Here’s an interesting tidbit that may come as a surprise: Nintendo Pictures worked on the PS5 title Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. That information comes from the game’s credits. You may have forgotten about Nintendo Pictures, which was officially established in 2022. The group was formed after Nintendo acquired the visual content company Dynamo Pictures. The original announcement mentioned…
Updated on 20.6.2025. Added new species and changed order of existing ones on the tier list.
When you create your first character in Rune Slayer, you will automatically be given a random race. While you can’t change this race (without paying Robux), it’s still important to know what each race is good or bad at. To help you decide if you need to reroll, here is our Rune Slayer Race Tier list.
Before we begin, we want to make one thing clear: Races don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Even if you pull the worst race on this list, you can still play any class and be just as effective as someone who got the best race. Races are mostly for those who want to mid-max or those who want to look different. So, unless you are after a specific race or just want to look cooler, don’t stress too much over with race you get.
Dullahans are undead creatures with the power to leech life and reap souls. Their build makes them very resilient to attacks (just like a Half-Golems), while their passive and active abilities let them heal when killing enemies. They also have a chance of summoning a spectral Grim Reaper scythe, which tears down enemies.
2%
Infernim
HellBorn Passive Wall Climb Passive +10% Fire Resistance +1 Luck -5% Holy Resistance Additional passives based on the number of horns
Infernals are so powerful and evil that you won’t be able to join the Holy Sect. With their passives, they can summon Hellfire no matter which class they play. Depening on how many horns they have, they also get additional bonuses like extra Speed or even a better Fire Attack.
1%
A-Tier
Race name
Stats
Info
Chance to roll
Bunny
Bunny Dash Bunny Jump Carrot Summoning
As a Bunny you can dash further and jump higher. These already make you better than other races and will help you win fights. The Carrot Summoning is nice, but you shouldn’t rely on it, unless you have no other choice.
4,41%
Seraphim
-5% Fire Resistance +10% Holy Resistance +1 Luck Additional passives based on the number of wings
As a creature of pure good, you have more luck, and become unable to join the Demon Sect. You also get a passive based on the number of wings you have. Unfortunately, that’s where it becomes clear that Seraphim justn’t aren’t as good as the Infernim. You don’t get any cool attacks, you can’t fly, you just have a bit more luck, and wings that look cool.
1%
Ailuran
+8% Speed Boost +10% Fire Resistance +25% Cold and Heat Resistance +25% Jump Height +15% Fall Damage Reduction
Obviously, we had to put the Ailuran here because of their cute cat ears. Kidding aside, Ailuran move faster and jump higher than any other race in this game. This alone gives them a huge advantage when it comes to exploration and getting out of trouble quickly.
7,143%
Vampire
-15% on all stats during the day +20% on all stats during the Night You take 5% more damage from Holy attacks +1 Extra Luck You heal if you take bleed damage You heal 50% of your health if you cause bleed damage to your opponent
Vampires are cool, and you can even become one without rerolling your race, however, they are only cool during the night, and it’s not always night in Rune Slayer. If you can live with this, you’re going to love being a Vampire.
Chiroptrans are interesting. They are like demons, but not really. They attack with Holy magic but can also bite like vampires. Regardless, they look cool and they are a fun and useful race to play as.
7,143%
Slime
-7,5% Magic Resistance -7,5% Fire Resistance +25% Immunity
At first, slimes don’t seem that special. They are weak to magic and fire, and they don’t have any special defensive stats. However, when struck, Slime players can spawn smaller Slimes to fight for them, and can use a part of themselves to hit an opponent (works in a pinch). As a bonus, Slimes are super immune to status ailments.
5,294%
Half Golem
-5% Movement Speed +5% Damage Reduction +10 Maximum Weight +25% Robustness
As you can imagine, Half Golems are extremely resilient. They also take a bit less damage and can carry more items. The caveat is that they move a bit slower than all other races.
5,294%
Amphibu
Swim Boost 35 Additional Race passives
At first, the Amphibu may seem useless with their Swim Speed, but once you unlock their Racial passives, they become a lot more reliable. The racial passives can give them things like higher jump, a speed boost, and even a small attack buff. You are also free to pick which one you want.
10,714%
C-Tier
Race name
Stats
Info
Chance to roll
Ghoul
+5% Magic Attack Ghoulish Gall ability Additional Racial boosts
As a Ghoul you can attack better with Magic Attacks and you have a sneak attack, called Ghoulish Gall which can give you a jump start in a fight. You also get one of three Racial Upgrades which can give you a few minor stat boosts.
14,25%
Human
When under 50% Health, gain: +15% Damage Increase +15% Damage Reduction
Humans have the ability to gain an increase in their damage output and take reduced damage if they have less than half a health bar. Otherwise, Humans can manage their hunger better than other classes and gain Focus and Mana efficiency as they level up.
14,25%
Elf
+3% Speed +10% Cooldown Reduction +10% Stealth
Elves are nimble and elegant. While not the strongest for a tanky role, they make fantastic archers and great spellcasters. As they level, they also get extra Mana and Focus.
14,25%
Orc
+10% Health Regen +15% Max Hunger +20% Heat Resistance
Orcs are made for battle. Their health regenerates faster, they are more resistant to heat, and they are generally suited for heavy armor and melee weapons. The tradeoff is they need to eat more than other races.
14,25%
How to race reroll in Rune Slayer
When you log into Rune Slayer for the first time, you’ll be assigned one of the seven available races at random. If you aren’t happy with the race you’ve been given, you can buy a Race Reroll for 150 Robux. If you’re after a specific race, such as the Dullahan, make sure you have enough Robux for a bunch of Race Rerolls because it’s going to take a while.
As of writing this, there is no way to reroll a race after creating a character. You have to do it from the character creator.
That’s all there is to it. Again, unless you’re trying to mid-max, remember you can get by with any race you pull. If you’re wondering which class you should pick to go with your race, check out our The Ultimate Rune Slayer Class Tier List.
In this week’s exciting new episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off with a lengthy discussion about Eli’s new toy: A fancy 3D printers. Yes, he bought one, just like I predicted he would last week! I then relay the awkward discussion I had with my young kids trying to explain what payphones were. Man, I feel old. We also hit on some recent Apple Arcade news and then finish up talking about the sad state of affairs that is the streaming industry. Is going back to buying physical DVDs the answer? All that and more in this week’s show.
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to [email protected]. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
Introduction by Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Game Developer, Fred Schachter: When ACME Designers Chris & Mark, as well as myself, first read in BGG James Lowry’s entertaining ACME Game After Action Report, we thought “Wow, wouldn’t this, with a bit of editing, be grand to share with InsideGMT’s audience?!?” and so this article came to be.
Hopefully, readers will enjoy the Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East gaming experiences of James and his three fellow ACME adventurers as they seek victory to become “The King of the Fertile Crescent”. What’s remarkable is that this was their first time playing the game! James has a wonderful blog covering gaming as well as a range of other topics of interest to gamers, so if you enjoy his ACME presentation, there’s more, much more, available at: www.rindis.com/blog
Back on the 25th of May (the day before Memorial Day), I had some people over to my home for FtF gaming. Patch was originally scheduled to attend so we could have a five-player game, but he couldn’t make it, thereby leaving me, Dave, Mark, and Jason to learn the rules for a four-player game of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East.
It has been a while, but our group has played its brother game, Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea a few times and enjoyed it, so I figured this would be easy for us to get into. I panicked when I looked at the rules before everyone arrived that morning and realized I didn’t remember nearly as much as I thought I did. But once we were looking at the actual game spread out on the table, everything started coming back. Short of the new rules, we just needed to go through the details of conflict (again) and follow the sequence of play on the aid cards.
Mark and I had gone over the ACME Playbook ahead of time, and we decided upon the “Cyrus the Great” scenario as the only historical four-player scenario utilizing the full map. In hindsight, a more compact scenario would have been better, as we needed a bit of the board to save table space; notably my smallish table held the main board and our supplies of tokens fine enough, but we didn’t have a good place for the cards of available deities. The random draws for civilizations gave me the bullseye—I mean Babylon.
The scenario’s other civilizations use the game’s standard, somewhat compact, setups, but this scenario’s special rules grant Babylon the entire Fertile Crescent at the start of the game. The real changes in ACME from its ACIS predecessor are the terrain rules, and the game board’s green fertile areas are powerful, as instead of only growing with two-disk settlements, you can just have single disk camps and grow, or, best of all, have three disk cities to get VPs and growth disks.
With that setup, my initial growth was phenomenal, and only stalled later for a single turn, when a horde of barbarians came storming out of the deserts which kept me from having control of a bunch of fertile areas. After that, they were largely cleared out and my growth resumed to put me back from a poor board position to max out the number of disks in use. (Each civilization has fifty disks available for board position and growth, which then get sent back to stock by events played against you and competition. It’s very much like the stock in Tresham’s classic Civilization board game.)
Mark had the Medes & Persians to Babylon’s east and was a constant thorn in my side (as he should be). But I didn’t have a lot of other troubles, so while he got more powerful as the game went on, he could never really challenge me in the Fertile Crescent for longer than a turn at a time but progressively took control of areas just east of there. He also refused to join in on the initial rush to acquire a deity, so he didn’t get VPs that way, and at the end of Epoch III (which the scenario starts in), he was trailing well behind in points.
Dave had the Lydian Kingdom of the board’s northwest, and Jason Egypt, safely tucked in the board’s southeast with the Nile—the board’s other fertile area (but only five areas to the Tigris and Euphrates’ thirteen). To my relief, the two of them largely focused on each other, partially powered by Dave’s aggressively sea-oriented offensive strategy as he strove to gain a foothold on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. I was more focused on pure growth and managing my frontiers at first, so Dave also took a lead in cities, followed closely by Jason, and I slipped into third place in VPs.
We broke for a late-ish lunch at the end of Epoch III, and Epoch IV saw the earlier conflicts come into ever-sharper focus. Mark was getting his act together and caught up to me in points (fueled by that bad turn with the barbarian invasion), and he started catching up to the other Civilizations as well. I swept away the Fertile Crescent’s barbarian invaders and concentrated on cities (and growth!) for a revival during the game’s last two turns that put me near the VP lead again, but I didn’t quite catch up to my rivals.
Both Epochs ended after three turns (it varies from two to four), and IV concluded with a Lydian (Dave -Blue disks) win with 36 VPs, followed by Egypt (Jason – Green Disks) at 34, Babylon (me – Light Colored Tan Disks) at 33, and the Medes & Persians (Mark – Red Disks) at 27 VP.
Presumably, a fourth turn could have favored me for a win, but the VP gain caused by twelve cities caught everyone’s attention, and with the borders of Egypt and the Lydians now truly at my doorstep in the west, I was looking at a lot of negative attention at that point. (On the other hand, you can see in the photo below that Dave was still dealing with the aftermath of two rounds of barbarians.) I had actually gambled on this turn to build as many cities as I could (and since my cities could generate growth and VPs it’s not the serious decision it is for everyone else) to get back in the lead. Sadly, I didn’t quite make it, and didn’t have the extra turn to carry the momentum forward.
I think I like the long, skinny map set up of ACIS better, and I don’t see enough difference between the wonder and deity mechanics for it to matter all that much save that an ACME civilization can have but a single deity. But the terrain mechanics (including desert and mountain, which are also important) really make ACME the better game in my view.
Certainly, all of us have enjoyed both “brothers”, ACIS and Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East, and they will see the table again. ACME has a wealth of scenarios and seventeen different civilizations, each with their own unique abilities (we didn’t leverage ours very well; too busy getting used to the flow of the game), and options for putting together any mix of them in non-historic scenarios. We’re really still just in the wading section of this game. Thanks for this gem of a game GMT!
Our Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s gameboard at the end of Epoch IV’s Turn 3. Note how red, the Medes & Persians, had established a city in the Fertile Crescent next to my homeland (the big tan square block). This was his third, and most successful, incursion into fertile terrain, and I’d been too busy to push him out. A theoretical turn four would have turned into a big fight in there. We’d had comparatively few barbarians this game, but two turns of them in Anatolia had taken a severe toll on blue’s, Lydian home, which had been full of cities for almost all of Epoch III. Perhaps the most surprising board position is the VP markers. Nine VPs from first to last isn’t much, and I was surprised at how much the “pack” stayed together for the entire game.
Welcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the hows and whys of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, as well as discuss game history, game design and game players.
We post a new Ludology episode every other week. In these episodes, hosts Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim deep-dive into a single topic within game design, often with a well-regarded guest from the game industry. We generally focus on tabletop game design (mainly board games and RPGs), but we often pull in experts from all forms of games, from video games to escape rooms to slot machines.
On weeks where there is no flagship Ludology episode, we will alternate between two smaller mini-sodes. Erica and Sen are happy to announce that Sarah Shipp of Shippboard Games and Stephanie Campbell of TTRPGKids will be joining us for the next year, providing additional content between our longer episodes.
Sarah’s segment, Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, is a monthly feature that dives deeper into the other aspects of games beyond the dice and cards we’re all familiar with.
Stephanie’s segment, TTRPGKids, explores how parents and teachers can use role playing games with children in the home and in the classroom.
We hope you enjoy the additional content!
Our History
We aim for most Ludology episodes to be timeless, so you are welcome to explore our entire catalog. Most of it should age quite well. The podcast was started in 2011 by Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm, with Mike Fitzgerald taking over for Ryan in 2015. Gil and Scott joined the show in 2017 when Mike stepped aside, and Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff ended his tenure as host. Emma left in 2021, and Erica and Sen joined us. Since then, Scott stepped down in 2022 and Gil will be hanging up his mic in 2023, leaving Erica and Sen to carry on this amazing legacy.
Erica and Sen are working to bring new voices to Ludology and have some great things to announce as gaming expands to include even more people!
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In a Commander game, if my commander would be exiled, I can put it in the command zone instead. And Release to the Wind has the effect
Exile target nonland permanent. For as long as that card remains exiled, its owner may cast it without paying its mana cost.
So, if that spell hits my commander, and I choose to put it into the command zone instead of exile, then if I later cast it without paying its mana cost, do I still have to pay the commander tax?
In this week’s TouchArcade Show we’re all over the map, as usual. We kick things off with my experience going on the Polar Express train ride thing, as well as my experience rewatching the Polar Express movie for the first time in 20 years. We then dip into some Apple Vision Pro discussion, and Eli tips me off on a very cool pair of AR glasses called the Even G1. This leads into some Apple Intelligence talk, as I have only just now upgraded my Mac and signed up to enable the Apple Intelligence stuff on my Apple devices. I’m living on the cutting edge over here! We then jump into a couple of reader emails before talking about an actual video game for once; in this case it’s Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Switch. All that and more!
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
When Mario Kart World was teased during the Nintendo Switch 2, in the brief and beautiful moments before we knew what the Switch 2 would cost, the internet immediately glommed onto one specific detail: Cow. You could play as a Cow.
Now that the game’s out, the glory of Cow—and other delightfully absurd additions like Penguin, Snowman, and my personal favorite, Cheep Cheep—is everything we believed possible. Well … almost everything. Because another one of Mario Kart World‘s new conceits is a new item, a bag of take-out food which transforms the driver into a new costume. Imagine me, during my first Mario Kart World Grand Prix. I’m obviously driving as the Cow. I pick up a glowing doggy bag from Yoshi’s, and … nothing.
Turns out, all the “creature” characters—like Cow, Penguin, Snowman, Goomba, even Dry Bones—don’t get costumes. And even among the main cast who gets fabulous outfit changes, there’s some major discrepancies. For example, Mario gets 10 outfits, the most in the game. Donkey Kong gets two.
Everyone loves dress-up
On the whole, Mario Kart World is a peak point in a beloved franchise. An open-world Mario Kart feels much more immersive than you’d think, and it makes for some epic tracks. New twists like the cut-throat Knockout Tour—where the bottom four racers are culled every lap—breathe additional new life into a franchise as old as Nintendo’s home console history.
Still, polished as Mario Kart World is, the bizarre unevenness of the costumes makes it feel like a game that has an obvious opening for additional content out of the box. It makes it feel not quite finished.
The idea that people have favorites and will want to play dress-up with them shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all one of the biggest game producers in the world. Hell, popular games like Infinity Nikki and, arguably, Monster Hunter Wilds use outfits as a primary motivator to progress gameplay, and people love it. Of course, people will want another costume change for Pauline other than “Aero.” But here’s the thing—Pauline’s Aero costume looks ridiculously cool! All these costumes are fantastic. They’re perfectly campy and delightfully dumb. Bowser’s “Biker” get-up involving jeans torn at the knee cap and greased-back hair, which screams “cool dad trying a little too hard”? Phenomenal. Wario can dress up as a bee. A bee! King Boo as a monocle-touting aristocrat? Please, yes!
The thoughtfulness of all these costumes is precisely why the chasm between Mario’s 10 outfits and Pauline and DK’s two feels so pronounced. There’s not much rhyme or reason to it all, either: why does Koopa Troopa get six costumes, but Dry Bones—the skeleton version—get none? It’s fine if every character doesn’t have as many as Mario, but to underplay the mascot of the Switch 2’s first adventure game like that feels strange. Honestly, it might be a sign that Nintendo’s planning to add more.
Give the Cow a costume, you cowards
As likely as it seems for Nintendo to add costumes for the main cast as Mario Kart Tour rolls along, we inevitably turn back to the game’s biggest meme: Cow. For us Cow-lovers, the bigger question is whether they’ll ever bother to add some outfits for the “creatures”.
It doesn’t have to be much, Nintendo. Just throw a scarf on that cow. Maybe some sunglasses and a floppy little hat. We’ll be so happy. It unfortunately feels doubtful: after all, the game has 50 playable characters. If each character had five outfits, we’re looking at 250 driver options. I’d be surprised if Nintendo had that in mind from the get-go. At the very least, the character select menu would need a major overhaul, but that’s necessary anyway. (How are costumes not a sub-menu for each character? How is it not at least organized by character? It’s mayhem!)
Still, I hope against hope. Please, Nintendo, if you’re going to put the Cow and the Penguin in the game, let them play dress-up, too.
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Oh hello there. Yes, we ARE still alive, thank you for asking. We took an unintended month-long hiatus due to me starting my new job as well as the holidays being as hectic as they always are, but we’re back and with any luck we should be able to settle into a mostly regular recording schedule from here on out. I know I’ve said that before, but here’s to hoping! At any rate, this week’s show is mostly just me and Eli catching up after not really talking for an entire month, but we do keep things slightly on topic by talking about some Apple Intelligence stuff and the latest games that I’ve been playing on Steam Deck lately. It’s good to be back, enjoy the show!
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to [email protected]. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
In the Monopoly Electronic Banking edition, you can mortgage any property to bank for the mortgage value stated at the back for the card. To unmortgage, you pay 10% interest.
My question here is whether I can offer other players to mortgage their property for something like 5% interest?
![The Definitive Rune Slayer Species Tier List [TUNDRA & BEACH EXPANSION]](https://histream.ir/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Rune-Slayer-Tier-List-updated-Species.png)
Infernim
Bunny
Seraphim
Vampire
Chiroptran
Amphibu
Ghoul
Published: Jun 13, 2025 04:48 am