First released at GenCon 2026, the Dung Beetle Knight (alongside Slenderman) was one of the first Expansions of Death Vol.1 boxes to receive their long awaited reprint!
And whilst it took a while for it to find its way onto the KD:M store, as of the end of September 2026, you can finally purchase the overhaul of this prolific node 4 Quarry Monster in all regions once more.
This not only means general re-availability for the Baller beetle in a beautiful new box, but also a slew of changes big and small, as well as a few new inclusions to make this established monster work with content from the GCE and beyond, ultimately pushing its version number up from 1.6 to 1.7.

So, if the Dung Beetle Knight is NOT already a part of your collection, this is surely a great time to add it! Just keep in mind that you will likely have to wait until Black Friday 2027 if you want to get it at a discount.

But what if you already have the Dung Beetle Knight?
In general, as has been mentioned by Team Death multiple times in various different places, there will be several ways for people to get their hands on any new or updated cards and major changes brought to the game with the 1.7 upgraded versions.
#1: All major changes will be included with the Campaigns of Death box.
#2: All major changes will be made available via card packs.
#3: The expansion itself will, of course, also feature all the new additions.

From what I have seen, Team Death does also recommend getting the card pack if you already own the 1.6 version of the monster earlier than/without Campaigns of Death.

Unfortunately, as of October 2026, we have no real idea of when these card packs (or CoD for that matter) will be released.

With KD:M timelines and the concept of time in death world NY being in a constant flux and not as linear as we would like for it to be as mere mortals, this prospect will likely have a lot of people wondering what to do. And that is, at least in parts, where I endeavor to come in today.

I have been wondering the same thing, you see, ..well.., again, at least in parts.
What had me actually concerned about the Dung Beetle Knight in particular was the fact that the more recently released expansions all have used much thicker card stock and the DBK cards have always felt especially flimsy in comparison to me. And with the push to bring the older expansions up to date in points of overall quality as well,this actually started worrying me a little, as oxymoronic as that may be. Partially this came down to the updated Century Carapace going into the Hit Location deck at 6 copies, likely amongst other things as well.
But, my own worries aside, what ultimately persuaded me to hit that purchase button though was the fact that I’d get my hands on a 2nd set of plastics as well, as I wanted to try and do some reposing of the monster and have 2 extra Rolling Armor survivors as well.

Now that I have the expansion in hands and have spent several hours together with the Feline Entity comparing each and every card, I have decided to lead with my conclusion before I show off what I have considered the most relevant changes that have been made.

If you already own the Dung Beetle Knight I would NOT recommend getting a 2nd copy of the expansion solely for these updates.

The amount of crucial changes made is simply too small to merit this and whilst there may be potential outliers over the 12 EoD1 expansions in the future in that regard, the Dung Beetle Knight is not one of them. Unless you really want another set of plastic – which is in the old scale(!) – you should just wait until the respective card pack’s release.

And concerning the thickness of the cards – whilst they are sturdier than the old ones, they have only gained minimal additional thickness I believe and I don’t expect them to be as noticeable whilst shuffling as I had first feared.
If you sleeve all your cards I can’t imagine you will have many troubles with spotting the new cards whilst shuffling.

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If you want a cursory list of what has changed/been added to the 1.7 version of this expansion, the KD:M store features a list of changes at the very bottom of the DBK shop entry.
For a detailed “changelog” put together by Bra Mithra and The Aluminum Man, you could visit the Lantern’s Reign discord instead.
Or if you have the time, Bra Mithra has also put a video together on the 2 expansions, though I personally do not agree that a few of the things are as big of a deal as he makes them out to be.

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For the remainder of this article, I will be looking at everything that I have identified as a major addition or change.
I will be starting with the additions – as there are less of them, before moving on to changes to the rulebook, cards and gear.

Just to be on the safe side, even though this should be obvious: this will contain spoilers – so be warned.

Starting off with both an addition and a change at the same time – the expansion now comes in a beautiful black box with artwork on the back as well as the rulebook now features the shining gold crest.
The DBK rulebook is thin enough to just be stapled which should mean it won’t suffer from the same problems the Red Witches and Screaming God have had.

The biggest new additions are without a doubt the new Knowledge Spin Move, its corresponding CC milestone, a scout discovery including both the tablet as well as new rare gear and an incredibly powerful meal gear.

The rule book now features a double page for the Node placement of the Dung Beetle Knight, explaining nodes as well as how to add the Dung Beetle Knight to your campaigns. This is similar to what we have seen with Pariah, Red Witches and Screaming God.
There is also a double page explaining the new systems introduced with the GCE – knowledges, meal gear and scout discoveries.

And that already wraps up all additions new to the 1.7 version of the Dung Beetle Knight.

As far as changes are concerned, I will be mainly be showing ACTUAL changes that will affect your gameplay. There are a lot more alterations that have been made all over the expansion that will not change how the game is played or cards function. These alterations are solely to make the texts clearer, more in line with other expansions or provide/point out a narrative angle. You could consider these sorts of changes to be of a “cosmetic” nature, if you will.
In general: the old cards will be on the left side, new cards on the right. New cards can also sometimes be identified by the colored banner underneath the crest in the top left of a card .. or, I kid you not, by being less green.

Both the Century Shell and the Untrained Parry hit location cards are good examples of changes I won’t be highlighting en masse as both these cards are functionally the same.
Whilst noticeably less green overall, the Century Shell merely flips the order of both paragraphs, highlighting in cursive that one of them is only flavor text.
And the critical wound effect on the Untrained Parry has been truncated by using the Monster Resource symbol. This is, however, the first time this very standard critical wound effect for gaining a resource has been written like this, as all prior “modern” monsters still write the full monster name (this is actually only referring to the Frogdog at this point – as the Screaming God only spawns terrain).

But back to the rulebook.
Whilst the order of events has been shuffled around in the rulebook to be alphabetical, most of them are functionally completely identical, even as paragraphs have been flipped around or into different spots on the page .

For the introductory event “Rumbling in the Dark” the old event demanded a female survivor – this has been changed to just “a survivor”.
The Underground Sow event explains calcification of gear in the Encase & Bury Gear table as well.

For Spelunking of Death it is harder to pass the Trial of Valor (11+, formerly 10+) or gain +1STR (9-10, formerly 8-9), but the Trial of Wits rewards have seen major improvements in turn. You now die much less (only 1-2 opposed to 1-7) and have a much higher chance of gaining +1LCK (3-8, formerly 8-9). Finding the jewel has also gotten slightly easier (9+, formerly 10+)

Besides several narrative changes to this event, the Old Master has seen several alterations.
The new version of the Old Master still remembers it is a Dung Beetle Knight, regaining both the Separation Anxiety and Prepared Tunnels traits alongside Indomitable. As for its AI cards: the B card Resin Hilt Bash has been exchanged with Shoulder Bash.
Several of its AI cards have also seen changes of their own.

Shoulder Bash has seen changes to its targeting (step 2 now checks for field of view).
Resin-Plated Right has lost 1SPD but gained 1DMG (from 3/4+/4 to 2/4+/5).

Curiously, the legendary trait Sword Master has also lost 1SPD from the profile of the altered basic action (from 3 down to 2).
Separation Anxiety has only been reworded but is now noticeably less green.

Two more cards that have seen quite noticeable changes to their wording but not functionality were Rhinoceros Charge and the Strange Resource Scell.

Rhinoceros Charge has both had the Move & Attack Target line highlighted and the way the DMG of the attack is written changed without altering how the card functions. Bash and bleed 2 have also been flipped to be in alphabetical order and the correct name of the Persistent Injury has been added to the relevant box.
Scell has had the paragraph about using it during Black Harvest removed entirely.

For Hit Location cards we have 2 larger changes.

Century Carapace has probably seen one of the biggest alterations in the whole box. Beyond now being a compulsive reaction, the +2D10STR bonus for attacking with certain gear now only applies to pickaxes and no longer includes clubs or shields.
The wound reaction of the Filthy Face hit location now only cancels reactions on the next selected hit location during the same attack and not all of them.

Moving on from the monster’s cards, there have been 2 alterations to the included tactics cards.

Attack Pattern has had the additional STR bonuses altered in the picture – that one is purely “cosmetic”.
But Quad Strike has seen the long awaited “Once per Showdown” nerf. Previously this was more or less an insta-win during any fight (which has given me one of the funniest Tyrant kills I have ever experience) and has now been reduced to a tactical knock down including a wound.

And finally, we are moving on to gear and the Wet Resin Crafter.

The Wet Resin Crafter has had multiple non-gameplay centric adjustments, mainly shuffling around the way crafting costs have been written – the DBK Errant Badge right at the top is a prime example of this: switching up the order of organ & bone to bone & organ.
It now also correctly refers to the Rubber Bone Harness as such.
The Rainbow Wing Belt has had its limit of “once per attack” removed.

In one of the bigger changes (for me) the Digging Claws have been upgraded to 8STR in both versions (up from 5STR).
Calcified cards are also a lot less green and I have since noticed the underlying pattern for the very first time! (It’s on the old cards as well!)
On the side of rare gear, the Trash Crown potentially gained from failing to calcify a piece of gear has gained the Accessory special rule – which might make it a little more desirable with its 4 additional head armor during the mid-game.

And that’s it.
Those are all the gameplay changes I could identify – the, what I would consider, important changes. Everything else – and there is a lot to be fair – is purely cosmetic and/or for clarity.
And once the promised card packs get released – whenever that may be – you will be able to switch out all the cards that have seen “major” gameplay or wording updates for their newer versions. These card packs will also include stickers to update the events in your rule books – as was confirmed by Team Death over on the discord.

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There are 2 more things I wanted to show off real quick before I revisit my conclusion I stated earlier already.

#1: card thickness.

I could have angled it better, I admit. Still, the difference is not as large as I had imagined it to be whilst I was comparing it to my Frogdog’s or Black Knight’s cards.
Once the card packs get published, if you want to be on the safe side and not risk shuffling certain cards to the top or bottom of the stack, sleeving them will definitely help with that.

And #2 .. this is the true KD:M experience.

I now have 3 copies of Beetle Strength (SFA) – one from the OG DBK, one from the reprint and one from the Nukealope Vignette. The text is exactly the same on all 3 cards and yet not one is printed the exact same as another.
I still find that funny, is all. It gave me a good chuckle when I compared these 3.

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So, to reiterate once more – I do not think these changes merit getting a second DBK unless you also really want the old scale plastic like I did. You should really just wait for the card packs (or CoD).
If you do not own the Dung Beetle Knight yet, however, this is a great update to an old fan favorite monster and good opportunity to get one for your collection!

Whilst this comparison was fairly expensive to put together due to the price tag of a 2nd DBK box, I might do one for Slenderman with the help of the Sim at some point as I do own that monster digitally already.

I do hope seeing the gameplay changes like this has given you some insight into what has actually changed with the update to 1.7 even despite my mediocre-at-best ability to take pictures.
And should I have missed anything crucial – let me know!

As always, thank you very much for time, as the Dung Beetle Knight keeps rolling rolling rolling rolling.
Amathul