Years ago, I had this idea. I wanted to make a game where players were encouraged to be creative. A game where you could mold your own little characters and then have those characters fight your friends’ little characters. A game where creation and creativity were approachable for anybody. This was the core idea around what we now call Kiln!

You could think of it as a pottery party. You team up with your friends, make pots together, share them, and then go into battle. We ended up making the world’s first online multiplayer pottery party brawler!

Kiln couldn’t have been possible without the Double Fine Insiders. You’ve really helped us refine and hone this idea and make the experience what it is today. THANK YOU for your time, for being honest and constructive. We’re about to reveal some upcoming cool things, but first I wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of you.

Here’s What We’re Cooking Up

April 23 is just the beginning. We’re launching Kiln with its core game mode, Quench, and shipping with five unique maps:

• Athena’s War Room
• Anubis’ Boat of the Dead
• Hermes’ Package Center
• Dionysus’ Boogie Lounge
• Set’s Basement Mosh Pit

If you’ve already joined us in a previous beta, you’ll see that there are two new maps for you to experience right at launch! This extends to decorations too. In the beta we had a level cap of 15, but at launch you’ll be able to unlock all the way up to level 50, with so many more to unlock and discover.

Every week for the first month after launch we’re bottling up some updates for you! Right after launch in week one, we’ll have a fun Dinosaur Decoration Pack so you can make some really ancient pottery.

Then you can look forward to a hot new map in week two, and even more customization options beyond that. There’s even something for the cat and dog lovers out there.

Once we’re in summer, you can look forward to two new Quench maps, additions to our progression system, Missions, a Pot Journal, and some other secret things. Later this year, we’ll unveil a fully featured Photo Mode and more ways to play.

On top of that, every month you can look forward to fun new cosmetics, so let us know what you really want to see and what you want to decorate your pots with.

Kiln will be available as both a Standard ($19.99) and Fired Up Edition ($29.99) on the Xbox Store, Steam, and PlayStation Store – and it’s available for pre-order now. The Fired Up Edition includes the base game as well as premium glazes, stickers, attachments, and custom pots!

Thanks so much for joining us on this journey in developing Kiln. We can’t wait to see you in the Wedge starting on Thursday, April 23!

Kiln Fired Up Edition

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$29.99 $26.99

Pre-order

Pre-order Kiln now to get access to the Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack. The Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack includes two new glazes, two new stickers, and a new pot lid attachment, perfect for the artist-turned-warrior in all of us. The Kiln: Fired Up Edition pack includes the Battle-Hardened Decoration Pack and the Battle-Hardened Pottery Set, containing three shiny new glazes, five Kintsugi-base stickers, five new attachments fit for a warrior, and three developer-made custom pots. This pack is included with the Kiln Fired Up Edition and Fired Up Edition Upgrade. Double Fine Productions presents Kiln, a pottery power-fantasy that celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things, and then smashing those things to smithereens. Create your pot, grab your friends, and join a team of colorful spirits who face off against one another in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle. The shape of your pots affect your attributes and your play-style. Will you be big, or small? Wide, or tall? Will you make a plate, a jug, a cup or a bowl? There are a multitude of different sizes and combinations to discover, each with unique abilities and attacks, along with new and surprising ways to play. Work together to find the best combination of pots and play-styles to break through enemy lines, and collect enough water to douse the flames of the enemy’s kiln — Does your team have what it takes to shape and smash your way to victory? As the battlefield becomes strewn with the shattered fragments of friend and foes alike, your brawling skills and some great teamwork will be required to assure victory. After the battle is won, head to The Wedge to practice your pottery prowess, decorate your pots to make them yours, then share your creations with others (and admire their handiwork, too). Create and Destroy Together – Making pots and breaking pots are both better with friends. Hang out, experiment with clay and share what you make, or jump right into multiplayer battles and start swinging! Become a Master Potter– Manipulate realistic clay to craft and decorate in an immersive pottery wheel experience featuring a variety of tools and techniques.

Kiln

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$19.99 $17.99

Pre-order

Pre-order Kiln now to get access to the Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack. The Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack includes two new glazes, two new stickers, and a new pot lid attachment, perfect for the artist-turned-warrior in all of us. Double Fine Productions presents Kiln, a pottery power-fantasy that celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things, and then smashing those things to smithereens. Create your pot, grab your friends, and join a team of colorful spirits who face off against one another in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle. The shape of your pots affect your attributes and your play-style. Will you be big, or small? Wide, or tall? Will you make a plate, a jug, a cup or a bowl? There are a multitude of different sizes and combinations to discover, each with unique abilities and attacks, along with new and surprising ways to play. Work together to find the best combination of pots and play-styles to break through enemy lines, and collect enough water to douse the flames of the enemy’s kiln — Does your team have what it takes to shape and smash your way to victory? As the battlefield becomes strewn with the shattered fragments of friend and foes alike, your brawling skills and some great teamwork will be required to assure victory. After the battle is won, head to The Wedge to practice your pottery prowess, decorate your pots to make them yours, then share your creations with others (and admire their handiwork, too). Create and Destroy Together – Making pots and breaking pots are both better with friends. Hang out, experiment with clay and share what you make, or jump right into multiplayer battles and start swinging! Become a Master Potter– Manipulate realistic clay to craft and decorate in an immersive pottery wheel experience featuring a variety of tools and techniques.

Kiln Fired Up Edition Upgrade

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$9.99 $8.99

Pre-order

The Kiln: Fired Up Edition pack includes the Battle-Hardened Decoration Pack and the Battle-Hardened Pottery Set, containing three shiny new glazes, five Kintsugi-base stickers, five new attachments fit for a warrior, and three developer-made custom pots. This pack is included with the Kiln Fired Up Edition and Fired Up Edition Upgrade. Double Fine Productions presents Kiln, a pottery power-fantasy that celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things, and then smashing those things to smithereens. Create your pot, grab your friends, and join a team of colorful spirits who face off against one another in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle. The shape of your pots affect your attributes and your play-style. Will you be big, or small? Wide, or tall? Will you make a plate, a jug, a cup or a bowl? There are a multitude of different sizes and combinations to discover, each with unique abilities and attacks, along with new and surprising ways to play. Work together to find the best combination of pots and play-styles to break through enemy lines, and collect enough water to douse the flames of the enemy’s kiln — Does your team have what it takes to shape and smash your way to victory? As the battlefield becomes strewn with the shattered fragments of friend and foes alike, your brawling skills and some great teamwork will be required to assure victory. After the battle is won, head to The Wedge to practice your pottery prowess, decorate your pots to make them yours, then share your creations with others (and admire their handiwork, too). Create and Destroy Together – Making pots and breaking pots are both better with friends. Hang out, experiment with clay and share what you make, or jump right into multiplayer battles and start swinging! Become a Master Potter– Manipulate realistic clay to craft and decorate in an immersive pottery wheel experience featuring a variety of tools and techniques.

Since Launch: Building the Foundations

Since release, our goal has been to expand Monsters Are Coming! not just with content, but with systems that deepen player choice and build variety.

Over the past months, updates have introduced:

• New Heroes, each offering distinct playstyles and scaling mechanics
• New Buildings and Townhalls, expanding city-building strategies
• Reworks to weapons and progression systems, improving clarity and build diversity
• Balancing passes based on real player data to smooth difficulty curves and reduce grind

One of our key focuses has been to reinforce the game’s core fantasy: building a moving city under pressure, while constantly adapting your strategy.

This has meant improving not only content quantity, but also:

• build readability
• synergy between systems
• and moment-to-moment decision making

Shaped by the Community

A huge part of this evolution comes from our players.

From early feedback on difficulty spikes, to suggestions around build diversity and UI clarity, the community has directly influenced:

• how we approach balancing
• how we design new systems
• and how we prioritize features in our roadmap

Many of the improvements in recent patches — from progression tuning to new gameplay options — are the result of this ongoing dialogue.

The Road of Fortune

With Road of Fortune, we’re introducing a new layer of systems that will enrich existing builds while laying the groundwork for deeper gameplay expansions in future updates.

Luck & Critical Hits

The new Luck stat affects both reward quality and Power-Up drops, creating new ways to scale runs beyond traditional stats.

Combined with the introduction of Critical Hits, players can now:

• build toward high burst damage
• and experiment with new synergy-driven builds

Mobile Towers

One of the biggest additions in this update is Mobile Towers.

These allow players to:

• temporarily take control of powerful towers found throughout the environment
• move through the environment differently
• and interact with enemy waves in more dynamic ways

This system introduces new gameplay choices, breaks the usual pacing, and offers powerful crowd control options beyond traditional city defense.

Power-Ups & New Content

We’ve also added:

• 5 new Power-Ups, offering short, high-impact effects during runs
• The Mule, a new Hero with a unique resource-orbiting mechanic
• New buildings, relics, and enemies, further expanding build variety

Together, these additions aim to make each run feel more reactive, explosive, and unpredictable.

Power Corrupts: Risk vs Reward

Launching alongside the update, our first DLC introduces a new core idea: Power comes at a cost.

The Corruption system allows players to:

• acquire enhanced (corrupted) buildings
• and increase their power rapidly…

…but at the price of attracting Raiders, dangerous enemies that scale with your corruption level.

This creates a constant tension:

• Do you play it safe and stay stable?
• Or push your luck and risk being overwhelmed?

To support this new risk-driven gameplay, Power Corrupts also introduces new ways to play and experiment:

• The Leprechaun, a new Hero who scales with Luck and can uncover hidden rainbows filled with treasure
• The Cursed Lighthouse, a Townhall that dynamically corrupts specific building tiles, offering powerful but unpredictable bonuses
• The Grand Concord, a Townhall that reshapes your city by shuffling columns, rewarding clever alignment and planning

Together, these additions reinforce the core philosophy of the DLC: embrace instability, adapt your strategy, and turn risk into power.

A New Biome: Road of Clovers

The DLC also introduces a new biome inspired by Irish folklore, featuring:

• vast clover fields
• hidden rewards like rainbows and treasure
• and a deceptive calm hiding growing danger

Looking Ahead

Road of Fortune and Power Corrupts are part of a broader direction for Monsters Are Coming!:

• Expanding build diversity through interconnected systems
• Introducing more high-risk / high-reward mechanics
• Creating stronger gameplay moments through new interactions (like Mobile Towers)

Looking ahead, we’re continuing to explore:

• new ways to deepen city-building strategy
• new systems to enrich runs and biome variety
• additional game modes and challenges
• and more content updates throughout the year

We’re also excited to bring the game to Xbox Series X|S later this year, opening the gates for even more players to join the journey.

Thank You

To everyone who has played, shared feedback, and helped shape the game so far — thank you.

We’re excited to keep building Monsters Are Coming! with you.

And as always…Beware. Monsters are coming.

Monsters are Coming!

Raw Fury

☆☆☆☆☆ 5

★★★★★

Get it now

PC Game Pass

In Monsters are Coming! gather what resources you can to defend an ever-moving city. Are you ready to take on a never-ending army of darkness in a tower-survivor, action-rogue-lite on wheels? – Fortify: The city must endure! Choose from a selection of town halls, place towers and create your own builds to maximise destruction. Equip defensive structures to repel monsters from the gates and keep the city moving forward, else the darkness will consume you! – Forage: Gather wood, stone and gold as a persistent, multi-tasking hero. You must constantly balance risk vs reward while fighting back endless armies of monsters. Stray from the beaten path to find richer rewards or keep heading due south towards the safety of shelter. – Fight: Beat Bad-Ass bosses, improve your abilities, overcome environmental obstacles and take charge of special weaponry to continually adapt your strategies. Or see your city turned to ash! You’re the last hope for humanity, but it’s a long road to the Ark. FORTIFY – Build your city your way. Reach shelter and buy new districts from the city shop. Then strategically choose where to place them  based on the needs of each run. – Defend yourself. Choose from a variety of unique Town Halls, then add archery outposts, necromancer towers, and even fire-breathing dragons to protect it from the dangers beyond the walls. – Unlock new possibilities: Find a build that works for you, keep upgrading and try to stay alive against increasingly powerful monsters the closer you get to the Ark! FORAGE –  Keep the city stocked: Gather wood to keep the engines burning and increase tower efficiency, chisel stone to help repair and rebuild, and mine gold to expand your moving fortress of destruction.  –  Never stop moving:  Collect compasses at the end of each run and pay your attempts forward, making it easier for future cities to find their way to the Ark! –  Explore for bonuses: Look for hidden secrets in shelters and tackle side hordes to find richer, rarer rewards. Just make sure you get back to your city in time! FIGHT – Progress to Prevail: Level up, increase your potential through vast player progression, and protect the city at all costs, even at the hero’s expense! – The City Still Stands: Even if the Hero falls, it’s not game over! A run only ends once the city is destroyed, so quickly jump back into the fight before all hope is lost. – Bad Ass Bosses: Getting to the Ark won’t be easy and there may be some larger monsters waiting for you at the periphery…

Howdy, Xbox Palians! A new chapter is about to begin.

On May 12, Palia’s biggest expansion yet – the Royal Highlands – launches on Xbox, inviting you to explore a massive new Adventure Zone alongside a brand-new story, more ways to customize and express yourself, and the introduction of a new traversal option: horses!

Let’s saddle up and take a look at what awaits in the Royal Highlands.

The Royal Highlands is our largest and most ambitious Adventure Zone to date – even larger than Bahari Bay. You’ll journey across sprawling sun-kissed rolling hills and windswept cliffs. We designed the map to feel expansive in a way that fundamentally changes how you move through the world.

For the first time, mounts arrive in Palia – and with them, a new rhythm to exploration. It’s traversal that feels faster, yes – but also more personal. Riding your horse isn’t just a matter of getting from point A to point B. We want you and your equine partner to feel calm and carefree while taking in all the sights and sounds the Highlands has to offer. And you’ll raise and breed your own horse through the Ranching skill on your barn, shaping their trait appearance and performance over time.

Wherever you travel with your trusty steed, there’s always more to discover. The Royal Highlands rewards curiosity with new fish to reel in, creatures to hunt, minerals to mine, and materials to gather.

You will likely stumble across some mysterious Amber Echo, a strange substance spreading across the Highlands that traps anything caught within it – freezing it in time for years, or even longer. As you explore, you’ll meet Eshelon, heir to the Bahari Dukedom, who’s been sent to investigate these unusual occurrences. Together, you’ll begin to uncover what’s really happening beneath the surface.

Back on your Home Plot, the expansion brings a fresh layer of expression. The Ancient Human Home Line introduces a more refined architectural style inspired by the Royal Highlands itself, alongside a third-story upgrade that quite literally raises the ceiling on what’s possible creatively. Add in expanded storage, new Decor sets (including the elegant Aristocrat Set and the playful Teapot Set!), and your home will feel more opulent, regal, and unapologetically luxurious.

Also, upgraded Clothing Dyes gives you more control over how you present yourself to the game world. From subtle changes to enthusiastic overhauls, applying colors you’ve unlocked to select outfits help you to make a statement for your in-game identity.

Before we open the gates to the Royal Highlands, we’re taking a moment to celebrate. Palia has surpassed 10 million players worldwide – a milestone shaped by millions of stories, homes, and shared moments across the community.

To mark the occasion, the 10 Million Player Celebration Event is live now through May 11. During the event, simply log in and complete daily quests to earn rewards, including event-exclusive Decor, Plushes, a commemorative Nameplate, and – for the first time – up to two completely free premium Mystery Outfits.

This is our way of saying ‘thank you,’ whether you’ve been with us since day-one, or if you’re just joining us today.

We’re also offering a limited-time 25% discount on the Starter Pack and Founder’s Pack, for anyone looking to jump in (or back in!) before we kick off the next chapter.

Your next Palian adventure is just over the hill and through the golden meadow, and you’ll be hoofin’ it (literally) with a community of more than 10 million players.

We’ll see you in-game today for the 10 million player celebration, and when the Royal Highlands expansion launches on Xbox on May 12.

Palia

Singularity 6

☆☆☆☆☆ 710

★★★★★

Get it now

Discover a welcoming world in Palia, a free-to-play fantasy life sim adventure where you can craft, explore, and create the life and home of your dreams. With nearly endless ways to make Palia your home, you’ll find relaxation and joy in every corner of this vibrant, heartwarming world. Live Your Fantasy Dream Life Dive into a world rich with adventure and lore. Complete quests that reveal the secrets of Ancient Humans, deepen your connections with Palia’s Villagers, and help shape the story around you. Craft, Build, and Make Memories Together Design your ideal space with near limitless possibilities! Craft items, place Building Blocks, and landscape with Yardwork Decor to create a home that’s uniquely yours, both inside and out. Display your creativity and join Home Tours to get inspired by the community's incredible designs. Discover the Secrets of Elderwood, an Ancient Magical Forest Explore a dense, magical forest filled with surprises around every corner. Discover new artifacts, creatures, insects, and more when you unveil Elderwood's mysteries with friends. Celebrate with Events and Minigames Join in on exciting in-game events and activities, such as the bustling Maji Market, or get cozy in the Underground Black Market playing the Hot Pot card game with friends. With events, minigames, and seasonal content year-round, there’s always something fresh to enjoy that will keep you coming back. Build Lasting Relationships Grow meaningful relationships with lovable Villagers or team up with fellow adventurers for unforgettable journeys. Chill out by collecting and trading irresistibly adorable Plushies, Potato Pods, and Stickers, fostering friendships one collectible at a time. Explore, Gather, and Thrive Wander through Kilima Valley, Bahari Bay, and the Elderwood to gather rare insects, forage for ingredients, and enjoy the scenic beauty of Palia. Tend to your home plot, nurture your garden, and live your dream life. Your Adventure, Your Way Whether solo or with friends, Palia is a place where you’re always welcome. Discover a cozy community filled with new friends, enchanting magic, shared adventures, and endless charm.

Vampire Survivors took the world by storm in 2022, annihilating countless waves of enemies and hours of our time as it popularized the “bullet heaven” genre of auto-shooter and spawned dozens of imitators. Slay the Spire, which catalyzed its own genre explosion for roguelike deckbuilders back in 2019, is buzzy again with its sequel in early access, so there’s something appropriate about the timing of new spin-off Vampire Crawlers adapting the original Vampire Survivors into that beloved genre space.

That initially seems totally at odds—Vampire Survivors is a twitchy, fast-paced, hypnotic arcade game with minimal inputs and an overwhelming sensory rush from big, flashing numbers and gems flying everywhere, whereas roguelike deckbuilders are methodically turn-based, systemic, and decision-intensive. Vampire Crawlers deftly bridges that gap, translating the core mechanical and aesthetic ideas of Vampire Survivors into a roguelite deckbuilding dungeon crawler with both style and substance in excess.

Historically, genre-shifted spin-off projects like this tend to be of a smaller scale than the core game in the IP, but since Vampire Survivors was initially a solo project by poncle, Vampire Crawlers bucks that trend because it’s been developed by a whole team, and it shows. It’s quite a bit more fully featured at release than its progenitor, from the charm of its immersive first-person menus to the unfolding depths of its mechanical systems.

Up Close and Personal

In the original Vampire Survivors, you pick a character that starts with a particular item and stat modification/special ability, and move around a map in top-down 2D with your attacks automatically firing regularly. Waves of enemies of increasing number and strength come at you, dropping experience on death. When you level up, you select one from several items, either strengthening something you already have or adding a new item to your build. Then it’s a race between the increasing tides of ghoulies and your ability to construct a build that wipes them out at pace, until you either lose or 30 minutes pass and Death shows up to end your run.

Vampire Crawlers keeps that same overall shape, but changes perspective, makes it turn-based, and at every point injects more interesting decisions for you to make. It also reuses all of the items, icons, enemies, zones, stats, etc., from Survivors as its raw material, but so totally recontextualized that it feels both cozily familiar and fresh.

You navigate the run from a first-person dungeon crawling perspective akin to classic “blobber” RPGs like the Might & Magic and Wizardry series. Runs through a given level are typically broken up into 5 floors, which you can see on a map in the lower part of your screen labeling the locations of enemies, items, the floor boss, etc. Since you have full knowledge of each floor from the start, you can plot out the order in which you want to tackle things. In Vampire Survivors, certain upgrade locations are visible from the start, so Crawlers extends that into a more strategic way for you to break down the whole level.

The character you choose (here a Crawler) determines your starting deck of 4 cards, one of which is the Crawler themself. These are sort of akin to the eponymous commander cards from Magic: The Gathering’s most popular format. Crawlers have both an immediate impact on your stats when played and also stay out for a while with an ongoing effect that you typically want to build your deck around, such as drawing a card or boosting a stat whenever you play cards of a particular color.

Like Survivors, you can also spend gold earned during runs to unlock new Crawlers and buy permanent stat upgrades, along with new meta-progressions like adding additional improvement slots to cards you’ve unlocked, or selecting Arcana with powerful additional effects on your run.

Rising Action

The biggest increase in complexity from Survivors to Crawlers comes in combat. The broad outline will be familiar to anyone who’s played Slay the Spire and its ilk: each turn you have a finite amount of energy with which to play out a hand of cards, discarding any unplayed cards at the end of the turn and drawing a fresh hand, reshuffling your discards back into the deck whenever you run out. Cards include both the familiar weapons of Survivors (daggers, holy water, garlic, etc.) doing damage in various configurations, and the other stat upgrades (candles, books, spinach, etc.) doing things like boosting your stats, but also drawing cards, regaining mana, and the like.

The big, juicy, mechanical hook that really makes combat and deckbuilding sing is that you want to play cards in ascending order of cost. Each time you do, you tick up a multiplier that amplifies the effect of nearly every card you play, so playing 0- and 1-cost cards first means that big, climactic 2-cost attack will hit a lot harder. This is easy to optimize when your deck is just the same few cards that you see every turn, but gets increasingly tricky to maintain and scale up as your deck necessarily bloats with new,  more powerful cards to meet the rising challenge (cards that draw, add mana, and/or have a wild cost that’s both free and lets you continue the chain with anything are your best friend).

Vampire Survivors felt most satisfying when you managed to line up synergistic build choices and watched the hordes just crumble in front of you. Vampire Crawlers still gives you that macro satisfaction of making an effective build, but also the turn-by-turn pleasure of executing it. The finite card and energy economy and predictable rhythm of playing cards with successively higher costs means that you don’t have to agonize too much over how best to play most turns, but it feels really good when you start stringing together longer chains.

For all my talk about decision-making, Vampire Crawlers also keeps the spirit of its forbear by playing smoothly and as blazing fast as you want. Animations stack as you play cards, so you can just blitz through every hand once you’ve built a well-oiled machine (or just play impulsively fast and loose from the start, though you might run into a wall as the challenge ratchets up). Like the original, the complexity and variety of options at your disposal increases over time as you find relics that add new systems and work your way through a long list of in-game achievements that unlock new items, crawlers, gems to slot into cards, etc., to populate future runs.

Vampire Crawlers is both a fun twist on Vampire Survivors and an interesting roguelite deckbuilder in its own right. I put a lot of hours into Survivors when I mostly wanted to turn my brain off, but I suspect I might put quite a few more into Crawlers in the long run because of how pleasantly it engages my mind while still scratching a similar basic itch.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is available today on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Play Anywhere, and Game Pass.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

Poncle Limited

☆☆☆☆☆ 117

★★★★★

$9.99

Get it now

PC Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass

In a dark world, a new adventure begins. Explore maps, level up powers, kill monsters. Find treasures. From the somehow triple-BAFTA‑winning creators of Vampire Survivors, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors turns the snowballing thrill of Survivors into a hyper turn‑based, card‑driven BLOBBER with rogue-lite elements. Build busted decks, explore familiar dungeons from a new perspective, and unleash world‑ending combos. Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: The outcome is always accurate, we call it hyper for a reason! What is this game about Snowballing, turn‑based carnage: Play cards in ascending mana order to land combos; each step multiplies the next card’s effect. Use Wilds to extend the stack and keep going to 10, 20, 30… Can you reach infinite? Pick your pace: Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: The outcome is always accurate, we call it hyper for a reason! Deck-Building: Accumulate experience and level up to gain new cards, headbutt chests for customization gems and power‑ups; chase weapon evolutions and summon survivors to trigger cascade of effects and break the game. Crawling: Explore multi‑floor dungeons packed with something seldom seen in Vampire Survivors: functioning walls. And then all sorts of unique treasures and interactions. Find the shovel to dig into the next floor, that will most likely take place in the clouds! Starting Tips: – Try different Crawlers, each one changes your deck. – Visit the village after every run and remember to buy Power-Ups. – Play cards in ascending mana to trigger combos.

Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month. PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month. Prices may vary by region.

Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will continue to have access to hundreds of games on Xbox console and PC including current Call of Duty titles, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, and major day one releases. You can find more details on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, Game Pass Essential, and PC Game Pass plans here, and manage your account here.

Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.

Thank you for being a part of the Xbox community.

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first DLC, Prophecies of Ash, is coming to Xbox Series X|S on April 23. In this builder game set in a world inspired by ancient Rome, players build cities, manage production chains and trade routes, forge diplomatic ties with other governors or wage war for supremacy.

With Prophecies of Ash, the first of Year 1’s three DLC, the province of Latium is expanded with new islands and the continental island of Cinis – the largest island in the history of Anno games. New content also includes a new deity, Vulcan, and a new resource, obsidian, which is tied to two new production chains. Aside from vast stretches of land waiting for you to the build the city of your dreams, however, there is also the old volcano looming in the distance…

Volcanic eruptions are one of the core elements of the DLC. At certain intervals, the volcano will erupt and players will have to deal with its different phases and the issues and advantages tied to them: from tremors damaging buildings, fiery rocks falling from the sky, and ash covering all the islands to a bloom phase when the fertilized soil boosts the productivity of farms.

Now, how do you, as a player, best deal with these challenges? Read on for several tips directly from the dev team:

Tip 1 – Set up your experience

Before the volcano even starts grumbling, you can tweak the settings for the volcano gameplay a bit: decide how strong the initial tremors should be, if falling rocks contain any obsidian, and if you prefer a tutorial guiding you through the new content. This way, you can tune some of the upcoming challenge to your personal preferences.

In the same screen, you can also familiarize yourself briefly with the main aspects of Prophecies of Ash.

Tip 2 – Fire Stations

When rocks and fire are raining from the sky during the eruption, it doesn’t hurt to have some fire stations on your island to limit some of the fire damage.

You can also use boons from deities to your advantage; with enough fervour to either Neptune or Vulcan, you can unlock their shrines, which will increase fire safety in the area.

The biggest lesson here is, however: there is no fighting nature. The volcano’s eruption and the volcanic winter phase will damage and destroy parts of your cities and disrupt your economy. While you can’t prevent that, you can prepare for it.

Tip 3 – Stockpile resources

More than the limited destruction, the production debuffs to mines, farms and fisheries will be your biggest enemy. Luckily, you can prepare.

At the core, you will want to make sure to have full warehouses of the essential needs of your population. These stockpiles will come in handy during the volcanic winter phase. Upgrade your trading post and build depots to store more goods.

Additionally, make use of specialists as well as the bonuses of devoting yourself to the different deities to increase overall production:

• Vulcan helps with production of mining goods
• Ceres with production of farming goods
• Neptune with production of fishing goods

Tip 4 – Mine precious obsidian

The volcano doesn’t just leave destruction in its wake: after every eruption, the obsidian deposits in pits and quarries refill and can be exploited if you have the necessary technology researched.

Obsidian is used in two new production chains providing additional bonuses to your population, which makes you more resilient to the debuffs of the volcano phases.

Additionally, you can trade obsidian for new specialists at the harbour of the trader Caecilia. These specialists provide allow the production of farming, mining and fishing goods that otherwise wouldn’t be available on an island. This increases your flexibility and allows to produce more of every needed good in order to fill your warehouses.

Tip 5 – Maximize the Bloom Phase buff

After every eruption, the volcanic ash fertilizes the land, increasing its soil level, and provides a productivity buff to all agricultural buildings. In fact, this bonus increases with every endured eruption – up to 50 percent!

This means that you get stronger and more productive with every eruption through the increased soil level, as well as the obsidian you can use for various purposes outlined above.

Tip 6 – Putting the volcano to sleep (disabling the mechanic)

If this all sounds too disruptive, because you just want the biggest city ever on the continental island of Cinis: don’t worry, we got you!

Via the settings mentioned in Tip 1, you can also completely disable volcanic eruptions. No more rocks destroying your precious temples and markets; no more ash blanketing everything and messing with your farms.

Do note, though, that obsidian deposits do not refill this way, meaning you will have to do without the new production chains and the new specialists.

Well, governors, with these tips you should be well-prepared to face the moods of the volcano and weather its eruption phases: stockpile resources and make the most out of the new mechanics and those fires will soon only be a distant memory.

Anno 117: Pax Romana Prophecies of Ash releases on April 23 on Xbox Series X|S. It will be available for individual purchase, or is included with Anno 117: Pax Romana’s Gold Edition or Season Pass. You can also play Prophecies of Ash with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

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Pre-order Anno 117: Pax Romana today to obtain the Builder Pack! Shape the Roman Empire in this genre-defining strategic builder game. Build cities while expanding your influence through Roman provinces. Govern using your economic prowess, diplomatic skills, or military might. BUILD, TRADE, EXPAND Experience the premier builder and design the cities of your dreams at the peak of the Roman Empire. Optimize your economy while balancing your people's needs with the relentless demands of the emperor. Build upon the land that you see, from the beautiful heartland of Latium to the mysterious Celtic wetlands of Albion… where no civilized Roman wants to be. BECOME A ROMAN GOVERNOR Grow and extend your authority across a vast and dynamic world with unmatched detail, flexibility, and scale. Improve your production efficiency and military opportunities as you explore the discovery tree. Build diplomatic alliances across the empire, navigate political intrigue, or showcase your might through land battles and naval combat. You may even defy the emperor himself – but not without consequences. CHOOSE THE FATE OF YOUR PROVINCES Every decision you make matters. Craft your empire from scratch as you face the true challenge of what it means to be a great governor. Will you honor local Celtic culture or enforce Roman traditions? Choose a deity to worship for each island to inspire faith among your people and earn different gameplay bonuses. Internet connection, Ubisoft account and Microsoft Account required to access online features. Internet connection, Ubisoft account, Microsoft Account and Game Pass Ultimate or Core (subscriptions sold separately) required to access online multiplayer/features.

After a long ride through dense forests, icy mountains, and humid swamps, a city emerges ahead of you, teeming with life. You look around at the people here. Some ride oxen laden with valuable resources. Some carry gleaming weapons etched with the scars of battle. Some barter at the marketplace, next to strange beasts that you’ve never laid eyes on before. And some seem to be going on a fishing trip.

This is the world of Albion Online, a renowned MMORPG that’s available on Xbox Series X|S for the first time today.

For those who aren’t familiar, Albion Online is a massive open-world MMORPG set in a medieval fantasy world. Developed by German studio Sandbox Interactive, it’s been around since 2017 – and arrived for Xbox on PC last year – gradually building up a following of devoted players across the globe. With three servers (Americas, Europe, and Asia), fifteen supported languages, and full cross-platform playability across PC and mobile, it’s a genuinely thriving world. Now, Xbox Series X|S is being added to the mix.

So what can players expect when they start playing Albion Online? A massive open world to explore. A player-driven economy where almost every item is crafted by players from resources gathered and traded on the game’s network of marketplaces. Classless combat, where your abilities are determined by the gear you choose. Massive, coordinated battles between powerful guilds. Islands, where you can farm your crops in peace before selling them at the marketplace… the list goes on.

Albion Online’s world is truly vast, offering PvP (both full-loot and more forgiving varieties), PvE, economics, exploration, gathering, and a whole lot more.

The console release is an extension of Albion Online’s cross-platform offering. No corners have been cut, and the whole game is playable in all its glory from the comfort of your sofa, with the same servers shared across platforms. New players can jump straight in with their Xbox account, while existing players can just hop over to their console and continue their journey without losing any of their character’s progress. And Albion Online’s cross-platform playability means that you can jump from Xbox, to PC, to phone as you please without skipping a beat.

The team have worked hard on developing controller for this release to make it a smooth, seamless experience. Key UIs have been redesigned for console play, new accessibility options and radial menus have been added, and combat has received particular attention to make sure console players are competitive on the battlefield. And if you prefer to use a keyboard and mouse, that’s supported for console, too – just plug them in and away you go.

If you link your Xbox Game Pass account, there are even some exclusive rewards on offer to give your journey a boost. The ancient, imposing Elite Green Knight vanity bundle is only available for Xbox Game Pass players, along with three days Premium to get you started, and Fame books to develop your skills.

For MMO fans, Albion Online brings the real deal to Xbox. And if you’re just looking for something new to jump into, it offers a huge, thriving free-to-play world where you can write your own story. There’s no reason not to try it out, so set sail for Albion and see what legends await!