Emberward spent almost four years in development and nearly two of them in early access. This page is the update timeline — what each major patch changed, and which ones altered how the game plays today.
The 1.0 launch and what led to it
| Date | Update | What it changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-17 | 1.0 | Void Depths region, Volcano and Sentry towers, Basic Tower removed, 15 achievements (100 total), 8 new languages, trading cards, block skins, main menu backgrounds |
| 2026-09-03 | 1.0 date announcement | Confirmed the September 17 launch |
| 2026-07-10 | Pricing changes | The developer adjusted the game's pricing ahead of 1.0 |
| 2026-06-14 | Dev Chat: what's coming in 1.0 | The roadmap post for the launch — regions, systems, and the remaining planned work |
| 2026-04-17 | v0.4.12 | Endless Mode rebuilt: random restrictive anomaly effects were replaced with positive buffs only; the developer then moved to full-time 1.0 work |
| 2026-03-10 | v0.4.11 | Incremental fixes and additions |
| 2026-02-13 | v0.4.10 | Controller support — roughly 90% of the patch's development time went into it |
| 2025-12-18 | v0.4.9 | Incremental |
| 2025-11-15 | v0.4.8 | Incremental |
| 2025-10-18 | v0.4.7 | Achievements system finished; new character Estelle the Astromancer; a pass reworking older relics and towers whose early-access designs had aged badly. This is also the version the community's current build guides reference |
| 2025-09-12 | v0.4.6 | Incremental |
| 2025-08-01 | v0.4.5 | Incremental |
| 2025-06-25 | v0.4.4 | Incremental |
| 2025-06-14 | v0.4.3 | Incremental |
| 2025-05-09 | v0.4.2 | Incremental |
| 2025-04-01 | v0.4.1 | Incremental |
| 2025-03-04 | v0.4.0 — Sealed Citadel | Fourth region, its boss fight, and two new flames: Ancient Flame (Sealed Citadel on Normal+) and Candle Flame (Sealed Citadel on Heroic). Also retuned the Academy's relic offering to stop offering elements you cannot use, and buffed Chomp, Hammer and Axe while trimming Lava |
| 2025-02-12 | Dev Chat: fourth region preview | Preview of Sealed Citadel |
| 2024-12-19 | v0.3.5 | Reworked older characters and maps — the patch where the developer revisited early designs that no longer fit |
| 2024-11-14 | v0.3.4 | The earliest update we still have notes for |
The three patches that changed how the game plays
If you are returning after a long break, these are the ones that made your old habits obsolete:
v0.4.0 — Sealed Citadel and the flames
The fourth region arrived with a resource-management design identity, and it brought the Ancient and Candle Flames with it. It also fixed an early-access annoyance: the Academy no longer offers relics for elements you do not have on the field.
The balance pass in this patch is the one that set the modern Scrap Tank identity — the Scrap Master relics now also raise the Scrap Tank's upgrade limit, which is what makes a gradually scaling Scrap Tank build possible at all (with all three relics the limit reaches 1,050 gold).
v0.4.7 — the rework patch
Emberward's early relics and characters were designed when the game was much simpler, and by 2025 they felt weak next to newer additions. v0.4.7 went back over them, finished the achievement system, and added Estelle the Astromancer. Community build guides that reference "since 0.4.7" are pointing at this balance baseline — for example, the change that made solo-clearing a first wave require lengthening the monster path.
v0.4.12 — Endless Mode, rebuilt
Endless Mode originally scaled by throwing random restrictive anomaly effects at you. Player feedback was consistent: being handed penalties felt bad. The developer's response was to invert the design — the anomalies became powerful positive effects instead. If you played endless before April 2026, the mode is not the one you remember.
The same patch set the current unlock rule: Endless Mode opens once Misty Forest is cleared on any difficulty, and which maps you can play inside it follows your adventure-mode progress.
What the roadmap has said
The v0.3.5 notes listed the remaining plan explicitly: the highest difficulty tier and enhanced boss levels, further towers/relics/characters, endless mode and other game modes, achievements, and additional languages. By 1.0, most of that list had shipped — the achievements landed in v0.4.7, the languages arrived with 1.0 (Korean, French, German, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Russian), and the developer has confirmed updates continue after 1.0.
Not yet shipped: the Ghost Flame is listed in the game's flame list with no unlock condition, and the developer declined a Supporter Pack for 1.0 on the grounds that there is no soundtrack or art book to put in it.