Poison shouldn't lower mana. Mana burn sounds like it wouldn't lower life based on mana. You shouldn't be able to leach mana from creatures that don't have any. Zombies and skeletons shouldn't bleed. Zombies, skeletons, and vampires should be immune to poison. The shop should sell supplies--I can create almost nothing, no matter how many times I quest, because I don't have holy water or other basic ingredients. And the traveling orcs are too d*mn hard. I've played over 90 tactical missions and still can't beat those orcs.
If there's any way to stay on the current island, it should be more obvious. I couldn't find any way out of that dialogue except to go to the next island.
Also, once you go to the next island, there's no way back. That's not bad in and of itself, unless you've lest all sorts of souls at the weaponsmith on the other island.
And: how do you use those souls to improve weapons? I never saw any way to do it.
Elder Gornash cheats.
Except for the Beholder, I removed every card from my deck which uses souls. When only about 30 characters had died, Elder summoned Beholders.
If Elder starts off with souls, or earns at twice the rate of the player, it should say so. Otherwise it just looks like a bug.
25 is, instead of being challenging in a logical sense, just a tedious game of "time this exactly right and tap just so." I liked the game until level 25, then after about 20 deaths gave up.
You shouldn't be able to buy a recipe for something you've already learned. Mage's katana and needler both keep showing up in the store but buying them again doesn't add a variant or increase the chance of success.