Guildrun patch 0.5.9: Aleco's balance patch buffs items, relics and class modifiers, nerfs Defense reduction

On 15 September 2026 (17:43 CEST) Leyline published patch 0.5.9 of the Guildrun demo, the weekly update, and with it the first balance patch by Aleco, lead designer, after his break. It is a numbers-only patch: the goal, in his words, is as always to increase the number of viable choices across all game modes, so most changes are buffs to items, relics, class modifiers and a few hero specializations that were underperforming. Only three things get weaker or change shape. Below, old value → new value as in the notes; names and stats stay in English, as in the game. The keywords (Rush, Stall, Backup) are explained in our guide to the patch notes.

The goal: more viable choices

Aleco writes that at this stage of the demo the patches are getting smaller, so the team can focus on the full release. Behind the scenes, the note says, Leyline made new art for a new biome and new heroes and worked on a system that highlights the hexes affected by placement effects (adjacency, first row, last row). A beta version will be shared in the future, with no date.

Items

Rare:

• Searing Contract: Burn inflicted by the holder, 33% → 50% more.
• Spiked Plate: Shield damage reflected to the source, 33% → 66%.
• Guardian's Lantern: start-of-combat Shield for the holder and adjacent heroes, 10% → 15% of the holder's Max HP.
• Mystic's Wand: Magic gained on an active-ability kill, if held by a Mystic, 6 → 10.
• Mystic's Orb: 1 Mana Regen every 6 → 4 casts, if held by a Mystic.

Epic:

• Ring of Virality: Poison inflicted, 75% → 100% more.
• Amulet of Storms: the Stun from removing 30 Frost lasts 2 → 2.5 seconds.
• Lone Wolf's Bow: the extra hit on the enemy nearest to the target, 50% → 66% damage.
• Shattering Charm: damage to all enemies when the holder Shields another hero, 33% → 50% of the Shield.
• Cleric's Circlet: quest requirement 10,000 → 7,500 Shields applied.
• Serrated Dagger (nerf): Defense reduction on Crit, 3 → 2. Aleco's note: Defense reduction effects are very powerful and this item was outperforming every other Epic item.

Relics

Rare:

• Burn Conduit: 1 Magic and 1 Attack per 6 → 4 Burn inflicted.
• Tank's Memento: 20 → 25 Poison on all enemies per Tank at start of combat.
• Shield Repriser: damage returned when an enemy hits a hero's Shields, 75% → 100%.
• Precision Conduit (nerf): Defense reduction on Crit, 4 → 3, for the same reason as Serrated Dagger.

Epic:

• Burn Ascendancy: 50 → 75 Burn on the nearest ally the first time an enemy reaches 100 Burn.
• Frost Ascendancy: threshold 75 → 50 Frost, Stun 2 → 2.5 seconds.
• Mage's Administration Prism: damage to the lowest-health enemy on a Mage's cast, 300% → 400% of Magic.
• Mystic's Inundation Prism: damage to the nearest enemy when a Mystic Shields a hero, 50% → 100% of the Shield.
• Duelist's Profusion Filigree: Stall 12 → 10, extra hit 25% → 33% damage.
• Assassin's Supremacy Filigree (rework): it used to give Assassins 200 Crit and Stealth for Rush (5); now Assassins gain Stealth for 5 seconds at start of combat and, for Rush (10), 200 Crit. The note explains that Stealth tied to a Rush duration caused issues in Endless mode, so the two effects were separated and the Rush duration raised to compensate.

Legendary:

• Burning Spiral Engine: area damage when an enemy with 100 or more Burn dies, 50% → 66% of its Max HP.
• Shield Fragmentation Engine: damage returned when an enemy hits a hero's Shields, 250% → 350%.

Class modifiers

• Duelist, Poisonous Attacks: 1 Poison plus 1 per 66 → 50 Attack Speed on auto attack (max 6).
• Mystic, Arcane Growth: 2 → 4 permanent Magic on cast; Stall Enlightenment: after Stall (30), 4 → 5 permanent Mana Regen.
• Tank, Poisonous Aura: 1 Poison plus 1 per 120 → 100 Defense on the attacker (max 6); Resolute: 1 → 2 Defense when auto attacked.
• Mage, Stalled Heat: after Stall (20), Burn on all enemies 80% → 100% of Magic; Burning Absorption: 1 Magic per 4 → 3 Burn on enemies in range, on cast.

Heroes

• Rowan, The Friend: on Stall trigger, permanently +20 Max HP and 4 → 5 Defense.
• Karsu, The Falling Snow: Snowpiercer arrows gain 25 → 33 Crit per rank; The Warband: on cast, permanently 1 → 2 Crit, 2 → 3 Attack and 4 Attack Speed.
• Irini, The Olympic: base stats of the Zues's Thunder item (spelled so in the notes), 22 → 25 Crit and 30 → 35 Attack Speed.
• Reyna, The Champion: 2 → 3 Attack per Rush triggered this game.

Other changes

• Timed statuses (Stealth, Stun, Damage Immunity) now show the remaining time on the health bars.
• Three community-suggested fixes: the Class Upgrade boxes of the Compendium have the same height, the Reroll tooltip area in the hero picker is fixed, and so is the spacing of relics in the Relic Bazaar of the Auction House.

What we don't know yet

• The notes give no build number and no date for the beta.
• The notes do not define the 🟩, 🟥 and 🔄 symbols: in this patch the green square goes with the buffs, the red one with the two nerfs and 🔄 with the rework, as the text of each entry makes clear.