Every change players can see, newest build first: what playtesters told us and what we changed, the other changes, and what is still rough.
22 OCTOBER 2026 · BUILD P20
Candidate for the planned 22 October playtest
Build 0.1.0-autochess-p20
Prepared as a local candidate on 13 October 2026 for the planned 22 October playtest. Published as an owner-authorized closed-alpha preview on 15 October 2026; these selected notes still await playtest review.
Other changes
During preparation, the next opponent’s Training Dummy appears as a translucent preview on the attack field.
Balance
Shop tiers unlock every two rounds: rounds 1 and 2 offer tier 1, tier 2 unlocks in round 3, tier 3 in round 5 and tier 4 in round 7.
Known issues
Player review, real Windows testing and online match acceptance are still pending for this candidate.
These are selected candidate changes, not a final Playtest Night note. The planned date is not evidence of a completed playtest or a publication.
15 OCTOBER 2026 · BUILD P19
What changed: Playtest Night, 15 October 2026
Build 0.1.0-autochess-p19
The build of Playtest Night #1 on 15 October. It went live on this site on 8 October. These are the changes since build p14, the build of the 7 October playtest.
You said, we changed
You said dragging creatures had a weird dead zone. Now the creature follows your pointer exactly.
You said hits landed while the shot was still in the air, and dead units kept walking in place. Now ranged shots really fly: the damage lands when the shot arrives, and dead units stop where they fall.
You said the Binder Tether was hard to see. Now it shows as a blue hex with chain links for as long as it lasts.
You said interest was unclear. Now the gold coin in the shop shows a +N badge with the interest you would get next round; hover it for the rule. The rule is new too: +1 gold for every 5 gold you keep, up to +6 at 30 gold (before: +1 at 5 gold, +2 at 10).
You asked for items to stay on the same unit. Now they stay on their creature between rounds. A merge still sends them back to your inventory, and an item on a benched creature goes to one of your fighting creatures when the battle starts.
You asked for a timeline of the next rounds and their rewards. Now a round timeline sits in the top bar: this round and the next three, marked as battle, reward or escalation rounds. Hover a round for its rewards and likely opponent; click the current round to look at your opponent's board.
You reported shop glitches. Now the shop hides while you watch someone else's battlefield, FIRST BUY FREE cards keep their cost colour and the coin says FREE, cards you cannot buy no longer say BENCH FULL, and the creature icons on faction cards show their cost with a small colour strip instead of a coin.
You said Swiftclaw plus Pack Leader made cats far too fast, and asked for Swiftclaw to speed up the rest of the army. Now speed bonuses add up instead of multiplying, Swiftclaw's own bonus is +50/60/90 %, and from its second level your other marchers move faster too (+30 %, +60 % at the top level).
You said the Hermit still taunted too long. Now a Hermit tower taunts each marcher only once per battle.
You asked for one Guardling that grows. Now Hatcher makes exactly one Guardling, which gets stronger with each faction level and stands on the hex where most enemy marchers walk into your Nexus.
You said Egg's aggro felt bad and Demon burned itself too early. Now Egg hatchlings hatch on a free hex next to the Egg, on the side enemy marchers use, and a Demon tower starts burning its own health only once the first enemy marcher has spawned on its board.
You said Blaster was too strong. Now its Aftershock deals less damage (100/150/300 %) and reaches only 1 hex at every level (before: up to 2).
You said Evergrowth was very strong early and weak late. Now its marchers regenerate 10/15/20 % of their health per second (before: 14/17/18 %), and at the top level the rest of your marchers regenerate 10 % (before: 6 %).
You reported several combat visuals. Now damage numbers start above the head and arc to the side, the Imp's haste flame is real 3D fire, Spiders and other hidden marchers walk instead of sliding, healing sprouts are smaller, and units vanish right away when the round ends.
Fixed in code. A fix counts as confirmed once players have checked it at a later Playtest Night.
Other changes
Item rewards: you now pick each item from a choice of three instead of getting a random one.
Your next opponent is marked in the player bar with a coloured ring and crossed swords, a short VS banner shows who fights whom when the battle starts, and Tab switches between your battlefield and your opponent's.
Trait values: Ironplate gives more Plate at its top level (75 %) and its break stun lasts longer (1/1.5/2 s); Catalyst echoes to fewer units (2/4/5) and only to nearby ones; Ravager's Frenzy is weaker (+50/75/100 % attack speed).
The match modifiers EXPANDED TEAM and ROUND STIPEND are out of the random roll for now.
Known issues
The Treant tower's growth is still hard to see in p19. A +N % chip and a growing model are planned for p20.
New to the game? Play BOT GAME first: p19 has no guided first match in the menu yet.
Online (NORMAL GAME): we press together on a countdown. If you are not matched within 60 seconds, p19 quietly starts a bot game for you; finish or quit it and join the next countdown. Between two matches, wait about 3 minutes while the last result is saved.
Browser: whether online matches work in the browser build is not confirmed yet. If NORMAL GAME fails there, play BOT GAME.
A few rare ranged-shot cases are wrong in p19; for example, a shot already in the air can still hit a tower that a Ghost has just taken over. Fixes are planned for p20.
p19 shows no build number on screen. When you report a problem, name your platform (Linux or browser) and p19.
7 OCTOBER 2026 · BUILD P14
What changed for the 7 October playtest
Build 0.1.0-autochess-p14
Build p14 was the Linux download for the testers of the 7 October playtest; it was never offered on this site. Everything in it is also in the live build. These are the changes since the browser build of 22 September.
You said, we changed
You asked us to turn off the timer in bot games. Now BOT GAME has no time limit while you prepare: the round starts when you press Ready.
You asked for 50 % more attacker damage. Now every marcher deals 50 % more damage; tower damage is unchanged.
You said Wyrm did too much damage. Now a Wyrm tower deals 14 damage per hit before star bonuses (before: 30).
You asked to see the gold you earn. Now a card at the end of every round shows where your gold came from (damage dealt, damage taken, Bunnie bounty, faction bonuses) and what the next round pays (stipend, base income, interest and catch-up).
Fixed in code. A fix counts as confirmed once players have checked it at a later Playtest Night.
Other changes
Livelier creatures: they breathe, flinch when hit and turn smoothly, and every family has its own signature effects.
Damage numbers show how hard a hit was: the bigger the share of the target's health, the bigger and redder the number. Damage over time shows as one green number.
Hovering a creature on the battlefield opens the same card as in the shop, at its real star level.
New animations show the match modifier, a round result, an elimination, an evolution, a claimed reward and a new trait level. After a round, a short sound tells you whether you won or lost it.
Online matches start with a connect screen that shows every player's portrait, name and connection status until the match begins.
Bots now pick one trait and one role in each match and build toward them.
The Meadow Arena has a new look: sandstone walls, banners, torches, a lily pond and a paved court.
Balance
Traits now level up at 2, 3 and 5 different families (before: 2, 4 and 6), so the top level needs five families and no item. Every trait got a stronger first level, a new effect at the second and an army-wide effect or rule change at the third, and several of the strongest creatures got weaker stats, so more of the power comes from traits.
Ghost and Birdie towers now make normal attacks too, and an attacking Bunnie stops splitting once 12 Bunnies are alive in its lane.
Shop: a creature's tier is its gold cost (2, 3, 4 and 5 gold are tiers 1 to 4), round N unlocks tiers 1 to N, and the shared pool holds 8 copies of each family (before: 12).
The Demon tower attacks 1.4 times per second (before: 2).
Marchers walk smoothly through each hex instead of jumping to its centre, so a route with nothing in the way takes about a third longer.
Before the 7 October playtest, these balance changes had been checked only with automated tests and bots, not by players. What players said about them there led to several of the changes in p19, above.
22 SEPTEMBER 2026 · BUILD P12
What changed since the 17 September playtest
Build 0.1.0-autochess-p12
Everything players could see that landed after the 17 September playtest, in the browser build of 22 September.
Other changes
New match modifier: Wandering Nexus. Every round moves each Nexus to the same shared destination hex, now restricted to rows 2..5 — never the entrance row or the front row facing it. Towers in the way are rearranged; none ever leave the field. The Nexus still cannot be moved by hand. Expect rerouted marchers and new reasons to stop deploying on autopilot.
Mode select cards, rebuilt. The BATTLE chooser now shows three tall gold-framed cards with full key art: Dog Bowwow for Bot Game, Bunnie and Cat Bolt for Normal Game, Dragon and Soul Mage for Ranked. Ranked stays greyed out as coming soon. Bot Game still starts offline with three bots; Normal Game still asks for sign-in first.
Shop cards, reworked. Offer cards wear cost-colored frames with a matching gradient, show both faction glyphs over the artwork, and carry the price in a top-left badge. Tooltips and the unit inspector now list complete ability stats, so card text and combat behavior finally read from the same numbers.
Easier to read in combat. Floating damage numbers appear over real damage impacts. Damage rails rank tower output per round. The Nexus carries its own readable bar. Unit selection is click-only now, so hovering the battlefield no longer steals your inspected unit mid-fight.
Better entrances and props. Attackers arrive through lane portals instead of popping in. The training dummy has its own model with drag-follow and idle lock. The Spider's web is a draggable token on the board with a visible trap effect.
Balance
Pack Leader no longer needs its Dog or Cat to march in front: each one speeds up a few allies behind it, nearest first.
The Birdie tower's wind-push now takes 0.5 seconds (before: 2); Birdie's row-skip still travels over 2 seconds.
Combat timing passes on several abilities so triggers land on exact frames.
Passing tests prove the rules compute deterministically, not that any team wins more often. No win-rate claims follow from this list.
