Jan 14

Root - Dire Wolf CS

The Marauder Expansion is now available on Steam, with mobile platforms coming soon! Additionally, we have a lot of fixes for gameplay, UI improvements, and pesky bugs.

The Marauder Expansion has arrived on Steam!

Two New factions challenge your woodland rule!
- Lord of the Hundreds – Oppress the Woodland and burn it to the ground if need be. You suffer no dissent.
- Keepers in Iron – Lead your exiled order of devout knights into battle to recover ancient relics. For glory!
New Challenges!
- Six new challenges with both Normal and Heroic modes test your strategic wiles!
New Achievements!
- Eight new achievements push you to conquer the Woodland as never before!
- For more details, check out our article here.

Bugs

The Card icon should now appear on bases inside the Woodland Alliance player info view.
Victory Points should now display black text when Sway is prompted.
Improved placement of hinting arrows in tutorial for all zoom levels
Icons should now display properly until a faction is selected during Advanced Set-up.
Improved visibility of selection highlights on map elements while in strategic view
Vagabonds shouldn’t overlap on Lake Map when in the same forest.
Warriors should no longer clip into each other on the battlefield with higher warrior counts.
Improvements on flag visibility in Mountain Map.
Clearing Suit and Rule Flag hints should now be better aligned.
Undoing crafting should no longer cause flickering.
Winter Map forest and clearing highlights should now have the same opacity.
Riverfolk Cards should now animate to the hand of their new owners when purchased via services.
Vagabond Circle should now be smaller and not appear when walking through a cleared path on the Mountain Map.
Highlights should now appear when targeting a Garden in Strategic View.
Widescreen monitors display for 32:9 ratio is now supported.
Cards should no longer overlap when mousing over.
Player should now be able to select Mountain Paths on Gamepad during Pass & Play.
Minimize button for Vagabond Selection should now be closer to the Maximize button.
Vagabond should now appear on the Turn Order info page.
Forests should now highlight yellow when selected via gamepad on the Mountain Map.
Opponent-facing text should now be correctly localized.
Loading icon should now remain visible when Skipping Replay.

Corvid

Corvid Plots should no longer overlap sympathy/revolt cost.
Corvid daylight actions should now be able to be selected via gamepad.
Corvid Death should now have a sound when a Corvid warrior dies.

Gameplay

Various text corrections and fixes to Challenges.
Various fixes to prompts under Available Quests.
Cancelling out of Convert Ability should no longer cause an infinite loop.

Thank you so much for playing Root Digital! If you have any questions, shoot us a message through the in-game Feedback button or email us at Support@direwolfdigital.com.

Jan 14

Ver.0.5 Update: Demon Realm Expedition Mode

Feminization Device - hakuryu

Players can pass through NPCs but not enemies

In version 0.4, due to the restriction on melee perspective, we set it so that players could not pass through enemies! However, the inability to also pass through NPCs brought significant trouble. After some time and effort, we finally managed to differentiate between 【Enemy】 and 【NPC】! To be precise, although both use the same body, they will set whether to display a collision body to block the player based on their identity. When detected as an Enemy, a collision body will be displayed to block the player. When detected as an NPC, the collision body will be hidden, allowing players to pass through.
In the White Zone, players can pass through undetected demonic creatures lurking about. Once detected and engaged in combat by a player, they cannot be passed through!

Ongoing Prestige Consumption Companion System

In previous updates, many players reported that prestige didn't serve much purpose and was excessively redundant. Although players need to spend 1000 prestige to rehire a companion after they disappear, the rate of acquiring prestige far exceeds its consumption. To address this, we specially designed another prestige consumption method: the Companion System.

In the Companion System, players can choose one out of five companions to accompany them, consuming 500 prestige every time they enter a new scene, until the prestige falls below 500 and the contract automatically terminates. This prestige system brings three benefits:
It provides players with more options for ongoing prestige consumption.
In a sense, players have the ability to "transport" and "protect" companions on the map. As long as the companionship continues, the companion will not disappear. After the contract is terminated, the companion will decide whether to stay or move to another area when the player leaves that area.
It gives players significant support firepower in the scenes (especially in boss battles, where previously players had to face the boss alone).
The Companion System is displayed when you click on the "Battle Princess Association."

Bunny Girl's Option to Exchange Prestige for Money

In addition to the "Companion" and "Companion System," this update has added an option for "Bunny Girl" to exchange prestige for money (the opposite operation to the journalist who exchanges money for prestige). However, 1000 prestige can only be exchanged for 300 coins. Players can exchange unwanted prestige for money in one go (although it's not particularly economical).

Demon Realm Expedition Mode (Survival-type Gameplay)
Originally, the plan was to unlock additional maps after clearing the game, but due to a lack of time to create new scenes, we temporarily assembled the appearance of the demon realm using models of ruins and tentacles.
The entrance to Demon Realm Expedition mode can be accessed by clicking on government information.

The entrance is designed like a portal to the demon realm. Upon entering, players arrive at a non-randomly generated scene where monsters continuously spawn.
There is also a special rule: any damage taken by the player is considered an immediate failure, and the scene resets immediately upon death (CG is omitted). This mode tests players' ability to avoid accidental damage, with points awarded for enemies killed before dying.
Points feel like (highest record), and the highest scores may unlock different equipment or characters in the future.
Earn points by defeating enemies (Easy ×1, Normal ×2, Hard ×4)
Differently, if players wish to leave the Demon Realm Expedition mode, they must return to the scene's exit and click to exit, otherwise, they will continue indefinitely in
this scene.

PC Version Control Adjustments

Sudden Kneeling

Previously on the PC version, entering shooting mode, holding down the shoot button to charge, and simultaneously returning to movement mode could cause a sudden kneeling bug!
The more buttons a player can operate, the more likely various bugs can occur. On mobile, your right thumb can't hold both the switch and attack buttons at the same time, but on PC, you can press the left and right mouse buttons together, which is why this bug went unnoticed for so long!

Mouse Disappears After PC Version
Smartphone Tutorial This actually overlapped with the forced disappearance of the mouse after the tutorial popped up and the forced appearance of the mouse when opening the smartphone. Now, triggering the PC version smartphone tutorial 1 second after completing the mission has essentially solved this problem!

Mouse Disappears After Death on PC Version
This might have been fine right after the PC version was completed, but updating something else later caused the bug to reappear (although it's unclear why, delaying the mouse appearance by 0.2 seconds seemed to fix the issue~).

Stage and Character Adjustments

Tower Remains on Map After Death

A player reported that after defeating the tower, it still remained on the map, and reappeared when re-entering the scene. This was because the tower was set to disappear 3 seconds after death (initially to avoid overlapping with a bug that spawned small monsters). Now, it immediately disappears from the map and is reported as defeated the moment it is beaten.

Maris's Succubus Form

In the previous Ver.0.4, Maris was used to test the creation of a female front kick attack, but in Ver.0.5, it has been reverted to a flying succubus state.

Adjustment of Bunny Girl's Back Collar Position

During tests of the Bunny Girl, the issue was not noticed with long-haired characters. Now, the combination of the Bunny Girl outfit with short-haired characters has revealed the problem, which has been corrected in Ver.0.5.

Anonymous Text Adds Ending Trigger Condition Hint

It seems most players were unclear on how to trigger the "Nurture the Enemy at One's Own Peril" ending. This update adds a reminder in the anonymous text that states [before reaching District 27 in the Green Zone].

Adjustment of Box Size in Yellow Zone Assault Mission

Players had reported that the collision body of boxes in the Yellow Zone assault mission was too small (actually, it was the same size as the portals). This update stacks the boxes vertically, making the collision size more appropriate.

Lighting on CG Appreciation Interface

Previously, players commented that the CG appreciation interface was too dark (actually influenced by morning/evening settings). After this update, the CG appreciation interface is always set to [morning].

The Steam version has also been completely decoded.

Jan 14

Starting the Year Strong: Big Plans for Steps of Debauchery in 2025!

Steps of Debauchery - Fooxied

Hi everyone!

We’re kicking off the year with a bang! Everything is back on track as I'm already fully recovered. I have big plans for this year, mostly focused on Steps of Debauchery. My goal is to make significant progress with the story by the end of the year so that we can move closer to its conclusion in 2026. I’m not sure how many updates will come out this year, but I’m aiming to create around 12,000 renders and a lot of animations in 2025.

On top of the main storyline, we’ve also got some additional content planned for SoD. I can’t share the details just yet, but you can expect something big!

I didn’t mention this earlier, but during the work on update 4.0 last year, we created three big extra scenes featuring the red-haired Riley. We’ll be adding these scenes one by one to future updates since they’re very spicy! Even though we just got back from vacation, most of the scripts for episode 4.1 are already done, and we’ve started working on new renders.

You might have also seen some news about recruitment - we’re actively looking for new artists to speed up the development of updates and to make bigger scenes possible. It’s not easy because we focus on quality over quantity, and finding experienced artists is really tough. But I’m doing my best to deliver the best product for you, no matter the cost.

So, what can you expect in the next update?

A new scene with Riley and Jirina
A bit of rivalry (or maybe teamwork) between Riley and Madison as Dean’s assistants
A meeting with Richard
Solving Wesley’s problems
Progress in the marriage storyline

And a few other surprises - but I can’t spoil everything! We’re back at full speed now, and I’ll share the first progress update with you in about two weeks.

In the meantime, if you haven’t left a review yet, I’d really appreciate it! Your feedback means a lot to me and helps increase the game’s visibility, which also supports hiring new artists.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2649970/Steps_of_Debauchery/

Thanks, and talk to you soon!