Balance patch 1.2.0b

Patch Notes

We've got a balance update aimed at shaking up the meta, strengthening underperforming strategies, and giving a few forgotten units a chance to shine.

Items

Crystal of Aegis

• Block per stack increased from 20 → 100

Developer Notes: Crystal of Aegis wasn't seeing enough play. This buff should make it a viable answer to one-shot builds while still allowing scaling strategies to break through with enough investment.

Ritual Mace

• Added back to Washed Ashore

• Added back to the Wheel

Shop Changes

Dumbo Octopus

• Added back to the shop.

Transmutation

• All Big units can now appear through Transmutation.

• Previously, only Snapping Turtle could be found this way.

Treasure

Golden Starfish

• Gold damage increased to 50 / 60 / 70 / 80

Developer Notes: Golden Starfish struggled to justify its slot at lower gold values and was often outperformed by simple damage pearls. With this increase, treasure-focused builds should have a much stronger payoff in the late game.

Poison

We're increasing poison's early-game impact to help it compete throughout the entire match.

Fugu

• Poison increased to 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Stingray

• Poison increased to 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Sea Urchin

• Poison increased to 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Salamander

Salamander has been reworked into a dedicated poison unit that rewards damage-focused teams.

• Poisons for 10 / 11 / 12 / 13

• Poisons when adjacent allies deal damage: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Jellyfish

Jellyfish has been updated to focus on adjacent poison units instead of adjacent damage dealers.

• Poisons when adjacent allies poison: 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Developer Notes: We believe these changes will strengthen poison throughout the entire game rather than only in specific stages.

Block

Oyster

• Block increased to 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Coconut Crab

• Effect changed from activating when the unit on its right blocks to activating when either adjacent unit blocks.

This should make positioning less restrictive and improve consistency.

Ignite

Crested Newt

• Ignite stacks gained when adjacent allies gain Energy increased to 10 / 11 / 12 / 13

Developer Notes: Crested Newt was extremely powerful before its early nerf. With the current state of Energy builds, we feel it's time for Ignite to regain its role as a major threat.

Big

Big Trait

• Damage divided by Health requirement changed from 14 / 13 / 12 / 11

• Increased by 1 Health per tier.

Developer Notes: This is a small nerf to Big scaling, primarily aimed at reducing the dominance of Sperm Whale. Players will now need to invest more heavily into Health to reach the same damage output.

Red Emperor

• Energy reduced from 26 → 22

Developer Notes: Red Emperor was originally designed to punish high-health builds with excessive Block and healing. However, with masterworked equipment and larger health pools becoming common, Big builds needed more room to compete.

Energy

Barracuda

• Critical damage multiplier increased to x3

• Base critical chance changed to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25

Developer Notes: Barracuda is intended to be the primary damage dealer in Energy teams, but its damage output wasn't keeping up. Giving it the highest critical multiplier in the game should help it feel more unique and rewarding to build around.

Reworks

Snapping Turtle

Complete Rework

• Now gains Block equal to twice the damage it deals

• Deals 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 damage

Developer Notes: Snapping Turtle felt like a larger but less interesting Horseshoe Crab. This rework gives it its own identity as a self-sustaining powerhouse that rewards heavy investment and can snowball into a massive threat.

We believe these changes will shake up the meta, create new build opportunities, and bring several underused units back into contention. As always, we'll be monitoring performance closely and making adjustments where needed.