Dead trees stand sparse along the path to the red forest. The incessant skittering beneath the arid earth belies the stillness of the land above.

---

The time has come again for an update, and you only had to wait nearly an entire year! Let's face it though, none of you were holding your breath. Or so I hope. It would be awkward if you were. 'Cause you'd be straight up dead. Look, patch notes!

Note: Old saves (no older than 0.1.5.0) should all be compatible - no easy feat, I might add - but starting a new game is always recommended in order to experience most of the changes and additions.

---

NEW:

New Area, New Dungeon!
Home to small threats in large numbers, the entrance to this medium-sized dungeon can be found on the way to the Corrupted Orchard. The goal here was to smooth out the difficulty spike that occurred when moving on from the first area, and while it does come with its own threats, veteran players shouldn't have too much trouble passing through.

Tutorial section!
This brief sequence occurs at the start of the game to familiarize the player with a few basic concepts in the form of a story related flashback. It's enough to help new players get started, but the majority of the game's mechanics remain to be learned without much hand-holding.

One-Hit Protection
When the player receives lethal damage while above 25% health, they are instead reduced to 1 HP. This protection is refreshed after 2 minutes, and at the start of a dungeon

Dungeon Statistics
Dungeon entrances now display information & statistics based on your performance once the dungeon has been entered at least once

Added 46 new items:

• +15 Weapons
  
• +10 Materials / ingredients
  
• +9 Armor pieces
  
• +8 Foods
  
• +2 Spells
  
• +2 Potions
  
  
• Added several new crafting recipes
  
• Added pages to the crafting panel that can be flipped through with the 'Z' and 'C' -keys
  
• Added a new NPC with a unique shop mechanic
  
• Added Enemy: Rats
  
• Added Enemy: Bats
  
• Added enemy variant: Elite Duelist Skeleton
  
• Added enemy variant: Elite Ranged Skeleton
  
• Added enemy variant: Primeval Flesh
  
• Added trap: Ground Spikes
  
• Added weapon property: "Double Charge"
  
• Added several quality-related weapon prefixes
  
• Added elemental damage types for spells
  
• Added the possibility for enemies to resist elemental damage types
  
• Added 4 new original songs to the soundtrack
  
• Added 2 new songs by Shan
  
• Added 2 new volume sliders, one for sound effects and one for ambience
  
• Added tall grass that can be harvested
  
• Added twig bushes that can be harvested
  
• Added an armor weight meter
  
• Added new circular level indicator & XP meter
  
• Added the option to flip the order of the HP & MP bars by clicking on them
  
• Added text indicators for when the player tries to cast a spell that is on cooldown, or while out of mana
  
• Added a text indicator for when a spell comes off cooldown
  
• Added a text indicator for when the player has a negative status effect
  
• Added a pulsing vignette effect for when the player has a negative status effect, or is at low health
  
• Added a visual effect for walking on leaves
  
• Added a sound to using entrances
  
• Added grass patches that sway in the wind
  

Expanded Build-mode:

Gone are the days of only being able to make wooden chests. By pressing 'B' like you would before, you'll now be greeted by a brand new menu, and offered a choice between a variety of newly added structures! Of course, you'll still be able to build those boxes as well.

• New structure: Campfire
  
• New structure: Furnace
  
• New structure: Anvil
  
• New structure: Training Dummy
  
• New structure: Flag
  
• New structure: Torch
  

While in build-mode:

• Q & E are used to scroll structures
  
• Z & C are used to select the visual style of the structure being built
  
• Right-click is used to dismantle existing structures while hovering over them
  

CHANGES:

• Most items can now be stored in belt slots
  
• Weapons can now be switched out mid-fight by placing them in belt slots for quick access. Note that the belt is not a typical toolbar, and does not maintain the position of stored weapons.
  
• Belt slots are now utilized to allow picking up items while the bag inventory is full
  
• Increased shop prices across the board (Base value x2 -> x4)
  
• Stacks of 100 silver can now be used in place of gold. Silver is automatically used first in transactions, reducing the build up of loose change
  
• Some status effects now override each other. For instance, Burn will melt away Frost and Chill effects, while inflicting either of the latter on a burning enemy will put them out.
  
• The mouse cursor now indicates attack direction
  
• While not recommended, it is now possible to attack without a weapon. Note that this is a rudimentary implementation and does not yet have its own animation
  
• Dropped items now appear visually unique and bob up & down
  
• The Torchlight indicator now displays a percentage
  
• Updated dialogue for the first NPC
  
• Dialogue bubbles are now black
  
• Player and NPC names are now displayed above dialogue bubbles
  
• Inventory panels now slide in and out of view when opened / closed
  
• Added a subtle sound effect to readying an attack
  
• Enemies in the background have reduced alpha values
  
• The layer that hides the floor above now fades out in the boss room
  
• Added unique sounds for skeletons, wolves and fleshies
  
• Wolf fur color is no longer randomized
  
• Made it clearer that items with stat requirements consider base stats instead of totals
  
• Moved the Accursed Reliquary in the Corrupted Orchard back so it appears after the relic chest
  
• Tweaked the position of some foreground objects
  
• Changing hairstyles now requires the help of an NPC
  
• Hitting a door with an attack will now cause it to fling open
  
• Dashing through doors now works even if the door is closing
  
• Spells have new and improved icons
  
• Status effect "Fire" has been renamed to "Burn"
  
• Cooldown numbers now fade away at the end of the countdown
  
• Improved readibility for long spell descriptions
  
• Added subtle audio feedback for dodging projectiles
  
• Attacks that deal no dmg to the player but apply knockback are considered "shoves" and have their own sound effect
  
• Status effects inflicted on the player use unique sounds depending on the type
  
• Crafing items no longer uses the shop buying sound
  
• If an armor piece gives 0 armor, it is no longer displayed in its info
  
• Made some adjustments to the stat panel
  
• Adjusted day/night cycle color blending
  
• Volume sliders now make sound while adjusting
  
• Made volume sliders easier to set to 50% while in windowed mode
  
• Added background and foreground details to the Corrupted Orchard
  
• Added detail to the foreground pillars in Forgotten Tunnelways
  
• Tweaked screen fade in and fade out effects
  
• Screen now fades out when changing location
  
• Added an animated indicator for saving
  
• Made some changes to the layout of the Forgotten Tunnelways
  
• Added a visual indicator for belt & spell slots that flashes whenever the corresponding hotkey for that slot is pressed
  
• Added a subtle sound for pressing slot hotkeys
  

Balance:

Crafted gear is now assigned a gold value based on the added up costs of required materials, multiplied by 2 and rounded up (maximum value is capped at the base value of that item)
This means that while you can still make some money by turning materials into something useful, it's limited to a much more reasonable amount.

• Status effects inflicted on the player now tick at a slower rate
  
• Doubled the Strength stat's armor weight penalty reduction (STR builds will no longer be hindered by heavy armor nearly as much)
  
• Completing a Furnace now takes 40 stone (Down from 50)
  
• Increased the maximum stack size for several items
  
• DMG scaling of daggers nerfed (AGI/3 -> AGI/4)
  
• Slightly reduced the effect of AGI on attack readying speed (the time between the click and the attack)
  
• HP per point in CON (constitution) reduced (5 -> 4)
  
• XP loss upon death reduced: 100% -> 80%
  
• "Old Bones" -Boss now summons skeleton helpers in waves
  
• Bosses give less bonus XP for each time the area's dungeon has been cleared
  
• Player no longer loses their inventory when dying outside of a dungeon
  

Spells:

Magic Missile:

• Mana cost: 10 -> 8
  
• Missile count: 2+INT -> 3+INT/2
  

Relics:

The Accursed Reliquary now upgrades only one relic at a time, and takes Relic Dust and other relics as payment. A relic no longer gains a full tier for each upgrade, but instead gains incremental progress towards its next tier (displayed as "Dust" under a relic's description,) the amount being based on the type of resource used. Using a duplicate of the relic being upgraded is the fastest way to increase a relic's tier.

Added a small chance of finding relic variants outside of the Corrupted Orchard. If a variant version exists for a relic found in the Corrupted Orchard, it is guaranteed to be a variant.

Hooved Flesh:

• Pace per tier changed to +5% (down from +10%)
  
• Added downside: Prevents sprinting while equipped
  

Clover Charm:

• Now starts at +5% (down from +7%)
  

Caliginous Lantern:

• Now gains 2% Dodge Chance per tier (up from 1%)
  

Enemies & Traps:

Colossal variants are now slightly less common

Skeleton:

• Variant combinations (e.g. Armored + Colossal + Cursed) no longer appear until certain level thresholds are met
  
• Attack reach extended slightly
  

Ranged Skeleton:

• Can now throw bones nearly straight up to hit the player when their personal space is invaded
  
• Bones no longer collide with ceiling tiles
  

Wolf:

• Bleed chance: 30% -> 20%
  
• Spell hits now cause wolves to run away, much like melee
  
• Added a half second pause in movement after turning around
  

Nerocapra:

• The player can now get slightly further away from the Nerocapra before triggering it to chase them down
  
• Now turns around if attacked from behind
  
• No longer spawns colossal variants
  

Mimic:

• Now leaves behind a useful resource upon death
  
• Reduced spawn chance
  

Blade Trap:

• Now pierces through armor
  
• DMG no longer scales with LVL
  

Quality-of-life:

• Crouched attacks now hit small enemies more reliably
  
• Chests in dungeons now take one less hit to break
  
• Charged attacks now count as two hits against chests and other breakable objects
  
• Quick-equip (alt + click) now works on spells, as well as items in the crafting menu
  
• Shift-clicking equipped items while a shop/chest is open will now sell/move them
  
• While dragging an equippable item, the matching equipment slot is now highlighted
  
• Equip options in the radial menu are displayed in red if stat requirements for the item are not met
  

Technical:

• Optimized a number of resource intensive systems
  
• Pressing F to "take all" no longer plays a sound if the chest is empty
  
• Changed location saving to use a string, removing the need to add compatibility code whenever new
  
• locations are added
  
• Added location specific compatibility checks when loading a save from an older version
  
• Spells can no longer be cast while looting a chest. Readied spells will be cancelled if a chest is opened.
  
• Improved tactile feedback for the hat hider button (very important)
  
• The game is now autosaved upon exiting a dungeon (does not apply to dying, yet)
  
• Dropped items no longer disappear when dying outside of a dungeon
  
• The game now auto-saves the state of structures in the area whenever a storage chest is broken
  
• If multiple instances of a hit sound would be played at the same time, the number is now reduced to one
  

BUGFIXES:

• BUGFIX: Smelting iron with a full inventory failed to produce iron ingots
  
• BUGFIX: Breaking a chest outside of a dungeon while its inventory was open would result in a crash
  
• BUGFIX: Items could not be moved into the inventory by shift-clicking, in some circumstances
  
• BUGFIX: Backup skellies in the boss fight sometimes dealt way more damage than intended
  
• BUGFIX: Boss skelly sometimes appeared squat if reached quickly enough
  
• BUGFIX: Player was unable to sprint when not wielding a weapon
  
• BUGFIX: It was possible to have a two-handed weapon and a shield equipped at the same time by having a full inventory
  
• BUGFIX: The exit game prompt appeared anytime ESC was used to close an inventory panel
  
• BUGFIX: Equipping the Cryomancer Hood caused an error due to a missing sprite
  
• BUGFIX: Game did not save after loading a file from an old version (not that this was possible with the last update, but it would have been a problem going forward)
  
• BUGFIX: Blood did not properly stain the ground in places where the level underneath had a low ceiling
  
• BUGFIX: Fixed crashes relating to spell cooldowns while inventories were saving
  
• BUGFIX: The skelly hexanimal was not granting extra XP from ranged skellies
  
• BUGFIX: Patched up some memory leaks
  
• BUGFIX: Corrupted Orchard's ceiling tiles were missing collision
  
• BUGFIX: Removed a chest inside a wall in the Corrupted Orchard
  
• BUGFIX: The "Echoing Mirror" relic effect was guaranteed (instead of a chance) when using aimed spells
  
• BUGFIX: Due to how nearby foes were moved back when using an entrance, enemies could sometimes end up inside walls
  
• BUGFIX: Magic Missiles were not colliding with doors
  
• BUGFIX: Saves could become corrupted if the game was closed without saving after breaking a storage chest
  
• BUGFIX: Footstep sounds are no longer made while parrying
  
• BUGFIX: Wolves were immune to knockback
  
• BUGFIX: It was possible to get scammed when crafting items with a full inventory
  
• BUGFIX: Infinite loop crash related to stat requirements and having a full inventory
  
• BUGFIX: It was possible to stack items with different modifiers using right-click
  
• BUGFIX: Dying and respawning would sometimes put you outside of the play area
  
• BUGFIX: Fabled Whetstone was granting extra damage despite it no longer being part of its effect
  

Many thanks to the chosen few, aka the playtesters: Crash Frequency, Zeronium & Doomball (In Case You Care)