New Feature: Challenge Runs - Thematic Scenarios with Parameters Chosen by Me ;)

Challenge Runs are here! Hand-built challenges with their own rules and their own goal, ready to play from the main menu whenever you like. Every win earns a title, a badge, a letter from the Sage, and super fancy banner that lives on the new home screen.

The first one, Never-Ending Patience , is out now on BETA (and Live patch next Wednesday).

What a Challenge Run is

A Challenge Run is a new game mode that features custom games and scenarios that I personally create just for you.

Some will be difficult, some will be cozy, but they all will be interesting.

The first Run is called "Immortal Patience" because all of your heroes are immortal, but they are also complete pains in the ass. Very monkey paw, but that's my style. In the future, I have lots of tools create fun, weird, silly, and challenging runs that will get you thinking.

Furthermore, everyone who takes a challenge plays the same rules toward the same goal. To be a bit more specific:

The rules hold. Difficulty changes, redemption codes and ghost guild imports stay closed until you meet the goal or leave the challenge. Challenges never expire. Once a challenge is released it stays playable forever with new ones arrive whenever they are ready. You can always walk away. Leave the challenge and its rules lift. The run carries on as an ordinary game, so no guild is ever lost to it.

Finding them

Challenge Runs has its own spot on the main menu, right under New Game. The line beneath it tells you at a glance how many challenges are new and how many you have already passed.

Open it to see every challenge released so far, newest first. Each card shows the challenge's art, its story, its goal and rules, what it pays out and how many days are left to earn the banner. A tag in the corner marks each one New , In progress or Passed .

Taking a run

Press Take the Challenge and a new game begins on the challenge's rules. The empty guild hall greets you as usual, with one difference: the letter on the front table carries a seal pressed for this challenge alone. Instead of the usual inheritance letter, you read the challenge's own letter. It sets up the premise and tells you what you are in for.

From there it is your guild and your call. The challenge's rules stay fixed until you meet the goal; the pass letter from the Sage arrives in your inbox the week you do.

Rewards

Every completed Run counts, whenever you make it. The banner is the one reward on a clock: it goes to completed Runs made within 60 days of a challenge's release, plus a short grace period.

Reward

How you earn it

Where it shows

Honor title

Any completion, any time

The Trophy Room

Badge of Honor

Any completion, any time

The row of badges along the foot of the main menu

Pass letter from the Sage

Any completion, any time

Your in-game inbox, the week you meet the goal

The challenge's banner

Any completion, any time

Fly it over your guild's header, on the War Table crest and from the main menu's flagpole

Each challenge card counts down the days left to earn its banner. Once the window closes the challenge stays open; a pass still earns its title, its badge and its letter.

NOTE: as I get things more dialed in and sophisticated game-wide, the rewards here will 100% evolve into things like skins and special collectibles.

Badges of Honor and the Year-Round banner

Every challenge you pass adds a badge, cut from that challenge's card art, to the row along the foot of the main menu. Fill all twelve sockets and the set folds into a gilded stack that earns a Year-Round banner of its own.

Banners you have earned can fly from the main menu's flagpole. Here, the Never-Ending Patience banner, The Winter Standard, flies after a pass, with its badge in the first socket below.

Steam achievements

Five new achievements track how many challenges you have passed.

Achievement

Unlocks at

D-Tier

Your first challenge pass

C-Tier

3 challenges passed

B-Tier

6 challenges passed

A-Tier

9 challenges passed

S-Tier

12 challenges passed

Runs played with mods, Admin mode or Twitch mode are unranked and do not count toward C-Tier and up.

Fair play

On Steam, a challenge run quietly sends checkpoints to my server as you play: your week, your floor, your gold and a few other markers. When you meet the goal, the server checks the run's chain of checkpoints and its ruleset and marks the pass Verified in your Trophy Room.

Verified passes made inside the banner window go on the challenge's board, fastest first (fewest in-game weeks, then fewest deaths). Runs with mods, Admin mode or Twitch mode still play the challenge, but they are unranked. Your Steam account is never shown. The board lists guild names only.

The first challenge: Never-Ending Patience

The Tower has been dropping soul crystals like crazy and your entire roster lives forever. But they are also deeply flawed individuals.

Since it's October, I thought I'd be fun to start off with a little spooky scenario: Your adventurers cannot die. But! Every one of them also arrives with flaws. And! You have only 80 years to bring down the Tower.

Goal

Defeat the Tower

Time limit

80 years

Rules

B-Tier, Standard mode, no starting facilities

Twists

Immortal Roster, Guaranteed Flaws, No Party Restrictions

Economy

XP, gold and renown at ×0.7; wages ×1.5; operating costs ×2

Honor title

The Patient

Banner

The Immortal Standard

FAQ

Do I have to finish a challenge within 60 days? No. Only the banner is on a clock. A completion at any time earns the title, the badge and the letter.

Can I retry a challenge? Yes. Start it again from the Challenge Runs screen as often as you like. Your first pass is the one that counts.

What happens if I leave a challenge? Its rules lift and the run continues as an ordinary game. You can take the challenge again later in a new run.

Will older challenges disappear? No. Every released challenge stays on the Challenge Runs screen for good, newest first.

How often do new challenges come out? Whenever one is ready. There is no fixed schedule; the screen shows the next one once it is announced.

Do I need to be online? You can play a challenge offline. Verification and the board need Steam and a connection; checkpoints wait on your device until they can be sent.

Do mods work? You can play a challenge with mods, but the run is unranked: no board, and it does not count toward C-Tier and up.