A bumper update that introduces a lot of big changes: meta progression with multiple unlockable locations and classes, charms, rewinding, and more!

This update started with three goals: increase the difficulty, improve the deckbuilding experience, and add some meta progression. In previous versions it felt like the overall difficulty was a bit too easy, so we’ve tried to address that with: charms, the rewind system, new traps and some new enemy status effects. Deckbuilding should be improved with 14 new cards, many of which are multi-purpose. The biggest change is the addition of a meta progression layer, which should give players a lot more variety and something to strive towards. Let’s have a deeper look…

Community Discord

It’s time to create a small space where Cave Cards players can gather, get notified when new builds are ready, and discuss all things Cave Cards related. What strategies are working for you? Is a particular card overpowered? What are we working on next? This is the place for those questions and more!

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/AXHEZBsb5V 

The Discord is host to a little bot called Cardy. At the moment all they can do is give out keys to test the game, but in the future they might do more — let us know if you have any ideas. For the next while, new players will be joining the Discord and getting access to the game from Cardy.

Meta Progression

The biggest change in this update, which you’ll notice as soon as you start up the game, is the addition of a meta progression layer. The game now has a main menu and when you start a run you’ll select a location and class. The locations and classes are unlockable, and should offer some nice variety and longer term goals. This entire system is experimental and will probably be changed a lot in future updates, but we’re eager to get feedback on this first pass.

There are three locations: the Grotto, Catacombs and Abyss. The Catacombs is most similar to the previous version. The Grotto is a slightly easier and quicker location to get you started. You’ll find some new enemies in these locations, including the Ghost Moth, Gelatinous Cube, and Tough Pawn. The Abyss is a third placeholder location, put there as something to strive for — future updates will flesh this out more.

There are two classes: the Warrior and Frostmancer. The Warrior is the class from previous versions. The Frostmancer is a new class focussed around the Frozen status effect; it should play very differently from the Warrior.

As part of this work, the game now saves all your progress. This includes an improved compendium for cards and enemies that tracks your progress as you discover stuff. The game now also constantly saves during a run, so you can resume and pick it up later. In future updates we’ll try to migrate and keep meta progression, but any in-progress runs will probably need to be abandoned.

Charms

Another huge change in this update is the addition of charms. These appear after your first run and are small unlockable trinkets you can bring on runs. Some offer boons to make the game easier, but the majority offer an increase in difficulty. This might be small like giving enemies a little more health, or big like spawning more enemies every few turns! The trade-off is that charms that increase the difficulty will give you darkness, which is required to unlock things like the Abyss. The hope is that charms will allow players to opt into more difficult runs and have a variety of different experiences depending on which charms they select.

This is an extremely experimental system that will almost certainly change a lot in future updates. Play with it and let us know how you’d like to see it change!

Rewind System

The previous unlimited undo system has also received a big overhaul, now replaced with the rewind system. Each depth you have 3 rewind power, and must carefully use that to undo any mistakes and keep yourself alive. You can rewind the most recent action (playing a card, interacting with a shrine, etc.) for free, so you can still try stuff or undo mistakes. For 1 rewind power you can return to the beginning of your previous turn, and for 2 power you can return to the start of the current depth. Look out for the new rewind swirl icon in the bottom right corner.

The goal of this system is to make the game a bit harder and prevent you from getting into a bad state where you’re just repeatedly undoing and repeating the same/similar moves. This is just the first version of this new system, but it should hopefully make your decisions more weighty. However, if you dislike it, you can turn on unlimited rewinds in the settings menu. If you do that, please let us know why you dislike the system and what you’d like to see change.

Traps!

The game already had the Disk trap that would lurch towards you, but now there’s also the Stalactite and Arrow Trap. These new traps will fire a projectile in a straight line and hit the first thing in that line — be careful you don’t get caught unawares!

Status Effects

Fleshing out the system introduced in the last update, there are now six new status effects:

• Armor: reduce incoming damage
• Reactive Shield: gain a shield after taking damage
• Volatile: explode and damage surroundings after dying
• Strength: do more attack damage
• Poisoner: apply poison instead of normal damage
• Nimble: try flee after taking damage

These have been added to new and existing enemies, including: Spitting Bat (Poisoner), Crab (Armor), Spectre (Reactive Shield), Exploder (Volatile), and Spider (Nimble).

Cards

There are 14 new cards in this update, bringing us up to a total of 54 cards. Many of these new cards are multi-purpose, like Lunge and Rocket, which do both movement and attack. Hopefully these inspire new decks and strategies. You’re invited to look for these cards at Shrines, incorporate them into your deck, and try them out!

• Snipe
• Poison Clock
• Noxious Gases
• Shatter
• Blizzard
• Lunge
• Rocket
• Stomp
• Polar Wind
• Uppercut
• Newton's Third
• Telepolaris
• Strength Potion
• Heavy Hammer

Other Changes

• Destroyed things will get removed more quickly instead of being delayed till the end of the execution phase.
• Pushing from cards does 1 damage to pushed and impacted.
• Ethereal enemies like ghosts can also be pushed.
• Removed spiky effect that a few enemies used to have — not really applicable now.
• Non-ethereal enemies get damaged when trying to move into a wall.
• More minor polish and bug fixes.

Feedback

Any feedback or advice is appreciated, but for this version we’re especially interested in:

1. What do you think of the meta progression? Did you enjoy unlocking things?
2. What charms do you like/dislike? Do they make the difficulty feel better?
3. Do you like the new rewind system?
4. Did you come up with any fun/interesting combos/strategies?
5. General impressions?