Change Log 10/24/25
Updates: Big ol’ Balance Patch for you! With us coming up to our next phase of Chrono, we wanted to go through and lower the overall complexity of the cards and card text of our Core Set. Chrono is a pretty complex game with Immortalization, Timelines and its priority system, so anything we can do to lower the mental strain off of our new players is good for the game. With that, we’ve made dozens and dozens of card changes ranging from simple text and grammar changes that don’t impact the card’s mechanics all the way to complete and total reworks. So let’s get started.
BUFFS
Zealot of the Hunt
Old Text: Advent or When I Immortalize: Grant the strongest enemy Exposed. If I see Deadly Fauna, set its Durability to 1. If I see Abundant Growth, set its Strength to 1.
New Text: Advent or When I Immortalize: Grant the strongest enemy Exposed and set its stats to 1/1.
Khaelar
Old Text: Advent or When I destroy an Agent: Grant the strongest enemy Exposed. If I see Deadly Fauna, set its Durability to 1. If I see Abundant Growth, set its Strength to 1.
New Text: Advent or When I destroy an Agent: Grant the strongest enemy Exposed and set its stats to 1/1.
Zealot and Khaelar’s text was a mouthful with two separate conditions and two different outcomes. Although she has recently begun seeing some play, we figure that simplifying her text in this way will be easier to chew on for new players and help old Zealot players catch their prey.
Hungry Tyrannosaur
Old Immortalization: I’ve destroyed 2+ Agents.
New Immortalization: I’ve destroyed an Agent.
Hungry Tyrannosaur has been starving in the meta. Making his Immortalization requirement lower puts him in line with Zealot and should make him more of a threat.
Symbiosis
Old Speed: Slow.
New Speed: Fast.
Symbiosis is too risky to pull off in our game as a proactive threat. We’re speeding it up so it can try its hand at a reactive playstyle.
Indara, the Candle
Old Stats: 3/3.
New Stats: 4/4.
Indara doesn’t get to see the light of day very often due to Solemn Attendant’s strong Advent effect and low stats. We’re giving them a bit of a boost so WHEN Indara comes online, they can hold a candle to other threats in the game.
Gnosis
Old Text: Draw 2. You may return any of those cards to the bottom of your deck. Sacrifice X, where X is the total Energy Cost of the cards kept.
New Text: Draw 2. You may return any of those cards to the bottom of your deck. Sacrifice 3 for each card kept.
Gnosis’ original card text was messy and read like a math equation. With its new text, we’re hoping it can better fulfill its role as a cheap card draw option and players will be able to make a more educated decision before deciding to play it.
Appeal to the Scrolls
Old Text: If you have exactly 1 Agent in play, I cost 2 less.
New Text: If you have 1 or less Agents, I cost 2 less.
The Scrolls’ old text was thematic with Voiceless Sky, but it became a harder requirement than we expected. This new text also has exactly 1 less word in its text. How flavorful.
Mechanist Daedelus
Old Text: Prevent damage you, allies, or Timelines would deal to your Core. When you prevent damage in this way, deal that much damage to the enemy Core (Max 5).
New Text: Prevent damage you or allies would deal to your Core and deal it to the enemy Core instead.
Don’t worry, Volcanic Rivers still works with Daedelus. The text has been simplified to align with Telepathic Conduit in which “you” covers for Timelines. However, you may have noticed that we’re done watching over Daedelus’ shoulders and we’re just gonna let him do his dang job.
Hidden Locus
Old Stats: 3 Cost 0/4.
New Stats: 2 Cost 0/3.
Locus has been a bit overshadowed by Suncursed Conduit, and we find it weird to have two 3-Cost ramp Agents in Sungrace, so Locus gets to become a little bit smaller.
Penitent Star
Old Stats: 2/8.
New Stats: 3/8.
Penitent Star is supposed to show that some cards can get worse when they Immortalize. Losing all of Containment Breach’s text and becoming its own thing. That being said, Penitent’s weakness has also been keeping Containment Breach, well… contained. We hope increasing Penitent’s strength will allow it to become its own Star.
Radiant Channeling
Old Text: For each Reserve Energy spent to play this Action, deal 1 to an Agent and refill 1 Reserve Energy. Shift to Star Siphon.
New Text: For each Reserve Energy spent to play this Action, deal 2 to an Agent and refill 1 Reserve Energy. Shift to Star Siphon.
Radiant Channeling can feel pretty restrictive with its Slow Speed and a requirement for it to deal damage, forcing you to play this before most other Actions. Now when you go through the effort to make this card work, we want it to really work.
Radiant Release
Old Name: Radiant Release.
New Name: Supernova.
Sungrace had two 5-Cost, Slow Speed Actions with the word “Radiant” in the name. We want to make that less confusing for new players.
Luminous Vengeance
Old Text: Delay. Overpower. Confront. Round End: If you started this round with the attack token, Un-immortalize me.
New Text: Delay. Overpower. Confront.
Luminous Vengeance was supposed to show that some cards can Un-Immortalize. While we are still interested in that mechanic, it was weird that this was the only card that can do it in the Core Set and it lacked a strong, flavorful reason. This card should feel better without this limitation and we’re hoping to revisit the idea in the future.
Scattered Helpers
Old Text and Stats: 3 Cost 0/4. Immortalize: I’ve seen 3+ allies with the same name as other allies in play be destroyed.
New Text and Stats: 2 Cost 0/4. Immortalize: I see 3+ allies with the same name as other allies.
Scattered Helpers’ Immortalization condition was wordy and confusing. Worse than that, the card itself needed some serious help in the meta. So we cleaned up its Immortalization and brought it down to 2-Cost to help it find its footing. If The Great Oakmother can be 2-Cost, why can’t this guy?
Terraformer
Old Text: Advent: Discard 1 to heal your Core equal to that card’s Energy Cost (Max 5).
New Text: Advent: Discard 1 to heal your Core equal to that card’s cost (Max 5) then Shift to Erudite Beacon.
Terraformer has underperformed and we’re removing Erudite Beacon from a different card this update. With this change, we’re expecting Terraformer to become a true staple in Singularity, allowing a variety of decks to heal and cycle to really stabilize if you’re committed to getting Terraformer online.
Brutal Reveler and Tyar, Benevolent Ruler
Old Text: The first time each round I or either Core takes damage, create a Transient Bloodbolt in hand.
New Text: The first time each round anything takes damage, create a Transient Bloodbolt in hand.
This change is mostly made to reduce the amount of text on these cards, but don’t let me spoil the revels! This should make Tyar generate Bloodbolts much more consistently and allow him to assert his rule over ANYTHING.
Kintsu-Kai
Old Speed: Fast.
New Speed: Immediate.
Kintsu-Kai requires you to commit a blood ritual on your own Agents to damage the enemy. Considering that Agents Bleed at Round End, it means that this card is technically Mega-Slow. This should at least make it so the enemy can’t dodge the effect while it’s on the Chain.
BREAK AND SHATTER!
Old Text: Surge. Each ally Flourishes once for each point of Durability it is missing. Grant all allies that Flourished this way Overpower.
New Text: Surge. Each ally Flourishes once for each point of Durability it is missing. Grant Allies Overpower.
This is one of those changes that was pretty much only made because we wanted to reduce the word count on this card. While technically a buff, we don’t expect this to make much of a difference in decks that already utilized BREAK AND SHATTER!
NERFS
The Great Oakmother
Old Stats and Text: 1/1. I have +1/+1 for each time you’ve Sprouted this game. Whenever you Sprout, double its value.
New Stats and Text: 1/3. I have +1/0 for each time you’ve Sprouted this game. When you Sprout, add 2 to its value.
Players know that we’ve been having mommy issues lately and this is our answer to it. Oakmother was doing too much in a single card by being a very large threat as well as a very potent engine for the archetype. We’ve adjusted the stats she gains to match with her Un-Immortalized form, Sapling Dryad, so she’s less of a threat (while still being VERY threatening if we’re all being honest). The other problem Oakmother presented was when she had multiple on the board, her power grew exponentially. Not only was this a problem for the balance of the game, it was actually causing our game to crash. Oakmother was allowed to terrorize our players, but as soon as she starts putting Joel in timeout, she’s gotta go.
Muffle
Old Stats and Text: 3 Cost. If Voiceless Sky is active, I cost 1 less. Mute an Agent this round. You may Deplete an ally to create a Transient copy of me in hand.
New Stats and Text: 4 Cost. Mute an Agent this round. You may Deplete an ally to create a Transient copy of me in hand.
Muffle has a surprising amount of depth and complexity with its effect and synergy with Deplete. So much so that it has been dominating other strategies in the game and preventing them from having their voice heard. For the sake of complexity, we removed its ability to be “2 and a half Cost”. For balancing, we’re upping its cost to 4 so it’s less generically good, but it should still shine in those Deplete strategies.
Destiny Ripper
Old Stats: 3 Cost 2/1.
New Stats: 4 Cost 2/1.
Mute in Chrono, compared to the silencing effect in other card games, is extremely potent. This is mostly because of Chrono’s Immortalization being available on every single Agent. That means that very few Agents are considered “Vanilla” and thus, Mute is always effective. Destiny Ripper, along with Muffle, meant that Silence decks were often “anti-fun” and didn’t allow other Syndicates to do their thing. With both of these cards being lowered in their power level, we’re expecting new strategies that were being held down by Mute to come up in the meta.
Rotting Rocker/Ylka the Headliner
Old Stats: 3/3.
New Stats: 3/2.
Rocker and Ylka’s effect has been shown to be quite powerful. Mostly, we find her to be extremely powerful with a full band on the field as their power also grows exponentially, similar to Oakmother. She hasn’t made Joel cry though, so we’re only reducing her stats to make it easier for players to remove her. Hopefully there won’t be multiple copies because she’ll be easier to Sunshock.
The Forgotten Tale/ Shae’Fan, Remembered
Old Text: Deplete: (C) Destroy another ally, then revive it.
New Text: Deplete: (C) Destroy another ally with less Durability than me, then Revive it.
This is less intended to be a nerf for Forgotten Tale and more like a bug fix. Shae’Fan and Forgotten Tale were able to go infinite by having multiple on the board and using their effect on each other. By adding this restriction, the card’s power level shouldn’t actually decrease but they can no longer go infinite.
We Have Cookies
Old Cost: 12 Cost.
New Cost: 13 Cost.
We Have Cookies has recently come up in the meta as a viable card. It’s a bit too strong though, so we’re bumping up the cost to slow it down a little bit. We’re aware that some players may think this is too soft of a nerf. We’ll be monitoring its performance in this new meta and will adjust accordingly.
Nascent Clone
Old Text: Advent: (C) Transform me into an exact copy of a non-Immortalized Agent, but I retain the following text: Immortalize: Round End: I see Paradox. When I Immortalize grant me “The first time you Shift each round, summon a copy of me without this ability.
New Text: Advent: (C) Transform me into an exact copy of a non-Immortalized Agent and keep my Immortalization. Immortalize: Round End: I see Paradox.
Herald of the One
Old Text: Advent: (C) Transform me into an exact copy of an Agent. When I transform, grant me “The first time you Shift each round, summon a copy of me without this ability.
New Text: Advent: (C) Transform me into an exact copy of an Agent.
My fingers cramped while typing these two cards out. While this is a nerf to a card that is too strong, we’re changing this card primarily for its complete novel of a text box. It should be much more readable for new players now.
Hungry Engine
Old Text: Advent: Create a Circle of Strife in hand. Immortalize: I’ve survived damage. When I Immortalize, create a Circle of Strife in hand.
New Text: Advent: Create a Circle of Strife in hand. Immortalize: I’ve survived damage.
Hungry Engine hasn’t been eating the meta up but we wanted to reduce this card’s complexity. While this is just a nerf to the card, we’re hoping that it won’t impact its power level too much. As a victim of reducing complexity, we’ll keep an eye on him and see if he needs an oil change in the future.
The ‘Stache
Old Text: Blitz. The first time an enemy would destroy an ally in combat each round, Disarm that enemy. Disarm you apply lasts 2 rounds.
New Text: Blitz. Each round, Disarm the first enemy that would destroy an ally in combat.
We’ve adjusted his text to align with other cards that read “Each round the first time X”. We’ve also removed his ability to double-dip on Disarming. The ‘Stache hasn’t been very oppressive yet, but with this patch we want to remove some of the cards that encourage a stalling type of playstyle and with our plans of adding more Disarm support in the future, The Stache would only encourage players to start pulling out their hair.
REWORKS
Sap Sapper
Old Text: Rejuvenate. Advent: Sprout 2. Your Seedlings have “Last Gasp: Deal 1 to all Agents.”
New Text: Advent: Sprout 2, then grant those Seedlings “Last Gasp: Deal 1 to all Agents.”
The Botanist
Old Text: Rejuvenate. Advent: Sprout 2. Your Seedlings have “Last Gasp: Deal 1 to all Agents.” When I survive damage, Sprout 1.
New Text: Rejuvenate. Deplete: Sprout 2, then grant those Seedlings “Last Gasp: Deal 1 to all Agents.”
The way old Botanist worked meant that often Seedlings would explode, damage Botanist, Sprout, explode, on and on until Botanist died, causing a mini loop that was both a board wipe, but also usually ended with a couple Seedlings on board. It was confusing and we’re changing the way the card works to prevent that scenario from happening. We’re hoping by giving Botanist a Deplete ability, it’ll allow players to stack “Last Gasp: Deal 1 to all Agents” to a Seedling repeatedly to cultivate a bomb.
Focused Adaptation
Old Text: An ally Flourishes. If you have 1+ tokens, grant it Siphon. If you have 2+ tokens, grant it Confront. If you have 3+ tokens, grant it Overpower. If you have 5+ tokens, grant it Cleave and Blitz.
New Text: Give an ally “The next time I would be destroyed this round, instead heal me to full and grant me Siphon.”
The original intent for Focused Adaptation was for it to give Siphon so Lifeblood could have a bit of healing. It eventually morphed into this “Tokens matter” card that also had FIVE lines of text on it. This change should refocus it back to its original goal while also simplifying the card.
Mulch
Old Text: Grant allies “Last Gasp: Sprout 1.”
New Text: Destroy an ally to Sprout equal to its Strength.
Old Mulch wasn’t a very good card, outclassed by other Sprouting cards. Its text would also be too good with our new and improved Oakmother, so we decided to allow something new to grow from it.
Rumpus
Old Stats and Text: 5 Cost. Create a 0 Cost Transient Throwdown in hand for each ally.
New Stats and Text: 3 Cost. Create a 1 Cost Transient Throwdown in hand for each ally.
We reworked Rumpus a while back and it has been seeing some great success. We want it to keep doing its thing, but we also wanted to make it a little more expensive and prevent players from holding a bunch of 0 cost Actions, locking the opponent out of the round. Now Rumpus will be slightly more of an investment to play.
The Strand
Old Text: Deplete: I Decay, grant me “If you or an ally would deal non-combat damage, deal 1 more.” When you would destroy an Agent, Erase it instead.
New Text: Deplete: I Decay. Grant me “If you or an ally would deal non-combat damage, Deal 1 more.”
Aside from some minor text fixes, we wanted to remove the last line to reduce the word count on this card. Now personally, I would consider this a nerf, but some players have considered this to actually be a buff for the card. So in the Rework pile it goes.
Bury the Evidence
Old Text: An Agent Decays. Sacrifice 2: First Mute that Agent this round.
New Text: An enemy Decays twice, or an ally Decays twice to Draw 2.
Bury the Evidence was constantly overshadowed by other better Mute options. While yes, we’re nerfing those options so now Bury may have seen it’s time to shine, we also just kinda found the card… boring? New evidence has come to light that shows this type of effect is very welcomed in card games. A glimpse from beyond I suppose.
Mind Over Matter
Old Stats and Text: 4 Cost Fast Speed. If Voiceless Sky is active, I am Immediate Speed. An Agent Decays. An Agent Flourishes. An Agent Depletes. An Agent Refreshes.
New Stats and Text: 3 Cost Fast Speed. If Voiceless Sky is active, I am Immediate Speed. An Agent Depletes. An Agent Refreshes.
Mind Over Matter, like Focused Adaptation, has 5 lines of text. Not only that, it is the only card in the game that has the ability to damage and destroy an enemy Agent at Immediate Speed, which we don’t really love. We value interaction in our game and the role this card serves is to allow players to Refresh their Agent, so we boiled it down to what's important. (Also Notme called this, which shocked me.)
Awakened Security System
Old Text: Deplete: Reduce an Agent’s Strength by my Strength this round. Immortalize: I see 3+ Agents with 0 Strength in play. When I Immortalize, Shift to Erudite Beacon.
New Text: Deplete: Reduce an Agent’s Strength by my Strength this round. Immortalize: I see 3+ Agents with 0 Strength in play.
Wom, Sanctifier of Domiciles
Old Text: Advent: Shift to Erudite Beacon. Deplete: Reduce all Agents’ Strength by my Strength this round.
New Text and Name: Wom, Sweet Wom. Deplete: Reduce an Agent’s Strength by my Strength this round. When I see an enemy Agent reduced to 0 Strength, grant allies +1/0.
Wom’s old effect encouraged a stalling playstyle where the game state didn’t actually progress. We also didn’t really Shifting to Erudite Beacon fit him and his playstyle, so we shifted that over to Terraformer. Awakened Security System’s role was as a cheeky combat trick, so naturally we wanted Wom to do that too, but better. We’re hoping this can give him a new role in a new type of deck.
Raiz, Pacifist’s Conclusion
Old Text: Advent: Disarm the Strongest enemy. Round End: If you have an unspent Attack Token, Create a copy of me in hand.
New Text: Advent: Disarm the Strongest enemy. Round End: If you have an unspent Attack Token, Create a We Have Cookies in hand.
Raiz also encouraged a stalling gameplan that didn’t really amount to the game ending. He encouraged you to stop the opponent from attacking, then stop yourself from attacking so you could stop your opponent from attacking. We want games to end, so we gave him a new way to end a conflict peacefully.
Rogue Amalgam
Old Text: Advent: Discard up to 3. When you Discard: Deal 1 to all other Agents. When an ally is destroyed, Draw 1.
New Text: Advent: Discard up to 3. When you Discard: Draw 1 and reduce its cost by 1.
Mr. E
Old Text: Advent: Discard up to 3. When you Discard: Deal 1 to all other Agents. When an ally is destroyed, Draw 2 then Discard the card with the lower Energy Cost.
New Text: Advent: Discard up to 3. When you Discard: Draw 1 and reduce its cost by 2.
Mr. E was a confusing wall of text that allowed you to deal unreactable damage and it still wasn’t even very good. The real question is “why do I want to do this?” This new effect is simpler and hopefully more useful to our cycling robots.
Sanguine Resurgence
Old Text: Your Bleed effects gain Siphon this round. Trigger Bleed. Breakdown 15: All Agents Bleed. Breakdown 10: Trigger Bleed. Breakdown 5: You Bleed effects gain Siphon permanently.
New Text: Your Bleed effects gain Siphon this round. All Agents Bleed 1. Breakdown 15: Trigger Bleed. Breakdown 10: Trigger Bleed.
The criminal FIVE LINES OF TEXT. On top of that, it was a bit confusing how the Breakdowns would ripple in and out with its effect. With only 4 lines of text, the average player may not break down themselves.
Temple Analyst
Old Text: Blitz. The first time each round I Strike while attacking: Swap me with the Agent to my right, then Rewind it. If I see The One True Timeline, that Agent costs 0 this round.
New Text: Blitz. The first time each round I strike while Attacking: Swap me with the Agent to my right, then Rewind it. Reduce its cost by 1.
Khaela the Savior
Old Text: Each time I Strike while attacking: Swap me with the Agent to my right, then Rewind it. If I see The One True Timeline, that Agent costs 0 this round.
New Text: Each time I strike while Attacking: Swap me with the Agent to my right, then Rewind it. Set its cost to 0.
This card’s effect is already complex. By involving a condition that requires us to mention The One True Timeline, the card’s text started to get very wordy. While this may be a bit of a nerf to Temple Analyst, it should make Khaela the Savior much better.
Fervent Acolyte
Old Stats: 2/1.
New Stats: 1/1.
Pontifex Dhabu
Old Stats and Text: 2/1. Round End: I Flourish. When I see a Shift to a Timeline that is not The One True Timeline, deal 1 to me. While the current Timeline is The One True Timeline, other allies have “The first time each round I would be destroyed, instead heal me to 1 Durability and I Phase.”
New Stats and Text: 2/2. Round End: I Flourish. When I see a Shift to a Timeline other than The One True Timeline, deal 1 to the Enemy Core.
Pontifex Dhabu had a huge wall of text that was confusing to read and confusing to understand. Not only that, but it put a lot of effects and power onto a 1 Cost Agent. We wanted to simplify Dhabu so he felt more like a 1 Cost and didn’t confuse everybody reading it. We also think by changing his effect to damage the opponent on his Immortalization, it’s much more flavorful with Dhabu’s personality as seen in Backhand’s flavor text. He’s a supporter of corporal punishment for rejecting The One True Timeline.
Snap Back
Old Cost and Text: 3 Cost. I Cost 1 more if you do not see The One True Timeline. Return an Action from your Graveyard to hand, or an Agent Phases, or an Agent Phases in.
New Cost and Text: 2 Cost. Return an Action from your Graveyard to hand, or an Agent Phases in.
Snap Back’s ability to Phase an enemy Agent at Immediate Speed put a lot of Phasetide’s power into one card and encouraged an uninteractive playstyle. Now Snap Back will bring back a card or an Agent, but it won’t push back the enemy like it used to. Also, it removed a lot of complexity and that’s not a coincidence.
Text Fixes
There are dozens more cards that had their text changed that have no impact on gameplay. For example, any time a card said “Energy Cost” we reduced it to “Cost”. Same situation with “Whenever” turning into “When” in an effort to save card space with our text.
Bug Fixes
The following bugs should now be fixed. Please report if seen.
-Fixed a bug that allowed cards to maintain their “I’ve Seen” Immortalization condition when Rewound to hand.
-Fixed a bug with Karmic Debtor that allowed her to Phase an Agent permanently.
-Fixed a bug that caused cards shown by Gnosis to immediately disappear.
-Fixed a bug that caused Future Sight to decrease your deck count if you were drawing cards, allowing players to Fatigue themselves by repeatedly clicking Future Sight.
-Fixed a bug that allowed Alina Who Cut the Strings to destroy Agents that weren’t Muted.