The Shifting Sands Free Update is Live Now!

Noble Kings,

The gates to the Shifting Sands now stand open.

Available now as a free update for all owners of The King Is Watching, the Shifting Sands expansion brings a wealth of new content to the realm. Customize your adventures with Danger Modifiers, face new bosses and enemies, discover powerful artifacts and spells, experiment in the new Free Reign Mode, and enjoy improvements to Endless Mode, progression, balance, and overall gameplay.

Before you march your troops into the dunes, watch the launch trailer and witness the wonders (and horrors) that await beyond the shifting horizon:

Short Update Summary

• The Shifting Sands – a brand-new map where ancient magic pulls enemies, bosses, and events from all previously conquered lands into a single realm. Shape each run with 36 Danger Modifiers and face four new bosses, the mysterious Fennec tribe, and other desert horrors.

• King Personas – unlock cosmetic appearances to give your rulers a fresh and regal look.

• 3 new dwarven units and 2 advisors to strengthen your kingdom and expand your strategic options.

• 10 new artifacts offering powerful effects and new build possibilities.

• 3 new spells added to your royal grimoire.

• Improved Endless Mode with wave rewards and enhanced difficulty scaling.

• Free Reign Mode – use Danger Modifiers on any map to create your own challenges and adventures.

• Onboarding and progression improvements for newly crowned kings.

• Numerous balance changes and quality-of-life improvements across the realm.

New Map: Shifting Sands

Before we delve into the latest affairs of the realm, a brief reminder: the official Hydragoose plushie remains available for pre-order. Should your court be in need of a loyal guardian, vigilant overseer, or exceptionally regal honker, now is the time to secure one.

Pre-Order Hydragoose Now

The Shifting Sands are no ordinary desert. Ancient magic twists space and time as rifts tear open across the dunes, drawing enemies and allies from distant lands and forgotten ages. Here, the past, present and future exist side by side beneath an eternal, unforgiving sun.

In the Shifting Sands, you may encounter enemies and events from any land you have already conquered. As always, a prophecy at the start of each run will reveal the boss awaiting you. It may be a familiar foe from your past campaigns or one of four new bosses created exclusively for this map. Only the Kraken remains absent, too immense even for the rifts of the Shifting Sands to drag from the Dark Realm. After all, even magic has its limits.

Danger Modifiers

Instead of Threat Tiers, Shifting Sands uses 36 Danger Modifiers that can increase or decrease difficulty. Completing runs at higher Danger Levels unlocks rewards including:

• New Units

• New Advisor

• New Spells

• New Artifacts

• King Personas

List of Modifiers

• Each boss summons all previous bosses when entering the battlefield

• Buildings cannot be demolished

• Unit damage reduced by 25%

• Unit health reduced by 25%

• Add one Gold Seal to the castle

• Receive 1 gold for each enemy killed

• Get free non-legendary spells in each spell slot

• +10 to unit limit

• Start with Basic Construction

• At the start of the run, choose one: 45 meat / 45 oil / 45 metal

• Wine is consumed 50% slower

• After defeating the first boss, receive an extra legendary artifact

• Start the run with a temporary Goose Hydra

• Spell damage increased by 100%

• Wine provides 50% less morale

• Start in debt: -30 to all resources

• Two fewer Well blueprint at the beginning

• New units spawn with 30 seconds of Weakness. The same applies to units leaving the Barracks

• Marketplace works 75% slower

• Using the King’s ability temporarily slows down a random building

• Your people are unhappy: start with -20 morale

• Unit cap upgrades provide smaller increases

• If the player has more than 300 wheat, ravens will surround the castle and eat the excess

• The 3 central tiles of the castle are blocked by a lake

• Allied units are on fire and lose 0.5% HP per second

• The castle has only 1 HP, but you start with a Brick Factory blueprint

• All buildings are 25% more expensive

• You cannot send troops to the Barracks

• All enemy units resurrect once after death

• Units are produced 50% slower

• At the start of each wave, lightning strike deals 100 HP to your enemy

• Enemy units explode after death

• The castle loses 1 HP each time you build something

• All corpses on the level turn into zombies at the start of each wave

• Fewer spell slots

• If you have wine, all units have a 20% chance to miss

King Personas

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• King Baldwin → King Baldwin

• King Leonid → King Leonid of Sparta

• King Leo the Wise → Leonardo da Vinci

• King Spellus → White Archmage

• King Brezhnius → Ivan the Terrible

• King Saladin → Grand Vizier

• King Alucard → Lord Alucard

• Queen Cleopatra → Queen Cleopatra

• King Xerxes → King Xerxes

• King Taizong → Emperor Taizong of Tang

These personas are cosmetic only and don’t affect gameplay.

New Bosses

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Four new bosses will challenge your reign:

Monkey King

Drentlyr, Ancient Leshen

Greedscale, Matriarch of Dragons

Goruk, The Chainbound

New Enemies

The Fennecs are an ancient desert tribe shrouded in legend. Whether born of flesh or shaped by the spirits of the sands, they have survived where countless others have perished. Masters of warfare and desert survival alike, they strike swiftly and vanish just as quickly, leaving little behind save ruined camps, unanswered questions, and unfortunate kings who underestimated them.

New Events

Shifting Sands introduces twelve new region-exclusive events, including:

• A cult leader preaching devotion to the Eye

• An advisor discussing work stress with a cat

• Mysterious omen appearing in the sky

New Units

• Dwarf Drunkard (Tier 1)

• Dwarf Polymorphist (Tier 2)

• Dwarf Shotcaller (Tier 2)

New Artifacts

• Bone Tomahawk – Grunts can become Small Bones on death

• Super Glue – Riders slow enemies after attacking

• Smoke Bomb – Meteors strike if you have 3+ Arcane

• Binoculars – Increased ranged attack radius

• Valor Drum – Warriors provide Morale

• Signal Horn – Flying units increase ranged attack speed

• Lightning in the Bottle – Champion units cast Chain Lightning on death

• Lumberjack's Kit – Grants Deforestation spells

• Vital Energy Flask – Units gain Health each wave

• Wicker Basket – Units provide Wheat on death

New Spells

• Grave Grind — Turns corpses into Flour.

• Black Hole — Pulls enemies together and deals damage over time.

• Venom Mire — Slows and infects enemies. Infected enemies grant Fuel when they die.

New Advisors

Spectral Knight

Grants a Troop Training reward for every 4 enemy waves defeated.

Deck Builder

Choose three barracks blueprints, one of each tier, at the start of the run.

Endless Mode Improvements

Endless Mode has a special place in our hearts.

While it may not be every king’s favorite pastime, those who embrace it often create builds so outrageous that even we never saw them coming. However, Endless Mode had its shortcomings: rewards stopped once you entered it, and enemy scaling eventually struggled to keep pace.

To address this, Endless Mode now grants rewards for clearing waves, just like the rest of your run. We have also r eworked difficulty scaling. Enemy HP and Damage modifiers now increase with every wave, with their growth accelerating every 20 waves.

Enemy numbers and base strength will continue to rise, but only up to a limit. Beyond that, waves will feature up to 60 of the strongest available enemies, ensuring that difficulty scales through quality rather than quantity. The challenge will keep growing, while performance remains stable.

Free Reign Mode

We are delighted to introduce Free Reign Mode, a new way to experience The King is Watching.

By allowing Danger Modifiers on any map, Free Reign Mode places the design of the realm firmly in your hands. Create brutal challenges worthy of legends, craft a more leisurely royal experience, or experiment with combinations that would never appear in a standard run.

Even familiar lands may feel entirely different when viewed through the lens of your own rules.

Onboarding & Progression Improvements

Tutorial Updates

• Expanded tutorial coverage

• New tutorial ending with a boss encounter included

Threat Tier 0

• Reduced from two bosses to one

Yellow Eye Upgrade Tree

• No longer requires Town Denarii

• Unlocks are earned by completing maps on Threat Tiers 1–3

Red Eye Upgrade Tree

• Banish and Re-Roll upgrades split into separate branches, with earlier access to both systems

• Additional upgrades added to the Research Table, each unlocking new blueprint options

• Banish upgrades now grant 2 banishes instead of 1

• Earlier access to Noble banishing and extra building slots

• Araknor’s brother provides you with resources before the boss fight

Map Progression

• New maps unlock by completing the previous map on Threat Tier 1

Quality of Life Improvements

• Added "Send All Troops to Barracks" button

• Artifacts and building upgrades can now be banished during a run

Balance changes

Buildings:

Hospital:

• Amount healed 10 → 70

• Time to heal 1 sec → 3 sec

• Resources consumed: 1 wheat

Explosive cart factory:

• Build cost: 40 metal, 120 wood → 40 metal, 100 wood

• Production time: 20s → 15s

• Production cost: 30 ore, 20 wood → 30 ore, 10 wood

Barbarian Tent:

• Upgrade Weapon melting: Metal received from death 8 → 20

Firing Range:

• Upgrade: Critical shots: crit damage 500% → 800%

Catapults Factory

• Catapult trait: bonus HP of Grunt troops 10% → 20%

Academy of Lightning:

• Starting capacity 3 → 2

• Production time 25s → 22s

Academy of Fire

• Upgrade Combustion: bonus damage 6 → 12

Pangolin Stump

• Build cost: Meat 70 → 90, Wood 100, Grapes 150

Ram Pasture:

• Upgrade Twins: chance to produce an extra Ram 10% → 20%

Execution Ground:

• Production time 8s → 4s

Sacrificial Stone:

• Resource cost 40 gold, 40 clay → 80 clay

Dove Cote:

• Pigeon damage 15 → 10, Pigeons cost 4 wheat → 3 wheat.

Wheel of Fortune:

• Production time 110s → 130s, Now consumes 20 water

• Build cost 100 gold → 80 gold

Fairy Fountain

• Upgrade Anti-Goblin Dust: damage dealt 15 → 100

Troops:

Anubis Saber Masters:

• Damage decreased 12 → 8

• The blades now fly further and pierce enemies

Enchanted Stump:

• Centaurs' trait: flying troops' poison chance 5% → 10%

Goose Hydra Nest:

• Goose Hydra trait: bonus HP to all troops 5% → 10%

Academy of Nature:

• Healer Mage trait: bonus to Arcane troops’ HP 5% → 10%

Ballista Factory:

• Ballista trait: bonus HP to Flying troops 10% → 20%

Artifacts:

Old Dice: resource given per wave 40 → 50

Wood Pile, Golden Bull, Miner's Lamp, Porcelain Chip: resource given per wave 25 → 35

Wooden Key: wood given 3 → 4

Sacrificial Vessel: spell damage bonus per enemy killed 0.1% → 0.2%

Memento Mori: healing 1 → 2 HP per second

Iron Hoe: extra production limit 100% → 75%

Mage's Robe: spell damage per Arcane unit 3% → 5%

Mystic Stone: damage 12 → 16

Kings:

• Xerxes damage from morale 0.5% → 0.25%

• Increased Immortals' invincibility time 5s → 6s

• Reduced Immortals' damage by 15%

• 1st ability cost 10 gold → 10 wheat

• 1st ability cooldown 240s → 220s

• 2nd ability cost 20 wheat → 15 gold

Other:

• Wine consumption speed reverted back to 1 wine per second

We wish you the best of fortune in your conquest of this new realm. May your walls stand firm, your coffers remain full, and your banners fly proudly above every victory.

Once you have ventured into the Shifting Sands, we invite you to share your thoughts, strategies, and discoveries with your fellow rulers. Which boss proved the greatest challenge? What rewards have you uncovered? Join the discussion and let us know how your kingdom fares.

Good luck — the conquest begins now.

— Hypnohead Team