This was an expensive sale for me. A little bit of a yikes.

Where do we start this time around? It is spooky season and the update delivered on quite a few fronts, with or without the spooks.
The center piece of this month is without a doubt the announcement of the painting contest winners!

Congratulations to all winners – those entries all look incredible and deserve their top spots without a doubt!

For now you will be able to browse all pictures of the top 3 entries in each category in this month’s KS update here, but we will be also getting a gallery on the official site over the course of the next couple of weeks, like they have for the Gambler’s Chest Painting Comp as well.
(That Green Knight diorama – wow!)

The other big news we got was already in regards to next month’s big Black Friday update – we are getting an overview over the Abyssal Woods! Finally!
Whilst this does tell me that we are a good bit further away from the full-on Inverted Mountain expansion than I would like, this will be the first real idea we get of the content that is set to be included with that big ol’ box since, well, uh, the kickstarter, really.
There is also talk about the settlement starting off very differently for that campaign, which is a curious thing, whatever that means – the fairy-tale-esque illustration shown right afterwards gives it a very distinct vibe though.
KD:M Red Riding Hood.

And finally, the Screaming God and Honeycomb Weaver expansions – they are trucking along, aren’t they?
Screaming God is in full-on productions (finally?) and if it doesn’t for some reason get CNY’ed we might get to see it between the start of next year and Easter if you’d ask me.
The Honeycomb Weaver on the other hand has had its the plastic sets finished apparently – 3 armors and .. 3 monsters? That is a lot more than I was expecting. The snipped we got on the expansion – mainly driving home that it is actually (J)horror-centric – is a little unclear and makes it sound like the Titan Bee is a part of this line-up though.
Between the HW and the Parasite Queen’s Tomie version if you are a fan of J-horror or similar monsters, things are looking great. I do have to say though, after the Honeycomb Weaver got mentioned in last month’s update with the call out that we’d be getting something about it this month, well, honestly, I expected more than a single card.
The artwork does go hard and I am looking forward to seeing more of it.

So.., with that out of the way ..

Nukealope!

We knew it was coming, but we did not quite know what was coming. Gnostin re-emerges, Monday can manipulate shadows with her Sunstalker gear, Ashroot and Ashbloom are looking something fierce like Satan-survivors.. and well.., Ashbloom.

4 new AI, 2 new HL, new terrain, new resources and a settlement location extension. Much like Giggles, the Nukealope will replace the Lvl2 and 3 variants of your lope in any given campaign you chose to use it in once you have managed to unlock it via Vignette play.

Edit: The first Nukealopes are making their way into the hands of customers! The comic is more on the humorous side of things, fairly butt-centric and the monster explodes! That is about all you need to know. The two HL cards are both traps and do sadly have the same problem KillyB has – the color of the back seems off. As a positive the Green Power Core and Atomic Lance are juicy pieces of gear! Including some interactions with irradiated.

The two new items we get previewed look ridiculous in a fun way – the “upgraded” katar (2/8+/3 with Surpass 10 and paired) can activate to gain +1000STR for an attack. .. I just noticed that it also has the Fist & Tooth keywords.
That’s .. most certainly something.
We can also see that we will be able to craft a Green Power Core! I am sure this is one of the items a lot of people are waiting for, as it will also likely tell us whether or not the cores will be turned into Trinkets with CoD.
Edit: It being a trinket would be a bit weird as it seems to be surrounded in half-green affinities. Edit2: it is indeed not a trinket but it has the lantern keyword now!

Before I move on to the other item released today that just kinda ensnared me – the Survivors from the Vignette look stunning – much like with KillyB, these 4 are stellar – I have yet to pour over the gear grids (though they look fairly complicated – but from a pure visual stand-point, they each look incredible – especially Monday.
Edit: took a quick moment to look at the survivors and their gear grids a little more in depth and.. Ashbloom just isn’t wearing any pants at all.
Edit 2: Oh god…, the Nukealope instinct gobbles people up. I feel like I’m about to live through a nightmare. Oh no. The lope-PTSD is kicking in full force.
As I continue squinting at the lope’s stat card .. 11TGH and +2SPD at LVL2 seems lovely. Also all new traits and a +1ACC-token.
LVL3 has 4 new traits and +3SPD and +1DMG as well as +1ACC and +2EVA-tokens.
Critical Mass as a name for a trait is somewhat.. worrying.

But Ashbloom also got her own Halloween release – Ashbloom of Dedheim.

I don’t typically get drawn in by releases like this, but as the first mounted survivor mini (I believe) I got hooked in by her and her weird horse. Also.. one of them is a mouse according to the description.
There is also the fact that she comes with 3 seed patterns that I do welcome – I probably wouldn’t have gotten her without any gameplay content.
Edit: As for the Seed Patterns – we already got the see the Bloomlink Pumpkin in the shop, but you also get the Guidon Lance of Doom Seed Pattern which can be used to make 2 of these spears for 1 endeavor, 1 Cloth, 1 Bone (Node 2) and 1 Broken Lantern each. They have 2/5+/7 for a chunky mid-game statline, Reach 2 and the Lantern keyword and, of course, Doomed – which means you need to become doomed to put tokens on them and can only use them is you archive a doomed token as well.
Notably, they can only be build if you have Accept Darkness.

Sadly, like the Brave + Hollow mini, she is also only available from HQ. But that means another chance at getting a recipe I guess. Here I am, staying positive despite the import fees.

As I am typing this I am also continuously getting micro-jumpscared by the Endemic Life shop-pic that keeps jumping to a close up…
Much like the fucked-up-little-bunny-man we got for Easter this year, here we have a couple of denizens of the Golden Plains, living in amongst the territories of White Lions.
A .. turtle (I really wanted to write Dog after a recent Elden Ring binge), but I don’t even begin to know what to call the other two. Official names are “Gurner”, “Soft Pincer” and “Stone Shard Snapper”.

For a short while you could also get your hands on a Neko Twilight Knight Maid (Painter’s Scale), a Disciple of the Witch (Two), the always popular Erza of Dedheim and the new Dark Confidant – who would be the red-haired woman from Pariah’s Dark Secret artwork.

We also have the typical allotment of Halloween themed minis and accessories– including, the costumes for King and Flower Knight, Halloween Ringtail Vixen, White Speaker and Twilight Knight; the Halloween Survivor sets 1 and 2, Devil Satan and Oktoberfest Aya.

And finally Percival and Fade got added to the Sim. Whilst not quite Wanderers, its something!

With the initial rush on the site finally having calmed down – its been a while since I got to the sale and the shop was having trouble loading – loads of people surely have ordered the Nukealopes and over the next few days more and more will likely join in still.
All we can do now is wait for the goodies to arrive.
We are also set to get more cooking recipe cards with HQ orders – so I will keep an eye out for any new recipes appearing in the wild and once we have seen the full set I will probably put up a part 2 for the cooking post.

We have seen our first new Cooking (I) recipe: Radiant Kabayaki! Dragon King cooking offers Iridesceent Hide to those brave enough to sig into potentially irradiated meat!

That all being said, I need to get to bed now, before I spend even more money on the shop.
Thank you very much for your time – mouse-horse! Morse? House? – Morses? Hice? Or is Ashbloom the mouse? So many questions.
Amathul