Pumpkin & Patch Beginner Guide - First Hour, Combat and the Gaps

Pumpkin & Patch is a 2D Metroidvania from Gourdfield Games, released on Steam on Oct 1, 2026 at $10.49 in the US at the time of capture, and this beginner guide sets out what a first session actually asks of you. You play Patch, a one-eyed Shiba Inu dog who has lost his family, and you explore a spooky world with a new friend named Pumpkin.

The important framing for a new player is that the store page describes the combat as primarily ranged projectile based, with a limited parry layered on top as the high-risk option. Everything below is taken from the official listing, and the sections that have no official answer say so plainly rather than guessing.

What kind of game this is

The short store blurb calls Pumpkin & Patch an exciting 2D Metroidvania, and the genre tags list Action and Adventure. That is the whole of the published classification: there is no sub-genre label, no difficulty tier and no separate mode list.

The single hard structural number available is the achievement count, 22, which is the only progress-shaped figure the listing publishes. The rest of the structure has to be read from the description rather than from a spec sheet.

Field	Value at capture
Genre tags	Action, Adventure
Store wording	2D Metroidvania
Platform	Windows
Players	single-player only
Achievements	22
Languages	1 (English, full audio)
Release date	Oct 1, 2026
Price (US)	$10.49, list $13.99

Patch, Pumpkin and the setting

Patch is described as a one-eyed Shiba Inu dog who recently lost his family. He finds himself in the Hallowed Lands, which the long store text calls a whimsical yet spooky world, and the short blurb spells the same place Hollowed Lands.

There he meets Pumpkin, and the two begin a journey to the Underworld in search of answers. That pairing is the core of the game: Patch brings the movement and the projectiles, and Pumpkin supplies abilities that reveal or reach what Patch cannot manage alone.

• Patch is the playable dog, described as one-eyed and recently separated from his family.
• Pumpkin is the new companion met inside the Hallowed Lands.
• The stated goal is a journey to the Underworld in search of answers.
• The world is described as whimsical yet spooky, with classic Halloween monsters as its cast of enemies.
• The pair are described as searching for different things, which the listing ties to the endings.

The first hour: ranged first, parry as a choice

The combat description is unusually specific for a store page, and it tells a new player what to practise first. The fights are primarily ranged and projectile based, a deliberate nod to the classics of the genre, and the parry is the modern twist on top of that foundation.

The parry is explicitly limited. When it lands it deflects projectiles back at enemies, or it stuns melee attackers and heals the player, which the page frames as a high risk high reward option that exists to raise the tension rather than to be the default answer.

Running and gunning is also described as viable, with the caveat that you had better watch carefully for obstacles. So the opening hours offer two honest paths: learn the parry timing for the payback, or keep your distance and keep moving.

Abilities, choices and endings

Progression is written as an ability hunt. Patch was once limited by his lack of sight, which is why meeting Pumpkin matters: the Lamplight ability illuminates what is not visible to the naked eye and uncovers hidden secrets, and the page warns that things are not always as they appear in the Hallowed Lands.

Two further abilities are named. Patch can learn to freeze the water and create icebergs that he can control, and proper use of Pumpkin's Embershot ability lets Patch jump higher than any dog. The listing adds that many new abilities are found within the world to enhance combat prowess and increase mobility.

On top of that sits a choice structure. Once the basics are down, options open up to tackle obstacles as you see fit and arrive at different possible endings, and helping both of the pair is described as not necessarily easy. Other characters ask things of you as well, with the intrepid Captain Peg named as an example.

What is not published

Several things a new player would reasonably want are simply absent from the official sources, and they are listed here as gaps rather than answered. No level, chapter or map-area count is published, no completion time is given, and no difficulty setting is described anywhere on the page.

The achievement banner shows 22 achievements but names only a highlighted subset, so no full list exists to plan a run around. Likewise there is no complete boss list, no complete ability list and no published post-launch schedule.

For the player-facing numbers, the price was $10.49 at the time of capture and moves with promotions, and the store page shows no user reviews at all as of 2026-10-08, so there is no player feedback to lean on yet.

If the combat style is what decides it for you, the mechanics are broken down further on How It Plays; the release record sits on Launch and Demo, and the spec sheet is on Setups.