Released 2026-07-30. Everything in the change table below is quoted from the official patch notes — see the developer announcement. The "what it means" column is our reading, not theirs.
The developers state plainly that infinite stacking was a design mistake: every bullet is calculated independently and most triggers had no hard limits, which produced crashes, stutter, and lost saves. This round caps the worst offenders rather than removing them.
What changed
| Item | Change | What it means for your build |
|---|---|---|
| The Devil / Reversed Devil Capped | Triggers at most 100 times per stage. | Any Embarkation loop that was multiplying Devil triggers. The loop still works — it now has a ceiling. |
| The Fool · Reversed Capped | Triggers at most 10 times per stage. | Jenny's dismantle economy, which used Reversed Fool to re-fire Embarkation relics. Ten per stage is a real limit; plan the dismantles you spend it on. |
| All Ultimates Capped | Now have a 1-second cast cooldown. | Infinite-Ultimate builds specifically. Normal Ultimate usage is unaffected. |
| War Horn Reworked | Before: Embarkation: After entering combat, Fire Rate and Reload Speed +45% for 20 seconds. Embarkation: Permanent 5% increase to maximum bullet attack damage. | This is a category change, not a number change. War Horn is no longer a burst uptime relic — if you were taking it for Fire Rate, that reason is gone. Forged version: +100% burst became a permanent 12%. |
| Executioner's Axe Buffed | Before: Embarkation: Physical Damage permanently +3%. Embarkation: Physical Damage permanently +6%. | Physical routes. Forged version went from +8% to +15%. |
| Ripper Blade Reworked | Before: On triggering [Hemorrhage]: Reduces all Resistances of the target by 2%, stacks infinitely. On triggering [Hemorrhage]: Increases your Physical Damage by 5%, stacks infinitely until the end of combat. | Physical and Hemorrhage routes. The stat moved from debuffing the target to buffing you, and now resets each combat. Forged version gives 12%. |
| Book of Pilgrimage Reworked | On Ultimate: Unleashes Blood Curse on the nearest enemy for 600% Physical Damage. After Blood Curse deals damage, triggers all of your Embarkation effects. (Unique Passive) | Ultimate-driven Embarkation routes. Now a Unique Passive, so duplicates no longer stack. |
| Eye of Deep Winter Reworked | On Ultimate: Launches 1 Giant Glacier at the nearest enemy for 600% Frost Damage. After it deals damage, triggers all of your [Destination] effects. (Unique Passive) | Frost and Destination routes. Also now a Unique Passive. |
| Five-Color Crystal and Five-Color Supreme Ring Reworked | Transmutation Damage increased; effects changed to Unique Passive. | Stated reason: multiple Supreme Rings could trigger each other into infinite recursion. Higher single-copy value, no more stacking. |
| World Stone Reworked | Hidden effect: when you have [Tarot Card · The World], World Stone triggers 1 additional time. | The World routes. |
Builds we still recommend after this patch
- Marcus Extra-Shot Crit — Unaffected by the caps. Note that War Horn is no longer the way to buy Fire Rate — take it for the permanent Bullet Attack instead.
- Long Tong Amber companion — No direct changes. Element commitment matters as much as before.
- Jenny dismantle economy — Still works, but Reversed Fool is now capped at 10 triggers per stage — the loop rewards planning rather than volume.
What we are not calling yet
These are open questions after this patch. We would rather list them than publish a confident answer we cannot support — the game ships no damage-testing dummy, so nobody is measuring these changes in public yet.
- Whether War Horn's permanent Bullet Attack still stacks when Embarkation effects are re-triggered. The relic changed category, so the old interaction assumption may not hold.
- Whether Ripper Blade's per-combat reset makes it worse than the old permanent resistance shred in long boss fights.
- Any build that was relying on duplicate Five-Color Supreme Rings, which no longer stack.
How to use this page
If a build guide anywhere — including ours — does not name the patch it was written for, it is not telling you enough to act on. Updates have been shipping every few days. Check the version stamp, then check whether anything your damage loop depends on appears in the table above.
Test a revised loadout in the build planner, which scores synergy and flags conflicts, or start from the current best build blueprints. All patch reviews are listed on the patch index.