THE PLAINS NOW GO UP TO T5. Three new steps in the portal, each one calibrated against the Legendary of the previous tier: T3 is meant for whoever finished T2's Legendary, and so on. Every tier has its own item art, and what drops there is stamped with that tier.
TOUGHNESS AND SPEED NO LONGER MOVE TOGETHER. Raising enemy health on a higher tier used to make them faster and hit harder as a side effect. Each one now has its own scale: T5 is far tougher to kill without the horde ever outrunning you. The tier's damage applies once, at the moment you take the hit.
RITUALS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RUN. Every four minutes an objective opens somewhere in the arena, with a timer and a bar at the top of the screen. There are three: a circle you have to stand inside until the bar fills, scattered spheres you push with your body into the circle, and a stain on the ground that only clears if you walk over it. Finishing one drops a chest; ignoring it costs nothing but the prize you did not take.
TWO NEW RITUALS.The Lost Crystals scatters fifteen crystals across the arena and asks for all of them, pulling you out of safe ground more than any other. The Runes of Order puts runes on the floor in a sequence you do not know: step right and one lights up, step wrong and they all flash red and go out, and you start over.
THE FIRST CHEST NOW SPAWNS WITH THE FIRST RITUAL. Both show up at the same moment, on opposite sides of the arena, and the ritual's timer won't let you do both: the run now opens with a choice instead of a checklist. After that the chest goes back to its usual
THE PLAINS NOW GO UP TO T5. Three new steps in the portal, each one calibrated against the Legendary of the previous tier: T3 is meant for whoever finished T2's Legendary, and so on. Every tier has its own item art, and what drops there is stamped with that tier.
TOUGHNESS AND SPEED NO LONGER MOVE TOGETHER. Raising enemy health on a higher tier used to make them faster and hit harder as a side effect. Each one now has its own scale: T5 is far tougher to kill without the horde ever outrunning you. The tier's damage applies once, at the moment you take the hit.
RITUALS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RUN. Every four minutes an objective opens somewhere in the arena, with a timer and a bar at the top of the screen. There are three: a circle you have to stand inside until the bar fills, scattered spheres you push with your body into the circle, and a stain on the ground that only clears if you walk over it. Finishing one drops a chest; ignoring it costs nothing but the prize you did not take.
TWO NEW RITUALS.The Lost Crystals scatters fifteen crystals across the arena and asks for all of them, pulling you out of safe ground more than any other. The Runes of Order puts runes on the floor in a sequence you do not know: step right and one lights up, step wrong and they all flash red and go out, and you start over.
THE FIRST CHEST NOW SPAWNS WITH THE FIRST RITUAL. Both show up at the same moment, on opposite sides of the arena, and the ritual's timer won't let you do both: the run now opens with a choice instead of a checklist. After that the chest goes back to its usual interval.
RITUALS NOW SCALE WITH THE PARTY, AND THE STAIN BECAME SLIME. The spheres are now five (they were three) plus one per player, with the timer going from 90 to 110 seconds; the stain gains four patches per player. And it stopped being made of squares: each patch now has an irregular shape, like actual slime on the ground.
THE RUNE RITUAL NOW STARTS WITH THREE. It was six, and alone you would miss halfway through and restart so many times that the timer ran out before your memory did. It is now three solo, plus one per player, up to six.
THE BOSS PAYS YOUR CLASS. The boss's guaranteed item now comes fitting the hero YOU played, in the type they wear. And the second roll grew: it is a 30% chance of three more items, those from any class.
GREEN AND RED ARROWS ON ITEMS. In the collection, the market and the forge, every piece now tells you at a glance whether it is better (▲) or worse (▼) than the one you already wear in that slot. It only shows on gear your hero can actually equip, and with an empty slot anything that fits counts as an upgrade.
MATERIAL FILTER IN THE MARKET. You can now list only mail, only leather or only cloth, both when buying and when selling. Half the shelf does not fit your class, and until now the only way to find out was opening one listing at a time. It defaults to Any material.
THE FORGE NOW LISTS ONLY WHAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY PICK. The blacksmith's list used to show your whole stash and grey out the invalid pieces with a reason next to each, which turned into a wall of grey. Now the first pick lists only what is neither equipped nor out on a run, and the second one lists only what truly matches the first. When nothing is left, the screen says why.
A CARD NOW SAYS WHEN IT LEVELS A WEAPON YOU ALREADY HAVE. It used to read "Arsenal 3/6" either way, which looked like it would take up another slot; now the plate turns green and shows the step it pays for ("Upgrade: level 3 → 4"). The slot count stays where it matters: on new weapons.
A CARD NOW TELLS YOU IT EVOLVES ONE OF YOUR WEAPONS. The card that is an evolution's requirement (Impact Wave for the Cyclone, say) now says so up front, and only when you actually own the weapon: Evolves your Fireball now if it is already maxed, or at level 8 if it still has to climb.
RITUAL SPHERES NOW BOUNCE OFF WALLS. Pushing a sphere into the edge of the map used to waste the push: it just stopped there. Now it hits and comes back, like a ball off a wall.
Fixes
CHESTS DROP GEAR AGAIN. They were supposed to yield a piece on 10% of openings since September 2nd, and yielded none: the vault refused the source before rolling, with no error anywhere. Fixed, and now with a test guarding it.
CHESTS, DROPPED GEAR AND RITUALS NO LONGER HIDE BEHIND ROCKS. They were drawn on the ground layer, and the arena art (rock, woods) draws above it: a chest behind a rock was a chest nobody found, and a piece dropped there was a piece lost. All of that now draws on top of everything.
RUNES NO LONGER SPAWN ON TOP OF ROCKS. A rune inside a pillar cannot be stepped on, and the ritual became impossible with the clock running. The circle now rotates until they all sit on clear ground, and the ritual's spot never lands on rock again.
THE GOAT WALL STOPPED SPAWNING ON TOP OF YOU. It was measured from the arena's center, so anyone standing near the edge it came from saw it appear a few steps away, already on screen and with no time to find the gap. It now backs off until it is out of everyone's view before it starts marching.
THE FOOL'S BET NO LONGER HIDES THE CARD THAT EVOLVES YOUR WEAPON. It drops from the deck the three cards that only ever come out common, and one of them was the requirement for the Fireball's evolution. The card that evolves a weapon you own now keeps showing up, even with the Bet active.
ESC CLOSED THE WRONG SCREEN. With two screens open, which one went away first depended on the order the game loaded things, not on what was on top. Now each screen has its turn.
THE HOST STOOD STILL INSTEAD OF FIGHTING FOR YOU. The creature raised by the Parasite's evolution was hunting and hitting on the server side, but on your screen it showed up frozen where it fell. It now chases the horde and fights where you can see it.