Were excited to reveal our latest project, Hordes of Fate: A Hand of Fate Adventure, which blends Hand of Fates deckbuilding cards to life universe with a frenetic auto-shooter. Choose your hero, your weapons and encounter cards, and embark on a series of escalating challenges against hordes of foes to help restore the Dealers dominion over his court, one card at a time. Were thrilled to be returning to the world of Hand of Fate and expanding on this setting once again when Hordes of Fate : A Hand of Fate Adventure launches later in 2025. Wishlist now on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3075410

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2140690/CapesDemo/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2081080/Capes/

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• Fixed an exploit in Ranas Remarkable Fishing that allowed for infinite shard farming in The Wheel.
• Fix for game losing selection after Resuming in the pause menu.
• Added missing keyword to a couple items of equipment so that they work correctly with
• Empire Contacts, Mage's Workshop and the deckbuilder in Endless Adventures.
• Fixed blank option in World-Ending Wyrm.
• Ironpeak Curatives now correctly consumes food spell component.
• Mask of the Exile now awards the player gold as intended.
• Clarified the token unlock requirements on the Questing Maces

• Fixed issue in Alistairs Antiquities where you could return the item even if it had been sold or lost.
• Fixed an issue where Crown of Scales was checking for <= 50% Life instead of < 50% Life.
• Fixed long-standing Judgement bug where the player's current companion would become unequipped, resulting in missing companion names and non-progression on restart.
• Fixed issue where the number of steps until Keturah dies was not being set.
• Fixed bug where Helm of Exile was triggering on Gain cards instead of Pain cards.
• Fixed Runefire Flintlock not correctly detecting Keturah as the current companion.
• Fixed bug where Shadow Elders would not reappear after teleporting.
• Fixed a bug in Tavern Wager where all equipment was taken if a platinum item was won.
• Fixed a bug where Keturah was not being disabled after taking weapons in Merchants Favour.
• Fixed a bug where Keturah was not being disabled if her Faction Bounty was immediately collected on completion.
• Fixed Armour of Gluttony food defence.
• Some minor memory optimisations.
• Fixed some typos.

Our third major piece of DLC for Hand of Fate 2, A Cold Hearth, is now available for purchase! This pack introduces a new companion into the mix - the steel-hearted bounty-hunter, Cruel Keturah. Keturah's story takes you to the city of Ironpeak - a smog-shrouded haven of industry and commerce. Here you'll be able to add powerful new weapons and artefacts to your arsenal, including a range of firearms and crossbows, capable of punching a hole through even the toughest of foes! This DLC also launches with a number of free encounters and equipment, designed to give you a taste of the wonders of Ironpeak. To fold these new encounters into your deck, make sure you claim the latest pack from the New Content tab on the main menu. To purchase the new DLC, visit the store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/969730/Hand_of_Fate_2__A_Cold_Hearth/

Mercenaries and coinslaves seeking to freshen up their war-face can expect some bold additions to the character customizer with the Face of War Update! Six barbaric new hairstyles are available out of the gate, with a further 10 new facepaint options unlocked from the new utility encounter, the Goblin Tracker. Warpaint is a brand new facial customization option inspired by the fashion stylings of the goblin faction. Take to battle with a lurid death's head motif and teach your enemies the true meaning of fear! This update is free for all players - you'll just need to claim the rewards from the Additional Content page to add the tokens to your bowl.

We've enjoyed the community's response to the HoF2 Briarfolk modding contest, but today we're very happy to announce that the winning entry belongs to modder Dargenom, with his creation, Verdant Emergence. Dargenom went the whole hog, constructing a complete challenge full of unique encounters, new characters and a fun take on the established Briarfolk lore that surprised more than a few people in the office. Building on the base-defence structure of the campaign's Justice challenge, Dargenom took the concept and made it his own with a number of fun tweaks and innovations. For his dazzling work, Dargenom will receive a limited collector's edition of the upcoming Hand of Fate boardgame, Hand of Fate: Ordeals, signed by the team at Defiant. Congratulations, Dargenom, and congratulations to everyone in the community who rose to meet the Briarfolk's challenge! To play Verdant Emergence, simply subscribe to the mod on the Workshop page below, and access it from the mods section of the HoF2 title screen. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1539166826

1.7.4

• Fixed Grobben showcase
• Fixed issue with Lost Boy encounter removing enemies in Endless Mode
• Fixed Drunken Hero Endless Trial soft lock
• Removed Quick Bash Charge trait
• Increased Tacticians Buckler defence from 1 to 8
• Fixed a bug where Hali's Ward erroneously targeted allies
• Removed erroneous Palace Armoury token

• Fixed 'shadow run' achievement.
• Fixed Veles feeding.
• Fixed some issues playtesting within a modding project when expected cards weren't marked visible.
• Added challenge card template to modding project.

• Fix crash with shadow elder.

• Fix Crown of Scales was reducing life damage even if life was greater than 50.
• Fix Servant and the Beast achievements.
• Fix modding visibility of new traits.

• Servant and the Beast

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We are thrilled to release our second major piece of DLC for Hand of Fate 2: The Servant and the Beast. This DLC adds a brand new challenge to the campaign mode and a weird and wonderful new companion - Veles, the Shadow Beast! Helping Veles achieve his mysterious goals will unlock a variety of new utility encounters and equipment cards, as well as provide you with an ideal opportunity to check out the changes made to the base game with our recent Combat Reforged update. And you'll need every edge you can get - this expansion adds the Shadow faction to the monster deck, and the beasts of the Lysa Hora will fight tooth and nail to preserve their dominance over the mortal realm. To purchase the new DLC, check out the store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/945450/Hand_of_Fate_2__The_Servant_and_the_Beast/

• Fixed an exception where ragdoll bodies weren't being processed properly.
• Bugfix for processing 'removed' token owners for challenges.
• Fixed a couple of modding editor bugs.
• Fixed panel depth issue on Mod dialog.

Let the game-making begin! From now until the 15th of October, we'll be holding a modding contest on the Steam Workshop to showcase our new Briarfolk faction! From deep within the Aeldwen Forest, they come - but are they friend or foe? We want you to tell us! The contest is open to mod-makers of all levels of experience, and to mods of all sizes: single encounter, encounter chain, companion, challenge - it's up to you to wow us with your Briarfolk adventure! And what will you be competing for? The winning modmaker will receive a copy of the Kickstarter-exclusive special edition of Hand of Fate: Ordeals, signed by the team at Defiant. This limited item is exclusive to backers - it won't be available as a retail item, and it comes packed with additional game modes and content. You don't want to miss your chance to own this beautiful collector's item.
Eligible mods will need to be uploaded to the Steam Workshop between the 17th of September and the 15th of October and include the words Briarfolk Community Mod Contest in the Workshop description. We'll be providing modding tips and highlighting some of our favorite mods over the course of the competition on the forums and our Discord channel. Work has also begun on establishing a modding wiki, which will make it a little easier to find the exact bit of editor-related info you're looking for. The HoF2 Modding Wiki can be found here. To help players find and activate mods in-game, we've taken the opportunity to spruce up the in-game modding UI. You'll now be able to see additional mod details as well as view a carousel of content highlighted by the dev team. So what are you waiting for? It's time to grab a copy of the HoF2 SDK and leave your mark on the Game of Life and Death!

• Fixed bugs in the ragdoll reanimation logic.
• Fixed a bug where disabled characters got locked in their current state.
• Fixed a bug where phalanx units could get locked into a flurried state on respawn.
• Fixed typos in the Briarfolk Endless Adventure.
• Fixed modding editor default unity editor version.
• Fixed Briarfolk trait visibility in the editor.

• Added health bar portraits images for Briarfolk Knights
• Fixed a bug where abilities with cooldowns on start weren't working in The World
• Fix for Goblin Endless Adventure
• Fixed showcase text for the Blackguard's Platemail
• Fixed an issue in the Blacksmith encounter that was not setting the correct armour bonus
• Chinese Localisation for new content.

The Combat Reforged update is out! For all the details, check out our patch notes and combat changes breakdown. Accompanying this patch is a brand new faction - the ancient and enigmatic Briarfolk. While lucky players may have already encountered them in Endless Mode, we're inviting the community to help tell their story - we want to play your version of the Game of Life and Death! We'll be holding a month-long community modding contest from the 17th of September (closing on the 15th of October) to find our favorite Briarfolk mod. The contest is open to any kind of content - a single encounter, encounter-chain, challenge, companion, you name it - as long as the Briarfolk are a major element within the mod. What are you competing for, you ask? The winning mod will receive a copy of the Kickstarter-exclusive special edition of Hand of Fate: Ordeals, signed by the team at Defiant. This is a limited run item, folks! It is a thing of beauty, and I'm going to have a hard time parting with it.
Eligible mods will need to be uploaded to the Steam Workshop between the 17th of September and the 15th of October and include the words Briarfolk Community Mod Contest in the Workshop description. We'll be highlighting some of our favorite mods over the course of the competition through our new in-game mod interface as well as on the forums and our Discord channel. To demonstrate what can be done with the new faction, I've whipped up an example mod called Friend of the Forest. This 3 card encounter chain (with custom blessing) can be included in any modded save and will allow you to face our leafy new foes on the battlefield. The project will also be released alongside the modding tools in a future update for any curious modders wanting to take a peek under the hood. As an added bonus, we've made some big changes to our in-game mod activation UI that should make it easier for players to switch to a mod save and find new content. Now get out there and show the Dealer how it's done!

We're proud to release our latest update to the game, 1.6.0, which brings a whole suite of changes to combat. Batter your foes, unleash the power of your artefacts and enjoy enhanced manoeuvrability with Hand of Fate 2: Combat Reforged! Bash Abilities

• All armours now have Bash abilities
• Bash abilities charge based on number of Defends
• While uncharged, Bash causes a brief stun and scales the duration based on the amount of charge
• Charge resets when a bash is used
• Improved responsiveness of 'bash'
• 5x existing armour cards now have new tokens to unlock to upgrade them
• 3x existing shield cards now have new tokens to unlock to upgrade them
• Number of Defends to charge bash degrade in combat, similarly to weapon ability charge

• Stun Bash: Cause Stun to a single target
• Stun Blast: Causes Stun to an area
• Knockdown Bash: Causes Knockdown to a single target
• Confuse Bash: Causes Confuse, enemies will fight on the player side for a short time
• Bleed Bash: Causes damage over time, and slows the enemy attacks and movement
• Freeze Bash: Causes Freeze to a single target

• Cooldowns on all artefacts have been greatly reduced
• Improved the responsiveness of other actions after using an artefact.

• Horns no longer lose their charge, instead they have a set number of uses per combat
• There is a warm-up after the combat begins until the item can be used
• Some items have been slightly rebalanced to accommodate these changes
  • Cry of Victory (horn): 1 once per combat
  • Heroes Call (horn): 3 uses per combat
  • Will of the Emperor (horn): 3 uses per combat
  • Will of the Northerner (changed from potion to horn): 3 uses per combat

• Option to enable/disable in the settings menu
• While active, scores are not uploaded for Endless Adventures.
• Auto Finishers: Attacking in the direction of an enemy in Knockdown automatically performs the finisher.
• Auto Riposte: Successfully defending with Light or One-Handed Weapons automatically ripostes.
• Weapon Charge: Weapon charge does not reset when hit in combat
• Increased Damage: Weapons deal increased damage in combat

• Optional enemy health bars - availble in the settings menu (recommended!)
• Green and Red attack window consistency
• Light (green) attacks can now be evaded
• Evade
  • Player no longer gets stuck when evading into other characters
  • Evade occurs in the direction pressed
  • Improved evade distance consistency
• Weapon Ability Charge - the number of hits required to perform weapon abilities has been reduced on some equipment allowing those abilities to be used more frequently
• Reduced 'stickiness' after defending/riposting - only the riposte autotargets the defender, subsequent attacks can be redirected bashed on input direction
• Increased chance of hits causing Knockdown to low health enemies
• Dual Wielded ripostes will cause a short stun if the enemy attempt to counter-attack (see Enemy Rebalance)
• Increased responsiveness of followup actions after using an artefact

• General
  • Faction Riposte bonuses deal more damage: from 125 to 150%
  • Faction Bane bonuses deal more damage: from 125 to 135% (Holy is 150%)
• The following items and blessings no longer trigger from the Campfire encounter:
  • Armour of Gluttony
  • Brigand's Shield
  • Morton's Magic Door
  • Plentiful Harvest
• Wind's Return (light weapons) - Weapon Ability: New targeting system for weapon ability
• Harvest Blade (heavy weapon) - Reaping Strike: Ability bonus excludes Corrupted and/or Undead - Food Bounty: Bonus excludes finishers against Corrupted.
• The Peeler (heavy weapon) - Platinum: This weapon is now Platinum.
• Last Hope (one-handed weapon) - Cursed Strike: Fixed a bug where the ability was adding +5 Damage per curse instead of +10 - Brimsone: This weapon is now Brimstone.
• Armour of Gluttony (armour) - Food Defence: Defence bonus is now a % increase of current defence value, rather than adding a fixed value, i.e. +30% Defence, not +3, when Defence is 10 - Gain Food: Gain +2 food after any encounter where you draw a gain card. Excludes the Campfire encounter.
• Platinum Armour (armour) - Resist Damage: Reduces damage by 10% regardless of defence value. - Defence: Defence has been reduced from 30 to 22
• The Lord's Diadem (helm): - Slow Swing: Fixed a large number of instances where the precision gambit would not swing slower when this item was equipped
• Chefs Charm (ring) - Healthy Eating: Life received is reduced from double to +50% (rounded up)
• Bullseye (ring) - Wide Beam: Increases the size of the precision gambit beam even further, same rules apply for multiple zones (see Precision Gambit above)
• Mother's Blessing (blessing) - Blessed: Only gain a blessing if you have more curses than blessings.

• Thieves Counter-Attacks - Thieves now have a chance to attack immediately after their initial attack is defended - Riposting the initial attack with a Light Weapon causes stun to the Counter-Attacking enemy, and charges Bash by +1 - The following thieves have been updated: Thug, Silencer, and Assassin
• Wraith - Wraith's now have a warm-up phase before they start casting their drain attack - During this period the Wraith can be interrupted to prevent the spell being cast - The Wraith has an offscreen indicator during this warm-up phase
• Mages - Mage's have a warm-up phase before they start casting their magic pool attacks - During this period the Mage can be interrupted to prevent the spell being cast - The Mage's has an offscreen indicator during this warm-up phase
• Northerners - The timing window to the first hit of the Retaliate Attack has been increased - The following Northerners have been updated: Warrior, Berserker, and Tyrant

• Goblin Clips have been removed as Endless Adventure bosses
• Goblin Chiefs have been added as an Endless Adventure boss
• Escape duration for Clips in the Endless boss fight have been increased

• Ariadne - Attack Damage: Ariadne causes more damage in combat - Armour Breaker: Increased armour damage on this ability - Melee Tank: Ariadne causes more general damage to armour when she attacks - Gauntlet: Platinum card now has even more health
• Colbjorn - Fire: Platinum card now deals more damage to Northerners
• Estrella - Combo Attack: Estrella reliably causes Knockdown on the final hit of her combo attack - Blunderbuss: Estrella's firearm now causes more damage when her card is Platinum
• Malaclypse - Ranged Magic: Spells now ignore defence as intended - Overcharged: Increased the damage of the shield AoE
  
  [ 2018-09-06 06:54:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Combat Reforged (see Combat Reforged post for a complete list of changes )

• All armours now have Bash abilities
• Cooldowns on all artefacts have been greatly reduced
• Improved the responsiveness of other actions after using an artefact.
• Option to enable/disable Apprentice Mode in settings
• Optional enemy health bars available in the settings menu (recommended!)
• Combat balances
• The default Precision Gambit beam in the precision gambit has been widened
• If more than one zone is touching the beam when it stops, the best zone is chosen, i.e. Huge Success > Success > Failure > Huge Failure
• Equipment and Blessing Rebalance
• Enemy Rebalances
• Goblin Clips have been removed as Endless Adventure bosses
• Goblin Chiefs have been added as an Endless Adventure boss
• Escape duration for Clips in the Endless boss fight have been increased
• Companion damage and power rebalances

• Created Mod Menu item to manage installed mods and highlight top rated mods on the Steam Workshop
• Removed 'cog' icon from Load Game Dialog.
• Select an empty slot in the Load Game Dialog to clone any existing slot, and enable mods if desired.

• Mod tools have been updated to require version 2017.4.2f2 of Unity.

• Previously a few challenges had the ability to be played at a higher difficulty when certain equipment cards were included in your deck. These harder modes are now replayable even after the tokens have been won from the respective items.

• Added Briarfolk faction and accompanying Endless Mode Adventure

• Fixed a bug where enemies could change from light to heavy or heavy to light mid attack
• Constant feedback when being hit when vulnerable vs invulnerable
• Fixed a number of instances where multiple attackers could attack the player at the same time
• Improved transitions to evade
• Fixed a number of instances where input was lost transitioning from Armour Break strikes to other actions
• Fixed issues with transitioning from Defend to other actions in certain scenarios (input was being ignored)
• Fixed a bug where the Ogre could instantly escape his 'stuck' state and perform a heavy (red) attack
• Fixed the Blacksmith encounter upgrading defence by the incorrect amount

Big changes are coming to Hand of Fate 2's combat next week! This update is designed to empower players of all skill levels, whether they're fresh to the Game of Life and Death or tyrant-toppling champions. The most exciting change is the expansion of our bash ability. Previously limited to disrupting shielded enemies and cracking armour-plating, bash will now knock back and stun all enemy types, and can even be charged up (through successful blocking or taking damage) with more powerful effects. Subsequently, our shields and armour sets have received an overhaul to allow for fun new combinations - freeze your foes, knock them to their knees for easy takedowns, or even batter them into temporarily joining your side. Artefacts have also undergone a generous reworking, with many of them upgrading to a more versatile "uses per combat encounter" system. This should make artefacts a much more viable deckbuilding choice, and ought to encourage players to more frequently bring their powerful abilities to bear in combat. Under the hood, we've made improvements to player character responsiveness and evasion, addressing a number of issues from sticky animation transitions to unreliable dodge vulnerability. We've also looked over enemy behaviours and added increased tells to certain enemy attacks to ensure players are never unfairly blind-sided. Finally, new situational health bars have been added to basic enemies, which should help overwhelmed players quickly determine the order in which to dispatch their foes. Health bars can be toggled in the options menu, but once you turn them on you may not want to go back. This patch also introduces a long-requested feature: the return of Hand of Fate's Apprentice Mode. The new mode, available in the settings menu, is designed for players more interested in the deckbuilding/narrative side of the game and less into the fighting. When activated, Apprentice Mode automates combat maneuvers like ripostes and finishers while increasing player damage output. It also stops weapon charges from resetting during combat, ensuring Apprentice players are able to access their powers more frequently in a melee. For a complete breakdown of the changes, check out next week's patch notes. An in-depth list of changes will also be made available as a sticky post in the steam forums. That's not all we've got planned for this update! Next week we'll have a very special announcement for the modder and mod-enthusiast community, so stick around.

• Fix Portal Creature bug.
• Fixed issue where challenge unlock requirements did not correctly update.
• Fixed issue where certain vibration effects would play even if vibration was disabled.
• Fixed issue where disconnected controller prompt could appear behind other dialogs.
• Fixed various issues with loss of selection when claiming Additional Content.
• Fixed minor text bug in Sea Dog Hali utility.

• Fixed issue in companion deckbuilder which could cause loss of selection
• Devourer now gives endless points for removing a single item.
• Improved performance on some encounters that use a large quantity of cards
• Added sorting to shops
• Stop cards that come out of a token cutting into each other.
• Fixed bottom left menu not appearing in deckbuilder on first load.
• Magnetic Turtle properly returns your equipment now.
• Fixed Female player tunic colours being incorrect
• Added pendulum preview to modding editor.
• Fix some unlocalised Hubie text
• Ensure selection is correctly resumed after closing an Addon Feature Item on the Challenge Map

• Revealed Hubie dialog option in Burning Building encounter.
• Improved some Korean localisation.
• Fixed Dealer hat in Twitch.
• Fixed 'dev dungeon' in the modding project.
• Fixed ‘shard editor’ in the modding project.

1.5.3

• Fix for player becoming unresponsive when fighting armoured enemies.
• Fix for replaying with same companion.
• Fix some localisation problems reported on the google sheet.

• Added traits to the Hali encounter.
• Fixed Hubie's Slippery trait.

• Fix for portal creature.

• Outlanders and Outsiders

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*Offer ends Sunday at 10AM Pacific Time

The first piece of paid DLC for Hand of Fate 2, Outlands & Outsiders, is now available for purchase! It's time to answer the call of the Mournful Wastes! https://store.steampowered.com/app/862450/Hand_of_Fate_2__Outlands_and_Outsiders/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396674461 Our last spotlight focused on the devilish Crullford Fiend mod, but today's feature is a decidedly gentler experience - Ruben the Claw Troll. The original Ruben mod was an encounter chain focused on spending time with an adorably mischievous baby claw troll. A sweet and elegant exploration of the bonds that form between people and their pets, its designer, Cheeseness, has since adapted it into a separate challenge for ease of consumption. It was easy enough to grab Cheese and ask about the inspiration behind Ruben, as he handles our Linux port and can generally be found making himself useful in our forums or our QA processes. Cheeseness: I've always found the claw troll cubs depicted in the Fallen Treasure card art to be adorable. I put together some custom emoticons for the Hand of Fate Discord server, which were well received and prompted me to make up a boisterous character to go with their joyous little faces, which drew a little inspiration from a yellow labrador that my Dad got after I moved out of home. He was a good boy with a big heart, who sometimes didn't quite know his own strength or understand how things like doors worked, but always wanted to help and be involved with whatever people were up to. Over the years, he became something of a celebrity, and at one point my Dad received an invite to a function addressed to "Frodo and Henry." While testing the HoF2 mod tools, I started to put together a Ruben encounter based on one of Frodo's many shenanigans from when he was a puppy - mysteriously showing up with stuffed toys that nobody could work out the origin of. Why did you decide to make an encounter chain? Frodo passed away several years ago, and as the first Ruben encounter came together, I realised that there was some value in writing down these stories somewhere before they start to fade from my memory. It was my Dad's birthday in April, and I worked hard to get as many of the encounters playable as I could before then. He got to be the first playtester of the Ruben chain and that was a moving experience for both of us. I've written elsewhere that it's important to make sure that good times and positive memories aren't lost to grief, and making the Ruben chain was part of that for me. My reasoning for releasing Ruben out as an encounter chain rather than a focused Challenge was a combination of emotional impact and pacing. Our small friends are with us as across significant portions of our lives, and getting to know Ruben one encounter at a time across many runs felt like a better fit for attempting to convey some of what it's like to have a pet in your life. I think this mirrors what we see with the companion chains in Hand of Fate 2, where we get to know Mal, Col, Estrella and Ari over time. With a chain, there's more opportunity for memories to be formed and for players to take a break and reflect on their experiences. Did you find your design changed when you made the Challenge variant? From the beginning, I'd always planned to created a companion mod for The Ruben the Claw Troll that allowed playing through the chain as a linear Challenge. Mostly this was to test the mod dependency functionality, but I also think that while it's not the intended experience, it could be a nice way to make the story accessible to reviewers, streamers, anybody who wants to get to know Ruben but doesn't want to play Hand of Fate 2, or players who've already completed the chain and would like to replay it. From a design perspective, I didn't feel the need to make any deep reaching changes. Most of the changes I made were small things aimed at preventing the Challenge from interfering with chain progress and helping the chain flow more nicely when packed into a short experience. I added some interstitial encounters between each of the main Ruben cards to indicate that time is passing, I also removed the options to skip Ruben encounters, and prevented token unlocks so that the chain's final reward can't be acquired unless you play it properly. The Challenge also doesn't give you an opportunity to get the Eternal Hope blessing... What were the biggest challenges you encountered while making Ruben? The Ruben the Claw Troll chain is primarily text/story oriented, and I wanted to find ways to mechanically highlight moments and provide a sense of stakes/rewards without resorting to combat or adding required equipment. I tried to make good use of each of the different gambit types in ways that resonate with what's happening at the time. For a precision gambit that can occur at the beach, I tried to make the pendulum targets give a sense of waves with their movement style, or when trying to rub down a shedding Ruben so that he doesn't track carapace flakes all through the house, difficult chance cards reflect how wriggly and unpredictable that process is. Writing Ruben was emotionally intense as well, and definitely more draining than most of the other writing I've done in the past couple of years. It was hard (but rewarding) work. In hindsight, is there anything you'd do differently? Not really! Aside from not having as much time as I'd have liked to devote to working on card art, I'm pretty happy with how it has all come together. Is there anything you want to see added to the modding tools, or to Hand of Fate 2 itself? We've been talking about maybe adding some shortcuts for pendulum target alignment/distribution, and I'd love for us to be able to allow for custom trait, challenge and info prompt icons. Beyond that, reverse centaurs? What advice would you give to people wanting to get into modding HOF2? The modding tools can be a bit confusing at first, but they can be a bunch of fun. If you find yourself stuck or want to bounce some ideas around, hop into Discord and have a chat with the modders and developers (including myself) who hang out there. What's your favorite HoF2 Challenge? That's a tough question to answer! All of HoF2's Challenges offer a different angle on how Hand of Fate 2's core mechanics can be expressed. As I sit here and look through them, I can't settle on one. I can't even settle on two. I've given up on trying to narrow it down to just three, so I'll let Ruben decide. I love the Sharptooth encounter and used that card's art as a placeholder for the Mayor card in the Ruben chain, so let's go with The Hermit, which constantly has players weighing up the risks and rewards of exploration, presents the Empire as a tangible threat for the first time, and offers some clues for the overarching plot and continuity of Hand of Fate 2. Thanks, Cheeseness! To spend some time with this gentle creature, head over to the Steam Workshop page and subscribe to Ruben, available as either an encounter chain or a single challenge!

We are excited to unveil our first premium DLC pack for Hand of Fate 2, Outlands & Outsiders! Venture into the hostile Mournful Wastes in the Mapmaker challenge, earning new equipment and utility encounters! Then enlist the aid of our goblin companion - Hubie the Orphan - and help him grapple with a world-ending prophecy to unlock his true potential. Outlands & Outsiders launches next week! Check out the store page for regional pricing.

If you've wrapped up Hand of Fate 2's campaign mode and want to try an adventure with a sting in its tail, Dargenom's full-length challenge, The Crullford Fiend, might be the mod you're looking for! A self-contained story of demonic possession, The Crullford Fiend tasks players with gathering the ingredients needed to perform an exorcism before a malevolent entity takes over their body. Featuring a plethora of well-written new encounters (as well as new branches for existing utility cards) the Crullford Fiend made quite an impression in the studio upon its release! I caught up with the designer, Dargenom, to find out what led to the creation of his mod. Dargenom: I drew most of the inspiration from my favorite challenge in the game, the devil. I wanted to emulate all the things I loved about that challenge, while at the same time adding plenty of replayability and putting some unique twists on existing mechanics, such as the campfire encounter no longer being a safe haven. How did you plan the design of the Crullford Fiend - especially the many card and companion synergies? My modding philosophy has always been about making things that feel like they could have been in the base game, so from the start, I already had a good idea of how to design the mod. Things like companion-specific dialogue, new interactions for existing encounters and tying the challenge's blessing & curse theme into the rewards all felt very natural and made it onto the to-do list on day one. It wasn't until I was sure of how I wanted each new card in the mod to be that I actually started working in the editor. What were the biggest challenges you encountered while making the Crullford Fiend? The biggest challenge for me while working on the mod was figuring out all of the little intricacies and possibilities of the modding tools that aren't touched upon in the documentation. It can be fiddly to figure those things out, especially if you've never worked with unity before, but after some trial and error, I learned what worked and what didn't. Some of the things I found I ended up incorporating into the mod, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other people manage to put together. In hindsight, is there anything you'd do differently? One thing I'm kicking myself over is that I made the challenge uncompromisingly difficult for players who haven't completed much of the story mode, as you require a good selection of cards unlocked to stand a fighting chance. What I could have done was make the challenge easier, but include an equipment card that unlocks the harder version of the challenge, much like the empress challenge and encrusted mace. Is there anything you want to see added to the modding tools, or to Hand of Fate 2 itself? I'd love to see more options in the modding tools for editing or creating equipment cards. Currently, it doesn't seem possible to pick and match different equipment models and abilities, which is a shame and inhibits some cool ideas. As for Hand of Fate 2 itself, I would like to see a way to sort cards by rarity while deckbuilding, as it's a bit of a hassle to build a deck with brimstone or platinum synergy when you have to scroll through 80+ equipment cards to look at them all. What advice would you give to people wanting to get into modding HOF2? Don't be afraid to ask questions! The people at defiant have been super helpful when it comes to answering questions or fixing unity bugs or other problems. They did a great job in helping me get started with the modding tools and I wouldn't have gotten this mod finished if I hadn't asked for help when needed. Who's your favorite HoF2 companion? Colbjorn by far, he stuns hordes of enemies, helps you master the bones and has the most badass questline. And finally, what you do when you're not making HoF2 mods that impress the entire design team at Defiant? When I'm not modding, I dabble in writing fantasy fiction, amateur game development and playing D&D and boardgames with friends. Thanks, Dargenom! Make sure you go to the Hand of Fate 2 Steam Workshop and subscribe to The Crullford Fiend!

1.4.5

• Fix a bug with endless card picking.

• Fix a translation issue.

Endless Balance Updates:

• Reduced numbers of enemies throughout Endless Adventures to reduce combat duration
• Rebalanced brimstone enemies and reduced their health bonus to reduce combat duration
• Added combat difficulty modifiers after each adventures to offset lower difficulty of fewer enemies
• Bug fixes and stability updates

• Fixed enumeration of asset bundles in the modding project on linux.
• Fixed more mod dependency issues in the modding editor.

• Fixed a bug where Knight’s Helm was not being drawn as a Platinum card in Elder’s Gift encounter
• Fixed wrong companion line in Left for Dead encounter in Strength Challenge
• Fixed necromancer reanimation exception bug
• Fixed blocker in Temperance campfire

• Added Endless Mode adventure end card translated titles.
• Fixed the lighting on the dealer.
• Fixed a bug that prevented hair colour/hood changes at the camp fire when using a gamepad.
• Reduced snare duration slightly and increased the window that Gnomes will fail to snare after the player has been snared.

• Added Goblin Faction enemies.
• Added two new Goblin Encounters.
• Added new equipment and two equipment upgrades.
• Added Goblin Faction Endless Adventures.
• Updated Snare struggle input to support tapping Defend (note that the previous struggle input of 'rapid movement/waggle stick' is still valid. Struggle input UI can be toggled in the settings menu)
• Updated the zoom level of the 'view map' camera and added ability to pan using movement/left stick inputs
• Loading time optimisations.
• Lots of graphics optimisations.
• Option to remove hit pause.

The latest free update for Hand of Fate 2 is live, bringing with it a brand new enemy faction - Mischief, the goblin suit! No longer content with making merry in their underground cities, goblin hunting parties now roam the surface - their goals a mystery, their methods confounding! The goblins can be found (and fought) throughout the core encounter deck, and all new goblin encounters can be unlocked from the Gnomish Exchange and Goblin Retainer cards. For folks wanting to tangle with their new foes as quickly as possible, these are the cards to add to your deck. Who knows, if you impress the right folks, you may be able to earn yourself a valuable goblin-vanquishing artefact! Endless Mode also expands today, with a brand new goblin-centric adventure and new adventures for each of the enemy factions, in addition to a raft of bug fixes and balance improvements. So keep an eye on your possessions and watch your opponent's hands closely - with the release of the Goblin Faction DLC, the Dealer is seeing green!

Keep a firm hand on your scabbard and hide your coin-purse, because the goblins will soon be on the march! These pint-sized pranksters are pouring from their underground cities, leaving mischief and mayhem in their wake. What kind of terrible new threats can you expect in our upcoming Goblin Faction DLC? Goblin Warriors
The foot soldiers in the goblin army, as likely to evade an incoming blow as they are to entrap the player with a debilitating bear hug. Stay on your toes! The goblin's secret weapon is his Jug o' Courage, a potent brew that, when consumed, gives the tiny beast the strength and mania required to begin his whirlwind morningstar attack. If you see a goblin chugging down in the middle of combat you'll need to interrupt them or you're in for a bad time. Goblin Hunters
These wiley archers are just as unpredictable as their sword-wielding allies, but they're also able to pepper their opponent (in this case, you) with arrows from afar. Good news! We've added new goblin-arrow deflecting equipment to the game. The bad news is you'll have to kill a bunch of goblins to get it. Goblin Clips *Image Stolen* You've likely met these fellows in the employ of the thieves guild, but they're just as annoying when in the company of fellow goblins. Why did we even bring them up? Ugh. They keep stealing my good daggers. Witch Doctors
The magic innate to goblins is strange and mostly irritating. Watch for the Witch Doctor's chanting or fall victim to the slowing effects of his stasis spell, and the subsequent explosion of magic energy. Gnomes
The proud, pugilistic gnomes would prefer to have nothing to do with their ancient enemies, the goblins. So why are they included in this free expansion? And who's that silhouetted goblin standing ominously in the shadows? How curious. At any rate, a gnome by itself is hardly a threat. Unfortunately, you're rarely going to face off against a gnome by itself. These new goblin enemies will be added into random monster encounters throughout the deck, along with two new utility encounters unlocked through new narrative branches added to Gnomish Exchange and Goblin Retainer. Expect to find goblins in your Hand of Fate 2 decks soon!

• Updated Wraiths so there is a limit to the number of drains that occur at a time.
• Fixed Wraith Drain so it would damage whoever it targeted (not always the player).
• Added Trial and Adventure difficulty stats to respective cards
• Fixed bug where selection could be lost in the Deckbuilder
• Fixed Bad Wager curse.
• Fixed a bug where Suit of Ice would draw Equipment Gain cards.

• Dealing with Thieves: Fixed a bug where the added cards would never be drawn from the deck.
• Pauper Dilemma: Fixed a bug that caused the encounter to end unexpectedly.
• Updates to Northerner standard attack.
• Fixed resolution switching.

• Fixed fairy ring from breaking if you don't have Mother's Blessing.
• Fixed customisation freezing on challenge map.
• Fixed profile progress percentage being displayed as 0%.
• Fixed blank screen after going from main menu -> load -> main menu
• Fixed some bugs installing and uninstalling mods on steam.
• Fixed Hired Hand ending early.
• Updated Chinese localisation.

Today's Deal: Save 15% on Hand of Fate 2!*

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Today’s Hand of Fate 2 update includes the HoF2 SDK - The Game Master’s Toolkit! These are the same tools used at Defiant to create the HoF2 campaign our future DLC content. They’re powerful content creation tools and we’re excited to see what you make with them! With the Game Master’s Toolkit, you’ll be able to create anything from a simple encounter all the way up to a full-fledged challenge with its own win conditions, blessings, curses and artefact rewards. Important note: the tools are still in beta! While they’re fully functional, there may be unexpected issues to be patched later. If you do run into trouble, be sure to head over to the Modding Discussion Board in our Steam forums. To get up and running with the toolkit, look for the Hand of Fate 2 SDK in the Tools dropdown of your Steam library. You’ll also need to download version 2017.2.1f1 of the Unity Engine, found here. More detailed instructions are contained here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b38u34JAH-16A3PRC5y6fUe9ycGk851mTy5cgjohznY/edit?usp=sharing Good luck! The Game of Life and Death is now in your capable hands!

Added workshop and modding support. Added Chinese VO. The Tower has been modified to accommodate a future update... Way too many small bug fixes and optimisations to list individually, however they do include fixes for these specific issues that have been causing people problems:

• Fix for a Card being left on screen after Duplicating a Card in a Wheel Gambit.
• Fix for the Game Crashing when Desert Trek was selected in the Forgotten dreams Encounter
• Fixed Colbjorn sword not giving +2 weapon charge on Riposte against Northerner enemies
• Fix for an unequipped Helmet being lost when giving an equipped Helmet over in the SpyGlass encounter
• Fixed The Shield Won from the Sun Challenge Ooze Encounter could be sold but not equipped

We’re excited to reveal that next week’s Hand of Fate 2 update will include a long-requested feature: the HoF2 Game Master’s Toolkit! For hundreds of years the Game of Life and Death has been shaped exclusively by the Dealer, but at long last, the power of the cards is in your hands. Armed with the very same editing tools used in-studio, players will be able to create their own encounter cards, challenges, equipment, dungeon layouts and more and then upload them directly to the Steam Workshop for distribution. It’s time to exercise your inner game master! Write that perfect goblin adventure you’ve long had in the back of your mind, give it a chance minigame, a tavern brawl, and a unique reward. String it together with a few more encounters and you’ve got a full-blown adventure - with the HoF2 editor the possibilities are endless. We’re keen to see the what kind of wild and wonderful encounters our community creates, and we’ll be showcasing our favorites on a regular basis. You’ve bested the Dealer in combat - now it’s time to become the true master of the Game of Life and Death! The editor works through Unity and comes with all the documentation you need to create your own custom HoF2 adventures. To install the editor, simply search the Tools category of your Steam Library for the Hand of Fate 2 SDK and begin downloading the files. Good luck, we can’t wait to see your adventures in the Steam Workshop!

Today sees the release of the first of our free add-ons for Hand of Fate 2 - The Dealer's Apprentice! On starting a new run, players will unlock new Dealer-inspired customization options, while those who have completed the final challenge will be awarded the ultimate prize: a Dealer companion of their very own! To claim the Dealer's Apprentice, simply head into the new Additional Content menu item at the start screen and select "Claim". The Dealer's Apprentice is just a tiny taste of the cool ways we'll be expanding Hand of Fate 2 in the new year. It's no secret that we've been working on a full-featured Endless Mode - one that will provide both hardcore and casual players with fresh challenges and a ton of new unlockables. Beyond that (and without spoiling too much), we've got a brand new enemy faction in the works, even more companion characters, engaging new challenges, and some exciting new weapons and artefacts, as well as cool tweaks to a few already in the game (why should Estrella be the only one able to enjoy those flintlock pistols, amiright?). 2018 is going to be a big year for Hand of Fate 2, so stick around, folks. We've got plenty of tricks still up our sleeves.

1.1.1

• Fixed clicking arrows in the options menu with a mouse.
• Fixed numeric keys triggering incorrect options in encounter.
• Fixed case where vsync option didn’t work.
• Fix Questing Mace 1 tracking kills across multiple challenges.

• Continued improvements to UI Keyboard and mouse controls.
• Restored missing brimstone card textures to brimstone monsters.
• Fixed an issue with the mirror ball in dealer caravan (Twitch).
• Updated the Plentiful Harvest blessing to produce a larger range of results.
• Minor updates to challenge deal sequence to improve game play flow.

• Justice: Added more clarity to the requirements for the Gold Token. Fixed a bug to prevent last section triggering early if you have a run in progress.
• Balance pass.
• Death: Updated life gained / lost from eating / starving consistent with other challenges.
• Devil: Removed certain curses from the challenge to prevent non-progressions.
• Judgement: Allowed players to attack Empire counters. Fixes numerous issues where players could get stuck or not be able to proceed after taking shortcuts.

• Fixed a bug with Battered Helm’s token not being awarded if the player didn’t have the helm equipped during The Blacksmith encounter
• Fixed an issue in The Blacksmith encounter where the player could equip a piece of armour they didn’t have enough Fame for if they upgraded their currently equipped armour
• Fixed bug in Whispers of the West encounter where only 2 of 3 questions could be asked
• Fixed a bug in Healer encounter where the 'Heal Companion' would not display if your companion was not disabled
• Fixed a bug in Forgotten Dreams encounter that caused the game to crash
• Updated the Ascension encounter in High Priestess to include ‘Go to next level’ text for clarity
• Fix a number of string substitution bugs in Raiders encounter
• Hoarfrost Trial: Improved Korean translation

• Improved UI clarity on Companion HUD when their ability is ready to be used
• Improved clarity of playspace boundaries in some combat arenas
• Phalanx of Steel: Updated heavy attack animation and improved clarity for when the unit is vulnerable or protected/blocking. Enemy is no longer protected/blocking while frozen
• Shade (Wraith): Updated the enemy so that they teleport away when they disappear
• Ogre: No longer gets stuck walking while stunned.
• General performance optimisations

Composer Jeff van Dyck sat down with us recently to talk about his work on the soundtrack for Hand of Fate 2. The sequel's 100 year time jump allowed Jeff to take the original score into ambitious new places, which led to the incidental acquisition of a great many rare and interesting stringed instruments. Check it out! https://youtu.be/g1Zw-TLZn9Q

• Additional settings are now stored in player profiles (and synced via cloud)
• Fixed profiles with saves on the last floor of the Judgement challenge not loading

• Fixed equipment such as Gambler's Jewel and Divine Providence not applying to bonus dice
• Fix for encounter cards with tokens spawning encounter cards with tokens leaving one token all alone
• Fixed dice target of zero occurring in Peaceful Village
• Fixed hang when encountering Scouting Party on the last floor of the Judgement challenge

• Updated the Alchemist traits to be more useful when deckbuilding.
• Fixed an animation bug where Malaclypse could get stuck in turn shuffle.
• Fixed some issues with Malaclypse (upgraded) Magic Shield and Thornshell when fighting Phalanx of Steel.
• Reduced the range for reviving the a companion in combat. Increased the speed that the player can run.
• Fixed a bug where Brimstone enemies were not getting a Life buff relative to their basic versions.
• Updated text in Colbjorn’s questline Atonement encounter.
• Updated Thornshell and Cardinal Blade to ignore defences and blocking status of enemies when activated.
• Improved clarity for when a Phalanx of Steel is vulnerable / not vulnerable and other minor changes.
• Increased the window to Defend / Evade skeleton spear throws.
• Fixed a bug where player could be attacked by two melee enemies at the same time.

Improvements and Balance

• Trap Levels: greatly increased degree of horizontal movement on camera controls
• Trap Levels: adjusted difficulty
• Town of Corruption now draws fewer Equipment cards, but more when Estrella is equipped
• Reduced the number of Monster cards drawn in the Catacomb encounter in the Judgment challenge
• Gaining the token on Questing Mace X now triggers a Deadly Forest encounter where the player is granted their reward
• Environment optimization and fixed some terrain popping
• Moved combat / customisation scene loading to after entering the wormhole in order to minimise loading stutter

• Fixed some Monster Card text overflow
• Korean typos
• Polish text improvements
• Fixed a number of Dealer VO subtitle strings
• Fix spelling of Ariadne in certain encounters
• Fixed Equipment card title text overflow (most noticeable in Russian)
• Renamed Blight in Russian, from Withering => Rot
• Add a space for unused Russian 'of' string, so it doesn't display as ?of?

• Hermit’s Mage Hunting now announces the correct number of days being subtracted
• Fixed issue where some equipment tokens wouldn't be earned if the piece of equipment was not equipped
• Fixed issues arising from duplicate cards being created by Ariadne
• Fixed issues arising from duplicate cards being created by Dead King Scales
• Fix to prevent more than one Death Mage (necromancer) being drawn in The Cure encounter
• Fix to prevent more than one Tyrant of Frost being drawn in Clan Crowfoot & Colbjorn's Atonement encounters
• Fixed floating sigil on Female Mercenary Garb Armour
• Fixed a bug in Judgment checkpoint encounters where selecting a duplicated wheel card would not remove the monster card from the fight
• Added missing Devastate trait icon to Ogre monster card
• Added Shield Reflect trait on Wanderer's Bounty and Valiant Aegis (they functionally reflected musket fire, but the traits were incorrect).
• Fixed Adventurer's Aide trait text
• Fixed Silencer being able to perform unblockable attacks while stunned
• Fixed Shaman staff FX looping forever after she’s been defeated
• Removed possibility to skip to next Encounter whilst Thunaer’s Boon is playing out

Improvements and Balance

• Justice: Companion disabled turns decrement whenever enemy counters move on the map
• The Sun: Relics now give specific curse in the Sun (random in The Emperor), Dig Dice target is reduced each time you fail, improved clarity on flood level increasing. Improved clarity of Gold Token requirements
• Questing Mace: Traits on each subsequent Questing Mace weapons are automatically revealed. Completing Questing Mace X removes this mace and replaces it with a generic Questing Mace
• Far North encounter: Increased Dice target in ice wastes section, but removed gaining a curse each time it is failed
• Added a Huge Success to two encounters Wheel Gambits
• Updated Gambler's Banquet blessing to award 2 Food instead of 4
• Removed 'The' from a number of encounter titles to make them sort more nicely when listed alphabetically
• Improved Chinese subtitle length
• Tweaked shadow quality levels

• Fixed a number of typos
• Fixed Kubarak's Gaze causing Northerners to get stuck after being frozen
• Fixed some text issues in the ice wastes section in the Far North
• Fixed a bug where Healing Spirits could be consumed without restoring Life
• Fixed duplicate buttons being displayed for ‘Bash’ combat indicator
• Fixed Blood Crescent health deduction
• Fixed green ‘defend’ indicator getting stuck on Ogre and other combatants.
• Fixed issue where dice tally total could grow or shrink.
• Fixed a bug where Questing Mace III was applying bonus damage to the wrong suit
• Fixed a bug with the Lone Wolf curse
• Fixed a bug where disabled companions could be seen during the final sequence to The Sun challenge
• Fixed a bug in ‘A Stiegal Pumpkin’ where Food wasn’t given when requesting a pumpkin
• Fixed Chance Card Gambit issue with more than one Guardian Angel blessing equipped

• Improved Russian fonts to be more readable per user request.
• Enable GPU instancing.
• Increased range at which companion abilities can be triggered
• Player can no longer dodge or counter out of the final hit when breaking off armour (caused issues with enemy attacks)
• Added missing subtitles to The World challenge
• Optimised Mage and Necromancer VFX and model
• Fixed a bug where Colbjorn could get stuck running against a wall when his ability was triggered
• Fixed a bug in Justice where a debug string would appear
• Fixed a bug in where challenge objective text would not display in any challenge after completing The World challenge
• Fixed a bug where the gold token from The World would float above the card table if you forfeit/lose before the token is won
• Fixed a bug where the Dwarven Haggler would give nothing in rare circumstances
• Fixed a bug in Tarts, Pies and Exotic Lies where the player could get infinite food if they had the Eternal Hope blessing
• Fix Westwend Tavern Token Encounter having no text description and not text in options.

Nominate us in the Steam Awards! If you can't decide WHICH Steam Award is most appropriate for Hand of Fate 2, then friend, we have good news for you: the "Defies Description" award sums up not only Hand of Fate 2 rather nicely, but also the dilemma you're currently wrestling. You can vote for us by clicking here.

• Updated Jousting Armour to unlock from the gold token in Strength instead of the silver token
• Optimisations for game performance during the Precision Gambit
• Fixed bug where Westwend Tavern soldiers referenced the players sigil (amulet) incorrectly
• Improved quality of LQ bloom
• Fixed bug where gold payment was not deducted in Fame and Shame
• Improve music in the deck builder
• Fixed the dice target dropping below zero in the Blocked Passage encounter
• Removed the Equipment and Curse traits from Carriage of the Departed encounter
• Fixed a non-progression in the Prison Wraith encounter
• Updated Chinese and Korean localisation
• Added a Twitch card mark
• Fixed the Chinese logo
• Optimise shadow draw distances in combat levels
• Fixed issue causing potential dead end in Sun challenge
• Fixed 'battered helm' token not unlocking
• Balance adjustments to the Lionheart artefact
• Fix softlock when failing gold requirements on the hanged man challenge
• Visual improvements to armor break attacks for Heavy weapons
• Fixed bug where companion cards would become stuck in the player's hand after completing the Sun challenge
• Fixed issues preventing progression in Hanged Man/Justice
• Fixed a bug in Strength where a shield could not be equipped after it was upgraded.
• Fixed 'last shield' not getting updated when shield is unreserved
• Toned down Thunears Talon weapon ability visual effects

• Fixed a bug that was drawing wrong amount of pain cards in The Shaman of Eyebright Weald encounter
• Updated Blood Crescent to be brimstone card
• Updated some card art.
• Reduced platinum effect on Goblin Town card art
• Reduced size of Dealer’s Mark to limit art obfuscation
• Flipped the Test of Strength card art so the mark doesn't obscure the Ogre’s face
• Fixed bug in the Blacksmith encounter where the companion name was displaying VAR.
• Reduced combat timer Fate’s Dealing Black Knight combat
• Added skeletons to Wraith combat encounter in the Sun challenge
• Fixed Lone Wolf curse causing problems with Companion card activation
• Fixed the campfire in Chariot restocking Food and Equipment when it was revisited.
• Fixed a bug where the relic salesman would accept negative numbers.
• Fixed for Justice mess hall text not displaying
• Increased the Max Life requirements for Silver and Gold token in Death
• Minor Chinese localisation update
• Fixed more typos

• Added accessibility (color) support for Precision Gambit
• Fixed a blocker in Lovers if Oswin is disabled by player encounter
• Added Upgrade Armour trait to Misc. category in the deckbuilder
• Added controller vibration to Sisters of Vengeance and Dazzling Blade abilities
• Fixed an issue where Blood Crescent was reducing the effectiveness of Max Life items in the boss fight
• Removed Second Wind unintentionally unlocking from The Tower
• Removed Second Wind blessing from the blessing deck in Strength.
• Removed fail from 2nd roll in Berta's Betting House
• Removed Encrusted Mace (hard mode) as a recommended card in The Empress, must be added manually.
• The 'Wait' option in Justice campfire now counts as a step to restoring your companion
• Removed double spaces and trailing spaces
• Fixed more typos

• Fixed the dice target being incorrect in a few circumstances
• Fixed issue where credits would not display after changing language
• The Healer: hide companion heal option if have no companion
• Waterfall of Youth: fix to prevent receiving an extra Potion of Youth
• Yvette's Cottage: fix to prevent receiving an extra Spell of Ageing curse
• Restored save options for villages in Hanged Man
• Fixed bug in Judgement where companion cards could get stuck on screen after fighting through the checkpoints
• Fixed bug in Judgement where VAR was being displayed instead of the companion name
• Fixed a bug in Judgement where Estrella would comment incorrectly at the Campfire
• Fixed a non-progression bug in Judgement where the player could get stuck between two spice counters in the marshes
• Fixed Defend from cancelling out of weapon ability.
• Fixed an issue with boss battle breaking when cancelling out of a Finisher.

• Added Space as an addition select button
• Removed superfluous button press in wheel gambit
• Added announcement to make it clear that Strength and Empress are in hard modes if you take the hard mode equipment.
• Added 'Settings' option to start menu
• Added option to override the controller icon map
• Fixed controls icon-switching so that diagrams display appropriate remapping for back/touchpad/select/minus/view button.
• Fixed Emperor progress blocker
• Fixed combo reset when getting hit during finishers
• Made weapon charge / combo not reset on time out
• Fixed Healer bug that removed 'medium' healing option
• Made Phalanx units stunnable during their red attack (and fixed up some visual weirdness).
• Fixed deck builder encounter sorting issue
• Improved intro performance
• Made High Priestess Blizzard encounter Huge Failure more punishing.
• Removed potential exploit in Devil challenge
• Updated Villager's Axe weapon ability.
• Fixed Alone curse
• Fixed bug where VAR showed up if your companion is missing on one encounter

1.0.7

• Added a brightness (Gamma) setting
• Reduced gold gain when losing Arm Wrestling.
• Updated Chinese localisation
• Fixed Saint Tala's Day to only give 2 blessings not 100
• Fix some strings that were not getting localised in the pause menu
• Fixed exploitable loop in Moon's Cemetery if you bring Ring of Food
• Fixed 'close shave' achievement being awarded when you died in combat.
• Fixed a VAR bug in chariot.

• Fix progression blocker in Mage Tower

• Fixed gold token bug on Strength.
• Improved subtitle timings.
• Adjusted default keyboard controls.
• Fixed Malaclypse's shield disappearing when hitting a blocked enemy.
• Fixed a potential failure state in the Holy Mace quest.
• Fixed missing companion dialogue bugs.
• Out of the Mud encounter now handles the correct companion text regardless of which companion is chosen.
• Fixed exploitable loop in Hoarfrost Trial.
• Improved Hoarfrost Trial balance.
• Peek at the curse you are given during the Wheel stair card.
• Fixed combat with no enemies resulting in a non-progression in Judgment challenge.
• Fixed 'fleeting fame' triggering after campfire.
• Fixed combat with no enemies in Moon's Cemetery.
• Fixed twitch config input problems.
• Fixed dice result and dice target compare in Berta's Betting House.
• Updated Gladiator's Visage trait description for clarity.
• Fixed traits on Cheerful Woodcutter encounter.
• Player is now awarded food if they're replaying Strength and take the short route out of the opening encounter.
• Companion cards now display traits in a display panel when selected from the
• Display Cards container.
• Fixed Malaclypse's shield absorbing mage range attacks without breaking.
• Burning Building Oswin lose health icon updated.
• Fixed Emperor's Dangerous Wilds to award correct fame.
• Stolen Ones will announce number of soldiers remaining after picking Failure on blood magic wheel.
• Fixed Gambler's Insurance.
• Fixed trait title on Harvest Blade.
• Added clear option to not give away your equipment in the Gnomes encounter.
• Saint Tala's Day uses fallback deck so that it can't run out of blessings
• Fixed issue where Temple of Prayers refreshed the 5th blessing if you backed out of the list.
• Goblins will no longer say they stole things that they didn't.
• Stopped Malaclypse teleporting away mid-shield.
• Ordeal By Hot Iron will no longer instantiate an Executioner's Axe regardless of whether you have one already or not.
• Improved Moon balance.
• Fixed Ariadne and Colbjorn getting stuck in a walking state.

1.0.4

• Fix for The Tower in Brazilian Portuguese
• Add a Dual Shock 2 native support
• Fixed achievement unlocking for early testers (pre steam)
• Fix "Berta's Betting House takes gold when no games are played"
• Fixed encounter that would end before it begins if the player does not have a companion.
• Fix for equipment showcases in trap levels causing cards to not be returned to the correct container.
• Fixed companions attacking dead enemies non-stop after they've killed them.
• Improve Berta's Betting House dice game clarity
• Fixed issue where player would fail gold token in Strength if they change their equipment post meeting the requirement in the final encounter.
• Fixed protected enemies infinitely hitting each other with their protection after one of them hitting the other.
• The Cure final sequence (pendulum) made easier.
• Added Pendulum trait to Bridge Skirmish.
• Set Billy Clubs ability trait to use the Ability resource (now displays correct UI incl. number of hits to use ability).
• Fixed a bug where rewards were being discarded.
• Fixed pending card event listeners being checked with the wrong agent.
• Updates to Deadly Forest encounter (now only takes Life/Max. Life, and updated traits to reflect change).
• Made so that you must go through the dice game at least once before 'ambushing' the monster cards
• Moved dithering to after overlay color and overlay texture
• Fixed an issue where VAR would be displayed in encounter text if the player had no companion.
• Fixed deck builder token filter (wasn't showing inherited tokens).
• Bonus only activates once per Brimstone card.
• Doubled Oswins damage resistance in combat.
• Fixed Wraith health drain does not break Malaclypse's shield
• Fixed potential non-progression in the Judgment challenge.
• Fixed ponytail whipping in customisation
• Ongoing typo fixes

• Disable adaptive vsync on PC for now, suspect it was causing or exacerbating a crash bug
• Modified default keyboard controls, picked a set that are more responsive
• If keyboard has not been remapped, update to new more responsive default Made keyboard / mouse dodge on 'press' and run on new input 'KBMRun' (defaults to Left Control).
• Added separate key binding for 'run' as part of the initial keyboard improvements
• Made player attack targeting more generous when not pushing a direction.
• Added binding for inspect ("i"), useful for OS X trackpad users without a middle mouse button
• Default to more sensible resolution on retina MPB
• Bug fix for "11_justice: random teleport to map area that I can't get out of"
• Fixed massive graphical glitch in fog for OS X users using Nvidia driver
• Fixed number of blessings the encounter takes from the player (was taking 1 more blessing than it should).
• Updates to market thief.
• Fixed companion name being displayed as *VAR* if they're removed from your hand during the run in the Strength challenge. Some Chinese localisation improvements
• Added a few second delay between start of twitch chance vote and messages posted to chat.

• Dark Wormhole
• Added encounter option voting to twitch integration.
• One Drunken Night balance
• Trap level balance changes
• Goblins balance changes
• Fix for being able to move on the map while unlocking tokens
• Fix for locking selection during chance card task (GuardianAngel bug)
• Fix 8 skeleton spawner
• Fix Malaclypse's Associate without companion

• Fix Italian, Spanish text had invaded
• Added specific option for adaptive vsync, and option of regular on. Users with on previously (was adaptive), will now get adaptive. Opengl defaults to vsync on, d3d defaults to adaptive
• Adjusted colouring of wormhole to make it less jarring.
• Fog works consistently between d3d and opengl
• Fixed ultrawide resolution
• Fixed issues with companion dialog in Chariot if the player loses their companion
• Fix ignored vibration setting in dice
• Hopefully fix blood shaders so they aren't green on some configurations
• Fixed a bug where the gold wasn't being taken away.
• Fixed exception disconnecting from twitch. Updated twitch integration.
• Fixed friendly health bars getting yellow outline (should be dark red) when reviving fallen companions.
• Fixed Lovers campfire: wasn't cycling through Oswin lines
• Fixed all the typos discovered today

It's been fantastic to watch people playing over the weekend, and to see all the feedback and traffic in the forums. We've also been furiously fixing issues and patching bugs, and we're still going! If you run into any problems, please let us know either in the bug forum or via email at support@defiantdev.com and we'll try to get them addressed. We've also made a number of changes and tweaks to improve quality of life (the bright screen during transition and some mouse and keyboard tweaks) but there's more of those coming as well. Expect to see us checking in on the forums regularly, but mostly during the Australian working day. At the moment we're patching every day or so (and you can find patch notes in the forum), but soon that will return to a more regular rhythm of fortnightly patches. Likewise, we have lots of cool new stuff planned (like Endless mode) that we're busy working away on, but we'll announce the details of that when we're closer to release. Thanks for being with us for launch - it's been a huge pleasure to see people enjoying what we've created.

Now the journey begins in earnest! We can't wait to see what you think of the game we've created for you. It's been a long journey for our team in Brisbane, Australia, and we couldn't be happier with the game as it stands. I hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed creating it. This is only the beginning - we have much more planned for Hand of Fate. For the next few days though, we're going to be busy making sure everything is working smoothly, and as intended. If you run into any issues, let us know in the forums or via support@defiantdev.com Enjoy the game of life and death!

Hand of Fate 2 is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

A new hero rises to challenge the Dealer in Hand of Fate 2! Master a living boardgame of infinitely replayable quests - unlock new cards, build your adventure, then defeat your foes in brutal real-time combat!



Draw your cards, play your hand and discover your fate!

*Offer ends November 14 at 10AM Pacific Time

Here's a link to some Hand of Fate reviews that have gone up today : Gamewatcher Finder Techraptor [url=http://gamepadink.com/reviews/hand-fate-2] A comic and a review from GamePadInk [url=https://oldmanmordaith.com/2017/11/06/dealing-with-hand-of-fate-2/] A characterful review from Mordaith And if you'd like to count down the hours until we launch, we'll be hanging out in Discord at https://discord.gg/secMsH Not long now!

The embargo for streaming has lifted now, which means that some streamers who got early access to keys have begun to put out videos. Also, the review embargo lifts tomorrow (and press have had copies of the game for a couple of weeks now, so they've had plenty of time to check it out) so you'll be able to get a sense of the view from the press shortly. Finally - if you want to check out some of the things we've done in terms of twitch integration, check out the stream from Cryaotic earlier today. Twitch integration allows players to vote on the outcomes of the chance card selection minigame AND gives players the opportunity to vote on a benefit or penalty for the streamer every 8 steps. And if a developer happens to step in to the steam ... well, all bets are off at that point. Excited for you all to get hands on with the game soon!

Hand of Fate 2 will be showing at the Defiant booth at PAX Australia this weekend, so if you're in Melbourne come along and say hi, and see what we've built! If you're not in Australia, expect to see first impressions and reports going up this weekend. We'll link them here as they happen - we've got a lot of local press coming by to see the game. Press copies of the game have gone out in the last couple of weeks, so we should see reviews and updates coming out over the next two weeks. Hopefully they enjoy what we've built. Finally, Hand of Fate 2 received the Game of the Year award last night at the Australian Game Developer Awards, which is a huge honour given the field! Looking forward to seeing people play Hand of Fate 2 in the wild and meeting some of our fans. If we're a bit tardy on the forums this week, apologies, we're probably working the booth.

Thanks for bearing with us - Hand of Fate 2 will launch in a fraction over a month! We can't wait to show you everything we've been working on. Expect lots more news and detailed looks at the new game over the next month!

What have we been up to, and where have we been? Truth is, other than occasionally popping up in the forums, we've been heads down wrapping up Hand of Fate 2, and getting everything in position so we can confidently ship a game we're happy with. More than happy, delighted. We're getting close to that point, but this isn't a post to announce the date - we're still working that out with platform holders, but we'll lock it down soon and let you know here. It will be this year, though. Here though I thought it was worth giving you a little more details about how HoF2 development has been going, how we've been spending our time, and to let you know we'll be regularly updating between here and release (and beyond). For the past year we've had HoF2 in a pretty solid state and we've been focused on balance, tweaking, clarity, and mechanical fixes. During that period we've rolled out several closed alpha/beta tests, to groups of 1-500 people at a time. The feedback and data from those tests has been incredibly useful to us - and has also delayed us beyond our initial planned release date. Now, however, the game is in a great state. It's so much bigger and better than Hand of Fate 1 - roughly four times as large, and that content is also much more varied and much deeper than the original Hand of Fate. It feels like we as a studio have really hit our stride with this one. It's definitely the best game I've ever worked on - and I've worked on some pretty great games during my time at Irrational Games and Relic Entertainment. These are some of the places we've spent our time : - 22 unique challenges, each with it's own story and mechanics. - Completely overhauled combat system, with multiple weapons and combat styles (dual wield, two handed, sword and shield) - 4 unique companions, each with their own story lines - SO MANY TOKENS! - Weapon tokens, too! - Hundreds of unique encounters - Over 100 pieces of gear - Translated into a dozen different languages - Releasing on PS4 and Xbox One (including enhancements for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X) - Amazing art from all of our team - New monsters, amazing bosses, charming NPCs Here's a link to some animated gifs from our crew that give you a look at some of the environments and characters - and we've also updated the Steam page with some fresh screenshots. We want to make sure that when you play Hand of Fate 2, it's the best possible game we can give you. We're very close to being able to do that. Thank you so much for bearing with us - we've been working hard to make sure it's worth the wait.

We are very excited to announce that not only has the boardgame adaptation of Hand of Fate, HoF: Ordeals, hit Kickstarter, but it smashed its KS goal in less than six hours! Now that we’ve all had our morning coffees and shaken the disbelief out of our systems it’s time to reveal the first stretch goal - Goblins! If you’ve encountered goblins in Hand of Fate before, you know what to expect from them on the tabletop: they’re going to steal your equipment! If you manage to take them down, however, you’ll be very richly rewarded. Looking to future unlocks, there are a couple of addition encounters and trap challenges we're approaching the threshold for, and then the first of our big exciting secrets! Things so secret that I may have already said too much! If you’re keen to pledge or to take a look at what we’re offering, head on over to Hand of Fate Ordeals on Kickstarter! We’d love to have your support!

Hand of Fate 2 was playable for the first time on the floor at E3 - IGN have put some video up here if you're keen to take a look! We're currently aiming for an early 2017 release date, so there's a lot to do - but you can get a glimpse of our first companion and some of the new enemies in this playthrough, along with some of the new cards and conditions.

It's early days, but the first news about Hand of Fate 2 is starting to trickle out - here's a couple of articles that delve a little deeper into our changes. One from Kotaku. And one from Destructoid. More news coming as we go!