The biggest release yet. Two new callings join the fight, the Geomancer is reborn as a shapeshifting Druid, and all twenty callings now wear their own bodies — a dwarf, a high elf, dragon-kin, a moth, a crane, a toad, a naga and a weasel among them, each with a death cry that fits it. The board changed as much as the people on it: walls, traps, burning fields, shoves and pulls, stacking marks and chain spells, all under a sky and a landscape that now carry on past the edge of every map.

Update required. Once this release is live the server turns away v1.4.20 and older, so download the new build before you queue.

Two new callings

The Tidewarden — the calling that moves people. A tier-2 heavy, unlocked by Sworn Knight 3, fighting with flails, polearms and axes. Her starter, Harpoon, is a charged throw down a four-tile lane: the first body in the lane is dragged to her feet. Undertow hits everyone within two tiles (allies too) and pulls them a step closer, Breakwater knocks a target back three tiles, Trawl hauls a whole line in and roots it, and Bulwark halves every blow from the front or side for two turns — only the back gets through. Her ultimate, Maelstrom, drags everyone within twelve tiles a step toward her and stuns them — your own units in reach too. Innate Sea Legs: water costs her no extra movement. In 20,000 bot battles she landed dead centre of the roster.
The Snarewright — the calling that goes first. A tier-2 trapper, unlocked by Windstrider 2 + Apothecary 2, fighting mostly with crossbows and daggers. She wins by setting the board before the fight arrives: Snap Trap bites and roots the first enemy to stop on it, Caltrop Line lays three tiles of iron that bleed anyone who starts a turn in them, Bramble raises a three-wide wall of thorns, Tripline roots at range 5, and Mark the Quarry hands back a fifth of her MP when the marked unit falls to anyone. The ultimate, Deadfall, rings the tile you name with stunning traps. Innate Light Step: she never springs a trap herself.
Both enter the free weekly rotation pool from October 1 (two callings are free each week), and AI fill can field them. Each has a calling laurel with its own overhead title — "Hauled In" grants Warden of the Tide, "Gone First" grants Wright of Snares.
Already qualify? If you meet the requirements, the new calling is unlocked the moment you log in, with its starter skill.
"Master of the Eighteen" stays as you earned it, epithet and all; a new "Master of the Twenty" asks for all twenty, and the Master of Arms capstone now counts all twenty calling laurels.

The Druid

The Geomancer is reborn as the Druid, a caster with a second body. All thirteen old abilities are retired. In human form the Druid controls the field — Hollow Earth, Briar Snare, Mire, Barkskin, Earthbind, Riptide and Earthen Wall. Then she changes shape:
- Wolf — Move +1, PA +5, Speed +2: Venom Fang, Pounce, Fury Swipes.
- Hawk — Move +1, flight, Evade +15, but takes 25% more damage.
- Bear — Move −1, PA +8, a third less physical damage, 30% more magic.
- Dragon (the ultimate) — PA +6, MA +6 and flight for three turns.
Shifting costs your MOVE, not your action, so you change shape where you stand and can still bite that turn. Shed Form (also a move) brings you back. One body at a time; a beast uses only its own skills.
Learn a body, and it is dealt to you. The bodies are learned with JP like any skill (Wolf 200, Hawk 300, Bear 400, Dragon 600), and each beast's own skills come with it for free. Each battle a Druid is dealt two of the animals it knows (with all three learned: Wolf 84%, Hawk 80%, Bear 36%), and Dragon Form rolls on its own at 10%.
Real animals on the board. The wolf, bear and hawk are their own 3D models that breathe, lunge, flinch and fall, and the Hawk and the Dragon genuinely fly — over height and water (walls still stop them).
Your old Geomancer JP is refunded and your Druid starts from Hollow Earth — spend it on the new kit, bodies included, before your first Druid battle. Its laurel, Voice of the Land, now asks for four different Druid skills in one battle and ten Druid wins.

Twenty callings in their own bodies

The chibi figures are gone. Every calling now wears its own new 3D body, all sized to one roster proportion with feet on the tile.
The roster stops being all human. The Sworn Knight is a dwarf, the Arcanist a high elf, the Dragoon a dragon-kin lancer and the Ninja a small dragon-kin in a torn half-mantle. The Shadowblade is raccoon-kin, and her tail sways as she walks. The White Seraph is a moth in a white mage's robe, the Windstrider a red-crowned crane, the Bard a squat toad minstrel, the Dancer porcelain with black-lacquer joints and gold-mended seams. The Tidewarden is a naga who glides on her coil, the Snarewright a hooded weasel, the Iron Fist sealed head to foot in black iron plate, and the Chronomancer a one-armed timekeeper with a brass halo turning erratically behind his head. Ten portraits were repainted, and the Tidewarden and Snarewright have their own.
Deaths sound like who fell. KO cries used to be a coin-flip human scream played over moths and toads alike. Now each calling's voice is fixed: a crane's cry, a toad's croak, a naga's hiss. The Samurai falls with a crack of plate, the Dancer in silence, and a shifted Druid dies as its beast.

How they move

Guns are fired, not swung. Crossbows get their own two-handed shot, potions are thrown, Defend raises a shield, a Jump has a real take-off and landing, a missed attack makes the target dodge, and picking up a crystal plays a pick-up.
The Dancer dances, the Orator talks, the Samurai draws its sword for the Draw-Outs, and the Snarewright kneels to set her traps.
A charged spell is a stance you can read. The caster enters it, holds it through the wind-up and releases it when the spell fires, bigger for longer charges; an interrupted cast drops it with no release. Several callings have their own, and some keep still, because stillness is their tell.
Most callings now have their own idle or flinch, and nine of them (Squire, Apothecary, Arcanist, Shadowblade, Iron Fist, Bard, Dancer, Chronomancer, Snarewright) celebrate a win in their own way even without a bought victory pose.

New ways to shape the board

Walls. Earthen Wall (Druid) raises three tiles of stone across your aim, Bastion (White Seraph) one consecrated stone, and Bramble (Snarewright) three tiles of thorns. Nobody walks, slides or lands through a wall, and no arrow or bolt gets past it however high the shot. A wall crumbles early if its caster falls.
Traps and burning fields. A trap springs under the first enemy to END a move on it — walking, being shoved or pulled onto it, or landing all count; passing through does not. A field bites anyone who starts a turn in it, friend or foe. New traps: Hex Snare (Cursebrand), Snap Trap and Deadfall. New fields: Cinder Field (Arcanist) and Caltrop Line. Every object is visible to both sides, shows its turns left, and opens an inspect card.
Forced movement. A shove or pull that is blocked stops on the last legal tile, and a unit sent down a drop of two or more levels takes 5 damage per level — never lethal, credited to whoever caused it. Ledges are weapons now. Rush (Squire) knocks its target back a tile, Grasping Shadow (Cursebrand) hauls a target up to three tiles in, and Riptide (Druid) knocks a whole line back.
Real shapes. Dragon Breath is the game's first cone, and Odin rides down a five-tile line instead of blasting a circle.
Stacks. Sap, the Shadowblade's new common, marks the target so your next Sap hits ×2, then ×3 — but the mark lasts two turns, so keep hitting or start over. Napalm (Arcanist) leaves a burn that stacks to 15% of max HP a turn, and Arrears (Chronomancer) slows the target's clock more with every cast.
Chains. Chain Lightning (Arcanist) and Chain Mending (White Seraph) flood from the target to units within two tiles of anyone already hit, up to four bodies for Chain Lightning and three for Chain Mending, at 100%, then 75%, then 56%. Chain Lightning conducts through ANY body — your own units, and you, if you stand in the line; Chain Mending passes only between allies. The preview rings every body it will reach, in order, with its percentage.
The bots use most of it — they wall off lanes, lay traps where your units will stop, set crowds on fire, keep out of fires and your traps, and weigh where a shove will land.

More new abilities

Arcanist — Sunspear, whose circle stays on the GROUND instead of following its target, so there's a beat in which to step out. Usurp casts the target's own last spell back at them; if there's nothing to steal it says so and costs nothing.
White Seraph — Wish, a new ultimate that heals the whole army, and Sanctuary: an ally takes no damage from blows for a turn.
Cursebrand — Hush (area Silence), Frailty (×1.4 magic taken), Palsy (no Attack or weapon arts), Rupture (lose 8% of max HP per tile walked), and Stone Gaze, which stuns only the units FACING him.
Orator — Goad (+50% PA, ×1.5 physical taken), Single Out (cannot evade) and Not Yet (no blow can take the ally below 1 HP for two turns).
Bard — Dissonant Chord, Steadfast Hymn (area Protect) and Warding Hymn (no ailment can land under the song).
Chronomancer — Teleport Divide swaps with an ally OR an enemy. Time Bomb sets a two-turn fuse worth 35% of max HP (a cure defuses it), Paradox blocks the next single-target damage spell, and Out of Time lifts a unit off the board for two of their turns, then puts them back where they stood.
Sworn Knight — Guillotine hits harder the more wounded the target is, up to ×2.
Druid — Earthbind: the target can still walk, but cannot Jump, teleport, float or swap.

A world around the board

Every battlefield has its own sky and light, and outdoor boards stand on land that carries on past the edge — the map's own trees and rocks, rolling hills, a painted haze and a landmark on the horizon — instead of floating in a void. Rivers flow on past the edge, the rooftops sit in a city with a street market, and the interiors are ringed by walls and side rooms.
The ground reads as ground. Column sides line up exactly with the board, so cliffs are clean strata with a line at every height step. Winter boards wear real snow, crypts flagstone, libraries planks and carpet, towns cobbles. Waterfalls fall and water flows.
Grass, wind and weather. Grass sways on the green maps, leaves, dust, snow, embers or ash drift in the air, and mist lies over the cemetery and winter boards, all under soft shadows and glow. If your machine struggles, Settings > LOW VFX turns it off for the next battle.
Dozens of new generated 3D props — trees, rocks, headstones, wells, carts, shrines, stalls — replace much of the old low-poly scenery, and every unit and prop shares one painted shading style.
The tile grid is quiet until you need it: a thin seam at rest, the full grid while you choose a move or a target.
Every blow lands as a moment — a wind-up, a weapon trail, a knock-back, a settle. Each element has its own gather, flight and aftermath, and the biggest ultimates briefly turn the sky.

Bigger maps, harder ground

25 of the 29 battlefields grew two tiles on their short side, by widening their own features; eight became square. Where the armies face each other across the grown side (Highspire, Gatestone, Frostfair, the rooftops, Silverrun Falls) they start two tiles further apart; elsewhere each side gains two spawn seats.
A new 5v5 map: Gravewater Catacombs (12×16) — a crypt with two two-wide bridges, mirrored on both axes.
The terrain pass. Sunscar Mesa's wash is a real canyon with ramps only at its ends, so a bigger Jump pays. Silverrun Falls gains a rock bridge, Highspire Rooftops' roofs climb higher, and both Wealdcrown maps play under rain.

Camera and interface

The FOLLOW camera. Press V or ◎ FOLLOW to watch from just behind the acting unit's shoulder, with its own close lens. It follows every turn and the wheel zooms in and out; press it again and the board view comes back exactly as you left it.
Better opening angles on six maps, with the two armies facing each other across the screen.
The turn marker is the crown blade — the logo's sword, point-down and slowly turning — and the acting unit's gold tile lies flat on the floor.
Readouts say what the rules do. Forms and until-cured statuses read "until shed" or "until cured" instead of a fake 99 turns, NULL and REPRIEVED popups appear on the board, and the formula line states Guillotine's bonus, Sap's mark and a chain's falloff.
Every new ability, status and passive has a painted icon, 33 of the weakest old icons were repainted, the Phoenix summon finally has its painted plate, and Handcannon/Flintlock and Cinder Charm/Eidolon Bell no longer share an icon.
Twelve new ambient soundscapes, one per climate — quiet until you raise the Ambient slider in Settings.

Rules and rewards

Substitution and Time Warp work on allies only, as they always said.
Reflect and Paradox only catch a spell aimed at a single unit, so line sweeps like Riptide and Fire Breath go straight through.
Damage from traps, fields, falls, fuses and poison ticks pays EXP to whoever caused it and counts toward the damage laurel; Regen pays healing EXP.

Fixes

Bots stop wasting turns on refused moves after their own Jump or refused actions under a disabler.
Online, Move and stats update properly after a Druid shifts or a buff lands, so the move highlight is no longer stale.
The Codex zodiac wheel shows the real ×0.75–×1.25 band — it had kept the old chart since v1.4.20.
A Toad trying to cast is told it's a toad, not that it's Silenced.
Bows are held the right way round, and six ability descriptions now state their real numbers.
A replay recorded on a different build refuses to scrub and says why, instead of playing back wrong.

Website and Discord

The website Codex tells the truth about the new roster — the Druid's bodies and odds, every reaction's real trigger chance, real status effects, and in-game icons everywhere. Nearly every picture on the site was re-shot for this release, Gravewater Catacombs included.
The Discord bot's !roll knows the two new callings.

Known issues

Dragon Form has no model of its own yet — it wears a tinted stand-in.
The Snarewright tests weak against bots because bots never step on traps. It needs humans to judge it.
Bots never shapeshift — an AI Druid fights in human form.
The Dancer's blade-sash isn't modelled yet; she holds a stand-in.
Two portraits lag their bodies — the Iron Fist's still shows his earlier insect-shell design, and the Chronomancer's predates his new body.
Maelstrom and Undertow catch your own units too — like every offensive area in the game, they pull (and Maelstrom stuns) anyone in reach, friend or foe. The ability text now says so; whether the Tidewarden's ultimate should spare allies is under review.
A chain spell at its body cap favours Blue-team units when it picks who to reach. Measured, and under review.
Some cloth still misbehaves — the Dragoon's skirt when she runs, the Orator's two centre ribbons, a thin band on the Knight's cape in raised swings — and the Orator's talk gesture can hide his face behind a weapon.
The FOLLOW camera doesn't pull in for terrain, so a tall tree in the foreground can block the shot.
The bigger maps haven't been balance-tested — several openings are two tiles longer. Tell us how they play.

Kindred