At a glance

  • Adds one automatic and one manual run save with Steam Cloud support.
  • Adds 56 cards, new mechanics and keywords, and broader Day & Night pools.
  • Restores or redesigns traits for all 20 heroes and weights drafts toward hero affinities.
  • Reworks art, effects, interface, tutorials, balance, curses, and Essence income.

Player impact

Runs can be resumed after closing or changing machines, and hero identity now affects traits and card offers more consistently. Existing runs cannot cross the patch boundary, although permanent progression is preserved.

Quick facts

  • Game: Kingdom of Ashes - Fallen Era
  • Official publication time: July 27, 2026 at 1:19:02 PM CST
  • Last checked: July 28, 2026 at 11:02:47 AM CST
  • Platform scope: Steam Cloud is explicitly supported; no operating-system list is stated
  • Version: 0.16.0
  • Source: Ashes Remade 0.16.0 on Steam

What changed

Runs now write continuously to one automatic slot and can be manually saved from the map screen to a second slot. Title-screen continuation rows show the hero, mastery and ascension level, floor, node, health, resources, deck and relic counts, and save age. Steam Cloud carries those saves between machines, and a disabled required DLC is identified instead of failing silently.

The update adds 36 base-game cards across eight elements and 20 Day & Night cards. New mechanics include carrying lethal overflow to another target, replaying the previous card, converting an enemy attack to healing, reflecting the next attack, and granting energy on the next turn. Day & Night hero pools grow from 30 to 43.

Those mechanics are formally represented by Overkill, Echo Strike, Martyr, Mirror Step, and Time Slip. Three additional keywords distinguish effects that occur at the start of every turn, on the next turn, or through Echo. The update also adds number badges to cards so keys one through nine can play the corresponding hand slot.

All 20 hero traits are restored or redesigned, including mastery perks. Draft rewards now weight cards toward the hero’s elemental affinities, and Runecaster’s previously unreachable Rune Chain is rebuilt. Curse cleansing grants a matching boon for all 19 curses, with the reward shown before payment.

Five heroes replace a flat off-element penalty with a specific drawback or resource rule. Mireh can take escalating damage when her two-turn resource window goes dry; Sylven trades a smaller hand for Dormancy interactions; Maris receives a larger Aqua reservoir; Tephra pays health for retained Lava; and Yara loses separated reservoirs instead of health. Sol and Vesper regain their missing trait logic, while Knight, Inquisitor, Pyromancer, Cryomancer, Stormcaller, Nightblade, Bloodseer, Paladin, Druid, Runecaster, Stormpriest, Bloodsworn, and Voidpriest also receive the behaviors named in the official note.

Essence can now be earned through playtime at a rate of 30 every 20 minutes while the game is open, including menus and minimized play, with a daily cap of six credited hours. A visible timer shows the next grant. The developer positions this as a supplement to kill drops rather than a replacement, and the balance section says the amount was trimmed so passive income does not overtake active rewards.

Visual and interface work redraws hundreds of cards, all enemy sprites, hero portraits, backgrounds, and impact effects. Tutorials, ascension, victory and defeat, abandon-run, progression, relics, and large-display framing are rebuilt or corrected. Balance changes cover Super Resonance, abandon costs, Essence income, hero affinities, and formerly inactive drawbacks.

The published counts include 225 regenerated card faces, 58 redrawn enemy sprites, all 20 hero portraits, five rebuilt backdrops, a new Ascension backdrop, and distinct effects for ten elements. The developer also corrects mismatched projectile and impact timing, missing impact frames, 4K background cropping, mislabeled progression tabs, missing resonance displays, and keyword formatting in Japanese and Chinese.

Key changes

Saves and controls

  • Auto and manual saves work during runs and synchronize through Steam Cloud.
  • Number keys play matching hand slots, and continuation details are visible before loading.

Cards, heroes, and progression

  • 56 cards and several unique mechanics are added.
  • All hero traits and mastery perks work again or receive redesigned drawbacks.
  • Drafts favor hero affinities, and curse cleansing pays an explicit boon.

Art, interface, and balance

  • Cards, enemies, heroes, effects, backgrounds, and major screens are redrawn.
  • Tutorials and progression information are expanded and corrected.
  • Resonance, run abandonment, Essence, and hero values change.
  • Super Resonance output is reduced by roughly 10% across the eight base elements.
  • Abandoning a run becomes progressively cheaper as the player reaches deeper map rows.

What this means for players

The save system removes the need to finish a run in one sitting and protects progress through a crash or restart. Build planning changes because hero traits, affinities, and previously inactive drawbacks now function, while the larger card pool creates additional paths.

The visual rework also has a functional side: impacts use distinct elemental motion, relic tooltips and progression denominators become readable, and the rewritten tutorial documents Mark, Shield, Protection, Super Resonance, drafting, merging, curses, exhaustion, relics, and potions. These are presentation changes, but they directly affect how the expanded systems are explained.

Who is affected

All players receive the base rework. Day & Night card pools depend on the relevant content being enabled, and Steam Cloud users gain cross-machine continuation.

Rollout and known limitations

Runs started before 0.16.0 do not migrate and cannot be loaded. Ash, mastery, ascension, forge, and Card Sanctum progression carry over. Tuning or balance results from simulated drafts are reported by the developer and are not independently extrapolated here.

Editorial context

Steam Update Radar assessment: 0.16.0 is a structural relaunch rather than a routine content patch. The non-migrating run warning is placed alongside the new save system because it changes the immediate experience of updating.

Verification record