Not sure if you noticed, but this week is Steam's Tower Defense Fest! The event is meant to help people discover more tower defense games, but it got me thinking... if it's a tower defense fest, maybe I could make something that fits the tower defense theme?

Then I remembered something I've seen quite a few times in the feedback form. Many players said that after playing Emberward, it reminded them of the old days playing WC3 or SC2 custom games. For a lot of people, that was their introduction to tower defense games (yeah, same for me). And since the last update added the Fort Tower, I thought...why not take this chance to revisit that style a bit?

In the new event map, you won't use any blocks to build your maze. Instead, we're going back to the classic approach - using Fort Towers to change the monsters' path. You'll also get 7 additional 2×2 towers, and you can use the Fort Tower's red upgrades to strengthen your defense depending on the situation. Although without blocks it doesn't really feel like Emberward, I think old TD players might find it pretty nostalgic. At least I had a lot of fun playing it 😆

This update also adds two "Endless Modes" that people have been asking for for a long time. I remember when Emberward first launched, I was pretty confused by all the different requests for endless modes. Some people wanted a separate endless mode, some wanted to keep building on the same map after clearing it, and others wanted to keep playing after defeating the boss…

Well, after this update, all three types of endless modes are now in the game!

For the next update, I'm planning to adjust some older towers and relic effects, and add the remaining features I'd like to finish before 1.0, such as custom games for Endless Mode, and some changes based on feedback. After that, it'll probably be time to focus on preparing for the 1.0 release, including translations for other languages and all the other things that need to be ready before launch.

That's all. Hope you enjoy this update!

- Refi

• New event map: Wyrmfell Bridge

  • In this resource‑starved frontier you’ll have to protect your flame the traditional way.

  • On Wyrmfell Bridge, you won't get any block cards. Instead, you use Fort Towers to redirect the monsters' path.

  • At the start of the game, you'll have Fort Tower and seven other 2x2 towers. Use the Fort Tower's red upgrade to strengthen your defenses!

  • Same as other event maps, this map will not be removed after Tower Defense Fest ends, so don't worry if you haven't unlocked it!

• In Campaign Mode, after clearing a level you can press the "More Challenges!" button to continue fighting waves on that level.

• In these extra waves the monsters' strength quickly ramps up. Their health and speed will gradually increase, while the gold they drop will gradually decrease.

• If a monster reaches your fire source, it won't cause damage, but the challenge immediately ends and you proceed to the next level.

• These optional challenges don't grant any exp points.

• You can end the challenge any time from the pause menu and continue to the next level.

  (I guess some of you might ask why this doesn't give exp points or other rewards, so...let me explain!

  This feature was added because many players mentioned that sometimes a level ends right when they feel like they've built a pretty good defense. They wanted to keep playing to test how good their defense really is.

  But if the extra challenge also gave additional rewards, players who just want to play normally might feel like they're missing out if they don't do the extra waves. Feeling forced to do optional content can really hurt the overall experience, so that's why these kinds of optional challenges won't give exp points or other rewards.)

  

• In Campaign Mode, after defeating the final Boss level you can press the "More Levels!" button to continue your adventure.

• Each level you advance increases overall difficulty by 15%, but since resources are limited at the start of each stage, enemy strength scales with wave number rather than being an instant 15% boost.

• For example:

  • On the first challenge level after the Boss, the first wave has no difference (+0%), but by the final wave enemy HP increases by +15%.

  • On the second challenge level, the first wave is still +0%, but the final wave is +30%.

  

• New level reward: Abandoned Forge

  • Similar to how the "Shop" relates to the "Mini Shop", the Abandoned Forge lets you perform Workshop's modifications.

  • You can modify, remove and enhance block cards just like in the workshop. However, the forge's energy is limited and can only be used twice before it goes out.

• Workshop/Abandoned Forge Ember Stone cost adjustments

  • Removing a card now costs 15 Ember Stones (up from 10).

  • Adding a rune now costs 20 Ember Stones (up from 15).

• Two new Compendium pages:

  • Completion Records: Displays each character’s completion progress for every difficulty and stage in Campaign Mode.

    (Honestly, I'm a bit worried some people will see this feature and then feel like they have to grind out 24 shards on every character and every map, end up burning themselves out...But a lot of players wanted this feature, so I added it anyway. It's just a record-tracking feature. Please don't feel like you have to force yourself to fill it all up!!)

    

  • Game Records: Shows up to the last 20 games you've played. (Because of new data added with this update, only games completed after this patch will appear here.)

    

• Sealed Citadel:

  • Corrupt Elementals no longer create Corrupted Tiles while moving, and the number of Corrupted Tiles created upon death has been reduced.

  • Reduced the Corrupted TIles created by Corrupted Altar each round.

  • New Ancient Machine - Purification Potion Mixer

    • Once activated, at the start of each turn you gain a "Purification Potion" card that instantly removes all Corrupted Tiles in its area.

    (I saw some feedback saying that corruption in the Sealed Citadel was too difficult to deal with, so this ancient machine has been added to give you more ways to handle corruption! This ancient machine will appear in all levels with corruption-spreading effects. (except the boss level)

• Fix an issue where Random Endless Mode could pick event maps.