In this update15
Full notes
Full Shadowstone update
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What changed
- Balance
- Gameplay
- Events
- UI and audio
- Maps
- Fixes
Shadowstone changes
What’s New
New Heroes
The Rogue
The Rogue sneaks their way into Shadowstone as an unlockable character!
The Rogue is a single-target damage dealer who excels with set-up from their team. They’ve received a new passive that allows them to deal extra damage and generate Dodge for themselves if they attack a target with a debuff, or if the Rogue has a buff; just like a traditional Rogue, they always want to attack with an advantage!
Rogue also introduces a new way to interact with Status Effects: Theft!
Through different spell cards, Rogue can steal buffs from any other character, as well as copy their own buffs onto an ally. Use them to disrupt the enemy’s plan or help share the love across your team. Start thinking of Buffs as money, and any good Rogue must make bank!
Smart set-up from other heroes will help unleash the incredibly high damage potential of the Rogue, but a Rogue going it alone might end up going broke.
Take the Rogue into the dungeon; we can’t wait to hear about your heist!
The Assassin
The Assassin is ready for their next job... Unlock them by playing with Rogue.
Similar to the Rogue, the Assassin is a single-target damage dealer, but they play on the knife's edge. Their game plan is to kill Bounties, and they accumulate permanent strength through the run depending on how many Bounties they've claimed.
They boast very high damage, especially against wounded targets, but have few defensive tools.
The Assassin will need to rely on their teammates for help. Work with your party; identify the target, weaken them, and cull them with the Assassin.The Assassin rewards coordinated, calculated play: hunt down your bounties, gain your power, then escape.
If an Assassin kills a target, they can teleport back to their starting hex that turn. Get in, get out.
Due to their link with Rogue, Assassin has access to several Rogue Spell cards in addition to their own, and vice-versa. You can use these Spells to open up new ways to play for both Heroes; Dodge for the Assassin, finishing damage for the Rogue.
Take this shotcalling, high-execution, high damage Hero on a Bounty Hunt with your team and reap the sweet rewards.
**The Assassin’s art is placeholder and will be updated at a later date.
UI/UX
Show End Turn Setting
We've added a new setting (which defaults to Off) that controls whether an End Turn button will appear after your hero has completed all spell actions. Turning it on will allow you to use any additional actions (i.e. potions) before your turn ends.
Quests
8 new Quests have been added to the game!
The Quests "Hydrated", "Pour One Out", and "Cheers!" relate to furthering a player's understanding of Potions and reward that player with additional potion slots.
The 5 "Crystal Excavation" Quests are a set of long-term Quests revolving around Crystals that reward diligent players with Potions to create these Crystals on their own terms.
New Runes
New Runes added (including some for Rogue's metaprogression levels).
Rituals
6 new Rituals have been added to the game!
Preservation
Enfeeblement
Spores
Fragility
Harvest
Strife
Unite your party along these tenets to achieve power untold.
Manual Ritual Activation
The power is in your Party's hands! Rituals are now manually activated when fully charged rather than automatically firing off.
How this works: when a Ritual is fully advanced, it will enter a "Ready" state. While in this state, anyone in the party can propose to cast the Ritual, which will queue a vote. Consensus on the vote will cast the Ritual! Work with your Party to use the Ritual when you think it'll have the most payoff!
Potion Adjustment
Potions can now be used during any player's turn, allowing for new tactical decisions outside of your turn.
Potions cannot be used during monster or boss turns.
Corruption VFX
Reaching each corruption threshold now triggers activation VFX on the UI meter and on the gameboard.
Additionally, characters receiving corruption benefits will now see impact visuals to coincide with buff application.
Rune UI
Runes are now shown in their own distinct UI area and are no longer intermingled with buffs/debuffs.
Please note: We will be doing a renaming pass of all runes. Some have already been renamed, but look to see more in coming updates.
Bosses & Enemies
Gatekeeper (Boss 3) Encounter Update
Design Intent
Based on community feedback that this encounter felt lacking, this iteration introduces a new environment mechanic, Debris, to add tactical depth, board management, and active counterplay. Previously, the Black Hole's strength was tied entirely to the boss's skill cards, leaving players with few options beyond staying out of range.
Now, the Black Hole gains strength whenever a piece of Debris (or any character) enters it. Players can also destroy Debris to gain 2 random buffs, rewarding proactive board clearing. This deepens the encounter's complexity without overloading the boss's core spell kit, creating a much more interactive fight.
Core Gameplay Loop
Debris Spawns: The Gatekeeper generates Debris across the board. Debris can be destroyed, thrown, or pulled by any character on the board.
Risk vs. Reward: Players can destroy Debris to gain 2 buffs, or utilize the Gatekeeper’s charge to clear large clusters of Debris at once, though doing so restores a small amount of the boss's health.
The Black Hole: The Black Hole continuously pulls nearby Debris toward its center. When a Debris (or character) pulled into the center grants the Black Hole +2 Strength.
The Ultimate: When the Gatekeeper unleashes their Ultimate ability, the Black Hole transfers all its accumulated Strength directly to the boss.
Player Strategy
Utilizing multi-attacks, AoE skills, forced movement, or consumables, players must balance dealing damage to the boss against actively clearing Debris before it can feed the Black Hole.
New Monsters Arrive: Lantern & Sludge!
Lantern (Haunted Biome)
Introducing the Lanterns, the third monster added to the Haunted Biome! The Lantern is the first monster aside from the bosses to be able to upgrade their skill card. As part of their passive (Hatred), when the Lantern takes damage, on its next turn, instead of a regular attack, they now explode to deal flat damage and inflict Curse to everything around it.
Sludge (Lab Biome)
Joining the Lab Monster family, Sludge builds on the Biome's focus on position displacement. While the Spiders reposition when struck and Sentinels fling Heroes across the board, the Sludge brings a different threat. While it only moves one space per turn, its long tongue makes up for it, giving it the range it needs to reach to pull Heroes straight into danger.
Biome Updates and Rework
Haunted Biome
To address confusion around the current environment mechanic and our struggle with Weak as the biome's core identity (dragging down gameplay pacing and progression), the Haunted Biome's mechanic is now a board-wide effect:
Wisp: If a character is not adjacent to another character, inflict Curse 1.
Just like a classic haunted house where sticking together is key to survival, we hope this new mechanic fits the theme while opening up fresh tactical options. Additionally, swapping Weak for Curse addresses how punishing Weak was to overall pacing and progression. Curse provides a buffer before its full effect kicks in, giving players room to strategize and find ways to remove it.
Fungal Biome
Based on feedback that "Drench" wasn't feeling very compelling, we've updated the biome hazard and replaced Drench with a new status effect: Spore.
Spore: At the end of their turn, a Spored character takes 1 damage per Spore stack. When a Spored character leaves a hex, they lose 1 Spore stack.
Our goal with Spore is to introduce a tactical puzzle for players to solve while keeping counterplay active through movement.
Along with this new status effect, the biome hazard has been reworked from Slime Shower to Spore Flower, which are physical units that spawn at the start of each round and can be destroyed by Heroes.
At the end of the Player Phase, Spore Flowers inflict Spore 3 on all adjacent characters and then despawn.
Monster Rework and Tuning
All existing monsters across all Biomes have received a full balance and tuning pass. Some monsters received minor stat or logic adjustments, such as the Sentinel's attack increasing from 1 to 2, or the Frostling's skill action order being reversed to give players better opportunities to kite.
Other monsters have received larger updates to better align with their intended roles and improve synergies within their monster families:
- ClamInitial movement reduced from 3 to 2, but its attack bonus while holding a Shell has increased from 1 to 2. The Clam now loses its Shell after attacking, and will only regain a Shell if it takes damage during a turn while unarmored. This creates a fairer counterplay window while keeping the Clam a major threat.
- Spider CrabPassive reworked to lean into its shield mechanics—if you don't break the Crab's shield, it will consume the shield to gain Beneath. It can also now receive shields from Hermit, reinforcing core family synergy within the Biome.
Wurm: Its attack now repeats against an additional target it hasn't attacked yet this turn. This buffs its overall kit, boosting its board presence and emphasizing the Biome's focus on positioning.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where the previous actions for various spell cards remained highlighted after performing them.
Fixed an issue with Witch's 'Plume of Poison' spell 3rd upgrade incorrectly inflicting Decay on other heroes.
Fixed an issue where Spider Crab enemies were prioritizing targeting interactable objects instead of Heroes.
Fixed an issue where Ranger's passive indicator could disappear when hovering over a target.
Fixed an issue where 'At the start of a room" runes could fail to spawn the expected number of ground objects when combined together.
Fixed an issue when heroes complete a level, the "Level Up" text failed to appear in the Results screen until completing a second run.
Fixed an issue where the Act 1 Boss, Revenant, was not positioning themselves to maximize their AoE attack on the 'Crescent Dance' spell.
Fixed an issue where the Act 3 Boss, Gatekeeper, was still moving when affected by the 'Root' status effect.
Fixed an issue where the clickable area for Boss rooms on the Map was larger than expected.
Fixed an animation issue with Ranger's attack animation for the 'Volley' spell.
Source
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