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Garden of Witches hits 1.0 by throwing out part of its old combat system
Leaving Early Access often means adding the final chapter, fixing remaining bugs and removing a label from the store page. Garden of Witches took the riskier route. Team Tapas looked at fifteen months of accumulated combat systems and decided some of them should no longer exist.
By Hugat Garden of Witches 
Garden of Witches officially entered version 1.0 on August 28 after beginning Early Access on May 23, 2025.
Team Tapas originally expected that development phase to last around six months. It ultimately lasted fifteen, with players reporting bugs, discussing balance and producing combinations the studio says it had not anticipated.
The finished update responds by rebuilding combat rather than simply adding more systems to it.
Several Early Access systems have been removed entirely
During development, Garden of Witches accumulated Attributes, Tags, Synergies and Runes designed to make combinations between Scissors and Spells more interesting.
Team Tapas says the system created an uncomfortable contradiction. Players had more choices, yet moment-to-moment combat could still collapse into activating several abilities whenever their cooldowns became available.
Version 1.0 removes the standalone Tag, Synergy and Rune systems. Their functions have been redistributed across individual Scissors, Spells, Imprints and Relics.
The objective is to make a build depend on how a skill behaves, not only on which bonuses are attached to it.
Charging, combos and channeling now define individual abilities
Scissors and Spells have gained mechanics including Charging, Combos and Channeling.
Completing full combos with standard and Giant Scissors can trigger unique attacks. Magic Scissors and Fireball alter their behavior and power depending on charging time.
Rush has changed more dramatically. It now produces needles and thread, and can be activated again to pull connected enemies toward Sil rather than functioning only as movement.
Sharpness, Thread, Flower and Crow have similarly been redistributed so they can act as unique properties of specific skills.
Imprints can now change what a spell actually does
The Imprint system has also moved away from straightforward numerical improvement.
At certain progression points, players select between different Imprints capable of altering how a skill is used.
Team Tapas gives Fireball as an example. One direction can produce a single massive projectile for a large hit. Another can create several smaller Fireballs to trigger more on-hit effects.
Relics have been redesigned around similar principles, taking over interactions that previously existed directly inside individual skills and helping connect different parts of a build.
The Armory now gives progression a clearer order
Version 1.0 no longer opens with every weapon and spell immediately available.
Sil begins with her default Scissors and a limited spell selection. Additional equipment unlocks through chapter progression and other conditions.
Once obtained, Scissors, Spells and Special Skills can be freely combined in the Armory.
The result makes unlocking equipment part of the long-term progression rather than front-loading the full catalogue.
The actual ending was held back for 1.0
Epilogues 2 and 3 are new to the full release.
Early Access already contained the complete five-chapter main story and the first epilogue, but Team Tapas deliberately kept the final conclusion outside that build.
The two new epilogues finish Sil and the other witches' story while unlocking additional abilities.
Clearing Epilogue 3 also opens the redesigned Challenge Mode from a special version of Sil's house.
Very Hard has been moved out of normal chapters
The entire difficulty curve has been adjusted alongside the combat redesign.
Team Tapas says enemy statistics, rewards, encounters and chapter progression have all been rebalanced, with repeated-play sections that felt unnecessarily punishing being softened.
The former Very Hard setting is no longer part of ordinary story chapters. High-difficulty play is now concentrated in Challenge Mode.
Players who want additional punishment can separately disable dash invincibility.
Keyboard and mouse finally becomes the default PC control scheme
One of the most frequently requested Early Access additions is also arriving in 1.0.
Garden of Witches now supports conventional keyboard-and-mouse controls by default, including free mouse aiming and mouse-button bindings. The previous keyboard-only system remains available.
Steam Achievements have been added as well, with 31 currently listed.
Japanese character voices now cover the main story through Chapter 5. Sil is voiced by Ikumi Hasegawa, with Team Tapas explicitly limiting the voice-over announcement to the main chapters rather than the complete epilogue content.
Early Access ultimately taught Team Tapas what to remove
That may be the most useful lesson behind this particular 1.0 launch.
Team Tapas entered Early Access promising to expand the game with player feedback. The obvious result could have been a roguelite buried beneath another year of accumulated mechanics.
Instead, part of the final update is subtractive.
The studio has removed systems it believed were producing choices on paper without enough distinction in actual combat, then moved their effects closer to the weapons and spells players directly control.
Garden of Witches is now fully released on Windows, with its Steam user reviews still categorized as Very Positive at the time of the 1.0 launch.