MAJOR Rum & Gun update for 23 December 2021

Ahoy, mateys!

Version 1.5 is finally out, with a complete revamp of the progression system. Also, Act III has been continued with an epic boss fight.
Most important changes:

• You can level up your hero and gain semi-random perk points. Perk range from simple stat increases (extra life, powder, etc.) to brand new game mechanics ("Bayonet", "Stand Your Ground", "Perfectionist", etc.)
  

• Any of the 5 weapon categories can use any of the 5 weapon slots. Yep, you can equip 5 pistols if you want to.
  

• New consumable items: collect Rune Dust to level up your existing runes, and also various trinkets to help you customize your perks (perk undos, access to the perk table, etc.)
  

• Rebalanced monster stat scaling - Because heroes are stronger when levelled up. Now enemies might become too strong on the map you were currently on, until you level up your hero a bit...

• You can now become a merman/mermaid!
  

• New weapons: Staff, Glaive
  
  

• New shield type: Plank. Shields now give more blocking in the front

• New bottle type: Liquor Bottle

• New hat type: Mask - Shaman and Bone fashioned helmets have been expanded and grouped into a new item type, aimed at spell casters. One of the new fashions is an Eyepatch! Yarrr!

• New spells: Ricochet, Puncture, Focused Shot, Spirit Servant, Fireworks, Toxin Bomb, Weapon Throw, Boomerang, Lava Hurl, Firebats II, Multishot II, and probably something I forgot about...

• Bombs can now have Bullet Nova spell

• More and better sounds: - New, crunchier sounds for all melee hits, new death and/or hit sounds for spiders, scorpants, wasps, skeletons, humans, snakes; updated Handgun shot sound, Perfect shot/reload sound, low stamina warning; new wind ambience; fireball hit sound and VFX

• New enemy types
  

• A lot of enemies have new mechanics: - Deserters are now Rogues that disappear in a puff of smoke, Crazed Abominations have a circle of flies around them, Bloated Corpses release a cloud of gas on death

• Enemies can be armored, absorbing a flat amount of damage.

• Violins now heal on every tick, and the effect lingers for as long as the instrument was played

• New stat: First sip : after 15 seconds, your rum bottles can give additional instant healing

• Burning attacks now cause burning ailment instead of bleeding - new visual effect, damage affected by fire resistance/weakness

• Expanded and updated maps: - Maps such as the Bush Fields and Quagmire of the Fallen have been expanded; most maps have received visual upgrades
  

• Optional bosses: - It's up to you to find and defeat them.

• Spell icons - displayed both on tooltips and on the main UI
  

• New doodads, tree textures, and other decorations.
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• Spike traps as a new environmental hazard
  

• Hungry Maggots now shoot projectiles

• Lava is now mostly walkable, but it hurts like heck!

• The shader for burned enemies has been improved

• New death animation variant for lizards

• Rune item icons have been improved

• Minor change to grass terrain texture

• Updated Boat model, red ship texture
  

• MUCH better controller auto-aim

• New GUI scaling, updated game UI, expanded stash
  

• Nova spell now plays spin animation

• Option for in-game Camera Distance. Also, default camera distance has been increased
  

• Blocking now only absorbs 85% of damage, but Bleed and Rum Steal can be blocked

• Rampage - you get extra gold if you kill a lot of enemies in a short time

• Cannon projectiles are now slower

• Added hats to Sea Hunters

• Fiddle saturation healing is now linked to a perk

• Blunderbuss powder cost reduced to 4

• Charged shot's powder cost now scales with the charge. The spell has been renamed to Windup

• Shark Brute and Buto Ijo knockback factor decreased to 0.15

• "Inventory is full" message countdown now pauses in combat

• Fixed: rune passive bonuses were applied multiple times

• Fixed: socket level limit was using < instead of <= for comparison

• Fixed: unit owner change now preserves the unit actor scale

• Fixed: Gold factor stat was not displayed if it was a rune bonus

• Fixed: Ammo Pouch gave +15 bombs and 1 Repeater. It's been reversed

• Fixed: combo bar needed more precision on shorter bars

• Fixed: some Perfect Shot bonuses were broken

• Fixed: Ocean Guardian's loot was broken

• Fixed: Smoke bombs no longer affect allies

• Fixed: mouse inputs were not detected over the key bindings panel

Unfortunately, this update has probably completely broken the multiplayer. But I will try to integrate all the changes into the networking for the next update!
This update has been the largest since Rum & Gun came to Steam. A lot of updates are up to change in the future, and you may encounter new bugs, or broken game saves.
Don't forget to leave feedback on the forum, or on the Borington Discord server

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