Read the support before the swarm
The Black Banner Captain stops for a three-second horn windup. Defeat him before release to cancel the call. A named entrance then warns of the committed Ironclads; they keep coming after his death and award no gold.
Thorn Warden protects two nearby eligible ground allies with separate 60-damage wards lasting up to three seconds. Wards do not heal, stack or protect commanders and summoned units. Both enemies retain the approved illustrated artwork and supplied ability sounds.
More pressure with room to recover
Eastern Road now has 16 waves, Whispering Hills 15 and King’s Rest 17. Selected infantry groups travel in close subpackets. Crossroads receives smaller late overlaps, while opening levels and newer Ravenbridge routes remain intact.
Opening gold, total stage XP, existing save keys and hero progression are preserved. Added phases carry no extra early-call bonus. Multiple affordable builds are tested; extra bounty is part of the purchasing-power review.
A readable size hierarchy
Tiny Grunts, Scouts, bats and Wraithlings are clearly separated from small Archers, Shamans and Wraiths. Ironclads and Hexbound occupy a medium tier alongside Dire Wolves, Mirebound Wraiths and Gravecallers.
Brutes, Stonebreakers, Briarhearts, Captains and Wardens now stand above ordinary infantry. Broad Stonewings fill the larger flying role. Bosses retain their larger scale. Sizes account for transparent padding in each supplied illustration, with grounded feet and matching shadows and health bars. The Menu Lore includes the same field guide.
Development validation
The local build passes 81 focused tests, including ward absorption, finite call queues, origin-wave completion, reward exclusion, artwork decoding and movement packing. An earned-progression route unlocks Milla in Elden Grove and wins all eleven encounters on three seeds at normal and fast speed. Several mismatched and aggressive early-call strategies still lose. Native phone-size introductions and Menu Lore were also reviewed. This is a development update, not a published release.
Written from game catalogs and implementation reports for the 2026-10-28 development snapshot. Later changes are noted above; use the wiki for current gameplay values. Validation refers to the checks described in this journal.
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