Patch 0.4.0: spells cast for real, enemies come alive, hero skins

Patch 0.4.0 is the biggest update yet. Spell cards now play real spell moves with their own sounds. Enemies move, gesture and speak. Every hero has three new skins. The end of a run shows your score over the map you explored. The tutorial is shorter and narrated, and How to play is a new film.

In this update

• Spells you cast for real
• Enemies come alive
• Hero skins
• The end of a run
• Tutorial and How to play
• Card balance
• Smaller changes and fixes

Spells you cast for real

• Spell cards now play their own moves. Your hero gathers the spell in their hands and casts it.
• Hades' Fire and Poseidon's Squall: an orb. Burn the Reserves: a quick fire bolt. Killing Frost: a spinning ring of ice. The Armour Undone: a lightning lance.
• The Earth Shakes and Wall of Fire: a slam into the ground. Ilion Falls: a rain of fire over the whole arena.
• Every hero casts them, not only Medea.
• Every spell move has its own sounds: the spell swelling in your hand, its flight and a hit you feel. Ice forms and shatters. Lightning charges and cracks like close thunder. The fire rain thumps into the ground all around.
• The Earth Shakes: a crack races over the ground from your hero to the enemy before the quake hits.
• Hits look much bigger. Every hero hit bursts wider and lingers a moment longer, the camera kicks with it, and the killing blow bursts with its own sound.
• Hades' Fire hurls a faceted fireball and raises a pillar of fire that roars while it burns. Poseidon Strikes' lightning strikes three times, with thunder. Poseidon's Squall crashes the sea onto its target.
• Medea's fireball has a braided fire trail and a white flash on the hit, and an enemy who survives it keeps burning.
• Lightning holds the enemy shaking where he stands instead of knocking him back.
• An enemy's Armour shield changes when a spell's blow lands, not the moment you play the card.

Enemies come alive

• The satyr camps: each kind of satyr has its own stance and character. It puts its weapon away until the fight needs it, answers you, jeers and cheers with gestures, and falls in one of two ways.
• The oracle guardians are sober defenders with moves and gestures of their own and a second fall. They have new names: Ember Seer, Tide Warder, Potion Master, Torch Priestess, Forge Attendant and Basin Diviner. The Basin Diviner's basin floats beside her.
• The keep's soldiers stand on duty, with gestures of their own and a second fall.
• The Minotaur, the Cyclops and the Gorgon have moves of their own.
• Enemies speak. The satyrs laugh at you, point and threaten. The Chieftain roars and laughs. The keep's soldiers give orders. The oracles sigh and chuckle. The Cyclops taunts you, the Minotaur bellows and the Gorgon hisses. Each one cries out when hit and when it falls.
• The Potion Master uncorks his flask and drinks, and you hear it.

Hero skins

• Every hero has three skins to pick on the hero page, and their usual outfits are polished.
• All skins are free for now.
• Some skins are still placeholders. They are here so the feature works, and each one will get a full rework before it is final.

The end of a run

• The end of a run shows your final score over the map you explored, with the road you walked drawn as a dotted line.
• Press MAP (or M) to look at the map on its own.
• Each Labour you played stamps a wax seal and multiplies your score.

Tutorial and How to play

• The tutorial is shorter: 52 steps instead of 72. You play first and learn each thing when you use it.
• The tutorial's Minotaur fight is a puzzle now. Try any card, Favour or Skill, and Undo stays open. After two wrong tries, the ring shows the next move.
• The tutorial is narrated in the developer's own voice, made with an AI voice clone. Its lines are shorter and plainer. Changed lines show in English for now; the translations follow.
• The How to play film is new: narrated the same way, in full HD, with diagrams built from the game's own pieces.

Card balance

Thirteen cards you gain during a run are changed so each kind sits closer to one level. Runs started before this build keep the old cards.

• At Your Mercy: 23 Coins. Powered: 46 Coins.
• Blood Offering, powered: 3 Boons of one colour, gold and black included3 Boons of one basic colour, or 2 gold or 2 black Boons.
• Court the Gods: AttuneAttune and Foresee 2. Powered: Attune three timesAttune twice and draw 1 card.
• Shield Brother: the top side's Companion bonus +2+1.
• Stand Your Ground: Block 32 on top. Powered, a successful Block draws 2 cards and gives a blue Boondraws 1 card.
• The Second Rank: Attack 23. Powered: Attack 34.
• Burn the Reserves: +3+2 for each card you discard. Powered: Ranged Attack 65, and +4+2 for each card.
• One Night's Sailing has a new top side: Move 4; this turn you may cross lakes at 2 Move each, and no camp ambushes you. Powered: Move 56, now also lakes at 1 Move each and no ambush, and still draw 2 cards.
• Ariadne's Thread: Move 34 on top. Destroy: draw after each of the next 32 hexes.
• Casket of the Winds, Destroy: draw 43 cards, still 2 Blessings.
• Spindle of Second Chances: return 1up to 2 cards. Destroy: up to 3as many as you like.
• The Apple of Discord: the turned enemy's hit now lands in the Block phase, so an enemy it defeats never attacks you. Top: the turned enemy still attacks you too. Destroy: up to 21 enemy turned, and it does not attack you.
• The Unfailing Spring, Destroy: a Boon of every coloura Boon of every basic colour, then a gold or black one of your choice.

The new cards

Smaller changes and fixes

• Taking a place: the flag drops in harder, with a bigger ripple and a ring along the ground.
• The opening: your hero drops from the sky into a superhero landing, with a boom and a ripple.
• In a fight, a choice that picks an enemy (The Last Command, Open the Way, a Command) now uses the targeting arrow on the real enemies.
• A Spell reward now stands behind glass like a Relic, each spell lit in its own colour.
• Casting looks the same every time: a small charm in the spell's colour sits on each hand. Medea's spells start in her hand, and Odysseus now gestures when he casts.
• Hades' Fire and Poseidon's Squall leave a trail as they fly. Arrow, fire arrow and icicle trails are wider and longer.
• When Aeneas hurls his shield, his arm follows through with weight, and the shield's hit flashes bronze. Arrow hits are smaller and sharper; siege rock hits flash stone gold.
• Aeneas: a shield card played while his shield is still flying now waits for it to come back.
• Enemies sent flying no longer judder on monitors faster than 60 Hz.