Late April Patch Guide: v0.103.2, v0.104.0, Doormaker Feedback, and How to Adapt

The update most players hit on April 17, 2026 is Major Update #1 - v0.103.2. It was officially posted by Mega Crit on April 16, 2026 on Steam, then reached most main-branch players on April 17. This was not one small patch. It was the live-branch rollout of the beta changes tested across v0.100.0, v0.101.0, v0.102.0, v0.103.0, and hotfix v0.103.1.

The most important follow-up in the last week is Beta Patch v0.104.0, published on April 24, 2026. It did not replace v0.103.2 on the main branch, but it shows where Mega Crit is steering the next balance pass: lower Ascensions are being softened gradually, high Ascensions are still intended to be a serious mastery target, and Doormaker is being monitored through in-game feedback, social media posts, and metrics rather than being immediately reworked.

v0.104.0 is less about one huge new system and more about the studio answering the last week of feedback. The headline is not just the individual card text. It is Mega Crit openly saying the base game is currently hard, that lower Ascensions are being made a little easier over time, and that high Ascension wins should remain rare, meaningful mastery goals.

Doormaker is the other key signal. The studio says its millions-of-runs data does not show Doormaker as harder than the other Act 3 bosses overall, but it also acknowledges that the mechanics may be too abrasive against some playstyles. That matches the player split: statistics may say the boss is within range, while players still hate how it can delete the logic of a draw-heavy, low-cost, or Souls-based deck.

If you only read the main update post, you miss the chronology. The beta cadence matters because several changes were introduced, partially reverted, and then reworked into their final live form. Borrowed Time is the clearest example: it was first nerfed, then reverted, then completely redesigned into a different type of energy card. The same is true, to a lesser extent, for map generation, Gloom/Inflation, the Doormaker fight, and how the team approached Silent balance.

Below is the practical reading order for the patch, from first experimental push to final live rollout.

The full list of meaningful gameplay changes is broader than the headline versions people repeat on day one. This patch changed system rules, map generation, shop economics, Neow opening states, multiple card pools, event costs and conditions, boss behavior, score logic, and even whether old runs survive cleanly after card deprecations.

The broad design trend is easy to miss if you fixate on one card or one boss. This patch makes the game more hostile to autopilot thin-decking, more willing to let bosses and elites dictate your draft, more explicit about gold as a balancing lever, and less tolerant of single-card glue pieces dominating an entire class. That is why so many players felt the game become both clearer and harsher at the same time.

In practical play, Ironclad and Regent are the clearest “relearn the patch with these first” recommendations. Ironclad gained survivability and cleaner overlap. Regent received enough broad buffs that his average run quality should rise, not just his high-rolls. Silent remains powerful, but fewer runs get to rely on free Acrobatics smoothing. Necrobinder is still dangerous, but the class asks for much more deliberate commitment because the old Borrowed Time heuristics are partially dead. Defect changed the least and therefore benefits indirectly from everyone else relearning their assumptions.

The fastest adaptation is not memorizing every number. It is changing what you respect. Respect shops more. Respect future bosses more. Respect gold planning more. Respect the possibility that a once-automatic card is no longer guaranteed to appear or no longer does the same strategic job it did last week.

Most losing habits from the pre-update environment are now easier to punish. Blindly forcing tiny decks is riskier. Over-trusting common smoothing tools is riskier. Treating Doormaker as just another damage race is riskier. Assuming A6 is mostly a route issue is wrong now. Entering a shop without a clear plan wastes more equity than before.

The positive reaction is not imaginary. A meaningful segment of experienced players likes the current direction because it punishes autopilot and asks decks to answer concrete bosses instead of goldfishing toward the same generic ideal. The April 24 Steam event comments are broadly warm toward the Neow’s Booming Conch and Neow’s Fury buffs, and several players were surprised but receptive when Mega Crit said Doormaker is statistically slightly weaker than the other Act 3 bosses.

There is also visible support for the broader difficulty stance. Some players argue that Ascension should be allowed to stay punishing at the top end and that the right fix is a smoother lower-Ascension ramp, not making A10 easy. On Reddit, one recurring pro-Doormaker argument is that the fight finally checks infinite and tiny-cycle habits in a way that asks players to build more robust decks.

The backlash is also real, and it is not limited to people who simply dislike difficulty. The sharpest criticism still focuses on Doormaker. Players who dislike the fight usually do not claim it is mathematically unbeatable; they claim it is emotionally and strategically abrasive because Hunger, Scrutiny, and Grasp can make normal deck plans feel illegal. Untapped.gg’s community roundup captured the split well: some players call the new fight engaging, while others call it RNG-heavy, overtuned, or boring during the locked-down phases.

The April 24 Steam comments and follow-up discussion threads add two more complaints. First, some players distrust the “millions of runs” argument because the meta has already adapted around Doormaker, which can distort raw win-rate comparisons. Second, some card and relic changes are read as anti-infinite collateral damage. The Conflagration rework, Tezcatara’s Nutritious Soup, high card-removal costs, and Silent’s Acrobatics rarity all remain common friction points.

The review fallout after the April 17 live rollout remains part of the current conversation. Steam review tracking and games press coverage both noted that sentiment dropped sharply after the patch, especially among players who felt the beta changes reached the main branch before the most painful feedback had been resolved. The negative reviews are not all saying the same thing, but the repeated themes are consistent: Doormaker, difficulty ramp, balance whiplash, and frustration with feeling forced into thicker or less elegant decks.

Chinese-language sentiment is especially sensitive to the beta-to-live pipeline. The dominant complaint is not simply “the game is too hard.” It is closer to: feedback was visible during beta, the final live version still felt hostile to common play patterns, and official communication leaned heavily on data after players had already formed a strong negative feel around specific mechanics. That makes the April 24 v0.104.0 note important, because it directly acknowledges the baseline difficulty problem and explains why Doormaker is being watched instead of instantly nerfed.

For guide writing, the useful conclusion is to separate emotion from action. The sentiment problem is real, so guides should not tell players to “just get good.” But the current beta direction also shows that Mega Crit is not trying to erase every hard check. Until the next live patch lands, your practical response should be to draft with Doormaker in mind, budget gold more deliberately, and avoid building decks that only work when the boss lets you cycle freely.

This is a high-impact patch, and the polarized reaction makes sense. Mega Crit’s own explanation is that balancing will continue to be iterative, feedback-driven, and non-linear through Early Access. From the official notes and the first wave of community reaction, the cleanest conclusion is this: v0.103.2 is not trying to make every strategy equally easy. It is trying to make drafting, routing, and boss recognition matter more than they did a month ago.

If you liked the old environment because it let you standardize thin decks and rely on a few premium glue cards, this patch probably feels worse. If you wanted runs to ask harder structural questions and punish laziness more aggressively, this patch probably feels better. Either way, if you are writing or reading guides for the current live branch, you need to treat April 17, 2026 as a real dividing line.