v1.2.0 — Transparent Damage (Combat Stats panel + 4 fixes)

This update bundles a polish pass you've been asking for — you can now see every multiplier that built your drill damage — with four bug fixes from playtester feedback. No new zones yet, but a lot of things that were broken or opaque are now fixed and visible.

NEW — Combat Stats panel

Settings → STATS now opens a live readout of every stat feeding your damage: base, drill-tree multiplier, flat bonuses from artifacts / zone shops / Void Power, and the final number. A worked-example footer shows the formula evaluated at your current loadout in monospace — so when you buy a node, you can watch exactly which number changed.
The damage formula itself has been restructured under the hood. Your drill-tree nodes now stack multiplicatively (as they were described); flat bonuses from artifacts and zone shops stack additively. If your post-update damage looks different, this is why — and the panel shows you the math.

Bug fixes

• Event achievements now count. Mid-dive events were firing visually but never incrementing the counter. "Event Horizon" / "Event Hunter" / "Storm Chaser" / "Tempest Rider" are reachable again. Events you trigger from this update forward count toward the achievement — past events weren't recorded because the counter wasn't running, so this effectively resets the total to your new baseline.
• Ascension achievements backfill. "First Ascension" / "Ascending" / "Transcendent" / etc. now track lifetime ascensions instead of current-cycle. If you've already earned them across previous Transcendences, they'll fire on load.
• Deep Dive gate tightened. The Void "Depth Sense" upgrade was letting you Deep Dive in zones whose final boss you hadn't beaten. It now only opens DD in zones you've cleared — still a strong upgrade (DD in any cleared zone without clearing all five), but no longer a progression skip.
• Heart of the Ocean is obtainable. The 0.2% drop rate was making g5 effectively impossible. It now unlocks on your first full Transcendence. If you've already transcended, it'll appear in your Artifacts on next load. (The forge recipe for it still exists as an alternative path.)
• Transcend can't be spam-clicked. During the 2-second Transcend overlay, the button was still clickable — each extra click added another Void Core reward and another Transcension count. The button is now properly locked for the duration of the animation, and the confirm modal closes once the transition starts. Shoutout to the player who flagged it.

Artifact pity, expanded

All Epic and Legendary artifacts — including Primordial Scale, Heart of Kelp, Abyssal Eye, Abyss Heart, Core of the Vent, Sunlit Pearl, and every zone's rare drops — now have hard pity at 30 treasure opens. If you open 30 treasures without an Epic-or-better drop, the next one is guaranteed Epic+. The Artifacts panel shows a new "Next Epic+" bar so you can see where you stand.
This complements the existing kill-count / treasure-count pity which already guaranteed some artifact — the new bar specifically guarantees tier.

Artifact tiles show why they're locked

Artifacts you can't obtain from normal treasure now explain how to get them:

• Heart of the Ocean → first Transcendence
• Deep Dive artifacts (Pressure Crystal, Depth Anchor, Abyssal Lens, Void Compass) → reach 100m in Deep Dive

No more wondering whether a locked tile is gated by progress or just bad luck.

Under the hood

• Settings menu reorganized into eight sections (AUDIO / VIDEO / GAMEPLAY / KEYBINDS / INTERFACE / STATS / HELP / DATA). Everything that was there is still there, just organized.
• Monochrome UI sweep — emoji replaced with brand-consistent glyphs throughout.
• All UI / gameplay changes verified in the Godot runtime before shipping.

Save compatibility

Fully backward-compatible. Existing saves auto-migrate. Legacy pity counters hydrate the new Epic-specific counter to 0; achievement backfill runs on load; g5 is granted to any save that has already Transcended.
Thanks for playing. Keep sending feedback — the event counter, ascension achievements, and DD gate all came from players flagging them. The Heart of the Ocean fix is for everyone grinding for the last tile in the Artifacts panel.

Launch sale ends Monday 2026-04-27

v1.2.0 is live during the final 5 days of the launch discount. 33% off through Apr 27.

If you're enjoying it

A Steam review helps us reach the 10-review visibility threshold — the single biggest thing any one player can do to help other deep-sea grinders find TideWane. No incentives, just an ask.

— goneIdle