- Prettification Updates (Phase 1) - 1 March 2026
I'm taking some time to improve the look and feel of the game, so this update is focused entirely around making stuff prettier!All new background art assets.Changed color grading to make units pop more against the background!Improved board cohesion with the ground.Introduced directed camera during battles. Camera follows the action of units on the screen! (on by default). Improved vignetting to shift focus towards central area.Improved targetting visual feedback on card usage and manual play.Hovering a card will now show available targets before you begin dragging.Hovering a unit during manual play will hint towards available targets before you begin using it.Improved screen shake during unit attacks, now is directional based on where hit came from.Phase 2 visual improvements will be an overhaul of the visual effects and animations of abilities and cards. Right now pretty much any abili…
- Giga gameplay galore update - 18 February 2026
Hello, this is a large update. First of all the game was a bit too hard. I apologise for this. To help with this I introduce the...Integrity System and Enemy Selection redesignLosing a battle does not lose you the run anymore. Instead, you now have 5 integrity at the start of the game. Losing all your integrity will lose you the game, as rightfully it should.Losing battles or not clearing enemies at the end of the day will damage your integrity based on the enemy's threat level. So yeah, game is a bit more forgiving now, but only a bit.You can also choose your enemies a bit better now. You can scout them out before engaging without any cost and you don't need to take every fight - if your integrity can afford it.But that's not it, wait until you hear about the...Unit deployment phase!Yes, that's right - another phase. Units are no longer cards, instead you deploy them before the card ph…
- Prestige Challenges and balance updates! - 28 January 2026
Small update to bring back a bit of challenge to the game.Prestige ChallengesSmall set of modifiers to the base experience to make the game a bit harder. This is not the longterm goal for difficulty progression for the game - but it still might be fun for those who want some extra challenge. BalanceCard reward skip option now gives 2 gold.Enhancements only appear 25% of the time now.Enemy Health/Power and Armor now scale throughout the game - 15% per day.Edicts/Armaments and Abilities are now limited to a max of 6. Some idea is for these limits to be dynamic throughout the run at some point.UIMost dialog events now mention what their reward is.Hover a unit's abilities on the board will show a tooltip about the ability.What's up next?Right now I'm mostly unsatisfied with the game feeling kinda samey on repeated runs. I intend to tackle this in the following ways:Enemy variety. There is b…
- Small UI improvements, passing and some bug fixes - 24 January 2026
GameplayYou can now Pass in manual mode.UIStreamlined manual mode UI.You can now hover a Unit Card's name and see the movement options shown in a tooltip.BugsFixed Conscription not exhausting Units.Fixed Strategems not exhausting.Fixed performance issues with most animations.
- More Town events and Vanguard mechanic! - 22 January 2026
This update introduces some fresh events to the Town, some aimed at introducing new build options while others are there to make the Town phase less hyper-reliant on gold and give the player more options when they're running low.GameplayVanguard card modifier. Cards with Vanguard are always drawn first at the start of an Encounter.At the start of each encounter you're guaranteed to draw 2 Unit cards (on top of the King).Battle Rewards now give some gold if they are skipped.New Town EventsV for Vanguard - opportunity to apply Vanguard to units.Mystic - opportunity to duplicate a card.Chancery - choose 1 of 2 edicts (for free).Smithy - choose 1 of 2 armaments (for free).Palestra - choose 1 of 2 abilities (for free).BalanceEdict, Armament and Ability limits massively increased from 4 -> 9. Might be a bit too much we'll see lol.Units no longer cost -1 energy when upgraded.Sword power from 8…
- Small improvements - 20 January 2026
UINew UI element that shows your current stat totals in comparison to the enemy, both during Setup and dynamically during Battle.In Manual mode, unit tile highlight now colors according to what actions unit can perform.Made several tooltips and dialog options more clear.GameplayLost battles can now be infinitely replayed instead of just once. Replaying an encounter is still at most once.Removed cooldown for all units except for the Rook piece that can attack at most once per 2 turns.Deck is now reshuffled after each Encounter instead of after each Day.BugsFixed Town Events appearing multiple times when they shouldn’t.Fixed lags with fires (probably?).Fixed Economic Warfare not working at all.
- Goodbye AFK Chess - arise Chessire! - 19 January 2026
Over the past 2 years I've iterated on "AFK Chess". Over those 2 years countless people have told me that they were expecting a different kind of game than the one they got - they expected an idler game. Naturally they are right, the letters "AFK" are basically synonymous with the idler genre, and it was a big mistake on my part to name the game in such a way. Today I'm finally rectifying that mistake, henceforth the game is called "Chessire"! Along with this rename comes the latest and hopefully last major overhaul to the gameplay. This overhaul marks a return to the card-base gameplay. Released is the singleplayer mode of the Ironclad Faction - you build up your board against each enemy, carefully weighing your resources to win battles without overcomitting resources. A lot of work has been done on making a smoother and more pleasant game, complexity was reduced significantly but more…
- Unit abilities - 26 May 2025
This is a relatively small update gameplay-wise but it introduces a whole new system which will play a big role in the further design of the game. Castable Abilities Up until now units were able to do two things in Battle: Move or Attack. This update introduces Castable Abilities as additional actions that units can now execute in Battle. This update redesigns a few existing abilities to fit into this new mold: Undead Knight's Corruption: Is now castable, effect unchanged. Ironclad Bishop's Secret Influence: is now castable, effect unchanged. Demon Queen's Hot Entrance: is now castable, effect is now casting 1/2/3 Fires at the closest enemy targets. Ironclad Gladiator gets a new ability, Cast Taunt - when cast, applies Taunt to self for 2 turns. Other AI skill improved, now searches roughly ~2x more positions than before. Decreased RAM consumption while AI is thinking. Fixed copy game l…
- Stat rebalance! - 5 May 2025
Stat Overhaul - Unit Ranks/XP system removed. - Stat upgrades increase the stat depending on the stat gain of each unit. - All Abilities that were previously scaling with Rank have been removed and now have individual upgrades. - Demon Pawn's XP ability removed. - All Augments relating to XP/Rank have been removed. - King stat up abilities have been removed. - King now has attack/health upgrades. - King damage reduced from 100 to 5. - Base king health from 5 to 1. - Augments that were giving stat cards each round (ex. Bolstered Reserves) now give a single-use card. Having a better control over the stats will help design meaningful upgrades and abilities throughout the course of the game. In upcoming patches there will be further numerical adjustments to the stats, most likely the stat range will be decreased even further (on average), since that seems to go best with the tactical aspect…
- Reroll Shop returns! - 24 April 2025
Shop Redesign Removed Unit Drafting The Shop is now a Reroll Shop The Shop Pool is semi-randomised each game. Units are added to the Pool every other round. Removed Shop Rank Up button New Shop Abilities Burn: Removes units of a type from the Shop Pool and rerolls them in the Shop. Lock: Locked units are not rerolled. Isometric Camera A fresh new way to look at things or a headache? I don't know. This experimental perspective is turned off by default - you need to enable it in the settings under the "Isometric" option. Even though it's experimental it is polished to parity with the regular top down option. I hope that this can be the way moving forward but I'm happy to hear feedback on how it feels to play! Dynamic Board Size The board now starts off small and gets bigger as the game progresses. The idea is to keep the early battles more consequential while allowing room for armies to g…
- Content and Balance update! - 29 March 2025
Active Cards Active Cards can be cast onto the battlefield in setup, providing you ways to shape the terrain into a more favorable position. 3 Active cards make their appearance in this update with more to come: Dust Cloud: Cast a thick cloud of dust on the battlefield, preventing units from moving or attacking through it. Units in the cloud cannot move or be attacked. Smoke Screen: Cast a smoke screen on the battle field, units can move through it but cannot attack through it. Fire Bomb: Casts fire on the battle field, damage units inside it for 25% of their max health each turn. Chess Mode Toggle You can now toggle Chess Mode at any time during a battle to take over the moves for your army, letting you explore the battle system any way you wish. You can toggle back to Auto Battle at any time. Tempo Rework Tempo can now be used multiple times per turn on any amount of units. What this…
- Evolution of Combat Update! - 28 February 2025
It's been a while - but it's finally here! New Battle System A new battle system was designed along with an entirely new AI, developed from scratch. Highly inspired by chess but bringing in new concepts such as health, damage, armor and various mechanics such as status effects and cleave. Not only are the battles more exciting but the army-building mechanics and strategies have been expanded to include all these new stats that units can now have. New Setup phase This battle system is very complex and highly strategic - and exploring it should be fun! For this reason a new Setup phase was designed that no longer uses a reroll shop but a combination of unit drafting and a free choice in which units to buy and upgrade. This freedom to choose units and upgrades results in a fun way to explore the battle system! Redesigned Capacity Goodbye old Capacity system - hello Supply! Instead of being…
- Introducing Chess Mode! - 10 October 2024
Ever since the beginning of AFK Chess there has been one feature that has been requested above all others: to actually be able to play the chess battles yourself instead of the AI. Well, since today you will finally be able to, introducing: :pawn:Chess Mode!:pawn: I have to admit that for the longest time this was a bit mind-boggling but having played a few rounds of non-AFK Chess I can see the appeal. For now the mode is only playable in Arena if you enable the "Chess Mode" option before starting a game. Some details: There are no time controls, you can take as much time as you want and the enemy AI responds instantly. In Chess Mode the AI difficulty is decreased to 1000 ELO. In Hard mode the AI ELO is maxed out for a brutal challenge. In Chess Mode, during a Battle, you can click "Ready" and the AI will take over, returning it to an Auto Battle for that round. Having said all this the…
- Weekly Update - Shopkeeper! - 3 October 2024
Hey there! This week's patch focuses on the most forgotten type of Item in the game - the Passives. Previously they were quite difficult and inconvenient to acquire and being small items they didn't have much of a place in the game in comparison to Augments. This also made making new Passives unrewarding because you wouldn't really get to use them in a game often. This changes with the Shopkeeper Event. Each game on rounds 5/10/15 you will get the option to purchase some Passives - each event is randomly stocked! 🎮 Gameplay ❗ Passive items are now held in the Hand. They can be sold for 50% of their purchase price at any time. This is an experimental change so let us know what you think! You will earn 1 gold for each unused capacity at the end of setup. Max of 3 gold per round. ⚖️ Balance Roller now gives 1 XP instead of 1 Gold. Progression charm from 3 Gold per level to 2 Gold. UI Hove…
- Weekly Update: Even more useability improvements! - 27 September 2024
Hey! In this week's patch the theme of improving the feel of the game is continued with usability changes. Next week's patch will be back to additional content! ❗ Previously most effects that gives you cards would drop their reward if you do not have enough hand space. This was very sad and you would quickly find yourself not having a lot of the stuff you were promised. However with this patch you will now always receive that card in your hand. However if you exceed your hand limit you will not be able to use any cards such as dropping units or using items until you sell away the excess, so you can always choose what you want to keep! ❗Many augments where the effect worked once a round would only start giving their rewards after the first round. From now on each augment choice that worked this way will also trigger their reward when selected. A list of affected augments: Goblet of Greed…
- Weekly Update: Soft Reveal and returning Units to Hand! - 20 September 2024
Hi everyone, this week's patch comes with two experimental changes that fundamentally change the gameplay - looking forward to hearing any thoughts! ❗ In Arena, you can now see all enemy piece positions (shown as a ?) along with their class. Hopefully this change will mostly make Arena easier for new players to get into, and shouldn't hugely affect the skill ceiling of the mode. Note: Arena Hard Mode remains the same: no pieces are revealed. ❗ It is now possible to move units back to your hand. Units that are moved back to the hand are Muted and can no longer be played that round. This will hopefully make it easier to start playing higher rarity/capacity pieces without resorting to selling! ⚖️ Balance Berserker Tier 3 Power from 10 to 15. Scream Token cost from 8 to 10. Enrage no longer blocks Pyro Fireball. Hydra Knight Rank 1 gold rewarded on from 3 to 4 gold. Pawn Desu pawns received…
- New item and balance update! - 12 September 2024
Hey everyone, in this week's patch there is a new item, some balance changes and a rescaling of the XP requirements for the levels! 🔥 New Item - Tiara of Sellemaine https://i.imgur.com/rPuxbZ0.png ❗ Consumables can now be sold for 50% of their purchase price. ❗ XP requirements for level rescaled - to a more gradual increase, in general will require less XP per level (see image at bottom of post for comparison). ❗In Versus setup timer increases by 5s, at rounds 2, 5 and 8. (will be tuning this outside of weekly patch in future for quicker iteration) ⚖️ Balance Assassin Tier 1/2 effects switched around. Tier 5 Power required from 50 to 60. Berserker Tier 4/5 power required from 20/40 to 25/50 Fervour cost from 10 to 12 Greater Rage cost from 10 to 8 Necromancer Drawn units now have 0 capacity cost and halved Power. (Previously was halved capacity cost and 0 Power) Pyro Fireballs no longe…
- Versus Mode Update! - 6 September 2024
Hey everyone! A lot of big changes this week! 🤼 Versus Lobby! Many of you might know already about the realtime multiplayer mode, Versus, but have rarely gotten a chance to play it. Hopefully this will change as of today! From now on there will be 2 slots to play multiplayer in, at 10AM UTC and 18PM UTC! You can join the queue up to 30 minutes before the start time. There is no player limit and everyone plays in the same game! There will be also reminders in-game and you can queue while playing Arena. Reminders will also be sent out in the #🎮｜lfg Discord channel 30 and 5 minutes before a lobby begins! This will hopefully be the start of a more consistent Versus experience and a bigger focus on nurturing that game mode going forward - for me personally it is a lot more fun than Arena, see you on the battlefield! 💬 Chat! To compliment the Versus Lobby a chat system has been added in th…
- Spooky Tent and Balance updates! - 30 August 2024
Hey, small patch for this week with 1 new item to bring curses into play a bit in regular Arena! The next week's patch will have a very exciting feature for those who've been wishing to play Versus! Also, I was on a podcast hosted by openindie! We talk a bit about AFK Chess and indie dev, check it out! New Augment: Spooky Tent! https://i.imgur.com/VloRRkC.png Balance - Merchant now also gains tokens from consumables on sale. - Merchant tokens required for offer from 7 to 9. - Merchant Tier 3 reworked: Each reroll, at least 1 unit will be on sale. Previous Tier 3/4 effects moved to Tier 4/5. - Lanista Tier 4 is now 1 Lance for every 2 activated classes (previously for each) Bugs - Fixed cards visually becoming duplicated in the hand. - Fixed various crashing issues with reinforcements.
- New Augments + Balance Changes - 23 August 2024
Hey, another weekly patch! This week some overpowered strategies are getting a timeout but also 3 new augments to choose from! New Augments: see screenshot! Balance - Sellutron 3000: From all units in shop receiving +1 Power to 2 units. - Lanista Tier 1: Tokens required to draw a Gladiator from 5 to 6. - Lanista Tier 3: Power requirement from 10 to 15. - Lanista Tier 5: From all pawns turning into Gladiator to 2 pawns per Gladiator on your board. - Bounty Hunter Tier 4/5: Power requirement from 30/50 to 25/40. - Merchant Tier 3/4/5: Power requirement from 10/20/40 to 15/25/50. - Merchant Tier 5: Units in the shop always being on sale to being on sale 40% of the time. - Merchant Offer no longer offers duplicates of Augments you already have. https://i.imgur.com/QbrRJh5.png
