- Wielders and Updates - 17 September 2026
Greetings Wielders! It’s time to raise our lanterns and shed some light on what we’ve been up to! As we wrote in our last Steam post, we’re multitasking, and right now we’re in that beautiful place in any project where you really start to see the changes taking shape. Except for us, it’s happening all over the place!This post will mainly be about Songs of Conquest, of course, but there is some news from the swamp that I just have to brag about. And since we’re doing so much, there is no way I can comprehensively tell you everything, so I’m going to pick some favorites and just get to it.First of all, there is a major update to Songs of Conquest coming soon. Some of you have already been testing it, giving us awesome feedback and helping us make the update as good as it can possibly be. And if you don’t want to wait, you can join in and help us test it too, first step is checking out the…
- We're back! - 7 August 2026
Greetings Wielders!Lavapotion is back from our summer adventures. Alright, to be fair, around half of us are not, since not everyone took the same weeks off, but still, we’re back! Some of us went swimming, others fought battles with foam swords, but back at the office things have started off nicely. Everyone played some Songs of Conquest, we went through the bug reports from the weeks we were away, and did some initial planning for the months ahead. Now, I won’t give you a new roadmap or anything just yet. I’m being intentionally vague, but not for mysterious reasons. We simply don’t want to promise things and then not deliver on them. But there is still plenty of news and things to share!First things first, we’re not announcing any big DLCs. We’ve got plenty of things we want to do with what we already have, and our resources are limited. We only have so many hands to write code with,…
- Summer Update - 23 June 2026
Greetings Wielders!It’s that time of year again. The Lavapotion office is closing for the Swedish summer vacation, and all the nerds are heading off to enjoy nights where the sun never sets, along with some well-earned time with family and friends. But don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it. Assuming, of course, that by “before you know it” you mean the beginning of August.It’s been a hectic first half of 2026. We’ve released both Rise Eternal and Yulan on PC and consoles, worked on our upcoming game Wielders of the Essence, fixed bugs, made improvements, and dealt with everything else that comes with making games. Want to check out another Lavapotion game with some familiar characters, well look no further than Wielders of the Essence! So what’s next for Lavapotion and Songs of Conquest?There are exciting things happening behind the scenes, but they’re not quite ready to be show…
- Hotfix 1.10.4 - 16 June 2026
Fixed Silken Robe spell damage power bonus not being applied Maps Good Neighbours, Bad Neighbours and The Ancient Valley may now be played using any faction Updated PVP Battle Only map to support all of Yulan’s variant buildings Removed invisible blocker in Besieged Borders map Added content to first Yulan campaign map if is found before interacting with Removed an unreachable resource from second Yulan campaign map Fixed issue in third Yulan campaign map where you could get control of before attacked, preventing completion of map Fixed other minor issues on third Yulan campaign map such as fixing ugly farmlands and preventing wielders from spawning with the same artifacts a second time Fixed regression in attack/hit animation timings Fixed Fenghuang becoming invisible after landing Fixed Fenghuang having a single hex of Zone of Control in the corner of the battlefield while off-screen…
- An update about Wielders of the Essence - 8 June 2026
Hello Wielders, First of all: Thanks for the amazing reception to the launch of the Yulan DLC. The team is super happy about the response! Secondly: This is an update about our side-project - The incremental base building bullet heaven game called Wielders of the Essence!The game will be released on November 5th, 2026. To make it official, we premiered a brand new trailer at the PC Gaming Show. Give it a watch, and let us know what you think!Incidentally Steam Bullet Fest has now started, and we’ve used it to ship our largest demo update so far. If you haven't played the demo before (or in a while) this is a great time to try it. It's free, and it's live right now! What's new this time? Tons of things, but in order of the top of my mind: Enemies now spawn in a way that gives you more room to maneuver around them. Slightly less grind than the old demo. We've added more bosses, a new leve…
- Yulan DLC out now! - 4 June 2026
Greetings Wielders! The time has finally come. After months of teasers, devlogs, balancing, testing, polishing and more cups of coffee than anyone should reasonably consume, Yulan is now available for Songs of Conquest! Yulan is our largest faction expansion so far and one that has been long in the making. The idea has been around ever since we first started discussing factions for Songs of Conquest almost 10 years ago. Built around three ancient houses, shifting loyalties and the careful choice between Order, Arcana and Creation, Yulan brings something entirely new to the game. And we are incredibly proud of it. With Yulan, we wanted to create something that felt different not only visually, but mechanically as well, just like we have tried to do with all of our new factions. The Essence you favour changes your buildings, your units and how your armies play. Combined with multiple upgr…
- Hype for Yulan - 29 May 2026
Greetings Wielders!We are now less than a week away from the release of Yulan, our upcoming faction DLC. After all the work that has gone into it, it’s nearly surreal- not really, but close. So today I thought we would keep things simple and show off some new screenshots from the faction and its campaign. Is it because we are still very much busy working, so I don't have time to write something more in-depth? Sure, it is, but screenshots are a good excuse, and I want to show them off. I mean, it just works as a famous man said Over the past months I've talked a lot about mechanics, Essence choices, units and maps, but sometimes pictures do a better job than text. Yulan has been a big project for us and we’ve put a lot of effort into making the faction feel different both visually and mechanically.Depending on your chosen Essence, buildings change appearance, armies develop in different…
- Our new Campaign - 23 May 2026
Greetings Wielders! As summer approaches with alarming speed, even here in our cold corner of the world, so does the release of Yulan, our upcoming Faction DLC. June 4th is getting very close, and that also means more devlogs.Our playtesters are burning through the campaign maps, edits are being made thanks to their feedback, and internally we are still polishing effects, adding final animations, and making sure the faction is at least somewhat balanced before release. But this post is not really about progress. Or well, not in those vague terms at least. It’s about the campaign.One of the main pieces of feedback after Vanir and Roots was that many of you wanted more connected story maps, and with Yulan we are delivering exactly that. Fine, our in-house bard will not perform a tavern song about your exploits this time, so technically we are not calling it a Song, but with three connecte…
- The Units of Yulan - 15 May 2026
Greetings WieldersAnother week and another Yulan Devlog. I told you I’d be giving you more of these as we got closer to release, and who am I to go against something like that?This one will be less talking and more showing off, as we are wrapping up unit animations. It is one of the more time-consuming tasks for our artists, and Yulan has been no different. Still, it gives us an excellent excuse to talk a bit more about some of the units that will help you defeat your enemies in the upcoming battles. And those battles are less than a month away!Wishlist Yulan to get be one step ahead of your competition!Getting to this stage is quite the process, as I’m sure you understand. Things move from sketch, to concept art, to finished unit, and every step helps make the final animation better. We’re extremely proud of the results, they really make the battlefield feel alive. Well, as alive as pi…
- Yulan releases June 4 - 8 May 2026
Greetings Wielders We have been showing a lot of Yulan lately, and there is a great reason for that. We’ve settled on a release date for our upcoming Faction DLC: June 4th, less than a month away! Soon you’ll be able to get your hands on Yulan and all its Essence-wielding powers, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what you do with them. Wishlist Yulan, the release is soon upon us! This final month is dedicated to playtesting. Not only the faction itself, making sure all those new units feel right, but also the three-map Yulan campaign. Our testers will be the first to uncover the secrets kept by the three Houses of Yulan, but don’t worry, your turn is coming soon enough.With the release date comes another reveal. Our artists have just finished the new key art, showing two of House Sheng’s Wielders: Shun and Yubo the Howler. Two very different personalities serving the same House…
- The Houses of Yulan - 30 April 2026
Greetings Wielders It’s time to look west. Or at least west of the islands of Arleon, and take another look at Yulan, our upcoming faction. We’ve been busy building things, and from now until release, there will be more regular updates coming your way. Have you wishlisted? You should, that bearded guy with a bow wants you to! So what is this devlog about? We usually stick to a theme. This one is a bit broader, but we’ll spend some extra time on a few areas.The Yulan campaign, for example, is well into its copy stage, which means gathering dialogue and lore for translation. We’ll also use this devlog to introduce a few more Wielders, or Seekers as they are called in Yulan, and take a closer look at their respective Houses.And since I can’t help myself, there will be more pixel art.So this one has a bit of everything. It's a very passionate bunch The Houses of Yulan are tied to different…
- The Art of Yulan - 20 March 2026
Greetings Wielders We are hard at work with Yulan, and while some of us focus on the story part of our faction DLC, building campaign maps and shaping the lore and stories, others are working on that all-important art. This Steam post is mostly about that. We’ll give you a look at the work so far, showing both finished pieces and a ton of concept art.But before that, we want to thank you. We’re a couple of weeks past the release of Rise Eternal, and your feedback, your praise, and your bug reports all mean a lot to us. It’s been great reading your war stories and seeing your experiences with Kastus Maal and his Tale.But as we said, this post is about the art of Yulan. It has been a lot of work for the art team to figure out how Yulan should look and be represented in our world. Challenging work, but very enjoyable. There is plenty of inspiration out there, and that’s always valuable, bu…
- Hotfix 1.9.3 - 18 March 2026
Fixed issue where the follow Roderick quest could be skipped on the first map in Rise Eternal on Overwhelming difficulty Fixed issue with fourth map in Rise Eternal where progression could become impossible by AI wielders killing each other Should now be impossible to defeat Giandra with Kastus in first map in Rise Eternal Trying to invade the Faey settlements near the end of the first map in Rise Eternal should result in certain death Added some missing translations for Call The Faithful skill
- Hotfix 1.9.2 - 12 March 2026
Added missing translations Added minimap markers for the restoration of Grey Tor objectives on fourth map in Rise Eternal The AI of the fourth map in Rise Eternal will be more aggressive if player tries to stall or doesn't follow the main objectives Fixed multiple issues with objectives not updating correctly on the fourth map of Rise Eternal Added som prettifying for triggers on third map of Rise Eternal that previously only existed for the Worthy version Removed wrongly placed map entity on second map of Rise Eternal Fixed unreachable Monastery in Shared Goals map Fixed bugs with and simplified process around selecting victory conditions when setting up a random map Tweaked when "Restoration of Grey Tor" achievement unlocks for better dramatic timing
- Hotfix 1.9.1 - 6 March 2026
Fixed potential "soft lock" on first Rise Eternal maps where it was possible to miss important triggers Fixed issue where it was possible to have important wielder being removed from second Rise Eternal map making progression impossible Fixed issue where it was possible to avoid on third Rise Eternal map Fixed exceptions after final battle on fourth Rise Eternal map if winning with a different wielder than Kastus Fixed exceptions caused by gaining Risen from a map's final battle Prevent getting Kastus as random starting wielder if not owning the Rise Eternal DLC
- Rise Eternal out now! - 5 March 2026
Greetings Wielders, Today is a good day. At least if you enjoy stories, old grudges, and more undead than is probably healthy. Rise Eternal, our latest Tale DLC, is now live. You’ve been asking for more story-driven content for Songs of Conquest. This is exactly that. A new Wielder. New research. New buildings. New artifacts and skills. All centered around the undead side of the Barony of Loth. You step into the rotten boot of Kastus Maal, a former researcher of the Unseen Society. You have actually met him before. He was one of the Necromancers serving under Grand Seneschal Wiesh during the battle of Grey Tor at the end of the Arleon campaign map 4. He died there; in fact, you killed him. But that apparently didn’t stop him from returning to serve. Rise Eternal starts with Kastus digging himself out of his own grave and returning home to find Faey forces under Stoutheart banners occupy…
- Wielders Demo is live! - 23 February 2026
Greetings Wielders What’s this? Another Steam post about something other than your favorite HoMage? Well, yes. But to be fair, this is pretty cool news, and in many ways it is connected.By now, you probably know that we’ve been developing a separate, smaller project on the side. Something a lot different from, for example, our work on the Yulan DLC. Something that is still very much a work in progress.With Steam Next Fest coming up, we saw an opportunity we didn’t want to miss. So we decided to show you what we’ve been working on in the most straightforward way possible. A demo.Defend the swamp and Wield the Essence (demo-style) Wielders of the Essence started as a bullet-hell survivor experiment. A bit of a palette cleanser for us, and a chance to explore what else we could do with our rather extensive collection of awesome pixel art. As development went on, we kept changing things, ba…
- The Dead Rise March 5 - 20 February 2026
Greetings Wielders Today’s Steam post is all about Kastus Maal, an idea we had years ago that has finally clawed his way out of the grave, quite literally, in this case. We started working on his Tale back in 2024, but had to bury it again for some less exciting real-life reasons. With a new plan in place and the success of our Faction DLCs behind us, we were finally able to exhume it properly. And with over 40k wishlists for Rise Eternal, how could we let it rest? So for those of you who haven’t yet stepped into Songs of Conquest, this might be the perfect time to answer the call.Join the hordes, wishlist Rise Eternal! Now it’s just a few more bricks to lay on that pixelated mausoleum before it's done. Or, to put it more plainly: Rise Eternal releases on March 5th. And that date is coming ever closer, a little less than two weeks as we release this. Our testers are currently playing th…
- Wielders demo out next week - 18 February 2026
Greetings Wielders!A few months ago we shared that a small team at Lavapotion had been working on something new: Wielders of the Essence, a fast-paced survivors-like set in a familiar world. Some of you wishlisted it. Some of you raised an eyebrow. Either way, we have an update! Wielders has changed quite a bit since then. And there will be a playable demo launching February 23rd during Steam Next Fest.When we first revealed Wielders, it was a fairly straightforward survivors-like. It worked, and it was fun, but in a genre with a lot of strong competition it felt like it needed something more. So we started experimenting, looking at ways to give each run a bit more long-term weight. That led us to introduce incremental progression.The structure now revolves around shorter runs where every attempt, win or lose, gives you resources. Those resources are used to develop your town, unlocking…
- Tales of Yulan - 12 February 2026
Greetings Wielders! It’s time for the very first Yulan Devlog, where we take the time to dive just a little bit deeper into one aspect of our new faction, and this time we’ve chosen the Tale. This has been one of the major points of feedback after we released our earlier Faction DLCs. We’ve received a lot of love for our shorter Tales, like the one about Root’s Grow or our favorite sad Vanir troll, Sorg. And even if you’ve enjoyed these story-focused missions, especially after we added different difficulties, many of you have still been missing something more connected. A series of missions tied together by a continuous storyline, where you follow the same thread from start to finish. With the Yulan Tale, that is exactly what you’re getting. Wishlist Yulan now, that support really helps! Three connected maps, following the Wielders of one of the three families, letting you learn more ab…
