# The Homestead Update
Your world is no longer just yours to dig — it's yours to *live in*. This update turns the
player world into a real homestead: a cat who runs the place, neighbors who move in, farms
that grow, animals that need you, and food worth cooking. Plus a huge visual pass across the
whole game.
## Meet Snuggles (or whoever you hire)
- **Every homestead now has a companion manager** — a talking cat who greets you, handles your
affairs, and can be renamed and reskinned. 9 cat variants to choose from... or a **Grey
Bunny, Black Lab, Dalmatian, Golden Retriever, Dogo Argentino, or Rottweiler**. (The voice
stays the cat's. We don't make the rules. Okay, we do.)
- Your companion is a **night protector**: it hunts the monsters that stalk your world after
dark — and *you* get the XP and loot.
- It lives a little life: stretching, grooming, napping in furniture you craft for it — cat
beds, a climbable cat tower, a pet bowl, a carrier. Leave a plain crate out and, well...
if it fits, it sits.
- When expedition loot is waiting, your companion **bounces around under a big "!"** so you
can see it from across the yard. Dogs bark. Obviously.
## Housing: your world gets neighbors
- **Build real rooms and NPCs move in.** A valid room needs walls, a door, a table, a chair,
and a light source. Your companion's new **"Who lives here?"** menu finds your rooms, tells
you exactly what's missing, and lets you invite residents.
- **The Miner** will move in once you've earned his trust (complete his quest line) — and a
housed Miner means **mining expeditions**: send him off with provisions and he returns with
ore, no pickaxe required. **Farmer Bramble** can join you too.
- Housed NPCs bring their shops and dialog with them. Break their room and they'll move out —
no hard feelings, they just need a roof.
## Farming got real
- **Crops now visibly grow** through five stages instead of teleporting from sprout to done —
wheat, herbs, and vegetables, plus three new crops: **corn, tomato, and pumpkin**.
- **Fruit trees!** Plant apple, berry, and pear saplings. Harvest a fruiting tree with any
tool and it re-fruits on its own; chop it with an axe and you get your wood *and* your
sapling back.
- **Planting is what-you-see-is-what-you-get**: a full ghost preview shows exactly where your
crop or tree will stand — green for good, red for no.
- Dress the farm: scarecrows, hay bales, produce crates, and harvest baskets are all craftable.
## The Ranch
- **Chickens and cows!** Buy them from Farmer Bramble, place them anywhere on your homestead,
and pick them back up whenever you want to rearrange.
- Keep the **feed trough** stocked with wheat and they produce eggs and milk. **Pet them once
a cycle for double yield.** (They visibly appreciate it.)
- Kuessaria is a kind place: an unfed animal simply *pauses* — nothing ever starves, sickens,
or suffers. Come back whenever; they'll be happy to see you.
## Food that matters
- **Eating good food now grants combat buffs** — Cooked Meat sharpens your strength, Berry Pie
hardens your defenses, and a proper Feast Platter turns you into a problem.
- New recipes: **Fruit Tart, Baked Pear, Hearty Pie, Roasted Corn, Harvest Stew, Omelette,
and Warm Milk** — the whole farm-to-table chain is live (boars finally drop Raw Meat, too).
- A new **buff bar** shows your active effects with timers, and item tooltips tell you exactly
what everything does before you eat it.
## Combat & bosses look the part
- **Boss health bars**: every named boss gets a proper screen-top frame — segmented health,
damage chips, phase markers, and a bar that burns from gold to red as things get serious.
- **Boss loot arrives in a treasure chest** that glows with the rarity of what's inside and
cracks open at your feet. Your placed storage chests got the same beautiful art — and
everyone can see the lid open when someone's rummaging.
- **Spells have their own look now**: icy comets, venom globs, radiant halos, spinning knife
glints — no more palette-swapped fireballs.
- **Your tools show in your hand** — pickaxe tiers are readable at a glance, and swinging one
uses your character's real animation.
- **The Gold Depths finally shows its monsters**: golden skeletons, hulking orcs, and floating
eyes replace the recolored zombies. Same fights, real faces.
- **Night on your homestead got a bestiary**: skeletons, drifting wisps, spell-slinging witch
ghosts, and a suspicious cat-shaped slime now prowl alongside the shamblers.
## Make your character yours
- **Character creation now has an appearance picker**: 5 skin tones and **21 hairstyles** with
a live preview. No more armies of identical adventurers.
- **Legendary gear finally looks legendary** — unique silhouettes for top-tier weapons, armor,
and capes, plus all-new inventory icons for every piece of equipment and all 31 skills.
- **New light sources you can wear**: craft a Miner's Helm or a hip Lantern and keep your
hands free for the pickaxe (or the sword) in the dark.
## A world more alive
- **Every NPC has been recast** with proper full-size sprites and painted dialog portraits.
(They also stand *on* the ground now. They'd been floating slightly for months. Nobody
noticed. We're not proud.)
- **An emote wheel!** Hold G and say it without saying it — ten emotes, visible to everyone
around you.
- **Birds.** They perch, they peck, they flee when you sprint at them. Look out for the rare
pink ones.
- Quest markers pulse, gold coins spin, stunned enemies see stars, poison drips, doors look
like doors (long story), and seven new building material sets — cobblestone, slate,
plaster, timber frame, and more — are ready for your next build.
## Fixes worth mentioning
- Fixed crops freezing forever if you visited your mine while they grew.
- Fixed boars not dropping Raw Meat despite their best intentions.
- Fixed boss loot chests vanishing without their opening moment.
- Fixed furniture placement mirroring, chest icons, planting alignment, and a small army of
other paper cuts.
Now go home. Someone small and furry is waiting for you.