Flocking Hell keeps growing, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome so many new players to the flock! Thank you for the love and feedback 💜 This patch brings exciting updates: a new difficulty mode for the bold, better chances at epic cards, two new crystal-focused islands, and a few balance tweaks to keep the game fresh.

(As always, the full change log is below.)

New Difficult Level: Competitive²

Full disclosure: my personal win rate on Competitive is around 40%. But based on your feedback, some of you are way ahead of me! A few brave souls even asked for a harder mode, so here it is.

In Competitive², your crystal production is reduced by 25% and imps start with +0.5 strength. Think you’ve mastered Flocking Hell? Time to prove it! 🐑😈😈😈

Higher Epic Drop Rate

Epics are some of the most powerful and flavorful cards and guides in Flocking Hell, and in my opinion, among the most fun. But their strength means they can occasionally trivialize a run. Because of their rarity, I spend relatively little time balancing epics. If you find one that fits your build, your odds of winning go up significantly. That’s by design. They balance mayhem by their rarity.

However, I feel epics are a bit too rare at the moment. So in this patch, I’m slightly increasing their appearance rate. Previously, rare cards had a 5% chance to convert into an epic. That chance is now 7.5%.

Stronger Tunneler

Tunneler is the first rare guide that I designed. I was showcasing the game to designer friends and wanted something fun that breaks the game rules in an interesting way. Tunneler was a great fit, and it’s still one of my favorite guides. However, it’s clear that it’s weaker than other rare guides that were developed later in the design process (such as Potholer, which has a similar role). Therefore, I’m giving Tunneler a hefty buff, increasing the crystal gain and adding a tile reveal to every road build.

New Crystal-Focused Islands

This patch adds two new islands with unique twists on crystal production. Roots of Industry starts with –25% crystal production, but you can boost it by connecting fortified cities. Veinbound makes all mines start with –10 max size (meaning you can’t assign sheep at first), but rewards you with free mine size as you connect cities. Both islands encourage hybrid strategies that blend mining and city building.

Related to this, some playtesters noted that many existing islands (like Jealousy) interfere with Flocking Hell’s core city-connection gameplay. Moving forward, expect more islands that support your building efforts, not just complicate them.

Nerfs to Card Cost Reductions

I really don’t like nerfs.

Nerfs are often used in multiplayer games to address frustrating or overpowered mechanics. Neither of these arguments is relevant for Flocking Hell, a single-player roguelite where every campaign has its own “meta”.

However, after much consideration, I decided to nerf Charming Ritual III, Comptroller, and Scribe (which is now named Clerk). All three provide consistent, predictable reductions to card costs, which creates two major design problems:

One, they make it difficult to design new cost-reduction mechanics. For example, Mason and Tinker often feel underwhelming by comparison to Comptroller and Scribe. Every new discount guide ends up being measured against these two, which limits creativity.

Two, they skew how I evaluate every new card. When I buffed city size cards in Patch #1, I had to balance them for both Scribe builds and non-Scribe builds. That added complexity complicates playtesting, slows down development, and restricts card design.

The end result is that Charming Ritual III, Comptroller, and Scribe limit future design space and make it harder to introduce fun new options. My goal with these nerfs is to keep them strong and enjoyable, while giving the rest of the game more room to grow.

Full Change Log

New difficulty level: Competitive²!

• [CRYSTAL] production decreased by 25%.
  
• Imps spawn with +0.5 [STRENGTH].
  

Campaign

• The chance of a rare converting into an epic is now 7.5% (previously 5%)
  

Cards

• Charming Ritual III [2] (special), now gains the Scribe charm for 6 turns (previously 9 turns).
  

Guides

• Comptroller (rare), ability updated: “Building a road and assigning to a mine cost 1 less [SHEEP]. City growth and mine production reduced by 15%.” (previously “All actions cost 1 less [SHEEP]. City growth and mine production reduced by 25%”).
  
• Scribe (rare), now says “Playing common cards costs 1 less [SHEEP].” (previously “Playing a card”).
  
• Tunneler (rare), building a road through a mountain will now gain 30 crystals (previously 20 crystals) and will also reveal all adjacent non-mountain tiles.
  

Islands

• Emberfrost Expanse (late-game), slightly reduced the minimum distance between cities (from 3.5 to 3.25) and updated the description to “at most 8 cities”.
  
• Roots of Industry (early-game), new island: “Crystal Mines produce -25% [CRYSTAL]. Crystal Mines produce +10% [CRYSTAL] for each connected, fortified city.”
  
• Veinbound (late-game), new island: “Decrease the maximum size of all mine by 10.
  When you connect one or more new cities, the nearest mine is marked and gains 5 size.”
  

Bug Fixes

• The starting tile can no longer be on a farm or adjacent to the Hell Gate.
  
• Pioneers+ now correctly reveals a pasture next to an unrevealed city (as opposed to a pasture next to a revealed city).