This second major update for Monster Train adds new champions, new bosses, new cards, and new artifacts, which combine together to add a significant amount of new strategic options and replayability. We’ve also added a number of frequently requested player features like a personal run records page in the Logbook, an enemy wave counter in battle, and a preview of the ring 3 and ring 6 bosses at the start of a run.


Five new “Exiled” Champions, one from each of the monster clans. The new Champions have new mechanics, come with their own new starter card, and add additional layers of strategic depth and replayability.



Two new bosses at the 3rd and 6th ring of Hell, each with three variations. Talos and Archus join the fight as alternative options to Daedalus and Fel. These new bosses have brand new combat mechanics and increase run variety.



A new final boss variant - Seraph the Patient. This version of Seraph uses a new gameplay trigger, Rally, and applies Melee Weakness to your units.



Five new artifacts, one from each of the monster clans. Each adds new ways to gain power and synergize with clan mechanics.



Personal run records are now available for viewing the Logbook. Track your improvement over time and compare with friends!


Join us for a series of launch day streams on September 3rd, 2020! You can view them right here on Steam or on Twitch.

The schedule is:




You can find us on our official Discord, official subreddit, and on Twitch.


Major New Features:

1. NEW CHAMPION - Shardtail Queen from the Hellhorned clan. Her starter card is the Queen’s Impling.
   
2. NEW CHAMPION - Wyldenten from the Awoken clan. His starter card is Rootseeds.
   
3. NEW CHAMPION - Solgard the Martyr from the Stygian Guard clan. His starter card is Forgone Power.
   
4. NEW CHAMPION - Primordium from the Umbra clan. Its starter card is Plink.
   
5. NEW CHAMPION - Little Fade from the Melting Remnant clan. Her starter card is Primitive Mold.
   
6. NEW BOSS - Talos, the Architect at the third ring of Hell. She attacks before the Relentless phase and her strikes give her benefits.
   
7. NEW BOSS - Archus, Darkness Incarnate at the sixth ring of Hell. He summons Darkshards, a new type of unit that you must counterplay to survive.
   
8. NEW BOSS - Seraph the Patient. A new Seraph variant that both attacks before the Relentless phase and applies Melee Weakness, a new status effect that increases combat vulnerability.
   
9. NEW ARTIFACTS - one new artifact per clan: Queen's Tail, Emblem of the Exiles, Kinstone Totem, Shadowbox, Fade's First Blade.
   
10. PERSONAL RECORDS - in the Logbook you can now view your personal run records.
    
11. NEW EXPERT CHALLENGES - 5 more Expert Challenges for players who have completed Covenant 25.

General Gameplay Changes:

1. New keyword: Phased. Phased units cannot attack, cannot be targeted, and cannot take damage in any way.
   
2. New keyword: Attuned. Spell cards with Attuned benefit from Magic Power at 5x the rate as normal. The goal is to increase late-game viability of certain cards.
   
3. New keyword: Melee Weakness. When applied a unit takes more damage from normal combat.
   
4. New trigger: Rally. Triggers when you play a unit card on this floor. Morsels do not trigger Rally.
   
5. Action trigger (previously called “On Turn”) is now used on some new player units. Triggers on the unit's turn, before it attacks.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - any unit that was Eaten now goes to a new Eaten card pile. Reform deals with dead units in the Consume pile and does not Reform from the Eaten pile. Retch pulls from the Eaten pile.
   
7. By player request, when playing with a random primary and/or allied clan and you restart your run from the pause menu the clans will now be re-randomized.
   
8. Shieldstone Damage Shield stacks increased 2 -> 3.
   
9. Runestone Armor stacks increased 1 -> 2.
   
10. Removed the keyword "Enhance" everywhere to increase clarity. By default, Status Effects never persist across death in battle. Stat changes always do. No functional changes to any game mechanic were associated with this text change.
    
11. Stackstone now increases Ember cost by 1 in addition to adding Doublestack.
    
12. Hope for Peace now only affects Spells to avoid common confusion with Monster Railspike.
    
13. Redesigned Gnarled Root. Now it gives +1 attack for each stack of Spikes.
    
14. Added a "leave" option to the “Armageddon Battlefield” Concealed Caverns event.

Hellhorned Gameplay Changes:

1. Imp-pressive is Attuned.
   
2. Ritual of Battle Rage gain increased 8 -> 10.

Awoken Gameplay Changes:

1. Sting damage increased 5 -> 10.

Stygian Gameplay Changes:

1. Titan's Gratitude damage reduced 30 -> 25. The card is now Attuned.
   
2. Ice and Pyre is Attuned.
   
3. Crypt Builder is Attuned.

Umbra Gameplay Changes:

1. Feast now only triggers eating if there is a unit that can feed in the room.
   
2. New keyword: Buffet. Units with Buffet can be eaten more than once. Currently Primordium is the only unit with Buffet.

Melting Remnant Gameplay Changes:

1. Memento Mori rarity was changed from Rare -> Uncommon.
   
2. Intent on Death rarity was changed from Uncommon -> Rare. Ember cost increased 0 -> 2.
   
3. Paraffin Enforcer health increased 15 -> 25.
   
4. Mortal Entrapment Daze amount increased 2 -> 3. The card is now Attuned.

Other Changes and Bug Fixes:

1. AUDIO - new music tracks for Talos and Archus.
   
2. TEXT - clarified that Dazed status blocks various triggers from occurring.
   
3. TEXT - changed the gambling event to make it clearer it is Pyre Health that is on the line.
   
4. ENGINE - updated to Unity 2019.4.
   
5. ENGINE - we now support two video playback technologies. The default is still AVProVideo, which has better performance on most systems. We added a new option, Unity, because Unity 2019 supports hardware decoding of video. Using the Unity option allows muting video from Windows Volume Mixer to work correctly and it also works on Linux under Proton/Wine. Select the best option for your circumstances from the settings menu.
   
6. UI - added ability to switch between Exiled and normal Champions for both primary and allied clans on the clan select and challenge creation screens.
   
7. UI - by player request, show which ring 3 and ring 6 bosses you will face on the run on the run start screen.
   
8. UI - by player request, added wave counter to battle. It shows the number of enemy waves until the boss comes out.
   
9. UI - by player request, added an easier way to cancel mutators and expert challenges with one click.
   
10. UI - increased the size of card subtype to improve readability.
    
11. UI - reordered the Logbook tabs to a more logical order with Champion Upgrade right after the Card tab and the Card Mastery Frames next to the Stats section.
    
12. UI - Don’t highlight any part of the champion upgrades in the Logbook so the whole thing is easier to read.
    
13. BUG FIX - fixed missing keyword tooltips on a few cards and artifacts.
    
14. BUG FIX - fixed Pyre VFX disappearing briefly sometimes.
    
15. BUG FIX - ensure Pyre death audio always plays.
    
16. BUG FIX - fixed an issue where discard pile card count could be wrong if you were rapidly playing cards.
    
17. BUG FIX - fixed a rare bug where Train Steward card art didn't display properly in a certain sequence of Concealed Caverns event choices.
    
18. BUG FIX - fixed a rare softlock related to ensuring determinism.
    
19. BUG FIX - fixed a determinism bug related to trials that give out an artifact being dependent on which path you chose prior to combat (left or right).
    
20. BUG FIX - fixed a text issue where an Armor value was displayed incorrectly on a merchant upgrade with Doublestack and Railhammer.
    
21. BUG FIX - Spell cards that Purge or duplicate on kill now trigger correctly when they kill
    bosses.
    
22. BUG FIX - unfocus the hand if you open deck view while dragging out a card to avoid mouse cursor confusion.
    
23. BUG FIX - a few Spells that didn't work with the Volatile Spells mutator were fixed. For example: Restoration Detonation.

This second major update for Monster Train adds new champions, new bosses, new cards, and new artifacts, which combine together to add a significant amount of new strategic options and replayability. We’ve also added a number of frequently requested player features like a personal run records page in the Logbook, an enemy wave counter in battle, and a preview of the ring 3 and ring 6 bosses at the start of a run.

NOTE: for the Public Test Train, we are temporarily setting runs to always use the new bosses. When the update goes live, run generation will go back to normal and mix in the new bosses with the old. Also, all changes listed are still subject to change before the update officially launches.

You are welcome to join us for feedback and discussion on the official Monster Train Discord server in the #public-test-train channel.

How to join:

1. Make sure Monster Train is not running
   
2. Right click on the game in your Steam Library
   
3. Click "properties"
   
4. Click the "BETAS" tab
   
5. In the dropdown menu, choose "public-test-server"
   
6. Press close and wait for the game to update

Major New Features:

1. NEW CHAMPION - Shardtail Queen from the Hellhorned clan. Her starter card is the Queen’s Impling.
   
2. NEW CHAMPION - Wyldenten from the Awoken clan. His starter card is Rootseeds.
   
3. NEW CHAMPION - Solgard the Martyr from the Stygian Guard clan. His starter card is Forgone Power.
   
4. NEW CHAMPION - Primordium from the Umbra clan. Its starter card is Plink.
   
5. NEW CHAMPION - Little Fade from the Melting Remnant clan. Her starter card is Primitive Mold.
   
6. NEW BOSS - Talos, the Architect at the third ring of Hell. She attacks before the Relentless phase and her strikes give her benefits.
   
7. NEW BOSS - Archus, Darkness Incarnate at the sixth ring of Hell. He summons Darkshards, a new type of unit that you must counterplay to survive.
   
8. NEW BOSS - Seraph the Patient. A new Seraph variant that both attacks before the Relentless phase and applies Melee Weakness, a new status effect that increases combat vulnerability.
   
9. NEW ARTIFACTS - one new artifact per clan: Queen's Tail, Emblem of the Exiles, Kinstone Totem, Shadowbox, Fade's First Blade.
   
10. PERSONAL RECORDS - in the Logbook you can now view your personal run records.
    
11. NEW EXPERT CHALLENGES - 5 more Expert Challenges for players who have completed Covenant 25.

General Gameplay Changes:

1. New keyword: Phased. Phased units cannot attack, cannot be targeted, and cannot take damage in any way.
   
2. New keyword: Attuned. Spell cards with Attuned benefit from Magic Power at 5x the rate as normal. The goal is to increase late-game viability of certain cards.
   
3. New keyword: Melee Weakness. When applied a unit takes more damage from normal combat. It does not decay unless the unit takes combat damage.
   
4. New trigger: Rally. Triggers when you play a unit card on this floor.
   
5. Action trigger (previously called “On Turn”) is now used on some new player units. Triggers on the unit's turn, before it attacks.
   
6. When playing with a random primary and/or allied clan and you restart your run from the pause menu the clans will now be re-randomized. (player request)
   
7. Shieldstone Damage Shield stacks increased 2 -> 3.
   
8. Runestone Armor stacks increased 1 -> 2.
   
9. Removed the keyword "Enhance" everywhere to increase clarity. By default, Status Effects never persist across death in battle. Stat changes always do. No functional changes to any game mechanic were associated with this text change.
   
10. Stackstone now increases Ember cost by 1 in addition to adding Doublestack. This is our one big nerf for this update. Overall the data and feedback showed that this was one of the biggest ways to swing a run easily and as it was relatively easy to pull off we added this drawback to bring it a bit more in line with other upgrades. We'll be keeping an eye on the results in the public test train and beyond and buffing any cards that seem to have had an outsized impact from this change.
    
11. Hope for Peace now only affects Spells to avoid common confusion with Monster Railspike.

Hellhorned Gameplay Changes:

1. Imp-pressive is Attuned.
   
2. Ritual of Battle Rage gain increased 8 -> 10.

Awoken Gameplay Changes:

1. Sting damage increased 5 -> 10.

Stygian Gameplay Changes:

1. Titan's Gratitude damage reduced 30 -> 25. The card is now Attuned.
   
2. Ice and Pyre is Attuned.
   
3. Crypt Builder is Attuned.
   
4. New keyword: Shard. Powers Solgard the Martyr’s abilities.

Umbra Gameplay Changes:

1. Feast now only triggers eating if there is a unit that can feed in the room.
   
2. New keyword: Buffet. Units with Buffet can be eaten more than once. Currently Primordium is the only unit with Buffet.

Melting Remnant Gameplay Changes:

1. Memento Mori rarity was changed from Rare -> Uncommon.
   
2. Intent on Death rarity was changed from Uncommon -> Rare.
   
3. Paraffin Enforcer health increased 15 -> 25.
   
4. Mortal Entrapment Daze amount increased 2 -> 3. The card is now Attuned.

Other Changes and Bug Fixes:

1. AUDIO - new music tracks for Talos and Archus.
   
2. TEXT - clarified that Dazed status blocks various triggers from occurring.
   
3. TEXT - changed the gambling event to make it clearer it is Pyre Health that is on the line.
   
4. ENGINE - updated to Unity 2019.4.
   
5. ENGINE - removed use of AVProVideo because Unity 2019 supports hardware decoding of video. Now muting the game from Windows Volume Mixer affects video volume.
   
6. UI - added ability to switch between Exiled and normal Champions for both primary and allied clans on the clan select and challenge creation screens.
   
7. UI - show which ring 3 and ring 6 bosses you will face on the run on the run start screen.
   
8. UI - added wave counter to battle. It shows the number of enemy waves until the boss comes out. (player request)
   
9. UI - added an easier way to cancel mutators and expert challenges with one click. (player request)
   
10. UI - increased the size of card subtype to improve readability.
    
11. UI - reordered the Logbook tabs to a more logical order with Champion Upgrade right after the Card tab and the Card Mastery Frames next to the Stats section.
    
12. UI - Don’t highlight any part of the champion upgrades in the Logbook so the whole thing is easier to read.
    
13. BUG FIX - fixed missing keyword tooltips on a few cards and artifacts.
    
14. BUG FIX - fixed Pyre VFX disappearing briefly sometimes.
    
15. BUG FIX - ensure Pyre death audio always plays.
    
16. BUG FIX - fixed an issue where discard pile card count could be wrong if you were rapidly playing cards.
    
17. BUG FIX - fixed a rare bug where Train Steward card art didn't display properly in a certain sequence of Concealed Caverns event choices.
    
18. BUG FIX - fixed a rare softlock related to ensuring determinism.
    
19. BUG FIX - fixed a determinism bug related to trials that give out an artifact being dependent on which path you chose prior to combat (left or right).
    
20. BUG FIX - fixed a text issue where an Armor value was displayed incorrectly on a merchant upgrade with Doublestack and Railhammer.
    
21. BUG FIX - Spell cards that Purge or duplicate on kill now trigger correctly when they kill
    bosses.
    
22. BUG FIX - unfocus the hand if you open deck view while dragging out a card to avoid mouse cursor confusion.
    
23. BUG FIX - a few Spells that didn't work with the Volatile Spells mutator were fixed. For example: Restoration Detonation.

Get ready to reignite your love of Monster Train, your favorite deckbuilding game, with new content and exciting new strategies to employ. The second free content update is coming in 2 weeks!. Friends and Foes will include a new Exiled Champion for each clan, new Seraph tricks and select ring boss variants. We’re also equipping the new Champions with their own unique starter card! We can’t wait for you to revisit each clan and its new hero.

Next week the Public Test Train will go live again so you can start discovering all the exciting new content we created before launch. It is prudent to warn you, we’ve already seen some very immersive gameplay that will seriously get your social life in trouble all over again :wink:. Visit our social channels and Discord for instructions on how to jump aboard.

As always, join Mark from Shiny Shoe as he will be revealing new surprises and previewing the update live in the Good Shepherd weekly stream next week here. Find the rest of the playlist from past streams here.

Looking for other friends to share your midnight strategizing? Check our Discord or visit our Reddit page.

Happy Weekend All,

Here's a short message to say that we’re hard at work on the free Friends and Foes Update coming soon. We’ve been teasing some of it on our regular Thursday livestreams here on Steam and Twitch . If you’ve been missing out, here’s a preview of the new Hellhorned Exiled Champion, the Shardtail Queen.



Each new clan Champion comes with new and different mechanics plus starter cards. They are selectable at the run start OR you can use an original Champion and choose Exalted mode for your allied clan to shake things up. Of course, with balance being our goal, your favorites are still excellent choices and the Friends and Foes will fit like a conductor's glove. Need to know more and see all the Champions? Please visit Twitter to see the Umbra and Melting Remnant Exiled Champions as well as more Foe variants in the new Update. Check out the livestream Playlist here.

We leave you with Talos, the boss variant for Ring 3 and a contest for Shark Week. Please share your favorite Stygian deck in a comment on this update before August 17th for a chance to win the Monster Train OST. Bonus points for sharks.

July 21, 2020
1.1.5 (Build 9791)

1. NEW FEATURE - added ability to turn on Googly Eyes in Graphics Settings so it can be used without preventing single player progression.
   
2. BUG FIX - fixed a bug with card mastery unlock tracking where the daily challenge tracking would reset if you played the same daily twice.
   
3. BUG FIX - fixed some issues with the Moth Magic mutator and multi-hit cards like Ice Tornado and Crypt Builder.
   
4. BUG FIX - fixed a minor UI bug where the settings button moved erroneously if you had a lot of artifacts.
   
5. BUG FIX - fixed an issue in Run History where Hell Rush rank could be displayed incorrectly as a loss.
   
6. BUG FIX - fixed some other rare under the hood issues with Run History.

This first major update for Monster Train adds exciting features that expand the game experience and brings something for everyone. It features all new challenges for players who have achieved max rank, adds massive modifiers which will notably alter your decision-making, and exciting new unlockables for players of all levels. In addition, we've done our largest balance pass to date, increasing the viability of a wide range of new strategies.


35 New Mutators that can be used in all game modes, including single player runs. Two of the new mutators are the mind-bending Hivemind (all units are all subtypes) and the wacky Googly Eyes!



15 Expert Challenges to test your skills. Once you’ve won a run at Covenant 25 you’ll unlock 15 challenges to complete. Your Logbook tracks your progress.



Unlockable card mastery frames. After meeting the unlock criteria you can earn alternate card mastery frames inspired by various elements of the Monster Train world. After updating check the Logbook for more details.



Featured Community Challenges. Under the newly renamed Challenges menu (formerly “multiplayer”) you can browse curated Community Challenges made by Monster Train players around the world. Each challenge has its own leaderboard - can you reach #1?




First of all, we just wanted to say a bit about our balance philosophy. Overall our goal isn't some type of 'perfect' balance where all cards are used with similar frequency or there aren't super powered combos. Our goals instead with the current round of balance changes are twofold: firstly we wanted to target the outliers - cards or artifacts with very high win and pick rates and ones with very low rates. Ideally this means that it's never a 'no-brainer' to either pass on or pick a card or artifact and as often as possible the choice depends on the current state of your run. Secondly we wanted to start shifting our balance 'target' to higher covenants - as we've launched and more players have begun to climb the covenants we both have enough data and believe the playerbase as a whole is at a high enough level that we're doing more of our tuning targeted around the top end of play. The end result is that some cards that are balanced at a high end of play may be slightly stronger or weaker in the lower covenant end of play, and that's ok. Our goal here is rather to make sure the end-game depth is as diverse as possible with the biggest practical impact being around updating the scaling values on certain cards to make sure they're viable at all covenant levels. As usual all balance is an ongoing process and especially in a game with as many pieces as this one we expect to continue to tune and adjust frequently around the launch of the patch as a wider range of players gets their hands on the changes.

We also wanted to call out one specific change here as well, and that's the shift from morsels 'dying' when eaten instead to them 'despawning'. We wanted to recognize that this does remove a fun synergy between the Remnant and Umbra clans that many of us enjoyed, however both clans when not in this combination we felt were too weak and wanted to make some changes. Specifically, we wanted to buff both Harvest triggers on Remnant and the impact of some of the Morsels. Our goal with these changes was to make these clans more playable in other combinations without making this clan combo the 'must use' one. It also had an added benefit of not making the core mechanic of the Umbra clan as punishing against enemies with Harvest triggers themselves, which was an interaction we had already considered possibly overly punishing.


Major New Features:

1. NEW FEATURE - 35 new mutators that can be used in all game modes.
   
2. NEW FEATURE - you can now add mutators to standard runs (single player). Note that using mutators prevents all progression because you can make very easy runs - you do not gain XP, master cards, or unlock new covenant levels.
   
3. NEW FEATURE - 15 expert challenges to test your skills. Unlocked after winning a run at Covenant 25.
   
4. NEW FEATURE - unlockable card mastery frames. Collect them all!
   
5. NEW FEATURE - featured community challenges. In the Community Challenge area (previously called Custom Challenges) there are a bunch of challenges both featured manually by the dev team and also algorithmically based on popularity, high scores, difficulty, and more. Create some challenges, share them with friends, and see if they get featured! Updates every 24 hours currently.
   
6. BALANCE - numerous balance changes. More information on balance strategy and a full list of changes is below.

Clanless Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Advanced Prototype now adds 5 attack and 5 health to Train Stewards on top of other benefits.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Automatic Rail Spikes damage increased 5X -> 10X.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - changed the order of operations on Cleanse Seraph so it does the cleanse effect before spawning a minion. This benefits the player - now effects like Light's Gift can apply to summoned minions.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Gift of Gratitude coin increased 30X -> 40X.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - increased status effect stack maximum from 999 to 9999, which was requested multiple times in the context of Frostbite primarily.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Iron Dropcage dazed stacks reduced 3 -> 2 since it is now much easier to trigger.
   
7. GAMEPLAY - Iron Dropcage now triggers even if the unit can't move, for example if it's in the bottom floor and you cast Dripfall on it.
   
8. GAMEPLAY - Iron Dropcage now triggers on Flying Bosses before the relentless phase if you cast a spell like Dripfall on them.
   
9. GAMEPLAY - Most Blessed Sword damage increased 10X -> 30X.
   
10. GAMEPLAY - new status effect: Fragile. If an affected unit takes any damage to their health, they die. This appears in several new mutators.
    
11. GAMEPLAY - Revenge triggers now also happen when a unit takes lethal damage and dies.
    
12. GAMEPLAY - Thy Holiest Shield damage shield stacks reduced from 3X -> 2X.
    
13. GAMEPLAY - Volatile Gauge random ember cost increased from 0-3 -> 1-3.
    
14. GAMEPLAY - Winged Steel card draw reduced 2 -> 1.

Hellhorned Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Alpha Fiend attack on strike increased 3 -> 5, health increased 20 -> 25.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Deranged Brute bonus attack per stack of Rage increased 2 -> 3.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - Hornbreaker Prince's Wrathful path Rage on Revenge increased 1 -> 2 at level 1 and goes up from there.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Onehorn's Tome now adds Fragile to the target. Now only targets friendly units.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - Ritual of Battle Rage gain increased 6 -> 8.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Welder Helper armor gain increased 15 -> 20.

Awoken Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Awake regen decreased 4 -> 3.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Cycle of Life Spikes reduced 4 -> 3.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - Husk Hermit attack increased 3 -> 5.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Pyre-Gro redesigned. Now it causes you to draw 2 fewer cards next turn and gain +1 ember per turn for the rest of battle.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - Razorsharp Edge attack gain increased 8 -> 10.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Shattered Shell attack gain on Slay increased 2 -> 3.
   
7. GAMEPLAY - Steel Enhancer ember cost reduced 1 -> 0.
   
8. GAMEPLAY - The Sentient's Explosive path damage increased 15 -> 20 at level 1, 30 -> 40 at level 2.
   
9. GAMEPLAY - Vinemother's health increased 20 -> 40.
   
10. GAMEPLAY - Wilting Sapwood attack increased 5 -> 15.

Stygian Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Gifts for a Guard ember cost increased 2 -> 3.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Glacial Seal ember cost increased from 1 -> 2.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - Guardian Amulet Sap decreased 3 -> 2.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Hoarfrost Effigy ember cost increased 2 -> 3.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - Lodestone Totem ember cost increased 1 -> 3.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Nameless Siren Rage gain increased 1 -> 2.
   
7. GAMEPLAY - Siren of the Sea attack and health gain on Incant increased from 1/1 -> 2/2.
   
8. GAMEPLAY - Stygian Spike frostbite amounts increased from 1X -> 5X
   
9. GAMEPLAY - Titan's Gratitude damage increased 25 -> 30.

Umbra Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Antumbra Morsel health increased 4 -> 5, health gain on eating increased 3 -> 4.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Crucible Warden health increased 10 -> 20.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - Ember Forge capacity reduced 4 -> 3.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Furnace Tap Rage reduced 4 -> 3.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - Magma Morsel attack increased 3 -> 4, attack gain on eating increased 3 -> 4.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Morselmaker attack increased 0 -> 5, health increased 10 -> 15.
   
7. GAMEPLAY - Morsels that get eaten no longer count as deaths for Harvest or other mechanics.
   
8. GAMEPLAY - Penumbra's Glutton path gains slightly more attack and health at levels 2 and 3.
   
9. GAMEPLAY - Perils of Production ember gain increased 2 -> 3.
   
10. GAMEPLAY - Shadoweater Gorge damage and heal both increased 5 -> 10.
    
11. GAMEPLAY - Shadowsiege capacity increased 5 -> 6.
    
12. GAMEPLAY - Teeth of Gold damage to back unit increased 2 -> 3.
    
13. GAMEPLAY - Void Binding ember cost increased 0 -> 1.

Remnant Gameplay Changes:

1. GAMEPLAY - Big Sludge Rage gain on Harvest increased 2 -> 5.
   
2. GAMEPLAY - Bounty Stalker attack gain reduced 10 -> 8.
   
3. GAMEPLAY - Devourer of Death's subtype is now Wickless instead of Tomb.
   
4. GAMEPLAY - Dripfall ember cost reduced 2 -> 1 and now applies Dazed 1.
   
5. GAMEPLAY - Engulfed in Smoke ember cost increased 1 -> 2.
   
6. GAMEPLAY - Entombed Explosive Extinguish damage increased 35 -> 50.
   
7. GAMEPLAY - Melting Spout now adds Burnout 1 to Tombs in addition to the health gain.
   
8. GAMEPLAY - Molten Encasement Stealth on death increased 1 -> 2.
   
9. GAMEPLAY - Paraffin Enforcer Rage gain on strike increased 2 -> 3.
   
10. GAMEPLAY - Rector Flicker's Accumulator buffed to add attack at each level, starting with +1 at level 1.
    
11. GAMEPLAY - Rector Flicker's Burn Bright path stats reduced 60/60 -> 50/50 at level 1 and are also down slightly at levels 2 and 3.
    
12. GAMEPLAY - Rector Flicker's Dark Calling path now Reforms 2 units per turn at all levels and adds bonus attack at levels 2 and 3.
    
13. GAMEPLAY - Remnant Host ember cost decreased 1 -> 0.
    
14. GAMEPLAY - Tomb units now all have 1 health.
    
15. GAMEPLAY - Votivary ember cost reduced 1 -> 0.
    
16. GAMEPLAY - Votive Key now applies Endless to the first unit summoned each turn.
    
17. GAMEPLAY - Wickless Baron attack gain increased 1 -> 3.
    
18. GAMEPLAY - Wickless Tycoon base stats increased from 3/20 -> 10/25.

New Mutators:

1. A New Challenger - Your Champion is randomly replaced by one that is not from your primary or allied clan.
   
2. A Simple Plan - Non-Champion units cost +2 ember. Start with Sketches of Salvation.
   
3. Arcane Allergy - Enemy units enter with Spell Weakness 1.
   
4. At Your Service - Start with 2 additional Train Stewards and Advanced Prototype.
   
5. Big Chungus - All friendly units get +1 capacity.
   
6. Bleeding Cash - Lose 1 coin whenever a friendly unit takes damage.
   
7. Buying Power - Merchants provide a card duplication service.
   
8. Come Prepared - Add 12 additional random cards to your starting deck.
   
9. Dante’s Comedy - Start with Dante the Deceptive and 3 Dante’s Candle.
   
10. Extra Pyre - Your Pyre gets +80 health.
    
11. Fallen Champion - Remove the Champion from your starting deck.
    
12. Final Shard - Your Pyre starts the run with fragile and damage shield 2.
    
13. Googly Eyes - All units have googly eyes in battle.
    
14. Gravity - At the end of the turn, descend friendly units.
    
15. Highly Reactive - Triggered abilities on friendly units trigger an additional time.
    
16. Hivemind - Friendly units count as all subtypes.
    
17. Levity - Enemy units get haste.
    
18. Luxury in Limbo - Additional unit banners appear in Limbo.
    
19. Multi-Pyre - Your Pyre gets multistrike 1.
    
20. Ninja Training - Minor bosses enter with stealth 5.
    
21. No Fluff - All cards have 1 fewer upgrade slot.
    
22. One Track Mind - The path you take on the map is chosen automatically.
    
23. Protect the Pyre - Start with Boon of the Blacksmith, Precious Plating, and Pyrewall.
    
24. Puny Things - All units have 1 capacity.
    
25. Return on Investment - Spawn an additional Collector in battles that already have a Collector.
    
26. Sacrificial - Apply fragile to the first friendly unit summoned each turn.
    
27. Starry Suffering - Friendly units enter with dazed 2.
    
28. Strike Hard - All units get multistrike 1.
    
29. The Math Challenge - Room combat previews are disabled.
    
30. Tissue Paper - Apply fragile to non-boss enemy units when they enter the Pyre Room.
    
31. Upgraded Drafts - Cards in reward packs and unit banners come with a random upgrade.
    
32. Vampiric Touch - All units enter with lifesteal 3.
    
33. Volatile Spells - The targets of spells are chosen randomly.
    
34. Wand of Cure Light Wounds - Restore 5 health to all units after combat.
    
35. Zoom, Enhance - All cards have 1 additional upgrade slot.

Other Changes and Bug Fixes:

1. ART - mutator icons have been normalized and updated for consistency.
   
2. ART - swap art in Concealed Caverns events for purge/duplicate cards to more closely match the map icons.
   
3. ART - Vine Grasp VFX sped up.
   
4. AUDIO - added button click sounds to some places in the UI that were missing it.
   
5. AUDIO - play victory music when you win a Hell Rush.
   
6. BUG FIX - don't allow enter to close a choice in the deck screen unless a card is selected.
   
7. BUG FIX - don't prevent Lifesteal if all damage was blocked by Armor. But still prevent it if damage was blocked by Damage Shield.
   
8. BUG FIX - fixed a bug in the featured challenge UI if you clicked your mouse like a madman trying to open a challenge.
   
9. BUG FIX - fixed a bug where you could permanently get stuck in a lower resolution when using Exclusive mode, multiple monitors, and lowered your resolution below your monitor's native size.
   
10. BUG FIX - fixed a bug with multiplayer emote keyboard mapping.
    
11. BUG FIX - fixed a rare multiplayer error message appearing during battle intro.
    
12. BUG FIX - fixed a situation where some cards in Run Summary did not update their dynamic body text based on certain upgrades. Was seen with Spike of the Hellhorned and Doublestack for example.
    
13. BUG FIX - fixed a softlock in a rare situation with Wiltwings.
    
14. BUG FIX - fixed a very rare exception on PCs with broken file systems that cannot save the game at all. Affected players can still play now without softlocking but no progress will ever be saved.
    
15. BUG FIX - fixed an issue where card upgrades weren't shown correctly on some types of X cards in Run Summary.
    
16. BUG FIX - fixed an issue where the Minimap didn't reset correctly when you restarted a run.
    
17. BUG FIX - fixed an issue with our handling of dates if you were using a calendar like the Thai Buddhist calendar. Affected players could not start a Hell Rush and had date display issues.
    
18. BUG FIX - fixed issues with Molluscmage Magic Power gain accumulating improperly.
    
19. BUG FIX - fixed minimap coin reward icon.
    
20. BUG FIX - fixed multiple issues with the official Monster Train data API. If you're interested in access, contact us on Discord.
    
21. BUG FIX - fixed some card animation timing that was not going fast enough in Super Ultra speed.
    
22. BUG FIX - fixed some problems in Hell Rush when abandoning and using "new run" to re-enter another rush.
    
23. BUG FIX - fixed tooltip display of boosted effects like Deranged Brute boosting Rage. Previously, the gameplay worked correctly but the tooltip numbers did not reflect the modified values. Now the tooltip text should match gameplay.
    
24. ENGINE - if your data files are corrupted and art doesn't load properly (seen various times from users on Steam) show a message telling the player how to verify integrity on Steam to fix the problem.
    
25. ENGINE - reduce the minimum valid resolution so people with old PCs can continue to play in very low resolutions if they want.
    
26. ENGINE - Run History has been rewritten to store most data locally. For existing players data has to be migrated which takes some time. Broadly, all single player runs stay local to the user now instead of being uploaded to our servers. All multiplayer runs are always uploaded (helps with cheat detection and sharing among other things). Single player runs can still be shared but require opting-in to make that happen. The result of this benefits both players and the development team. For players, run history should be more stable to internet connection loss and loads faster with local storage. For the devs, server load is reduced.
    
27. ENGINE - significant load time speed up for the first time you visit clan select after booting the game. On different machines we have seen between 3x and 10x speed up.
    
28. MULTIPLAYER - prevent players from playing multiplayer modes if they are not on the latest game version.
    
29. TEXT - added Enhance tooltip to Wicked Blaze.
    
30. TEXT - Icy Cilophyte now says the stack count for Spell Weakness to improve consistency.
    
31. TEXT - updated wording on Flicker's Liquor to clarify rules.
    
32. UI - "reset save" functionality reworked in settings menu to try to prevent people from using this by accident and not realizing that it will wipe progress.
    
33. UI - added a notification to the main menu that tells you if there is a new daily challenge you haven't seen yet or a new set of featured custom challenges you haven't seen yet.
    
34. UI - added ability to press enter to close run opening info.
    
35. UI - added information in the Logbook about how many single player end-game challenges you've completed.
    
36. UI - changed Haste to not show stacks.
    
37. UI - changed main menu text to say "standard run" and "challenges" instead of "singleplayer" and "multiplayer" to try to get more people to try the "challenge" modes.
    
38. UI - Logbook option moved to the main menu.
    
39. UI - status effect count is always visible even if it's 1 for all stackable status effects.

On time and according to schedule, the free content update WIld Mutations will arrive next week on the 16th. There will be a lot of changes for Monster Train included in this update. We know you all like to start playing Wild Mutations already and we got you covered!

We are very pleased to announce the launch of the PUBLIC TEST TRAIN, a public test server where you can start testing the update. The Public Test Train copies your savegame data and you can use it in the Public Test Train, but all your progress on Public Test Train will not be copied back in the normal game.

To acces the Public Test train, follow the below steps:

Instructions to Participate in the Public Test Train:

1. Make sure Monster Train is not running
   
2. Right click on the game in your Steam Library
   
3. Click "properties"
   
4. Click the "BETAS" tab
   
5. In the dropdown menu, choose "public-test-server"
   
6. Press close and wait for the game to update

Change log Wild Mutations:

NEW FEATURE - 35 new mutators that can be used in all game modes.
NEW FEATURE - you can now add mutators to standard runs (single player). Note that using mutators prevents all progression because you can make very easy runs - you do not gain XP, master cards, or unlock new covenant levels when using mutators.
NEW FEATURE - 15 expert challenges to test your skills. Unlocked after winning a run at Covenant 25.
NEW FEATURE - unlockable card mastery frames. Collect them all!
NEW FEATURE - featured community challenges. In the Community Challenge area (previously called Custom Challenges) there are a bunch of challenges both featured manually by the dev team and also algorithmically based on popularity, high scores, difficulty, and more. Create some challenges, share them with friends, and see if they get featured! Updates every 24 hours currently.
BALANCE - numerous balance changes.

Check our Reddit post for more details!

All aboard!

Clear your schedule for the 16th, the free Wild Mutations DLC is coming to Monster Train bringing new mutators, advanced challenges for players who have completed Covenant 25, the ability to add mutators to single player runs, balance updates, and more!

Just reaching the depths of hell is no longer enough, prepare to defend your skills for the best score on the leaderboards. Fueled by your input and feedback as a community, this content update will enrich your previous game experience with new strange and brag-worthy runs.

Some mutators will turn your knowledge of the existing mechanics upside down, others will make visual changes to the characters that will bring a warm smile on your face.
Just 2 more weeks until we release the new free content in Monster Train. Get your friends onboard with the 10% Summer Sale discount, ending soon.

We’re celebrating with gameplay livestreams on Twitch and Steam by your favorite streamers DivideAConquer, Wanderbot and Rhapsody all day long today. We begin with a special art stream with the Shiny Shoe team talking about your favorite Imps, their creative process and more at 11AM PT/ 2PM EDT/ 8PM CEST HERE.

Hi Everybody,

We are proud to announce the first free upcoming DLC for Monster Train, WILD MUTATIONS. This will be releasing soon but we wanted to give you a taste of what’s to come right now and share some interesting info. First, if you haven’t picked up the game yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? It’s now 10% off during the Steam Summer Sale!

Second, we’d like to congratulate our contest winners who helped share their ideas for the best mutations. Huge thanks to you all for our ideas and inspirations to help with this DLC. Will the winners please reach out to us for their free OST code?

- Fred Jones with Volatile Spells: All spells have random targets
- SpaceNewt with Hive Mind: All of your units share their unit type with all of your other units.
- Takisse with Triggered: All abilities trigger an extra time (both players and monsters), so things like slay, summon, resolve.

Now, on to the DLC.

Prepare to spend more gameplay hours in game, beat more challenges and use more super cool mutators. For those of you who already reached covenant level 25, we have new challenges that make your runs even more interesting. But this update isn’t JUST about mutators, it also includes some nice and often requested quality of life additions to the search options for competing on other runs.

Details below:
- over 30 new mutators for use in all run types
- view and join the top dev and community challenges to test your skills on a rotating series of the hardest and most played seeds
- use all mutators on single player runs
- added new logbook achievements for completing covenant 25 challenges
- biggest balance patch yet (patch notes are available in the community section or ingame)

Additionally, you’ve seen the multiple patches with bug fixes and balancing changes since launch. This will, of course, be a continuous effort that will not waiver long term so keep hitting that F8 button when you encounter something to share!

Thanks for continuing to share the game, play and report. We hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into the roadmap for the immediate DLC plans. In the meantime, check out the FAQ with some gameplay secrets and tips you haven’t see here, stop by and watch our weekly Thursday Stream here and we’ll see you soon with Wild Mutations!

We see you all enjoying Monster Train and climbing the covenant levels. While you all have been playing an insane number of runs, we also have been quite busy. We have patched the game to fix some bugs and did some small balance tweaks to improve the game (check our patchnotes for details). As we will keep supporting the game, we also are preparing for releasing new content.

In the background we are preparing for our first free content update for Monster Train. We got a long list of cool features and ideas for new content to extend your Monster Train runs in single and multiplayer. Painfully we have to make choices as we cannot do everything right away.
For the first update we are discussing new surprising mutators and more ways to extend your endgame experience. More news on the free content next week!

Mark from Shiny Shoe already showed some in the weekly dev stream if you like to have a sneak-peak. Check it out, as Mark also answers a relentless flow of community questions about new content and our plans for future content and features. Check it out here. Our Discord servers were on fire when we asked you the community for input for new mutators. So many reactions and suggestions, just amazing. The winners are seriously considered to be included in the upcoming free content update!

Next week we will share more about the new free content update!