BuildKit Brief — Gaming & Tech — August 24, 2026

Fan Art Competition Highlights #2

Our Fan Art competition, themed around the latest expansions in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, is in full swing! Check out the recent highlights below!

GGG Live on 27 August

On August 27 PDT, we’ll preview some new information about Path of Exile 2 and 0.5.5! Watch the livestream at 12:30 PM August 27 PDT at After that, we'll have a short Q&A session with Game Director Jonathan Rogers and ZiggyD, followed by the final ExileCon qualifier, so get ready!

Path of Exile 2 ExileCon Qualifier #3 Is Going On Now!

The ExileCon Path of Exile 2 Qualifier #3 is happening now! Who will join Jiluo and Giuygiuyg in the finale at ExileCon this November? Watch the action live at Co-streaming is welcome. Twitch Drops are now available for 24 hours, until 2 PM PDT on August 21.

Fan Art Competition Highlights #2

Our Fan Art competition, themed around the latest expansions in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, is in full swing! Check out the recent highlights below!

Path of Exile 1 Build Showcase: Spinning Magma Saboteur

If you like spicy, but spin-worthy builds, check out the Spinning Magma Saboteur build by Zurku351! It revolves around one thing though: a whole lot of magma! Using a combination of Cyclone, Cast While Channelling & Rolling Magma - start spinning, and let the magma do the rest!

Fan Art Competition Highlights

Last week, we started a Fan Art competition themed around the latest expansions in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, and we’ve already received many great submissions. Check out the highlights in this news post!

League check: Allflame is live

Current PoE1 challenge league: **Allflame**. Started Jul 24, 2026.

Counter-Strike 2 Update

Boulder Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes) Poseidon Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes) Fixed a case where player speed was too high when moving against walls.

• Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes)
• Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes)
• Fixed a case where player speed was too high when moving against walls.

Minor Update - 08-22-2026

- Radiant Regeneration: Heal on cast reduced from 70 to 65- Restorative Locket: Spirit Resistance reduced from 10% to 8%- Celeste: Dazzling Trick cooldown increased from 32s to 34s- Celeste: Dazzling Trick T2 barrier rescaled from "+80 and +0.7 scaling" to "+70 and +0.76"- Celeste: Dazzling Trick…

A single-minded new Deadlock update targets its teamfight-trashing unicorn

Valve's latest Deadlock update is a singularly focused adjustment for Celeste, with reduction to her early game power and an ultimate nerf. Read the full story on PCGamesN: A single-minded new Deadlock update targets its teamfight-trashing unicorn

Minor Update - 08-12-2026

- Apollo: Riposte melee resist reduction increased from -22% to -25% - Apollo: Riposte T2 changed from "-30% Melee Resist" to "-25% Melee Resist and +0.4s Stun Duration" - Apollo: Riposte T3 increased from 60% Lifesteal for 7s to 75% Lifesteal for 13s - Apollo: Fixed Itani Lo Sahn being canceled…

Beta Patch Notes - v0.111.0

Time for another beta patch! Heads up that there won't be a patch on the 27th as our team is taking a break in the last week of August.

• Nerfed Tezcatara's Brightest Flame card: max HP loss increased from 1 → 2
• Nerfed Nonupeipe's Beautiful Bracelet relic: now Enchants 4 random cards instead of allowing you to select the cards to Enchant
• Buffed Axebot:
• Hammer Uppercut move damage increased from 12(14) → 14(18)
• Now gains +10 Max HP each time it respawns
• The One-Two damage from 9(10)x2 → 10(11)x2

The Neowsletter - August 2026

Hi Slayers, the August Neowsletter is here! The team has been hard at work on new content but it'll be at least a month until any of it hits the beta branch. We'll be out of office during late August for our annual team break, so there won't be an August 27 patch.

Slay the Spire 2 updates are slowing down again, but don't fear, it's all in the name of more modes, an alternate Act 2, and a character with a bandaged foot

Slay the Spire 2 has been moving at a solid pace since it launched into early access back in March, but back in May developer Mega Crit shared that updates would be switching to once every two weeks as opposed to the previously promised weekly updates.

HOI IV Dev Corner | Romanian Crossroads

Greetings, generals! We are Alex, Norrman and Marijn211, modders of the game and now cooperating with Paradox, and today we’re showing you tidbits of a future DLC for… Romania!

HOI IV | Open Beta SE™ Update 2

Generals! Hello, I’m Pdxen, Tech Lead for Hearts of Iron and I want to welcome you to the second update of the Summer Open Beta. In this update we are changing the topic from balancing to updating the tech stack of the game. A lot has happened with computers since Hoi4 was released.

• Updated the threading libraries used in HoI4 to work better for some more modern hardware configurations
• Increased MP hardening to host operations such as kicking and banning players in MP
• Restored the balancing changes from the summer open beta.
• Front lines now split correctly again.
• Updated multiple parallel computations to better utilize the new threading library (performance gains).
• Fixed an OOS introduced when migrating to the new threading library.

HOI IV Dev Corner | Army Quality and Expertise

Hi everyone, Jamor here again. I want to thank you for good, informed feedback and suggestions in the previous airborne dev corner. I hope I can benefit from the community’s collective insight once more.

• What are the shortcomings of the current system of unit experience and casualty replenishment?
• How would you feel about a system where there were trade-offs between army size and quality?
• What would you like to see in a system intended to make the system more interesting and varied?