Dear Stickmen,

Your love and support truly fuel my journey forward, filling me with immense warmth and gratitude! Recently, I've received so many valuable suggestions and feedback from each and every one of you. Please know that I have personally read and carefully recorded every single piece. I deeply understand that this feedback is a true testament to your passion and expectations for the game, and I am wholeheartedly committed to gradually implementing them, striving to make the game better and better. Now, let's dive into the exciting content of this update!

New Map Scene - The Dungeon

- Upon defeating the Fire Lord, specific caves, ruins, or tombs on the map will randomly open as Dungeon instances. These Dungeons will automatically close after a limited time. A higher World Level increases the number of Dungeons that open.
- More Ferocious Foes! Dungeon monsters now possess random combat buffs, presenting a formidable challenge to all brave adventurers.
- Encounter rare, Dungeon-exclusive creatures in battle. These powerful beings boast unique talents and can even be recruited to your team!
- Items obtained from clearing Dungeons can be utilized at the Mining Guild to craft camp production items, or refined into potent Alchemy Potions at your camp. There's also a chance to discover recruitment and advancement items for special NPCs.
- While Dungeon openings are random, adventurers can force their activation using drops from the Fire Element Lord. Be warned, however, as this comes with a morale penalty...

Camp Updates

- New Camp Structure - Post Station. Construct it to enable fast travel between the Main City and your Camp.
- New Camp Structure - Alchemy Table. Once built, you can craft Alchemy Potions that permanently boost character abilities. Materials are sourced from Dungeon instances.
- Optimized Camp Display Rules - Now, a maximum of 10 idle personnel will be displayed in your Camp. This limit does not apply to working personnel.
Content Adjustments & Optimizations
- The Post Station fee logic has been adjusted. The cost is now calculated as:（(number of troops + number of captives) * 200 * (straight-line distance between the two locations) / (straight-line distance between Maple Leaf City and Ravenreach Port).
- Shop bulk parameters are now static, eliminating the need for manual modification each time.
- Recruited buddies from the Tavern no longer have default stat allocations. Instead, they will directly gain free attribute points based on their level or potential trait.



- The random range for initial attributes of Tavern recruited buddies and the player's initial attributes has been adjusted, now matching the range during Rebirth.



- A new restriction has been added to the World Level: it will not exceed the average level of the top 10 units in your current army
- A new Auto-Allocation Scheme has been added. Once set and saved in the team interface, characters will automatically allocate their attribute points upon leveling up according to the scheme.



- A new Auto-Equip Scheme has been added. Once set and saved in the equipment interface, characters will automatically replace gear from their inventory nightly according to the scheme.
- For those unlucky adventurers who struggled to find certain high-tier minerals: Sulfur, Orichalcum Ingot, Augustite, Mithril, and Magic/Lava/Poison/Frost/Thunder Crystals will now guaranteed to appear in specific mine shafts or caves.
- High-tier minerals no longer require mining knowledge to appear in suitable caves or mine shafts.
- Added several new loading screen tips.
- The World Map now directly displays events in a given town.



- A "Max" button has been added to the crafting section. Clicking it will automatically fill in the maximum quantity the player can currently craft.
- The maximum crafting quantity limit has been increased from 99 to 9999.
- Three new camp-related quests have been added. These can be accepted in any village after defeating the Fire Lord.
- Stickmen's weapons will now be visibly displayed, with the exception of polearms/heavy weapons (as they appear awkward due to their size). This display effect can be toggled off in the team interface.



- Undead and Goblins can now be recruited after acquiring certain traits.

Battle Adjustments

- Added a new Dungeon battle map and a new Cave battle map.
- Boss-tier creatures now gain a brief invincibility effect when attacking.
- All effects that ignore armor and magic resistance have been modified; these ignore effects now stack additively by default.
- Instant Movement now provides a default 0.4-second Dodge window.
- Adjusted Dragon attack hitboxes to better match their animations.
- Removed Knockdown Arrows. Ranged arrows no longer apply Knockdown effects. The former Knockdown Arrow effect has been changed from Knockdown to Interruption.
- Added footstep sound effects for animals, dragons, and other non-humanoid creatures.
- Boar Charge damage type has been changed to Natural. If cast by a non-boss, its damage is now doubled.
- Fixed a bug where melee AI's aggression would drastically decrease in certain situations.
- Added a display for remaining enemy forces during battle.
- Frost Shock damage coefficient increased from 150% to 350%.
- Frost Roar damage coefficient increased from 350% to 500%.
- Boulder Roll stones have been enlarged by approximately 35%. Damage increased from 250% to 400%. Now, after hitting more than 3 targets, the boulder will change direction.
- Earth Rift range increased by approximately 50%. Damage coefficient increased from 150% to 400%.
- AI has been adjusted. AI characters will now occasionally dodge or dash during battle, with assassins having a higher probability of doing so.
- All bosses will now use Instant Movement to close in on targets in certain situations, becoming more frequent at lower health.
- Bosses now have an invincibility effect in certain situations. Additionally, The Power of Dregborn has been adjusted and will now ignore all invincibility effects, including those of bosses.
- Attack effects will no longer trigger other attack effects through stacking.

Companions

- Updated the avatars of special companions to unify them with their in-game models.
- Five new special companions have been added to the Tavern. These companions will appear after defeating the Fire Lord and require special items dropped from Dungeons for recruitment.
- The recruitment method for existing special companions has been adjusted; their recruitment price is now fixed.
- All special companions now possess unique talents, and these talents can be evolved using special items dropped from Dungeons.
- For players with old save files, special companions will need to visit The Reincarnation Mage to acquire their unique talents.
- After defeating the Fire Lord, some Rookie Heroes will appear in the Tavern, preparing for the potential arrival of the Demon King's army in future versions.

Trait Adjustments

- Archery Instructor, Combat Warlord, Shadow Tutor, Shieldmaster, Chant Singer, and Cat Lover traits will now conflict with each other if present on the same character.
- Each Combat Warlord, Shadow Tutor, or Shieldmaster trait now grants +5% Physical Damage Bonus to Warriors, Assassins, or Guardians respectively.
- Each Archery Instructor trait now grants +2.5% Physical Damage Bonus to Archers.
- Each Chant Singer trait now grants +2.5% Magic Damage Bonus to Mages.
- The extra Dodge time provided by the Blink trait has been increased from 0.4 seconds to 0.6 seconds, resulting in a total Dodge time increase from 0.4 seconds to 1 second.
- All Mining Knowledge traits have been removed.
- Added 12 new traits, including effects such as experience gain bonuses, assassin enhancements, and increased boss drops.
- Added racial talents for Skeletons and Goblins.
- Added a new Alchemist profession trait, allowing the crafting of special potions at the camp.
- Added new Death-Speak and Goblin-Speak traits to facilitate the recruitment of Undead and Goblins.

Equipment Adjustments

- Due to adjustments in the calculation of armor and magic resistance ignore effects, all equipment with ignore effects have been rebalanced.
- Skyfire Raider Set's magic resistance ignore effect has been reduced from 50%/60%/70% to 30%/40%/50%.
- Silent Swordsman Weapon's magic resistance ignore effect has been reduced from 70% to 50%.
- Tiger King Set's armor ignore effect has been reduced from 50%/60%/70% to 30%/40%/50%.
- Nature Dragon Weapon's magic resistance ignore effect has been reduced from 70% to 50%.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed a bug where opening the crafting section via hotkey would incur a fee.
- Fixed a bug where some companions recruited from the Tavern on Master difficulty would start with Orichalcum weapons (while lower difficulties did not). They will now uniformly start with Iron or Wooden weapons.
- Fixed a bug where selling non-stackable items in bulk at the shop would only deduct 1 item.
- Fixed a bug where the player's block visual effects would not appear in certain situations.
- Fixed a bug where volumetric fog errors occurred due to resource folder naming.
- Fixed a bug where "Axe Cutting" would always critically strike when dealing physical damage.
- Fixed a bug where camps built in towns and villages with a Post Station could not be departed from.


Thank you all for your continued support! I will continue to release more updates in the future, so please stay tuned! You are also welcome to join our community to communicate directly with me and share your thoughts. Thank you once again for your companionship and encouragement!