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Emberward 1.0 Is Out Now!!

Sep 17

It's Finally Done!

I still remember the first day I opened up this new tower defense project. I thought to myself...this is my first indie game, so I should keep the scope under control and try to finish it in a few months. A year at most!

And, well...somehow it’s been almost 4 years now 😆.

Thank you so much for supporting the game throughout Early Access!

Especially those of you who have been here since the very first demo. When I first started making the game, I never imagined there would be such a big group of players willing to help test it, recommend it everywhere, and give me so many suggestions for improving the game with every update. Hundreds of Youtubers and streamers also introduced the game to even more people. Every one of you played a part in making Emberward what it is today, and I really appreciate all the help. I’ve heard plenty of players talk about Early Access games they regretted buying, so I tried really hard to make this feel more like I was steadily delivering everything planned while also adding new toys along the way. I hope you’re happy with both the Early Access journey and how the game has grown so far. And if you have any thoughts, please let me know!

As for the new fifth region, Void Depths...honestly, it was harder to make than the previous four regions COMBINED. Sealed Citadel was already designed to be the final area, so figuring out how to make something even more challenging without making it feel unfair burned a lot of my brain cells. But I think the final result is really fun! It adds lots of new mechanics and brings the focus back to what Emberward was all about: maze building. This time, simply using blocks to build walls won’t be enough. You’ll need to make good use of different mechanics and portals to strengthen your maze, and in some places you may even have to think outside the box to find the longest possible route for the monsters. I also finally got to add a few ideas that had been sitting in my head for a very long time. Anyway, you’ll see when you play it :P

By the way, a lot of people have also been asking about the plans after 1.0. I put that section at the very end of this post. (And if you don't want to read it: yes, the game will keep getting updates after 1.0!)

Lastly, since it's the 1.0 launch, I have to say: please keep recommending the game to friends, YouTubers, and streamers who might enjoy Emberward! Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what will happen after the 1.0 launch, and my biggest worry is that the game will just disappear off everyone’s radar right away 😆. Some players have suggested making a Supporter Pack, but... I genuinely don’t know what I could put in it. The game doesn’t have a soundtrack or an art book, and simply adding something like a “Golden Sniper Tower skin” feels kind of weird, so...yeah, I decided not to. Please just recommend the game to someone if you have the chance. That will help it far more than buying a Supporter Pack!

That’s all! Once again, thank you for all your support and help along the way!
I hope you enjoy everything new in 1.0!

- Refi

TL;DR for anyone who wants to get straight into the game:

New languages: Korean, French, German, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.
New area unlocked: Void Depths
15 new achievements
2 new towers: Volcano Tower and Sentry Tower.
Main menu background system + block skin system.
Improvements to the drawing tool and damage chart.
Lots of adjustments to towers, relics, and characters.
Added “Dopamine Mode” to the Settings menu.

Game Languages

New languages: Korean, French, German, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.
The game only checks your Steam language the first time you launch it, so if you’ve played before, remember to change the language in the Settings menu!

Adventure Mode

After making it through Sealed Citadel, you will enter a forgotten dungeon. Over the course of centuries, the dungeon has been slowly consumed by the Void. Mutated monsters roam everywhere, alongside crystals filled with mysterious energy. You’ll need to use the surrounding void zones, portals, and all kinds of support items borrowed from the Academy to organize your defenses, find the source of the corruption deep in the abyss, and defeat it!
New region: Void Depths
New flame: Void Flame (Unlocked after clearing Void Depths on Normal difficulty or higher)
Please note: Special Event Characters and Infernal Shards are both unlocked after completing the entire game. So if you unlocked them during Early Access, they will temporarily become unavailable now that the new area has been added. Clear Void Depths on any difficulty and they'll be available again!

Achievements

Added 15 achievements (Exactly 100 now!)
- Void Depths Traveler: Clear Void Depths on Casual difficulty or higher.
- Void Depths Explorer: Clear Void Depths on Normal difficulty or higher.
- Void Depths Pioneer: Clear Void Depths on Heroic difficulty.
- Void Depths Conqueror: Clear Void Depths on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 24 without using a Special Event Character.
- Gift Defender: Survive through wave 20 at Snowridge Outpost.
- Frontier Guardian: Survive through wave 20 at Wyrmfell Bridge.
- It’s Over 9000!: Complete a trial at Enigma Sanctum with a score of over 9000.
- Oathkeeper: On Heroic difficulty, make a pact with every element at the altar at the same time and successfully complete the pact.
- All In: On Heroic difficulty, defeat the Void Depths boss before the end of round 8.
- Mad Genius: Clear Void Depths on Heroic difficulty without using any talents.
- Monster Express: Send a total of more than 10,000 monsters through portals in Void Depths.
- The Big Five: On Normal difficulty or higher, clear a stage while the Volcano Tower, Froststorm Tower, Thunder Tower, Starfall Tower, and Cauldron Tower are all on the field at the same time.
- Abyssal Foodie: Enjoy the full Academy meal during an adventure in Void Depths.
- Thinking with Portals: Clear the Chaos Realm on Heroic difficulty using the Void Flame.
- Emberwarder: Without using an event character, clear the Misty Forest, Bone Desert, Frost Ruins, Sealed Citadel and Void Depths on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 24.

Game / System

Steam Trading Cards are now available!
- If you’ve already played for a while, you should find some retroactively awarded cards in your inventory!
- And... I know most people don’t collect these, but I spent a lot of time making them, so I wanted to show you 😆. Here’s the badge you get for completing the set!
Main menu background system
- You can now unlock main menu backgrounds by clearing each area or reaching enough waves on an Endless Mode map.
- There’s also a random option that displays a random unlocked background whenever you return to the main menu.
Block skin system
- You can now trade spare EXP for block skins.
  (You don’t need to unlock all the talents first to get the block skins, but it’s HIGHLY recommended that you do!)
- There are currently 12 new skins, and I’ll add more if people enjoy using them.
Ingame changes
- You can now press ESC to skip a boss intro cutscene (you must have already watched the animation or defeated that boss before).
- You can now use Q/E to rotate the camera.
- Drawing tool: You can now use \[Ctrl+Right Click] to erase part of a line, and \[Ctrl+Shift+Left Click] to draw grid-shaped lines.
- Damage chart
  - The damage chart button can now switch between “Show All Damage,” “Show This Round’s Damage,” and “Hide”.
  - In addition to tower damage, it now displays damage dealt by relics, the fire source, burning effects, and S.C.R.A.B.
Infernal Shards
- Shard of Fragility - Level 3: Now reduces HP to 3 (previously 1) and no longer prevents increases to maximum HP.
- Shard of Nightmares - Level 2: Werebeasts and Frost Elementals will no longer appear as large monsters from other worlds. This prevents unlucky runs from spawning too many monsters with large-area malfunction effects at once.
Dopamine Mode
- Added “Dopamine Mode” to the Settings menu. Defeated monsters will burst into a huge shower of (decorative) coins!

Towers

New towers
- Volcano Tower (3x3) - Fires multiple magma orbs at monsters in range! They explode on impact and have a high chance to apply burning.
- Sentry Tower (1x1) - Enters Alert Mode after going without attacking for a while, then greatly increases its attack speed when a monster appears.
Removed tower
- Basic Tower (it did a great job accompanying everyone through Early Access, but now it’s time to retire o7)

Tower balance changes
Here’s something I think is worth talking about!
During Early Access, players would sometimes message me and say, “Tower A has 50 DPS and Tower B has 40. Shouldn’t Tower B be buffed by 25%!?” That looks fair when you only look at the numbers, but the game has all kinds of combos. If every tower simply had the same DPS, they definitely wouldn’t be balanced in actual play. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to share how they are balanced in the game. It may not be the best way to achieve perfect balance, but I think it makes the game more fun!
Most towers are designed to have one or two things they’re especially good at. For example, the Sniper Tower can stay locked onto a large monster for a long time, while the Fireball Tower can deal area damage to many groups of monsters at once. So I mainly balance each tower around the way it can deliver its greatest value under normal circumstances. I also give it some extra adjustments depending on how difficult it is to achieve that ideal situation.

For example, towers with the following traits will be a little stronger than similar towers when used well:
- Towers with unusual attack ranges (close range, straight-line attacks, a minimum range...)
- Towers with unusual shapes
- Towers that need to work with other towers or effects to reach their full potential
On the other hand, a tower with the following traits will deal a little less damage than other towers of the same type:
- It works in almost any situation
- It has an especially powerful effect (like the Black Hole Tower)
- It doesn’t require much thought about where to build it or how to design the maze around it
The simplest example is the Missile Tower. It has an enormous range, covers 3 elements by itself, handles both single targets and groups, and can trigger some relics very effectively. Because of all that, its base numbers are a little lower than other similar towers. On the other hand, towers like the Lava Tower and Scythe Tower make you think carefully about your maze design or find ways to keep malfunction effects from interfering with them, so their base numbers are designed to be a little higher.
This round of tower changes follows the same rule. I’ve adjusted some especially strong or weak towers while trying to maintain what each one does best.
- Normal-type towers
  - Adjusted the Charge and Fragile applied by towers whose element was changed by the Chameleon Shell relic, bringing their values in line with other Lightning/Arcane towers.
- Torch Tower
  - Torch bounce chance: 40% → 50%
- Magic Arrow Tower
  - Cost: 15 → 20
- Laser Tower
  - Charge speed reduced by 20%
- Dice Tower
  - Range: 4 → 5
- Giant Dice Tower
  - Range: 4.5 → 5.5
- Drone Tower
  - Red upgrade: Detection range +50% → +100%
- Dart Tower
  - Range: 4 → 4.5
  - Attack speed: 1.25 → 1
- Earthquake Tower
  - Range: 4 → 5
  - Damage: 8 → 10
- Decimate Tower
  - Red upgrade: Damage +20 → +25
- Landmine Tower
  - Damage: 30 → 35
- Hammer Tower
  - Blue upgrade: Speed +40% → +30%
- Chomp Tower
  - Red upgrade: Damage +20 → +30
- Sniper Tower
  - Now has 50% base critical chance
  - Cost: 90 → 80
- Frost Ray Tower
  - Damage: 6 → 5
- Fan Tower
  - Range: 8 → 12
- Electro Gate Tower
  - Damage: 5 → 6
- Bomb Tower
  - Damage: 30 → 35
  - Red upgrade: Damage +15 → +20
- Poison Tower
  - Damage: 25 → 35
  - Blue upgrade cost: 50 → 40
- Slime Tower
  - Damage: 6 → 5
- Scrap Tower
  - Damage: 2 → 4
  - Ammo: 30 → 20
- Barrage Tower
  - Cost: 85 → 95
  - Bullets fired per second: 20 → 15
- Boulder Tower
  - Red upgrade: Boulders now roll along the monsters’ path instead of in the direction they were fired.

Relics

Old relics reworked
- Flash Freeze Device: When a monster first comes within 10 tiles of the fire source, immediately apply 7 stacks of Chill. While it remains in range, continuously apply 1 stack of Chill per second.
- Sacrificial Pact: When the fire source is attacked and its remaining HP falls below 5, consume this relic and immediately recover up to 10 HP.
- Chaos Transmuter: The number of towers transformed increases by 1 after each round.
- Ember Guardian: At the start of each stage, 5 buff tiles with random effects appear within the fire source’s attack range.
- Frost Venom: While a monster is poisoned, apply 1 stack of Chill per second.
- Explosive Demolition: When you sell a tower during battle, create an explosion that deals damage to nearby monsters equal to 10x the gold gained from the sale.
- Volatile Poison: Once every 5 seconds, when a poisoned monster is affected by Burn, it explodes, consuming half of its Poison and dealing twice that amount as Fire damage, split among monsters within 2.5 tiles. If the explosion hits another poisoned monster, it also triggers this effect.
- Giant Lizard Fang: While a monster is poisoned, it gains 1% Fragile per second, up to 20% (up to 5% for bosses). Fragile resets when Poison wears off.
- Lava Bucket: Dealing Fire damage has a chance to create a pool of lava on the ground, dealing damage equal to 3x the current round number per second to monsters that pass through it.
- Venom Satchel: Once every 5 seconds during battle, apply the “Poison Bottle” buff to a random tower on the field that does not already have a buff card effect.

Runes

New runes
- Mirror Rune: When you place a 1x1 tower on it, weaker copies appear on every other Mirror Rune.
- Precision Rune: Greatly increases a tower’s critical chance and critical damage.
- Upgrade Rune: Greatly reduces the cost of upgrades of the matching color.

Characters / Skills

Belloc the Pyroguard: No longer reduces the fire source’s starting HP.
Tana the Sorcerer: Buff cards gained by Tana will now appear more evenly, reducing the impact of extreme luck.
Chrono Traveler:
- The time limit is now 60 seconds for the first round and 15 seconds for later rounds.
- When Shard of Confusion is active, “Overcharge” now costs 3 gold.
Scrap Master
- Improved S.C.R.A.B.’s movement, making it easier to control in tight spaces.
- S.C.R.A.B.’s movement is no longer restricted by enemy territory.
Focus Fire skill: Now has a 5-second cooldown (previously once per round)

Other Changes

The final group of stages before a boss is now guaranteed to include either a Mini Shop or an Abandoned Forge as a clear reward.
(I saw some players suggest always placing a shop and workshop before the boss. But after testing it... knowing there would always be a shop to buy things at the end made choosing a shop earlier feel like a waste or even a punishment, which was kind of backwards. A Mini Shop/Abandoned Forge reward felt more balanced.)
The “Recover Save from Achievements” option in Settings can now also recover Estelle the Astromancer.
Added a “Show Highest Difficulty Record Only” option to the Compendium’s completion page
The Poison pact at the altar now also twists cards into strange shapes.
In Challenge Mode after clearing the game, monster speed increases are now capped at 30%, while HP growth has been increased from 25% to 30% per wave.
Clicking a tower now shows both its total damage and its damage for the current round.
When building a tower, a highlighted grid now appears underneath it so you can see its occupied tiles more clearly.
Improved the game’s UI rendering. The UI should now look clearer than in previous versions.
Improved stage loading speed. It should be a little bit faster than before!

So... What Comes After 1.0?

OK, let’s talk about what comes next!

A lot of people have been asking about this lately, so I thought it would be quicker to explain everything here at once.

During the first few days after 1.0, I’m guessing you’ll dig up all sorts of problems I never even imagined, so I’ll focus on fixing those first. Then, once things feel stable... I’m going to sleep for a week! I’ve been working 14–16 hours every day for the last three or four months, and honestly, I haven’t been feeling very well lately, so I'll take a short to recover first.

After that, I’ll go back to something similar to the old update schedule and continue making new towers, relics, and maps. I haven’t decided whether that would be frequent small updates or saving up more content for larger updates. At the same time, I’ll start working on the console ports, so I’ll probably split my work time about fifty-fifty between the two until all the console ports are finished. The biggest difference from before is that the game now has lots of languages I can’t read, so I can’t make quick changes and adjustments the way I used to. Every update or change now needs to go through the translators, which will have some impact on the workflow and update speed.

Once the console ports are all finished, the current plan is to look at how the game is doing and decide what comes next. If the game is growing steadily and has a lot of regular players, I’d like to try making a level editor so everyone can design their own stages (and I really want to know what it feels like to play brand new stages too!). But I expect a level editor would take at least 3 or 4 months to make. If I put that much time and energy into it and nobody uses it... that would be really sad, so I’ll only consider it if the game can maintain a certain level of activity. If fewer people are still playing, I’ll probably keep the same update schedule. And if the player count drops very quickly... I may have to start thinking about what game to make next 😆

So yeah, that’s roughly the plan for now.

In any case, the game won’t stop getting updates just because 1.0 is out, so don’t worry!

---

Post-Update Fixes:

(9/20)

Fixed an issue where enabling both "Auto Pause In Background" and "Stealth Mode" could cause switching windows to break hotkeys and block recall.

(9/21)

The Scythe Tower's attack effect now scales with its attack range.
Reduced the frequency of Spitopus's skill usage.
Adjusted character unlock requirements. Silas, Tiny, and Chunk are now slightly easier to unlock.
Fixed translation errors.
Fixed an issue where having multiple identical blocks could cause the wrong card to be selected when applying runes in the Workshop.
Fixed an issue where numbers on certain relic icons would not appear when entering the game.
Rapidly clicking on a character in the character selection screen will no longer cause them to grow larger. (Why would you even do that!?)

(9/22)

Added a small notification to the Drawing Tool.
Adjusted some item vfx.
Fixed an issue where the game would pause too early when entering a level in the background with "Auto Pause In Background" enabled.
Fixed an issue where Tiny could obtain blocks larger than three tiles under certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue in the Void Depths where some monsters could encounter pathfinding issues after teleporting.
Fixed an issue where pressing Ctrl+Shift+Right Click while using the Drawing Tool would clear the map.

(9/23)

More translation fixes.
Some minor UI fixes.
Fixed an issue cause by an old Unity plugin.
Fixed an issue where the "Block Harvester" achievement could unlock under incorrect conditions.
Fixed an issue in the Bone Desert boss stage where placing blocks too far forward could block the path as the stage progressed.
Fixed an issue where electricity could fail to conduct through Poison Towers or Electro Gate Towers under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue where blocks sinking into Void Zones could still display electrification effects when powered.
Fixed an issue where enemy information would display Infernal Shard enhancement descriptions when Infernal Shards were not enabled.
Fixed an issue in the Frost Ruins boss stage where the enemy information UI would not display correctly.
Fixed an issue where certain environmental objects could prevent hand card tooltips from appearing.
Fixed an issue where some error messages appears incorrectly while placing blocks.

(10/8)

Tana will now gain buff cards at the start of each turn while the Ice Pact from the Altar is active.
Fixed an issue where leaving the game mid-run could cause dishes to stop appearing in Academy chests. (for the Abyssal Foodie achievement)
Fixed an issue where the Snow Mountain block-freezing effect did not work properly in certain stages.
Fixed an issue where the percentage-based damage from the area effect triggered by destroying Poison Crystals had no damage cap.
Temporarily disabled the Voidstalker's teleport ability.

Emberward

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132

Emberward 1.0 Coming September 17!

Sep 2

Yup, it's decided. The 1.0 update is coming on September 17!

And... um...

...

Yeah, actually, that's all I need to say here. I've got TONS of stuff that needs to be finished in the next two weeks, so I'll keep this short and get back to work. 😆

By the way, the 1.0 version is currently in the testing phase. If you're interested in helping out with testing, feel free to join the Discord server[discord.gg] to get access to the playtest branch. Of course, you may run into all kinds of issues during testing, so if you just want to enjoy the new region and other content, I'd recommend waiting until 1.0 officially launches. Two weeks will go by really fast!

That's all. See you all at the 1.0 launch!

- Refi

Emberward

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Pricing Changes!

Jul 9

Hi everyone!

Although we just talked about what's coming in 1.0 recently, it didn't really hit me until I started writing this announcement. Emberward's Early Access is really almost over! I've been trying really hard to get everything done lately...I'm even dreaming about designing new levels. Hopefully I can wrap up 1.0 soon so I can get back to working on the more fun stuff, like new towers and relics 😆

(If you missed what's coming in 1.0, you can check out the previous post!)

Because of Steam's rules, after a game's price is changed, there's a one-month cooldown before it can go on sale. So I need to update the price to the full release price a little ahead of the update to make sure there can be a launch discount when 1.0 comes out.

So, Emberward's price will change from $14.99 USD to $19.99 USD on July 15! Regions with regional pricing will be adjusted accordingly as well.

And since this announcement happens to go out right before the Summer Sale ends (Yeah I totally forgot about this...), I've also extended the discount until July 15, so players who see this and want to pick up the game right now won't be sad to find that it's already back to full price.

As for the 1.0 release date, I'm hoping to get it out before the end of August, but there are still a lot of things I'm not totally sure about yet (like how long testing and translation will take). I'll share it once it's confirmed!

Thanks again, everyone, for supporting Emberward's development over the past two years. I'll do my best to get the new 1.0 content into your hands soon!

Refi

Emberward

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Dev Chat: What's Coming In 1.0?

Jun 13

It's been almost 2 months since the last update!

Recently I've been seeing more and more people ask when the next update is coming. (Someone even emailed me asking if I was sick) So I guess it's time to talk about what's coming in the 1.0 launch!

When Early Access first started, my plan was pretty simple: just steadily finish all 4 regions, make all the towers and relics I had planned, fix the bugs, and the game should be ready for 1.0! Surely that would only take about a year...right? But once I actually started working on it, I realized things were completely different from what I had imagined. Players often suggested ideas or gave feedback to improve the game, and I'd also keep thinking of things I wanted to add myself. In the end, a whole bunch of things that I had never originally planned ended up being added to the game 😆. Endless Mode was originally going to be much simpler. Infernal Shards were only decided later, and Special Event Characters, holiday events, and the Enigma Sanctum were all things I suddenly thought of. (...And that's how Early Access somehow stretched into two years.)

Since I started planning 1.0 a few months ago, I've been struggling with what exactly should be added in the 1.0 update. I've seen some games where the 1.0 update is about the same as a regular update, but I feel like people still expect to see something new and exciting? But if I spend too much time preparing for 1.0, I'm also really worried that by the time I finish it, everyone will have already lost interest. After thinking about it for a long time, I feel that...the reason Emberward has been able to grow into what it is now is because so many players have supported it. So for 1.0, I want even long-time players who have already played a lot to still have something new to enjoy. If someone has supported the game for a long time, but then when the full release finally arrives, they feel like there's nothing to do because they've already played everything...that just doesn't feel right.

So yeah, as I mentioned in the last update, because there are now tons of things I need to finish, I've recently been putting all of my development time into 1.0! There won't be any other small updates before the full release. Right now, it looks like it'll still need at least two more months, so please wait a little longer! After the new content is done, I'll look for some players on Discord to help test it. So if you're interested in helping out, or if you really want to play it as soon as possible, feel free to join the server, and you'll get a notification later!

As for what's coming in 1.0...

(If you don't want spoilers, don't scroll down!)

↓

The fifth region!

In this new region, you'll step into a dungeon that has been corroded by void energy. It's filled with strange creatures, energy crystals, and void-covered areas spread across the map.

Oh, and portals. Lots of portals!

The main focus of this area is giving you more ways to change the monsters' paths.

In places covered by the void, you can freely place your blocks, and the blocks will sink down and become new ground. You can place blocks on top of them, or use them to change the route monsters take. By combining wall blocks, void areas, and portals, you can make a really complex maze! Of course, this mechanic gets more complicated in later stages, but...I'll just let you experience it yourselves when you get there 😈

(And yeah, there will be a new boss stage too!)

Title Screen Backgrounds

Besides the new area, there are also some features I had already planned to add in 1.0.

I've always really liked games where, after you defeat the final boss, you return to the main menu and see a new background reflecting what you've just achieved. Then one day I suddenly thought... Emberward has a boss stage for every region. Why not just do that for every region!?

So it became one of the must-have features for 1.0 😆

After you clear each area, you'll unlock its background, and the main menu background will change along with it. You can freely switch to any background you've unlocked, or set it to randomly pick one whenever you return to the main menu. Also, the previous Endless Mode event maps will have their own backgrounds too, which can be unlocked after clearing wave 20.

Block Skins

1.0 will also add some block skins that can be exchanged using EXP! During Early Access, I wasn't sure if I would add more features that used EXP later on, so even after players maxed out all their talents, they would still keep gaining EXP. But now I'm pretty sure that part won't be expanded much more, so I added this feature to give everyone somewhere to spend their extra EXP.

That said, I also don't want new players to feel like they need to waste time grinding EXP just to get skins, so the costs probably won't be set too high. (If you already have tens of thousands of EXP... you probably still won't be able to spend it all 😆)

Tower and Relic Reworks

Since this game has been in development for...more than 3 years now, some of the towers and relics designed early on don't quite fit the design direction of the later content, so they'll need some adjustments. However, this part is relatively lower priority. I'll see how much time is left after finishing the new area, and start with the more important ones first.

New Runes

Yeah, new runes are finally coming! This might be the only system that hasn't been touched during Early Access 😆

I noticed that when choosing runes, most players usually decide based on the numbers. If there's an elemental rune, they go for the element rune. If not, they take an attack boost. So I want to try adding some more utility runes. For example, the Mirror Rune below might not be the strongest in terms of raw numbers, but it can help you quickly set up early defenses, or give extra boosts to certain relics and towers. Some older runes will also get adjustments to make them easier to use.

New Achievements

With the new area coming, there will of course be new achievements too! I haven't decided on the final number yet, but my goal is to have at least 100 achievements in total.

Alright, that's about it for now!

Making this new area is already pretty complicated on its own, and since the game now has all kinds of different systems, I also need to make the corresponding Infernal Shard content, a new flame, achievements, and more at the same time. So the workload is huge! I'll try to finish it as soon as I can. Please be patient with me, and help me share the game with more players!

If there's anything you want to know about 1.0, feel free to leave a comment below! I'll also be sharing development progress for the new area from time to time on Twitter/X or Discord.

- Refi

Emberward

1,012

Game Update! (v0.4.12)

Apr 16

New update!

Another month just flew by!

In this patch, there are some big changes to Endless Mode. Previously, Endless Mode had random anomaly effects to ramp up the difficulty, so you had to adjust your strategy, towers, and relics around them. But from player feedback, a lot of people mentioned that those restrictive effects didn't feel great to play with. So this time I decided to try a different direction (...the exact opposite direction) and added powerful positive effects instead! Honestly, I think having both positive and negative effects could lead to more interesting strategy, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on a buffs-only version first. Let me know what you think after you try it!

After this update, I've decided to start focusing on 1.0! I've already been slowly working toward it over the past few months, but trying to keep regular updates going while also building all the features needed for 1.0 has made the development process a lot more complicated. So I'm going to focus on it fully for a while! This way I don't have to worry about updates going wrong, and I can have more time to work on new stuff. Since there's a lot to get through, there might not be any more updates before 1.0 releases. Just wanted to give you a heads-up in case anyone's worried. I'll make another post later and show you some of the progress!

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy this update!

(btw, I mentioned reworking old relics and towers last time, but it turned out to be a lot more work than expected, and I also had some new ideas I wanted to try first, so they're not in this update. Likely coming with 1.0 instead!)

- Refi

New Features

Endless Mode

Endless Mode now unlocks once Misty Forest has been cleared on any difficulty. However, which maps you can play still depends on the player's progress.
- For example, if a player has only cleared Misty Forest, but today's Daily Challenge rolls a map from another region, they will not be able to enter it.
- The event maps have also been slightly adjusted. Misty Graveyard now unlocks after clearing the third region. Wyrmfell Bridge and Snowridge Outpost still require clearing the fourth region to unlock, since they use monsters and mechanics from the fourth region.

New Endless Mode mechanic: Blessings
- Each Endless Mode run now comes with blessing effects. These effects provide extremely powerful bonuses, so you'll need to think carefully about how to use them to build better defenses.
- A few examples:
  - Blessing of fate: Start with 99 Gambler's Tokens.
  - Blessing of Death: Every 3 Block cards discarded grants you a forbidden card that instantly kills a monster.
  - Blessing of Wisdom: The first card you play each round will have a copy of it returned to your hand.
- Daily / Weekly Challenges now come with 3 blessing effects.
Joker and Scrap Master can now be used in Endless Mode!
The "Random Endless Mode" option has been removed.
Added "Custom Game"
- You can choose any map from regions you have already cleared. (Currently 80 maps!)
- You can choose up to five blessing effects.

Other Game Adjustments

Added multiple save slots. You can now switch between three save files.
- Since many people requested this feature for playing together with family members, there is no delete button on the save slot switching UI to avoid...tragic accidents (yup, been there). If you want to reset your save, the option is still at the very bottom of the settings page!
Added new options to the settings page:
- Pause When in Background: The game will automatically pause when you switch to another window.
- Idle Auto Pause: If there is no input for over 30 seconds, the game will automatically pause within the 30 seconds before battle begins.
Infernal Shards: After unlocking Tier 2 and Tier 3 shards at higher difficulties, they will now also be unlocked in lower difficulties.

The maximum game speed has been increased by 50%.
(Still testing! If this causes any issues, it may be changed back to the previous speed!)
Quests that ask you to "build X of a certain 1x1 tower" will no longer select Scrap Tower.
Towers
- The balloons from Balloon Tower now become semi-transparent while the player is building, so they no longer block your view.
- Fortress Towers can now also transmit electricity.
- Adjusted the visual effects of Chainball Tower and Frost Tower.
When multiple players are tied on the leaderboard, ranking is now determined by total monsters killed. (Previously, Steam automatically sorted tied players by player ID.)
Slightly improved game startup speed.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue with the sound effect when clicking on Bone Walls.
Fixed an issue in Sealed Citadel where the displayed attack range of some Ancient Defense Towers was incorrect.
Fixed an issue in Custom Game where clearing the stage could get stuck when all relics had been obtained.
Fixed an issue where quests could not be selected after obtaining all towers.

Post-launch update

\[2026/5/2]

Fixed an issue where auto-pause could also be triggered while opening a treasure chest.
Fixed an issue in Custom Endless Mode where players' highest records for each map sometimes failed to save.
Fixed an issue where discarding the rightmost card could cause an error when using a controller.
Updated the images displayed for certain maps in Custom Endless Mode.

\[2026/5/10]

Fixed an issue that could cause the difficulty of an ongoing game to change to Normal.
Fixed an issue where the relic "Explosive Demolition" did not correctly remove tower when its effect was triggered.

\[2026/5/25]

Fixed an issue where when playing as Estelle the Astromancer, the Block cards granted by Maze Blessing in Endless Mode did not have Astral Runes.
Fixed an issue in Endless Mode where players could get "Anarchy Core" relic from effects that grant a random relic.

\[2026/6/23]

Fixed an issue where the button prompt UI would not appear.

Emberward

541

Game Update! (v0.4.11)

Mar 9

New Update!

Not sure if you noticed, but this week is Steam's Tower Defense Fest! The event is meant to help people discover more tower defense games, but it got me thinking... if it's a tower defense fest, maybe I could make something that fits the tower defense theme?

Then I remembered something I've seen quite a few times in the feedback form. Many players said that after playing Emberward, it reminded them of the old days playing WC3 or SC2 custom games. For a lot of people, that was their introduction to tower defense games (yeah, same for me). And since the last update added the Fort Tower, I thought...why not take this chance to revisit that style a bit?

In the new event map, you won't use any blocks to build your maze. Instead, we're going back to the classic approach - using Fort Towers to change the monsters' path. You'll also get 7 additional 2×2 towers, and you can use the Fort Tower's red upgrades to strengthen your defense depending on the situation. Although without blocks it doesn't really feel like Emberward, I think old TD players might find it pretty nostalgic. At least I had a lot of fun playing it 😆

This update also adds two "Endless Modes" that people have been asking for for a long time. I remember when Emberward first launched, I was pretty confused by all the different requests for endless modes. Some people wanted a separate endless mode, some wanted to keep building on the same map after clearing it, and others wanted to keep playing after defeating the boss…

Well, after this update, all three types of endless modes are now in the game!

For the next update, I'm planning to adjust some older towers and relic effects, and add the remaining features I'd like to finish before 1.0, such as custom games for Endless Mode, and some changes based on feedback. After that, it'll probably be time to focus on preparing for the 1.0 release, including translations for other languages and all the other things that need to be ready before launch.

That's all. Hope you enjoy this update!

- Refi

New Features

Endless Mode

New event map: Wyrmfell Bridge
- In this resource‑starved frontier you’ll have to protect your flame the traditional way.
- On Wyrmfell Bridge, you won't get any block cards. Instead, you use Fort Towers to redirect the monsters' path.
- At the start of the game, you'll have Fort Tower and seven other 2x2 towers. Use the Fort Tower's red upgrade to strengthen your defenses!
- Same as other event maps, this map will not be removed after Tower Defense Fest ends, so don't worry if you haven't unlocked it!

Another Endless Mode

In Campaign Mode, after clearing a level you can press the "More Challenges!" button to continue fighting waves on that level.
In these extra waves the monsters' strength quickly ramps up. Their health and speed will gradually increase, while the gold they drop will gradually decrease.
If a monster reaches your fire source, it won't cause damage, but the challenge immediately ends and you proceed to the next level.
These optional challenges don't grant any exp points.
You can end the challenge any time from the pause menu and continue to the next level.
(I guess some of you might ask why this doesn't give exp points or other rewards, so...let me explain!
This feature was added because many players mentioned that sometimes a level ends right when they feel like they've built a pretty good defense. They wanted to keep playing to test how good their defense really is.
But if the extra challenge also gave additional rewards, players who just want to play normally might feel like they're missing out if they don't do the extra waves. Feeling forced to do optional content can really hurt the overall experience, so that's why these kinds of optional challenges won't give exp points or other rewards.)

And...MORE Endless Mode

In Campaign Mode, after defeating the final Boss level you can press the "More Levels!" button to continue your adventure.
Each level you advance increases overall difficulty by 15%, but since resources are limited at the start of each stage, enemy strength scales with wave number rather than being an instant 15% boost.
For example:
- On the first challenge level after the Boss, the first wave has no difference (+0%), but by the final wave enemy HP increases by +15%.
- On the second challenge level, the first wave is still +0%, but the final wave is +30%.

Other Game Adjustments

New level reward: Abandoned Forge
- Similar to how the "Shop" relates to the "Mini Shop", the Abandoned Forge lets you perform Workshop's modifications.
- You can modify, remove and enhance block cards just like in the workshop. However, the forge's energy is limited and can only be used twice before it goes out.
Workshop/Abandoned Forge Ember Stone cost adjustments
- Removing a card now costs 15 Ember Stones (up from 10).
- Adding a rune now costs 20 Ember Stones (up from 15).
Two new Compendium pages:
- Completion Records: Displays each character’s completion progress for every difficulty and stage in Campaign Mode.
  (Honestly, I'm a bit worried some people will see this feature and then feel like they have to grind out 24 shards on every character and every map, end up burning themselves out...But a lot of players wanted this feature, so I added it anyway. It's just a record-tracking feature. Please don't feel like you have to force yourself to fill it all up!!)
- Game Records: Shows up to the last 20 games you've played. (Because of new data added with this update, only games completed after this patch will appear here.)
Sealed Citadel:
- Corrupt Elementals no longer create Corrupted Tiles while moving, and the number of Corrupted Tiles created upon death has been reduced.
- Reduced the Corrupted TIles created by Corrupted Altar each round.
- New Ancient Machine - Purification Potion Mixer
  - Once activated, at the start of each turn you gain a "Purification Potion" card that instantly removes all Corrupted Tiles in its area.
  (I saw some feedback saying that corruption in the Sealed Citadel was too difficult to deal with, so this ancient machine has been added to give you more ways to handle corruption! This ancient machine will appear in all levels with corruption-spreading effects. (except the boss level)

Post-Patch Updates

Fix an issue where Random Endless Mode could pick event maps.

Emberward

546

Game Update! (v0.4.10)

Feb 12

New Update!

Finally!! The feature that's been stressing me out the most is done!

This update…I'd say about 90% of the time went into controller support. Since Emberward's demo launch, a lot of players have been asking about it. But if every time I add something new I also have to make sure controller support works perfectly, it would make development way more time-consuming and harder to iterate on quickly. So I decided to wait until we're closer to 1.0 and handle it all at once.

Which means…after two years of stacking up hundreds of UI elements and game objects, it basically turned into development hell 💀. But I'm really happy I was able to keep my promise and add it to the game! This is my first time implementing full controller support. I've looked at how a bunch of other games handle it, but I'm sure there are still things I missed or weird edge cases I didn't think of. So if you try it out and run into anything strange, or have suggestions, please leave a comment below.

This update also adds five new towers. Originally, I planned to save them for the next patch, but it felt weird to release an update that only added controller support. So I spent a bit more time adding something new to play with. I've seen some feedback from players asking for more ways to deal with fast enemies, so part of the new tower mechanics this time are related to enemy movement speed. You might need to think more carefully about your maze layout and enemy paths when using them, but if used well, they can be really effective against fast monsters!

That's all! Hope you enjoy the update!

- Refi

New Features

Controller support

A reminder: if you previously adjusted your Steam settings to play on Steam Deck, you may need to restore them to the default configuration.

Towers

Added 5 new towers!
- Dynamite Tower (1×1): Throws explosives that stick to monsters and deal increasing damage as the targets move.
- Ballista Tower (2×2): Has a VERY long range, and the damage of its giant bolts grows with flight distance.
- Balloon Tower (2×2): Releases homing balloons that chase enemies and explode on impact.
- Fort Tower (2×2): Built on a reinforced base, this tower can be placed without a block and is immune to Malfunction effects.
- Electro Gate Tower (1×5): Uses a powerful electric field to continuously attack passing monsters.

Game adjustments

Save system changes
- Playing in Endless Mode or the Enigma Sanctum no longer interrupts your progress in the campaign mode. (Which means you can play the Daily Challenges without worrying about losing your map progress!)

Frost Ruins mechanics
- The "Sliding Ice Block" mechanic has been removed.
  Although I really liked this mechanic, it didn’t have enough impact on players’ tactical decisions, so it has been removed for now until I find a better way to improve it.
- New mechanic: Frozen Treasures: In some levels, you can find treasures hidden inside ice blocks. You can break the ice with towers to retrieve them. (sometimes they even open new paths!)

Hotkey changes
- The game speed controls are now [c]\[Space][/c], [c]\[Z][/c], [c]\[X][/c] and [c]\[C][/c].
- Pressing Space toggles between 0.5x and normal speed.
- Character skills are now activated with [c]\[R][/c], [c]\[F][/c] and [c]\[V][/c].
  Based on player feedback that Ctrl+1/2/3 was difficult to use, I updated the hotkeys while working on controller support. They should now be easier to use while keeping your left hand on WASD.
Added a new option in the settings: Show Maximum Path Length. This displays the longest path length in the lower-left corner of the screen and should be helpful for some achievements!
Added a new keyword: Vulnerable, to indicate effects where monsters take an additional X% damage for X seconds.

Bug fixes

Fixed an issue that caused pathfinding problems when Blackhole Tower and Stun effects were triggered at the same time.

Fixed an issue where the Chaos Transmuter selected the wrong tower to transform in Endless Mode.
Fixed a path‑blocking issue that could occur when upgrading towers.
Fixed an issue where “Build X Towers” quests could select towers with build limits.
Fixed an issue where copied character skill buffs would consume usage counts while having Echo Crystal.
Fixed an issue where Scrap Master might not receive full experience or level up properly at the end of a stage.
Fixed an issue where Skeletons summoned by the Necromancer could ignore walls and spawn on the other side.
Fixed an issue where the "Mute In Background" option would not persist when switching scenes.

Emberward

560

Game Update! (v0.4.9)

Dec 18, 2025

New Update!

2025 is almost over! ☃️

I was reading through some old patch notes yesterday and suddenly realized that around this time last year…I hadn't even started working on Sealed Citadel yet!? This whole year has felt like it flew by, but looking back at the logs, it's actually been pretty packed. All of a sudden, we've got the Sealed Citadel, Infernal Shards, a bunch of new characters, towers, relics, and tons of stuff that wasn't even in the original plan. So really, thank you all for the support and feedback throughout the year! Thanks to so many of you playing and supporting the game, I've been able to keep expanding Emberward. (Sometimes I feel I'm working on a live service game 😆)

With the holidays coming up, I made an extra new event map for this update. Like the Misty Graveyard, this one is also a themed Endless Mode map with its own mechanic! On top of that, I kept filling in features that were planned before 1.0, like Custom Games, and reworks for Altar and Quests. I'm really curious how you all feel about the new endless map, do you want more maps like this or prefer modes like Daily Challenges? Let me know what you think after you try it!

For the next update, I'll be spending more time on some background stuff, like controller support and adding more languages (probably won't be finished in just one update though). Since they're quite complex to implement and there's a lot more IRL stuff at the end of the year, the next update might come a bit later than usual. I'll keep you updated if there's any news.

That's all! Hope you enjoy the new map and happy holidays! ✨

- Refi

New Features

Endless Mode

New event map: Snowridge Outpost!
While the adventurers celebrate the holiday, the monsters are attacking! So...let's exchange gifts and defend at the same time!?
- In Snowridge Outpost, you receive gifts from other characters each round to aid your defense.
- For example, Chunk gives you Mega Rune blocks, and Silas's gifts are packed with coins.
- Although it's a holiday event, this map will not be removed after the holiday ends, so don't worry if you haven't unlocked it yet!
- The achievement for this map will be added later (possibly 1.0). The game tracks your best record, so if you meet the requirements, the achievement will unlock automatically once it is added.
A new Random Challenge mode has been added to Endless Mode. Each time you enter it randomly chooses a map and anomaly effects.

Custom Game (in Campaign Mode)

Within each difficulty, the Custom Game option appears after all four regions have been cleared.
In a Custom Game, the Academy does not appear at the beginning. Instead you enter the Secret Vault.
Inside the Secret Vault you may freely select the towers (up to 8), blocks and relics you want to use. You can only choose the towers and relics that you have previously built or used.
Using a Custom Game will not record any data for that run, nor will it unlock achievements or award experience points.

Map

New node: Campsite
- The Altar node will no longer appear on the map and has been replaced by the Campsite.
- At a campsite there are three options:
- Supply Station: Purchase supplies to restore your fire source's energy.
- Circus: Spin a wheel to get new towers or relics!
- Altar (...3.0):
  - You can sign pacts with the elemental altars and take on a challenge in the next stage. Succeed and you'll receive a powerful relic.
  - Each pact gives you different restrictions. For example, the Ice pact makes you unable to build towers during battle, while the Electric pact makes you unable to see the monsters' path.
  - There is no limit to the number of pacts you can get at once. If you're confident you can take all five (…but you really might lose).
    Let me know what you think after you've tried the new altar! If many players enjoy this high‑risk/high‑reward mechanic I may expand the challenge types more.
Quest adjustments
- Removed restriction‑type quests, such as "Do not build towers during battle".
- Added some new quests.
  Many people mentioned in feedback that some quests could fail just because you forgot about them, which feels bad. I tried several approaches (such as adding confirmation windows or more notifications) but...none of them felt right, so I decided to handle it together with the altar adjustments. Now the quests will ask you to reach a certain goal, and will no longer contain requirements like "don't do something in the game".

Relics

Added 5 new relics. These relics can only be obtained at the altar.

Game Adjustments

Elemental Effects

Charge effect adjustment
- Now each electric tower accumulates charge at a different rate when hitting monsters.
- The amount of Charge required to trigger the effect depends on the monster's size. The larger the monster, the more Charge is needed.
- Some electric towers and relic effects have been adjusted:
  - Lightning Conductor: When your electric towers hit an enemy, there is a 5% chance to release a chain lightning that hits up to 5 monsters, dealing 10 electric damage and applying 10 Charge.
    (It is still more of an early game relic, but it now has the ability to apply charge to many monsters so that it remains useful in the mid and late game.)
  - Static Shocker: When a monster's Charge effect is triggered, it also takes electric damage equal to 5% of its current HP (1.5% for bosses), up to 500 damage. This effect can only trigger once per 5 second on each monster.
    (Because Charge now triggers more often, the damage dealt each time has been lowered.)
  - Amplify Poison: When a poisoned monster takes electric damage, the poison tick rate will be doubled for 3 seconds. When an electric tower hits a poisoned monster, there is a 50% chance to apply double Charge.
  - Overcharged Battery: When a monster's Charge effect is triggered, 10% of the accumulated Charge is evenly distributed to all monsters within 2 tiles.
  - Thunder Tower (blue upgrade): Deals an additional 250 Charge, divided evenly among all monsters struck.

Monsters

Monster resistance system
- With recent updates adding many towers with crowd‑control effects, some combinations can produce extremely strong (or even invincible) control capability. Therefore monsters now have a resistance system.
- Control effects such as stun, knockback, black hole accumulate a quickly decaying crowd‑control value. When this value becomes too high, the control effects applied to the monster will be reduced accordingly.
- Under normal circumstances you shouldn't really feel the resistance system working. Only when a monster continuously receives a large amount of control effects will it gradually reduce their effectiveness, to prevent monsters from staying permanently immobilized.

Other Changes/Optimizations

When selecting the regions to start a run, you can now see your clear record for that difficulty/stage as well as your highest Infernal Shard record.
Scrap Tank Tower: When upgrading a Scrap Tank, a tooltip will now appear above it, making it easier for players to see the current level of the upgrade and what kind of upgrade the selected tower will provide.
When you gain extra cards in the game (for example from opening a chest), you will no longer fail to obtain the card because of the hand size limit, but you still cannot draw cards once you exceed the limit.
Some optimizations have been made to monsters and scene objects, which may slightly improve performance on low-end PCs.
The damage meter UI now remembers its toggle state. If it’s turned on, it will automatically be enabled at the start of the next game.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where the red-upgraded Starfall Tower’s attacks did not target priority enemies.
Fixed an issue where the Axe Tower (and other similar towers) would sometimes fail to attack Ancient Defense Towers.
Fixed path issues on several maps
Fixed an issue where the tower build costs were not increased for Tana in Endless Mode.

Post-Patch Updates

Fixed an issue where the Scrap Tank Tower received incorrect values when upgraded.
Fixed some translation issues.
Fixed an issue in Custom Games where towers with build limits could not be selected at the start of the game.
Fixed an issue where Overcharged Battery could cause a crash under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue where the effect of Horror Mask did not move along with a tower when applied to a moving tower.
Fixed an issue where quests that require "Build X towers of a certain type" could count incorrectly in some situations.
Fixed an issue where Focused Fire caused towers to attack monsters outside their vision range in Darkness stages.
Fixed an issue where towers taunted by the Tanky Bot would attack the Tanky Bot when it's outside the vision range.
Fixed an issue where the Focused Fire effect was sometimes not correctly removed after the target died.
Fixed some UI display issues on wide-screen and 4:3 resolutions.
Added an option to hide completed achievements in the Compendium's Achievements page. This option will not appear if you have unlocked no achievements or if all achievements are already unlocked.

Emberward

379

Game Update! (v0.4.8)

Nov 15, 2025

New Update!

So…this update ended up being nothing like what I originally planned! °∀°

I've always felt that Emberward has one big issue that's really hard to solve: whether you play Roguelite Mode or Endless Mode, a full run takes a loooong time to finish. But TD games are naturally time-consuming, and when you add maze-building on top of that, the thinking time makes the game even longer. It's kind of a built-in limitation of the genre, so it's very difficult to find a fix for it.

But a few days after the last update, Youtube randomly showed me a video about chess endgame puzzles (…I don't even play chess, no idea why it showed up but it was interesting). And it made me think: Is there a way to create a faster game mode using a puzzle-like structure?

So I spent some time messing around with the idea, and it ended up being pretty fun and felt like it had a lot of potential! That's why I decided to add this totally unplanned new mode.

Basically, unlike the other modes where you gradually scale up your power, this one gives you a limited set of towers, blocks and resources right away. (More like a puzzle instead of a roguelite) Your only goal is to squeeze out the absolute best defence you can from that fixed set and survive as long as possible in each wave. Since every player gets the exact same setup, the leaderboard becomes a much clearer reflection of actual skill. It's great for players who love optimizing and pushing limits, or people who don't have much time to play.

Anyway, just go try it out and let me know what you think! I'll be checking everyone's feedback to see if I should spend more time expanding this mode or not.

- Refi

New Features

Game Mode

New Game Mode: Enigma Sanctum!
A sacred domain built within the academy. Conducting endless simulations for the one flawless strategy.
- This mode includes Daily Challenge, Weekly Challenge and Random Challenge.
- In Daily and Weekly Challenges, all players face the same stages and are given the same towers and cards.
- Each game consists of three rounds. At the start of every round you receive a new set of towers and cards and must maximize the defence using this loadout.
- Once battle begins, monsters spawn continuously until one of them reaches the Fire Source, then the battle stops and the next round begins.
- Killing monsters awards points, and the leaderboard is ranked by your total score.
- Since the rules are very different here, only Feri, Chunk and Tana are available in this mode.

Talents

Added the final talent: Royal Emblem
- At the start of each adventure, you can pick the cards you want from the Royal Library!
- To keep the rules simple, the Academy's unlimited reroll mechanic has been removed. (Edit: It's back)

Game Adjustments

Elemental Effects

Arcane element rework
- Arcane towers now apply Fragile to hit monsters, increasing their chance of taking critical hits.
- Different towers apply different amounts of Fragile. (Bigger, slower or close‑range towers apply more per hit.)
- Fragile gradually decays over time.
- The Arcane Missile Tower keeps its original effect (always critically hit against enemies with more than 80 % HP)
- Relic Forbidden Grimoire reworked: applying Fragile to monsters below 40 % HP has double effect, and Fragile decays at half speed on monsters below 20 % HP.

Leaderboard

You can now see screenshots of other players' final configurations on the leaderboard.
Because data from old versions and pirated games were affecting the leaderboards, leaderboards are no longer shared across versions.
(Which means all leaderboards will reset with each update.)

Tower Adjustments

Laser Tower: Charging speed reduced and energy decays faster, but decay only begins after it has not attacked for one second.
The Laser Tower is currently too powerful. It's intended to be a 1×1 tower with higher damage but has a clear weakness. So rather than changing its damage values, I want to first try to make its weak points more obvious.
Portal Tower: Now displays how many monsters it has teleported in the tooltip.
Thunder Tower: The red upgrade now instantly applies 100 % Fragile, divided evenly among all hit monsters.
Magic Arrow Tower: Damage increased from 12 to 15.
Axe Tower: Damage increased from 12 to 14.
Froststorm Tower: Range reduced from 11 to 7.5.
Flamethrower Tower: Damage tick rate changed from 2.5 to 2.
Scythe Tower: Damage increased from 15 to 18.
Hammer Tower: Damage increased from 60 to 65.
Slime Tower: Damage increased from 5 to 6.
Torch Tower: Bounce chance increased from 30 % to 40 %.
Cauldron Tower: Range increased from 7 to 8.
Chainball Tower: Red upgrade damage bonus increased from +20 to +30.
Dart Tower: Attack speed increased from 1 to 1.25.

Other changes

Added a new option in the settings to automatically build towers continuously without holding Shift key.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where leaving the game at the moment of defeat would cause the game to freeze.
Fixed an issue in Endless Mode where opening a chest and receiving a new reward at the same time would cause the game to freeze.
Fixed an issue with Tana where upgrade card effects copied by Echo Crystal were temporary.
Fixed an issue where the Smithing Mask increased the attack speed of the Black Hole Tower.

Post-Patch Updates

Fixed an issue where in certain situations, Chain Ball Tower's attacks could pass through other towers.
(Experimental change) Enigma Sanctum now gives player an additional rune-less 1x4 block card and 2x2 block card each wave.
I checked the leaderboard yesterday and looked through a lot of screenshots. It seems that having a few more block cards could make strategies more flexible. We'll see how it works!
In the Royal Library, players can now choose relics with tower-type restrictions if they have chosen the towers needed in the first step. (For example, if you have chosen Dice Tower, you can choose get the Elemental Dice relic.)
Fixed a bug where the Spawn Camping achievement could be completed in Enigma Sanctum.

Emberward

585

Game Update! (v0.4.7)

Oct 17, 2025

New Update!

Another step towards 1.0! This update fixes several issues I've been wanting to solve for a long time.

After finishing the achievement system, most of the major planned features are done. But since the game's been in development for over two years now (!!), some of the early designs don't quite fit anymore as things have evolved. So this update, besides adding more new stuff, also focuses on reworking those parts to better suit the current state of the game. I've finished the last normal character, made some pretty big changes to how flame works, and added a bunch of new relics!

By the way, a lot of players have been asking lately why more languages haven't been added yet. There are still a ton of adjustments happening (as you can see from this update…) each patch. If I add new languages now, every small tweak would mean re-translating, re-importing, adjusting the layout, and proofreading again...which eats up a LOT of time. So to keep development moving as fast as possible, I want to finish all these adjustments first before adding new languages. Probably after two or three smaller updates, once things are mostly finished, I'll start adding more languages in batches!

The next update will be similar to this one. Wrapping up planned content and reworking some older systems. Right now, I'm planning to adjust the quest system, rework the altar, and make some tweaks to certain characters.

That's all for now! Let me know what you think after trying out the new character. I'm also really curious to see how many achievements you've all unlocked too, so feel free to brag in the comments 😆

- Refi

New Features

New character:

Estelle the Astromancer
Unlock requirement: Collect 40 types of towers in the Compendium.
Two new achievements exclusive to this character are also available.

New relics:

10 new relics have been added!

Echo Crystal: When you apply a buff card to a tower, it also applies the same effect to another tower within 5 tiles that does not already have a buff card.
Cursed Tarot: For each card in your hand, monsters have an extra 2% chance to be critically hit (1% for Bosses).
Enchanted Quill: At the start of each round, up to three Block Cards in your hand are transformed into Blocks with one additional tile, up to a maximum of 5 tiles.
Rapid Cooling System: When a tower kills an enemy, there is a 20% chance to reset its firing cooldown, allowing it to shoot again immediately.
Smithing Mask: The last tower you upgraded gains +30% damage, +30% attack speed, and +30% critical rate.
Ancient War Flag: Killing a large monster grants towers within 5 tiles +50% attack speed for 5 seconds.
Gigantic Roasted Ham: Monsters that enter the fire source's attack range are drawn by its irresistible aroma. Their movement speed increases by 15%, but their chance of receiving critical hits is increased by 50%. Does not affect bosses.
Antique Golden Bell: Once every 10 seconds during battle, the bell's chime stuns all enemies on the field for 1.5 seconds. (Does not affect bosses.)
Stargazer's Journal: At the end of each turn, gain 3 extra gold for every type of tower on the field.
Key of Wicked Fortune: When you open the chest, three covered choices will appear, each containing 1, 30, or 120 coins. Choose one and see if luck is on your side! (Yes, gamba!)

Levels

New type of elite level: Darkness
The ability of Candle Flame has been moved to this new elite level, which appears only on Heroic difficulty.
In Darkness levels, your towers cannot attack enemies concealed in the dark. You must build towers to extend your vision.

Game Adjustments

Flame rework

Flames were originally meant to give players some optional extra challenge, like saying "You can clear the game with the basic flame, so why not try this more difficult one?" As the game grew and the Infernal Shards system was added, the difficulty from flames became somewhat redundant. The goal for these changes is to remove most of the negative effects so players can choose flames based on the level and effects they like. The visuals have also been adjusted to better fit the game.

Sacred Flame
- In addition to attacking enemies, it now prioritizes clearing corrupted tiles within its attack range.
- At the end of each round its attack range increases by 2 tiles, up to +20 tiles.
- The effect "corrupted tiles randomly move at the end of each round" has been removed.

Demon Flame
- Demon flame is now Soul Flame. Its abilities are unchanged.
- Now unlocked after clearing the Frost Ruins.

Frost Flame
- Removed.

Arkflare Flame
- A lightning‑themed flame obtained from the train engine after defeating the Steelrail Overlord.
- It randomly stuns 3 to 10 enemies on the field for 1 to 2 seconds and increases Charge by 15%.
- Its attack rate is slightly slower, but it can attack three targets at once.
- Unlocked after clearing the Bone Desert.

Ancient Flame
- Removing the corrupted seal no longer costs coins.
- Buff effects slightly reduced (+25% crit & +10 % attack speed per round → +15% crit & +10 % attack speed per round).
- It still generates corrupted tiles at the end of a round, but both the area and the number are greatly reduced.

Candle Flame
- Removed
  Initially, Candle Flame was created for players who wanted to do 1 HP challenge runs, and later it was turned into a flame with a fog of war mechanic. It was meant to be a weak and fragile flame, so it really does not fit the direction of this update.
- The original mechanic has been moved to the Darkness levels.
- The Candle Flame achievement "Through The Darkness" has been changed into "Complete 30 Darkness levels". (If you have already unlocked the previous version, don't worry, it will not be reset!)

Talent adjustments

Superior Efficiency and Fast Learner have been removed. Their effects are now included in base values.
- The countdown timer is now fixed at 180 seconds, increasing to 210 seconds in the Sealed Citadel.
- All experience gain has been increased by 5%.
Ember Spark is now in the center of the talent tree and is a 3 tier talent.
New talents:
- Lost and Found: Treasure chests have a small chance to contain a tower card you've built before.
- Resilient Forging: The duration of malfunction effects is reduced.

Tower adjustments

Blackhole Tower
- No longer affected by attack‑speed increases. Any effect that would increase its attack speed instead increases its damage.
- The blue upgrade's stun duration has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
  I know many of you might be upset about this change, but…after testing many different approaches, this really is the best way I can find to keep the Blackhole Tower's power balanced. The tower's effect becomes way too strong when it gains attack speed (especially when used with Tana) to the point where enemies can barely move at all. After a lot of testing, the best way to keep it from becoming completely overpowered (without having to weaken its core ability too much) was to make it unaffected by attack speed buffs.

Drill Tower
- Added a button that costs coins to trigger the effect immediately (the old red upgrade).
- New red upgrade: Causes the effect to destroy blocks in a 3 × 3 area when it activates.
Scorch Tower
- Now has an additional 5% chance to Burn enemies for 3 seconds.

Endless mode

Added rewards between waves. You can now sometimes get a treasure chest, a Gambler's Token, or HP regen.
Added a new UI to show the rewards for the upcoming waves.

Other changes

It's now easier to see the cards when you have many cards in hand.
New feature in the options: If your save file is lost or corrupted, you can restore your progress using the data from Steam achievements.
Added a new option for damage numbers: Dynamic.
- When FPS drops, less important damage numbers are ignored.

Post-Patch Updates

Fixed some translation errors.
Fixed an issue that broke the endless mode leaderboards.
Fixed a bug that caused Belloc’s armor to disappear in Endless Mode.
Added a display for Gambler's Tokens in endless mode.,
You can now see your HP, Coins and Gambler's Tokens when opening a treasure chest.
Fixed a bug that made the fire source attack slower while havine level 3 Ember Spark talent.
Added a 1600×900 resolution option in the settings menu.

Emberward

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