Funguys Swarm January 2026 Update — New Characters

January 2026 Update Overview

The New Characters Update is the fourth major update for Funguys Swarm, going live in January 2026. This update introduces six entirely new playable characters, a Skill and Passive Rarity system, three new gameplay mechanics (Shrines, Armor, and Luck), five new Fire Curses, three new Fire Blessings, and four new skills.

Funguys Swarm January 2026 Update Preview

Six New Characters

The January 2026 update fundamentally expands the character roster with six new playable Funguys, each tied to specific element combinations and unique mechanical identities.

Groovba — Nature Poisoner

Groovba is a Nature-element character focused on poison effects and healing. His passive ability makes debuffs deal twenty percent more damage for each Nature card in your deck. Additionally, enemies killed by debuffs have a two percent chance to drop a half heart, creating sustain through aggressive debuff-focused play.

Groovba rewards building around Nature-element cards that apply poison and stacking multiple Nature synergies. The two percent heart drop chance from debuff kills provides meaningful sustain in longer runs, particularly in arenas with high enemy density where the proc rate compounds.

Joomba — Sky Stationary DPS

Joomba is a Sky-element character that gains damage bonuses while standing still. After standing still for three seconds, Joomba gains fifty percent damage plus an additional five percent for each Sky card in your deck. This creates a unique playstyle that rewards brief moments of positioning discipline amid otherwise aggressive movement.

Joomba’s mechanic requires managing the tension between staying still to maintain the damage bonus and moving to avoid incoming attacks. The three-second ramp-up means Joomba cannot maintain peak damage during constant movement, but the bonus is substantial enough to make stationary phases worthwhile during safe windows.

Fuzzbug — Night Summoner

Fuzzbug starts with one pixie that damages enemies automatically. Pixies are affected by amount modifiers, meaning each upgrade that increases projectile count also improves Fuzzbug’s pixie damage. Additionally, Fuzzbug gains one additional projectile for every two Night cards in the deck.

Fuzzbug scales with both Night and Beast elements. The pixie counts as an amount modifier, so skills that increase projectile count synergize directly. Night cards provide the projectile count scaling that makes Fuzzbug increasingly powerful in the late game.

X-Olotl — Beast Clone Striker

X-Olotl creates clone copies that mirror your weapon attacks. For every four Beast cards in the deck, X-Olotl spawns a copy that deals fifty percent of your weapon damage. Dash cooldown is also reduced by five percent per Beast card. After dashing, X-Olotl gains fifty percent attack speed for two seconds.

X-Olotl is the premier clone-based character, with clone generation tied directly to Beast card count. The passive attack speed buff after dashing creates a mobility-combat loop where dashing both provides survival and damage amplification.

NutsNBoltz — Earth Mecha Accelerator

NutsNBoltz introduces Nuts as a new arena pickup. Nuts charge your Mecha by five percent and grant fifty percent movement speed for five seconds. Nut bonuses are increased for each Earth card in the deck.

NutsNBoltz rewards Earth-element builds by making Nuts more powerful as Earth card count increases. The Mecha charge acceleration is significant for players who rely on Potato Bot transformations, and the movement speed bonus improves survivability and positioning.

Chimpy — Nature Armor Bomber

Chimpy converts all HP into Armor. HP pickups no longer drop during runs. Taking damage while armored causes an explosion dealing one hundred damage. Explosion damage increases by twenty percent for each Nature card in the deck.

Chimpy’s unique conversion mechanic creates a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. Without HP, healing is impossible, but the explosion damage on hit can eliminate clusters of enemies. The Nature card scaling on explosion damage means Chimpy becomes increasingly explosive as the run progresses.

Skill and Passive Rarity System

Skills and Passives now have random rarity each time you level up. The rarity tiers are Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Each higher rarity provides a higher stat boost. For example, a Legendary Green Heart provides more healing than a Common Green Heart.

Skill levels were reworked with this update. Skills now max at level ten, with mutation choices appearing at levels five and ten. The rarity system adds a gacha element to skill upgrades, making each level-up more consequential and increasing build variance between runs.

New Gameplay Mechanics

Shrines

Shrines are new interactable objects found within arena environments. Stand within a Shrine’s area for approximately five seconds to receive its reward. Shrines add positioning decisions to arena exploration — choosing when to stop and interact versus continuing to fight enemies.

Funguy Evolutions can now be found in Funguy Shrines rather than appearing automatically every five and ten minutes. This change makes Evolution pickups more strategic and player-controlled.

Armor

Armor is a new defensive layer separate from HP. When you have Armor, incoming hits consume one Armor point instead of HP. When Armor is depleted, subsequent hits deal normal HP damage. Armor Shrines spawn Armors as pickups.

Armor creates build decisions around defensive stacking versus offensive output. Characters that can generate Armor quickly benefit most from this system.

Luck

Luck is a new stat that increases the chance for higher-rarity Skills and Passives to appear during level-ups. Higher Luck means Epic and Legendary skills appear more frequently, improving average build quality over time.

The Luck skill passive can increase your Luck stat further, enabling luck-focused builds that prioritize finding high-rarity upgrades. This creates a meta-progression layer around skill quality optimization.

New Fire Curses

Five new Fire Curses were added, extending the curse system to level thirty.

Infused Projectiles at curse level ten makes enemy ranged projectiles move faster, increasing the pressure from ranged enemy attacks.

Slowing Heat at curse level fifteen spawns slowing fields that reduce your movement speed, making positioning more difficult.

Internal Catapult at curse level twenty causes fiery meteors to fall around your position, adding a ground-targeted dodge mechanic.

Scorching Treasures at curse level twenty-five causes resources and XP Beans to expire after a duration, removing the ability to hoard pickups.

Death Follows at curse level thirty spawns a mass of death that slowly pursues you. Touching it results in instant death, making it the most dangerous Fire Curse.

New Fire Blessings

Three new Fire Blessings provide positive modifiers that offset Fire Curse penalties.

Treasure Hunter at blessing level five provides an additional bonus when picking up resources, making resource collection more efficient.

Lucky Cards at blessing level fifteen increases the chance for Rare cards to appear more often, improving average skill quality during runs.

Forest Power at blessing level fifteen grants a chance for all damage dealt to be a critical hit, adding burst potential to any build.

Four New Skills

Four new skills were introduced with this update.

Infernal Escape is a Dash skill that replaces your dash with a leap into the sky. After a delay, you land and deal damage to all enemies in the landing area.

Sexy Totem summons a totem that deals constant damage for its duration. The totem triggers after you pick up ten XP Beans.

Water Snek spawns a slithering water snake that damages and slows enemies it passes through.

Frog Support is a Weapon Skill that spawns a frog that shoots projectiles based on your ranged weapon.

What Is Next

The developers have outlined the following future content plans:

More arenas are in development, addressing player requests for additional environments beyond the current five. New characters beyond the six added in this update are also planned, with the character roster continuing to expand.