Update 1.6 and the Evil Empress DLC are here! After a long time of paying AWD minimal attention, I've decided to come back and give it some worthwhile QoL features along with heaps of NEW content!

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT OPEN AN AUTO-SAVE AFTER INSTALLING THIS UPDATE, AS IT COULD CAUSE UNPREDICTABLE ISSUES!

EVIL EMPRESS DLC

After unlocking the Knight, you obtain access to the DLC button on the main menu!

By purchasing the Evil Empress DLC, you obtain access to her exclusive content and its 34 associated achievements! Contained in those achievements are 2 unique areas, 10 solo campfire stories, lots of incredibly powerful unlockable items, and new dangerous foes for both her and the other dungeoneers!

UPDATE 1.6

Update 1.6 was made to VASTLY improve quality-of-life for both new and old players alike. I wanted to breath just a little of a fresh life into AWD and got carried away. I'll keep the new content's descriptors brief as to keep the mystery:

• 32 new achievements!

• 3 new areas that can only be found by going off the beaten path! (If you're an older player and want a pointer? Shatter the mirror.)

• 4 new run ending bosses, 1 unlockable miniboss, and 3 hidden bosses only found by fulfilling certain conditions!

• 2 new synergies and several new items!

More in-depth changelog for previously existing content is further below!

GUIDES

I've made two very simple guides to help any new players!

1.6.0 UPDATES TO OLDER CONTENT:

MAJOR QOL ADDITIONS

• Item investigation reworked to show its description alongside what stats it directly modifies, displaying both flat stat increases and permanent percentage modifiers.

• Much of the text in the battle log has been replaced with item/status icons where appropriate.

• Magnipedia's battle use has been heavily reworked! It now displays the previous enemy specific text, the enemy's current HP/Attack/Defense/Agility along with what their base stat is if it has been modified, and their natural resists/weaknesses.

• You can now hold Shift when equipping an item to review an ally's stats instead of equipping it to them.

• Many extra features of the backpack selection menu have been moved into their own "extra" section that you select at the bottom. The extra features include: Backpack, Reset Run, Achievements, Boss Token, Saved Memory, Magnipedia, and Merchant's Bell.

• Holding Shift and opening the backpack will have you automatically check your backpack capacity. (The display for this has also been slightly updated as well.)

• Supply Bag upgrades now properly activates at the beginning of every run. It forces you to choose 1 item instead of receiving all of them. Empty Potion and Wake-Up Juice have been added to Supply Bag and Golden Supply Bag respectively.

• There is now an autosave graphic that appears whenever the game autosaves after a campfire.

NEW ART/SFX

• Merchant's shop got brand new selection graphics! Merchant himself is also animated!

• Campfires are now animated!

• Character meetings now have new art!

• Some of the party character art on the right hand side has been slightly tweaked.

• Healthy party members will now subtly bob up and down on the right hand side.

• Added a unique sound for when the action gauge fills up.

• Menu movement/confirming/deny has new sound effects.

• Encountering enemies now has a new sound effect.

• Added a unique sound for picking up equipment. This sound effect depends on the game's internal tier system.

• Each window skin now has a unique cursor. The basic cursor changes based on who is the party leader. The cursor now snaps to its destination instantly.

• Autosave loading now has a Galavan map graphic. If you've gotten to Chapter 10, then it displays the modern/past location of named areas on Galavan.

PARTY CHANGES

ALL:

When chosen as a Party Leader, each dungeoneer gets a unique stat increase!

• Vessel: +3 Max HP

• General: +1 Defense

• Knight: +1 Attack

• Wizard: +10 Max MP

• Clown: +2 Luck? (May vary.)

• Merchant: +2 Gold.

VESSEL:

• Ark's Shriek and Persevere descriptions now clarifies what they do more.

• Ark's Persevere now has a 50% HP cost.

• As party leader, Ark's party no longer loses MP when interacting with clown statues.

GENERAL:

• Jeorge's Command now properly applies Survival if he has Wall.

• As party leader, Jeorge now has a new Absorb skill that lets him absorb elemental resists to give the entire party MP. If more than 10 resists are absorbed, he gains +15% gauge start progress for 10 turns alongside several new skills.

• These new skills allow him to learn mini-skills based on other types of absorbed statuses, let him spread these skills across the party, and let him use a second Command.

KNIGHT:

• CofCheChi's Fake-Out skill is now instant.

• CofCheChi now has a +25% steal item chance.

• As party leader, CofCheChi now gives himself and all allies an invisible +5% evasion chance and +10% steal chance.

WIZARD:

• John's Teach now has special art.

• John can now teach Tome of Limbo.

CLOWN:

• Melon Mime's Tragedy now has far higher chances to inflict certain status effects.

• Dark Shield skills now have 7% and 77% hp cost. (Ch9 Spoilers!)

MERCHANT:

• Merchant Jr. no longer has her +25% steal item chance.

• As party leader, Merchant Jr no longer spawns with a Market Chart. Instead, she has been given two new abilities:

• She can now buy unlimited items from her father! Any sort of free discount will be removed after the first purchase.

• In battle, she now has access to The Rock Market! Most types of rocks have a slightly randomized conversion rate at the start of the game, allowing her to convert a specific amount to 5 gold! After each selling of a rock type, its conversion rate will go up.

NOTABLE REWORKS/BALANCE CHANGES

• Elemental Resists now give a flat +3 attack boost. Elemental Weaknesses now give a flat -3 attack boost.

• Elemental sparks no longer give weaknesses 100% of the time. Elemental book spells now give weaknesses 100% of the time.

• Henchrock defense and attack has been buffed: Defense increased to 4, attack increased to 3. Its Place Hit skill is now effective against glass.

• Hateful Heart buffed: It now resists Slog, Confusion, and Sleep. Boosts a character's health by +100%, their attack by +80%, and their defense by +50%. They become uncontrollable only when below 80% HP, in which case they also obtain -15% HP regen.

• Heaven Stone no longer has its +15% HP regen; this effect having been swapped over to Hell Stone. Attack decreased from 15 to 12, defense increase from 10 to 8.

• Wyrm Tail's death immunity now only triggers when above 60% HP, increased up from 20% HP.

• Smashing Retry Clocks in battles will now lower the backpack capacity based on what area you're in.

• Torn Spellbook should no longer activate if getting an item from it would encumber you.

• Guts Shield recovery nerf changed from -50% to -25%.

• Sloth's Soul now starts bosses with Sedate.

• Pride's Soul now starts bosses with Reinforced Wall.

• John's Soul no longer meditates at the start of boss fights. Instead, John's Soul will restore all party members' MP by 25*area at the start of boss fights.

• Soul Contract's MP cap raised from 20 to 50.

• Ultra Soul Contract max HP cap raised from 15 to 23.

• Magnifico's Soul now gives +20 HP.

• Enraged/Soothing Dagger will now give +1 attack/defense to the entire party when entering an enraged floor!

• Glove of Toxic/Sleep/Confusion's Touch skills now have a 50 turn cooldown that does not reset between battles.

• Brick Hand gives +1 attack and +2 defense. Brick Hand skill's damage calculation has also been tweaked: It is now user's defense + target's defense.

• Revenge's Revenge II skill now multiplies its damage by 4. Its skill description makes it more clear.

• Glove of Gold will now start all allies with priority alongside giving all foes either poison, sleep, or confusion.

• Elixir Infused Boots' agility buff bumped from 1 to 2, Max MP buff bumped from 2 to 10. Elixir Infused Boots' MP drain is now 2%, down from 4%.

• Elixir Infused Blade's attack bumped from 1 to 2, Max MP buff bumped from 2 to 10.

• Execution Axe now lowers agility by 1 instead of raising it by 1.

• When arriving at a Clown Shop while holding a Clown Advert, find one of the character's Soul items in its normal place.

• Comfy Pillows now have a very high chance of removing scarecrow curses.

• Element Gloves/Stones "touch" skills will now extend their respective weaknesses by 25 turns.

• Bomb-Triplets now revert all foes' action gauges to 0%.

• Elemental Orbs will now do significantly more damage if you have the matching elemental resist when using.

• Shattered Glasses' Prolong skill now targets the entire party.

• Shattered Glasses now have a second skill that can convert an ally's wall into reinforced wall.

• Soaped status effect reworked. Base miss chance and steal chance removed. Can now be stacked up to 9 times, each stack giving a higher chance for the foe to randomly get intimidate after moving.

• Soap and Super Soap skills reworked to better fit with above changes. Super Soap's evasion chance also lowered to 32% from 42%.

• Synergist Badge now works if you pick it up after already getting a synergy.

BOSS RUSH CHANGES

• All Boss Rush enemies now have their minions.

• Bloody Boss Rushes now obtain Bloodlust.

• Queens now appear the end of boss rushes. After successfully defeating a boss rush, you may travel to the next area without encountering a queen.

• Successfully defeating the Bloody Boss Rush gives you more Max HP, Max MP, and give you a unique skill that allows you to undo Guilty Blob/Retry Clock weight loss.

LESSER REWORKS/ADDITIONS

• Natural resists/weaknesses are no longer shown to clear up the enemy status menu's readability.

• Boss Token description rewritten to clarify mechanics. Also added Boss Token into Magnipedia.

• Blood Moon enemies now have a unique animation when they obtain Bloodlust.

• The Magnifico Mirror story now has a number indicator.

• Bandits fleeing no longer gives a Chewed Rose if you already have one.

• Neurotic Wyrm now properly enrages in Enraged Mode.

• Melon Mime now fades out the BGM when entering into his second phase.

• Quantum Mechanics now shows its icon properly in the battle log.

• Nuke (player's and enemy's) now has an icon to property identify it in combat.

• Chompbroni Seed now directly names the Chompling.

• All wisp enemies now count as bugs.

• Forge of Tar is now counted as a bug.

• Sapped status effect now decreases evasion by 80% and seals Prepare.

• Drowning's skill now makes you lose 10% MP when using it.

• Magnifico death scenes are now viewable from the main menu in Chapter 10.

• Real Rock no longer has a chance to instantly kill.

• Merchant Jr. no longer appears on the Blood Moon.

• In Dark Side, the main character's name now changes to their first name. (Ch6 spoilers!)

• Intimidate is now a lot more reliable by making a far more enemy offensive moves able to miss.

• Zen Fortress Sentry enemies now need to charge once before firing.

• Most standard wipes now get rid of HP Boost.

• Area+ Interactables can no longer be tampered with in Enraged Mode.

• Luck UPs now give an additional 1 backpack capacity.

• Enemies must now specifically be selected with the Chewed Rose rather than each fight having one specific enemy who can be hit with it. The status effect still applies to all foes.

• Several backend improvements have been made so that creating/handling item graphics is easier.

• Desperation's MP gain is now 10%, increased from 5%.

• Explosive Gold Bandit's name changed to Glod.

• Outgassing Fungal Village enemies will now poison their attacker.

• Hunting Sunken Wreck enemies now have 30% attack.

• Nimble Zen Fortress enemies are now immune to sleep.

• Merchant can now sell non-equipment items! He won't ever sell battle consumable items.

• Merchant can now say additional lines when you purchase an item.

• Tweaked GLUTTON's dialogue. (Ch6 spoilers!)

• Alpha Death, Jester Hat, Glove of Gold, and Enlightened Moonshine now have guaranteed achievement reveals.

• Added a new frame to Ark's Intro.

• Rewrote text in Ark's Intro, Jeorge's meeting, CofCheChi's meeting, John's meeting, various campfires, and in several of Magnifico's character meetings.

• If he's operating the saving portal, Magnifico has a 50/50 chance of making one of 2-3 character-specific one-liners. They change depending on if you've just lost or won the run.

• Evolving Slimes should now not try to use their EVIL AND MESSED UP MP BOMB on turn 1.

• Melon Mime (boss) now has a 2-3 turn cooldown on Best Medicine.

• Prepare status text now specifies learned skills. (Pick Up/Character skills.)

• Sleep can now last anywhere from 2 to 10 turns instead of a static 10.

• Instead of a normal fade, curtains will fall down at the beginning of runs! A form of Magnifico will also appear if this is your first run in a session! This also happens when using Reset Run.

• Every 5th room of area 1/2/3, a new circus tent graphic will be displayed.

• Counter: Fire now has a secret 30% chance of applying poison.

• Counter: Water now has a secret 30% chance of applying glass.

• Counter: Earth now has a secret 30% chance of applying slog.

• Counter: Wind now has a secret 30% chance of applying intimidate.

• Counter: Toxins will now apply boss poison.

• Counter: Dual Attack, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Sleep, Confusion, and Toxins can now crit.

• Elemental Glove counters now apply their elemental weakness and remove their associated elemental resist. They also no longer gives unique stats, all giving +5 Max MP now. Finally, they now show "x/4!" when displaying their combo at the start of battle.

• Raise 1 now has a cooldown of 7 turns. Raise 2 now has a cooldown of 14 turns.

• Raise 1's MP cost is now 30. Raise 2's MP cost is now 60.

• Resist 1's MP cost is now 25 MP. Its cooldown is now 8 turns.

• Resist 2's MP cost is now 50 MP. Its cooldown is now 18 turns.

• Both Resist skills now work instantly.

• Heal 1's MP cost is now 5 + 5% MP. Heal 2's MP cost is now 8 + 5% MP.

• Magnifico's Domain now has a unique battleback for when the background is inside of a circus tent.

• Invited party members will now obtain additional relevant stats when they join the party depending on how many ATK UP/DEF UP/HP UP have been bought from the merchant.

• More flavor text given to make Stitches gimmick more apparent.

• Enraged Onis have been added to the "Story" section in the achievements.

• The Lunar Abyss will now properly show up as the 4th area instead of the 5th in runs before unlocking John B. Castin'.

• More types of encounters should now count towards the "battles" stat at the results screen.

• Resist's strongest form no longer lowers agility, instead nerfing attack by 75%.

• Clown Statues now have different graphics based on which section of the room they show up in.

• Pick-up now has a unique animation/icon.

• Death spells now have a unique animation.

• Advert: WITHSTAND now teaches you Clean.

• Advert: CLOWN now teaches you Weighted Coin and Not Lucky Shot.

• Performers had their equipment adjusted to match any new 1.6 variations. (Ch10 spoilers!)

• IMPURITY has received a large update? It, uh, now has the most health in the game? …surely that isn't everything, right? (Ch10 spoilers!)

• IMPURITY's speech at the end of the battle has been rewritten and expanded to conclusively end his story. (Ch10 spoilers!)

BUG FIXES

• Ark's Soul Shriek typo fixed.

• Elemental Cleanses now properly display "Instant" in their description.

• Elemental Infuses typo fixed.

• Wipe no longer cuts past damage caps.

• Fixed Mini-mages not appearing until hit.

• Boost 1 now properly displays that it gives Resist and not Reinforced Wall.

• Slog 1/2 achievement is now Slog I/II achievement to match others.

• Fixed Performer's achievement description to specify it can be done as anybody.

• Melon Mime's Encore skill no longer removes itself from your skills if it doesn't work.

• Fixed Toasted Marshmellow description icon.

• Enemy nukes now ignore defense like the player's nuke.

• Properly colored the Empress' crown in a cutscene. Whoops.

• Removed some weaknesses off of enemies that shouldn't of had them in Greenhouse and Zen Fortress.

• Certain Audience Pot encounters now properly get enraged.

• Merchant Jr's Scavenge now properly gives Boomstick Stones in Tar Pit.

• Ultra Contract now properly says +6 Gold in its description.

• Guts Shield recovery effect now working as intended.

• Ark's Flail now properly does a third of your HP.

• Lone Wolf's Dagger can now not be saved.

• Greenhouse, Dark Side, Magnifico's Domain backgrounds not appearing properly if loading from an autosave.

• Chewed Rose should no longer break dialogue at times.

• Neurotic Wyrm should now give various item's boss start effects.

• Added the correct music fade for GLUTTON. (Ch6 spoilers!)

• Lone Wolf Dagger and Envious Dagger's skills "Hermit" and "Curse" should no longer have their status effect wiped by certain things.

• Merchant Jr's Pay to Win should now properly get reset between runs.

• Wall now has a "+" in its description.

• Comfy Pillow's description no longer lies to you about it applying poison.

• Fixed some backpack increase items not working if you didn't have the Merchant's Sack.

• Elemental Cleanse skills no longer leak their color into other skill descriptions.

• Defeating Wooden Melon Mime will now gives relevant Melon Mime achievements.

• ...Might've fixed Pure Ark being stuck using Form Shift...?

• Funny Feather's status should no longer allow for invincibility.

• Dreamcatcher's Deep Sleep now properly gives bosses sedate.

• Fixed Ice Bucket status having the wrong icon.

• Chef Frog now gets properly reset between runs.

• The other variations of the Stitches enemies should now spawn correctly.

• Wake-Up Juices description now properly shows the wall icon.

• MAY HAVE FIXED PURE ARK FOR REAL THIS TIME? (Ch9 spoilers!)

PROJECT: FIRMAMENT

If you own Ark's Wonder Dungeon on steam, you'll get early access to some exclusive character themed skins in Shoe Stealin' Studios next game: