Hey Heroes,

Hope you have a wonderful Lunar New Year! We're fresh off our latest Realms Mode release, but we're still working hard to keep the content, fixes, and balance changes coming in. In bleeding-edge today, you'll be able to give our next hero a spin. Please note that like all previously introduced heroes, she is currently a draft version and her translations, card art, and balancing will be rapidly iterated on in the coming weeks, with your feedback.

Additionally, Gordian Quest will be discounted at 25% for a limited period, so be sure to tell your friends all about it!


While her Sekani peers relentlessly pursued the rituals of war, Jendaya's interest lay in deconstructing the Vanai's lost technology. She commands a Golem that is both her companion and defender.

Jendaya has a very unique playstyle - while she is the most fragile of all the heroes, she is accompanied by Rocky, her companion Golem, who acts as a second controllable unit. In addition, her deck consists of Golem-tagged cards. These cards are transferred over to Rocky at the start of battle.
These are her skill schools :

Command Rocky
Control your faithful Golem companion. These cards focus on giving Rocky independent actions and will.

Geomancy
Jendaya can control and shape earth, dirt, and clay to do her bidding. These can be used offensively or to protect her team. Geomancy also involves the study of the intangible flow of luck, which she can manipulate at times to create unique effects on the battlefield.

Synthesis
By infusing her magic with the earth, Jendaya can empower herself or Rocky with special abilities, or create special Rock pillars that can be destroyed to create devastating effects.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Hey Heroes,

The Big Progression Update is now live! Updating to this version will require starting a new campaign due to many changes internally to the structure of the Acts, heroes, and Renown, so you'll be prompted to do so when you first load this update up.

If you prefer to finish up your current run, we've got you covered as well - you can quit when prompted and instead switch to the legacy (build 97i) branch, which contains the previous update. This branch will stay alive for another month, at which point it will be disabled.

So, what can you expect as a returning player? Let's take a dive into the major changes!


We are pleased to unveil a brand new game mode called the Realm Mode (previously code-named Gauntlet Mode). Here, your heroes enter the Maelstrom Gate to challenge an endless chain of procedurally-generated Realms where conquering each one yields precious rewards.

A Shorter Mode that Packs a Deadlier Challenge
Existing fans of Gordian Quest will know that the Campaign Mode is a monster adventure packing dozens of hours of gaming time. Some of you have been requesting for a shorter version and the Realm Mode is our answer to that. Using the same party hero concept and card battle system, Realm runs do away with quests and stories, hence offering a much faster paced yet progressively more intense challenge than the Campaign runs.


The Spoils of Successfully Challenging the Realms
As you progress through the realms, you will be rewarded with Renowns that can be used to unlock artifacts to make your party more powerful. Squeeze out every last benefit you can get from artifacts to be able to progress further! As an added incentive, the artifacts you unlock in Realm Mode will appear too in the Campaign Mode.


Renown is no longer obtained as a hero-specific currency. Instead, any runs you complete (or partially complete) accord you Renown, which can be used to unlock Artifacts. Artifacts are items that grant global bonuses or effects to your party, and they are persistent once unlocked. You can think of Artifacts as a measure of how much more your party can grow, and in turn, your ability to go further on future runs.




Meet Kudo. His kind also call them Blood Mages or Wild Mages, from tribes that splinter off from the main settlements. In a land where water is scarce and death is one unforeseen disaster away, one must learn to wield one's very lifeblood as a weapon and for nourishment. A man of few words, he seems to have unfinished business with the Cult you've been tracking down.

His ability schools are as follows :

Blood Magic - Involves using his own blood or that of others to defend himself.


Malediction - Powerful curses and voodoo magic to debilitate enemies.


Reaping - Manipulate a blood pool, a cell effect that can be used to control and devastate the battlefield.




There are a plethora of changes - here are the most significant ones!

• Reworked progression system to have a max level of 60.
  
• You can reach Lv 60 in Quick Play. Acts can now be played through in order, with Act 1 bringing you to Lv 20, and Act 2 bringing you to Lv 36. Acts 3 and 4 will be released next year, progressively covering up to 60.
  
• Skill cards can now be ranked up multiple times. Common cards have a max rank of 2. Rare cards have a max rank of 3. Epic cards have a max rank of 4.
  
• When at max rank, a card is eligible to be mastered. This resets the card's rank to 1, but lets you pick from 1 of 3 upgrade paths for it. Each card can only be mastered once.
  
• Talents are now integrated into the skill tree in the form of special sockets. You can swap these out to whatever talent you like, as long as you have the required statistics to use them.
  
• Resistances have been reworked. Enemies now also have weaknesses and resistances to certain elements. Damage cards now indicate their damage type. A variety of abilities will be needed to ensure you can handle different enemy compositions.
  
• Introduced Augmentation as a way to make items even more powerful at a cost. This lets you acquire special effects like +1 AP, or even granting you the benefit of certain Talents.

For our dedicated bleeding-edge players, we know you're excited to see what's coming up next. While we don't have the details nor specific dates yet, we want you to know that the forges are still burning hot and we are running several experiments in the background.

A new hero, the Golemancer.
Eagled-eye gamers may have already spotted her on the new main screen! She is a spellcaster who specializes in earth magic, shaping and manipulating the earth to her bidding. She also has a unique mechanic - she will always be accompanied by her Golem companion, who acts as another hero on the battlefield.

Relationship System among Heroes
We hope to add more text dialogue to give heroes more personality, and this is meant to complement a system where heroes can bond with each other, obtaining special moves in battle.

More Impactful Random Events
We are not happy with the current state of the blue ? Event nodes, and we feel the choices they present can be more interesting and impactful. We will be exploring more variations soon.

UI Improvements
We want to improve the consistency and flow of the UI. As the game evolves with new features and functions, certain UI functions may be difficult to access or not well represented, and we'll be taking steps to change this.

The World Expands with Act 3
In the long term, we will roll out Act 3 of the game. At this point, we will be collating the contents of Act 3 and 4 into one act due to how the game progression has changed. It does not necessarily mean less content, but a more streamlined story to introduce Realm Mode, which we are rolling out earlier than originally planned to address replayability. Beyond Act 3, we think that the format of GQ is ripe for even more adventures and content if it has a successful full launch.

Overall Improvements
New mechanics and improvements to current contents will make its way back into Realm Mode in some form or another.

PvP Mode
The big goal for the year: we are building up a PVP mode with the basis of you and your opponent spending an equal amount of points to build a party, pitting them against each other. This one is still very early in development, but we will announce invites when the time comes. This mode is targeted to be released at the end of the year, and we expect there will be rigorous playtesting needed.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Hey Heroes,

The festive season is right around the corner, and we've got an exciting present for you to unwrap! This will be available to all players who opt into our bleeding-edge branch (right click Gordian Quest > Properties > Betas), and it will let you testdrive several fundamental changes to the game.

We intend to observe how the changes are received over the month, before we make this patch public. As always, we welcome your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions.

Now, let's take a dive into the major changes!


Renown is no longer obtained as a hero-specific currency. Instead, any runs you complete (or partially complete) accord you Renown, which can be used to unlock Artifacts. Artifacts are items that grant global bonuses or effects to your party, and they are persistent once unlocked. You can think of Artifacts as a measure of how much more your party can grow, and in turn, your ability to go further on future runs.



We are pleased to unveil a brand new game mode called the Realm Mode (previously code-named Gauntlet Mode). Here, your heroes enter the Maelstrom Gate to challenge an endless chain of procedurally-generated Realms where conquering each one yields precious rewards.

A Shorter Mode that Packs a Deadlier Challenge
Existing fans of Gordian Quest will know that the Campaign Mode is a monster adventure packing dozens of hours of gaming time. Some of you have been requesting for a shorter version and the Realm Mode is our answer to that. Using the same party hero concept and card battle system, Realm runs do away with quests and stories, hence offering a much faster paced yet progressively more intense challenge than the Campaign runs.

The Spoils of Successfully Challenging the Realms
As you progress through the realms, you will be rewarded with Renowns that can be used to unlock artifacts to make your party more powerful. Squeeze out every last benefit you can get from artifacts to be able to progress further! As an added incentive, the artifacts you unlock in Realm Mode will appear too in the Campaign Mode.






Meet Kudo. His kind also call them Blood Mages or Wild Mages, from tribes that splinter off from the main settlements. In a land where water is scarce and death is one unforeseen disaster away, one must learn to wield one's very lifeblood as a weapon and for nourishment. A man of few words, he seems to have unfinished business with the Cult you've been tracking down.

His ability schools are as follows :

Blood Magic - Involves using his own blood or that of others to defend himself.


Malediction - Powerful curses and voodoo magic to debilitate enemies.


Reaping - Manipulate a blood pool, a cell effect that can be used to control and devastate the battlefield.




There are a plethora of changes - here are the most significant ones!

• Reworked progression system to have a max level of 60.
  
• You can reach 60 in Quick Play. Acts can now be played through in order, with Act 1 bringing you to Lv 20, and Act 2 bringing you to 36. Acts 3 and 4 will be released next year, progressively covering up to 60.
  
• Skill cards can now be ranked up multiple times. Common cards have a max rank of 2. Rare cards have a max rank of 3. Epic cards have a max rank of 4.
  
• When at max rank, a card is eligible to be mastered. This resets the card's rank to 1, but lets you pick from 1 of 3 upgrade paths for it. Each card can only be mastered once.
  
• Talents are now integrated into the skill tree in the form of special sockets. You can swap these out to whatever talent you like, as long as you have the required statistics to use them.
  
• Resistances have been reworked. Enemies now also have weaknesses and resistances to certain elements. Damage cards now indicate their damage type. A variety of abilities will be needed to ensure you can handle different enemy compositions.
  
• Introduced Augmentation, as a way to make items even more powerful at a cost. This lets you acquire special effects like +1 AP, or even granting you the benefit of certain Talents.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

We are happy to tell you that we will bring Home Behind 2 to WePlay in Shanghai!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220010/2/

Home Behind 2 is a Roguelite RPG which takes place in Scaria.

A country engulfed in a civil war for 10 years. Lead a patchwork group of revolutionary fighters into the depths of the government's territory as you struggle to overthrow a brutal authoritarian regime!

If you are interested, don't forget to wishlist it!

Follow Us:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coconut_Island
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoconutIslandGames

Hey Heroes,

The Digital Tabletop Festival has arrived, and to celebrate this, Gordian Quest will be available at a 15% discount!

To our fans who have joined us upon our Early Access journey, you may have heard whispers of an upcoming Gauntlet Mode update at the end of the year. We're still working hard on making it happen, and while we are not ready to open up a test run of it just yet, we're eager to tell you more about the key features of this next major update.


Gauntlet Mode is a separate game mode that will offer fast-paced and frantic adventures packed with more content. Each run in Gauntlet Mode will be shorter than completing a full Act, but it will be much more intense. It sits alongside the Acts and is meant to be an end-game experience, featuring randomized realms with all the enemies, events, items, and other features from the Acts. When we complete Act III and IV later next year, the contents of those Acts will also be updated into Gauntlet Mode.

The mode is intended to challenge you and to test your strategies, as the Realms that you fight in are volatile and riddled with ever changing effects. You will have to adapt your tactics and prepare for the unforeseen as you travel through a device known as the Maelstrom Gate, visiting the realms. Here is an overview of how it works, as well as several follow up features that are still being discussed at the moment :

• You create a fresh party, and begin your foray into the first Realm (Realm 1).
  
• Each Realm is around 10 nodes long and ends with a Realm Boss. Defeating the Realm Boss lets you advance into the next Realm (pick from 1 of 3).
  
• Realms get progressively more difficult (Realm 2, Realm 3, and so on).
  
• Between the start and end point of a Realm, there are various branching paths.
  
• The paths consists of various nodes that provide a different level of risk and reward, and can meaningfully change how the Realm feels.
  
• (Tentative) Each Realm you complete grants you a Reliquary Key. Boosting a Realm's difficulty or picking a dangerous Realm grants more Keys. You will learn more about these keys in Act IV, but suffice to say, you will be able to use them for their intended purpose now...
  
• (Tentative) Reliquary Keys can be used to unlock and level up Artifacts, which are items that provide global bonuses on future runs. You don't lose Artifacts, and you can select and equip up to 3 at a time.
  
• (Tentative) Every 3 Realms, you hit a save point. You can choose to safely bank your Reliquary Keys, or to double down on them. If doubling down, you will forfeit these bonus keys and a portion of your haul if your party is defeated at any point before the next save point - but you will be richly rewarded for your gamble if you succeed!
  
• (Tentative) We plan to have seasonal leaderboards to celebrate the most clever and persistent players.
  
• The Realms grow ever more challenging, but with the right team, strategy, and astute Artifact use, you will venture far deeper into the realms than anyone else!

This patch contains our biggest balance changes yet. Apart from changes needed for a better sense of progression in Gauntlet Mode, we've been looking through your feedback and suggestions, and we've gone back to rework a great many things. Let's take a look at some of them.

• Skill cards can now be ranked up multiple times. Common cards have a max rank of 2. Rare cards have a max rank of 3. Epic cards have a max rank of 4.
  
• Each rank increases the base power of the card.
  
• Items can now drop at different tiers, with higher level items having higher ranked cards.

When at max rank, a card be mastered. This resets the card's rank to 1, but lets you pick from 1 of 3 upgrade paths for it. Each card can only be mastered once.

We will be expanding the list of possible Mastery upgrades to feel impactful and unique. Here is a handpicked list of 5 possible effects to give you an idea of what these upgrades will be like :

• A basic spell could gain the "Channelled Spell" modifier, but its AP cost would increase by 1.
  
• A melee attack could gain a "Leech" modifier, reducing its damage but allowing it to steal HP.
  
• A defense skill could gain a "Purge" modifier, removing one random debuff on the user.
  
• A debuff skill could gain a "Potent" modifier, letting it apply its effects through Guard.
  
• A high cost skill could gain a "Quickened" modifier, reducing its AP cost and base values.

The new Mastery system will no doubt allow for much more theorycrafting and build variety, and we're excited to see what you'll come up with.


The Talent System has been through several iterations, but we're still not happy with how it feels.
Here are the issues we have identified with it, mirrored by many of your comments as well :

• In the very first version, talents were rolled at random from Talent Nodes, but they felt far too random for a proper build to be designed around them. Gaining a talent should be helpful and meaningful to the build progression, not frustrating.
  
• In the current version, the system was changed to a very deterministic way to build what you want, but the rate at which talent points are given out are too generous.
  
• Several talents were frequently picked more so than others, being the "best choices".
  
• The new talent system feels somewhat "separate" from the skill grid.

Processing the above, we'll be designing the third iteration of the talent system with all the considerations of the above.

• Talent Nodes are now unlocked on the Skill Grid as you progress.
  
• Talents and Talent Nodes are now split into 3 tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3), with each tier being more powerful and impactful than the previous.
  
• You can choose the Talent you want to insert into the node, from the same Tier or lower. This can be swapped out at any time while in town, or in camp.
  
• Talents now require a minimum stat requirement. This value will be higher for Tier 2 and Tier 3 nodes.
  
• Higher tier talents are now much more impactful. For example, a high Strength will give you a chance to shrug off status effects, a high Dexterity will give you a free move on your turn, and a high Intelligence will let you redraw your starting hand in battle.
  
• This will also encourage various hybrid stat builds, instead of enforcing min-max stat builds (which still do have a place, but is no longer the only way to build a hero).

One of the things we hope to accomplish in the next build is to make enemies more of a strategic puzzle to fight. One of the key things we intend to change is how their intent indicator works.

• Intents will now always reflect what they intend to do, rather than reflect what they are doing based on the current position and layout.
  
• This means that moving out of an enemy's range will no longer cause them to change their action to something you could not foresee. If there are no targets for them, that attack will miss and hit empty air.
  
• This enforces the idea that positioning can be used as a defensive tool to avoid attacks. This is also a buff to Movement cards. To balance this, we will be increasing the enemies' range in certain cases, and tweaking certain enemy behaviors.

Secondly, to minimize confusion and improve readability, we will be making a change to their decks :

• Currently, enemies also draw a hand similiar to players, and act based on priority of cards in hand from left to right. This will no longer be the case with the new intent system.
  
• When inspecting an enemy, you will only see the action that they intend to play.

As a result of the above, Statuses will be getting a much needed change as well.

• Statuses that heroes can apply and are "card-based" like Burn and Chill have been reworked. This is because enemies no longer have a hand or deck for this to apply to. Specific statuses that enemies can apply and are "card-based" will remain as they are as they can still affect the heroes' hand.
  
• We are now giving a better definition and purpose to damage over time statuses. Statuses can now have a duration counter together with their effect value.
  
• Applying multiple stacks no longer causes a status to stack indefinitely, but refreshes the stack and duration. To balance this, these statuses will have higher values, and can be further boosted through talents and items.

We have two new heroes coming in the next patch. Today we'll be giving a sneak peek at one of them - the Warlock. Hailing from the outer reaches of the Azul Desert, the Warlock is a Noyakin mystic with a checkered past.

His kind call them Blood Mages or Wild Mages. They are tribes that splinter off from the main settlements. In a land where water is scarce and death is one unforeseen disaster away, one must learn to wield one's very lifeblood as a weapon and for nourishment. A man of few words, he seems to have unfinished business with the Cult you've been tracking down.

His abilities revolve around sacrificing his own blood or of others as a material component for his spells, as well as summoning totems for various effects.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Act II is being officially released today!

Thanks to those of you who tried it out during beta stage and gave us your valuable feedback, we are excited to unveil a whole slew of new additions and improvements to the game. We will be touching on some of them later in the post. Along with the release of Act II, it is the perfect time to jump back into the game!

Also, in this update post, we will be talking a bit about an upcoming mode called the Gauntlet Mode we will be working on to make Gordian Quest even more replayable and enduring.

Finally, Gordian Quest will be 20% off this week, so please tell a friend about it if they haven't gotten the game already!




-------------------

CORE CHANGES

We've been listening to your feedback, so you'll notice many changes to various cards across the board.

Here are the more notable ones:

• AP cost, damage, and utility have been rescaled for many cards. Many skills are much more viable now, and we are still actively making changes as deemed necessary.
  
• Skill cards used to only scale damage and guard with stats. Now, stats also scale healing and statuses, keeping buffs and debuffs competitive as the game goes on. You can hold down Ctrl to inspect the various scaling mechanisms on a skill card.

• Skills that don't scale at all now have a grey header. These are skills that remain useful at any stage of the game due to the nature of their mechanics.

New Talents

• New Talents have been added, allowing you greater control over your deck and combat abilities.

Codex changes

• You can now view all skills and items via the codex, even if you have not found the card yet. The card will only be visually dimmed if yet to be collected.

Item Changes

• We continue to add items and rework old ones, some of which grew long in the tooth as the mechanics of the game evolved past launch. 60 new Legendary items have been added, giving even more variety to early and late game builds.

Quality of life changes
Many other quality of life changes have been added in, with notables including :

• Ability to toggle battlefield view while choosing a card.
  
• Manage hero skills and equipment from the guild hall/operations tent.
  
• Selecting cards in battle by using the number key row.
  
• Bulk purchasing items in stores.
  
• Color blind mode for cards.

Accessing Act II

After completing Act I, you will be able to access Act II from the main menu. Each Act is a self-contained adventure, so you will start the adventure with a fresh party - however you can carry over the benefits of Hero Renown from Act I, so you will be able to start off with select advantages.

-------------------

WHAT'S IN ACT II



The Azul
The new map features new territories to explore and dangers to face. Sand storms that plague the land will cause some nodes to be shrouded, keeping the challenges within a mystery.


Some new paths spawn according to which nodes you choose to pass through, leading to endless possible ways to explore the secret caverns and tunnels coiled under the vast Azul Desert. What dangers or treasures lie ahead? Only the bravest of heroes will find out.


The Bard
Naran the Bard joins the roster of heroes! She yields a delicately precise form of magic through a series of harmonies. She can lead a turbid orchestra that feeds fear or a soothing aria that inspires courage where there was none. She wanders the realm in pursuit of adventures and companions that can inspire her music.

Naran's skill schools revolve around three main themes :

• Effects that strengthen her party's offensive capabilities, or weaken and expose the enemy.
  
• Effects that cause direct harm, whether through the magical nature of her music or her trusty slingshot.
  
• Effects that can confuse and control her foes, turning them to her side, albeit temporarily.

An Expanded Bestiary
Here is a look at some of the new enemies you'll encounter in this new region. They'll possess new and deadly traits that you'll need to prepare a good response to, lest they rip your party to shreds! The desert is a dangerous place.


The mechanics are still a work in progress, but here is a sneak peak at the new mechanics you'll have to deal with:

Missions
A core complaint at launch was that players would mostly stick to three heroes over the course of an adventure, with the rest of them just parked in town. As part of the Act II arc, Missions is brand new mechanic that will give these heroes more purpose, and allow you to engage with them more often.

A new NPC in town will grant access to this system, where you can form parties with your other heroes and send them off on missions. This system runs alongside your own adventures - as you explore the wild, your other parties make progress as well. You can track their progress on your map with a counter on the side.



After a period of time, these away teams will complete the mission progression, gaining XP. In addition, several things may happen at this juncture. Depending on the type of mission :

• You can benefit by collecting a small reward from their missions (essentially making these missions delayed rewards),
  
• You can switch over to the away team, fighting a concurrent battle elsewhere on the map, earning specific rewards.
  
• You can scout out areas on the map, adding Boons to the area.
  
• You can convert a node into a Raid node - a new battle mode that lets your party join forces with the away party to fight a powerful set of foes.

This is a highly extensible system and we see the possibility of adding more mission types in the future, as well as reasons to send specific heroes.

-------------------


Our work is not over - we'll be spending the next few weeks monitoring the release of Act 2 and responding to any bugs or balance issues that may pop up.

Beyond this, we are excited to soon begin development of the Gauntlet Mode, an infinite dungeon mode where you will be able to compete with other players to travel as deep as you can, facing ever stronger dangers and foes.

It is meant to offer a quicker, more frenetic session as compared to the longer experiences of the Acts e,g half to 1 hour runs instead of multiple hours invested into single run. We wanted to prioritise the development of this mode over Act 3 and 4 as we have received feedback from a great number of players who want something like this. We also believe it will give the game extended longevity while you wait for the other Acts to be developed. There is already a good base we can work with to create this mode, by remixing the many battle locations, enemies, items, events, and more.

The replayability of this mode will put it on par with the many other traditional roguelike experiences you may be familiar with out there, all with our unique brand of deckbuilding and RPG elements. The competitive element will also encourage more experimentation with parties and builds, as we introduce even more enemy traits that counter or prove resistant to specific combos and skills.

While the final mechanics may change upon release, here's the overall gist of how it would work.

• Gauntlet Mode starts off with you picking your team of heroes. You will activate an ancient gateway known as the Maelstrom Gate (the nature of this will be revealed in Act 3 and 4, but suffice to say it is a portal to infinite other realms).
  
  
• You travel through a procedurally generated Realm, which start off small and is generally linear in nature with branching paths. You'll be forced to weigh the merits of the path ahead as the level converges onto an end boss at the end. It starts off at a manageable difficulty.
  
  
• Defeating the boss gives you a chance at obtaining a legendary item, and unlocks the next realm, where enemies are of a higher level, and the challenge factor is increased.
  
  
• Upon completing a set number of realms (killing the end bosses), you will be given the opportunity to exit the Maelstrom Gate and interact with NPCs, selling and obtaining new items. You can then return through the Gate to continue your delve.
  
  
• Upon completing a set number of realms, you will be given the opportunity to add a new party member. These party members can be used for missions, and act as an "extra life" should one of your existing members fall.
  
  
• Survive as many realms and bosses as you can! Your run ends when your current party is defeated. Your lowest depth will be recorded, and you'll be able to compare your run to other players on a global leaderboard.

We hope you enjoyed the outline of how Gauntlet Mode will work, and we can't wait to start working on it this coming month. Do share your thoughts on how you'd like it to work as well in the forums - we know some of you are just bursting with ideas!

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Hey Heroes,

Act II is releasing today as a beta!

To ensure stability, we will first be releasing it on the bleeding-edge branch. This means you will have to opt into bleeding-edge to have a first-hand go at experiencing Act II. We will also be adding in translations for other languages in the coming weeks.

For those not sure what the bleeding-edge branch is, consider it a beta. Be pre-warned that the game may hang or crash as betas do from time to time and we are counting on you not to freak out if it does. Please also kindly inform us of any bugs you find by pressing the F8 key.

The build will be playable from start to finish but the content is not complete yet. We will continue to add the remaining content (i.e. enemies, cards, backgrounds, etc) and will polish the new mechanics in the following weeks leading up to the official public release.

Once we consider the update to be stable and bug free, we will officially release it (likely end of August).

Do note that in the official version, you will have to finish Act I before you can play Act II.

As before, due to the extensive differences between the two versions, the save file used in the bleeding-edge is separate from the main branch, so you'll be able to dive in and test the changes without worrying about messing up your current progress. Eventually, these changes will make its way to the main branch after a period of testing.

To opt-in to bleeding-edge, go to Gordian Quest on your Steam launcher and click on the following - Manage > Properties > Betas > Opt-in to bleeding-edge

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Now, let us tease you with what you can expect in Act II!


The new map features new territories to explore and dangers to face. Sand storms that plague the land will cause some nodes to be shrouded, keeping the challenges within a mystery.


Some new paths spawn according to which nodes you choose to pass through, leading to endless possible ways to explore the secret caverns and tunnels coiled under the vast Azul Desert. What dangers or treasures lie ahead? Only the bravest of heroes will find out.


Naran the Bard joins the roster of heroes! She yields a delicately precise form of magic through a series of harmonies. She can lead a turbid orchestra that feeds fear or a soothing aria that inspires courage where there was none. She wanders the realm in pursuit of adventures and companions that can inspire her music.

Naran's skill schools revolve around three main themes :

• Effects that strengthen her party's offensive capabilities, or weaken and expose the enemy.
  
• Effects that cause direct harm, whether through the magical nature of her music or her trusty slingshot.
  
• Effects that can confuse and control her foes, turning them to her side, albeit temporarily.

Here is a look at some of the new enemies you'll encounter in this new region. They'll possess new and deadly traits that you'll need to prepare a good response to, lest they rip your party to shreds! The desert is a dangerous place.


The mechanics are still a work in progress, but here is a sneak peak at the new mechanics you'll have to deal with:

Noyakin Blade
Steal Item: Steal an item from the player. Return item to player on death.

Noyakin Mystic
Disruption: Add 2 Disrupt cards to target hand. When played, Disrupt applies a random debuff to the unit.

Fire Spirit
Burn Weapon: Apply Burn to all attack cards in target's hand.


A core complaint with our first patch was that players would mostly stick to three heroes over the course of an adventure, with the rest of them just parked in town. As part of the Act II arc, Missions is brand new mechanic that will give these heroes more purpose, and allow you to engage with them more often.

A new NPC in town will grant access to this system, where you can form parties with your other heroes and send them off on missions. This system runs alongside your own adventures - as you explore the wild, your other parties make progress as well. You can track their progress on your map with a counter on the side.



After a period of time, these away teams will complete the mission progression, gaining XP. In addition, several things may happen at this juncture. Depending on the type of mission :

• You can benefit by collecting a small reward from their missions (essentially making these missions delayed rewards),
  
• You can switch over to the away team, fighting a concurrent battle elsewhere on the map, earning specific rewards.
  
• You can scout out areas on the map, adding Boons to the area.
  
• You can convert a node into a Raid node - a new battle mode that lets your party join forces with the away party to fight a powerful set of foes.
  

This is a highly extensible system and we see the possibility of adding more mission types in the future, as well as reasons to send specific heroes.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Hey Heroes,

Today marks the start of the Steam Summer Sale and we are pleased to make a few announcements.

First, Gordian Quest is going on a 10% discount, so for those of you who have been sitting on the fence about getting it, this is the perfect time to do so. For those of you who have bought our game and like it, please tell your friends to get it. Many thanks in advance!

Second, we are on schedule to deliver Act 2 by the end of July despite the challenges of working from home and we are really excited about it.

Third, we released a host of new features and balance updates in our beta (bleeding edge) branch last month. Some of you tried them out as early adopters and with your feedback and bug reports, we are now ready to bring these features to the official branch. They come ahead of our Act II release at the end of July, and will serve as a step forward to creating a highly re-playable game mode later this year.

Allow us to discuss the updates.

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We've overhauled the battle interface to deal with previous annoyances like being flooded with status icons, and having the top left status list conceal units on the battlefield. The camera now battle handles large 4-lanes battles better.

You will also notice that enemies now work a little differently. These are the major changes :
• Previously, enemy health increased as they gained levels. Now, their damage and defense abilities scale as well, making late game fights more engaging.
  
• In our previous iteration, all enemies acted once. In the new system, Elite enemies can act twice, making them far more deadly and interesting to fight. Elite enemies also have higher base stats.
  
• Certain enemy groups now have unique behaviors. For example, when fighting against humanoid enemies, felling one of their numbers can trigger a rage in other members in their ranks.
  
• In wave battles, the last row will always be filled up with incoming reinforcements. This change is meant to do two things - improve the pace of wave battles and make each round more challenging, as well as allow players a strategic option : by using skills that shift enemies, you can better control the rate at which reinforcements can enter the field by blocking off certain lanes.
  
• With an improved AI system controlling groups of enemies as well as holistic changes to heroes, battles can now feature more enemies at once, giving rise to more strategic play.

Speaking of balance, we've also improved on the hero schools. In particular, the Ranger, Spellbinder, and Druid are now much more competitive, with many early game annoyances addressed by changing how certain mechanics and subsystems work, and tweaking numbers across the board. We will continue to make changes as necessary as we continue developing the game.


The randomized talent system from before has been replaced with a new Talent Select system. You gain a Talent Point every 3 levels, or when acquiring one through the Skill Grid, and you can invest this into a talent of your choice. Investing a second point will Master a talent, allowing you to gain additional advantages from it.



With this system, you can deterministically decide how to build your heroes - pick up more Channel charges if you build that way, or gain Critical every turn if you are dual wielding. Master a weapon proficiency to avoid adding that weapon's card to your deck, or improve your regeneration capabilities instead.



Each hero also has access to specific camping and map talents. Lucius the Swordhand can spend time buffing a hero's weapon and armor, giving them an edge in the next fight. Pierre the Spellbinder can spend the time concocting a potion, if you have enough supplies. This allows each hero to bring a unique edge to each party composition.


We've given you more flexibilty in deckbuilding with several new nodes, and reworked existing ones.

• A generic Draw node now lets you draw 3 and pick 1 from any school of choice, and these nodes have been made fairly common.
  
• A specific Draw node from a particular school now lets you draw 4 and pick 1, slightly improving your chance of getting a card you want.
  
• Draw nodes can be forfeited to obtain a Skill Replacement Point, which can be used at any time to swap out a card.
  
• Clone Skill node (a rare node that lets you duplicate a card in your deck)
  
• Talent Point node
  
• Stat Point node

Your stat point upgrades are no longer tied to drawing a card, so you can build the deck you want to. Stat point upgrades are now granted from individual nodes on the grid, letting you increase one statistic of your choice.



Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence no longer just affect damage - they also boost the respective versions of Guard-generating cards. This ties in to enemy balancing, which we will touch on further down in this post. In a future update, you will gain additional bonuses for reaching certain statistic thresholds, giving you more of a reason to focus on more than one stat.


All newly found items can now drop with sockets. Sockets come in 1 of 3 colors, and can be socketed with Runes of a matching color. Runes are stones of power that grant beneficial effects to the hero that equips the item, or to the cards on an item.



By mixing and matching certain Runes, you open up the door to new builds. From Runes that restore your HP every time you use the item's card, to Runes that lower an item card's AP cost by 1, and even Runes that will Master an item's card - items are now another playground for you to experiment with.




Crafting has been given a shot in the arm, and there are many more cool things you can try out now. -

• Barnaby the Jeweller can now modify an item's sockets and their colors, letting you build towards your perfect gear.
  
• Marco the Merchant now offers a gambling service, letting you trade in artifacts called Relic Tokens in exchange for random Legendary items.
  
• Wynne the Enchantress now offers a way to reroll Legendary values, using the Soul Sparks that are salvaged from other Legendary items.
  
• There is now a new version of Shrines called Eternal Shrines, which can be used every 14 days. When interacting with both Shrines and Eternal Shrines, you can spend Strange Incenses to modify the map modifiers that appear, giving you a way to control the levels of risk and reward when using them.

The current Camp Nodes on the map are now called Campsites. These are powerful one-use camping session that allow your heroes to spend a day training up or perfecting their deck, and are not functionally changed.



By spending Supplies, your party can also set up a quick Camp, which lasts for 4 hours (as compared to 12 in a Campsite), and gives you a period of time to rest, recuperate, and use certain camping abilities. This system is the first step towards working on our endgame modes featuring long adventures that will test your limits, and where access to a town and supplies will be greatly limited. Supply costs have also been increased slightly.

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And that concludes the last month of development. We're excited to see how you'll respond to the changes!

Please note : With this update, because of the extensive changes to the heroes, your previous save file will be migrated to an updated version. What this means for CURRENT games:

• All traces of the old talent system has been removed. Each hero will instead be given an equivalent number of Talent Points based on their level.
  
• Your heroes WILL NOT be updated to the new skill grid (so that your current deck remains unchanged). Only new skill grids you obtain from this point on will contain the new nodes.
  
• Your current items CANNOT roll sockets. Only new items you obtain from this point may roll with sockets.

As such, while it is recommended to start a new run to fully experience all the new changes, you can still continue playing your current campaign.

----------



Thanks for reading. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

Crafted With Love,
The Mixed Realms Team

Hey Heroes,

Although we've had plenty of patch notes updates, it's been sometime since we updated you on the 'bigger stuff'. We have been working really hard on new features and the upcoming Act 2, and we are so excited to tell you about them. So here goes.

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Try Out bleeding-edge and Our New Features

Starting tomorrow, we are opening up access to our bleeding-edge branch. This branch lets you experience a whole slew of changes we have in store for the future of Gordian Quest. If you don't mind a slightly more unpolished experience for now, we invite you to give it a try and share your thoughts on the changes.

Due to the extensive differences between the two versions, the save file used in the bleeding-edge is separate from the main branch, so you'll be able to dive in and test the changes without worrying about messing up your current progress. Eventually, these changes will make its way to the main branch after a period of testing. We hope to set up our future update cycles this way, so that the bulk of our players can enjoy a more stable experience while the more intrepid ones get to test drive the latest changes.

You can view the full changelog over in our Patch Notes subforum. It’s a pretty long list, but we want to highlight the TOP 3 -

Socketing Items - To make itemization more interesting and to make more build choices viable, we are introducing a socketing system. Equippable items may roll with these sockets, which accepts a Rune of the corresponding color. You can mix and match various Runes to grant bonus effects on your hero, or to the cards attached to items. Barnaby the Jeweller now also offers his crafting services to add or change these sockets.


Talent System Rework - The current system was found to be lacklustre and unimpactful by players. We’ve overhauled it to make it a much more engaging way to build and customize your heroes. Heroes now have access to their own unique Talents which give each of them a better identity. In addition, heroes gain Talent Points every few levels, and are able to master (upgrade) them for bonus effects.


A New Battle View - We’ve reworked the battle scene in various ways to improve the readability and accessibility of battles. You should be able to select cells more easily when units are overlapping, as well as get a more comprehensive view of each unit’s health and statuses.

Please note that the bleeding-edge branch is considered a beta and these features are on it for the reason that they may not be totally stable yet. So if you do opt into bleeding-edge be warned that the game may hang or crash and we are counting on you not to freak out if it does, and to kindly inform us of any bugs you find (F8 is your friend!). Once we consider these features stable and bug free, we would move them into the official version of the game.

Thank you for understanding!

To Opt-in
To opt-in to bleeding-edge, go to Gordian Quest on your Steam launcher and click on the following - Manage > Properties > Betas > Opt-in to bleeding-edge

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Act II Progress Updates

As you would probably know, we are releasing Act II officially on 31 July 2020. Although it's still 2 months away, we are ready to unveil some WIP for your viewing pleasure.

Remember the rough concepts which we showed during our first Act II preview? Here they are now -


New Enemies: Warrior and Flamebringer from the Sekani Tribe



New Enemies: Mystic and Blade from the Noyakin Tribe



New Enemies or Allies? Meet the leaders of the warring tribes of the Azul Desert.



New Hero: The Bard will join the roster of heroes when Act II officially launches in end July.


Act II Bleeding Edge
We will be releasing an early preview of the first half of Act II sometime in late June. Watch out for it if you want to be one of the first to try it out!

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Over the past months, we’ve gotten a fair number of requests to bring forward Gauntlet Mode.

Gauntlet Mode is basically a version of the game that puts aside the storyline, and lets you delve through a series of levels, each growing more difficult than the previous, until you eventually meet your end. It is a shorter but more challenging experience, and you will be able to challenge others through a leaderboard system.

While we had originally planned to finish all 4 Acts before starting on this game mode, it is clear to us that a good number of players desire something with more replayability to feel more engaged with the game while waiting for the Acts to roll out. As such, we would like to let you know that we plan to work on Gauntlet Mode as our next feature (after Act II is done), and this will roll out sometime in October.

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Thanks for reading and we hope you stay safe. We will continue to work hard in bringing you more exciting features and improvements in the game. We thank you for your support and patience as we continue to build this game with you.

As always, we hope to hear your thoughts below on what we’ve put forth so far. Feel free to join us on Discord https://discordapp.com/invite/tce6YMW to chat with us.

And last but not least, if you haven't already, please consider giving us a positive review on Steam if you like how we are doing so far. It would really mean a lot to us. Thanks! :)

“小老弟，你怎么肥四？”

……恍惚中，DJ·范保罗听到一句云淡风轻的提问，八个字，短短的八个字，王霸之气已然直上九霄，冲云见日！

“小老弟，已经2020年5月28日11点了，该战斗了！”

DJ·范保罗发烧半生，听过的Hi-End耳机与音响不计其数，却从未听过如此天籁的人声！

“这就是完美的中频！” DJ想。

一行清泪划过脸颊，DJ缓缓睁开眼，他感到一股暖流涌入胸中。 他看到，那个男人。那个男人，正冲着他微笑……