Hero Battles changelog

Release notes for Hero Battles, newest first. Each entry covers what changed for players: new heroes and villains, campaign sites, modes, balance changes and fixes. Play Hero Battles

What's new: the changelog

2026.10.17 · Released October 17, 2026

You are reading the first entry of the new changelog. From now on every update to Hero Battles gets a note like this one: what changed, in plain words, and a list of the new things to try. When you come back after an update, the title screen shows the notes you have not seen yet, with a You are here marker at the last one you read.

Find it any time. The What's new button sits on the title screen next to Credits, and Settings has a new About section with the build id and a Release notes button that works mid-battle too. The same timeline lives at hero-battles.carbonitex.dev/changelog, a page you can share and link to; links to it show the latest entries in the preview.

The back catalogue is filled in. Six earlier notes cover everything since launch on September 27: the recruits, the bestiary, the Inkwright and the wilder world, the Drill Yard and the smarter enemy, and the last balance pass.

Balance pass, and anonymous usage stats you can switch off

2026.10.16 · Released October 16, 2026

Hazards hit harder. Lava now deals 5 damage when a unit enters it or starts its turn on it, up from 3 and still on top of Burn, and the storm pylons' shock pulse deals 5 instead of 3. Shoving a foe into lava, or getting caught in a pulse, now really costs something; the Stormcaller hero still shrugs the shocks off.

Rampart carries less shield, and Volt can take a hit. Bulwark Stance now gives 6 shield (was 8), Get Behind Me! gives 7 (was 10) and Stonewall, the Titan Plate technique, gives 4 (was 6). Volt's maximum HP goes from 10 to 12, while the Stormcaller boss at Storm Pylons keeps its 25 HP.

Anonymous usage stats, with a switch. Hero Battles counts a few things to guide balance and new content: which heroes and cards get played and how they fare, how far campaigns get, how long sessions and battles last, which settings are chosen, the kind of device and any errors. It is counts only, with no account, no cookies, no identifiers and nothing you type. Settings → Data → Anonymous usage stats turns it off, and Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control already mean nothing is sent.

Learn the game: the Drill Yard, How to play and a smarter enemy

2026.10.10 · Released October 10, 2026 · Major release

New to Hero Battles? Start in the Drill Yard. Sergeant Brask talks you through a guided practice battle of about five minutes, offered once when you start your first campaign. Skip it if you know the ropes or replay it any time from How to play or Settings; nothing in it touches your campaign.

The rules are always one click away. How to play, on the main menu and behind the ? button in battle, covers turns, AP and MP, reading a card, the board, buffs and debuffs, objectives, the campaign and multiplayer, with a glossary of every keyword. Underlined words on cards explain themselves when you hover, focus or tap them, and short coach cards and field notes point things out the first time you meet them.

Choose how hard the enemy plays. Settings → Gameplay now has an Enemy AI choice: Story foes are forgiving and slip now and then, Normal plays as before, and Hard plans ahead and punishes mistakes. It applies from the next battle. Co-op hosts pick a level for their room, and the AI Arena adds free Story and Hard bots.

Cogwright, Thornwarden, the Inkwright and a wilder world

2026.10.07 · Released October 7, 2026 · Major release

Three more heroes join the roster. Cogwright, a gnome engineer, builds turrets that fight on their own and patches up allies; hire him at the Gilded Flagon after Caldera. Thornwarden, a dryad sniper, shoots from the far side of the field and snares anyone who closes in; hire them after Brigand Camp. The masked Inkwright waits in the Blotted Archive, a villain lair that opens after Whitefang's Den: their ink clogs your decks with Blots, and a win there recruits them.

Every corner of the map has new creatures. The four optional minion sites now end in a boss: the Goblin Boss, the Broodmother, the Crypt Lord and the Frozen King. Each region gets its own beasts and casters, from lava salamanders and bog witches to ice wraiths and frost trolls. Storm Pylons opens with a new battle on the Pylon Approach, and wild boars, bears and stags roam some fields, attacking whoever is nearest, foes included.

Escort and rescue. On Merchant Road (after Brigand Camp) you see a merchant caravan safely to the ford, and at The Stockade in Frostpeak Reaches (after Frozen Mere) you break a captive ranger out of the frost cult's pen. Several of the hardest battles got fairer along the way, among them The Camp, Summit Gate, Alpha's Rock and Kestrel's Roost.

A fresh coat of paint, and one rule fix. The title screen and mode cards rotate through new art, tip cards fill the fade into a battle, villain bosses get their own card back, and Kestrel's Roost and the Blotted Archive get boss cinematics. A unit knocked out by its own Burn, Poison or hazard at the start of its turn now loses that turn, and play moves straight on.

The bestiary grows: levelled minions and four optional sites

2026.10.04 · Released October 4, 2026

Meet the rank and file. Nine plain-named foes now fill out the fights: Guard, Archer, Goblin, Spider, Skeleton, Giant Rat, Bat, Slime and Acolyte. Each has a level from 1 to 5 that raises its HP and the numbers on its cards, and many carry a kit, such as a spear and shield, a dagger or a sling, that decides which cards they bring. Card text always shows the numbers for that level.

The Proving Grounds is a proper warm-up now. You spar with the keep's Guard and Archer before you face two rival heroes. The middle battles at Caldera and Miasma Bog now send goblin diggers and the Drowned Dead at you instead of a second pair of rivals, minions turn up in Frostpeak Reaches too, and a repeat clear can roll a different line-up.

Four optional sites open as you clear the map. Goblin Warren appears after Caldera, Spider Hollow after Miasma Bog, Old Crypt after Storm Pylons and Icebound Barrow after Frozen Mere. Each is two battles with gear and a spell for the first clear, and every new creature comes with its own art and sounds.

New recruits: Aurora, Tidecaller and two villains to unlock

2026.09.28 · Released September 28, 2026

Your company can grow past the starting four. Aurora, a support hero who heals, wards and lifts her partner, joins once Old Whitefang falls. Tidecaller, an old sea-hermit whose pulls and pushes drag foes into hazards and into each other, can be hired at the Gilded Flagon for 100 gold once Miasma Bog is cleared. The tavern now shows who is for hire and the rumours of who joins next.

Two villains switch sides. Defeat the Stormcaller at Storm Pylons and the storm-spirit joins you, shrugging off pylon shocks. Captain Kestrel holds Kestrel's Roost, a new optional lair past Brigand Camp: beat her there and the duelist who plunders an AP with every knockout is yours. Every new hero brings their own cards, Signature gear and voice.

Bring your own AI. Paste an OpenRouter key into the AI Arena lobby and the arena's LLM players run on your own key. With a key stored, Settings also gains an optional AI opponent section that lets a model command the campaign's foes, with a per-battle spending cap. Without a key, none of it appears.

Hero Battles is live: a tabletop tactics game in your browser

2026.09.27 · Released September 27, 2026 · Major release

Hero Battles is live. It is a tactics card game played on a tabletop in your browser: cardstock heroes on a grid board, each with a deck of their own. On every turn you spend AP to play cards and MP to move, so you can shove a foe into lava, shield your partner or slip out of reach. Recruit two of four heroes at the Gilded Flagon: Rampart holds the line, Volt zaps and runs, Frost chills and roots, and Venom poisons and drains.

Push back the Inkblight across a parchment map. The Heartland's sites wait under the fog: Proving Grounds, Caldera, Miasma Bog, Storm Pylons and Brigand Camp. Most sites are a set of battles fought back to back, and the spoils are paid only when the whole set is won. Beat the Stormcaller at Storm Pylons and Frostpeak Reaches unrolls, with sliding ice, avalanches, wolves, frost cultists and Old Whitefang, whose defeat opens a third seat in your party.

Kit out your heroes and build their decks. The Armory sells gear any hero can wear in four rarities, next to each hero's own Signature pieces, with a Trinket slot and a stash for everything you loot. Collect neutral spells from the card shop, Spell Packs and spoils, then build each hero a deck of 20 to 30 cards.

Play with friends, or watch the bots. Open a Multiplayer room and share the code: Co-op splits your party between 2 or 3 players against the campaign, and Battles puts 2 to 6 players on any map, in teams or free-for-all. The AI Arena pits LLM and greedy bots against each other, with replays you can scrub through.