Hi everyone!

The past two days have been intense as we tackled major balancing issues. Some players were able to finish the game in a single run, defeating all enemies in just one turn — not exactly what we had in mind for Sandwalkers!
This patch focuses on restoring challenge and progression. Here’s what’s new:

Enemy Scaling & Encounters

• Enemy scaling fixed

Enemy groups were no longer scaling with your caravan, leading to easy fights against low-level (Lv.1) enemies. This is now fixed.

• Unit encounter rework
  We’ve restructured enemy groups to make encounters more varied and challenging:
  
  • 2-enemy fights were too frequent and not engaging — most have been removed.
    
  • Stronger enemy groups have been added across all regions.
    
  • Each region now features more diverse enemy compositions.

More tweaks will follow — this is just the first step in our balancing effort.

Caravaneer Upgrades Nerfed / Roguelite Bonuses Buffed

Sandwalkers isn’t about a single overpowered caravaneer dashing to Umama. It’s about generations building on each other’s journey.

• Caravaneer upgrades nerfed by ~30%.
  
• Cristal Library combat upgrades have been buffed to reinforce roguelite progression.

General Balance Tweaks

• Protector
  • Gains +2 Strength/level (up from +1).
    
  • "Raise Shield" ability nerfed.
  
  

• Status Effects
  
  • Decaying Shield buffed.
    
  • Infested nerfed.
    
  • Blinded nerfed.
  
  

• Bosses & Elites
  
  • HP increased, but Strength reduced at levels 3–5.

• All enemies
  • Strength reduced at levels 3–5, but increased from level 7 onward.
    

• Merchants
  • Merchants in Cities now gives more items
    

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several attacks that dealt pure damage with no type.
  
• "Ban Hammer" Fetish now correctly targets the launcher.

Known Issues (Still Investigating)

• Rare black screen blocking progress.
  
• Some units show the wrong sprite when stunned.
  
• Bosses can be stunned, even when they should be immune.
  
• Trade with merchants can be broken, allowing players to get insane amount of items

Thank you all for your patience and invaluable feedback — it really helped us identify and fix this core issue. There’s more to come, but this patch should make Sandwalkers feel closer to our original vision.

— The Sandwalkers Team