Deck of Haunts Unleashes Nightmares in Massive Friday the 13th Update

Mantis Games has launched the first major update to Deck of Haunts, the hauntingly strategic roguelike available exclusively on PC via Steam. Titled Nightmare, this terrifying new chapter, arrived on Friday, June 13th, 2025, and brings the game’s most intense content yet.

The standout feature is Nightmare Mode. It is a brutal challenge where players must survive 13 consecutive Nightmares. Each Nightmare spans 13 cursed nights, introducing new combinations of human traits and escalating modifiers that carry over into future rounds. This mode tests your deck-building and tactical skills to the limit. As you induce madness and collect souls, you’ll eventually gain the power to summon the Grim Reaper for an instant elimination. Completing all 13 Nightmares unlocks the Crypt Room, where the Reaper can assist in other game modes as well.

The update also adds new content, including cards like Corpse Explosion and Sleep Paralysis, plus a new achievement. Upon reaching XP level 12, players unlock the Trap Starter Deck, focused on ambushes and indirect scares. This deck provides new, strategic ways to torment overconfident adventurers.

Several quality-of-life tweaks round out the update such as new death animations, user interface improvements for traits like “Helpline,” and the addition of “Jason” to the pool of human names, in honor of Friday the 13th.

What We Can Expect

• Craft Your Deck of Haunts – Unlock and collect new cards as you progress through the game. Expand your arsenal with tools of terror like bone-chilling screams, phantom figures, creaking floors, and shifting walls. Use your cards strategically to scare, or kill, your victims and extract their essence.
• Build Your Mansion – Design your haunted house with care by placing rooms that protect your Heart Room which is the literal beating heart of your ghostly manor. Create a maze filled with traps, scares, and eerie surprises, all designed to confuse and terrify intruders. Special rooms with unique powers can further aid your hauntings.
• Sow Tension and Fear – As humans wander through your mansion, increase their stress by playing haunt cards directly on them or by casting effects on different rooms. Gradually push their sanity to the brink. When their fear hits its peak, unleash powerful haunts to drive them over the edge. Don’t let anyone escape.
• Harvest Essence – Once explorers succumb to madness, extract their essence to grow your mansion’s power. Use that essence to unlock new rooms, enhance your abilities, and draw even more daring (and dangerous) victims into your domain.
• Endless Mode – Unlock this mode after completing certain objectives. Here, you can test your haunting skills in an infinite nightmare with no end in sight.

My Thoughts

Mantis Games continues to build on what made Deck of Haunts so enjoyable: its creative use of horror mechanics, strategic deck building, and eerie personality. The new Nightmare Mode raises the stakes significantly and offers meaningful challenges for players looking to deepen their mastery. The Trap Deck, in particular, opens up a whole new strategic dimension, and small polish touches show that the developers are listening and evolving the experience. This update adds both depth and dark charm to an already gripping roguelike.

Read my review for Deck of Haunts here!

Check out the trailer for Nightmare Mode below!