart movement speed bonus now makes Nox Carrier move at sprint speed (6.4 m/s).
With these PvE skewed buffs the purple affinity should be usable as a reliable tool to remove any spawner, something with which pure Shadow in particular can struggle.
 Ward of the North:
1. Orb cost: 2 Frost, 1 Neutral (T3) ➜ 1 Frost, 2 Neutral (T3)
Given that 2 Frost orbs in T3 has enough other good options and that Ward of the North does not interact well with shield mechanics, we are loosening the orb restrictions to make it more splashable.
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell delay: 4 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
2. Enchained duration: 15 seconds ➜ 20 seconds
Sleet Storm is often used with Fire/Frost cards like Vulcan, Giant Slayer, and Virtuoso in T3 and Construct in T4. The problem is that these cards are completely dependent on the flying enemies being grounded to deal damage. So, we are increasing the enchained duration to ensure they can knock out enemies in one CC rotation.
 Vulcan:
1. New passive "Molten Breach": Attacked enemies heat up in such a way that Ice Shields melt down by 120 hp per second. The heat will also prevent enemies from getting an Ice Shield. Lasts for up to 7 seconds.
This is pretty much an inbuilt Global Warming (b) effect. Avatar of Frost will be immune to the effect, but other units like Mountaineer and Ice Guardian can have reapplication of their in-built shields prevented.
[ Tier 4 Card Changes ]
 Grim Bahir:
1. Infectious Spit:
   A. Now a 3-target chain attack
   B. Damage per target: 300 / 200 / 100 damage (4000 dp20)
2. Life Drain, General Changes:
   A. Damage: 120 ➜ 240 damage per second
   B. Target: XL-only ➜ L & XL-units
   C. Life Transfer: 120 ➜ 180 life points per second
   D. Ability length: 30m ➜ 40m (45m break point)
   E. New spawn effect: A unit which dies while being drained will spawn 2 Nether Crawlers out of its corpse.
Grim Bahir is perhaps the most beautiful unit in the game, but even as a T4 Ultra-rare it has languished in a weak state. We are buffing it by more fully embracing its identity as a spawner of temporary crawlers. Its auto-attack is now a chain-attack, meaning it can infect 3x as many enemy units per attack. Additionally we are buffing up its Life Drain and adding a new crawler spawn to enemies which die while being drained.
 Incubator:
1. Remove Morphing cooldown
2. Infused Morphing (r): No longer loses 90 hp every 2 seconds.
3. Tainted Morphing (p): Damage buff 100% ➜ 200%
Allowing army generation via Incubator (r) when paired with Infect, Grim Bahir, Undead Army etc. The card should be ideal to solve small side tasks with great cost efficiency.
 Second Chance:
1. Tainted Global Revive (p):
   A. No longer affects enemies
   B. Irrevocable death timer: 30 sec ➜ 25 seconds
   C. Can now suicide own units affected by Tainted Global Revive
The shadow affinity has always been lackluster, so we are making it easier to use in the hopes of producing an alternative use for the card. 
 Necrofury:
1. Nether Bomb radius: 10m ➜ 15m
2. Bone Shards radius: 10m ➜ 15m
3. Apply overflow damage fix to Bone Shards and Nether Bomb.
These changes should make it easier for Necrofury to hit moving targets and have the size of its splash radius better fit the perceived strength of the attack visuals. 
 Twilight Pestilence:
1. Allied healing: 160 ➜ 130 life points per second
We overbuffed Twilight Pestilence last patch so we are toning it down to a more acceptable level.
[ NPC Changes ]
NPC Unit Cost Changes - The NPC versions of Lost Reaver (including its summoned Lost Crawlers), Bandit Sniper, Lost Spellbreaker, and Twilight Whisperer have had their orb and power costs changed from T3, 150p to T2, 175p. This change will allow them to be transformed by Twilight Curse without affecting any of the various cards which can mind control enemies. 
New Shadow NPCs - Added many new Shadow NPCs which can be used by map makers in new community maps. Includes: Soul Weaver (Shadow Shaman), Executor, Soulstitcher (Shadow Kobold Engineer), Witchclaws, Eliminator, Knight of Chaos, Nightcrawler, Nox Carrier, Shadow Insect, Wrathgazer, Shadow Worm, Rifle Cultists, Necroblaster, Shadow Phoenix, and Stone of Torment. 
Boggart (HoT and rPvE boss) - Increased the delay between the casting animation and the first impact from 2 sec ➜ 4 seconds. This should allow players more time to react to Boggart's cannon barrage.
[ Bugfixes & Minor Changes ]
Fixed a problem where different methods of revenant life extension, such as Lost Manabeast and Revenant's Blessing, would overwrite each other and prevent the other method from reapplying. Fixed various Community Maps containing removed towers in patch 400044 causing them to instantly crashes at the beginning, including The ID-Forge, Simple Land 2, Frozen Death, and Nyxia. Fixed and improved the descriptions for dozens of player cards and NPCs in all four supported languages (English, French, German, and Russian). Clarified which cards are invalid targets for friendly killing spells and when a unit is immune to Nasty Surprise or Shadow Mage's Foul Play ability. Added a tooltip description to clarify what type of artifact immunity different building types possess (i.e. what spell effects they are immune against). Gold chests can no longer be attacked, damaged, or destroyed.  Added preview radii to several player cards and their abilities.  Amazon (Nature) - Passive ability Wildlife Protection: Fixed to be able to reapply the aura to affected targets in range that had already been under its effect. Banner of Glory, Forest Elder, and Lost Wanderer, Corsair's auras have been fixed in the same way. Corrected the displayed damage value of several player cards and NPCs to more accurately reflect their damage outputs over 20 seconds. Unhealable now prevents life stealer from healing units (affects the map modifier, Befallen's Curse, Blood Healing, and Promise of Life).

Fundus,
We will be releasing this functionality, but only after the map modifiers feature leaves its beta-phase. We have finished the design for the v1.0 release but there is no timeline yet on when it will be released. Selectable modifiers will likely follow soon afterwards. 

OK, as shadow is my favorite color, I was expecting something cool... however, that seems to knock it out of the park. Card designs seem cool, new T1 shadow card? Great thing! New T2 strategies? Yeahy!
And additionally deck sorting with tags? Really welcomed addition. That should make it much easier to see a fitting deck for the map atr hand.

Really cool update!

Patch #400055 - Whispers of the Void
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our twenty first balance patch for the game, the release of Season 3, 5 brand-new cards, quality of life changes, and much more!


Patch Preview
Face 43 new challenges and earn cosmetic and card rewards over four months as part of Season 3, Whispers of the Void! Five new cards and one new promo are now available! Jump in-game to collect Nightmare, Dark Maiden, Dark Mind, Devourer, Phantom Stampede and promo Overlord! Players can now purchase two new borders in the Relic Shop as well as any Season 1 & 2 cosmetics they missed. Substantial balance changes and reworks to Shadow and Lost Souls cards.  A new way to organize your decks! Many fixes and QoL changes based on community requests.
Season 3 - Whispers of the Void
This patch introduces our third season. Our seasons system is based around challenges that the player will complete over a 4-month time period (in this case March 1st to June 30th). Shown below are all rewards available this season:

We were fairly happy with the changes we made to last season's challenge and reward structure, so there are fewer changes going into season 3 than there were going into season 2. The biggest two changes are the introduction of new Maps of the Season and community-wide challenges. Maps of the Season are rPvE maps which will be standard for the entire length of the season, allowing players to choose the factions they want to fight against in rPvE. The community-wide challenges will give the season a larger sense of community, with the intention being that more active players can help less active players achieve more seasonal progress. As an added bonus, if the community finishes all three community challenges a special border will be unlocked for everyone who participated. Talking about rewards, we have moderately reduced the bfp value of the reward track cards to avoid overly depressing the marketplace like happened at the beginning of season 2. Since the community wide challenges will add some more easily available season points, we took the opportunity to increase the difficulty of the Nightmare challenges to help differentiate players at the top of the leaderboard more. Additionally, we made it easier to earn progress for the repeatable challenge to help other players in challenges. 
[ Repeatable Challenges ]
These are repeatable challenges by which the player slowly accrues points while doing other challenges and simply playing the game. Available from March 1st. Only a maximum of 400 points can be earned from all repeatable challenges. While doing repeatable challenges beyond the 400 point maximum will not reward a player any points, completing any repeatable itself will reward a Relic. 
Challenge 1.1 Be among the 100 players with the most points earned at the end of the season.
Challenge 1.2 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Map of the Day on different days on any difficulty.
Challenge 1.3 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced difficulty or higher, or random PvE scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.4 Win random PvE scenarios that are the Map of the Month on different months on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.5 Play cards in any game mode. Playing Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, and Bandits cards rewards more mission progress.
Challenge 1.6 Win random PvE scenarios. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards you will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.7 Win official campaign or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.8 Spawn units via spell and ability effects (Lost Revenants count)
Challenge 1.9 Transfer void power into actual power (normal void return does not count)
Challenge 1.10 Be among the top 100 players with the most Elo-score in 1v1 ranked PvP at the end of the month.
Challenge 1.11 Win PvP matches (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.12 Spend time playing PvP (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.13 Help fellow Skylords progress in seasonal challenges. Progress is gained if a Skylord in your party progresses in a non-repeatable challenge up to or below the point where you have already progressed in that challenge.
[ One-time Challenges ]
The first set of three one-time challenges available from March 1st. The next set with 6 challenges unlocks on April 1st and the last set with 5 challenges unlocks on May 1st. Players will have until the season ends on June 30th to complete them.
Challenge 2.1 Win different campaign scenarios or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Demon and Undead units are not allowed. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.2 Win the 2-player scenarios Crusade and Convoy on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Only cards of T2 and below are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.3 Win the 1-player scenario Mo and the 1-player featured community map Rise of a Demon on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. No unit cards are allowed.
Challenge 2.4 Win 3 different 2-player random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets on Adv++ (6) difficulty. All cards played must cost 100 power or less. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.5 Win the 1-player featured community map A Thirsty Journey Home and the 2-player PvE scenario Sunbridge on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must cost between 70 and 150 power. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Frost cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.6 Win the 4-player scenario Empire and the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Frost or Lost Souls cards are allowed. All units T2 and above must be Lost Souls units. All buildings must be Shadow or Lost Souls buildings. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.7 Win the 4-player featured community map Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and the 4-player scenario King of the Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, Frost, or Neutral cards are allowed. All units must be undead units. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.8 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season or Map of the Month under 10 minutes on any difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
[ Nightmare Challenges ]
The first set of two "Nightmare" challenges. The other set unlocks on May 1st. These challenges are harder and meant for skilled veteran players, though most are still intended to be completable by the average player on lower difficulties, potentially with help from a guide.
Challenge 5.1 Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on a 1p random PvE scenario Map of the Season preset on Expert+ (8) difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
Challenge 5.2 Win the 1-player scenario The Soultree on expert difficulty in under 18 minutes. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
Challenge 5.3 Complete 3 different campaign maps on standard or advanced difficulty. Only Shadow cards are allowed. The only card allowed T2 or above is Shadow Phoenix. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 5.4 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season on Std++ (3) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 2 and below are allowed. All units and buildings played must be Shadow or Lost Souls cards. Spells from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
To get started with Season 3, go to the new in-game icon shown at the top of this section which opens the Seasons window. The second round of challenges will unlock on April 1st. 

General Changes & Fixes
The Bandit preset in random PvE has been rebalanced. Bandits should still be the easiest faction to play against, but with less of a gap between them and the other faction presets. As part of this rPvE rebalance, we added new units to the Bandit preset, such as Sand Skate, Bandit Cannoneer, both Raven ships, Bloodhorn, and Wasteland Terror. Additionally, we have added several new bosses, including Boggart and Ravenheart.  A new "Map of the Season" function has been added to random PvE. Upon choosing Map of the Season, players will be prompted to choose among any of the existing faction presets (Bandits, Stonekin, Lost Souls, Twilight, Nature, and Fire). Each of these presets will remain available for the duration of the season.  Added a new way to filter cards in the inventory and marketplace - "orbs": Typing orbs(na,sh) will search for cards that contain both Nature and Shadow orbs - matches T2, T3, T4 Amii cards Typing orbs=(na,sh) will search for cards that have both a Nature and a Shadow orb - matches T2 Amii cards only () Typing orbs<=(na,sh) will search for cards that fit a deck with 1 Nature and 1 Shadow orb in T2 - matches T1 Shadow () and T1 Nature cards () & T2 Shadow splash (), T2 Nature splash () and T2 Amii cards () Typing orbs<=(na,sh,na) will search for cards that fit a deck with 2 Nature orbs and 1 Shadow orb in T3 () Added inventory filter unique_orbs - Typing unique_orbs=1 will search for cards that require at most 1 Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow orb. Many new Shadow textures added to the map editor for use in community and official campaign maps.
New Cards
The following new cards have been added to the game. Please note that Nightmare, Dark Maiden, and Devourer are timely-exclusive, meaning they are tied to the season rewards and will not drop from booster packs or reforging while the season is active. After the season has concluded, the non-promo cards will drop as usual. Dark Mind and Phantom Stampede will drop from boosters as usual from the beginning. Players who log in before April 1st will receive a free copy of Phantom Stampede.
Nightmare - 70p T1 Shadow Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare Shard (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steads which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units and generate early corpses.
 
Dark Maiden - 80p T2 Shadow Support Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, she has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon designed to also heal allies. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while doubling her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
Dark Mind - 90p T2 Shadow Flying Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Dark Mind is a T2 M-sized flying unit that uses a scaled up version of Parasite Swarm's model. The card is designed to be used in both PvP and PvE, giving Shadow T2 some badly needed crowd control. When Dark Mind attacks an enemy, it automatically applies a confusion effect similar to Amok. In PvP this will allow Pure Shadow to better counter L and XL-unit attacks, and in PvE it will act as a good compliment to Dark Maiden, with its crowd control helping to improve the survivability of the otherwise fragile Dark Maiden and Shadow Mage combo.
Devourer - 230p T4 Shadow Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare's End (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
One of the project's first prioritizes was to make each pure faction viable in each tier. With the release of Devourer, we will have (hopefully) finally succeeded in achieving this goal. While T4 Pure Shadow already has two cards, it has always lacked a strong unit to become the primary vehicle for Shadow's powerful single target buffs. Shadow also has an identity as a swarm faction and Devourer's "Mincemeat" ability will enable players to turn those swarms directly into bombs. All in all, Devourer should feel like the apex Shadow unit which ties together most of the faction's major mechanics, similar to Frost's Dreadnought.
Phantom Stampede - 120p T3 Lost Souls Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Empire (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Ever wanted to have your own stampeding Lost Hulk? Phantom Stampede is a hybrid damage and support card which can damage enemy units and shield friendly units by summoning an revenant of a charging Lost Hulk. It can theoretically damage and shield an infinite amount of targets, which regards good targeting. The cards primary role is to give T3 Lost Souls an easy to use sustain tool which also synergizes with Blood Healing to let players keep their units in the battle for longer and with smaller downtimes between combat. 
Login Reward: As a bonus, every player who logs in during March 2026 will receive a free copy of this new card!
Overlord - Promo Card 
You can get this special promo card by earning 900 seasonal points. After the season has concluded, promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop, for those who did not get it during the season. 

 

Deck Tags 

BattleForge is the type of game which encourages the player to experiment with dozens or hundreds of different deck combinations. With the launch of seasons, this encouragement to experiment has become a requirement, and as such the amount of decks players have is multiplying. While the old deck menu was functional, we have long been unhappy with its organizational capacity. As such, we finally decided to sit down and rework the deck menu to give the player more tools. Players can now create and assign tags to each deck. Some tags come pre-included, such as tags for each official map and each official game mode. All tags can be customized with a plethora of assignable colors and icons. Additionally, as part of these changes, we are changing the "Suggested Decks" feature in the game lobby. Instead of showing decks you previously used on the map, it will now show decks with the relevant tags for that map. We hope this new system makes it easier for players to organize and find their various decks without resorting to endless scrolling, and that it encourages players to experiment with more types of decks in the future. 

Game Balance Changes
Ice Shield Disenchant Interaction:  All Ice Shields can now be disenchanted except for Avatar of Frost's in-built shield. 
[ Tier 1 Card Changes ]
 Ice Shield Tower:
1. Change the “Ice Shield” ability from auto-cast to passive.
Ice Shield tower should no longer have its "Ice Shield" ability blocked by line of sight and it should also now properly apply new shields to unshielded units and not just repeatedly reshield the closest target in range.
[ Tier 2 Card Changes ]
 Altar of Nihil: 
1. Power cost: 50p ➜ 65p
2. Add an initial cooldown (60 seconds)
Altar of Nihil has proven to be too strong and has become quite toxic in lower tier matches, so we are nerfing it accordingly. 
 Infected Tower: 
1. Virus:
   A. Now affected by population cap (150)
   B. Players can now suicide units under the effect of Virus.
   C. Ability power cost: 60p ➜ 90p
   D. Now longer retransforms existing Twilight Pests on death.
2. Slime Cannon now knocks back small units.
While we know that some people liked the Infected Tower infinite bug deck, we sadly must remove it due to the crashes and lag spikes it caused when the mass of bugs are teleported or knocked back. To compensate, we are making it easier to trigger the Virus effect by allowing players to suicide their own units. This should make the deck archetype more viable in T2. Eventually, we will be reworking Fleshbender to continue fleshing out the bug archetype in Twilight. Lastly, we are adding small knockback to the tower's auto-attack to help its survivability. 
 Gladiatrix: 
1. Disenchant cost (both affinities): 55 ➜ 40
2. Shadow affinity (p) now also has swift
3. Nature affinity (g) Disenchant cooldown: 10 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
Gladiatrix fell out of the meta for most factions as alternatives got buffed. This should give Fire splashes more counterplay to several buff and debuff mechanics and add a meaningful choice for affinity selection.
 Global Warming: 
1. Fire affinity (r) Ice Shield damage: 660 ➜ 1000
2. Frost affinity (b) Ice Shield damage: 55 ➜ 90 damage per second
3. Both affinities now work on all enemies, including Amii structures.
As the red affinity usually is the better one to play, Global Warming currently gets countered by the Ice Spike plus Ice Age combo. Since the cards sole purpose is to counter shield mechanics this needs to change and at least allow the player to break Ice Spike shields on activation.
 Lost Launcher (b):
1. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds and no longer regenerates by 5 life points per second.
2. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points ➜ 500 life points
3. An indicator now shows when the Ice Shield will refresh when the shield has been lost.
The frost affinity of Lost Launcher had a one-time shield while the fire affinity has a permanent rage ability. We have solidified the frost affinity's identity as the beefier version by allowing its Ice Shield to refresh itself similar to Avatar of Frost. 
 Lost Priest: 
1. Exhaustion debuff strength (both affinities): 40% ➜ 50%
While Lost Souls' T2 in PvE has become quite good, Lost Priest is still struggling to find his place so we can giving his ability another buff.
 Rippers: 
1. Cannibalize regeneration: 35 ➜ 40 life points per second
Rippers continue to perform poorly, so we are giving their regen another buff. This will also help the Rippers from Nox Carrier which is also receiving a buff this patch.
 Scorchlings: 
1. Life points: 940 ➜ 1080
With the transition from Wormlings to Scorchlings the unit lost the damage reduction from worm movement, so we are giving it a small health increase to compensate. 
 Whisperer: 
1. Blind ability:
   A. Removed immunity to Blind that lingered for 10 seconds after the effect ran out.
   B. Now properly works vs all enemies and not just units.
This change will allow Whisperer to perma-CC enemies and allow for the unit to disable building attacks.
[ Tier 3 Card Changes ]
 Gate of Akylos:
1. Life points: 4400 ➜ 3400
2. Give up the Ghost new effect: For each unit sacrificed in this way, 14% of each player’s current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.
3. Ethereal Anchor duration bonus: 25% ➜ 35%
Improve the Lost Souls unit economy. Producing Revenant armies costs a lot of tempo and generates lots of unbound power, so Gate of Akylos can now help move that power back into the player's hands. This change will also help in any future seasonal challenge scenario if Shadow and Frost cards are banned and therefore void return is not readily available.
 Ethereal Storm:
1. Bonus damage now also gets triggered by Undead units.
This change will make Ethereal Storm work with normal Lost Souls units, but also summons from Undead Army, making the spell easier to use overall.
 Lost Grigori:
1. Attraction General Changes:
   A. Ability type: Mode-change ➜ Active ability
   B. Now a one-time taunt that lasts 15 seconds
   C. Affinity effects unchanged
This change to Grigori should allow it to function better as a tank in PvE for Lost Soul's T3 ranged arsenal such as Ashbone Pyro, Lost Manabeast, or Lost Horror.
 Simulacrum:
1. Simulacrum can now teleport using Spirit Gate when even self-rooted.
This will allow players to mass port their Simulacrum armies without having to individually teleport or root/unroot each unit. It also makes it easier to use Simulacrum with other units, as you can walk the melee/tank forward first, then teleport all the Simulacrums to that unit at once. The ability to immediately re-teleport themselves with their own ability will play more into its identity as a kiting unit.
 Transcendence:
1. Spell type: Spell ➜ Arcane
With this change, Transcendence will remain usable even without ground presence. This will prove especially powerful in conjunction with Skydancer + Energy Core decks.
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Spit parasites: 20 damage per second ➜ 17 damage per second
We slightly overbuffed Twilight Creeper last patch and are now reining it back in.
 Twilight Infestation:
1. Twilight Dancer:
   A. Damage: 600 ➜ 900 dp20
   B. Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m
   C. Life points: 728 ➜ 800
Twilight Dancer was accidentally released with lower life points and damage than originally intended and we are rectifying that. Additionally, we are increasing its splash radius to allow it to more effectively kill squad units, hit moving targets, and to damage enemies positioned close to its target.
 Eliminator:
1. Size: M-sized ➜ L-sized
2. Orb cost: 1 Shadow, 1 Neutral (T2) ➜ 3 Shadow (T3)
3. Power cost: 60p ➜ 120p
4. Damage: 840 ➜ 2020
5. Life Points: 675 / 710 / 780 / 850 ➜ 1800 / 1860 / 1930 / 2020
6. Taming:
   A. Remove affinity effects
   B. Now works on Demons & Spirits instead of Demons & Undead
   C. Active ➜ Passive
   D. New effect - Reduces the self-damage of all friendly units in a 30m radius by 50%.
7. New affinity effect, “Tainted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, 6% of the current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.”
8. New affinity effect, “Gifted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, its corpses explodes healing all allied units in a 10m radius by 660 life points.”
We are moving Eliminator to T3 as we do not see a viable use case for the card in T2. It will maintain its identity as a hybrid brawler/support unit. The new Taming ability will synergize with Unstable Demon, Shadow Mage, Cultist Master, Mutating Maniac, and Ashbone Pyro. The idea is to make Pure Shadow's T3 a bit easier to pilot for the average player. Additionally, we have moved the affinity effects to a new on-hit, on-death ability. It simply seemed right that a card named "Eliminator" would do something when it eliminates enemies. As part of the changes, we have updated Eliminator's texture to make him a tad more handsome.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Tainted Necrostrike (p):
   A. Aura damage no longer affects orbs and wells
   B. Aura damage: 50 ➜ 230 damage per second
2. Push the Cart movement speed bonus now makes Nox Carrier move at sprint speed (6.4 m/s).
With these PvE skewed buffs the purple affinity should be usable as a reliable tool to remove any spawner, something with which pure Shadow in particular can struggle.
 Ward of the North:
1. Orb cost: 2 Frost, 1 Neutral (T3) ➜ 1 Frost, 2 Neutral (T3)
Given that 2 Frost orbs in T3 has enough other good options and that Ward of the North does not interact well with shield mechanics, we are loosening the orb restrictions to make it more splashable.
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell delay: 4 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
2. Enchained duration: 15 seconds ➜ 20 seconds
Sleet Storm is often used with Fire/Frost cards like Vulcan, Giant Slayer, and Virtuoso in T3 and Construct in T4. The problem is that these cards are completely dependent on the flying enemies being grounded to deal damage. So, we are increasing the enchained duration to ensure they can knock out enemies in one CC rotation.
 Vulcan:
1. New passive "Molten Breach": Attacked enemies heat up in such a way that Ice Shields melt down by 120 hp per second. The heat will also prevent enemies from getting an Ice Shield. Lasts for up to 7 seconds.
This is pretty much an inbuilt Global Warming (b) effect. Avatar of Frost will be immune to the effect, but other units like Mountaineer and Ice Guardian can have reapplication of their in-built shields prevented.
[ Tier 4 Card Changes ]
 Grim Bahir:
1. Infectious Spit:
   A. Now a 3-target chain attack
   B. Damage per target: 300 / 200 / 100 damage (4000 dp20)
2. Life Drain, General Changes:
   A. Damage: 120 ➜ 240 damage per second
   B. Target: XL-only ➜ L & XL-units
   C. Life Transfer: 120 ➜ 180 life points per second
   D. Ability length: 30m ➜ 40m (45m break point)
   E. New spawn effect: A unit which dies while being drained will spawn 2 Nether Crawlers out of its corpse.
Grim Bahir is perhaps the most beautiful unit in the game, but even as a T4 Ultra-rare it has languished in a weak state. We are buffing it by more fully embracing its identity as a spawner of temporary crawlers. Its auto-attack is now a chain-attack, meaning it can infect 3x as many enemy units per attack. Additionally we are buffing up its Life Drain and adding a new crawler spawn to enemies which die while being drained.
 Incubator:
1. Remove Morphing cooldown
2. Infused Morphing (r): No longer loses 90 hp every 2 seconds.
3. Tainted Morphing (p): Damage buff 100% ➜ 200%
Allowing army generation via Incubator (r) when paired with Infect, Grim Bahir, Undead Army etc. The card should be ideal to solve small side tasks with great cost efficiency.
 Second Chance:
1. Tainted Global Revive (p):
   A. No longer affects enemies
   B. Irrevocable death timer: 30 sec ➜ 25 seconds
   C. Can now suicide own units affected by Tainted Global Revive
The shadow affinity has always been lackluster, so we are making it easier to use in the hopes of producing an alternative use for the card. 
 Necrofury:
1. Nether Bomb radius: 10m ➜ 15m
2. Bone Shards radius: 10m ➜ 15m
3. Apply overflow damage fix to Bone Shards and Nether Bomb.
These changes should make it easier for Necrofury to hit moving targets and have the size of its splash radius better fit the perceived strength of the attack visuals. 
 Twilight Pestilence:
1. Allied healing: 160 ➜ 130 life points per second
We overbuffed Twilight Pestilence last patch so we are toning it down to a more acceptable level.
[ NPC Changes ]
NPC Unit Cost Changes - The NPC versions of Lost Reaver (including its summoned Lost Crawlers), Bandit Sniper, Lost Spellbreaker, and Twilight Whisperer have had their orb and power costs changed from T3, 150p to T2, 175p. This change will allow them to be transformed by Twilight Curse without affecting any of the various cards which can mind control enemies. 
New Shadow NPCs - Added many new Shadow NPCs which can be used by map makers in new community maps. Includes: Soul Weaver (Shadow Shaman), Executor, Soulstitcher (Shadow Kobold Engineer), Witchclaws, Eliminator, Knight of Chaos, Nightcrawler, Nox Carrier, Shadow Insect, Wrathgazer, Shadow Worm, Rifle Cultists, Necroblaster, Shadow Phoenix, and Stone of Torment. 
Boggart (HoT and rPvE boss) - Increased the delay between the casting animation and the first impact from 2 sec ➜ 4 seconds. This should allow players more time to react to Boggart's cannon barrage.
[ Bugfixes & Minor Changes ]
Fixed a problem where different methods of revenant life extension, such as Lost Manabeast and Revenant's Blessing, would overwrite each other and prevent the other method from reapplying. Fixed various Community Maps containing removed towers in patch 400044 causing them to instantly crashes at the beginning, including The ID-Forge, Simple Land 2, Frozen Death, and Nyxia. Fixed and improved the descriptions for dozens of player cards and NPCs in all four supported languages (English, French, German, and Russian). Clarified which cards are invalid targets for friendly killing spells and when a unit is immune to Nasty Surprise or Shadow Mage's Foul Play ability. Added a tooltip description to clarify what type of artifact immunity different building types possess (i.e. what spell effects they are immune against). Gold chests can no longer be attacked, damaged, or destroyed.  Added preview radii to several player cards and their abilities.  Amazon (Nature) - Passive ability Wildlife Protection: Fixed to be able to reapply the aura to affected targets in range that had already been under its effect. Banner of Glory, Forest Elder, and Lost Wanderer, Corsair's auras have been fixed in the same way. Corrected the displayed damage value of several player cards and NPCs to more accurately reflect their damage outputs over 20 seconds. Unhealable now prevents life stealer from healing units (affects the map modifier, Befallen's Curse, Blood Healing, and Promise of Life).

Patch #400055 - Whispers of the Void
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our twenty first balance patch for the game, the release of Season 3, 5 brand-new cards, quality of life changes, and much more!


Patch Preview
Face 43 new challenges and earn cosmetic and card rewards over four months as part of Season 3, Whispers of the Void! Five new cards and one new promo are now available! Jump in-game to collect Nightmare, Dark Maiden, Dark Mind, Devourer, Phantom Stampede and promo Overlord! Players can now purchase two new borders in the Relic Shop as well as any Season 1 & 2 cosmetics they missed. Substantial balance changes and reworks to Shadow and Lost Souls cards.  A new way to organize your decks! Many fixes and QoL changes based on community requests.
Season 3 - Whispers of the Void
This patch introduces our third season. Our seasons system is based around challenges that the player will complete over a 4-month time period (in this case March 1st to June 30th). Shown below are all rewards available this season:

We were fairly happy with the changes we made to last season's challenge and reward structure, so there are fewer changes going into season 3 than there were going into season 2. The biggest two changes are the introduction of new Maps of the Season and community-wide challenges. Maps of the Season are rPvE maps which will be standard for the entire length of the season, allowing players to choose the factions they want to fight against in rPvE. The community-wide challenges will give the season a larger sense of community, with the intention being that more active players can help less active players achieve more seasonal progress. As an added bonus, if the community finishes all three community challenges a special border will be unlocked for everyone who participated. Talking about rewards, we have moderately reduced the bfp value of the reward track cards to avoid overly depressing the marketplace like happened at the beginning of season 2. Since the community wide challenges will add some more easily available season points, we took the opportunity to increase the difficulty of the Nightmare challenges to help differentiate players at the top of the leaderboard more. Additionally, we made it easier to earn progress for the repeatable challenge to help other players in challenges. 
[ Repeatable Challenges ]
These are repeatable challenges by which the player slowly accrues points while doing other challenges and simply playing the game. Available from March 1st. Only a maximum of 400 points can be earned from all repeatable challenges. While doing repeatable challenges beyond the 400 point maximum will not reward a player any points, completing any repeatable itself will reward a Relic. 
Challenge 1.1 Be among the 100 players with the most points earned at the end of the season.
Challenge 1.2 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Map of the Day on different days on any difficulty.
Challenge 1.3 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced difficulty or higher, or random PvE scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.4 Win random PvE scenarios that are the Map of the Month on different months on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.5 Play cards in any game mode. Playing Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, and Bandits cards rewards more mission progress.
Challenge 1.6 Win random PvE scenarios. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards you will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.7 Win official campaign or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.8 Spawn units via spell and ability effects (Lost Revenants count)
Challenge 1.9 Transfer void power into actual power (normal void return does not count)
Challenge 1.10 Be among the top 100 players with the most Elo-score in 1v1 ranked PvP at the end of the month.
Challenge 1.11 Win PvP matches (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.12 Spend time playing PvP (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.13 Help fellow Skylords progress in seasonal challenges. Progress is gained if a Skylord in your party progresses in a non-repeatable challenge up to or below the point where you have already progressed in that challenge.
[ One-time Challenges ]
The first set of three one-time challenges available from March 1st. The next set with 6 challenges unlocks on April 1st and the last set with 5 challenges unlocks on May 1st. Players will have until the season ends on June 30th to complete them.
Challenge 2.1 Win different campaign scenarios or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Demon and Undead units are not allowed. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.2 Win the 2-player scenarios Crusade and Convoy on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Only cards of T2 and below are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.3 Win the 1-player scenario Mo and the 1-player featured community map Rise of a Demon on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. No unit cards are allowed.
Challenge 2.4 Win 3 different 2-player random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets on Adv++ (6) difficulty. All cards played must cost 100 power or less. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.5 Win the 1-player featured community map A Thirsty Journey Home and the 2-player PvE scenario Sunbridge on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must cost between 70 and 150 power. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Frost cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.6 Win the 4-player scenario Empire and the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Frost or Lost Souls cards are allowed. All units T2 and above must be Lost Souls units. All buildings must be Shadow or Lost Souls buildings. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.7 Win the 4-player featured community map Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and the 4-player scenario King of the Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, Frost, or Neutral cards are allowed. All units must be undead units. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.8 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season or Map of the Month under 10 minutes on any difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
[ Nightmare Challenges ]
The first set of two "Nightmare" challenges. The other set unlocks on May 1st. These challenges are harder and meant for skilled veteran players, though most are still intended to be completable by the average player on lower difficulties, potentially with help from a guide.
Challenge 5.1 Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on a 1p random PvE scenario Map of the Season preset on Expert+ (8) difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
Challenge 5.2 Win the 1-player scenario The Soultree on expert difficulty in under 18 minutes. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
Challenge 5.3 Complete 3 different campaign maps on standard or advanced difficulty. Only Shadow cards are allowed. The only card allowed T2 or above is Shadow Phoenix. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 5.4 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season on Std++ (3) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 2 and below are allowed. All units and buildings played must be Shadow or Lost Souls cards. Spells from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
To get started with Season 3, go to the new in-game icon shown at the top of this section which opens the Seasons window. The second round of challenges will unlock on April 1st. 

General Changes & Fixes
The Bandit preset in random PvE has been rebalanced. Bandits should still be the easiest faction to play against, but with less of a gap between them and the other faction presets. As part of this rPvE rebalance, we added new units to the Bandit preset, such as Sand Skate, Bandit Cannoneer, both Raven ships, Bloodhorn, and Wasteland Terror. Additionally, we have added several new bosses, including Boggart and Ravenheart.  A new "Map of the Season" function has been added to random PvE. Upon choosing Map of the Season, players will be prompted to choose among any of the existing faction presets (Bandits, Stonekin, Lost Souls, Twilight, Nature, and Fire). Each of these presets will remain available for the duration of the season.  Added a new way to filter cards in the inventory and marketplace - "orbs": Typing orbs(na,sh) will search for cards that contain both Nature and Shadow orbs - matches T2, T3, T4 Amii cards Typing orbs=(na,sh) will search for cards that have both a Nature and a Shadow orb - matches T2 Amii cards only () Typing orbs<=(na,sh) will search for cards that fit a deck with 1 Nature and 1 Shadow orb in T2 - matches T1 Shadow () and T1 Nature cards () & T2 Shadow splash (), T2 Nature splash () and T2 Amii cards () Typing orbs<=(na,sh,na) will search for cards that fit a deck with 2 Nature orbs and 1 Shadow orb in T3 () Added inventory filter unique_orbs - Typing unique_orbs=1 will search for cards that require at most 1 Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow orb. Many new Shadow textures added to the map editor for use in community and official campaign maps.
New Cards
The following new cards have been added to the game. Please note that Nightmare, Dark Maiden, and Devourer are timely-exclusive, meaning they are tied to the season rewards and will not drop from booster packs or reforging while the season is active. After the season has concluded, the non-promo cards will drop as usual. Dark Mind and Phantom Stampede will drop from boosters as usual from the beginning. Players who log in before April 1st will receive a free copy of Phantom Stampede.
Nightmare - 70p T1 Shadow Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare Shard (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steads which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units and generate early corpses.
 
Dark Maiden - 80p T2 Shadow Support Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, she has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon designed to also heal allies. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while doubling her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
Dark Mind - 90p T2 Shadow Flying Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Dark Mind is a T2 M-sized flying unit that uses a scaled up version of Parasite Swarm's model. The card is designed to be used in both PvP and PvE, giving Shadow T2 some badly needed crowd control. When Dark Mind attacks an enemy, it automatically applies a confusion effect similar to Amok. In PvP this will allow Pure Shadow to better counter L and XL-unit attacks, and in PvE it will act as a good compliment to Dark Maiden, with its crowd control helping to improve the survivability of the otherwise fragile Dark Maiden and Shadow Mage combo.
Devourer - 230p T4 Shadow Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare's End (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
One of the project's first prioritizes was to make each pure faction viable in each tier. With the release of Devourer, we will have (hopefully) finally succeeded in achieving this goal. While T4 Pure Shadow already has two cards, it has always lacked a strong unit to become the primary vehicle for Shadow's powerful single target buffs. Shadow also has an identity as a swarm faction and Devourer's "Mincemeat" ability will enable players to turn those swarms directly into bombs. All in all, Devourer should feel like the apex Shadow unit which ties together most of the faction's major mechanics, similar to Frost's Dreadnought.
Phantom Stampede - 120p T3 Lost Souls Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Empire (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Ever wanted to have your own stampeding Lost Hulk? Phantom Stampede is a hybrid damage and support card which can damage enemy units and shield friendly units by summoning an revenant of a charging Lost Hulk. It can theoretically damage and shield an infinite amount of targets, which regards good targeting. The cards primary role is to give T3 Lost Souls an easy to use sustain tool which also synergizes with Blood Healing to let players keep their units in the battle for longer and with smaller downtimes between combat. 
Login Reward: As a bonus, every player who logs in during March 2026 will receive a free copy of this new card!
Overlord - Promo Card 
You can get this special promo card by earning 900 seasonal points. After the season has concluded, promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop, for those who did not get it during the season. 

 

Deck Tags 

BattleForge is the type of game which encourages the player to experiment with dozens or hundreds of different deck combinations. With the launch of seasons, this encouragement to experiment has become a requirement, and as such the amount of decks players have is multiplying. While the old deck menu was functional, we have long been unhappy with its organizational capacity. As such, we finally decided to sit down and rework the deck menu to give the player more tools. Players can now create and assign tags to each deck. Some tags come pre-included, such as tags for each official map and each official game mode. All tags can be customized with a plethora of assignable colors and icons. Additionally, as part of these changes, we are changing the "Suggested Decks" feature in the game lobby. Instead of showing decks you previously used on the map, it will now show decks with the relevant tags for that map. We hope this new system makes it easier for players to organize and find their various decks without resorting to endless scrolling, and that it encourages players to experiment with more types of decks in the future. 

Game Balance Changes
Ice Shield Disenchant Interaction:  All Ice Shields can now be disenchanted except for Avatar of Frost's in-built shield. 
[ Tier 1 Card Changes ]
 Ice Shield Tower:
1. Change the “Ice Shield” ability from auto-cast to passive.
Ice Shield tower should no longer have its "Ice Shield" ability blocked by line of sight and it should also now properly apply new shields to unshielded units and not just repeatedly reshield the closest target in range.
[ Tier 2 Card Changes ]
 Altar of Nihil: 
1. Power cost: 50p ➜ 65p
2. Add an initial cooldown (60 seconds)
Altar of Nihil has proven to be too strong and has become quite toxic in lower tier matches, so we are nerfing it accordingly. 
 Infected Tower: 
1. Virus:
   A. Now affected by population cap (150)
   B. Players can now suicide units under the effect of Virus.
   C. Ability power cost: 60p ➜ 90p
   D. Now longer retransforms existing Twilight Pests on death.
2. Slime Cannon now knocks back small units.
While we know that some people liked the Infected Tower infinite bug deck, we sadly must remove it due to the crashes and lag spikes it caused when the mass of bugs are teleported or knocked back. To compensate, we are making it easier to trigger the Virus effect by allowing players to suicide their own units. This should make the deck archetype more viable in T2. Eventually, we will be reworking Fleshbender to continue fleshing out the bug archetype in Twilight. Lastly, we are adding small knockback to the tower's auto-attack to help its survivability. 
 Gladiatrix: 
1. Disenchant cost (both affinities): 55 ➜ 40
2. Shadow affinity (p) now also has swift
3. Nature affinity (g) Disenchant cooldown: 10 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
Gladiatrix fell out of the meta for most factions as alternatives got buffed. This should give Fire splashes more counterplay to several buff and debuff mechanics and add a meaningful choice for affinity selection.
 Global Warming: 
1. Fire affinity (r) Ice Shield damage: 660 ➜ 1000
2. Frost affinity (b) Ice Shield damage: 55 ➜ 90 damage per second
3. Both affinities now work on all enemies, including Amii structures.
As the red affinity usually is the better one to play, Global Warming currently gets countered by the Ice Spike plus Ice Age combo. Since the cards sole purpose is to counter shield mechanics this needs to change and at least allow the player to break Ice Spike shields on activation.
 Lost Launcher (b):
1. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds and no longer regenerates by 5 life points per second.
2. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points ➜ 500 life points
3. An indicator now shows when the Ice Shield will refresh when the shield has been lost.
The frost affinity of Lost Launcher had a one-time shield while the fire affinity has a permanent rage ability. We have solidified the frost affinity's identity as the beefier version by allowing its Ice Shield to refresh itself similar to Avatar of Frost. 
 Lost Priest: 
1. Exhaustion debuff strength (both affinities): 40% ➜ 50%
While Lost Souls' T2 in PvE has become quite good, Lost Priest is still struggling to find his place so we can giving his ability another buff.
 Rippers: 
1. Cannibalize regeneration: 35 ➜ 40 life points per second
Rippers continue to perform poorly, so we are giving their regen another buff. This will also help the Rippers from Nox Carrier which is also receiving a buff this patch.
 Scorchlings: 
1. Life points: 940 ➜ 1080
With the transition from Wormlings to Scorchlings the unit lost the damage reduction from worm movement, so we are giving it a small health increase to compensate. 
 Whisperer: 
1. Blind ability:
   A. Removed immunity to Blind that lingered for 10 seconds after the effect ran out.
   B. Now properly works vs all enemies and not just units.
This change will allow Whisperer to perma-CC enemies and allow for the unit to disable building attacks.
[ Tier 3 Card Changes ]
 Gate of Akylos:
1. Life points: 4400 ➜ 3400
2. Give up the Ghost new effect: For each unit sacrificed in this way, 14% of each player’s current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.
3. Ethereal Anchor duration bonus: 25% ➜ 35%
Improve the Lost Souls unit economy. Producing Revenant armies costs a lot of tempo and generates lots of unbound power, so Gate of Akylos can now help move that power back into the player's hands. This change will also help in any future seasonal challenge scenario if Shadow and Frost cards are banned and therefore void return is not readily available.
 Ethereal Storm:
1. Bonus damage now also gets triggered by Undead units.
This change will make Ethereal Storm work with normal Lost Souls units, but also summons from Undead Army, making the spell easier to use overall.
 Lost Grigori:
1. Attraction General Changes:
   A. Ability type: Mode-change ➜ Active ability
   B. Now a one-time taunt that lasts 15 seconds
   C. Affinity effects unchanged
This change to Grigori should allow it to function better as a tank in PvE for Lost Soul's T3 ranged arsenal such as Ashbone Pyro, Lost Manabeast, or Lost Horror.
 Simulacrum:
1. Simulacrum can now teleport using Spirit Gate when even self-rooted.
This will allow players to mass port their Simulacrum armies without having to individually teleport or root/unroot each unit. It also makes it easier to use Simulacrum with other units, as you can walk the melee/tank forward first, then teleport all the Simulacrums to that unit at once. The ability to immediately re-teleport themselves with their own ability will play more into its identity as a kiting unit.
 Transcendence:
1. Spell type: Spell ➜ Arcane
With this change, Transcendence will remain usable even without ground presence. This will prove especially powerful in conjunction with Skydancer + Energy Core decks.
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Spit parasites: 20 damage per second ➜ 17 damage per second
We slightly overbuffed Twilight Creeper last patch and are now reining it back in.
 Twilight Infestation:
1. Twilight Dancer:
   A. Damage: 600 ➜ 900 dp20
   B. Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m
   C. Life points: 728 ➜ 800
Twilight Dancer was accidentally released with lower life points and damage than originally intended and we are rectifying that. Additionally, we are increasing its splash radius to allow it to more effectively kill squad units, hit moving targets, and to damage enemies positioned close to its target.
 Eliminator:
1. Size: M-sized ➜ L-sized
2. Orb cost: 1 Shadow, 1 Neutral (T2) ➜ 3 Shadow (T3)
3. Power cost: 60p ➜ 120p
4. Damage: 840 ➜ 2020
5. Life Points: 675 / 710 / 780 / 850 ➜ 1800 / 1860 / 1930 / 2020
6. Taming:
   A. Remove affinity effects
   B. Now works on Demons & Spirits instead of Demons & Undead
   C. Active ➜ Passive
   D. New effect - Reduces the self-damage of all friendly units in a 30m radius by 50%.
7. New affinity effect, “Tainted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, 6% of the current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.”
8. New affinity effect, “Gifted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, its corpses explodes healing all allied units in a 10m radius by 660 life points.”
We are moving Eliminator to T3 as we do not see a viable use case for the card in T2. It will maintain its identity as a hybrid brawler/support unit. The new Taming ability will synergize with Unstable Demon, Shadow Mage, Cultist Master, Mutating Maniac, and Ashbone Pyro. The idea is to make Pure Shadow's T3 a bit easier to pilot for the average player. Additionally, we have moved the affinity effects to a new on-hit, on-death ability. It simply seemed right that a card named "Eliminator" would do something when it eliminates enemies. As part of the changes, we have updated Eliminator's texture to make him a tad more handsome.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Tainted Necrostrike (p):
   A. Aura damage no longer affects orbs and wells
   B. Aura damage: 50 ➜ 230 damage per second
2. Push the Cart movement speed bonus now makes Nox Carrier move at sprint speed (6.4 m/s).
With these PvE skewed buffs the purple affinity should be usable as a reliable tool to remove any spawner, something with which pure Shadow in particular can struggle.
 Ward of the North:
1. Orb cost: 2 Frost, 1 Neutral (T3) ➜ 1 Frost, 2 Neutral (T3)
Given that 2 Frost orbs in T3 has enough other good options and that Ward of the North does not interact well with shield mechanics, we are loosening the orb restrictions to make it more splashable.
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell delay: 4 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
2. Enchained duration: 15 seconds ➜ 20 seconds
Sleet Storm is often used with Fire/Frost cards like Vulcan, Giant Slayer, and Virtuoso in T3 and Construct in T4. The problem is that these cards are completely dependent on the flying enemies being grounded to deal damage. So, we are increasing the enchained duration to ensure they can knock out enemies in one CC rotation.
 Vulcan:
1. New passive "Molten Breach": Attacked enemies heat up in such a way that Ice Shields melt down by 120 hp per second. The heat will also prevent enemies from getting an Ice Shield. Lasts for up to 7 seconds.
This is pretty much an inbuilt Global Warming (b) effect. Avatar of Frost will be immune to the effect, but other units like Mountaineer and Ice Guardian can have reapplication of their in-built shields prevented.
[ Tier 4 Card Changes ]
 Grim Bahir:
1. Infectious Spit:
   A. Now a 3-target chain attack
   B. Damage per target: 300 / 200 / 100 damage (4000 dp20)
2. Life Drain, General Changes:
   A. Damage: 120 ➜ 240 damage per second
   B. Target: XL-only ➜ L & XL-units
   C. Life Transfer: 120 ➜ 180 life points per second
   D. Ability length: 30m ➜ 40m (45m break point)
   E. New spawn effect: A unit which dies while being drained will spawn 2 Nether Crawlers out of its corpse.
Grim Bahir is perhaps the most beautiful unit in the game, but even as a T4 Ultra-rare it has languished in a weak state. We are buffing it by more fully embracing its identity as a spawner of temporary crawlers. Its auto-attack is now a chain-attack, meaning it can infect 3x as many enemy units per attack. Additionally we are buffing up its Life Drain and adding a new crawler spawn to enemies which die while being drained.
 Incubator:
1. Remove Morphing cooldown
2. Infused Morphing (r): No longer loses 90 hp every 2 seconds.
3. Tainted Morphing (p): Damage buff 100% ➜ 200%
Allowing army generation via Incubator (r) when paired with Infect, Grim Bahir, Undead Army etc. The card should be ideal to solve small side tasks with great cost efficiency.
 Second Chance:
1. Tainted Global Revive (p):
   A. No longer affects enemies
   B. Irrevocable death timer: 30 sec ➜ 25 seconds
   C. Can now suicide own units affected by Tainted Global Revive
The shadow affinity has always been lackluster, so we are making it easier to use in the hopes of producing an alternative use for the card. 
 Necrofury:
1. Nether Bomb radius: 10m ➜ 15m
2. Bone Shards radius: 10m ➜ 15m
3. Apply overflow damage fix to Bone Shards and Nether Bomb.
These changes should make it easier for Necrofury to hit moving targets and have the size of its splash radius better fit the perceived strength of the attack visuals. 
 Twilight Pestilence:
1. Allied healing: 160 ➜ 130 life points per second
We overbuffed Twilight Pestilence last patch so we are toning it down to a more acceptable level.
[ NPC Changes ]
NPC Unit Cost Changes - The NPC versions of Lost Reaver (including its summoned Lost Crawlers), Bandit Sniper, Lost Spellbreaker, and Twilight Whisperer have had their orb and power costs changed from T3, 150p to T2, 175p. This change will allow them to be transformed by Twilight Curse without affecting any of the various cards which can mind control enemies. 
New Shadow NPCs - Added many new Shadow NPCs which can be used by map makers in new community maps. Includes: Soul Weaver (Shadow Shaman), Executor, Soulstitcher (Shadow Kobold Engineer), Witchclaws, Eliminator, Knight of Chaos, Nightcrawler, Nox Carrier, Shadow Insect, Wrathgazer, Shadow Worm, Rifle Cultists, Necroblaster, Shadow Phoenix, and Stone of Torment. 
Boggart (HoT and rPvE boss) - Increased the delay between the casting animation and the first impact from 2 sec ➜ 4 seconds. This should allow players more time to react to Boggart's cannon barrage.
[ Bugfixes & Minor Changes ]
Fixed a problem where different methods of revenant life extension, such as Lost Manabeast and Revenant's Blessing, would overwrite each other and prevent the other method from reapplying. Fixed various Community Maps containing removed towers in patch 400044 causing them to instantly crashes at the beginning, including The ID-Forge, Simple Land 2, Frozen Death, and Nyxia. Fixed and improved the descriptions for dozens of player cards and NPCs in all four supported languages (English, French, German, and Russian). Clarified which cards are invalid targets for friendly killing spells and when a unit is immune to Nasty Surprise or Shadow Mage's Foul Play ability. Added a tooltip description to clarify what type of artifact immunity different building types possess (i.e. what spell effects they are immune against). Gold chests can no longer be attacked, damaged, or destroyed.  Added preview radii to several player cards and their abilities.  Amazon (Nature) - Passive ability Wildlife Protection: Fixed to be able to reapply the aura to affected targets in range that had already been under its effect. Banner of Glory, Forest Elder, and Lost Wanderer, Corsair's auras have been fixed in the same way. Corrected the displayed damage value of several player cards and NPCs to more accurately reflect their damage outputs over 20 seconds. Unhealable now prevents life stealer from healing units (affects the map modifier, Befallen's Curse, Blood Healing, and Promise of Life).

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

Our third season - Whispers of the Void has arrived, and with it comes a fresh wave of content and challenges to tackle. In this community update, we will go over what you can expect in the newest season while also taking a closer look at the results of this year’s feedback survey — your thoughts, ideas, and honest opinions that continue to shape the future of the project.
Alongside the survey insights, we’ll be revealing the cards releasing with the season. There’s plenty to cover, so let’s jump right in and see what this new chapter has in store.
 
• Yearly Feedback Survey Results

Before we jump into the juicy new season, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out this year’s feedback survey. Over 1 100 Skylords took the time to share their thoughts with us, which is much appreciated! 
We’ve reviewed your responses and compiled the results into a short PowerPoint presentation. The presentation only covers the graphs and general data, you can be sure that we will read all the open-ended answers you have sent us. 

 
• Season 3 - Whispers of the Void

With the survey behind us, it’s time to turn our attention to the exciting content arriving with the new season.
• Seasonal Cards •
 
As usual, this season brings a set of unique cards that can be earned exclusively through the seasonal reward track for the duration of the season, after which the cards will begin dropping from boosters. Each card has been carefully selected to offer new strategies, exciting synergies, and fresh ways to approach the battlefield. Let’s take a closer look at what’s in store.

Devourer
We first introduced this powerhouse in our November Community Update. The Devourer is a pure Shadow Tier 4 unit capable of consuming even the largest foes — all while turning your weaker units into walking bombs with its Mincemeat ability. Mincemeat ability stacks with multiple Devourers, which means the more, the merrier!
 
 
 
 
 
Consume
Consume one enemy unit in range. Devourer teleports to the target enemy unit’s location, instantly killing it. The consumed enemy is then resurrected as an own unit but dies after 30 seconds. Needs to have gathered 6000 life points from corpses first. Reusable every 30 seconds.
Corpse Gathering
Harvests energy from nearby corpses equal to their former maximum life points to enable the devouring of enemies. A maximum of 6000 life points can be stored at once.
Mincemeat
Allied units in a 30m radius around Devourer will explode as soon as they die, dealing 400 damage to hostile entities in a 15m radius, up to 600 in total. Effect can apply to a unit multiple times.

Dark Maiden
Let us introduce the first unrevealed card of the season — the Dark Maiden. Designed to fill a gap in Shadow Tier 2, where sustain options are limited, the Maiden fires a continuous beam at enemies, slowly draining their health while charging her damage meter. Once she deals enough damage, she enters Awakened Wraith mode, releasing powerful healing waves to sustain your army.
Design Notes:
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while also buffing her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
 
Soul Reave
Casts a soul eating beam that deals 50 damage to a target enemy unit every second.
 
Life Stealer
30% of the damage dealt by the unit will be added to its life points.
 
Awakened Wraith
After dealing 1500 damage, Dark Maiden will awaken her full powers. Every 2 seconds, Dark Maiden releases a healing wave. Friendly units within a 18m radius regenerate 160 life points, up to 800 in total. Additionally, Life Stealer’s effectiveness is increased to 60%. Lasts for 20 seconds.

Nightmare
Our second unrevealed card is the Nightmare, a Tier 1 spell that summons a pair of riderless horses to wreak havoc on your foes. When these Night Terrors reach your enemies, they will explode on impact to terrify them and reduce the damage they deal.
Design Notes:
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steeds which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units.
 
 
Bad Dreams
Summon 2 Night Terrors capable of debilitating enemies. Night Terrors blow themselves up and cause all enemies in a 15m radius to deal 30% less damage for 20 seconds. Summoned units do not provide ground presence. Reusable every 30 seconds.

• Season 3 Promo •
 
We’re thrilled to announce that the promo card for Season 3 is the iconic Overlord! This classic unit has been reskinned to match the premium aesthetic of the promo Harvester, giving it a fresh, striking new look while keeping all the power and personality you know and love.
You can unlock the Promo Overlord by reaching 900 points on the seasonal reward track. After the season has concluded, Promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop.

 
• More New Cards •
 
Alongside the seasonal reward cards, we’re excited to release two additional cards, which will now start appearing in boosters, giving everyone a chance to add them to their collection right away!

Dark Mind
Dark Mind was first revealed in our January 2026 Community Update, and we’re excited to release it so soon after its announcement. While its design is deceptively simple, its built-in Amok on attack makes it a potent crowd control tool for early-game Shadow decks.
 
 
 
 

 
Bewitching Blast
Every 5 seconds, the unit projects psychic energy at an enemy dealing 220 damage. Attacked units will be confused, which will make it impossible for them to distinguish between friend and foe. Lasts for 5 seconds.

Phantom Stampede
While Dark Mind was revealed just two months ago, the Phantom Stampede was first announced a full year ago, back in March 2025. This unique Lost Souls spell summons a phantom Juggernaut that smashes through enemies while shielding your allies before vanishing back to the void.
 
 
 
 
 
Ghost Train
Creates a stampeding Hulk that moves along a defined path of 35m dealing 750 damage to each enemy unit the Hulk passes through. Allied units along the path are granted Ice Shields which absorb up to 880 damage for 30 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.

• Overview and Patch Notes •
 
As we've had a lot to go over, we have also prepared a seasonal infographic for you, as well as a patch overview video.

If you want even more details, head over to our patch notes to see all the changes the newest patch brings.
And as a bonus, anybody who logs in during March will receive a free copy of the new Phantom Stampede card!

 
• Deck Tags

With this update, we are also releasing a new deck overview window. Even though Skylords Reborn is a game that encourages experimentation, the way to organize decks has been lacking. Hence we have made it possible to organize your decks better by tagging them.
You can add up to 15 tags to a deck at a time and you can now filter your decks by searching for a specific tag.
  
There are a lot of pre-defined tags, but you can also create your own custom ones to suit your needs.

 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
 

 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
• Replay Old Events!
Our event organiser Ultralord made it possible to replay old events. You can upload your replays and see how you fared against other participants. While this gives no rewards, it can be a cool little task to challenge yourself with while waiting for other events to start.
Read the details on how to replay old events here.
Recent events:
• FINISHED  THE SOULTREE -> Ended 15th of February
A challenge where you need to finish the first part of the map with only two cards. The more creative, the better.
Congratulations to Krapper and Carofex for the win. You can watch the stream recording here.
 
 
• FINISHED  SR Winter Cup -> Ended 15th of February 2026 at 16:00 CET
A 1v1 PvP event for everybody.
Congratulations to Armatores for the win. You can watch the stream recording here.
 
 
• FINISHED  Skylords Reborn Grandmaster 2025 -> Between 15th of February and 29th of March
A PvP Event where only the best of the best can participate.
Congratulations to RadicalX for the win. You can watch the stream recording here.

Upcoming events:

• Skylords Reborn Grandmaster 2025 -> Starts 15.03.2026 16:00 CET
A 2v2 PvP Tournament.
Read the event details here.
 
• Support the events
The best support is to participate. But if you want to help even more, you can donate cards, boosters or BFP for future event prizes. Contact @Ultralord if you are interested.

• Host your own tournament/ event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers @Metagross31 or @Ultralord. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us; we will gladly assist you.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a Lost Souls booster: VOID-WHIS-PERS-COME
This code is valid until April 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update.
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update February 2026

Patch #400055 - Whispers of the Void
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our twenty first balance patch for the game, the release of Season 3, 5 brand-new cards, quality of life changes, and much more!


Patch Preview
Face 43 new challenges and earn cosmetic and card rewards over four months as part of Season 3, Whispers of the Void! Five new cards and one new promo are now available! Jump in-game to collect Nightmare, Dark Maiden, Dark Mind, Devourer, Phantom Stampede and promo Overlord! Players can now purchase two new borders in the Relic Shop as well as any Season 1 & 2 cosmetics they missed. Substantial balance changes and reworks to Shadow and Lost Souls cards.  A new way to organize your decks! Many fixes and QoL changes based on community requests.
Season 3 - Whispers of the Void
This patch introduces our third season. Our seasons system is based around challenges that the player will complete over a 4-month time period (in this case March 1st to June 30th). Shown below are all rewards available this season:

We were fairly happy with the changes we made to last season's challenge and reward structure, so there are fewer changes going into season 3 than there were going into season 2. The biggest two changes are the introduction of new Maps of the Season and community-wide challenges. Maps of the Season are rPvE maps which will be standard for the entire length of the season, allowing players to choose the factions they want to fight against in rPvE. The community-wide challenges will give the season a larger sense of community, with the intention being that more active players can help less active players achieve more seasonal progress. As an added bonus, if the community finishes all three community challenges a special border will be unlocked for everyone who participated. Talking about rewards, we have moderately reduced the bfp value of the reward track cards to avoid overly depressing the marketplace like happened at the beginning of season 2. Since the community wide challenges will add some more easily available season points, we took the opportunity to increase the difficulty of the Nightmare challenges to help differentiate players at the top of the leaderboard more. Additionally, we made it easier to earn progress for the repeatable challenge to help other players in challenges. 
[ Repeatable Challenges ]
These are repeatable challenges by which the player slowly accrues points while doing other challenges and simply playing the game. Available from March 1st. Only a maximum of 400 points can be earned from all repeatable challenges. While doing repeatable challenges beyond the 400 point maximum will not reward a player any points, completing any repeatable itself will reward a Relic. 
Challenge 1.1 Be among the 100 players with the most points earned at the end of the season.
Challenge 1.2 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Map of the Day on different days on any difficulty.
Challenge 1.3 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced difficulty or higher, or random PvE scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.4 Win random PvE scenarios that are the Map of the Month on different months on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.5 Play cards in any game mode. Playing Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, and Bandits cards rewards more mission progress.
Challenge 1.6 Win random PvE scenarios. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards you will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.7 Win official campaign or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.8 Spawn units via spell and ability effects (Lost Revenants count)
Challenge 1.9 Transfer void power into actual power (normal void return does not count)
Challenge 1.10 Be among the top 100 players with the most Elo-score in 1v1 ranked PvP at the end of the month.
Challenge 1.11 Win PvP matches (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.12 Spend time playing PvP (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.13 Help fellow Skylords progress in seasonal challenges. Progress is gained if a Skylord in your party progresses in a non-repeatable challenge up to or below the point where you have already progressed in that challenge.
[ One-time Challenges ]
The first set of three one-time challenges available from March 1st. The next set with 6 challenges unlocks on April 1st and the last set with 5 challenges unlocks on May 1st. Players will have until the season ends on June 30th to complete them.
Challenge 2.1 Win different campaign scenarios or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Demon and Undead units are not allowed. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.2 Win the 2-player scenarios Crusade and Convoy on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Only cards of T2 and below are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.3 Win the 1-player scenario Mo and the 1-player featured community map Rise of a Demon on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. No unit cards are allowed.
Challenge 2.4 Win 3 different 2-player random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets on Adv++ (6) difficulty. All cards played must cost 100 power or less. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.5 Win the 1-player featured community map A Thirsty Journey Home and the 2-player PvE scenario Sunbridge on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must cost between 70 and 150 power. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Frost cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.6 Win the 4-player scenario Empire and the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Frost or Lost Souls cards are allowed. All units T2 and above must be Lost Souls units. All buildings must be Shadow or Lost Souls buildings. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.7 Win the 4-player featured community map Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and the 4-player scenario King of the Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, Frost, or Neutral cards are allowed. All units must be undead units. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.8 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season or Map of the Month under 10 minutes on any difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
[ Nightmare Challenges ]
The first set of two "Nightmare" challenges. The other set unlocks on May 1st. These challenges are harder and meant for skilled veteran players, though most are still intended to be completable by the average player on lower difficulties, potentially with help from a guide.
Challenge 5.1 Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on a 1p random PvE scenario Map of the Season preset on Expert+ (8) difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
Challenge 5.2 Win the 1-player scenario The Soultree on expert difficulty in under 18 minutes. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
Challenge 5.3 Complete 3 different campaign maps on standard or advanced difficulty. Only Shadow cards are allowed. The only card allowed T2 or above is Shadow Phoenix. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 5.4 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season on Std++ (3) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 2 and below are allowed. All units and buildings played must be Shadow or Lost Souls cards. Spells from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
To get started with Season 3, go to the new in-game icon shown at the top of this section which opens the Seasons window. The second round of challenges will unlock on April 1st. 

General Changes & Fixes
The Bandit preset in random PvE has been rebalanced. Bandits should still be the easiest faction to play against, but with less of a gap between them and the other faction presets. As part of this rPvE rebalance, we added new units to the Bandit preset, such as Sand Skate, Bandit Cannoneer, both Raven ships, Bloodhorn, and Wasteland Terror. Additionally, we have added several new bosses, including Boggart and Ravenheart.  A new "Map of the Season" function has been added to random PvE. Upon choosing Map of the Season, players will be prompted to choose among any of the existing faction presets (Bandits, Stonekin, Lost Souls, Twilight, Nature, and Fire). Each of these presets will remain available for the duration of the season.  Added a new way to filter cards in the inventory and marketplace - "orbs": Typing orbs(na,sh) will search for cards that contain both Nature and Shadow orbs - matches T2, T3, T4 Amii cards Typing orbs=(na,sh) will search for cards that have both a Nature and a Shadow orb - matches T2 Amii cards only () Typing orbs<=(na,sh) will search for cards that fit a deck with 1 Nature and 1 Shadow orb in T2 - matches T1 Shadow () and T1 Nature cards () & T2 Shadow splash (), T2 Nature splash () and T2 Amii cards () Typing orbs<=(na,sh,na) will search for cards that fit a deck with 2 Nature orbs and 1 Shadow orb in T3 () Added inventory filter unique_orbs - Typing unique_orbs=1 will search for cards that require at most 1 Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow orb. Many new Shadow textures added to the map editor for use in community and official campaign maps.
New Cards
The following new cards have been added to the game. Please note that Nightmare, Dark Maiden, and Devourer are timely-exclusive, meaning they are tied to the season rewards and will not drop from booster packs or reforging while the season is active. After the season has concluded, the non-promo cards will drop as usual. Dark Mind and Phantom Stampede will drop from boosters as usual from the beginning. Players who log in before April 1st will receive a free copy of Phantom Stampede.
Nightmare - 70p T1 Shadow Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare Shard (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steads which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units and generate early corpses.
 
Dark Maiden - 80p T2 Shadow Support Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, she has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon designed to also heal allies. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while doubling her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
Dark Mind - 90p T2 Shadow Flying Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Dark Mind is a T2 M-sized flying unit that uses a scaled up version of Parasite Swarm's model. The card is designed to be used in both PvP and PvE, giving Shadow T2 some badly needed crowd control. When Dark Mind attacks an enemy, it automatically applies a confusion effect similar to Amok. In PvP this will allow Pure Shadow to better counter L and XL-unit attacks, and in PvE it will act as a good compliment to Dark Maiden, with its crowd control helping to improve the survivability of the otherwise fragile Dark Maiden and Shadow Mage combo.
Devourer - 230p T4 Shadow Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare's End (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
One of the project's first prioritizes was to make each pure faction viable in each tier. With the release of Devourer, we will have (hopefully) finally succeeded in achieving this goal. While T4 Pure Shadow already has two cards, it has always lacked a strong unit to become the primary vehicle for Shadow's powerful single target buffs. Shadow also has an identity as a swarm faction and Devourer's "Mincemeat" ability will enable players to turn those swarms directly into bombs. All in all, Devourer should feel like the apex Shadow unit which ties together most of the faction's major mechanics, similar to Frost's Dreadnought.
Phantom Stampede - 120p T3 Lost Souls Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Empire (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Ever wanted to have your own stampeding Lost Hulk? Phantom Stampede is a hybrid damage and support card which can damage enemy units and shield friendly units by summoning an revenant of a charging Lost Hulk. It can theoretically damage and shield an infinite amount of targets, which regards good targeting. The cards primary role is to give T3 Lost Souls an easy to use sustain tool which also synergizes with Blood Healing to let players keep their units in the battle for longer and with smaller downtimes between combat. 
Login Reward: As a bonus, every player who logs in during March 2026 will receive a free copy of this new card!
Overlord - Promo Card 
You can get this special promo card by earning 900 seasonal points. After the season has concluded, promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop, for those who did not get it during the season. 

 

Deck Tags 

BattleForge is the type of game which encourages the player to experiment with dozens or hundreds of different deck combinations. With the launch of seasons, this encouragement to experiment has become a requirement, and as such the amount of decks players have is multiplying. While the old deck menu was functional, we have long been unhappy with its organizational capacity. As such, we finally decided to sit down and rework the deck menu to give the player more tools. Players can now create and assign tags to each deck. Some tags come pre-included, such as tags for each official map and each official game mode. All tags can be customized with a plethora of assignable colors and icons. Additionally, as part of these changes, we are changing the "Suggested Decks" feature in the game lobby. Instead of showing decks you previously used on the map, it will now show decks with the relevant tags for that map. We hope this new system makes it easier for players to organize and find their various decks without resorting to endless scrolling, and that it encourages players to experiment with more types of decks in the future. 

Game Balance Changes
Ice Shield Disenchant Interaction:  All Ice Shields can now be disenchanted except for Avatar of Frost's in-built shield. 
[ Tier 1 Card Changes ]
 Ice Shield Tower:
1. Change the “Ice Shield” ability from auto-cast to passive.
Ice Shield tower should no longer have its "Ice Shield" ability blocked by line of sight and it should also now properly apply new shields to unshielded units and not just repeatedly reshield the closest target in range.
[ Tier 2 Card Changes ]
 Altar of Nihil: 
1. Power cost: 50p ➜ 65p
2. Add an initial cooldown (60 seconds)
Altar of Nihil has proven to be too strong and has become quite toxic in lower tier matches, so we are nerfing it accordingly. 
 Infected Tower: 
1. Virus:
   A. Now affected by population cap (150)
   B. Players can now suicide units under the effect of Virus.
   C. Ability power cost: 60p ➜ 90p
   D. Now longer retransforms existing Twilight Pests on death.
2. Slime Cannon now knocks back small units.
While we know that some people liked the Infected Tower infinite bug deck, we sadly must remove it due to the crashes and lag spikes it caused when the mass of bugs are teleported or knocked back. To compensate, we are making it easier to trigger the Virus effect by allowing players to suicide their own units. This should make the deck archetype more viable in T2. Eventually, we will be reworking Fleshbender to continue fleshing out the bug archetype in Twilight. Lastly, we are adding small knockback to the tower's auto-attack to help its survivability. 
 Gladiatrix: 
1. Disenchant cost (both affinities): 55 ➜ 40
2. Shadow affinity (p) now also has swift
3. Nature affinity (g) Disenchant cooldown: 10 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
Gladiatrix fell out of the meta for most factions as alternatives got buffed. This should give Fire splashes more counterplay to several buff and debuff mechanics and add a meaningful choice for affinity selection.
 Global Warming: 
1. Fire affinity (r) Ice Shield damage: 660 ➜ 1000
2. Frost affinity (b) Ice Shield damage: 55 ➜ 90 damage per second
3. Both affinities now work on all enemies, including Amii structures.
As the red affinity usually is the better one to play, Global Warming currently gets countered by the Ice Spike plus Ice Age combo. Since the cards sole purpose is to counter shield mechanics this needs to change and at least allow the player to break Ice Spike shields on activation.
 Lost Launcher (b):
1. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds and no longer regenerates by 5 life points per second.
2. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points ➜ 500 life points
3. An indicator now shows when the Ice Shield will refresh when the shield has been lost.
The frost affinity of Lost Launcher had a one-time shield while the fire affinity has a permanent rage ability. We have solidified the frost affinity's identity as the beefier version by allowing its Ice Shield to refresh itself similar to Avatar of Frost. 
 Lost Priest: 
1. Exhaustion debuff strength (both affinities): 40% ➜ 50%
While Lost Souls' T2 in PvE has become quite good, Lost Priest is still struggling to find his place so we can giving his ability another buff.
 Rippers: 
1. Cannibalize regeneration: 35 ➜ 40 life points per second
Rippers continue to perform poorly, so we are giving their regen another buff. This will also help the Rippers from Nox Carrier which is also receiving a buff this patch.
 Scorchlings: 
1. Life points: 940 ➜ 1080
With the transition from Wormlings to Scorchlings the unit lost the damage reduction from worm movement, so we are giving it a small health increase to compensate. 
 Whisperer: 
1. Blind ability:
   A. Removed immunity to Blind that lingered for 10 seconds after the effect ran out.
   B. Now properly works vs all enemies and not just units.
This change will allow Whisperer to perma-CC enemies and allow for the unit to disable building attacks.
[ Tier 3 Card Changes ]
 Gate of Akylos:
1. Life points: 4400 ➜ 3400
2. Give up the Ghost new effect: For each unit sacrificed in this way, 14% of each player’s current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.
3. Ethereal Anchor duration bonus: 25% ➜ 35%
Improve the Lost Souls unit economy. Producing Revenant armies costs a lot of tempo and generates lots of unbound power, so Gate of Akylos can now help move that power back into the player's hands. This change will also help in any future seasonal challenge scenario if Shadow and Frost cards are banned and therefore void return is not readily available.
 Ethereal Storm:
1. Bonus damage now also gets triggered by Undead units.
This change will make Ethereal Storm work with normal Lost Souls units, but also summons from Undead Army, making the spell easier to use overall.
 Lost Grigori:
1. Attraction General Changes:
   A. Ability type: Mode-change ➜ Active ability
   B. Now a one-time taunt that lasts 15 seconds
   C. Affinity effects unchanged
This change to Grigori should allow it to function better as a tank in PvE for Lost Soul's T3 ranged arsenal such as Ashbone Pyro, Lost Manabeast, or Lost Horror.
 Simulacrum:
1. Simulacrum can now teleport using Spirit Gate when even self-rooted.
This will allow players to mass port their Simulacrum armies without having to individually teleport or root/unroot each unit. It also makes it easier to use Simulacrum with other units, as you can walk the melee/tank forward first, then teleport all the Simulacrums to that unit at once. The ability to immediately re-teleport themselves with their own ability will play more into its identity as a kiting unit.
 Transcendence:
1. Spell type: Spell ➜ Arcane
With this change, Transcendence will remain usable even without ground presence. This will prove especially powerful in conjunction with Skydancer + Energy Core decks.
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Spit parasites: 20 damage per second ➜ 17 damage per second
We slightly overbuffed Twilight Creeper last patch and are now reining it back in.
 Twilight Infestation:
1. Twilight Dancer:
   A. Damage: 600 ➜ 900 dp20
   B. Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m
   C. Life points: 728 ➜ 800
Twilight Dancer was accidentally released with lower life points and damage than originally intended and we are rectifying that. Additionally, we are increasing its splash radius to allow it to more effectively kill squad units, hit moving targets, and to damage enemies positioned close to its target.
 Eliminator:
1. Size: M-sized ➜ L-sized
2. Orb cost: 1 Shadow, 1 Neutral (T2) ➜ 3 Shadow (T3)
3. Power cost: 60p ➜ 120p
4. Damage: 840 ➜ 2020
5. Life Points: 675 / 710 / 780 / 850 ➜ 1800 / 1860 / 1930 / 2020
6. Taming:
   A. Remove affinity effects
   B. Now works on Demons & Spirits instead of Demons & Undead
   C. Active ➜ Passive
   D. New effect - Reduces the self-damage of all friendly units in a 30m radius by 50%.
7. New affinity effect, “Tainted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, 6% of the current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.”
8. New affinity effect, “Gifted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, its corpses explodes healing all allied units in a 10m radius by 660 life points.”
We are moving Eliminator to T3 as we do not see a viable use case for the card in T2. It will maintain its identity as a hybrid brawler/support unit. The new Taming ability will synergize with Unstable Demon, Shadow Mage, Cultist Master, Mutating Maniac, and Ashbone Pyro. The idea is to make Pure Shadow's T3 a bit easier to pilot for the average player. Additionally, we have moved the affinity effects to a new on-hit, on-death ability. It simply seemed right that a card named "Eliminator" would do something when it eliminates enemies. As part of the changes, we have updated Eliminator's texture to make him a tad more handsome.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Tainted Necrostrike (p):
   A. Aura damage no longer affects orbs and wells
   B. Aura damage: 50 ➜ 230 damage per second
2. Push the Cart movement speed bonus now makes Nox Carrier move at sprint speed (6.4 m/s).
With these PvE skewed buffs the purple affinity should be usable as a reliable tool to remove any spawner, something with which pure Shadow in particular can struggle.
 Ward of the North:
1. Orb cost: 2 Frost, 1 Neutral (T3) ➜ 1 Frost, 2 Neutral (T3)
Given that 2 Frost orbs in T3 has enough other good options and that Ward of the North does not interact well with shield mechanics, we are loosening the orb restrictions to make it more splashable.
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell delay: 4 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
2. Enchained duration: 15 seconds ➜ 20 seconds
Sleet Storm is often used with Fire/Frost cards like Vulcan, Giant Slayer, and Virtuoso in T3 and Construct in T4. The problem is that these cards are completely dependent on the flying enemies being grounded to deal damage. So, we are increasing the enchained duration to ensure they can knock out enemies in one CC rotation.
 Vulcan:
1. New passive "Molten Breach": Attacked enemies heat up in such a way that Ice Shields melt down by 120 hp per second. The heat will also prevent enemies from getting an Ice Shield. Lasts for up to 7 seconds.
This is pretty much an inbuilt Global Warming (b) effect. Avatar of Frost will be immune to the effect, but other units like Mountaineer and Ice Guardian can have reapplication of their in-built shields prevented.
[ Tier 4 Card Changes ]
 Grim Bahir:
1. Infectious Spit:
   A. Now a 3-target chain attack
   B. Damage per target: 300 / 200 / 100 damage (4000 dp20)
2. Life Drain, General Changes:
   A. Damage: 120 ➜ 240 damage per second
   B. Target: XL-only ➜ L & XL-units
   C. Life Transfer: 120 ➜ 180 life points per second
   D. Ability length: 30m ➜ 40m (45m break point)
   E. New spawn effect: A unit which dies while being drained will spawn 2 Nether Crawlers out of its corpse.
Grim Bahir is perhaps the most beautiful unit in the game, but even as a T4 Ultra-rare it has languished in a weak state. We are buffing it by more fully embracing its identity as a spawner of temporary crawlers. Its auto-attack is now a chain-attack, meaning it can infect 3x as many enemy units per attack. Additionally we are buffing up its Life Drain and adding a new crawler spawn to enemies which die while being drained.
 Incubator:
1. Remove Morphing cooldown
2. Infused Morphing (r): No longer loses 90 hp every 2 seconds.
3. Tainted Morphing (p): Damage buff 100% ➜ 200%
Allowing army generation via Incubator (r) when paired with Infect, Grim Bahir, Undead Army etc. The card should be ideal to solve small side tasks with great cost efficiency.
 Second Chance:
1. Tainted Global Revive (p):
   A. No longer affects enemies
   B. Irrevocable death timer: 30 sec ➜ 25 seconds
   C. Can now suicide own units affected by Tainted Global Revive
The shadow affinity has always been lackluster, so we are making it easier to use in the hopes of producing an alternative use for the card. 
 Necrofury:
1. Nether Bomb radius: 10m ➜ 15m
2. Bone Shards radius: 10m ➜ 15m
3. Apply overflow damage fix to Bone Shards and Nether Bomb.
These changes should make it easier for Necrofury to hit moving targets and have the size of its splash radius better fit the perceived strength of the attack visuals. 
 Twilight Pestilence:
1. Allied healing: 160 ➜ 130 life points per second
We overbuffed Twilight Pestilence last patch so we are toning it down to a more acceptable level.
[ NPC Changes ]
NPC Unit Cost Changes - The NPC versions of Lost Reaver (including its summoned Lost Crawlers), Bandit Sniper, Lost Spellbreaker, and Twilight Whisperer have had their orb and power costs changed from T3, 150p to T2, 175p. This change will allow them to be transformed by Twilight Curse without affecting any of the various cards which can mind control enemies. 
New Shadow NPCs - Added many new Shadow NPCs which can be used by map makers in new community maps. Includes: Soul Weaver (Shadow Shaman), Executor, Soulstitcher (Shadow Kobold Engineer), Witchclaws, Eliminator, Knight of Chaos, Nightcrawler, Nox Carrier, Shadow Insect, Wrathgazer, Shadow Worm, Rifle Cultists, Necroblaster, Shadow Phoenix, and Stone of Torment. 
Boggart (HoT and rPvE boss) - Increased the delay between the casting animation and the first impact from 2 sec ➜ 4 seconds. This should allow players more time to react to Boggart's cannon barrage.
[ Bugfixes & Minor Changes ]
Fixed a problem where different methods of revenant life extension, such as Lost Manabeast and Revenant's Blessing, would overwrite each other and prevent the other method from reapplying. Fixed various Community Maps containing removed towers in patch 400044 causing them to instantly crashes at the beginning, including The ID-Forge, Simple Land 2, Frozen Death, and Nyxia. Fixed and improved the descriptions for dozens of player cards and NPCs in all four supported languages (English, French, German, and Russian). Clarified which cards are invalid targets for friendly killing spells and when a unit is immune to Nasty Surprise or Shadow Mage's Foul Play ability. Added a tooltip description to clarify what type of artifact immunity different building types possess (i.e. what spell effects they are immune against). Gold chests can no longer be attacked, damaged, or destroyed.  Added preview radii to several player cards and their abilities.  Amazon (Nature) - Passive ability Wildlife Protection: Fixed to be able to reapply the aura to affected targets in range that had already been under its effect. Banner of Glory, Forest Elder, and Lost Wanderer, Corsair's auras have been fixed in the same way. Corrected the displayed damage value of several player cards and NPCs to more accurately reflect their damage outputs over 20 seconds. Unhealable now prevents life stealer from healing units (affects the map modifier, Befallen's Curse, Blood Healing, and Promise of Life).

Patch #400055 - Whispers of the Void
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our twenty first balance patch for the game, the release of Season 3, 5 brand-new cards, quality of life changes, and much more!


Patch Preview
Face 43 new challenges and earn cosmetic and card rewards over four months as part of Season 3, Whispers of the Void! Five new cards and one new promo are now available! Jump in-game to collect Nightmare, Dark Maiden, Dark Mind, Devourer, Phantom Stampede and promo Overlord! Players can now purchase two new borders in the Relic Shop as well as any Season 1 & 2 cosmetics they missed. Substantial balance changes and reworks to Shadow and Lost Souls cards.  A new way to organize your decks! Many fixes and QoL changes based on community requests.
Season 3 - Whispers of the Void
This patch introduces our third season. Our seasons system is based around challenges that the player will complete over a 4-month time period (in this case March 1st to June 30th). Shown below are all rewards available this season:

We were fairly happy with the changes we made to last season's challenge and reward structure, so there are fewer changes going into season 3 than there were going into season 2. The biggest two changes are the introduction of new Maps of the Season and community-wide challenges. Maps of the Season are rPvE maps which will be standard for the entire length of the season, allowing players to choose the factions they want to fight against in rPvE. The community-wide challenges will give the season a larger sense of community, with the intention being that more active players can help less active players achieve more seasonal progress. As an added bonus, if the community finishes all three community challenges a special border will be unlocked for everyone who participated. Talking about rewards, we have moderately reduced the bfp value of the reward track cards to avoid overly depressing the marketplace like happened at the beginning of season 2. Since the community wide challenges will add some more easily available season points, we took the opportunity to increase the difficulty of the Nightmare challenges to help differentiate players at the top of the leaderboard more. Additionally, we made it easier to earn progress for the repeatable challenge to help other players in challenges. 
[ Repeatable Challenges ]
These are repeatable challenges by which the player slowly accrues points while doing other challenges and simply playing the game. Available from March 1st. Only a maximum of 400 points can be earned from all repeatable challenges. While doing repeatable challenges beyond the 400 point maximum will not reward a player any points, completing any repeatable itself will reward a Relic. 
Challenge 1.1 Be among the 100 players with the most points earned at the end of the season.
Challenge 1.2 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Map of the Day on different days on any difficulty.
Challenge 1.3 Win official campaign scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced difficulty or higher, or random PvE scenarios that are the Infection of the Week on different weeks on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.4 Win random PvE scenarios that are the Map of the Month on different months on advanced+ (5) difficulty or higher.
Challenge 1.5 Play cards in any game mode. Playing Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, and Bandits cards rewards more mission progress.
Challenge 1.6 Win random PvE scenarios. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards you will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.7 Win official campaign or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Completing maps both on higher difficulties and with you using decks that contain 10 or more Shadow, Amii, Lost Souls, or Bandits cards will reward more mission progress.
Challenge 1.8 Spawn units via spell and ability effects (Lost Revenants count)
Challenge 1.9 Transfer void power into actual power (normal void return does not count)
Challenge 1.10 Be among the top 100 players with the most Elo-score in 1v1 ranked PvP at the end of the month.
Challenge 1.11 Win PvP matches (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.12 Spend time playing PvP (ranked, sparring, BattleArena, etc.)
Challenge 1.13 Help fellow Skylords progress in seasonal challenges. Progress is gained if a Skylord in your party progresses in a non-repeatable challenge up to or below the point where you have already progressed in that challenge.
[ One-time Challenges ]
The first set of three one-time challenges available from March 1st. The next set with 6 challenges unlocks on April 1st and the last set with 5 challenges unlocks on May 1st. Players will have until the season ends on June 30th to complete them.
Challenge 2.1 Win different campaign scenarios or featured community maps on standard difficulty or higher. Demon and Undead units are not allowed. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.2 Win the 2-player scenarios Crusade and Convoy on standard difficulty or higher. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Only cards of T2 and below are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.3 Win the 1-player scenario Mo and the 1-player featured community map Rise of a Demon on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Neutral cards are allowed. No unit cards are allowed.
Challenge 2.4 Win 3 different 2-player random PvE scenario Map of the Season presets on Adv++ (6) difficulty. All cards played must cost 100 power or less. Only Shadow cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.5 Win the 1-player featured community map A Thirsty Journey Home and the 2-player PvE scenario Sunbridge on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must cost between 70 and 150 power. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, or Frost cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.6 Win the 4-player scenario Empire and the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Frost or Lost Souls cards are allowed. All units T2 and above must be Lost Souls units. All buildings must be Shadow or Lost Souls buildings. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.7 Win the 4-player featured community map Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and the 4-player scenario King of the Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Shadow, Lost Souls, Frost, or Neutral cards are allowed. All units must be undead units. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 2.8 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season or Map of the Month under 10 minutes on any difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
[ Nightmare Challenges ]
The first set of two "Nightmare" challenges. The other set unlocks on May 1st. These challenges are harder and meant for skilled veteran players, though most are still intended to be completable by the average player on lower difficulties, potentially with help from a guide.
Challenge 5.1 Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on a 1p random PvE scenario Map of the Season preset on Expert+ (8) difficulty. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed.
Challenge 5.2 Win the 1-player scenario The Soultree on expert difficulty in under 18 minutes. Only Shadow or Lost Souls cards are allowed. Completing the challenge more quickly awards progressively more points.
Challenge 5.3 Complete 3 different campaign maps on standard or advanced difficulty. Only Shadow cards are allowed. The only card allowed T2 or above is Shadow Phoenix. These restrictions apply to all team members.
Challenge 5.4 Win a random PvE scenario that is Map of the Season on Std++ (3) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 2 and below are allowed. All units and buildings played must be Shadow or Lost Souls cards. Spells from any faction are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.
To get started with Season 3, go to the new in-game icon shown at the top of this section which opens the Seasons window. The second round of challenges will unlock on April 1st. 

General Changes & Fixes
The Bandit preset in random PvE has been rebalanced. Bandits should still be the easiest faction to play against, but with less of a gap between them and the other faction presets. As part of this rPvE rebalance, we added new units to the Bandit preset, such as Sand Skate, Bandit Cannoneer, both Raven ships, Bloodhorn, and Wasteland Terror. Additionally, we have added several new bosses, including Boggart and Ravenheart.  A new "Map of the Season" function has been added to random PvE. Upon choosing Map of the Season, players will be prompted to choose among any of the existing faction presets (Bandits, Stonekin, Lost Souls, Twilight, Nature, and Fire). Each of these presets will remain available for the duration of the season.  Added a new way to filter cards in the inventory and marketplace - "orbs": Typing orbs(na,sh) will search for cards that contain both Nature and Shadow orbs - matches T2, T3, T4 Amii cards Typing orbs=(na,sh) will search for cards that have both a Nature and a Shadow orb - matches T2 Amii cards only () Typing orbs<=(na,sh) will search for cards that fit a deck with 1 Nature and 1 Shadow orb in T2 - matches T1 Shadow () and T1 Nature cards () & T2 Shadow splash (), T2 Nature splash () and T2 Amii cards () Typing orbs<=(na,sh,na) will search for cards that fit a deck with 2 Nature orbs and 1 Shadow orb in T3 () Added inventory filter unique_orbs - Typing unique_orbs=1 will search for cards that require at most 1 Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow orb. Many new Shadow textures added to the map editor for use in community and official campaign maps.
New Cards
The following new cards have been added to the game. Please note that Nightmare, Dark Maiden, and Devourer are timely-exclusive, meaning they are tied to the season rewards and will not drop from booster packs or reforging while the season is active. After the season has concluded, the non-promo cards will drop as usual. Dark Mind and Phantom Stampede will drop from boosters as usual from the beginning. Players who log in before April 1st will receive a free copy of Phantom Stampede.
Nightmare - 70p T1 Shadow Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare Shard (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Shadow is the only T1 faction which is unable to meaningfully help its allies via either spells or global effects. With Nightmare, Shadow players can now summon two ghostly steads which will blow themselves up to weaken enemies such that they deal less damage for a short time. This card should add much needed flexibility to Shadow T1, in both solo and multiplayer matches, by giving Shadow an indirect way to improve the survivability of its units and generate early corpses.
 
Dark Maiden - 80p T2 Shadow Support Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Shadow Mage is one of the most iconic units in the game but due to various PvP nerfs, most especially the bugfix to Nether Warp (g)'s healing, she has become largely unusable in PvE. This is a shame because she ought to provide a meaningful alternative to other T2 options like Shadow Phoenix and Harvester. Enter Dark Maiden. She is a Shadow-flavored glass cannon designed to also heal allies. Once Dark Maiden has dealt enough damage, she begins to passively emit healing waves while doubling her lifestealer capacities, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Mage and giving PvE players a new way to run Pure Shadow decks in T2.
Dark Mind - 90p T2 Shadow Flying Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Heart of Trouble (U1/U2/U3).
Dark Mind is a T2 M-sized flying unit that uses a scaled up version of Parasite Swarm's model. The card is designed to be used in both PvP and PvE, giving Shadow T2 some badly needed crowd control. When Dark Mind attacks an enemy, it automatically applies a confusion effect similar to Amok. In PvP this will allow Pure Shadow to better counter L and XL-unit attacks, and in PvE it will act as a good compliment to Dark Maiden, with its crowd control helping to improve the survivability of the otherwise fragile Dark Maiden and Shadow Mage combo.
Devourer - 230p T4 Shadow Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Nightmare's End (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
One of the project's first prioritizes was to make each pure faction viable in each tier. With the release of Devourer, we will have (hopefully) finally succeeded in achieving this goal. While T4 Pure Shadow already has two cards, it has always lacked a strong unit to become the primary vehicle for Shadow's powerful single target buffs. Shadow also has an identity as a swarm faction and Devourer's "Mincemeat" ability will enable players to turn those swarms directly into bombs. All in all, Devourer should feel like the apex Shadow unit which ties together most of the faction's major mechanics, similar to Frost's Dreadnought.
Phantom Stampede - 120p T3 Lost Souls Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Empire (U1) and Unexpected Visitors (U2/U3).
Ever wanted to have your own stampeding Lost Hulk? Phantom Stampede is a hybrid damage and support card which can damage enemy units and shield friendly units by summoning an revenant of a charging Lost Hulk. It can theoretically damage and shield an infinite amount of targets, which regards good targeting. The cards primary role is to give T3 Lost Souls an easy to use sustain tool which also synergizes with Blood Healing to let players keep their units in the battle for longer and with smaller downtimes between combat. 
Login Reward: As a bonus, every player who logs in during March 2026 will receive a free copy of this new card!
Overlord - Promo Card 
You can get this special promo card by earning 900 seasonal points. After the season has concluded, promo Overlord will be purchasable in the Relic shop, for those who did not get it during the season. 

 

Deck Tags 

BattleForge is the type of game which encourages the player to experiment with dozens or hundreds of different deck combinations. With the launch of seasons, this encouragement to experiment has become a requirement, and as such the amount of decks players have is multiplying. While the old deck menu was functional, we have long been unhappy with its organizational capacity. As such, we finally decided to sit down and rework the deck menu to give the player more tools. Players can now create and assign tags to each deck. Some tags come pre-included, such as tags for each official map and each official game mode. All tags can be customized with a plethora of assignable colors and icons. Additionally, as part of these changes, we are changing the "Suggested Decks" feature in the game lobby. Instead of showing decks you previously used on the map, it will now show decks with the relevant tags for that map. We hope this new system makes it easier for players to organize and find their various decks without resorting to endless scrolling, and that it encourages players to experiment with more types of decks in the future. 

Game Balance Changes
Ice Shield Disenchant Interaction:  All Ice Shields can now be disenchanted except for Avatar of Frost's in-built shield. 
[ Tier 1 Card Changes ]
 Ice Shield Tower:
1. Change the “Ice Shield” ability from auto-cast to passive.
Ice Shield tower should no longer have its "Ice Shield" ability blocked by line of sight and it should also now properly apply new shields to unshielded units and not just repeatedly reshield the closest target in range.
[ Tier 2 Card Changes ]
 Altar of Nihil: 
1. Power cost: 50p ➜ 65p
2. Add an initial cooldown (60 seconds)
Altar of Nihil has proven to be too strong and has become quite toxic in lower tier matches, so we are nerfing it accordingly. 
 Infected Tower: 
1. Virus:
   A. Now affected by population cap (150)
   B. Players can now suicide units under the effect of Virus.
   C. Ability power cost: 60p ➜ 90p
   D. Now longer retransforms existing Twilight Pests on death.
2. Slime Cannon now knocks back small units.
While we know that some people liked the Infected Tower infinite bug deck, we sadly must remove it due to the crashes and lag spikes it caused when the mass of bugs are teleported or knocked back. To compensate, we are making it easier to trigger the Virus effect by allowing players to suicide their own units. This should make the deck archetype more viable in T2. Eventually, we will be reworking Fleshbender to continue fleshing out the bug archetype in Twilight. Lastly, we are adding small knockback to the tower's auto-attack to help its survivability. 
 Gladiatrix: 
1. Disenchant cost (both affinities): 55 ➜ 40
2. Shadow affinity (p) now also has swift
3. Nature affinity (g) Disenchant cooldown: 10 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
Gladiatrix fell out of the meta for most factions as alternatives got buffed. This should give Fire splashes more counterplay to several buff and debuff mechanics and add a meaningful choice for affinity selection.
 Global Warming: 
1. Fire affinity (r) Ice Shield damage: 660 ➜ 1000
2. Frost affinity (b) Ice Shield damage: 55 ➜ 90 damage per second
3. Both affinities now work on all enemies, including Amii structures.
As the red affinity usually is the better one to play, Global Warming currently gets countered by the Ice Spike plus Ice Age combo. Since the cards sole purpose is to counter shield mechanics this needs to change and at least allow the player to break Ice Spike shields on activation.
 Lost Launcher (b):
1. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds and no longer regenerates by 5 life points per second.
2. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points ➜ 500 life points
3. An indicator now shows when the Ice Shield will refresh when the shield has been lost.
The frost affinity of Lost Launcher had a one-time shield while the fire affinity has a permanent rage ability. We have solidified the frost affinity's identity as the beefier version by allowing its Ice Shield to refresh itself similar to Avatar of Frost. 
 Lost Priest: 
1. Exhaustion debuff strength (both affinities): 40% ➜ 50%
While Lost Souls' T2 in PvE has become quite good, Lost Priest is still struggling to find his place so we can giving his ability another buff.
 Rippers: 
1. Cannibalize regeneration: 35 ➜ 40 life points per second
Rippers continue to perform poorly, so we are giving their regen another buff. This will also help the Rippers from Nox Carrier which is also receiving a buff this patch.
 Scorchlings: 
1. Life points: 940 ➜ 1080
With the transition from Wormlings to Scorchlings the unit lost the damage reduction from worm movement, so we are giving it a small health increase to compensate. 
 Whisperer: 
1. Blind ability:
   A. Removed immunity to Blind that lingered for 10 seconds after the effect ran out.
   B. Now properly works vs all enemies and not just units.
This change will allow Whisperer to perma-CC enemies and allow for the unit to disable building attacks.
[ Tier 3 Card Changes ]
 Gate of Akylos:
1. Life points: 4400 ➜ 3400
2. Give up the Ghost new effect: For each unit sacrificed in this way, 14% of each player’s current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.
3. Ethereal Anchor duration bonus: 25% ➜ 35%
Improve the Lost Souls unit economy. Producing Revenant armies costs a lot of tempo and generates lots of unbound power, so Gate of Akylos can now help move that power back into the player's hands. This change will also help in any future seasonal challenge scenario if Shadow and Frost cards are banned and therefore void return is not readily available.
 Ethereal Storm:
1. Bonus damage now also gets triggered by Undead units.
This change will make Ethereal Storm work with normal Lost Souls units, but also summons from Undead Army, making the spell easier to use overall.
 Lost Grigori:
1. Attraction General Changes:
   A. Ability type: Mode-change ➜ Active ability
   B. Now a one-time taunt that lasts 15 seconds
   C. Affinity effects unchanged
This change to Grigori should allow it to function better as a tank in PvE for Lost Soul's T3 ranged arsenal such as Ashbone Pyro, Lost Manabeast, or Lost Horror.
 Simulacrum:
1. Simulacrum can now teleport using Spirit Gate when even self-rooted.
This will allow players to mass port their Simulacrum armies without having to individually teleport or root/unroot each unit. It also makes it easier to use Simulacrum with other units, as you can walk the melee/tank forward first, then teleport all the Simulacrums to that unit at once. The ability to immediately re-teleport themselves with their own ability will play more into its identity as a kiting unit.
 Transcendence:
1. Spell type: Spell ➜ Arcane
With this change, Transcendence will remain usable even without ground presence. This will prove especially powerful in conjunction with Skydancer + Energy Core decks.
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Spit parasites: 20 damage per second ➜ 17 damage per second
We slightly overbuffed Twilight Creeper last patch and are now reining it back in.
 Twilight Infestation:
1. Twilight Dancer:
   A. Damage: 600 ➜ 900 dp20
   B. Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m
   C. Life points: 728 ➜ 800
Twilight Dancer was accidentally released with lower life points and damage than originally intended and we are rectifying that. Additionally, we are increasing its splash radius to allow it to more effectively kill squad units, hit moving targets, and to damage enemies positioned close to its target.
 Eliminator:
1. Size: M-sized ➜ L-sized
2. Orb cost: 1 Shadow, 1 Neutral (T2) ➜ 3 Shadow (T3)
3. Power cost: 60p ➜ 120p
4. Damage: 840 ➜ 2020
5. Life Points: 675 / 710 / 780 / 850 ➜ 1800 / 1860 / 1930 / 2020
6. Taming:
   A. Remove affinity effects
   B. Now works on Demons & Spirits instead of Demons & Undead
   C. Active ➜ Passive
   D. New effect - Reduces the self-damage of all friendly units in a 30m radius by 50%.
7. New affinity effect, “Tainted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, 6% of the current void power will be transferred to the actual power pool.”
8. New affinity effect, “Gifted Homicide” - “Whenever a hostile unit directly attacked by Eliminator is killed, its corpses explodes healing all allied units in a 10m radius by 660 life points.”
We are moving Eliminator to T3 as we do not see a viable use case for the card in T2. It will maintain its identity as a hybrid brawler/support unit. The new Taming ability will synergize with Unstable Demon, Shadow Mage, Cultist Master, Mutating Maniac, and Ashbone Pyro. The idea is to make Pure Shadow's T3 a bit easier to pilot for the average player. Additionally, we have moved the affinity effects to a new on-hit, on-death ability. It simply seemed right that a card named "Eliminator" would do something when it eliminates enemies. As part of the changes, we have updated Eliminator's texture to make him a tad more handsome.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Tainted Necrostrike (p):
   A. Aura damage no longer affects orbs and wells
   B. Aura damage: 50 ➜ 230 damage per second
2. Push the Cart movement speed bonus now makes Nox Carrier move at sprint speed (6.4 m/s).
With these PvE skewed buffs the purple affinity should be usable as a reliable tool to remove any spawner, something with which pure Shadow in particular can struggle.
 Ward of the North:
1. Orb cost: 2 Frost, 1 Neutral (T3) ➜ 1 Frost, 2 Neutral (T3)
Given that 2 Frost orbs in T3 has enough other good options and that Ward of the North does not interact well with shield mechanics, we are loosening the orb restrictions to make it more splashable.
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell delay: 4 seconds ➜ 3 seconds
2. Enchained duration: 15 seconds ➜ 20 seconds
Sleet Storm is often used with Fire/Frost cards like Vulcan, Giant Slayer, and Virtuoso in T3 and Construct in T4. The problem is that these cards are completely dependent on the flying enemies being grounded to deal damage. So, we are increasing the enchained duration to ensure they can knock out enemies in one CC rotation.
 Vulcan:
1. New passive "Molten Breach": Attacked enemies heat up in such a way that Ice Shields melt down by 120 hp per second. The heat will also prevent enemies from getting an Ice Shield. Lasts for up to 7 seconds.
This is pretty much an inbuilt Global Warming (b) effect. Avatar of Frost will be immune to the effect, but other units like Mountaineer and Ice Guardian can have reapplication of their in-built shields prevented.
[ Tier 4 Card Changes ]
 Grim Bahir:
1. Infectious Spit:
   A. Now a 3-target chain attack
   B. Damage per target: 300 / 200 / 100 damage (4000 dp20)
2. Life Drain, General Changes:
   A. Damage: 120 ➜ 240 damage per second
   B. Target: XL-only ➜ L & XL-units
   C. Life Transfer: 120 ➜ 180 life points per second
   D. Ability length: 30m ➜ 40m (45m break point)
   E. New spawn effect: A unit which dies while being drained will spawn 2 Nether Crawlers out of its corpse.
Grim Bahir is perhaps the most beautiful unit in the game, but even as a T4 Ultra-rare it has languished in a weak state. We are buffing it by more fully embracing its identity as a spawner of temporary crawlers. Its auto-attack is now a chain-attack, meaning it can infect 3x as many enemy units per attack. Additionally we are buffing up its Life Drain and adding a new crawler spawn to enemies which die while being drained.
 Incubator:
1. Remove Morphing cooldown
2. Infused Morphing (r): No longer loses 90 hp every 2 seconds.
3. Tainted Morphing (p): Damage buff 100% ➜ 200%
Allowing army generation via Incubator (r) when paired with Infect, Grim Bahir, Undead Army etc. The card should be ideal to solve small side tasks with great cost efficiency.
 Second Chance:
1. Tainted Global Revive (p):
   A. No longer affects enemies
   B. Irrevocable death timer: 30 sec ➜ 25 seconds
   C. Can now suicide own units affected by Tainted Global Revive
The shadow affinity has always been lackluster, so we are making it easier to use in the hopes of producing an alternative use for the card. 
 Necrofury:
1. Nether Bomb radius: 10m ➜ 15m
2. Bone Shards radius: 10m ➜ 15m
3. Apply overflow damage fix to Bone Shards and Nether Bomb.
These changes should make it easier for Necrofury to hit moving targets and have the size of its splash radius better fit the perceived strength of the attack visuals. 
 Twilight Pestilence:
1. Allied healing: 160 ➜ 130 life points per second
We overbuffed Twilight Pestilence last patch so we are toning it down to a more acceptable level.
[ NPC Changes ]
NPC Unit Cost Changes - The NPC versions of Lost Reaver (including its summoned Lost Crawlers), Bandit Sniper, Lost Spellbreaker, and Twilight Whisperer have had their orb and power costs changed from T3, 150p to T2, 175p. This change will allow them to be transformed by Twilight Curse without affecting any of the various cards which can mind control enemies. 
New Shadow NPCs - Added many new Shadow NPCs which can be used by map makers in new community maps. Includes: Soul Weaver (Shadow Shaman), Executor, Soulstitcher (Shadow Kobold Engineer), Witchclaws, Eliminator, Knight of Chaos, Nightcrawler, Nox Carrier, Shadow Insect, Wrathgazer, Shadow Worm, Rifle Cultists, Necroblaster, Shadow Phoenix, and Stone of Torment. 
Boggart (HoT and rPvE boss) - Increased the delay between the casting animation and the first impact from 2 sec ➜ 4 seconds. This should allow players more time to react to Boggart's cannon barrage.
[ Bugfixes & Minor Changes ]
Fixed a problem where different methods of revenant life extension, such as Lost Manabeast and Revenant's Blessing, would overwrite each other and prevent the other method from reapplying. Fixed various Community Maps containing removed towers in patch 400044 causing them to instantly crashes at the beginning, including The ID-Forge, Simple Land 2, Frozen Death, and Nyxia. Fixed and improved the descriptions for dozens of player cards and NPCs in all four supported languages (English, French, German, and Russian). Clarified which cards are invalid targets for friendly killing spells and when a unit is immune to Nasty Surprise or Shadow Mage's Foul Play ability. Added a tooltip description to clarify what type of artifact immunity different building types possess (i.e. what spell effects they are immune against). Gold chests can no longer be attacked, damaged, or destroyed.  Added preview radii to several player cards and their abilities.  Amazon (Nature) - Passive ability Wildlife Protection: Fixed to be able to reapply the aura to affected targets in range that had already been under its effect. Banner of Glory, Forest Elder, and Lost Wanderer, Corsair's auras have been fixed in the same way. Corrected the displayed damage value of several player cards and NPCs to more accurately reflect their damage outputs over 20 seconds. Unhealable now prevents life stealer from healing units (affects the map modifier, Befallen's Curse, Blood Healing, and Promise of Life).