HELL QUEEN, RECEIVE ME patreon build 0.48

Hello everyone! Welcome to 2026! Through some kind of cold-weather induced frenzy, I was able to avoid the usual slowness of December and get a fuck ton of stuff done. I've got a big Reballance and Big Fix update for you all. Big changes. Let's get into it.

The biggest change is that I've got going is that defeating a boss now works correctly. Stage locations weren't changing, card sets weren't being re-randomed, decks weren't being completely reset due to cards hiding in the play area and artifact area. Now it should be all working! When you defeat the Drey Mare you should now have a clean deck reset and a new stage card set to build a new deck from. This isn't a balance change, its just a fix, but I had to put it first because it has the biggest impact on the game by far.

Second up in terms of impact is that I added 2 card slots to the stage. This means more options for card purchases and it's harder for the stage to become overrun with monsters. I also nerfed some monsters to make it easier to keep slots free on the first stage. There's an obscured mechanic though, which I will eventually add a blurb about in the game; The top left slot on the stage can now only spawn a card called Lesser Riches. It's a basic non-combat cards that adds two coins. The card is bad, but having a predictable, always available card that gives buying power will reduce the chances of getting RNG fucked right off the bat. There's currently nothing in-game that says this slot is different, but it is. This is relevant because using something like Second Guess on this slot cannot cause a different card to spawn there.

We've also got our first card that can get a card in hand predictably from Buy Phase into combat! The card, "Breathless Moment," allows you to return a card in hand to the top of your deck. After doing this, you are guaranteed to draw it if you start a combat that turn. I want to add some additional effects like this, and I will soon! This card currently only appears on stage 2, so you'll have to beat the Drey Mare before you see it each run.

I also added the ability for combos to do things other than deal heat. The bottom combo,(Viscous, Viscous, Passionate, ) now draws you a card! I have plans for making the combos upgradable, so this gives me a lot of space to do fun stuff with that. I'm also planning on building a system for the Card Summoning Tome to evolve each run. Hopefully I can get a per-run progression system running for the next update, cause it's gonna be huge. My plan is still loose, but I think it will look something like this: You'll be able to unlock cards between run and put a up to a maximum of 3 into your card summoning tome. You get to do a little pre-run strategizing. Then, when you defeat a boss, you'll get to add a unique card to the summoning tome for the rest of that run. Also, whenever you defeat X monsters, you'll be able to upgrade one of your combos. Each combo will have a simple upgrade tree. For example, if you're leaning into Dirty (the little blue sweat drip) cards, you could upgrade the Dirty, Dirty, Dirty combo for the rest of the run. Choose between adding "Draw a card" or extra heat to the combo.

There are so many changes this month that IDK what else to even talk about. I added new sound effects, one of which uses a sample I recorded from my Hot, Cool, Badass friend cracking a whip in my yard at night. You can't hear it being dark and stormy, but it totally was. Anyway, I hope you all have fun with this update! Please lemme know what you think! Thank you all for sticking with me! Your support is everything! I'm constantly thinking about how fucking sick it is that I actually get to be a game dev. I hope you all have a sick 2026!! <3

New Cards:

• Added a card called "Breathless Moment" to the sauna stage card sets. It allows you to return a card from your hand to the top of the deck.

Balance Changes:

• Added 2 extra card slots on stage, one of which removes itself when the boss spawns.

• Made the top left card slot always spawn a "basic money" card.

• The bottom most Combo (Viscous, Viscous, Passionate) now deals 1 less heat and DRAWS A CARD!!!

• The Card Summoning Tome now spawns twice per stage.

• Cards which interact with the discard pile such as Selective Memory now discard a card from your deck first.

• Card sets have been re-balanced.

• The boss monster Drey Mare deals less heat to the player. 2 heat per turn and an additional 1 heat at the end of combat.

• The monster Gartner Snake has had it's max heat lowered from 8 to 6.

• The monster Slithery Sunbather has had it's max heat lowered from 6 to 4.

• The card Familiar Embrace now adds one coin.

• The card Extended Foreplay has been reduced in cost from 5 to 4.

Bug Fixes:

• Stage switching fixed! Stage location AND card set switches when a boss is defeated!

• Cards in play area no longer stay in the play area between stages.

• Artifacts no longer stay in play between stages.

• Artifact cards now discard correctly when their discard conditions are met. (Previously, duplicate artifacts weren't all discarded when they were supposed to be, making cards like Borrowed Silver less powerful.)

• The card Familiar Embrace no longer crashes the game when used on a card with no resource and no longer fucks things up when pressing "Skip."

• The artifact card Cursed jewel is now triggered correctly by discard interaction cards such as "Another Round."

• The card Lavish Gifts now has the correct resource.

• The heart symbol used to display Heat on Boss Monsters on stage no longer clips with the monster art.

• The card Messy Kiss no longer incorrectly shows a coin when on stage.

• Fixed the overflow text on The Chronicle of Lord Charlot the Fair and also edited it somewhat.

• Scaling the game no longer causes text clipping in the menus that open when you exit the Tavern.

• Exiting dialogue when talking to the barflies no longer pushes the camera partially outside of the Tavern map.

• The Card Selection Menu used with the card summoning tome no longer fucks up in various visual and functional ways when you scale the game up.

Misc Changes:

• Added a sound effect for discarding cards from the hand.

• Added a sound effect for discarding cards from the play area.

• Added a sound effect for dealing heat to monsters on stage.

• The Card Selection Menu used with the card summoning tome now displays the cards cost.

• The Card Selection Menu no longer distorts the previewing card when scaled.

• Rephrased text on the card Pain Training.

• Changed card set selection menu buttons to no longer be shiny-looking.