A larger update this round: a new combat safety net, an NPC progression overhaul, a localization catch-up across five languages, and a long list of UX papercuts squashed.
Last-Stand Cap. If you start a combat round above 50% HP, no incoming damage will drop you below 1 HP this round. You always get one more turn to react instead of dying to a bad-luck double-crit from a god or a pile-on from three monsters. Excluded for Nightmare difficulty and PvP, where you opted into the harsh experience.
Monster Evasion Now Works. When a monster turns Incorporeal, takes Flight, Vanishes, or ducks into an Ink Cloud, your next swings actually have a chance to miss. The flavor text was firing for years but the mechanic was never connected to the damage path.
Voidreaver Hungering Strike. Now reliably drains HP every hit, including on kills and when your HP is already full (you will see a "no drain absorbed" line in that case). Damage now scales with crit, Pain Threshold, and marked-target bonuses, so a 200-damage strike heals for 40 instead of 12.
Storm Eagle Pets finally do what their description claims: 10% lightning chip damage and a 15% stun chance on melee hits. Boss resist still applies. The eagle is now mechanically distinct from the Dire Wolf instead of a higher-stat clone.
Cancel Target Selection. Press Q at any combat target prompt to back out without spending mana, stamina, or your turn.
NPCs No Longer Suicide-Run Dungeons. Wounded NPCs head to the healer first; cautious NPCs hang around town. The flood of "slain at the Dungeon" entries in the world news feed should drop substantially.
Team Dungeon Survival. The NPC team-dungeon path had a 71% death rate. Same self-preservation pattern as solo now applies: leader health and personality gates, smarter floor selection, better flee logic.
NPC Progression Loop. Rebalanced action weights so NPCs actually shop, train, and level up instead of wandering between the inn and the dark alley forever.
Floor Targets Lowered and Partial XP on Flee. A data-driven follow-up after telemetry showed mid-level NPCs were fighting through 70% HP loss and fleeing with zero reward. NPCs now target floors 3 to 5 levels below their own, and fleeing with at least 30% of monster HP whittled down grants partial XP (capped at half the full reward). Net effect: NPCs you remember actually advance instead of stalling out in their teens forever.
Pressure Plates Puzzle now asks you to enter the plate sequence (matching the wear-pattern hints) instead of resolving via a generic Intelligence check. It is a real puzzle now.
Wilderness Monsters use abilities appropriate to their species. Feral Cats no longer take flight. Trolls regenerate, zombies count as undead for Turn Undead, krakens grab, sirens charm, wyverns breathe fire. (They were inheriting random dungeon-monster behavior on top of the wilderness name.)
A large translation pass landed across five languages.
Honorable Duels. Duel from the street no longer counts as murder. No daily murder-cap trip, no Darkness penalty, and the combat screen uses "HONORABLE DUEL" / "you meet on the field of honor" framing instead of the "COMBAT! You attack..." assault wording.
Player-Immortal Worship. Sacrificing gold to a player-immortal at the Temple now moves your Faith faction standing and Chivalry the same way elder-god sacrifices do. The Status screen inside the sacrifice menu also recognizes player-immortal worshippers (it was showing "no god" before).
Achievement Timing. Stat-based achievements (Shopaholic, Big Spender, level milestones) unlock at the moment you cross the threshold instead of deferring to your next combat. No more popping a Shopaholic notification mid-fight against a Sprite.
NPC Story Choices. Pip the orphan thief (and three other memorable NPC encounters) now use numbered hotkeys [1]/[2]/[3] instead of asking you to type the full word like forgive or mentor.
Echo Overflow Warning. If your party is full of companions when you head to the dungeon, recruited player echoes used to silently fail to load. You now get a visible warning at recruit time AND a yellow "X echoes couldn't join" line at dungeon entry, plus a hint on how to make room.
Recruit Gold Leak Fixed. A race condition where re-recruiting the same teammate could drain your gold without adding to the team. The recruit reference now re-resolves against live data at the moment of purchase.