Welcome to our very first Citadel: Forged with Fire patch notes post! We had an absolute blast watching all the streams and gameplay videos that came out during our first Closed Beta Test, and used all the feedback we observed to tweak the game’s balance and improve the gameplay experience for our next test.

We noticed most players encountered issues with our NPC behavior. Enemies would give chase to players infinitely, and the only option to deal with them was to jump in a pool of water and snipe them from safety. To fix this, we’ve made a number of changes to our NPC AI, which should hopefully resolve this issue.

Spell balance was another thing we decided to take a look at coming out of last weekend. Players expected spells to be more powerful, so we went ahead and gave them some significant buffs. Additionally, we also addressed some audio and graphical issues that may have occurred (I’m looking at you Haste).

In addition to the above, we made some key changes to building and map presentation, and added a few small things here and there to make some confusing things a little more obvious. Oh, and we added VOIP!

Transparency and communication is a top priority for us as we move towards and beyond our Early Access launch, and we can’t wait to continue rapidly delivering new content, balance changes and bug fixes on a constant basis.

Take a look below, and we hope to see you in-game soon!



- NPCs will now drop aggro when you run away. No more being chased from the Whispering Woods all the way up to Venturer’s Bane by 50 Orcs!
- NPC movement has been increased. You can run, and they’ll eventually lose interest, but don’t expect to be faster than a wolf while running backward now.
- NPC perception has been decreased. Orcs will no longer spot you from a mile away, so you will now be able to better avoid unwanted encounters.
- Forest Guardian rock throws should now work properly instead of harmlessly exploding near you.
- NPC health has been balanced. We’ve made it so early game enemies (near starter towns) are a little easier and late game enemies (up north in the Tundra regions) are less abusable.

- Doors and door frames have been renamed to avoid confusion. You do not have to build a door frame to build a door. They are two independent building options.
- Doors should no longer render off the hinges and should be placed properly within the wall. As you’d expect from a door.
- All references to “Nexus” replaced with “Throne” for clarity.
- Some adjustments to build menu icons to make things a little easier to understand.

- Lots of spell buffs. Players last weekend observed that spells were not doing as much damage as basic melee, which felt a little off. Damage, cooldowns and mana costs have all been adjusted to give them a little more oomf.
- You can no longer fire spells off while swimming. Now water will be useful in escaping mobs, but cannot be used to cheese enemies.
- Telekinesis is now very expensive and a lot weaker. We want this spell to be underpowered at launch, and we’ll slowly readjust and increase its power as we go. We don’t want this spell to become too overpowered and have it ruin anyone’s experience.
- Pacify has been rebalanced. You can now only tame creatures ten levels higher than you or less.
- Extract costs less mana to cast to make resource gathering less tedious.

- VOIP is now live! Push “-“ in-game and start getting chatty!
- Mana and health pools regenerate your vitals a lot slower to avoid abuse. Our plan for mana and health pools was to have them as a places where you can rest for a moment and top up your vitals. This is more in-line with that objective.
- Saddles are now craftable to allow creature riding.
- The House window will now display properly for all players.
- Empty chests now properly show as opened.
- Haste, Bloodlust and Blue Aura VFX now stop when the buff wears off.
- Resource rich rocks are now glowier and more noticeable.
- Lots of map presentation tweaks.

Welcome to our very first Citadel: Forged with Fire patch notes post! We had an absolute blast watching all the streams and gameplay videos that came out during our first Closed Beta Test, and used all the feedback we observed to tweak the game’s balance and improve the gameplay experience for our next test.

We noticed most players encountered issues with our NPC behavior. Enemies would give chase to players infinitely, and the only option to deal with them was to jump in a pool of water and snipe them from safety. To fix this, we’ve made a number of changes to our NPC AI, which should hopefully resolve this issue.

Spell balance was another thing we decided to take a look at coming out of last weekend. Players expected spells to be more powerful, so we went ahead and gave them some significant buffs. Additionally, we also addressed some audio and graphical issues that may have occurred (I’m looking at you Haste).

In addition to the above, we made some key changes to building and map presentation, and added a few small things here and there to make some confusing things a little more obvious. Oh, and we added VOIP!

Transparency and communication is a top priority for us as we move towards and beyond our Early Access launch, and we can’t wait to continue rapidly delivering new content, balance changes and bug fixes on a constant basis.

Take a look below, and we hope to see you in-game soon!



- NPCs will now drop aggro when you run away. No more being chased from the Whispering Woods all the way up to Venturer’s Bane by 50 Orcs!
- NPC movement has been increased. You can run, and they’ll eventually lose interest, but don’t expect to be faster than a wolf while running backward now.
- NPC perception has been decreased. Orcs will no longer spot you from a mile away, so you will now be able to better avoid unwanted encounters.
- Forest Guardian rock throws should now work properly instead of harmlessly exploding near you.
- NPC health has been balanced. We’ve made it so early game enemies (near starter towns) are a little easier and late game enemies (up north in the Tundra regions) are less abusable.

- Doors and door frames have been renamed to avoid confusion. You do not have to build a door frame to build a door. They are two independent building options.
- Doors should no longer render off the hinges and should be placed properly within the wall. As you’d expect from a door.
- All references to “Nexus” replaced with “Throne” for clarity.
- Some adjustments to build menu icons to make things a little easier to understand.

- Lots of spell buffs. Players last weekend observed that spells were not doing as much damage as basic melee, which felt a little off. Damage, cooldowns and mana costs have all been adjusted to give them a little more oomf.
- You can no longer fire spells off while swimming. Now water will be useful in escaping mobs, but cannot be used to cheese enemies.
- Telekinesis is now very expensive and a lot weaker. We want this spell to be underpowered at launch, and we’ll slowly readjust and increase its power as we go. We don’t want this spell to become too overpowered and have it ruin anyone’s experience.
- Pacify has been rebalanced. You can now only tame creatures ten levels higher than you or less.
- Extract costs less mana to cast to make resource gathering less tedious.

- VOIP is now live! Push “-“ in-game and start getting chatty!
- Mana and health pools regenerate your vitals a lot slower to avoid abuse. Our plan for mana and health pools was to have them as a places where you can rest for a moment and top up your vitals. This is more in-line with that objective.
- Saddles are now craftable to allow creature riding.
- The House window will now display properly for all players.
- Empty chests now properly show as opened.
- Haste, Bloodlust and Blue Aura VFX now stop when the buff wears off.
- Resource rich rocks are now glowier and more noticeable.
- Lots of map presentation tweaks.

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!

What good is having a selection of incredible magic spells like Conflagration, which lets you bring meteors down from the heavens, if there’s nothing to use them on?

Fortunately, that’s not a dilemma you’ll have to confront with Citadel. As beautiful as the world is, it’s also littered with a wide variety of dangerous monsters and beasts just aching for a fight. Oblige them!

Ravenous Bears and Direwolves pose an early challenge, but as you grow in power and travel further into the wilds you’ll encounter creatures that present a significantly greater threat. Territorial Dragons patrol the rugged terrain of the tundra, Orcs travel the plains in packs looking for something to kill, and Giant Demons lay in wait for wandering adventurers unwise enough to enter their domain. Hunt them down to grow in experience and acquire rare resources and loot.



Dealing with the creatures of Citadel isn’t just a kill-or-be-killed situation; there is another option. Once you’ve grown strong enough you will eventually unlock access to the Pacify spell, which you can use to tame your enemies and have them aid you in battle. Wounded enemies are much less resistant to taming magic, so be prepared for a battle if you want to earn the loyalty of high-level beasts!

The best part? This effect can be maintained indefinitely. Any monsters you tame become your companion, and will do as you command so long as you maintain their loyalty with craftable Soul Binding Scrolls. Bring them with you to watch your back on your adventures, or have them hold position and guard your home against raiders. Just like you, they will level up and grow in strength as they triumph in combat.



But wait, there’s more! Some creatures can even be fit with a riding saddle once they’ve been tamed, giving you the ability to use them as a mount. Ride land-based creatures like Bears, Horses or Direwolves to cover large stretches of terrain with ease and comfort.

You can even take to the skies with the help of winged beasts. Giant Eagles and Dragons, elusive and evasive as they may be, can actually be mounted once tamed. Yes, that’s correct; you can ride Dragons.

Additionally, many creatures have the ability to launch unique attacks once you’ve hopped on their backs, making them also valuable in situations where you need a little more offensive power. Raiding an opposing House’s fortress? Perhaps it would be strategically wise to use a Dragon’s fire breath to provide air support for your allies on the ground.

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!

What good is having a selection of incredible magic spells like Conflagration, which lets you bring meteors down from the heavens, if there’s nothing to use them on?

Fortunately, that’s not a dilemma you’ll have to confront with Citadel. As beautiful as the world is, it’s also littered with a wide variety of dangerous monsters and beasts just aching for a fight. Oblige them!

Ravenous Bears and Direwolves pose an early challenge, but as you grow in power and travel further into the wilds you’ll encounter creatures that present a significantly greater threat. Territorial Dragons patrol the rugged terrain of the tundra, Orcs travel the plains in packs looking for something to kill, and Giant Demons lay in wait for wandering adventurers unwise enough to enter their domain. Hunt them down to grow in experience and acquire rare resources and loot.



Dealing with the creatures of Citadel isn’t just a kill-or-be-killed situation; there is another option. Once you’ve grown strong enough you will eventually unlock access to the Pacify spell, which you can use to tame your enemies and have them aid you in battle. Wounded enemies are much less resistant to taming magic, so be prepared for a battle if you want to earn the loyalty of high-level beasts!

The best part? This effect can be maintained indefinitely. Any monsters you tame become your companion, and will do as you command so long as you maintain their loyalty with craftable Soul Binding Scrolls. Bring them with you to watch your back on your adventures, or have them hold position and guard your home against raiders. Just like you, they will level up and grow in strength as they triumph in combat.



But wait, there’s more! Some creatures can even be fit with a riding saddle once they’ve been tamed, giving you the ability to use them as a mount. Ride land-based creatures like Bears, Horses or Direwolves to cover large stretches of terrain with ease and comfort.

You can even take to the skies with the help of winged beasts. Giant Eagles and Dragons, elusive and evasive as they may be, can actually be mounted once tamed. Yes, that’s correct; you can ride Dragons.

Additionally, many creatures have the ability to launch unique attacks once you’ve hopped on their backs, making them also valuable in situations where you need a little more offensive power. Raiding an opposing House’s fortress? Perhaps it would be strategically wise to use a Dragon’s fire breath to provide air support for your allies on the ground.

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!

Wizard Fact: You’re not a proper wizard if you don’t live in a cool tower, castle or dungeon!

When we decided we wanted to include structure building in our game, we made it a top priority to ensure we did it right. Our vision is to have a building system that is as easy to use as it is flexible and open-ended – we don’t want our wizards to feel stuck building the same cookie-cutter castles.

We’re confident that we’ve struck this balance: Citadel has literally hundreds of construction pieces to unlock and use. Build anywhere with complete, unrestricted freedom. Simply gather the resources you need – via conventional scavenging or with the aid of speedy resource extraction spells – find a spot worthy of your masterpiece, and get to work!

As you level up your character you will unlock the ability to fortify your creations with stronger resources and craft more elaborate decorative and functional items like thrones, storage chests and crafting stations.

Although you’re free to build a modest home on your own, if you want to create something truly impressive you’ll have to work with other players. The best way to do this is to form a House. Players within a House share their Thrones with each other, and are therefore better enabled to share resources and build large-scale structures. Gather your friends, form a House, and create a massive kingdom!



A wizard would also not be content with hanging their pointed hat in a mere shell of stone and wood. As you know, magic extends to everything in Citadel, and that includes the buildings you’ll be creating. Using your growing magical prowess, you will be able to construct an array of magically imbued structures including defensive shields, attack towers, mana pools, respawn stones and many more. Use these structures to buff yourself and protect your property from foes.


We’ve created the tools so you can express your creativity and make your own unique mark on Citadel’s sprawling landscape. We here at Blue Isle Studios have had a ton of fun building absurd and elaborate castles, and we can’t wait to see what you guys cook up once you get your hands on the game! In the meantime, check out these examples of what we’ve come up with:

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!

Wizard Fact: You’re not a proper wizard if you don’t live in a cool tower, castle or dungeon!

When we decided we wanted to include structure building in our game, we made it a top priority to ensure we did it right. Our vision is to have a building system that is as easy to use as it is flexible and open-ended – we don’t want our wizards to feel stuck building the same cookie-cutter castles.

We’re confident that we’ve struck this balance: Citadel has literally hundreds of construction pieces to unlock and use. Build anywhere with complete, unrestricted freedom. Simply gather the resources you need – via conventional scavenging or with the aid of speedy resource extraction spells – find a spot worthy of your masterpiece, and get to work!

As you level up your character you will unlock the ability to fortify your creations with stronger resources and craft more elaborate decorative and functional items like thrones, storage chests and crafting stations.

Although you’re free to build a modest home on your own, if you want to create something truly impressive you’ll have to work with other players. The best way to do this is to form a House. Players within a House share their Thrones with each other, and are therefore better enabled to share resources and build large-scale structures. Gather your friends, form a House, and create a massive kingdom!



A wizard would also not be content with hanging their pointed hat in a mere shell of stone and wood. As you know, magic extends to everything in Citadel, and that includes the buildings you’ll be creating. Using your growing magical prowess, you will be able to construct an array of magically imbued structures including defensive shields, attack towers, mana pools, respawn stones and many more. Use these structures to buff yourself and protect your property from foes.


We’ve created the tools so you can express your creativity and make your own unique mark on Citadel’s sprawling landscape. We here at Blue Isle Studios have had a ton of fun building absurd and elaborate castles, and we can’t wait to see what you guys cook up once you get your hands on the game! In the meantime, check out these examples of what we’ve come up with:

Welcome to the Weekly Review! Every Friday we’ll break down the latest happenings in the world of Citadel: Forged with Fire. Check back weekly for info on game updates, events, community content, contests and much more!


Wednesday was a big day for us! We finally announced Citadel: a game we’ve been pouring ourselves into for a very, very long time and have been dying to share with the gaming community. Your reaction to our trailer has left us humbled, and we can’t wait to get you all in to check out the game for yourselves!

Take a look if you missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm_eiMVTFGo

Have questions? We’re listening! Join us Wednesday July 19, 2017 4PM EDT at www.twitch.tv/playcitadel to watch us play some Citadel and answer your burning queries.

Want to know more about a specific creature, gameplay system or environment? Curious about the game’s menu options? Desperate to know the team’s favorite ice cream flavors? Share your questions in our Q&A thread and we’ll work our way through a healthy selection live!


Our first wave of beta keys is going out today! If you’ve signed up already, keep an eye on your email inbox (and potentially junk box). Servers will officially go live Saturday July 15th at 9AM EDT and will stay open until Sunday July 16th at 9AM EDT.

If you still haven’t applied but want to get in on the fun, worry not! We’ll be sending out more waves in the future, so head over to our official website and fill out the form!


Our Feature Highlight posts will cover a range of topics from Magic, Building, Taming and much, much more. This week, we showed you our first feature: Magic!



Magic is the force at the center of just about everything in Ignus. Click here to take a look at this Feature Highlight to learn about some of the cool spells you’ll be able to cast, and the weapons you’ll need to use to cast them.


We’ve been absolutely floored by how you folks have assembled fantastic Citadel communities within hours of our reveal! I’d encourage anyone who is excited about Citadel to jump into either of the following communities and join the discussion:

Discord: https://discord.gg/59Wp6Ew
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ForgedWithFire/

Be sure to also give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook!

Welcome to the Weekly Review! Every Friday we’ll break down the latest happenings in the world of Citadel: Forged with Fire. Check back weekly for info on game updates, events, community content, contests and much more!


Wednesday was a big day for us! We finally announced Citadel: a game we’ve been pouring ourselves into for a very, very long time and have been dying to share with the gaming community. Your reaction to our trailer has left us humbled, and we can’t wait to get you all in to check out the game for yourselves!

Take a look if you missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm_eiMVTFGo

Have questions? We’re listening! Join us Wednesday July 19, 2017 4PM EDT at www.twitch.tv/playcitadel to watch us play some Citadel and answer your burning queries.

Want to know more about a specific creature, gameplay system or environment? Curious about the game’s menu options? Desperate to know the team’s favorite ice cream flavors? Share your questions in our Q&A thread and we’ll work our way through a healthy selection live!


Our first wave of beta keys is going out today! If you’ve signed up already, keep an eye on your email inbox (and potentially junk box). Servers will officially go live Saturday July 15th at 9AM EDT and will stay open until Sunday July 16th at 9AM EDT.

If you still haven’t applied but want to get in on the fun, worry not! We’ll be sending out more waves in the future, so head over to our official website and fill out the form!


Our Feature Highlight posts will cover a range of topics from Magic, Building, Taming and much, much more. This week, we showed you our first feature: Magic!



Magic is the force at the center of just about everything in Ignus. Click here to take a look at this Feature Highlight to learn about some of the cool spells you’ll be able to cast, and the weapons you’ll need to use to cast them.


We’ve been absolutely floored by how you folks have assembled fantastic Citadel communities within hours of our reveal! I’d encourage anyone who is excited about Citadel to jump into either of the following communities and join the discussion:

Discord: https://discord.gg/59Wp6Ew
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ForgedWithFire/

Be sure to also give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook!

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!


Today we begin our series of Feature Highlights by taking a look at the force at the center of just about everything in Ignus: Magic! As you explore, fight monsters, and build the castle of your dreams you will also grow in experience. You’ll want to use this experience to expand your knowledge of the arcane arts if you’ll have any hope of thriving in this harsh world.

At launch, Citadel will offer you a diverse range of powerful spells, with many more to come in the future. You can do some really cool stuff with our magic system: not just combat, but also beast taming, telekinesis, resource collection and much more.

Pacify: This spell gives you the power to charm enemies and use them as combat allies; Some enemies can even be used as mounts! We’ll talk about this spell in more detail in a future Feature Highlight, so stay tuned.

Extract: We decided a high level wizard would have too much dignity to be caught hunched over gathering sticks and stones, so we came up with the Extract spell. Using this power, mages can effortlessly suck materials out of giant rocks, trees and other objects to accumulate large quantities of building resources with ease. Build massive castles and fortresses without the crushing tedium of resource gathering.



Telekinesis: As your grasp over the magical arts grows you will eventually unlock the ability to levitate physical objects and propel them at high speeds. While you may be thinking you’ve seen this type of thing in a hundred other games, we’ve taken it to a completely new level. Sure, you can use this spell to turn simple objects – rocks and branches, for example – into projectiles, but can you think of another game that lets you pick up and throw entire freakin’ castles? Didn’t think so!

I rest my case.




You’ll also want to familiarize yourself with the four different types of tools used to harness these powers: Wands, Staves, Gauntlets and Melee Weapons. Some spells can only be performed with certain tools, so it’s important to take stock of what you’re wielding in certain situations; that beefy axe you found may cause devastating damage to enemies, but its limited range makes it incapable of providing long-range support.

Wands: Wands are effective at espionage, quick movement and confusion. Wands are able to cast many precision ranged attacks, and often come with a cooldown reduction bonus making it perfect for those who like rapid-fire combat.

Staves: Staves excel at ranged attacks and area-of-effect magic. Staff users are better suited in a support role rather than on the frontline. Many staves will offer a boost to a player’s maximum mana.

Gauntlets: Gauntlets excel at beam type spells: they deliver high damage-over-time at the cost of significant mana drain.

Melee Weapons: Melee weapons like axes and swords excel at dealing huge amounts of damage, but at the cost of short range. They rely far less on magic, and therefore use less mana.

Welcome to today’s Feature Highlight! During the run-up to our Early Access launch on July 26th we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the fantastic features that make up Citadel: Forged with Fire. Keep checking back for more in-depth gameplay reveals!


Today we begin our series of Feature Highlights by taking a look at the force at the center of just about everything in Ignus: Magic! As you explore, fight monsters, and build the castle of your dreams you will also grow in experience. You’ll want to use this experience to expand your knowledge of the arcane arts if you’ll have any hope of thriving in this harsh world.

At launch, Citadel will offer you a diverse range of powerful spells, with many more to come in the future. You can do some really cool stuff with our magic system: not just combat, but also beast taming, telekinesis, resource collection and much more.

Pacify: This spell gives you the power to charm enemies and use them as combat allies; Some enemies can even be used as mounts! We’ll talk about this spell in more detail in a future Feature Highlight, so stay tuned.

Extract: We decided a high level wizard would have too much dignity to be caught hunched over gathering sticks and stones, so we came up with the Extract spell. Using this power, mages can effortlessly suck materials out of giant rocks, trees and other objects to accumulate large quantities of building resources with ease. Build massive castles and fortresses without the crushing tedium of resource gathering.



Telekinesis: As your grasp over the magical arts grows you will eventually unlock the ability to levitate physical objects and propel them at high speeds. While you may be thinking you’ve seen this type of thing in a hundred other games, we’ve taken it to a completely new level. Sure, you can use this spell to turn simple objects – rocks and branches, for example – into projectiles, but can you think of another game that lets you pick up and throw entire freakin’ castles? Didn’t think so!

I rest my case.




You’ll also want to familiarize yourself with the four different types of tools used to harness these powers: Wands, Staves, Gauntlets and Melee Weapons. Some spells can only be performed with certain tools, so it’s important to take stock of what you’re wielding in certain situations; that beefy axe you found may cause devastating damage to enemies, but its limited range makes it incapable of providing long-range support.

Wands: Wands are effective at espionage, quick movement and confusion. Wands are able to cast many precision ranged attacks, and often come with a cooldown reduction bonus making it perfect for those who like rapid-fire combat.

Staves: Staves excel at ranged attacks and area-of-effect magic. Staff users are better suited in a support role rather than on the frontline. Many staves will offer a boost to a player’s maximum mana.

Gauntlets: Gauntlets excel at beam type spells: they deliver high damage-over-time at the cost of significant mana drain.

Melee Weapons: Melee weapons like axes and swords excel at dealing huge amounts of damage, but at the cost of short range. They rely far less on magic, and therefore use less mana.