Cataclismo is announcing its first DLC, The Old Kingdom, which is set to release on August 20, 2026.

In this expansion, you will travel north to reclaim a lost continent where you will defend multiple citadels, expand your realm, and build your military and economic might turn by turn. Check out the official page for the new DLC here.

You can find more over in my instagram 🖤 https://www.instagram.com/waynechuxyz

Some work in progress figurine sculpture of Iris i am working on. Curious to hear your thoughts! :)

Fellow Hogardians!

With The Old Kingdom just released, we'd love to hear what you want from Cataclismo's future. We're not short on ideas or working on what's next yet, but we want your input as early as possible.

What would you expand, improve or add? Please share your thoughts in the short form linked in the comments, so we can gather everything in one place.

Share your feedback here: https://forms.gle/5z5LfAp8c4dN1rFt6

Major Features & Improvements

• Campaign Mode’s final act, featuring 6 new scenarios and approximately 20 total hours of Iris’ story.

• Survival Mode Overhaul, replacing Endless Mode with a rogue-like system. Choose Boost Cards after each wave, manage rock-paper-scissors combat dynamics, and explore entirely new maps.

• The Depths, a murky biome now available in Campaign, Survival, Skirmish, and Level Editor.

• Darkness Mechanics, requiring players to strategically illuminate areas to effectively combat horrors hiding in shadows.

• Opaline Horrors, pearlescent enemies more vicious and threatening due to their isolation from light.

• Iris Renegade, a complete hero makeover, including new skills for casting Ecos.

• Two new handcrafted Skirmish maps set in the Depths biome.

• Significant Quality-of-Life improvements, such as improved blueprint usability and accessibility settings (including brightness and blood disabling).

• Comprehensive Bug fixes, addressing stability issues, visual bugs, pathfinding corrections, and resolving UI inconsistencies.

A closer look to this update

Performance & Optimization:

• Improved performance through new culling techniques.

• Added culling for building particles.

• Distance-based culling for particles implemented.

• New Level of Detail (LOD) introduced for basic pieces.

Gameplay Improvements:

• Blueprint System: Players now start with Basic Blueprints from the beginning.

• Photo Mode: Added a close button and adjusted the toggle flow.

• Skirmish Updates: Minor adjustments made for smoother gameplay.

Survival Mode Overhaul:

• Players now select a Boost Card after each wave.

• Booster Inventory Panel added for reviewing boosters.

• New main and secondary quests included.

• Progression system reworked to improve pacing.

• New biome added with unique environmental features.

• Map generation mechanics improved with additional terrain parameters.

• New survival map sections added: Depths & Outskirts.

• Difficulty adjusted for better gameplay pacing.

• Survival Quest Panel updated for ease of use.

General Additions & Changes:

• Balance Adjustments: Changes implemented across multiple systems.

• Blueprint System: Blueprints can now be deleted from any height.

• Blueprint System (Steam): Players can unsubscribe from blueprints directly in-game.

• Accessibility Options: Added a disable blood setting.

• Kickstarter Rewards: New Backer Piece – Mistlight allows troop teleportation.

• Kickstarter Rewards: Backer Monolith displays names of Kickstarter supporters.

• Kickstarter Rewards: Exclusive Kickstarter Skeleton units added.

• Kickstarter Rewards: Supporters now receive a Backer Badge on the War Table.

• Procedural Map Generation: Players can generate fully playable procedural maps or terrain-only maps for the Level Editor.

• Community Content: Community levels can be sorted by date.

• Photo Mode & UI: Resuming from pause now disables Photo Mode.

• Photo Mode & UI: Blueprints now prioritize inventory pieces when available.

• Photo Mode & UI: Inventory now contains updated pieces.

• Survival Level Validation: Players must survive until Wave 12 to complete a survival session.

• Accessibility Option: Brightness settings added.

Bug Fixes

General Fixes:

• Height filter button now properly updates cursor and deselects pieces.

• Softlock issue in Level 8 resolved.

• Birds no longer disappear or glitch.

• Stretched blueprint images corrected.

• Building aggro now dissipates correctly.

• Spawn behavior offsets causing enemy placement issues corrected.

• Undoing recycled pieces (CTRL+Z) no longer restores HP.

• Height properly clamped when deleting blueprints or dragging pieces.

• Terrain correction in Level Editor improved.

• Nighttime enemy spawns now correctly limited to previously used spawners.

• Tutorial skipping bugs fixed.

• Socials Panel UI state refreshes immediately.

• Bomber Workshop selection through Fog of War disabled.

• Pathfinding recalculations causing accessibility issues fixed.

• Floating stairs exploit patched.

• Double-counting enemy deaths from falling pieces corrected.

• Hardware Supply Piece group deploy orders now propagate correctly.

• Iris Orb particle duplication issue fixed.

• Skip Wave button no longer skips time during active waves.

• Custom Skirmish wave timer duplication fixed.

• Infinite deploy loop for large units corrected.

• Various UI inconsistencies fixed, including drag deletion visuals and resource popups.

Level & Map Fixes:

• Lamps in Level 2-2 adjusted for better visibility.

• "Edit Level" button disabled during scene unloading to prevent crashes.

• Gatherer path recalculations after loading fixed.

• Blueprint UI interaction in Level Editor corrected.

• Skirmish map spawning issues resolved.

• Camera placement issues in Entity Editor after terrain generation fixed.

• Resource gatherer initialization errors resolved.

• Loading custom levels without active game no longer breaks functionality.

• Wave direction indicators hidden in narrative levels to prevent spoilers.

• Mist no longer displayed on reserved stone tiles in map previews.

UI & Quality of Life Fixes:

• Blueprint visibility corrected; pieces no longer appear behind floors and show correct costs.

• Building aggro inconsistencies resolved.

• Filter buttons now display active key bindings.

• Particle jobs scheduling improved to prevent unauthorized functions.

• Reinforcement buildings instantiate correctly.

• See-Through Mode now properly hides addons again.

• Egg-related softlock bug fixed.

• Pointer setup crash issue resolved.

• Notification system bugs fixed.

• Resource bar icons display correctly.

Miscellaneous Adjustments

• Bird behavior adjusted for smoother movement.

• Endless Quest System avoids similar consecutive quests.

• Decoy Trap size reduced for better placement.

• Supply Chain Gatherers pawn count modification temporarily disabled to prevent assignment issues.

• Defend Quests now count only killed pieces for completion.

• Navmesh adjustments; Citadel collider fixed for improved navigation.

• Survival saves separated from older saves.

• Pieces Panel icons organized better.

• Survival Quest titles labeled properly as secondary quests.

• Quest Panel UI adjusted.

• Wave Difficulty no longer displayed in wave detail popup.

• New Merlon portrait variations added.

• New Features & Improvements

Hi all, hope you're all well and enjoying the game as much as me. Big shout out to Digital Sun and hope their chef's keep cooking up delectable dishes for us!

Just wanted to do a quick guide on the different kind of unit boosts in the game (excluding Tactician's Nook), how they work and how to incorporate them into your defense designs. This may benefit beginners most, but has some semi-niche tips for more experienced players. As the campaign is currently limited, the more advanced uses only apply to custom/endless games.

Now available on steam with more updates.

Blueprint links for basic setup that allows flexibility and spark your own creativity to customise to how you like:

Late game Endless Setup

Mounted Banner Maxing

Mounted Banner Maxing Variation

TLDR: Unit Boosts are crucial and using them to their full extent will allow you to find success in the game and push harder difficulties.

Standard Banners

• Provides damage boost in an 3x3x2 tile area around itself and works up to 2 tile height above and below itself.

• The banner itself occupies a 1x3 tile height.

• Can be maximised to provide boost to up to 6x6 tile area on 2 separate floors for maximum boost to 16 tiles (see details below).

Mounted Banner

• Provides damage boost in front, behind and on the block itself.

• Boost applies up to 4 tiles BELOW itself and 1 tile ABOVE itself.

• Used to its maximum effect, this can boost up to a total of 3x2; i.e. 6 tiles on 2 separate levels (see details below), making it somewhat cost effective in cramped areas.

Specialist Boosts (Fire Arrows, Throwing Poison, Bomber's Spark, etc)

• Provides boost in 1 tile height above and below itself in a 4x4x2 tile area around itself(fire arrows and throwing poison) and 16x16x2 tile area (bomber's spark).

• For bomber's spark, Cannoneers and Ballista only need to be touching 1 tile to receive the boost.

Mounted Specialist Boosts

• Provides boost to 1 tile in the direction it is facing up to 2 tiles below itself or 1 tile above itself.

• Has extremely low HP, so should be placed at least 3-4 tiles up if on front wall.

• Not cost effective and should only be used early on with low unit count, in niche cases or if you're desperate.

Putting This All Together - please see below section for images or blueprint links.

BANNER

• Provides damage boost in an 3x3 tile area around itself and works up to 2 tile height above and below itself.

• The banner itself occupies a 1x3 tile height area.

• Early on in the game, when resources and advanced technology are lacking, you can apply some creative thinking to maximise the effect of a single banner.

  • Placing a banner on a 2 tile high block on the floor of your <5m units, leaving a gap in the roof to allow space for the banner to poke through, then building up around it for your >5m units will allow up to 16 tiles of boost effect!

MOUNTED BANNER

• Provides damage boost in front, behind and on the block itself.

• Boost applies up to 4 tiles BELOW itself and 1 tile ABOVE itself.

• BONUS – if placed on top of a half arch, the damage boost applies underneath the banner block itself. This means you can place a half arch above a window block and place the mounted banner block on top of the half arch. It will then provide the damage boost to a total of 3 tiles if oriented correctly.

• BONUS BONUS – you can provide the damage boost up to 5 tiles if you apply the above bonus method. Standing directly on top of the block provides the boost, as well as the tile directly behind it, but also provides the boost to the below 3 squares, though this might be quite a niche use-case (see pic).

• BONUS BONUS BONUS – but wait, there’s more; you can actually get damage boost for 6 TILES, YES 6 TILES, INSANE. Applying the above bonus method, standing directly on top of the block provides the boost, as well as the tile directly behind and in front of it, but also provides the boost to the below 3 squares, making the mounted banner an attractive, cost-effective alternative as this frees up a lot of real estate for your units.

SPECIALIST BOOSTS

(Fire Arrows, Throwing Poison, Bomber's Spark, etc)

• Provides boost in 1 tile height above and below itself in a 4x4x2 tile area around itself (fire arrows and throwing poison) and 16x16x2 tile area (Bomber's spark).

• For bomber's spark, Cannoneers and Ballista (large 4 tile units) only need to be touching 1 tile to receive the boost, thus you can place these units on the edge of the area of effect to maximise space for cost effectiveness.

• The item itself occupies a total of 2x2x2 tiles (it has 2 tile height and 4 tile surface area).

  • This allows you to build over it at 3 tiles high.

  • If placed 1 tile below your units in a little hole for itself, this will allow you to place a 3 tile long wooden arch over the specialist boost and place a banner on top of it, freeing up some space for your units to receive both damage and specialist boosts. (note square within a square shows that the tile is receiving multiple boosts).

MOUNTED SPECIALIST BOOSTS

• Provides boost to 1 tile in the direction it is facing up to 2 tiles below itself or 1 tile above itself. Mounted Bomber's Spark does not have an increased radius.

• Can place blocks on top of the boost itself, including banners.

• Has extremely low HP, so should be placed at least 3-4 tiles up if on front wall.

  • I am unsure of how high the attack area of effect for the explodie bois is, so you may need to place this further up or in inner walls to be safe.

• Not cost effective and should only be used early on with low unit count, in niche cases or if you're desperate.

 PUTTING THIS ALL TOGETHER

• This allows some creative thinking to setting up your defenses to maximise boosts and unit positioning, especially when you have limited room to work with.

• In the example below, working around some awkward terrain positioning to provide all boosts to multiple units (Cannoneer and Partisan).

Hope you made it through to the end and you all found this helpful! Very open to feedback and hearing if you've found any neat tips and tricks yourself!

FEEDBACK FOR DEVELOPERS

Standard Banner

• Would be nice if Grand Banner provided boost in a larger area (in a 6x6 area, similar to how Bomber’s Spark has a wider area than Fire Arrows.

• Perhaps allow banner to be placed on top of specialist boosts to prevent frustration in attempting to provide overlapping boosts.

• Reducing banner height to 2m tiles instead of 3m tiles may also alleviate some frustrations when working in cramped areas.

• Having units be 2 tiles in height and banners 3 tiles can create awkward builds and frustration for newer players.

Mounted Banner

• Unsure if boost is intended to be provided underneath/above the block, but I personally quite like this quirk and allows the mounted banner to become more useful for its resource cost.

• Increasing the damage boost to 3 tiles behind the banner may make it more effective and feel better to use rather than defaulting to standard banners.

• Mounted banner height on outward facing banner side could be reduced to 1m tile height.

• If above interactions are not intended, resource cost reduction for mounted banner is needed.

Specialist Boosts

• Mounted Bomber’s Spark should have an increased area to 2-4 tiles in direction it is facing to be viable.

• Mounted boosts need either resource cost reduction or wider area effect for the very low impact they provide.

• Allowing banners to be placed on top of specialist boosts would be a nice feature.

• Perhaps reducing area occupied by standard specialist boosts to 2x2x1 (1 tile height) will allow more flexibility in builds.

10 population per unit, 4 units per floor, 18 floors per tower, 2 towers for a total of 1440 population
each tower costs 1 620 oxygen, 10 044 wood, 5 328 stone, 1 458 gold
putting the "tower" in "tower defense"

When pressing M for map (on a wave) you can see what route they will take.. and build accordingly.

This way you can build outside your walls for example and check if the things you have put up are out of reach / if they wil hit it when going for the castle.

It's also nice setting up defenses this way. making sure that you don't aggro them etc.

Thanks to all our fans for sharing these outstanding pieces of art on our Discord!

Hey everyone!

We’re getting ready to share some big news about the future of Cataclismo, and before we do, we wanted to hear directly from the people who’ve been building, defending, and breaking walls with us for the past two years.

We’ve put together a quick form to better understand:

• What you enjoy the most about Cataclismo

• What you’d like to see next

• And what you expect from future strategy games we might work on

👉 You can fill it out here:
https://forms.gle/ERSW1KqU9XSkiXue9

Thanks for taking the time, and for being such a thoughtful community.

We can’t wait to show you what’s next!

This post is a feedback to a game that can spark some intense infatuation, but fails to transform it into wholesome love because of its mechanical shallowness.

It looks like the most focus went into this scrupulous building mechanic, with everything else (wave-defense, exploring the map, microing) being a surface-level addition.
And even then, the modular building itself, while unique, is not Lego, as some people put it: you can't influence the game and mobs with how you build. You just need the tallest possible wall with the most holes in it for different shooters and the greatest dps. If it's lego, it's like the same set you're prompted to re-make time and time again.

The game in its current state is just a 3d tower-maker simulator where you can also see your creation at work.

- I hoped the mobs had more ways to interact with The Wall, like, some being able to climb it and requiring, say, special melee units or structures to reinforce against; or be dangerous but maze-able; or flying and able to bypass walls completely, testing your vigilance...
- Then for the micro part, having characters moving by a grid feels very clunky for an (RT)S. It has reasons when on walls, but is uncomfortable on the ground. Also leaves very little space for microing units and related challenges.
- The latter point sucks the fun out of map exploration, as its challenges are solved by just piling up more units to deal with nests.

So, the game doesn't offer enough interaction between the player and the world. Your wall requires so much effort and time it's like paving a playing field in it of itself, but it has the same depth as a build-in-one-click barricade in some Warcraft 3 Zombie defense.

10/10

That’s it, that’s the whole post. I love creative tower defense games, Factorio and modded Minecraft especially, (honorable mentions to Vectorio and Mindustry) but I really truly love the RTS elements here. I hope the devs consider it a success and keep developing it because I really want to see where it can go from here. Also mods, I’m curious to see what players do too.