Balance Updates: \nDev notes: Our general philosophy with balance updates is we want to change things gradually and not constantly be upending the meta. The changes here are our first step to address the most major concerns with Specters while not changing their core identity. We also tweaked some units and alliances to push them towards our targets.\n\nBlood Shaman\n* Bloodlust ability: +75% attack speed (was +50% attack speed)\n* Damage: 20 magical (was 18 magical).\n* Dev notes: These changes are an attempt to make the Blood Shamans feel a little bit more impactful.\n\nCrossbowman\n* Sunder Shot ability: Fixed bug where armor debuff was not being applied.\n* Attack rate: 2 seconds/attack (was 1.8)\n* Damage: 65 phy (was 75 phy).\n* Dev notes: DPS reduction to balance armor debuff fix.\n\nDragon\n* Damage: 65 magical (was 60 magical).\n\nSpecter\n* HP: 1 (was 25)\n* Improved ranged unit targeting. Previously, ranged units used to never change targets after they locked on to an enemy. Now, phy damaged ranged units can re-target and choose a non-Specter if it is range.\n* Dev notes: The Specter has been a very controversial unit. We are exploring a number of small changes (including changing Wildform Druids to magical damage) and will continue to monitor and tweak specters and their interactions. We may also explore pathing changes to phys melee units to ignore specters in the future.\n\nSquirrel\n* Nutritious Reserves ability replaced with Whisker Sense: \"Has a [15%/30%] chance to dodge non-splash attacks.\"\n* Dev notes: The previous ability had little impact given the Squirrels very low HP pool.\n\nWildform Druid\n* Damage: Wolf 14 magical (was 19 phy), Bear 45 magical (was 55 phy).\n* Dev notes: Switch to magic damage now allows Wildform Druids to act as a counter to Specters. Damage amount moderately reduced as armor will no longer mitigate it.\n\nChaos\n* Alliance bonus now grants +6 units (was +4).\n* Dev notes: The +4 increased unit count is a carryover from an earlier iteration of the game where overall supply caps were lower across the board. This brings the strength in line with our goal for the common alliances.\n\nSiege\n* The palisades granted by the alliance bonus has reduced pathing priority, so units are more likely to walk by them after creating a gap.\n* Dev notes: A common complaint about the Siege alliance was how the palisades would hold aggro too aggressively. This change should allow nearby attacking units to be better prioritized when a path exists.\n\nWizard\n* Alliance bonus now spawns 4 golems (was 2).\n* Golem HP: 1100 (was 1750)\n* Golem Damage: 75 damage phys (was 125 phys).\n* Dev notes: Wizards were underperforming as a rare alliance so we have increased the overall golem stats. Moving from 2 to 4 golems with worse stats/golem also serves as a small nerf to Wildcards.\n\nOther Updates:\n

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• You can now add AI players to private games to create any mix of human and AI players that you like.\n
• Your username now automatically updates to your Steam username.\n
• Fixed a bug where some players would still not get the crown icon even if they were GM on the leaderboard.\n
• Added support for server-wide chat muting. Our starting policy is going to be that server-wide mutes are reserved for extreme cases (e.g., hate speech, extreme toxicity, repeated personal attacks, etc.) and that mild swearing / trash talking will not result in a server mute. If you don\'t want to see a player\'s messages, you can always use right-click mute them to add them to your personal mute list.\n

The Poker Warlords demo will be undergoing maintenance this evening from 7-8PM Eastern.

The following bug fixes and QoL improvements have been added:\n

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• A networking bug was found and fixed, which has been tested to fix the \"desync\" bug where players would stay on the table scene but weren\'t able to take actions and appeared to others as timing out.\n
• League icons have been added to the leaderboard for all players. Players on the leaderboard top-16 still get the crown instead of the normal league icon.\n
• Fixed the \"Hide Chat\" setting not being persistent\n
• Fixed some UI panels displaying at the wrong size\n
• Fixed very long usernames displaying over the MMR on the main-menu leaderboard\n
• Moved \"Customize\" button from being inside the Menu to being above the Menu button. It had discoverability problems where it was.\n

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• Wildform Druid now updates to the Bear art and stats while in your hand (if empowered)\n
• Added some additional rules to the Deck Information panel to cover some key information that was previously missing in the game\n
• On Windows, the taskbar icon now flashes during your turn if the game is minimized or tabbed out\n
• Added a configurable turn start sound.\n
• Fixed a typo in Squirrel unit name \n
• Death alliance text changed from \"When a unit dies, it spawns a Skeleton Warrior\" to \"When one of your units dies, it spawns a Skeleton Warrior\" for additional clarity\n
• Fixed projectiles spinning faster on higher FPS settings\n
• The private game configuration window now says \"At least two players required to start\" instead of showing a disabled start button\n
• Added new Found Game sound\n
• Added new Marksmen alliance sounds (voice line + arrows)\n
• Added new Rock Hurler impact sound\n
• Added \"Cannot spawn specters\" to Wildcard description\n
• Fixed incorrect stats on Wildform Druid tooltip + rewrote Wildform Druid description\n
• Added max of three timeouts before a player gets kicked in multiplayer PvP games\n
• Fixed the \"no-chips\" bug caused by players joining games late\n

The Poker Warlords demo has been released for all to play!\n\nThe demo includes unlimited multiplayer PvP, custom games with friends, vs AI mode, a leaderboard and unlockable cosmetics. Coins and progress will carry over from the demo to the full game.\n\nWe hope you enjoy!

We have a big announcement! \n\nNext month, November 2025, there will be a major Poker Warlords drop! We can\'t say exactly what it is, but keep your eyes peeled and get your chips ready! It\'s going to be a big one!

Its hard to believe, but a year has passed since we first announced Poker Warlords to the world. Time flies when youre deep in the trenches of game dev (and when the code compiles on the first try... sometimes).
Weve been hard at work and weve got a lot to show for it. Grab your favorite beverage (we recommend something celebratory) and lets take a look at whats been happening behind the scenes!

What Weve Accomplished This Year

Steam Integration & Closed Beta

Cross-Play on Multiple Platforms

Art Refresh + Custom Assets

Tutorial Mode

Custom Discord Bot

Professional Music

Animations & Customizations

Big News: Demo Date Coming Soon!

Whats Next?

Wishlist Us on Steam!