Change of plans: new character coming

So, I had a roadmap for this update... while I'm still trying to sticking to it, I let my intrusive thoughts get the best of me.

Beryl is coming next update.

Why the change? Mostly because I wanted to work on her, and if I'm motivated to give my all on the game, I'm going to do that, even if it doesn't exactly match with my initial plans. Hope you understand, it should be in your interest as well, hopefully.

So, what does this mean for next update's content?

Well, mainly I'm going to split what was previously announced in two parts. I'm still not sure exactly how, I'm going to ship the update when I feel like it forms a cohesive build. But I'm probably going to add achievements, images, a few animations, sounds and ingame dialogs to make the game feel more lively, and delay event encounters for next time, alongside other content.
Regarding Beryl, she's not going to be available for the public version, but should be available up to level 3 for you supporters.

Now, about her.

Beryl is a dryad that embodies the Giantess growth fetish. She'll grow bigger, taller, but also a bit more mature and with a bit more curves as she does. She fights with the power of nature, big girls and natural (or not) disasters.

I'm going to stay elusive regarding the gameplay and lore, you'll be able to discover that ingame, but I'll detail her basic playstyle.

"1 mana is conserved between turns. Gain +1 Mana leaf at start of turn. Increases each level."

This is Beryl's passive. Note that the increase influences both the amount of mana leaves you get and the amount of mana conserved between turns. A mana leaf is basically a third of a mana. Get three, automatically make a mana. Simple as that.

Despite her passive also revolving around gaining mana, her playstyle is vastly different from Pearl's. Beryl has poor card advantage, and revolves around using her mana for big, impactful effects worthy of a giantess. She has lots of high mana cards, including higher than 3 mana cards. With destructive payoffs.

A majority of Beryl's gameplay and cardpool has already been designed. Expect a few sneak peeks later.

Keen eyes among you may have noticed this icon in the above screenshot. In regards to last week's poll about difficulty settings, I'm adding a new difficulty level: Zen mode. This is a difficulty setting for players who do not really want to die and retry the game much until succeeding.

The base difficulty is about the same as casual, so as to not remove too much of the challenge, but you don't have to worry too much about managing your own health. Your health and healing is doubled, and if you die, you can simply continue, replaying the fight from full health. That said, if you're too careless, you might still end up losing, if you can't manage to defeat the foe before you from full health with your current deck, even with multiple tries.

Now, I'd still like to encourage players to experience higher difficulty options, and reward them for that. The achievement system is going to unlock pictures and mini-stories for the characters. You're going to unlock them as you play, based on your difficulty setting. Half the achievements can be unlocked by playing in casual mode or harder, and the other half is challenge mode only. Playing zen mode does not reward any achievement, but you won't be locked out of any main content.