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Kernel Hearts (often misspelled “Kernal Hearts” in searches) is a co-op action RPG with roguelike runs, not a pure permadeath game. When an expedition ends, your level, shrine abilities, Mementos, Relics and run resources disappear, but your save remains: installed MAHOU.OS chips, NPC bonds, unlocked characters, rescued-NPC progress and other hub rewards carry into the next climb. You always restart the tower at level 1, then rebuild a temporary loadout while permanent chips and bond-unlocked loot gradually improve future attempts.
This guide explains that loop, the two currencies, the Sin Meter, transformation, co-op rules, character unlocks, difficulty choices and the 256KB chip ceiling using the launched game information available in November 2026.
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What is Kernel Hearts?
Kernel Hearts is the 17 September 2026 game from Argentine developer Ephemera Games and publisher Whitethorn Games. Steam describes it as “a unique blend of action RPG and roguelike elements with multiplayer co-op.” You play an android magical girl in the M.A.H.O.U. Unit, built from backup data of earlier magical girls. Humanity’s last holdout sits beneath the Tower of Babel, where ash is erasing what remains of civilization. Each expedition climbs the tower, fights angels and demons, and eventually confronts its creator-like god figure.
Director Akira Sipes described the design to The Geekiary as “a roguelike action RPG multiplayer co-op.” His explanation of the loop is literal: “Each time you die, you return to a previous backup, and that’s how the roguelike loop emerges.” Steam tags it as both Roguelike and Roguelite, alongside Hack and Slash, Action RPG, Online Co-Op and Anime. The most accurate short description is therefore a hybrid: temporary, randomized expeditions wrapped around permanent hub progression.
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The game is on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 according to NoobFeed’s game record. The Steam edition lists single-player and online co-op for up to four players, cross-platform multiplayer, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing and achievements. Steam’s US price was $19.99 when checked 14 November 2026. The store lists English, Japanese, Spanish (Latin America), Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese interface/subtitle text; Japanese is the only language marked for full audio. Steam Deck is marked Playable by RageQuit.gg.
Does death delete your upgrades?
No. Death restores the unit from its latest memory backup. It wipes the current expedition’s build and position, but it does not erase your save or the permanent systems you have earned in Babel.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The clean way to think about a reset is “run state versus account state.” Run state makes this particular Heaven powerful; account state determines what can be installed, unlocked or encountered on later attempts. The distinction is why a failed climb can still move your overall progression forward.
What resets at the end of an expedition
- Your character level. Every new climb starts at level 1.
- Spells and passives selected at Moon Shrines, including temporary bindings such as Fernet’s Koka.
- Every Memento currently equipped, including upgraded or level-5 versions.
- Every Relic currently carried.
- Pink Stray Souls, blue Lost Wishes, D-pad consumables, Sin Meter progress and transformation charge.
- Your location in the tower. You return to the laboratory hub rather than resuming at the last floor.
The achievement Before my Blood is Dry asks you to reach the final boss after Lucifer at level 1; defeating the “???” boss is not required for that specific achievement. That requirement makes the reset rule explicit: level 1 is the normal starting point, not an accidental loss of progress.
What carries over permanently
- Chips installed on your MAHOU.OS motherboard, plus the chip list you have unlocked.
- The OS chip and its capacity increases from The Creator’s bond.
- Old World Coins and other hub materials brought back from chests.
- NPC bonds, gifts, rescued-NPC progress, story beats and the rewards those relationships add to future pools.
- Character unlocks. All four girls use the same metaprogression chip set.
- Mementos and Relics you have unlocked into the account pool. They become possible future finds, but are not equipped automatically.
Outerhaven’s account of the loop makes the materials exception clear: chest materials survive death because they are spent in the hub. The next run still begins “with no mementos or relics, only the pre-installed chips,” as the XboxAchievements roadmap puts it.
How does a run work from Babel to the final boss?
Between expeditions you return to Babel, the last human holdout. In the laboratory, The Creator maintains the units. You can speak with NPCs, give gifts to raise bonds, spend materials and install chips before choosing another climb.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsInside a Heaven, each floor is a broad arena rather than a chain of small, sealed rooms. NoobFeed compares the opening area to a compressed Hyrule Field. Enemy placement is randomized within recognizable encounter patterns, and you can sometimes walk away from a fight. Three hidden flowers can break the seal on a closed area. The post-launch route documented by XboxAchievements is:
- Folktale Fields
- A safe room: Camelot or Pink Wink Cupid
- Ash Desert, with Gabriel as boss
- Skybound Citadel
- The Gate, with Seraph as boss
- A safe room: Vulcan’s Forge or Garden of Eden
- Twisted Halls
- Juddecca, with Lucifer as boss
- Empyrean, ending at the boss labelled “???”
Descriptions of the number of floors differ because sources count different things. Sipes discussed approximately seven or eight floors during development. RPGFan counted five main exploration floors, excluding boss gates and safe rooms. The roadmap’s five exploration stretches—Folktale Fields, Ash Desert, Skybound Citadel, Twisted Halls and Empyrean—reconcile those descriptions without reducing the route to one misleading number.
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After a boss, the party enters a safe area. In co-op, any player can trigger the move onward; the first person who chooses to extract pulls the whole party out, so check that everyone has finished shopping, gifts and conversations.
What are Stray Souls, Lost Wishes, Mementos and Relics?
Kernel Hearts uses two soul currencies during an expedition, plus two kinds of collectible build items. Their names are easy to confuse, especially “Wishes.”
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Pink Stray Souls: level-ups and temporary power
Angels and floating pickups provide Pink Stray Souls, also called pink souls or spirits. Spend them at Moon Shrines (the crescent-moon level-up points) to gain a spell or passive for the current expedition. These choices improve run statistics such as attack and defense but vanish at death.
In co-op, touching a Moon Shrine levels the entire party. The cost is shared and higher with more players, so one teammate cannot quietly take a cheap level while everyone else keeps the same bill.
Blue Lost Wishes: coffins and Mementos
Blue Lost Wishes open coffins containing the remains of earlier magical girls. A coffin fight ends with a Memento or ability-upgrade card choice. NoobFeed reports a cost of 40 blue souls on Normal (reduced from 60 before release) and 100 on Sinner; co-op increases the shared cost again.
The achievement guide lists 30 Mementos. Some can reach level 5, while others cannot. The Honored One requires three level-5 Mementos in one expedition. Raising an NPC bond can unlock a Memento into your account pool, but the equipped copy still disappears when the run ends.
Relics: the other temporary build layer
Relics come from Relic Comets, Relic Chests in Strongholds or late floors, and NPCs in safe rooms. A Relic you have never collected carries a NEW tag. There is no run inventory cap, even if the pause-screen dots look like one. The achievement Hoarder requires obtaining every Relic at least once; obtaining one records account progress, but carrying it into the next expedition does not.
Do not confuse a Memento’s “Wishes” effect with Lost Wishes. In that description, “Wishes” refers to Shooting Star drops. Shooting Stars are chest-loot creatures that release Stray Souls when killed, not blue currency for coffins.
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What is the Sin Meter and when does the Sky Angel appear?
The Sin Meter is the expedition timer and pressure system. It rises from 0 to 100, increases enemy levels and triggers catastrophes such as comets and vision-reducing eclipses. At 90%, a giant floating “biblically accurate” angel—the Sky Angel—appears and signals that you should take the cosmic elevator. At 100%, it rains fire or drains your life bar; standing still can kill you, which is the condition for the Be Afraid achievement.
Treat the meter as a route-planning problem, not a score. Detours for a coffin or chest have an opportunity cost. If the Sky Angel arrives, prioritize extraction over one more fight. Normal’s pace was described as harsh by RPGFan’s review, while Story slows the meter and makes upgrades cheaper according to NoobFeed.
How does the magical-girl transformation work?
After you deal enough damage to angels and demons, a transformation gauge fills. Activating the Heavenly Pact dispels the Heavenly Curse, releases a damaging attack and puts the unit into her true form for a short period. RPGFan describes the form as a near-invulnerable, Sailor Moon-like state; NoobFeed says Fernet is invincible during it, making transformation both offense and emergency escape.
The Heavenly Curse Chip is a separate unlock, awarded for The power of the Moon. Charge is run state, so it is empty again on the next expedition. The achievement guide recommends using the transformation early in the Lucifer fight for a level-1 attempt because it can recharge. Saving it for spectacle can turn a survivability tool into wasted potential.
How do chips and the 256KB limit work?
Chips are the central permanent progression system. Steam says you can “unlock and equip up to 256KB of chips onto your Unit MAHOU.OS.” The guide presents the capacity as a 256/256 install bar. Installed chips remain active when the next run begins at level 1, unlike Mementos and Relics.
Unlocking and installing are different actions. The achievement Stocked counts all 40 chips as unlocked; the guide says you do not need to buy every unlocked chip for that achievement. Filling a complete 256/256 bar may still require spending Old World Coins on the chips you want to equip.
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The guide’s route to maximum capacity is:
- Raise The Creator’s bond to level 5.
- Give him Lunar Stones from chests on any level and Orichalum from Twisted Halls and later areas.
- At bond level 4, provide the Kernel Heart, a guaranteed drop from the final “???” boss.
- Install chips until the bar reaches 256/256.
The Kernel Heart is a key item for The Creator’s final bond step; it is not the name of the game. Two chips can resurrect you. Other useful directions named by the guide include high HP/DEF, high CRIT/ATT, extra Stray Souls and a chip that favors Memento upgrades over finding new Mementos.
Reviewers disagree in emphasis rather than fact. RPGFan called early chip buffs “practically negligible.” GamesCreed and NoobFeed found the first hours slow, with some gifts and unlocks helping only later. The achievement guide, after seeing the full system, says certain permanent chips make runs much easier from the outset. These observations describe different points on the same save: hour-two progression is thin; a full chip bar plus expanded Memento and Relic pools is not.
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Which NPC bonds and promises matter?
Bonds are permanent relationships that can raise chip capacity, add Mementos and Relics to future spawn pools, and provide small benefits. Gifts unlock short scenes and often a lasting improvement. At Momo bond level 4, unrescued NPCs are marked on the map.
The guide names rescue NPCs including Mikolaj in Folktale Fields, Caius in Ash Desert, TV-Head in Skybound Citadel, Raiza in Twisted Halls and Fang in Juddecca. Only the co-op host receives credit for rescues and bond-item donations.
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Promises are NPC quests that reward unique Relics. Examples include TV-Head’s Soul of the Static (reach Seraph with at least eight Relics), Raiza’s Soul of the Mechanist (open 120 chests), Fang’s Blessing of the Hunter (+7% critical chance after slaying eight Kadmiel) and Mikolaj’s Soul of the Ghoul (kills heal you after 180 angel kills). Caius has four promise levels involving a cursed relic. Sipes said in 2025 that you received one promise per playthrough and had to choose carefully; the 2026 guide still shows accepting promises but does not restate that cap, so treat the one-per-playthrough rule as the director’s earlier design statement rather than a confirmed current limit.
Who are the four playable units?
Fernet is the default Unit-001 and story viewpoint: an Argentine saber user with telekinesis, dodge, block and familiars. Spika, “The Sword of the East,” unlocks after one Seraph defeat; she uses a katana and is faster but less defensive. Laika, “The Crimson Demon,” unlocks after two Seraph victories, wielding the oversized Damocles greatsword and blood magic; she can throw the blade and switch to a pugilist stance. Dolce, “The Deadly Performer,” unlocks after one Lucifer defeat and fights with a whip and clones.
The achievement guide calls the unlock sequence Fernet, Spika, Laika, then Dolce. All four share one chip set, so changing girls does not create four separate metaprogression grinds. Kernel Night requires unlocking every playable character, and clearing the game once with each girl unlocks one specific chip.
Is co-op better than solo?
Co-op supports up to four players, shared resources and revives. A partner can handle combat while you pursue no-damage achievements, and revives can salvage a dangerous floor. The costs are equally concrete: soul prices rise, one player’s Moon Shrine level-up affects everyone, the first extraction vote ends the area for the whole party, and only the host banks rescue and bond-donation credit.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which difficulty should you choose?
The named modes are Story, Normal and Sinner. NoobFeed characterizes Story as very easy, Normal as the baseline and Sinner as a substantial jump, with coffin prices rising to 100 Lost Wishes. RPGFan reported at launch that changing difficulty required starting afresh and losing metaprogress, while NoobFeed said difficulty could be switched on the fly. An October patch was expected to add multiple save slots, but the patch body was not re-read here, so the disagreement cannot be resolved from the supplied evidence.
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Choose Story if you mainly want the narrative or are learning movement and Sin-Meter timing. Choose Normal for the intended baseline. Choose Sinner once you understand coffins, extraction and emergency transformation. Welcome to Sinner is the only achievement explicitly tied to difficulty in the guide.
How long is Kernel Hearts?
Different sources measure different goals. RPGFan estimated roughly 10–15 hours for the story-length experience, depending on skill. NoobFeed said a complete run can take up to two hours and remained engaged after about two dozen hours. The XboxAchievements roadmap estimates 40–50 hours for all 1,000 Gamerscore across numerous playthroughs. Steam has 44 achievements, and RageQuit’s 13 November 2026 snapshot reported a 27.4% average completion rate.
That spread is normal for a game whose first clear, four-character clear cycle, full chip capacity, bond collection and Relic hunting are separate goals. Early reviews repeatedly criticized slow permanent progression and repetitive runs, while Steam’s store page still showed an overall Very Positive label (80% of 309 all-time reviews positive; 89% of 37 recent reviews positive) on 14 November 2026.
What PC hardware does the Steam version require?
Steam’s minimum specification is 64-bit Windows 10 or newer, an Intel Core i7-9750H or equivalent, 8GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 1060 or equivalent and 15GB of storage, targeting 1080p on Low/Medium. The recommended specification is an Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB RAM and a GeForce RTX 2060 or GTX 1660 Ti, with the same 15GB storage listing. Steam warns that online co-op performance may vary.
What is the practical strategy for your first climbs?
- Install permanent chips before every departure. A level-1 run with no pre-installed chips is avoidable.
- Learn the route and leave fights. Arenas are open; you do not need to clear every encounter while the Sin Meter climbs.
- Budget souls. Pink souls buy your level-ups; blue Lost Wishes are reserved for coffins. Co-op costs more and shares the bill.
- Use transformation defensively. Save Heavenly Pact for a boss danger window or a forced escape, but remember it can recharge in long fights.
- Prioritize bonds. Gifts expand future pools and capacity, making later runs more varied even when the current run dies.
- Coordinate extraction. In a party, confirm that everyone has opened desired chests and spoken to safe-room NPCs before anyone chooses the next area.
- Set a clear target. A first clear, a level-1 achievement, a full 256KB bar and all Relics require different risk tolerances.
Is Kernel Hearts a roguelike or an RPG?
It is both, but neither label alone is sufficient. The RPG side is the real-time hack-and-slash combat, character abilities, NPC bonds, story progression and permanent chip customization. The roguelike side is the randomized expedition route, temporary levels and builds, escalating Sin Meter and return-to-backup death loop. Calling it a pure permadeath roguelike would be wrong because chips, bonds, unlocks and hub materials persist; calling it a conventional RPG would miss why each climb must be rebuilt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kernel Hearts playable offline?
The available store information lists single-player and online co-op but does not promise an offline mode. Solo play is supported, while online features and their performance depend on the platform connection.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallDo all four characters need separate chip builds?
No. Fernet, Spika, Laika and Dolce share the same metaprogression chip set. Unlocking a new girl expands your tactical options without restarting the permanent upgrade grind.
Can I keep a level-5 Memento after beating a run?
You keep the Memento’s account unlock, not the equipped copy. The next expedition begins without carried Mementos, so you must find and upgrade it again during that climb.
What does the Kernel Heart item do?
The Kernel Heart is a guaranteed drop from the final “???” boss. It is used as The Creator’s bond item for the final capacity step; it is not a general-purpose combat currency.
How many people can join one Kernel Hearts expedition?
Online co-op supports up to four players. Souls and extraction decisions are shared, and only the host receives credit for rescues and bond-item donations.
