Beatdown Path
Changelog
Player-facing changes from the first prototype through the current build, newest first. Dates are commit dates. Internal refactors, verification work, and documentation updates are omitted. New areas and major features include a hint to help you get started.
- Steady progress toasts. Progress notifications now share one width, so a short journey message and a two-line level-up fill the same panel. They sit a little below the top edge and slide off to the right when they expire instead of vanishing.
- Plain dashes. A few labels, including the companion-rescued toast, used a long dash the font could not draw; they now use a regular hyphen.
- Consistent buttons. The save browser, debug save editor, hold-to-delete control, combat-position choices, and the spearhead and arrowhead pickers now use the same raised button skin as the rest of the game, with the same hover and press feedback. The quest log's Close and action buttons match too.
- Goblin shamans. Shamans now animate while idle, walking, and casting, with a drawn collapse and prone corpse instead of rotating sideways on death.
- Goblin King art. The King's face is clearer, and his fallen pose has been refined.
- Fire priest art. Fire priests now share the goblins' sharper faces and ears, with clearer chanting and fallen poses.
- Fox art. Foxes now have clearer faces, triangular ears, and cream-tipped tails. The rescued kit sleeps in a gentler curl, and the fox caught in the road trap is easier to recognize.
- Goblin camp road blockage. Forest goblin camps can no longer spawn across the Goblin Road, and a saved camp that already blocks the road is cleared so travel to Squeakwood Village can continue.
- Quartermaster Storage. A new party upgrade adds 5 cart slots per rank across three ranks, one adventure point each, growing the quartermaster's cart from ten slots to 25. It stays locked until the quartermaster's services are unlocked by protecting his cart on River Road.
- Key items in the backpack. The Shaman's Rusty Key and the Injured Fox Kit now take ordinary backpack slots, and the separate key display is gone. Their details are labelled Key Item so they are never mistaken for ordinary loot. They never stack, so a second copy is rejected like a full slot. If the backpack is full when you free the fox or pick up the key, the item stays on the ground until you make room. Quest items cannot be sold, donated, discarded, or stored in the quartermaster cart.
- Ring slot. The Rat Skull Ring now fits a new sixth ring slot on every party member, leaders and companions alike, and can be empowered to +15. It still grants no stat bonuses for now, so wear it for style until it does something cooler.
- Squeakwood yard. Squeakwood's western cottage now sits further back from the path, giving the quartermaster and his supply cart a clear yard beside the road; the cart no longer overlaps the cottage wall.
- Quartermaster cart storage. The quartermaster window now has three tabs, and Cart storage opens by default with the backpack beside a ten-slot cart: right-click an item to store it or return it, or drag between cells to move, merge, or swap. Only backpack items follow the Loot rules; cart items stay in the cart and are never sold automatically.
- Quartermaster Field Guide. The quartermaster's third tab records every enemy the party defeats, lists all 20 species in natural groups, and hides undiscovered creatures behind ???.
- Progressive field notes. A species reveals its HP on the first kill, then damage, armor and resistances, and finally its full attack list and drops as the party learns more. Common species reveal at 5, 20, and 50 defeats and master at 100; elite species at 3, 10, and 25 and master at 50; the Goblin King at 2, 5, and 10 and masters at 20.
- Field Guide rewards. Every species awards 1 adventure point once. Common and elite species pay at 1000 defeats; bosses such as the Goblin King pay at 100 defeats. Mastering a species only completes its field notes; the detail pane shows both the mastery state and the adventure-point progress. Mastering every species leaves a permanent 20 / 20 mastered completion badge but awards no extra point.
- Folgan's Trail. Riverbend's southern road now continues downriver, past the last cottages and over a broken timber bridge, to the new Folgan's Landing totem on the lake coast. The trail has no enemies, so the walk is quiet, but the missing bridge planks stop the party short until the way is repaired.
- The bridge is rebuilt. Settling the Goblin Keep contract gives Riverbend the room to repair the river bridge, opening the rest of the trail down to Folgan's Landing.
- Burning hat. The Goblin King's thrown hat now deals 8 fire damage per bolt instead of 6 physical, so fire resistance helps against his volley.
- Heavier axe. The Goblin King's melee axe now deals 15 damage per hit instead of 10.
- Mauler the fox kit. The Goblin Keep approach now has an injured fox caught in a road trap. Free her to leave the Injured Fox Kit on the road, then walk over her to pick her up into your backpack, and feed her one Minor Healing Potion while she sleeps beside the keep totem. Only then does Mauler join as the leader's loyal pet; she follows the main character on roads, through forests, and into dungeons, and cannot be targeted or killed by enemies.
- Mauler's pet card and Assist. Select the leader in the Party panel (P) and scroll the leader details to the compact Pet card. It stays hidden until Mauler is adopted, then shows her name, kind, level, XP progress, current bite damage, and an Assist toggle. Assist starts On so Mauler bites nearby enemies; turn it Off to keep her following without joining fights. Mauler earns pet XP from enemies defeated nearby and levels from 1 to 10, gaining a stronger bite at levels 3, 6, and 9. At level 10 she becomes Bonded and gains a warm golden tint. Pet XP, the adoption receipt, the carried kit, and the Assist setting are saved.
- The Goblin King calls for aid. At two-thirds and one-third health the King spends one second winding up, then shields himself in a ten-second bubble while six reinforcements join the fight: four fire priests around the vault corners and two sword ogres inside the guard line. The King cannot be targeted or damaged while the bubble holds, but the reinforcements can — and the guard count you must defeat grows from 5 to 11 and then 17. While the King is bubbled the party switches to the awakened reinforcements instead of waiting on him. The vault is only clear when the King and every add are dead. Saving and reloading during a wave restarts the vault from its entrance.
- Fire priests keep their distance. Fire priests now hold a long stand-off instead of closing to melee, and both their small and large fire bolts cast every 1.2 seconds instead of every 3 seconds. The half-second chant still telegraphs each shot.
- Keep prisoner rescue. Freeing the prisoner in the Goblin Keep prison now works: stand beside the cell for the three-second rescue and Wren joins the party. Previously the rescue never completed no matter how long you waited.
Hint: Press Q at any totem to open the quartermaster and leave overflow in the ten-slot cart. Only backpack items are auto-sold or ignored, so check the backpack after an outing before assuming a cart item was handled by the Loot rules.
Hint: Before the throne, grind and max-empower the goblin armor from levels one and two — each maxed piece gives every party member +1 fire resistance. When the King raises his bubble, leave him alone and cut down the six reinforcements — they are already awake and will flank the party. Kill the sword ogres first, spread out against the fire priests' bolts, and save burst damage for the second wave at one-third health. The bubble ends on its own after ten seconds; the fight is not over until the last add falls.
Hint: Open the Field Guide on the quartermaster's third tab with Q, then choose the Field Guide tab. Fight a species once to record it; the next threshold is shown in its detail pane. Mastery reveals the whole entry, but adventure points take 1000 defeats for common and elite species and 100 for a boss, so treat normal species as a long-term hunting goal. Kills and rewards carry through death and reload.
Hint: Finish the Goblin Keep contract, then follow the southern trail from Riverbend's cobblestone square. Before the contract is settled you can still walk down to the broken bridge and see the gap.
Hint: Mauler is not with you yet. Follow the southern approach to Goblin Keep, free the trapped fox on the road, and pick her up into a free backpack slot, then bring a Minor Healing Potion to the sleeping kit beside the keep totem and feed her there. She needs a slot for the whole trip to the totem; a full backpack leaves her waiting on the road. The Party card only appears after she is fed; older saves without a rescued kit load with Mauler still waiting.
- Interception makes room. When Interception reaches the enemy threatening an ally, the interceptor now shoves that attacker a body's width away from the ally and steps into the spot it vacates, so the redirected hit lands on the defender standing where the attacker was.
- Party HUD selection. Party rows now follow the active party order, sit on their own background, and give the selected character a gold highlight. Click a party row or press 1-4 to select an active member; the party screen highlights the same character.
- Stable party HUD rows. Party rows keep their buff line reserved even when no effects are active, so rows and their controls no longer jump when buffs start or expire.
- Equip from the backpack. With only the backpack open, right-click gear to equip it on the selected active companion, or on the leader when the leader is selected. If nothing is selected, or a reserve member is selected, the gear stays in the backpack. Tools, storage, and healing items are always party-shared and use the party's shared equipment slots.
- Hardiness. A new level-7 passive talent with two ranks. Each rank adds a flat +25 maximum HP, for +50 at 2/2, and the bonus applies immediately to the leader or companion who learns it.
- Per-level health rebalance. Levels now grant +2 maximum HP instead of +10, making Hardiness and companion traits carry more of the late-game health budget. Existing saves load with current HP fitted to the new maximum; levels, talent ranks, equipment, and progress are unchanged, and level-up messages now report the new gain.
- Tiered talent tree. The Talents tab now draws talents as a tree with connector lines and arrowheads, tier lines, per-node rank labels, and hover tooltips. Level 1 talents sit on top, with level 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 rows below; a node needs that character level and, where a connector is shown, one rank in its parent before it can be bought. Each node stays readable when locked, and its tooltip shows the current and next bonus plus the exact reason a purchase is unavailable. The tiers sit close together and the tree is centred when it fits; the taller tree and short windows scroll.
- Talent Help and respec. A Help button opens the Talents reference, and a new Respec button clears every talent rank and learned ability and refunds all spent points for 100 gold per spent point. Respec works for inactive reserve members as well as deployed ones.
- Maternal Instinct. A level-9 toggled ability that keeps the character attacking the melee-range enemy closest to breaking its threat margin. It is a root node that stacks with any level-5 ability choice.
- Janitorial Services. A level-9 toggled ability that focuses the furthest enemy and grants +50% combat movement for three seconds whenever the target changes. It also stacks with the level-5 choice.
- Bullying Boomerang. A level-9 ability that throws a ranged attack at range 5, even with a melee weapon equipped, against an enemy that is not already targeting the character. It is a root node and stacks with other learned abilities.
- Trust Their Instinct. A level-7 passive behind Interception. Once learned, Interception skips any threatened ally who has Maternal Instinct, leaving it free to protect someone else.
- Training paths. At level 11 each character chooses one path: Hands-On doubles melee weapon skill XP, Target Practice doubles ranged weapon XP, and Book Learning doubles magic weapon XP. The chosen path glows gold in the tree; the other two lock. Shields are outside every path, so their XP is never doubled.
- Fast Hands. A level-13 passive behind Hands-On. Each of its three ranks makes any attack 3% faster, whatever weapon is equipped.
- Weak Points. A level-13 passive behind Target Practice. Each rank adds +3% critical-hit chance to any attack — melee, bow, magic, or the Bullying Boomerang's thrown shot — and a critical hit deals double damage.
- Splash Zone. A level-13 passive behind Book Learning. Each rank gives a +3% chance for any attack — melee swing, bow arrow, or magic bolt — to deal its full damage to other enemies around the target, without hitting the original target twice.
- Guard Drills and Dig In. Guard Drills is a level-13 root that grants +1 shield XP per block per rank. Dig In, its level-15 follow-up, adds +5% block chance per rank.
- Several ability controls per character. A member can now learn the level-5 choice plus any of the level-9 actives, up to four in all, and every learned ability gets its own control beside the healing button on that member's HP line. Toggled abilities only switch on and off when left-clicked; they never consume a cast or cooldown.
- Goblin Keep prisoner cage. The captive in the prison antechamber can now be freed from any side. Once the cage guards are dead, stand on any tile next to the cage and the three-second rescue starts, instead of the party pressing into the cage without opening it.
- Tooltips and toasts fit their text. Item tooltips now shrink to their contents and drop empty stat and comparison lines instead of leaving blank rows, and notification toasts wrap long messages and stack by their real height without fixed empty gaps.
- Named progress toasts. Level-up and weapon-skill messages now name the character who advanced, including companions, and toasts sit at the top edge of the screen instead of below the top bar.
- Goblin Keep embark target. Once the iron gate stands open, the Goblin Keep totem offers its outer halls from the Embark menu, so you can return to the keep without walking the southern approach again. The gate highlights when it is ready to use, and clicking a locked gate without the key now always explains what you need instead of doing nothing.
- Party upgrades. Shared adventure points can now buy permanent, party-wide comforts from the party screen. Raise Healing Capacity for one extra shared healing use per outing (up to three), add Storage Space for two more shared backpack slots per rank (up to ten slots), speed up Road Movement by 50% per rank while travelling a pacified road (up to double speed), and improve the Quartermaster Share so the party keeps 10 more percentage points of each sale per rank (from half down to a 20% cut). Ranks only ever go up, and each purchase spends the shared balance once.
- Upgrade window. A new Upgrades button sits next to Manage on the party screen. It shows the current adventure-point balance, each track's rank and next cost, and dims anything maxed or unaffordable.
- Road contracts settle on the final kill. Clearing Goblin Road or River Road now completes the contract the moment the last challenge enemy falls. The adventure point and the permanently pacified road arrive in the same moment, and village trade resumes without a trip back to a board or quest log to claim.
- Quest completion at a glance. Current quests that are ready to turn in now show a green check in the quest list. When an automatic quest completes, its toast now also names the rewards, such as the adventure point and pacified road from a cleared route.
- Unified NPC conversations. The roadside quartermaster, the warlock, the Riverbend Mayor, and Old Rowan now share one conversation panel with a Leave button. The Mayor's contract settles through an explicit Report victory choice instead of completing as soon as you open the conversation.
Hint: Hardiness needs level 7 and one point per rank. It is a root node in the Talents tab, so it can be taken alongside any level-1 or level-5 talent. Older characters keep their current health capped to the smaller maximum, so visit a totem after loading.
Hint: Press N to open the selected character's Talents tree and hover any node for its bonuses and lock reason. Rank 1 in a parent unlocks its children, and the level-9 actives stack with your level-5 choice. Left-click a toggled ability's HUD control to turn it on or off; it never consumes a cast. Respec costs 100 gold per spent point and refunds every point at once.
Hint: The level-11 path is permanent until you respec, so pick the weapon family you actually use: Hands-On trains melee, Target Practice trains bows, and Book Learning trains magic staffs and wands. Path XP doubling starts immediately, but the level-13 Fast Hands, Weak Points, and Splash Zone nodes only unlock for the matching path; once learned, they work with any weapon or attack. Guard Drills and Dig In are the shield branch and work with any path.
Hint: To reach the Goblin Keep, accept the Riverbend Mayor's contract and follow the southern approach with a Shaman's Rusty Key. After that, the keep appears in the Embark menu at its totem; choosing it resumes an active run or begins a fresh one.
Hint: Open the party screen with P and choose Upgrades beside Manage. Adventure points come from quest rewards and are shared by the whole party, so spend them on the comforts you use most. Road Movement only helps on roads you have already pacified by clearing their challenge. Quartermaster Storage stays locked until you unlock the quartermaster's services by protecting his cart on River Road, then adds five cart slots per rank.
Hint: Accept the road contract before you depart, then focus the challenge. You no longer need to return to claim the reward, but bringing healing and enough party support still helps you survive to that last kill.
- Healing selections. The Healing Item slot now remembers which bandage or potion you chose instead of holding a physical item. Selecting, swapping, or clearing it no longer moves anything into or out of the backpack. Using the selection spends one matching backpack unit, keeps that choice, and totem visits only reset the five-use outing limit without restocking or changing the selection.
- Item flavour text. Item descriptions can now include a separate italic flavour line in backpack, equipment, and shop tooltips, keeping effects and stats easy to distinguish. The Rat Skull Ring has its own flavour text, and the keep key is now called Shaman's Rusty Key, with a flavour line in its tooltip.
- More breathing room in fights. Combatants prefer wider spacing, with extra room for ogres and the Goblin King. Close holds a useful attack position even with a bow or staff, Mid-range favors nearby engaged allies, and Distant looks for room away from nearby enemies without chasing maximum range. Fists now reach a little farther, but remain shorter-ranged than early blades.
- Goblin Keep level 3: the throne vault. A final boss chamber opens beyond the cleared bone galleries, with a throne dais, throne guards, and the Goblin King waiting at the back.
- The Goblin King and his guard. The King fights behind two sword ogres, with a shaman on each flank. All five must fall before the vault is clear, and the King has his own boss health bar.
- Guaranteed throne vault chest. Once the whole guard is dead, the vault chest opens after a three-second approach and always yields 200–300 gold in three stacks plus one to three random Keep gear pieces. Its contents are fixed before opening and survive save/reload.
- Throne vault polish. The final chamber is tighter and packed with bone heaps, rubble, broken weapons, furs, ash, chains, and wrecked furniture. The vault chest now sits clearly in front of the party instead of underneath it, and its loose rewards fan out where you can see them.
- Report the victory. Clearing the vault marks the Goblin King defeated. Open or talk to the Riverbend Mayor to settle the Goblin Keep contract automatically; the keep stays open for repeat runs.
- Healing potions in the keep. Every Goblin Keep chest on levels 1, 2, and the level-3 vault now also contains zero to two Minor Healing Potions. Each restores 50 HP, stacks to 20, and uses the Healing Item slot. Both healing items share the same five-use outing limit; potions are consumed from the backpack and are not replaced at totems.
- The Goblin King's Crown and Goblinomicon. The King's top hat is now a light Crown with 2 Armor and 4 Fire Resistance, and his book is the Goblinomicon, granting 3 Magical Damage, +1 tile range with magical weapons, and 2 Fire Resistance. Both empower to 15 and grant +1 party-wide Fire Resistance at maximum empowerment.
- Rat Skull Ring. A new drop-only King trophy with no stat bonuses, kept in the backpack with its own icon. There is still no sixth equipment cell, so it cannot be equipped.
- Independent King drops. The Goblin King's axe, Goblinomicon, Crown, and Rat Skull Ring now each roll independently at 20% per kill. More than one can drop from the same kill, but each drops at most once.
- Raider's Sack. A new drop-only storage sack can appear in the bone-gallery level-2 chests and the level-3 throne vault. Equipping it adds 7 backpack slots, and empowering it to 5, 10, and 15 adds one more slot at each step, for up to 10 extra slots. It has no party-wide bonus.
- Health bar trails. Losing or regaining HP now leaves a pale red or pale green trail that settles onto the new health over a second, on your own bar, your companions' bars, and enemy bars in the world. The HP number still updates instantly, and a killing blow empties the bar right away.
Hint: Clear the outer halls and bone galleries first to open the level-3 down stairs. Bring a full party, healing, and fire resistance for the shaman flanks; the chest stays sealed until all five throne bosses are dead. After the clear, report to the Riverbend Mayor to complete the contract. Choose Distant in a character's party details if you want them to seek breathing room when enemies close in.
- Build timestamp. The title screen now shows when the game was built, including the build computer's UTC offset.
- Goblin King. A reusable named boss with 250 HP, 5 physical armor, its own crowned rig, melee attacks, and a dedicated boss health bar.
- Goblin Keep gear and chests. Drop-only Light and Heavy Goblin helmets and armor, the Goblin Bow, the Ogre Greatsword, and the Goblin Jagged Axe. Three level-1 chests each have a 25% chance to appear and can drop gold, a sapphire, or one random Keep item. Two level-2 chests each have a 50% chance to appear and always hold gold, with a 50% chance of one random Keep item (no sapphire). Level-2 elite goblins and sword ogres can also drop their own Keep gear.
- Goblin Keep empowerment. Keep equipment can reach empowerment 15 through the warlock. Maxing a piece grants party-wide bonuses such as axe or sword XP, extra bow range, or fire resistance. The warlock's service now also includes a Summary tab that lists every unlocked party-wide bonus.
- Goblin Jagged Sword renamed to Goblin Jagged Axe. It now trains Axes.
- Smoother quest rewards. Quest-driven world changes such as the repaired bridge and mill now fade through black in place instead of popping.
- Unstuck return. An instant return-to-totem option is available when the party is out of combat and cannot reach its destination.
- Reliable mine travel. Returning from the mine no longer moves Riverbend's river under the party. Old saves caught at a river edge recover automatically, and mine approaches and trips home can follow the bridge detour even when it lies beyond the visible map, without moving an established entrance.
Hint: Goblin Keep is deliberately a wall. Clear the required halls before the down stairs open, bring healing and fire resistance for Fire Priests, and kill Martyrs at range. A chest only opens while no living dungeon enemy is nearby; clearing the bone galleries opens the level-3 throne vault.
- Goblin Keep level 2: bone galleries. An authored second floor reached from the level-1 down stairs, with a vestibule, ossuary side room, elite barracks, sword-ogre pen, fire shrine, and processional hall.
- Elite Keep enemies. Elite sword goblins and archers, sword ogres, and Fire Priests guard the galleries. The level-3 stairs are visible but sealed.
- Goblin King art. The King's heavier crowned rig and level-2 set arrived.
- Goblin Keep armor art. Leather and plate Keep sets were redrawn and fitted.
- Party at the Embark menu. The embark screen now has a shortcut for managing the active party.
Hint: Level 2 expects a full party and fire resistance. The required route runs through the vestibule, east and west wings, central gallery, and processional hall; the ossuary holds an extra pack but is not required to open the down stairs. Clear the level-1 outer halls first to unlock the descent.
- Goblin Fire Priest. A ranged fire caster with homing fire bolts, a pentagram cadence, and a standard goblin face.
- New Keep families. Elite sword and archer goblins, greatsword road-ogre variants, and a reshaped two-handed Great Club.
- Level-1 companion rescue. Clearing the prison antechamber guards unlocks a timed cage rescue for a third party member. The empty cage remains on later runs.
- Persistent ground drops. Uncollected loot is saved across save/reload and tied to the place where it dropped. Leaving and re-entering an area discards it; death clears it.
- Goblin Keep dressing. More evil props, navigation footprints, floor dressing, and live Martyrs that persist through a save.
Hint: Martyrs are solo ambushers: burst them before they reach the party, and remember their blast also damages other goblins. Fire Priests choose targets and punish clustered parties, so fire resistance and spreading out help. At the prison, clear the guards, walk to the cage, and stay for the three-second rescue; walking away interrupts it.
- Goblin Keep level 1 opens. A carved-stone entry floor with mixed ogre, shaman, melee, and archer packs, optional side rooms, three guaranteed ambushes, and a route to the level-2 down stairs.
- Goblin Martyr. A production character family and solo ambusher whose blast damages the party and nearby goblins.
- Keep fixes. Cave packs no longer spawn inside the Keep, and the three level-1 ambushes are guaranteed.
Hint: Reach the Keep through the Riverbend mayor quest and open the gate with the Iron Key dropped by Squeakwood camp shamans. Level 1 is intentionally harder than the roads: bring armor, bandages, and a full party, and clear the required wings before heading downstairs.
- Inventory drag and drop. Items can be dragged across all compatible slots, and matching stacks merge when dropped together.
- Equip hints. Item tooltips now say which slot an item belongs in.
- Faster totem recovery. Returning to the totem takes one second and shows a visible heal-over-time effect. Party members also heal when the leader respawns.
- Balance tuning. Infested Mine difficulty and boar density were adjusted.
Hint: Drag backpack gear directly onto compatible slots; right-click still equips and unequips. Check tooltips when a piece does not seem to fit.
- Goblin camps become assault encounters. Surface camps use authored hunting grounds and encounter bounds instead of loose pursuit.
- Great Club Ogre drop. The rare Great Club is a two-handed ogre weapon with 6 base damage, long reach, and no off-hand item.
- Rapid abilities stay in their encounter. Fast movement abilities are bounded to the fight they belong to.
Hint: The Great Club is drop-only. It occupies both hands, so leave the shield at home when you equip it.
- Threat-based enemy targeting. Each enemy tracks threat per party member. Damage adds the HP actually removed, and effective healing adds half the restored HP to every alerted enemy.
- Threat switching. A current target stays sticky until another reachable member reaches 110% of its threat. Interception taunts immediately, while Vault forces a fresh target choice.
- Combat diagnostics. Threat is observable in the arena and diagnostics, and healing threat is credited to the healer rather than the recipient.
Hint: Healing pulls threat, so a focused healer can become the enemy's target. Use Interception to taunt an attacker or Vault to break away, then let damage dealers pull threat back.
- Unified active abilities. Interception, Vault, Reactive Barrier, and Renew Scratches now share one actor runtime with persistent auto preferences and one-shot arming.
- Combat positioning. Parties use a shared positioning planner, with bounded retreats and attack mobility for Constant Pressure.
- Fullscreen and faster startup. The F1 help window has a fullscreen toggle, and startup supports a fast mode plus URL fragment launch arguments.
Hint: Right-click an ability control for Auto On/Off and left-click to arm a single use. Barrier and Renew cast as soon as eligible; Interception and Vault wait for their trigger.
- Talent rework. Each character spends personal talent points on Quick Feet, Constant Pressure, and Safety Margins, or on one mutually exclusive level-5 ability: Interception, Vault, Reactive Barrier, or Renew Scratches.
- Talent HUD. Personal abilities and buffs appear in the party HUD with automatic and one-shot controls.
- Armor crafting unlocks. Leather and iron recipes are discovered through material quests. Mail and plate carry additive magic and ranged attack-speed penalties.
- Quartermaster defense finale. The final wave gains an ogre and four archers, and the Keep approach is permanently pacified once Goblin Keep opens.
- Personal combat positioning. Party controls let each member choose how close to fight.
Hint: Talent points belong to the selected character, including reserves; the level-5 abilities are mutually exclusive. Quick Feet affects combat movement only, Constant Pressure allows movement while attacking, and Safety Margins extends attack range.
- Goblin Keep unlock route. A Riverbend mayor quest reveals a guarded southern approach. Squeakwood shamans drop the unique Iron Key on a 10% roll, and the gate opens with a synchronized 2.4-second wide-door animation.
- Natural mountainside exterior. The original building facade was replaced with a carved mountainside and iron gate.
- Armor family. Leather, mail, and plate helmets and armor add armor values and attack-speed tradeoffs.
- Boars and the Boar Family Clearing. Boars roam Squeakwood and River Wilds, and River Wilds exploration reveals a repeatable family clearing. Each boar has a 25% chance to drop Boar Leather.
- Iron and sapphire mining. Mining seams yield scarce Iron and Sapphires instead of generic ore.
- Item empowerment. The warlock can combine two copies of eligible gear. The Sapphire Wand, Sharp Fang Spear, Sharp Fang Bow, and Great Club gain damage and permanent mastery rewards.
Hint: The Iron Key comes from actual shamans in the Squeakwood goblin camp and takes one backpack slot. The gate stays open once unlocked. Boar Leather feeds leather armor (10 for the body, 5 for the helmet), while mail and plate also need Iron from mining seams.
- Warlock recruitment. For 1000 gold, Squeakwood's warlock joins the camp and travels between totems, opening the empowerment service.
- Bow arrowheads. Craft Simple, Sharp Fang, and Poison Fang bows with different damage and poison behavior.
- Roadside quartermaster defense. A supply cart and quartermaster appear halfway along River Road, with a defense quest that gates some totem services.
- Riverbend grows. The mine moves farther into the wilds, and plate and mail guards appear at the entrance.
- Companion progression. Companions gain personal levels, skills, and combat observations.
Hint: Save 1000 gold before expecting empowerment. Poison Fang bows apply damage over time, but repeated hits refresh the poison rather than stacking it. Check the River Road cart before pushing deeper into Riverbend.
- Selected-member character sheet. Shows live HP, armor, elemental resistances, nominal damage and rates, and traits; hovering explains each value.
- Flexible companion gear. Companion equipment can be removed and swapped without confirmation.
- Camp atmosphere. Goblin camp firepits animate with authored flame poses.
- Party identity. Leaders get a golden crown icon, and party vitals and healing controls align with it.
- Exploration feedback. Area names are announced in exploration toasts, and cave and camp approaches are longer.
- Fallen companions. Fallen members stay selected for automatic outings.
Hint: Shift-P opens Party with the selected member's Sheet tab. Hover armor or a resistance to see its mitigation range, and hover a trait for its explanation.
- Exact character editor. Body, face, hair (including none), skin, hair color, and beard are chosen independently with a live preview. Archetype presets were removed.
- More character options. Approved female compact faces, hairstyles, and bodies join every player pose.
- Party equipment view. The character panel becomes a selected-party equipment view.
- Modular NPC rigs. Quartermasters and timber workers move to standard modular human rigs.
Hint: Appearance is cosmetic: every combination starts with the same health and fist attack. Pick what you like, then press Play to save the recipe to that slot.
- Quartermaster NPC. At a totem, press Q or click the quartermaster to set Keep, Sell, or Ignore policies for discovered loot. Sell-marked backpack items sell automatically at totems for half value.
- Goblin camp chests. Persistent camp chests and ground rewards, including the loot-only Goblin Skull Shield and goblin magic gear with fire resistance.
- Elemental defenses. Armor reduces physical and untyped hits, while fire, cold, lightning, and poison use matching resistances with floor-to-maximum mitigation rolls.
- Party identity and rescue. Leaders receive persistent random names, party lists show equipped previews and real empty slots, and rescue cages stay visible on cleared revisits.
Hint: Use Ignore on junk you never want to collect and Sell on spare gear for passive gold. Camp chests only become available after the camp and its rescue are fully cleared.
- Active party. Recruit companions, manage the active and reserve lists, drag marching order, and travel as a formation of up to four active characters.
- Shared party combat. Companions share targeting, rewards, healing HUD controls, and fallen recovery. Survivors keep their HP and relative selection.
- Timed forest rescue. The forest camp captive is freed by a three-second walk-up rescue after the final guard dies; the freed companion runs home.
- Combat tuning. Rabbits are less durable, melee pursuit is shorter, and forest combat loot is prioritized over further hunts.
Hint: Open Party with P, then Manage to add, remove, or reorder members; four can be active at once. Bandages and healing stock are shared, so a large party burns through supplies faster.
- Forest rescue camp. A new camp captor encounter lets you recruit a companion automatically after the final guard dies.
- Sequential exploration. Forest camp and cave goals now unlock in order, and camp discovery is independent of actually clearing it.
- Party UI. A dedicated Party panel and companion equipment donations arrive, with seated companion artwork.
Hint: Defeat 25 enemies in the starting forest to discover the rescue camp, then 25 more to discover the cave. Defeating the final camp guard while alive recruits the companion once; leaving or dying first loses that chance for the run.
- Three save slots. The startup screen offers three independent slots with character, gear, and level previews; empty slots open the character editor.
- Save browser. F11 supports named saves, cloning, renaming, loading, and hold-to-delete with cursor progress.
- Progress history. L opens the latest 100 notifications with timestamps, alongside compact stacked toasts.
- Wolf crafting quest. The first wolf pelt unlocks the wolf-hide recipe line.
Hint: Use separate slots for experiments, and export a backup before importing or deleting. The progress log opens at the newest entry; scroll up for earlier events.
- Squeakwood exploration and goblin camp. Defeating 100 goblins in Squeakwood unlocks a repeatable overland raid with 24 goblins and two shamans.
- Totem Embark menu. A compact totem menu replaces destination signposts and lists roads, explorations, and discovered dungeons.
- Riverbend expands. Southern cottage lanes, a working smithy, coherent paths and gardens, and shops that open immediately on click.
- Mining and the Infested Mine. Pickaxe mining, iron and sapphire seams, a mining animation, and a new mine quest.
- Sapphire Wand. The first Sapphire auto-accepts a discovery quest; claiming it unlocks the Sapphire Wand recipe.
- Quality of life. Poison status art, healing refills at the totem, rare poison fang spearheads, a 1% goblin sandals drop, centered F1 help and J quest journal, and backpack drag-and-drop.
Hint: The village goblin camp is a repeatable raid; its shamans can drop the Goblin Keep Iron Key. Skull hits stun movement and attacks for one second, so keep moving. For the Sapphire Wand, bank five Sapphires and one Nice Stick before claiming the quest.
- Riverbend. A riverside town at the end of River Road, with a quest board and playable village contracts for collection and timber recovery.
- Finite River Road. The route gains a saved identity, delayed challenge waves, and spider and archer encounters.
- Challenge quests. Riverbend offers the 48-enemy Clearing the Road challenge, with help labels and recall on abandonment.
- Progression feedback. A character XP meter and queued progression notifications appear in the HUD.
Hint: Repair the village bridge by completing Clear the Road before expecting River Road to open. Riverbend's board offers repeatable work; challenge quests temporarily change the world, so read the red Challenge quest label.
- Boots and footwear. Boots, sandals, and wooden shoes become equipment with movement bonuses, crafting recipes, village stock, and rare goblin drops.
- Player levels. Every enemy grants personal XP; each level gives +10 maximum HP and one talent point.
- Spearhead crafting. Spears take a material ingredient, and crafted spears are named after the spearhead used.
- Spiders and spider riders. New mounted enemies use spears, bows, poison bites, web roots, and silk drops.
- Off-road loot. Rewards are collected and reclaimed between outings.
Hint: Spider riders share one health pool with their mount, and their bites poison. Webs root you but do not stop attacks; successive roots get shorter, followed by five seconds of immunity. Collect Spider Silk for crafting.
- Wolves and wolf gear. Rare aggressive wolves with 40 HP appear in the forest. Their pelts craft a Wolf Hide Hat, Armor, and Boots with cold resistance.
- Combat talents. Enemy-level skill XP and spendable combat talents arrive, later reworked into personal talents.
- Save browser. F11 adds a save browser with loading and new-game slots.
- Road challenge rules. Clear the Road must be finished in a single outing, and survivors scatter once the ogre dies.
Hint: A wolf can end a fresh character quickly. Bring a club and wooden shield, train both skills, and keep a bandage ready. Every wolf drops a pelt worth 25 gold or a fur craft.
- Browser distribution. A compact WebAssembly build of the game, with browser saves and TOML export/import controls.
- Village storage and bulk crafting. A storage sack adds backpack capacity, and recipes gain 1, 10, and Max quantity controls.
- Repairable bridge and river road. Completing Clear the Road repairs the bridge and opens the river route. Forest logging ambience follows trade restoration.
- Exploration log. Areas and exploration progress are tracked in the quest log, with the current area shown above tracked quests.
- Bow handling and speed. Equipping a bow atomically stows a conflicting shield and weapon, and all movement speeds increase by 50%.
Hint: Play the browser build in a desktop browser; saves live in that site's local storage, so export a TOML backup before clearing browser data. Equipping a bow automatically stows incompatible gear.
- Expanded cave expeditions. Cave passages and encounters expand, and the layout rerolls each expedition.
- Centipedes. Ranged cave centipedes fire venom projectiles and apply timed poison.
- Gold and the village shop. Saved gold, rare coin drops, a coin icon, and a shop selling a Hatchet and plain clothing.
- Cave boss reward. The cave boss quest grants a bonus progression point alongside its recipe.
Hint: Caves are fresh each entry, so do not expect the same route twice. Centipedes punish standing still; bring a ranged weapon or close quickly. Inside the shop, right-click backpack items to sell them.
- Quest board and Clear the Road. Squeakwood's board offers the road challenge; accepting it doubles the road's goblins and adds an ogre and escort near the forest.
- Trade restoration. Defeating the ogre restores village trade and rewards a talent point, later converted to shared adventure points.
- Quest handling. Quests can be abandoned, and offers appear in a centered board.
- Inventory Sort. The Sort button merges matching stacks and packs items into consecutive slots.
Hint: Clear the Road only requires the ogre kill, but dying or leaving the road resets unfinished challenge progress. Finish it in one outing. Survivors stop fighting and scatter after the ogre falls.
- Sawmill loop. The village sawmill gains a working worker, lumber piles, a connected timber dock, and downstream logs.
- Village terrain. The square, roads, and quest board are aligned and dressed with connected timber.
Hint: The sawmill starts stopped. Complete Clear the Road to restore trade, then watch the waterwheel, saw, and log-tossing loop come alive.
- Healing supplies rework. The healing panel uses five carried charges, with clearer status text instead of healing particles.
- Animation pass. Approved two-pose player, goblin, and animal animations, plus fixes for exploration facing, supplies, and wall occlusion.
Hint: Healing stock is limited per outing and refills when you rest at a totem. Save charges for emergencies rather than topping off after every fight.
- Modular player artwork. A living player rig with fitted arms and a corrected two-handed bow pose.
- Squeakwood square. Cottages, flowers, chickens, and Old Rowan's dialogue built out the village square.
- Seeded caves. Cave layouts are seeded and transient world state resets on load.
- Ranged magic. Magical staffs and wands now work as ranged weapons.
Hint: Talk to Old Rowan in the square; he explains the road quest and points you to the board.
- Bandage healing. Goblins drop Cloth Scraps; five craft a Filthy Bandage. Equip it in the healing slot, then left-click to queue or right-click for automatic use.
- Find Civilization. A new tracked starting quest sends you 300 steps down Goblin Road to a village and a new totem.
- Village settlement. The end of Goblin Road gains two houses, a totem, and the first settlement.
- Exploration and tooltips. The exploration HUD gains destination progress tooltips, and recipe and equipment tooltips appear. Unlearned recipes stay hidden.
Hint: Follow Goblin Road for 300 steps, then complete Find Civilization from the J quest log. Bandages only heal outside combat; automatic use waits for the strict low-health threshold.
- Weapon skills. Weapon classes and use-based skills arrive, with clubs, axes, spears, staves, shields, bows, magic staffs, and wands leveled by use.
- Automatic travel and return. T returns to the totem beside crafting, and destinations can be set to automatic repeat runs.
- Cave and HUD improvements. Cave encounters return automatically after collection, and HUD actions move to a responsive button stack.
Hint: Weapons train when they land hits; shields train on successful blocks. Right-click a totem destination to enable automatic runs, and press T to cancel and return.
- Crafting unlocks. The first death triggers Arm yourself. Collect three Nice Sticks and complete the quest manually to unlock totem crafting.
- Quest log. A tabbed quest log supports event-triggered quests, optional tracking, and manual completion.
- Boss rat and wildlife. Entering the cave starts Defeat the boss rat, which drops a Sharp Fang. Fleeing rabbits and foxes join the forest.
- Editable saves. Saves become human-readable TOML with save-based verification guidance.
Hint: Crafting is locked until you complete Arm yourself in the J quest log. The Spear recipe is known from the start; combine three Nice Sticks with a Sharp Fang for a 5-damage Sharp Fang Spear. Rabbits flee, so craft a bow before hunting them.
- Totem journeys and fist combat. Totems become travel hubs, with seamless journeys, respawn, and fist combat.
- Forest of Many Squeaks. Forest exploration with wildlife, gathering materials, caves, and finite exploration progress.
- Forest wildlife. Rabbits, foxes, and other animals wander, leave hides, and can be hunted. Sticks gathered on the ground can yield Nice Sticks.
- Cave mouths. Cave entrances are cut into rocky cliffs and connected to the forest.
Hint: Foxes can be fought with starting fists; rabbits are fast and need a bow. Sticks have a 5% chance to be a Nice Stick, so gather every one you can reach. Use T to return to the totem.
- Combat. Player and goblin melee, health bars, death animations, sticky targeting, range indicators, and blood effects.
- Goblins and archers. Goblins pursue and charge; goblin archers add ranged pressure.
- Endless road journey. A streamed Goblin Road with encounters, scenery, and return travel.
- Classes and speed. Knight and ranger archetypes are the first playable characters (later replaced by the exact character editor). Hold F for 5x speed in this build.
Hint: Targeting is automatic and sticky: the nearest eligible enemy stays selected until it dies, leaves range, or is obstructed. Goblins detect you within five tiles and charge faster than you walk.
- Project foundation. Isometric terrain, layered cliffs and trees, a playable character with tile pathfinding and collision, and early ground occlusion.
- Art pipeline. The isometric terrain atlas, edge transitions, and GIMP-based world art establish the pixel-art direction.
Hint: This is the first prototype; there is no save format or progression yet.