Greetings, Heroes!
Our latest major update has officially arrived, bringing a massive wave of refinements to the game.
This patch introduces comprehensive rebalancing across nearly every facet of gameplay, including skills, spells, hero specializations, creature stats, artifacts, map templates, and the matchmaking framework. Notably, we have overhauled the expert-level “Murmuring” sub-skills and completely reimagined the Summon Avatar skill to function exclusively as a magical ability.
Several passive creature abilities—most significantly Parry—have been recalculated for fairness. Furthermore, by analyzing recent telemetry, we have buffed various upgraded creature units that were previously struggling to compete with their alternative variants.
The Random Map Generator has also received attention. Players will find the side areas of the iconic Jebus Cross template significantly more engaging, while the Sprint, Harmony, and Exodus templates have been tuned to sharpen the game’s overall tempo. These adjustments are accompanied by an updated matchmaking template pool.
Finally, we have addressed several critical bugs and exploits. Specifically, we have implemented measures to prevent Alt+F4 disconnections, closed a loophole that allowed players to inspect enemy setups during the tactics phase, and resolved a bug involving illegitimate free creature upgrades.
Please note that we have taken disciplinary action against accounts that intentionally leveraged these vulnerabilities for an unfair advantage, as well as those who actively promoted such exploits within our community.
⚠️ Fair Play Notice: Engaging in intentional bug exploitation during competitive matches can lead to temporary or permanent multiplayer suspensions. Such conduct may also violate platform policies, risking account-wide penalties. Protect your account and help keep the competition honorable—play fair!
The full changelog follows below. Best of luck on the field of battle!
Changelog
v. 0.80.18
Bug Fixes
Combat and Creature Mechanics
- Ghouls summoned in combat now leave a corpse upon defeat as intended.
- Resolved a malfunction involving the Energy Phoenix’s “Eternal Flame” passive when maximum health was boosted.
- Crystal Iriyad stack copies now correctly apply “Crystal Thorns” to both the original and the duplicate.
- The Naiad’s “Embodiment of Water” now grants proper immunity to “Ice Bolt” and “Circle of Winter.”
- Fixed an issue where the Avatar of War’s morale debuff persisted even after multiple avatars were destroyed simultaneously.
- Positive and negative status effects from friendly stacks now properly expire upon the source unit’s death.
- Summoned units under the influence of max-level “Heavenly Blades” no longer destroy themselves.
- Ranged and long-reach creatures now successfully transition to melee attacks when surrounded while under the “Berserk” effect.
- Addressed a rare issue where units would skip their turns instead of waiting.
- Creatures now properly trigger the positive Morale effect after choosing to wait.
- Fixed logic errors regarding immunity to Vampirism and the destruction of temporary/summoned stacks.
Heroes, Skills, and Spells
- The Lich’s “Death’s Embrace” now interacts correctly with Laura’s “Masterful Despair.”
- Fixed a scaling error where Spell Power bonuses were failing to apply to heroes specializing in Summon Avatar.
- Grove sub-skills “Burst of Energy,” “Just One More Time,” and “Strong Connection” no longer trigger when using non-Focus consuming abilities.
- The “Combat” skill’s “Revenge” now correctly grants a bonus Heroic Strike upon a friendly unit’s death.
- “One for All” and “All for One” no longer provide attribute bonuses based on corpses occupying adjacent hexes.
- Combat-based Spell Power adjustments now immediately reflect in the numerical values of active effects.
- Magic Defense now correctly mitigates damage from damage-over-time effects.
- Fixed the “Shadowflight” spell’s application logic.
- “Thaumaturgy” has been removed from the “Wise Owl” map object offerings.
- Corrected the synergy between the “Fortune’s Favored” class and “As Luck Would Have It,” which previously caused excessive Defense scaling.
- Fixed an issue where the Temple faction’s “Chosen One” ability lacked a cooldown.
- Corrected tooltip descriptions for “Temporal Spheres” upgrades.
Exploit Prevention
- Alt+F4 Protection: Emergency game closures via Alt+F4 now automatically trigger a loss for the quitter and a victory for their opponent.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed high-speed units to reveal enemy placement during the Tactics Phase.
- Eliminated a bug that permitted the illicit swapping of low-tier units for high-tier ones.
Sieges and Cities
- Traps deployed during sieges now correctly inflict damage upon activation.
- Defensive tower damage now scales appropriately with the total number of city buildings.
- Fixed a “zero-stack” error occurring when sending heroes to the “Guild of Six Winds” in Temple cities.
Multiplayer and UI
- Interacting with a map object in the final second of a timer no longer locks that object for the remainder of the match.
- Tier-7 creatures in the diplomacy window no longer block purchases of other available units.
- Resolved UI display errors for kicked players within the connection status window.
- Fixed display inaccuracies for Laws and Astrology income during hotseat turn-passing.
- The Spellbook no longer closes automatically due to minor opponent actions.
- Corrected the hire window’s behavior when funds are insufficient.
- Tooltips for “Pocket Dimension” now correctly dismiss automatically.
- The default ~ hotkey now correctly toggles hero movement.
- Fixed object ownership tags misidentifying Black player objects as Red.
Description and Text Fixes
- Fixed incorrect numerical values for the Dungeon law “Leaders of the Nation.”
- The Dungeon law “Triumvirate’s Agents” now exclusively targets faction heroes as intended.
- Corrected the description values for the Minotaur Vanguard’s “Adrenaline Surge.”
- Fixed text errors for the “Singing Pan‑Pipe” and “Clenching Ring” artifacts.
Campaign and Scenarios
- ⚠️ Note: This fix does not retroactively apply to mission saves made prior to the patch.
- Victory screens no longer obscure final narrative cutscenes.
- Fixed broken quest and event triggers during mission loading.
- Resolved an issue where artifact slots became locked when transitioning between missions.
- The “Restart” function is now properly enabled after loading a save.
- Autosaves now generate unique save numbers instead of overwriting existing ones.
UI Polish
- Fixed a visual bug showing incorrect movement ranges in the tactics phase.
- Shift-clicking elite class tooltips now reveals detailed requirements for class unlocks.
- Status effects on heroes and creatures are now significantly easier to track visually.
Balance Changes
Skills: Summon Avatar
The skill has been reworked with unique scaling rules:
- The Avatar no longer receives Defense bonuses; Attack now scales via the hero’s Spell Power.
- The Avatar no longer uses standard HP, instead surviving a set number of hits (2, 3, or 4 depending on level).
- Avatar HP cannot be restored via healing spells or abilities.
- Base stats: Damage increased (6–6 → 12–12), Initiative reduced (6 → 5), Speed reduced (6 → 5).
- Avatar can no longer be duplicated via “Mirror Copy.”
Sub-skill Updates:
- Avatar of Fury: +25% Damage (doubled if hero has Leadership).
- Avatar of Toughness: +1 hit survivability (doubled if hero has Defense).
Skills: Murmuring
- Just One More Time: Cooldown reduction for Spellbook spells increased from 1 to 2 rounds.
- Burst of Energy: Heroic Strike bonus increased from 5% to 15%, but is limited to the current round only.
- Strong Connection: Attribute bonus increased from 1 to 2, limited to the current round only.
Hero Specializations & Starting Spells
- Spell Specialists: Buffed—now gain +1 Spell Power every 2 levels (previously every 3).
- Diplomat Heroes: Buffed—base diplomacy increased from +5% to +10%; persuasion bonus now increases every 3 levels (previously 4).
- Morale Specialists: Nerfed—morale chance now increases every 6 levels (previously 4).
- Physical Damage Specialists: Nerfed—specialized stack damage now increases every 4 levels (previously 2).
- Magic Damage Specialists: Buffed—magic damage bonus now scales every level (previously every 2).
- Schism Faction: As hybrid units, all Schism heroes now start with a unique spell, and starting army sizes have been standardized.
Spells and Artifacts
- Daylight/Nightshade/Arcane/Primal Magic: Numerous adjustments to mana costs, scaling, and specific damage/cooldown values have been applied to harmonize faction performance.
- Ring of Neutrality: Downgraded to Rare; now only neutralizes Luck.
- Monster Head: Upgraded to Rare; now neutralizes all Morale.
- Ethereal Knowledge Set: Bonus XP reduced from 100% to 50%; 4-set effect duration capped at 8 rounds.
Factions and Creatures
- General adjustments were made to ensure upgraded units are distinct and valuable.
- Specific stat changes (Attack, Defense, Initiative, Health) have been applied across all tiers for Temple, Necropolis, Grove, Schism, Hive, and Dungeon factions to address performance outliers.
- Building costs have been adjusted to better reflect the strategic value of dwellings.
Map Generator and Matchmaking
- Jebus Cross: Improved artifact generation, reduced guard strength for optional cities, and added mandatory “Town Gates” for better mobility.
- Matchmaking: Rotated map pools for both Classic and Single Hero modes and refined timers to ensure consistent, competitive gameplay.
Arena Mode
Several artifacts were removed to tighten the meta, and loadout options have been expanded to provide 10 spells instead of 9. Creature availability in the Arena has been rebalanced to ensure no single faction dominates the early rounds.
Community Links
Your feedback is vital to our development. Join the conversation on our Discord, Steam, or Facebook. You can also visit our Official Wiki for deep dives into game mechanics, and check out the unofficial subreddit to share your tactics.
With love,
The Unfrozen Team
