Seasons and moons
The calendar now has four seasons and a moon that waxes and wanes. The date carries on from one hero to the next, and a new world begins on the first day of spring.
A running record of changes, additions, and fixes shipped to Ethernalis. Most recent release first.
The calendar now has four seasons and a moon that waxes and wanes. The date carries on from one hero to the next, and a new world begins on the first day of spring.
Searching for herbs and bugs stops in winter and is best in summer. Forest rooms offer Forage Mushrooms in spring and autumn, and surface fishing has half its chance in winter. A stripped room does not recover out of season.
Forest herbs die back in winter and return in spring. Large forests grow Wild Mushrooms each autumn, caves grow more mushrooms in autumn, and forests hold more wolves in winter.
Berries, apples, Shrooms and Dark Mushrooms are found only in their seasons, by foraging or lying in rooms, and twice as often at their best. Brown Bears and Cliff Vipers sleep through winter, Giant Wasps are gone in winter, and Snowberries are best in winter.
On full moon nights you can Forage by Moonlight at the Forest Shrine and the Glade of Standing Stones, and the Walking Dead rise in larger crypts.
On the surface, winter makes you colder and summer warmer. The temperature bar and the sleep screen show the season and the phase of the moon, and seasonal cards and actions say when they are in season.
The Undead Acolyte remains in the Chapel after the ritual. His optional errands teach you to establish an indoor claim and install a Hooded Wall Lamp, then send you after three portal fragments through increasingly difficult tasks. Return to him between stages and follow the journal instructions.
Craft an Ancient Portal from three Portal fragments. It works above ground and underground, reaches any mapped hex including water, and needs no food rations or journey time. The portal stays at its origin and creates no return portal.
A home base now draws visitors every 60 to 140 turns, even while you are away: travellers, people who want to join you, raiding parties and beasts. Raiders march on your core room and fight your residents, and a report of what happened waits in your log when you return.
A visitor waits where they arrived, goes looking for food only when hungry or thirsty, and moves on after 80 turns unless you hold a contract or errand from them.
After food and drink, an NPC asks for the gear its calling needs: a weapon, armour, a shield, a helmet, gloves, boots, an amulet or a ring. Rangers ask for a ranged weapon and ammunition, and casters for a scroll. The NPC keeps and uses what you bring, so each errand makes it stronger.
NPCs now gain the stats of a ring and an amulet they carry. A caster without a spell learns one from an attack scroll you give it. An errand takes a spare from your pack before anything you wear, and never an item held for a contract.
Ordinary contracts must now be returned within 300 turns, with more time for tougher targets and rarer items, up to 900. Time away and region travel count. A contract that runs out of time fails and its giver loses 15 loyalty toward you, at once if they are with you and otherwise when you next meet.
Someone holding your contract no longer wanders off while you are away from the dungeon.
The Forge upgrade now accepts the Coal that mines give. Coal gives off coal dust, an unpleasant smell.
Some enchanted gear now grants a spell while worn, or holds charges of one that refill over time. Charges cast without a spellcraft roll but still cost mana and an Action Point. The spell is named in the item's title.
Each Cooking Guide now teaches one tea, named on its cover, and names the mushroom variety to brew it from. Which variety that is depends on the world. Reading the guide identifies that variety and pays 10 XP, and closing the book uses it up.
The Info screen of a location lists every card an action can give, with the chance of each on a success.
The Info screen of an item has an R tab listing the recipes that make it, beside the U tab for the recipes that use it.
Recipes are listed alphabetically under large letters, with arrows to skip to the previous or next letter. Pinned recipes come first, then the recipes you can craft now.
Armour now covers helmets, boots and gloves, and Jewellery covers rings and amulets. New Tools and Upgrades filters gather tools and workstations, and location, weapon and armour improvements.
The room panel on the map scrolls when its list is long.
Clay can also be collected with a bucket at the Underground River.
Some caves have a Cave Mouth beside them, in the Ancient Dungeons, Mountain Edge, the Northern Wilderness and the Northern Forest. It leads into a small cave of two to five rooms. You leave the way you came in. Rarely it is Ancient Ruins, which lead into a dungeon instead.
Every settlement room has something to search, and most hold goods to steal. Stealing trains your Stealing proficiency, and a failed attempt can alert enemies you were hidden from. Traits that like or dislike stealing change your Comfort.
Slime mould often grows into a Fervent Fungus, which can found a colony that grows from a Spore Patch to a Fruiting Heart. It needs Rot and Rotten meat to grow, and its members are weak to fire.
Ratians now roam Ancient Dungeons and Mountain Edge, and can found a Warren that grows into an Underhold and a Citadel. Caged Prisoners pay 50 gold when freed.
Ratian Forges, Racks, Benches and Stills make real gear. Soldiers wear it and the rest is yours to take. A workshop in a room you claim works for you.
Fungus and Troglodytes fight on sight, and Ratians fight Fungus, Troglodytes and Goblins. Rivals in a room fight every turn, and settlements attack rival rooms first.
Troglodytes can found a camp in a cave and grow it into a Village. Their works and trophies cost you Comfort and recovery, and figurines cost Comfort even when carried.
Goblins found a Hideout that grows into a Stockade and a Warcamp, with hidden snares, a gold-taxing Hoard and a Burrow that raises Raiders and Scroungers.
Bandits take over camps and watchtowers at Mountain Edge. Lookouts call the gang, a Toll Barrier buys safe passage, and killing bandits puts a bounty on you.
Leaders and workers stay home. Workers speed building and hunters count double when taking rooms.
Enemy settlements can take a room that holds your Claim Marker, destroying it. A new marker, or a normal claim once the room is clear, takes it back.
Enemies of level 1 or higher sometimes become inspired and can climb onto smaller cards in any room for 15 turns.
Cutting a Bound Traveller free pays 40 gold, and the gang remembers.
Faction loot can be crafted into traps, masks, scrolls and bowstrings. A loose Goblin Ear rots and draws rats.
Faction loot placed in a room's upgrade slots makes a hall that recruits that faction.
Shrines accept faction loot as offerings for 10 piety, a Forest Warden and a Road Reeve pay bounties, and a Toll Barrier takes an Outlaw's Mark instead of gold.
Parry, Sidestep, Brace, Catch Breath, Dash, Kick, Trip, Feint, Dirty Trick and Shield Bash are new. Every hero starts with three, and each costs an Action Point and stamina or mana.
Long Fangs, Venom Glands, Talons and Wing Fingers now teach Bite and Rend, body skills that ignore your weapon.
People you meet now keep a god and a devotion. Faith shapes how they regard each other and you, and zealots may attack heretics. Ask which gods they keep.
Martyrdom, weather, location action and element traits are new. Heroes roll far fewer material traits, and merchants only roll traits they can act on.
Larger recipes take several turns and need their tools every turn. Unfinished work can be resumed, and mishaps at the bench let you choose how to handle them.
A finished craft now appears in the action log with its picture, quality and stats.
Every hero starts in old boots and trousers. Discarding the Trousers always returns Rags, which make Bandages.
Many spells, Fire Protection, spider webs, dodges, critical hits and enemy deaths have new animations, and double hits show both strikes.
Burglars and Grave Ratians now pick pockets, and the Restless Brute, Buried Miner, Bound Custodian and Cellar Spiders now use their abilities.
Mana Shield now takes melee blows as well as arrows and spells.
Shooting enemies may spend a turn taking aim for a more accurate shot.
Forests of five or more rooms hold grazing Hares, Goats, Stags and Does, hunted by Wolves and Feral Hounds.
Roaming survivors now walk towards food and drink when they need it.
Fire, ice, acid, holy and dark spells now leave Burning, Freezing, Poisoned, Hallowed or Withering on an enemy that survives. Your Elemental proficiency sets damage and duration.
Archers, spitters and casters fire from where they stand, and heavy brutes land crushing blows.
Cold and heat now show as frost or flames round the edges of the screen.
The left column warns when you are hurt, hungry, cold, overburdened or about to lose your light, and lists your afflictions with turns left.
Messages that arrive together now appear once each.
Picked-up items fly into your pack. Options, Display can turn this off.
A hex now wears off an enemy that moves to another room.
Enemy archers carry a bow and arrows, and the Bandit Marksman a crossbow and bolts. A hit deals the archer's strength and a d6 plus the strength of the bow and the arrows, less your armour on the part struck. Throwers and swooping beasts deal their strength and a d6 at range, and the bolts of the Skeleton Cultist and Undead Shaman deal 4 dark damage.
A slain archer drops its bow and quiver. The rarer the archer, the better their quality and the more durability and arrows they keep.
Your shots fly from your card into the enemy's.
An enemy that wanders into your room while you sneak is checked against your Sneak as it arrives, the same roll as when you move. If the roll is within your Sneak, it does not notice you. An enemy already hunting you is not fooled.
Fire Protection, Protection from Evil, Protection from Elements, Cleansing and Meditation have new animations.
Enemies in your room take their turns one at a time, fastest first. Enemies with the same speed roll a d100 for their place, rolling again on a tie. A World Turn banner and a Turn Order panel show who acts and what each did. Cards cannot be used until your turn comes back; press Esc to skip ahead. Options, Display can turn this off.
An enemy that strikes several times in one turn writes each blow as its own entry in the action log, numbered (2 of 3), with its own roll.
Equipment that breaks is taken off and cannot be worn again until repaired. Cursed gear stays on. Broken armour no longer breaks again with every hit.
The inventory has a Quiver slot beside the ranged weapon, showing the ammunition you have equipped and how many shots are left.
A blow that burns a destiny point now takes your health to 0, and no enemy strikes you again that turn. The other enemies finish their turns before the Destiny Trial begins.
Armour and shields can be studded, lined and proofed for defence, warmth or resistance. Plating and proofing wear down as blows land.
Weapons can be sharpened, restrung or weighted with crafted improvements. Each belongs to one weapon, costs 1 Action Point to fit and wears away with use. Manage them on the Improvements tab of the Info screen.
Burning Oil, Blade Venom and Frost Oil coat a blade for a few hits, adding elemental damage and leaving Burning, Toxin or a slow behind.
Many more actions now make a sound, including gold, pick-ups, equipping, eating, torches, level-ups and several spells.
Item cards can be dragged into the Equipment tile, onto an empty compass space, onto your character or into an open container. A drag costs the same Action Points as the menu action.
A Heffith begins with a mutation and grows another each level, in six animal lineages. Every mutation gives and takes, and a committed lineage pays off most. The Mutations tab on the character sheet shows what could come next.
Carrying mutations costs Comfort and Charisma. A Heffith can pay experience to suppress one, and Blight fruit and the Stabilized Arcane Vial can mutate any character.
An Evil or Chaotic hero with a claim can press a badly beaten person into service as a companion, on 30% plus 10 per point of Charisma. Failure turns them hostile.
can now be chosen in any conversation, not only the first.
A character with the Thief perk can lift something an NPC carries for 1 Action Point. Being caught turns them hostile.
Resistance from race, mutations and runes now counts against enemy attacks wherever they land. Bone Ward and timed resistances no longer misbehave.
A lit torch in your pack burns for 2 more turns before it goes out.
A Small metal pot hung over a fire brews teas, broths and extracts from herbs, roots, mushrooms and food. Brews are found by experiment, smell of their ingredients and never change a character permanently.
Every mushroom species has five varieties with their own properties, dealt afresh in each world. Eating one identifies it, and the Forager perk identifies them all.
The changelog sits beside the key art, Recent Changes articles sit above Play, the Grimdark Shader can be switched before you start, and the opening film can be skipped. Play is available as soon as loading ends.
Aura of Light, Poisonous Ivy, Stone Skin, Ice Blast, Lightning, Veil of Shadows and Magic Trap.
NPCs form lasting opinions of one another and may chat, insult, avoid, fight or share items. Ask what someone thinks of the others. News of what you do travels by word of mouth between friendly NPCs.
Conversations can open a personal moment, such as a nightmare or a wound. Choose an approach: kind, honest, blunt or deceitful. Success raises loyalty and failure lowers it.
Dead residents leave remains and stay on the roster as Dead, freeing their room capacity.
A caster can swear to one of six schools through the Witch perk: Fire Mage, Ice Mage, Venom Mage, Dark Mage, Sentinel or Mentalist. Its spells are cast at 150% strength and other schools' spells at 50%.
follows Veteran and lets you wear a full harness without a Comfort cost.
Tomes for every proficiency can now be found. Harder scrolls need practice in their school.
is now a proficiency that improves with use. The Heffith Rogue and Drow Assasin start trained.
A weapon, shield or armour above your proficiency still works but gives half its benefit, and half again in the off hand. Tools and scrolls refuse outright.
The Dowsing Rod marks the exit towards the nearest water and the Divining Rod the exit towards the nearest enchanted or special card. A Witch crafts them from a Stick and a dream.
A Dirty Rag can be washed clean wherever you can bathe, the Lake now allows bathing, and bottled items can be emptied to keep the Empty Bottle.
Journal entries show portraits and unread markers. The trade post has category filters, affordability markers and keys: 1 to 9 to trade, Tab to change tab, Escape to leave.
Resource actions now have a local supply of about five finds per room, and one find returns every ten turns. Water, bathing and watering crops are unlimited.
Fifty-six actions that could never succeed now work, and actions show icons on the location card, greyed out when you cannot use them.
Rooms can be Overgrown, Unstable, Collapsed, Infested or hold a Fungal Bloom. Mountain Edge adds Loose Scree, Gale-Swept and Exposed Vein rooms, and the Northern Forest adds Storm-Felled, Webbed and Haunted rooms. Each changes the actions on offer.
Ore veins can appear in Excavated Dugouts and Abandoned Mines. Fresh excavations start Unstable and need shoring up with a hammer.
Powerful physical attacks can leave Deep Wounds, Fractures, Eye Injuries, scars or a missing limb. Bandages, splints, medicine and wound-care spells treat them.
Armour turns a would-be wound into a Bruise that lowers maximum Health for 12 turns. Scars cost maximum Health, and a face scar costs Charisma. Soothing Root Salve, Restoration and Rejuvenation remove them.
Healing potions and spells now stabilize a Deep Wound or amputation. Lay Hands, Regeneration, Cure Illness and Mend Bone each treat a kind of injury.
An Anvil, Loom, Kiln or other workstation works while carried or set down in the room. Anvils found in dungeons and Blacksmith rooms now count as forges.
Metal Fittings can also be made from Nails and an Iron Ingot, discarded Iron Ingots return Metal scrap, and the crafting list updates as soon as a workstation is to hand.
Enemies from spawners, encounters and settlements now always attack. Fourteen creatures that never moved now wander, twenty-one with zero speed now act, and merged Slimes keep the Noxious Ooze whole.
Floors and walls can be built from Improvements in interiors, ruins, mines and dry caves. Walls stop you and wandering enemies, and a pickaxe breaks through (3 hits for wood, 6 for stone). Projects hold the materials you deposit until the work is done.
Generated walls can hold hidden doors. Examine Walls to find the loose stone and Push Stone to open it. Skeleton keys no longer open locks through a wall.
Ghosts, phantoms, wraiths and wisps drift through built walls. The Apparition, Wraith and Arcane Wraith now roam their dungeons.
Bats and snakes have their own body parts to target, and hovering any part shows its hit chance, damage and severing cost.
Custom heroes now get racial bonuses and keep their chosen deity, and the creation form has been redrawn with previews and tooltips.
Level-ups open their own window comparing up to three paths. Pick with a click or 1 to 3, confirm with Enter, or decide later.
Interludes now respond to injuries, new levels, companions, hunger and quiet stretches, and the Journal lists your 40 most recent moments.
The Location Upgrade panel, dungeon map, full map, loading scenes and card text have been redrawn. The right-click menu stays on screen and selects its card, Ctrl and Shift clicks no longer flip cards, dungeon music repeats, and traps you dodge are logged correctly.
Sour Paste clears an infection from a wound but leaves you Diseased. Diseased now speeds hunger and thirst instead of slowing them, and a Rotspore Toadstool also makes you Diseased.
Every card now costs 1 Action Point to use, and a weapon's weight shows in its stamina cost. Many enemies attack two or three times a turn, and disarming a trap costs 1 to 3.
Pine Resin, Goat Hide, Coal, Copper Ore, linen and similar goods no longer rot. Bridges no longer join the areas on either side.
Craftable recipes are listed first, consumed ingredients are separated from reusable requirements, and each craft awards 10 to 50 experience. Craft Now no longer rejects a ready recipe.
The tutorial now has 36 lessons and a Restart Tutorial option, and it remembers your preference.
Contract progress is tracked per player, with clear gold and experience rewards, abandonment, and a 30-turn cooldown on repeat work.
Merchants use comfort-adjusted prices, keep gold reserves, restock over time and offer level-gated services. Displayed prices match what you pay.
Fittings, bindings, thread, bricks, glass, ingots and workshop tools no longer litter dungeon floors or merchant stock.
Bloody fights, filthy rooms, mining and excavation make you dirty, lowering Comfort and adding a 1% Fever risk when eating. Bathing and Soap clean you, and every deck except the Abandoned Mine has a bathing place.
now applies its illness or fever chance when eaten.
across all decks.
Enemies earn experience as they survive, improve their stats and unlock level-gated behaviours and equipment.
left alone grows into a random magical creature from the current deck. Some creatures can enter a full room by swapping places with a small loose object.
Build connected territory with residents, services and permanent upgrades. A Claim Marker costs 50 unspent experience, 2 timber, 2 masonry, 1 textile or leather and 1 light source, and shows what it still needs.
Fast travel picks the right settlement or biome deck, the world map matches fast-travel ranges, and Tower travel handles Warden Keys and party transitions.
Ranged ammunition works from the first inventory slot, Action Points update when Dexterity, Perception or Psyche change, tree harvesting works correctly, and defeated enemies no longer block a claim.
tell more varied accounts of each settlement's fate.
Brightness, gamma, contrast, saturation and optional film grain can be adjusted and are remembered.
Improvements to the companion screen, card dragging, tooltips, the compass, context menus, the perk tree and crafting speed.
An equipped melee weapon's elemental damage now applies only to melee attacks. Firing a bow no longer adds the elemental damage of a weapon held in reserve. A character's own elemental strength still applies to both melee and ranged attacks.
Visiting a shrine at neutral piety no longer spends its one-time blessing. A shrine only consumes its visit when a blessing or wrath actually fires, so it stays available until piety is high or low enough to have an effect.
Completing an NPC quest that plays a reward scene now grants the loyalty and experience it should. These were previously skipped when the reward triggered an event.
NPCs no longer consume room fixtures, enemies, or containers. Eating and complaint messages appear only when the player shares the NPC's room, distant direction text is correct, and a fleeing NPC now reports its state.
Negative elemental resistance now only amplifies incoming damage when the attacker actually deals that element. Ordinary physical attacks no longer gain phantom Divine or Dark damage from a wrath penalty.
Ongoing wrath penalties are applied once per turn instead of stacking repeatedly during repeated combat calculations.
The slow loss of faith now stops at zero. Only offenses against a deity can push piety below zero into wrath.
Player charisma now affects NPC loyalty in two ways. First impression: initial loyalty at NPC generation is offset across the normal Charisma 1-6 range. Charisma 6 adds +10 to a first meeting, while Charisma 1 subtracts 10. A high-charisma player meeting a Wounded NPC (base loyalty 70) will find them immediately willing to join (80+), while a low-charisma player may start from near-zero with a Rival. Quest rewards: loyalty gained from completing quests and mini-quests is scaled across the same range. Charisma 1 grants half loyalty, Charisma 3-4 stays near normal, and Charisma 6 grants 50% more. The log message after a mini-quest now shows the actual charisma-scaled gain.
Accepted mini-quests now appear in the journal and disappear cleanly when completed. Their journal text has also been rewritten as a first-person promise.
Mini-quests now correctly recognise suitable items carried in the player inventory, allowing delivery and feeding requests to be completed.
NPCs no longer pick up stairs, containers, locations, or event cards. Pickup messages are shown only when the player is close enough to witness them.
Cosy, Hothead, and Executioner now grant their intended benefits to the correct characters.
Previously inactive perks now grant their described benefits. This includes combat bonuses, sprinting, creature taming, scroll discoveries, nearby enemy warnings, and specialist crafting access.
Dungeon titles now appear when entering a mine, laboratory, ruin, or other connected dungeon for the first time.
Connected dungeons reached via exit cards are now named according to their position on the region map. Within 150 px of a named settlement the dungeon takes a compound name, either Theme of Settlement (e.g. "Crypt of Holenholt") or Settlement Theme (e.g. "Holenholt Crypt"), chosen at random; multi-word themes always use the "of" form to avoid awkward labels. Beyond 150 px a distance bracket is appended: (Wilderness) past 300 px, (Deep Wilderness) past 500 px, (Frontier) past 1 000 px. Sub-dungeons keep the name of their entrance. Initial quests named on the world map are unaffected.
A character with destiny remaining can survive a fatal blow. One destiny point is spent, some health is restored, and the character is carried into one of three dangerous Destiny Trials. Dying again without destiny causes normal defeat.
Opening scenes now begin at the start of the turn, so Destiny Trials and similar encounters present their first choice immediately.
Villages and towers now depend on whether the settlement survived. A corrupted one is a hostile dungeon as before. A surviving one is a peaceful map with no enemies and 3 to 5 NPCs.
Village NPCs have their own portraits and family names, and may mention each other when asked for news. Towers favour survivors, emissaries and the wounded.
need no Warden Key.
A new interior deck unlocked near Tower settlements: 6 by 6 floors of arcane rooms with 13 new locations and 7 new enemies, including the Tower Warden and the boss Tower Sorcerer.
Each staircase is locked until you defeat the Tower Warden for its key. New loot: Runic Crystal, Arcane Tome and Ancient Arcane Seal. Tower interiors have no weather.