Wildfrost is a Roguelike Deck Building Game developed by Deadpan Games and with art by Gaziter. Players control a team of adventurers from the town of Snowdwell, who venture out into the snow-covered wilderness to attempt to stop an endless winter. They recruit new adventurers, find treasure, battle waves of monsters, and eventually they just might become strong enough to vanquish the storm.
The game was released on April 12, 2023 for Windows and the Nintendo Switch, and came to mobile devices on April 11, 2024, a day short of the game's first anniversary. The game's official website can be found here
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Wildfrost contains examples of:
- Adjustable Censorship: You can adjust how much blood is shown when you kill monsters and also change its color to rainbow.
- Aerith and Bob: Some companions have unusual names such as Firefist and Wallop while others have ordinary names like Bonnie and Shelly, although the latter's a Punny Name since she provides 3 Shell to her ally after they kill an enemy.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If you carelessly attempt to use an item that would directly kill your leader (e.g. using a Sunburst Tootoo on the leader when they only have 1 health), the game will warn you and stop the item from being used.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only have up to 3 companions at a time, with extra ones in your reserve deck. This can be increased with the Sun Bell of Fellowship.
- Asteroids Monster:
- The Truffle boss splits into smaller versions of itself when it loses enough health.
- Bamboozle splits into Bam and Boozle upon defeat.
- Author Avatar:
- The unlockable "Lil' Gazi" pet is based on the avatar of the artist, Gaziter.
- The Chuckle Charm, which removes the charm limit on a card, is designed after Chucklefish, the game's publisher.
- Baa-Bomb: The Sheepopper is a once-per-battle Shade summon that explodes and deals 8 damage to all enemies on the field when destroyed.
- Badass Back: Berry Sis has her back towards the player in her card, showing her bandages and a knife jammed into her right shoulder.
- Bears Are Bad News: The Snowland Bears are one of the enemy groups you can fight. They're a polar bear tribe that specializes in synergies with the Snow Status Effect, such as Ooba Bear applying it to its attacker and the Snow Gobbler increasing its Attack for each enemy or ally Snow'd.
- BFS: Whenever Lil' Berry is healed, they gain +2 attack and their sword gets bigger. With enough healing, it can become this trope.
- Body Armor as Hit Points: The Shell status blocks damage by serving as extra HP for the user. It's the first one to take damage from hits, and some abilities use it to inflict extra damage on enemies.
- Body Snatching: When you win a run, the Emperor Shade will possess your leader. They and the rest of your party become the next run's Final Boss.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Monch eats all its allies in the same row as it, absorbing their Attack, HP, and any Status Effects they have, before attacking an enemy. On the enemy side, the Woolly Drek eats a random ally to power itself up this way.
- Card Cycling: You can spend 1 turn to use the Redraw Bell to discard your hand and draw a new one of 6 cards. If it's charged, you get a free turn to use it.
- Combatant Cooldown System: Each fighternote has a countdown timer until they can attack or execute their ability, which goes down each turn. Some of them have a "reaction" timer, which only triggers their attack or ability under certain situations. If a fighter is afflicted by the Snow Status Effect, their timer is temporarily frozen for a few turns.
- Combos: You gain extra Blings for each consecutive enemy you kill.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Most bosses and minibosses have the "Resist Snow" ability, which prevents you from inflicting them with more than 1 Snow at a time. Downplayed in that Snow still has some effect.
- Crosshair Aware: Krunker's Bombard ability lets it fire missiles at your team, marking which ones to hit with crosshairs. In its second phase, its crosshairs can end up targeting its allies or even itself.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: The Frost Guardian's second phase has 990 HP, but it gets cut in half each time his allies get killed. Since his Attack also increases with every fallen ally, you need to optimize your deck to deal as much damage to him as possible, or steamroll his allies fast enough to kill him before he strikes back.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Throughout the run, you might get used to playing your initial crowned hand (such as your leader) in any random order, since you can always rearrange them before your first turn. That is, until the True Final Boss, which applies "Unmovable" to all your cards at the start of the battle.
- Deck Clogger:
- Some items, events, or enemy abilities add Junk to your deck, which is an "attacking" card that does no damage. However, the Clunkmasters tribe can make use of Junk by recycling it to play more powerful items. Even for non-Clunkmasters, it's Not Completely Useless, as you can use it on your own team to trigger their "on hit" abilities without actually hurting them.
- One of the challenge bells forces you to add a Gunk Fruit to your deck after every boss, which does 1 damage and is then removed from the deck for the rest of the battle. However, it's Not Completely Useless for the same reasons as Junk (see above).
- Double-Edged Buff:
- Many charms work like this. For example, the Durian Charm increases the card's attack in exchange for clearing its special abilities, and the Balance Charm sets health, attack, and countdown all to 3 (which will most likely be an upgrade for countdown, but downgrade for health and attack.)
- Some item cards like the Peppereaper apply a powerful buff to your companions, but they also deal damage. (You can also use them to hurt enemies, if you're willing to take the risk of making the enemy stronger.)
- Downer Ending: If you defeat the Final Boss without first obtaining the Lumin Vase, your party will be possessed and you'll have to start a new run. The win screen even says "Victory?" after the run.
- Draw Extra Cards: Some items and companions let you draw an extra card in battle, with the Sun Bell of Hands permanently boosting your deck this way.
- Dungeon Shop: You can buy cards and charms with Blings at the Woolly Snail, which has a random chance of appearing in a run.
- Elemental Powers: The Snowdwellers tribe makes use of different elements to gain an edge in battle, such as Spice, Shroom, Snow, and Shell.
- Exact Words:
- The Kobonker says it will "trigger against anything that is hit with Snow", and it will, even if that "anything" is your own party member.
- Overburn is a status effect which causes an explosion when the Overburn is more than or equal to the card's health. Clunker cards don't have health, they have "Scrap", which means they will explode immediately if inflicted with Overburn. The status effect also bypasses Shell, but then does damage to the Shell stacks first.
- Some items say they "increase the effects of a card by X" ( or double them, in the case of the Lumin Vase.) This affects all numerical effects on the card, including downsides like Recycle cost.
- The game makes a clear distinction between "hitting" and "attacking" enemies — "hitting" them means that your hero strikes them with a non-status move, regardless if they do damage or not, and if they do, they "attack" them. This means that enemies with "On Hit" abilities will trigger even if you don't do damage to them.
- Extra Turn: Noomlins make cards free to play while crowns make selected cards be played first along with the leader, giving you extra turns to set up your team.
- Extreme Omnivore: Monchi eats anything from food to weapons, so you can feed him any item cards you don't need.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: You can recruit humans, various fantasy races such as elves and gnomes, and animals of varying anthropomorphism in your team. You also encounter a diverse cast of enemies, ranging from animals to monsters to even primitive robots.
- Full-Boar Action: The Wild Hogs of the Frostlands are a tribe of wild boars with the Wild status; they gain Frenzy each time their allies are killed, making them dish out many attacks on your team.
- Gathering Steam:
- Minimoko, Makoko, Infernoko's 2nd phase, and the Frost Crusher all gain more attack after taking their turn.
- Cards like Lil' Berry and Yuki (as well as some enemies) gain attack under certain conditions, like when healed or when other characters are inflicted with Snow.
- Cards like Shen or Fungun apply status effects to opponents, and the amount they inflict increases when they are hit.
- Glass Cannon:
- Yuki can become this: their attack gets progressively bigger as more characters are inflicted with Snow, but Yuki still only has one health, so a single stray hit will take them out.
- The Shade Wisp lets you summon a copy of an enemy on the board - potentially something very strong like a Winter Worm or even the Final Boss. However, the copy will only have one health, so you'll have to keep it safe until their turn comes around. Once they do get their turn, they'll die immediately after unless you managed to increase their health somehow, since summons lose health automatically after triggering.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Your entire party gets glowing eyes as they get possessed by Emperor Shade and ascended as Frost Guardians after defeating him.
- Godiva Hair: Naked Gnomes are a Rare Male Example, with beards covering their whole front.
- The Goomba: Naked Gnomes are the weakest enemies in the game, having 1 HP, zero Attack, and they do absolutely nothing. However, since most leaders and companions hit the frontmost enemy, they serve as meat shields to their allies behind them.
- Gruesome Goat: The Demonhorn Goats are one of tribes you can encounter in the Ice Caves. They're demonic goats who specialize in synergies with the Demonize Status Effect.
- Harmless Freezing:
- You find new characters trapped inside of icebergs during your run. Once you break them out, they're ready to join your team straight away with no harm done.
- Characters can also gain the "Block" status, which protects them from an entire instance of damage. This is depicted as being frozen inside a giant block of ice (seen on cards like Blunky and Numskull).
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Companions (and other cards) have default names, but they can be renamed at any time. The Leaders, especially, have randomized names.
- Hub Level: Snowdwell is the village you return to at the end of each run, where you can unlock buildings which give you perks for your next.
- It Only Works Once: Items with the Consume effect can only be used once per battle. They're usually incredibly powerful items that give big stat boosts.
- Kill One, Others Get Stronger: Some enemies and bosses such as Infernoko's first phase gain Status Buffs whenever their allies get killed.
- Kill Streak: Some leaders, companions, and enemies gain temporary stat boosts for each opponent they kill. For example, Big Berry heals 2 HP to himself and all his allies in the row after killing an enemy.
- Life Drain:
- The Berry Sword deals damage to an enemy and heals one of the frontmost allies with HP equal to the damage dealt.
- The Leech is a Shade that's summoned on the enemy side to drain 3HP from all of them. However, it also attacks your frontmost ally.
- Living Shadow: Shades are shadow creatures that can possess inanimate objects. They're usually found in dark places and they became more powerful as the darkness brought by the Wildfrost spread across the world. The Shademancers learned to harness these creatures' powers by crafting masks for them to possess, making them their allies.
- Lore Codex: Your journal keeps track of every leader, companion, Clunker, item, and enemy cards you encounter.
- Mad Bomber: Bombom cackles mad in her card as she holds two bombs in her hands. She's a powerful companion who deals 7 damage to all enemies in her row, but then deals 5 damage to herself and all her allies in the same row.
- Magical Accessory: Various kinds of charms can be attached to your companions or items to upgrade them. However, they can't be removed once you equip them, and a card can only have up to a maximum of three charms unless you equip the Chuckle Charm to remove the limit.
- Maniac Monkeys: The Spice Mokos are a fire monkey tribe found in the Ice Caves. They specialize in gaining attack each time they hit your team or get hit by them thanks to them gaining Spice.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Woolly Snail is a giant snail-alpaca hybrid with six legs and a Dungeon Shop on its side.
- Modular Difficulty: For a more challenging run, you can play with different "Storm Bells" that each impose some kind of negative effect. You'll have to use a "Storm Strength" of 10 to unlock the True Final Boss.
- Money Multiplier:
- The Bling Bank gains 4 Blings each time an enemy is killed, and it adds that many Blings to your satchel when it's destroyed.
- The Bling Charm makes the user gain 5 Blings each time they kill an enemy.
- Mushroom Man: Some companions and enemies are mushroom folk, who specialize in poisoning their foes with the Shroom Status Effect.
- Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: Many items function as this, like the Snowcake, Frostbloom, and Bom Barrel. Some enemies, like the Bulbhead, do it too.
- Numerical Theme Naming: Combined with Bilingual Bonus: Chikichi is a bird companion that summons the two-headed Chikani when sacrificed, or killed by its allies, which likewise summons the three-headed Chikasan upon sacrifice.
- One Curse Limit: An enemy can either be affected by Demonize or Shroom, but not both, since trying to afflict both Status Effects on them will replace the other already in effect.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Some companions start with only 1 HP, but it can be temporarily increased with certain healing items. Some of them such as Yuki and any enemy copy summoned by the Shade Wisp can become Glass Cannons when strategically used right, while others such as Pootienote and Blunkynote , who both have 1 Attack, are meant to be easily sacrificed to provide boosts to the team.
- Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The Clunkmasters are a tribe of gnomes who tinker with wooden machinery called Clunkers. They specialize in recycling junk to craft powerful weapons, and some companions from their tribe use the junk itself to power themselves up.
- Pain & Gain:
- Whenever Firefist loses health, she gains an equal amount of Spice, which powers up her next attack.
- Some enemies gain Status Buffs each time they're hit.
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: The "O" in Wildfrost is replaced by a frozen Blingsnail shell.
- Piñata Enemy: Goblings drop Blings each time they get hit, but they run away after their countdown expires.
- Plant Person:
- The Shelled Nuts are a tribe of acorn folk who can be encountered in the Ice Caves. They specialize in attack combos with the Shell Status Buff.
- Some of your companions and enemies are berry people, who specialize in healing.
- Plot Coupon That Does Something: The Lumin Vase - which is required to reach the True Final Boss - has the very powerful ability to double the effects of any companion or item.
- Power Copying: When deployed, Splinter copies the effects of a random enemy in the row.
- Shout-Out:
- The Lamb Charm - which increases the health and attack of summoned Shades - looks like the player character from Cult of the Lamb.
- The background of the shop contains some items from other games, like an Idol from Spelunky, the Stygian Blade from Hades, a strawberry from Celeste, and the Shovel Knight's helmet.
- Single-Use Shield: The Block status makes the user impervious to all damage for each turn it's active.
- Snowlems: Some of the enemies you fight are living snowmen such as Snowbos, who are aimless in their attacks and hit random targets in the same row as them.
- Spam Attack: Characters with Frenzy will attack repeatedly when their turn comes around. Some characters, like Tiny Tyka and Mini Miko, can have their Frenzy increased arbitrarily high during battles, enabling huge board-wiping combos.
- The Spiny: Enemies with the Teeth status deal damage back to their attackers each time they're hit.
- Status Effects:
- Snow freezes the enemy's counter, preventing it from counting down until they attack, each turn it's active.
- Shroom does Damage Over Time for every turn it's active.
- Demonize and Bom increase the damage taken from attacks, with the former being active for each hit and the latter being permanent.
- Frost temporarily reduces the enemy's attack.
- Ink cancels all enemy abilities for a certain number of turns.
- Haze causes an enemy to hit one of its allies instead.
- Summon Magic: Shademancers use masks to summon Shades to assist them in battle. Unlike other companions, Shades lose 1 HP each time their abilities trigger until they vanish, and they can't be recalled into your deck to recover.
- Support Party Member: Some leaders and companions don't have an Attack statnote and instead use support moves such as healing their allies and dealing Status Effects on their enemies.
- Taking You with Me: The Soulbound Skulls add the Soulbound status to an ally and a random enemy. When a Soulbound fighter gets sacrificed by their team, the other Soulbound fighter goes down by 100 HP.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Biji and Fizzle specialize in inflicting the Bom Status Effect on their enemies, which permanently increases the damage they get from attacks.
- Time-Limit Boss: King Moko starts with 10 attack and has 5 Frenzy (meaning he will attack 5 times on his turn.) Additionally, when you hit him, he gains Spice, which makes his attack even stronger. His attack will almost certainly wipe out your entire team, so most decks will have to find a way to kill him before his turn comes around.note
- Uniqueness Rule: A fighter can have either Barragenote , Longshotnote , or Aimlessnote as their attack range instead of hitting the frontmost enemy, but not all of them at once. If they're affected by an enemy's ability that changes their range, such as Smog making every enemy Aimless, their original range is temporarily suppressed. Smackback, on the other hand, can also be any of the aforementioned ranges since as a Reaction ability, it makes the fighter only strike when they get hit.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: If your party's leader is killed in battle, your other companions will immediately flee and you lose the run.
