This update adds new permanent progression mechanics, new content, UI enhancements, and a whole lot of balance changes.

Flourishes

Flourishes are super-powered moves that you can trigger at-will, once you've filled your flourish meter. You fill the meter by playing cards and dealing/mitigating damage in both negotiations and battles. Each of the three player characters starts off with a single battle and negotiation flourish, but you can unlock more in-game by defeating bosses at higher prestige levels and selecting them in a mysterious in-game shop.

Mettle

Mettle is a new meta-currency that you gain in the game by completing quests, winning battles and negotiations, and through various opportunities as the story progresses. Once you've met a special shopkeeper in-game, you can permanently upgrade each character with it.

Achievements

You're going to need all of the advantages you can get to complete a new set of 11 achievements. These were designed to be challenging, and to make you think outside of the your usual grifiting box.

New people to meet (and to grift):

Fralx

Fralx is an alternate boss for Rook's first day. He's Rooks old protg, and he has a score to settle.

Pearlies

Pearlies are the well-off residents of Pearl-on-Foam.

Lumin Turret

The Cult uses Lumin Turrets to enforce their will in the Pearl.

New Promotions

You'll find promoted Luminitiates and Wealthy Merchants in the world, starting at prestige level 1!

Tuning

Sal's campaign got a big tuning pass. Player reports and data were showing us that most of the bosses were too easy, except for Kashio, who was surprising a lot of players with a big difficulty jump. We've adjusted a lot of small things that should work together to smooth out the curve, training players to build better decks before getting to the end of the story:

Bosses:

Most Rook and Sal bosses got specific changes to make them more difficult - more health, more damage, different numbers. The exceptions where the Flead Queen, and Kashio. Kashio was left the same, and the Flead Queen's chitinous levels were dropped at lower prestiges. The goal is to provide a nice, smoothly escalating challenge, rather than a plateau with a brick wall at the end.

Sal's Story:

Sal was getting too many draft opportunities early in her runs, so we reduced the number of encounters on some of her early days. This should push your deck completion out a bit, and force you to make difficult decisions later in your run.

NPC Health / Party Composition:

Previously the game used a bit of auto-balancing to adjust enemy health values depending upon when in a run you meet them. This made reasoning about the difficulty of a given fight quite difficult, and frankly wasn't necessary any more, as we have added many new enemy types since that system was first implemented. NPCs now have consistent HP values, and we've gone through them all and re-assessed their combat strength as seen by the enemy encounter creator. TLDR; health should make more sense now, and you should see more appropriate enemy parties.

Sal Cards:

Finally, we revamped a bunch of Sal's cards, to make them more pickable. Here are some highlights - you can pore over the patch notes for full details.



In addition to all of these changes, there a loads of fixes, balance tweaks, UI improvements, and more. Full details are on the forum, or you can just jump in and play! Happy Grifting, everyone! We're taking a short break for the holidays, and then our next update will be coming out on January 28. This update is scheduled to have the next day of Smith's story, and I'm sure some other fun stuff will make it in there, too. As always, you can follow along in real-time as we develop it in the Experimental build. We read and appreciate every piece of feedback that you F8 our way, so keep them coming!

[ 2020-12-10 18:40:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Griftlands is a deck-building rogue-like where you fight and negotiate your way through a broken-down sci-fi world. Every decision is important, be it the jobs you take, the friends you make, or the cards you collect. Death comes quickly, but each play offers new situations and strategies to explore.

At this stage of development you can play as Sal or Rook, with a third character and campaign in development. Sal is an adventurer out for profit and revenge. Rook is an aging spy working his own agenda. Expect regular updates, including new cards, quests and characters as we work on the game with community feedback!

Battle Challenging Bosses

Test your combat decks against powerful foes with unique mechanics and attacks.

Build a Team - or Buy One!

Hire mercenaries, find pets, or impose upon your friends to accomplish your goals.

Master Hundreds of Cards

Each character has unique negotiation and combat decks to draft from. Get powerful item cards from fallen foes, or as rewards.

Decisions Matter

Killing foes may incur the wrath of their friends, but sparing them leaves a dangerous piece on the board. Choose wisely, everyone remembers everything you do!

Welcome to Havaria

Each playable character's story takes place in a unique environment, with different factions and locations to explore and exploit.

Explore A Broken-Down Sci-Fi World

The world of Havaria is a harsh place, full of harsher denizens. Explore lush, hand-illustrated environments full of people who want to kill you.

Playing Politics For Keeps

Each character has a factional allegiance and an opinion of you. Play politics between rivals, and try to capture the most powerful social boons. But watch out -- doublecross the wrong person, and you'll be subject to their bane!

Outwit or Overpower

Overcome obstacles with the power of your fists - or your words. You'll need to pick your cards and play them right if you're going to survive. Build two decks simultaneously, balancing the tradeoffs of each.


Learn from each attempted run through the various stories of the Griftlands. Encounter different combinations of enemies, quests, and events every time you play. Your fate is determined by your choices, and by fate.