* NEW HERO: The Rainbow Knight!
* Phoenix can be killed by Enflame once again.
* Corrected texts on some items (Holy Mace, Splendid Sword of Thunder, Splendid Axe of Flame, Dark Warhammer of Pairs) and Wildsmith.
* Multiple camping tents can now be used at a given node (including camp sites).
* Scroll of Greed can no longer be used without first having enough max life.
* Changed some items (particularly stashes) that had inconsistent enchant conditions.
* Bless should now work correctly with certain status effects (like Hex).
* Shieldbash should now deal the correct amount of damage when enflamed.
* Items with Lock should now refresh correctly after revival.
* Stunbolts will now correctly stun when next lightning is at 20%.
* Enchantment texts should now show the correct values during Sudden Death.
* World modifiers that cause specific cards to be drawn will no longer draw those cards if they are stashed.
* Increased the size of the preview cards for the Foresight mechanic.
* Gargoyle's Armor mechanics should now work properly.
* Explosive mechanics should now correctly deal Fire damage.
* Monsters that steal resources should no longer do so when enflame should have killed them first.
* Item Smash mechanics should now ignore consumables.
* Lightning should now be correctly be affected by the world modifier "Strong Attacks."
* Item bonuses should now work correctly with the "Slow Items" Challenge.
* Spirithorn should no longer cause unexpected deaths during the "Queen of Spades" world modifier.
* Multiple actions can no longer be bound to the same key (which could cause crashes).
* Fixed a crash related issue caused by Mixturedraw.
* Fixed a crash related issue involving the confirmation checkbox when applying status effects.
* Fixed some issues related to Achievements that caused some of them to be unachievable.
* Fixed an issue that prevented importing saves.
* Fixed a tutorial related bug.

Join us for a livestream of Poker Quest a new Fantasy Playing Card Roguelike at 5pm PDT on 10/22/2021.

Afterwards we'll be hosting a developer QA at 6pm PDT so be sure to join us on Discord and ask us anything!

https://discord.gg/R5Y6DctqCf

* NEW HERO! The Blacksmith. He can upgrade all his items for a large amount of energy.
* IMPORTANT: Starvation no longer kills you. Instead, it takes you to a minimum of 1 life. An exception is made for the Vampire hero.
* WARNING: The "Walking is Hard" random event can now actually kill you. (Before this update, it wouldn't kill you). It is still very rare.
* IMPORTANT CHANGES TO POISON:
* - Poison now triggers at the end of each turn, instead of the start of each turn.
* - Poison now decays at 25% instead of 33% (it stays higher for longer)
* IMPORTANT CHANGE TO HEX: Hex now persists between rounds, and only decrements when cards are taken.
* IMPORTANT CHANGE TO CHARM: Charm now persists between rounds, and only decrements when cards are taken.
* IMPORTANT CHANGE TO RECOVERY: Recovery now decrements for each card returned to you. Items and effects that give you battle-length recovery are reworded to gain Recovery 1 each round.
* Made some balance and theme improvements to several enemies, especially those affected by the above changes.
* NEW: Actual working completion stars on Challenge Runs (v58's patch note was a mistake)
* Paladin's energy ability now gives 3 Armor instead of 4.
* Tortoise's Stone Skin now costs a fixed 2 life and has no upgrades.
* Hop now actually lets you jump as far as you can see.
* Replaced one of Queen's Poison Brooches with Toxicity.
* Bard's Pet Snake now does 2x poison damage, and no Anemic.
* Huntress's Duke now has Attack 25 in addition to his stun. Upgrades to 40, 55, 70.
* Huntress's Duke no longer has a cooldown.
* Duke can run away now. (Sincerest apologies to anyone who was previously offended)
* Banker's energy ability now works anywhere.
* Scaled up the score bonuses you receive from the boss rush in world 4 to make the achievements more achievable.
* Fixed some achievement issues, victory-star issues, and other bug fixes.

* NEW HERO: THE WITCH! She likes to hoard cards.
* IMPORTANT CHANGE TO CURSE: Rebalanced most Curse enemies, and clarified their effects with new tooltips: "Arbitrary" and "Distinct" item targeting. Pay attention to the detailed tooltips so you know what the enemy will do.
* NEW: Completion stars for Heroes.
* NEW: Completion stars for Challenges.
* Steam Workshop mod functionality is now in early stages of testing. Check it out in your Steam library! For more information (such as how to make mods and install them), visit the Discord channel.
* You can now check out the combat log after you lose the game.
* Challenge Runs can now unlock with partial completion of previous challenges.
* Some of the first upgrades in Upgrades Mode are now free.
* Several monsters now have Perfect Kill rewards.
* Significantly reduced the tax for subsequent Blacksmith upgrades from 3,5,7,8 to 1,2,3,4. This should make blacksmiths a much bigger part of the game now, and a partial alternative to shops.
* Armor now adds Block each turn, instead of being its own block.
* Rebalanced the World 4 boss rush in Classic mode. Enemies have less life, but draw more cards, and hide more cards, and hit hard.
* Temporarily removed the World 4 boss rush from Upgrades Mode (temporarily!) until we can properly rebalance it for this game mode.
* Raised the spawn rate for random Ambush events.
* Rebalanced The Stormy Joker. He should be easier to understand now.
* Rebalanced The Charitable Joker. Now gives your resources back if you win (for the boss rush).
* Rebalanced several poison and curse items so they scale more closely with other items.
* Reduced Paladin's Holy Mace's upgrade costs and Enflame All amounts.
* Witherstrike reduced from 30% to 20%
* Changed One For All's price from 15 to 12, and upgrade costs from 6/8/10 to 8/8/8.
* Reduced Queen's life from 90 to 80.
* Raised Throwing Knives shop price from 5 to 6, and upgrade costs from 2 to 3.
* Warlock's Soulseeker now always costs 2 life, upgrades to increase Reveal amount.
* Titan's Shockwave rebalanced to be a little more accessible in the early game.
* Fixed some bugs with end-game scoring.
* Many shop items got minor balance changes (costs, values, etc.).
* Lowered chip rewards on boss fights.
* Reduced the number of options available at Castle Blackheart and Chateau de Spade by 1.
* Tray of Chips now provides slightly fewer chips.
* Pet fights no longer close shops.
* Fixed some bugs with Daily Run stats reporting.
* Lowered the volume of the drumroll at the start of each world.
* Added a "Claim Victory" button to the world map on the final boss. This also fixes the Always Raise the Stakes option
* Made the first three choices in Upgrades mode free.

The game now has much more appropriate victory conditions. Everything after the World 1 boss is now optional. We believe this update will appeal to all of the players who want less of a challenge, while at the same time we hope the players who enjoy an epic challenge feel like they still get one.

Please read the patch notes in detail to understand how these changes affect the game.

NEW FEATURE: Claim Victory & Raise The Stakes

• After each world, you now have the option to Claim Victory or Raise the Stakes.
  
• "Claim Victory" to end the run early, and get bonus Score & XP.
  
• Or "Raise the Stakes", and keep playing, which increases the bonus XP if you Claim Victory after the next boss fight.
  
• Getting through World 1 is "Victory", World 2 is "Victory+", and so on.
  
• We believe these new victory rankings more accurately represent the challenge involved in achieving them.
  
• Those of you who previously achieved the old "Victory" status have actually been achieving "Victory+++" without knowing it.

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO WORLD 4:

• Due to overwhelming demand from players, we shortened the length of the complete game (assuming you always want to Raise the Stakes).
  
• The final boss is now at world 4-1, immediately after the campsite, which shortens the full game by about 25%.
  
• The rest of world 4 (after the final boss) is an optional series of boss fights that rapidly scale up.
  
• After each fight in World 4, you have the option to Claim Victory, or gamble on the next fight for a higher score.
  
• We removed the Palace of Wagers. To get higher scores, try to defeat as much of World 4 as you can.

OTHER CHANGES:

• The card deck finally has face card art!
  
• The Queen of Spades energy ability now draws all the Spades for 5 energy.
  
• Removed most of the "Nothing" nodes, they are replaced with small piles of food, chips, and gems.
  
• Wizard Tower and Gem Mines now only cost 1 chip to upgrade your maximum (instead of 3).
  
• Added a new Hero Select option to choose a random hero from the heroes you unlocked.
  
• New Classic, Daily, and Custom Run world modifier: Casino World. Worlds full of casinos!
  
• New Daily and Custom Run world modifier: Enchantress World. Worlds with way too many enchantresses.
  
• Scroll of Greed can no longer be used unless you have more than 50 maximum life.
  
• Reduced Wild Joker's life (relative to other Jokers) by 12%.
  
• The "No Modifiers" option now always shows up as an option in Classic mode.
  
• Count Spade and Vampire (monster) have been rebalanced. They have a new effect called "Restless".
  
• Sleight of Hand now costs 25 chips instead of 20
  
• Enchantresses now appear in Castles again, just not simultaneously with shops.
  
• All pets now scrap for 5 food.
  
• Changed the upgrade prices for Fire Gloves from 15/20/25 to 20/20/20.
  
• Book of Paralysis now has a limit of 3 uses per combat.
  
• Ring of More now costs 11 instead of 8.
  
• Challenge Runs now show 5 challenges instead of 3, to give you more choices.
  
• Fixed Vampire's energy tooltip. It now correctly says +2 energy per map move.
  
• Enflame/Freeze now show decay amounts on enemy items.
  
• Slightly tweaked the options for The Fool and Strange Device.
  
• New Loading Tips to help explain the game better.
  
• New, better looking Victory / Game Over / Mid-run status screens.
  
• We considered it, but the Mighty Titan is not changing (Sorry, Reto)
  
• Renamed the Ninja to "The Dodgy Ninja" to more accurately represent his play style.
  
• Several other minor bug and text fixes.

* IMPORTANT: The Daily Run is now called "Daily Bonus Run", and awards +150% XP.
* Increased the number of farms on all maps.
* Farms now cost 1 chip for 3 food instead of 5 chips for 5 food.
* Re-designed Bungling Burglar to make a bit more sense.
* Huntress's energy ability now costs 2 instead of 3.
* Enchantresses now very rarely appear in castles.
* Aegis items now have a limited number of uses per combat.
* Some new artwork.

* New hero! The Greedy Banker. He loves money and is good at making it.
* The button to "Abandon Run" now says "Fold The Run".
* Ninja's starting setup rebalanced.
* Bard now gets 3 energy per world map move, instead of 2.
* Titan now has 250 starting life, instead of 200.
* Time machine now costs 2 chips and has 1 use, instead of 7 chips for 2 uses.
* World maps should no longer be repeated (until you play about 6,000 runs or so).
* Gluttonmaw now steals a maximum of 4 food (instead of 8), and also gives you food if he explodes.
* Items with "30% repeat" no longer return cards when you cancel.
* Fixed a bug where using camping tents and similar things at campsites would disable options on you.
* Fixed a bug where multiple items of the same name didn't show up in the game summary.
* Fixed a bug where Next Enflame didn't stack during "Burnination".
* Fixed a bug where some World Modifiers were missing in Custom Runs.
* Fixed a bug where "Return" would override Charm.
* Fixed some Enflame issues with Revival (on Phoenix)
* Fixed a display issue with score from Hopping.
* Removed the confusing "Revealed Cards" option from Custom Runs.
* Vampire can no longer eat with the Z hotkey.
* Enemies can no longer accomplish the "Straight Flush" and similar achievements for you.
* Fixed a bug where the map appears inconsistent during encounters between nodes.
* Some minor UI improvements.
* New image artwork for some items and monsters.

Big balance & bugfix patch today!

Don't forget to leave a review on Steam (we don't have many): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1184820/Poker_Quest/

And enjoy the update!

Poker Quest v54 (August 2, 2021):
* Kraken (one of the World 3 Bosses) now has about 30% less life, to shorten the grueling endeavor that he can often become.
* Sudden Death now starts after round 100 on bosses, and the text reflects this correctly.
* Wizard towers now give you 5 energy for 1 chip, instead of 10 energy for 4 chips.
* Mines now provide 3 gems for 1 chip, instead of 6 gems for 5 chips.
* Reworked Gluttonmaw to have both items locked, instead of the confusing explosion that would never happen.
* Custom Runs now count for a little bit of XP progress (+3 per node), but you must spend at least 15 minutes playing the run. It is capped to 200 XP per run.
* Changed the Vampire's description text to more clearly reflect what is going on with her energy ability.
* End-of-game music is considered music (instead of sfx) now, so you can control the volume of it.
* Added a "Hide this forever" button for the referral XP Bonus link.
* Fixed some reloading exploits with traveling merchants.
* Added a button to the settings menu to delete your game and start from scratch.
* Made the Gluttony Achievement easier (and fixed it). It now requires you win a run having eaten 125 food.
* Custom runs no longer count towards Steam achievements (sorry...)
* Fixed various text for clarity.
* Added a satisfying shatter effect for when you unfreeze items.

UPDATE! Poker Quest v53 (July 26, 2021):

* NEW HERO! The Tortoise. He is very defensive.

* IMPORTANT: Reduced the amount of XP required for the later heroes. Some of you who have reached these later heroes may immediately unlock them when you start a new run.

* Fixed the text of "Bump" to say "Draw" instead of "Draw or steal"

* Fixed an issue where items like "Holy Mace" were turning into different items.

NOTE: The next time you gain XP, you may notice one or more heroes suddenly unlock. This is not a bug, and will only happen this update. Since we now have 18 available heroes, we re-balanced the XP curve to make it unlock heroes much more quickly.