This is a fairly small update to do some housekeeping and get Tournament titles distributed.

Unfortunately real life has been interfering with patch progress and the undead rework is behind schedule. I'll also be taking a break over the holidays to travel and see family. This means that I'll likely be giving the next set of updates in the new year!

Archdemons

Guardian Zo -
~~The Unit in slot 4 gains Barrier. When a Units Barrier breaks, they gain +1/+1 permanently~~
-> The Unit in slot 4 gains Barrier. When a Units Barrier breaks, they gain +1 Attack permanently

Artifacts

Swarm Tactics

~~When a Rattican attacks, it gains the attack of all other friendly Ratticans for that attack only~~
-> When a Small Unit attacks, it gains the attack of all other friendly Small Units for that attack only

If you missed the tournament, I highly recommend checking out the incredible gameplay from everyone involved. You can watch the vod here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFlyMnJ63SU

Tourny patch a go! More details will be dropping shortly on Tournament signup and how you can get involved.

This patch focuses mostly on cleaning up the on death effects that were plaguing Lars and creating uncertainty around unit/artifact interactions.

New Keyword: Finale

Finale now describes a unit that has a special action upon its death.

A large number of units have had their descriptions updated to better reflect "Finale". There is also a new icon that shows when a Unit has Finale to accompany Tank and Assassin.


With the tournament fast approaching, this patch has been more about stability and fixing a handful of bugs throughout the client and server. There is one change to the Yeti though:

Units

Angry Yeti
- On End, Stun 2 Random Enemies
-> On End, Stun 1 Random Enemy
- 14/10
-> 16/10

Due to the inclusion of the new Finale approach to on death, I'm hoping that any bugs which may surface from this change can be squashed and fixed before the tournament. As always if you see something wrong, send over an F8 and feel free to drop some details in the #bugs channel! Thanks again for all your support in continuing to make HFT awesome!

The winter event is finally live! I hope you enjoy the change of scenery and the new festive spirit. I'll be streaming this patch at 6pm PST and doing a Relic Giveaway to help everyone unlock some of the new cosmetics!

Winter Invitational Almost Here!

The $1000 Winter Invitational is almost here. Any players who are 3600+ by the 8th December will qualify and should join our Discord if they are interested in competing.


Emote Selector

You can now go to your profile and select emotes to configure your emote wheel. Simply left click on one in your inventory, then click to drop it on the slot you want to replace.


Cosmetics, Emotes and Titles!

During the event you will be able to get unique holiday themed cosmetics for Bossferatu and The Baron. Along with some new emotes and titles that are a perfect fit for the winter season.


Patch Notes

Archdemons

Wurfel - When you cast a Ritual, halve the cost of a random unit in the store

Groundson -
- Your starting units gain 2 health per Archdemon Level.
-> Your starting units gain 2 health per Archdemon Level. You Attack Last

Units

Angry Yeti - 7 Cost, Monster, Large, Beast - Charge/End - On End, Stun 2 Random Enemies

Great Bite -> 3 Cost

Stick Rat
- 6/3
-> 5/2


We'll be dropping content and updates every week on the lead up to Christmas. There's also a handful of hidden goodies that I hope will help you get into the festive spirit! Thanks again for all the support everyone and I hope to see some of you later in tonight's Dev Stream (6pm PST)!

Hellfire Frozen Over will begin on the 30th November

Believe or not, Hell has finally frozen over!

Join us for our largest update yet! With new holiday themed cosmetics, titles, emotes and more. Experience a new frozen wasteland to do battle from and more easter eggs than a winter event should ever have.

Choose your Emotes

You will also be able to customize your emote wheel and choose from a host of new festive and classic emotes to chat with your fellow Archdemons!

New Archdemon

A mysterious box, is it a gift or a demon in disguise. You'll have to join us on Wednesday to find out!


As with all updates, there will be other new content, balance updates and everything you've come to expect from a HFT patch.

Rituals

Careless Caltrops - Enabled

Bug fixes

- One significant change in this hotfix is how nested events are handed during battle simulation. This may have knock on effects that I haven't been able to replicate when testing. Let me know if you see any strange behavior in fights, especially with regards to execution order or units not dieing when they should etc.

This in turn should resolve the bug with targeted strike not destroying a barrier and hitting the unit underneath (amongst other bugs, including what I think was causing caltrops to break).

- Fixed Large Stars. If you do somehow still see a large star, please F8 and let me know what happened!

- Fixed Osiricles giving his buff to units after they have moved out of the slot

- Fixed Razcal Text - Even number slots give +2 Health and Odd Number slots give +2 Attack

- Updated Fire Sale and Sacrifice text to warn the player they cannot be multiplied.

- Fixed a bug where a player could select an AD, reroll, then ready up without selecting an AD. This was causing the 7 player lobbies where you would fight yourself.

- Fixed a bug where rituals were not being removed upon death of a player causing them to be re-cast in ghost fights

This is one of the largest client patches in a while and includes some bug fixes as well as a ton of accessibility updates.

I'll be streaming this patch at 6pm PST tonight (11/23/2022), along with doing a 5000 Relic Giveaway to one lucky viewer!

Accessibility

Link Highlights - When hovering or dragging a unit with Link capabilities it will highlight the slots its connected to.
Large Text Mode - This is an early version of a large text mode so it only works for core gameplay UI right now (Units, Rituals etc.). Let me know if you run into any issues with it. I recommend enabling this is you're playing on a small screen like the Steam Deck or if you're sitting far away from the screen such as a TV.
Upgraded Unit UX - There is now a gold star on every upgraded unit to clearly denote its been upgraded. This should also be clear no matter what effects are on the unit. If you find an instance where it is no longer clear the unit is upgraded, let me know.

* These can be toggled on/off through in the gameplay tab of the Settings

Archdemons

Bullhead - The first Non-Beast you acquire each round gains the Beast tag. Beasts gain +2 Attack

Razcal
- If your Front Row is full and in alphabetical order, they all gain +1 Attack permanently
-> Odd number slots give +2 Health and Even Number slots give +2 Attack

- Text clarifications

Ten Foot -> Your board cannot have links. All Starting units gain +1/+1 per Archdemon Level
Baron -> All Artifacts are a level higher, but you cannot see Cost Level 7 Artifacts
Pandara -> The first unit you acquire each level gains one of Ranged, Hidden, Stunning Strike or Siege

Artifacts

Flying Boars - 4 Cost -> 5 Cost

Forgotten Mercenaries - 5 Cost -> 4 Cost
- When a Mounted Unit Attacks, it gains +2/+1 permanently
-> When a Mounted Unit Attacks, it gains +1/+1 permanently

Scholars Pledge - 3 Cost -> 4 Cost
- When you cast a ritual, all magical units gain +2/+1 permanently
-> When you cast a ritual, all magical units gain +1/+1 permanently

Units

Great Bite -> 2 Cost -> 3 Cost (this only effects promotions)

Cychops -> Has Barrier and now gains buff from his own Barrier

Fixed Issues

- At least one instance of crashing when conceding during combat has been resolved
- When a 3rd player dies to a ghost as the 1st player is winning the server now properly handles the gameover client calls so you should no longer be disconnected
- You can now emote during the last fight of the game

New Groundson Cosmetic!

Finally there's a new cosmetic for Groundson

- Mana Groundson

Mana Groundson and Bullhead are now available in the store! Hope to see you all for some games later tonight at the Dev Stream + Giveaway! As always thanks for your amazing feedback and helping make HFT the best it can be!

Artifacts

Deaths Contract -> Your first Unit to die each fight gains +2/+1 permanently
Ghoul Hand -> Summoned Units gain +3/+2
Ghoul Juice -> Summoned Units double their attack but are destroyed after they attack
Rat Bait -> 3 Cost
Vampire Bats -> Your highest Attack Unit at the start of a fight gains Deathless

Units

Bustacean -> Gain Tank and 1 Counter when I'm the only Bustacean on the board. I Gain +2/+4 for every Counter
Boozt -> At the Start of a fight Linked Greeners get +2/+2 permanently
Shambler -> On End, Summon Two Zombies (+6/+6)
Bucke -> When my Barrier breaks, I gain +1/+1 permanently


Archdemon balance and more stability fixes will be coming in the next patch, then theres a surprise event on the horizon for a certain winter time festivity!

Scarlett Huntress + Hell Beach Huntress are on sale this week! I'm excited to hear what strategies you can come up with for the reverse attack Archdemon!

I apologise for the delay, its been a pretty hectic week. I'm hoping to get into a more regular patching schedule within the next few weeks as things stabilize. This ones a little rough and ready, but should hopefully take aim at improving demon/rat balance.

Units

Great Bite -> Now has a counter for every End it completes

Hellfire Cannon -> 6 Cost -> 10/4

Red Beast -> 5 Cost -> 6/4 -> Whenever a Friendly Unit causes Extra Damage, I Gain +2/+1 Permanently

Auxilary Rat -> No longer summons a rat on death


Artifacts

Ultimate Threat -> Your unit in slot 4 gains Tank (that unit is targeted first) and +10 Health

Rituals

Careless Caltrops -> Benched for now pending bug hunting.

Misc

Elo Updates - If you're GM+ You will no longer receive the MMR boost that other players get. This is the first in a series of smoothing out the curve a bit. If all GM players are interested in a RESET back to 3600 to remove the inflated MMR from launch let me know.

- Fixed a couple of client crashes.

Known Issues

- The 7 player lobby bug still eludes me, so if you get into a game where a player is missing, PLEASE F8 and if you can share any other info in discord or anything that would be fantastic!

- Disconnect when 3rd player dies to a ghost instead of seeing gameover screen. Do note that your stats arent effected by this and you gain all appropriate MMR, its just a client sync issue.

I'm hoping to resolve both of these in the next hotfix as they seem to be the worst bugs for now. As always if you crash please F8 when you have a chance after restarting and try to give as much detail about what happened!

The Giveaway is Over! Congrats to the winners!

Come stop by our twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/hellfiretactics and join the games!

We'll be giving away 3 x Recruit Bundle Keys in Twitch chat.

If you can't make it to the live stream, we'll also be giving away DLC codes in our discord to celebrate 1 week since launch! You can join here https://discord.gg/DGgrd7byM9 and enter the giveaway in our #free-relics channel.