Update 0.43: Heart Tree Reforged & Leviathan Rising

Update 0.43 is now live!

Update 0.43 is now available for both the full game and demo.

This is one of our largest updates yet. The centerpiece is a complete rebuild of the Heart Tree, designed to improve the early game and make long-term builds much easier to understand and plan. The old global Core Level tax is gone, progression is now divided into four distinct trees, and early upgrades are more accessible.

Because the structure and economy have changed so substantially, every repeatable Heart Tree upgrade has been reset and fully refunded. Existing saves migrate automatically, and no invested Aether Seeds are lost.

Beyond the Heart Tree, 0.43 introduces the optional Leviathan Battlecarrier superboss, two new special Rift Trials and two new skins, a redesigned Ultimate, 12 new relics, major pickup improvements, boss balance and presentation updates, and another broad late-game performance pass.

Important: Heart Tree Reset & Full Refund

• Existing saves migrate automatically the first time they are loaded in 0.43.
• Every repeatable Heart Tree upgrade has been reset.
• Every Aether Seed spent on those ranks is returned, including a reconstructed refund for the old global Core Level tax.
• Owned one-time upgrades - including the Core Jukebox, Permanent Relic Box, and Hidden Potential - remain unlocked.
• The Core displays your exact refund after migration. You do not need to delete or restart your save.

This reset gives everyone a clean opportunity to rebuild around the new trees without losing any permanent currency.

Heart Tree Reforged

The Heart Tree has been rebuilt into four separate paths:

• Attack: Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage.
• Defense: Max HP, Shield, Evasion, and Damage Reduction.
• Utility: Move Speed, Pickup Radius, XP Gain, Regeneration, and AOE Size.
• Special: Aether Seed rewards, Mastery Sprout rewards, the Core Jukebox, Permanent Relic Box, and Hidden Potential.

The new Heart Tree includes 61 nodes and 811 total ranks across its four paths.

• Upgrade prices now follow stable per-rank curves. Buying an upgrade no longer makes unrelated upgrades more expensive.
• Each tree tracks its own Tree Points, allowing players to see exactly how far they have invested into Attack, Defense, Utility, or Special.
• Child nodes require their parent, while deeper tiers require investment within that specific tree.
• True Apex upgrades require their parent to be fully ranked and provide powerful end-of-branch goals.
• Crit Chance and Evasion Apexes can now raise their respective runtime caps as well as the stats themselves.
• Early root upgrades start at much lower prices, making the first permanent upgrades faster and more meaningful.
• Hidden Potential now has a third rank, allowing the Pilot Mastery cap to reach level 35.
• The Heart Tree screen has been redesigned with separate tabs, a clearer graph, visible connections, prices, requirements, next-rank details, and affordability feedback.
• Controller navigation and hold-to-purchase behavior have been improved.
• The Power Summary, Stats Dashboard, Field Guide, and Glossary now explain the new tree structure and stats.

New Optional Encounter: Leviathan Battlecarrier

The Leviathan Battlecarrier is a new ship-scale optional encounter found in eligible full-game runs.

When the Leviathan arrives, it first clears the surrounding Voidborn and pauses the run clock and normal enemy spawns. Captain Voss then gives you a choice:

• Spend 75 banked Aether Seeds on five Rift Sigils, or purchase one or two relic offers priced by rarity.
• Leave peacefully and continue the run.
• Attack the Leviathan, with a second confirmation before committing to the fight.

If challenged, the Leviathan becomes an optional superboss built around dismantling its weapon grid rather than simply attacking the hull.

• Destroy all 20 weapon hardpoints: 12 point-defense turrets, four heavy batteries, two railguns, and two missile launchers.
• Railguns carve persistent danger lanes across the arena.
• Missile impacts leave temporary denial zones.
• At 50% total weapon health, the Leviathan enters a more aggressive second phase with faster, larger, and wider volleys.
• Defeating the encounter awards 400-500 Aether Seeds in packed pickups, 32 Mastery Sprouts, and three relic boxes. The first box is guaranteed to offer Legendary relics.

The Leviathan is excluded from the normal boss rotation and does not replace or advance regular boss progression.

Two New Special Rift Trials

Leviathan Broadside

• A level 31 special Rift Trial costing one Rift Sigil.
• Dismantle the Leviathan's full weapon grid while missiles and railguns divide the arena into kill lanes.
• Every clear guarantees 300 Aether Seeds as physical pickups.
• First clear unlocks Selene's new Leviathan's Bane pilot and ship skin.
• Repeat clears also award 100 banked Aether Seeds and 20 Mastery Sprouts.

Splitter Shatterline

• A level 23 Hard special Rift Trial costing one Rift Sigil.
• Retains the full Hard Splitter division tree, fracture storms, two-piece frenzy, and Sliver self-destruct attacks.
• Adds long-range railgun shots, paired crossfire blasts, and eight-second denial zones left behind by Slivers.
• First clear unlocks Dawn's new First Light pilot and ship skin.
• Repeat clears award 195 Aether Seeds and 15 Mastery Sprouts.

Rift Sigil Access

• Normal enemies now have a very small chance to drop a Sigil.
• Mini-boss drop chance has increased from 0.2% to 1%.
• Normal bosses now have a 5% chance to drop a Sigil.
• Relic boxes can now offer bundles of one, three, or five Sigils.

Ultimate Redesign: Meteor Strike

Meteor Strike has been redesigned to give players another answer when surrounded or pressured by flankers.

• Activating Meteor Strike now emits a close-range defensive shockwave around the player.
• The shockwave pushes nearby enemies away and slows them for 1.75 seconds.
• It interrupts committed attacks from normal enemies, including Flanker slashes, Phaser sweeps and dashes, Beam Caster charges, Bomber charges, Siegebreaker attacks, and Hopper leaps.
• Push and slow effects are reduced against elites and mini-bosses. Mini-bosses cannot be interrupted, and bosses are immune to the shockwave.
• The damaging meteor barrage still distributes impacts across nearby threats, favoring dangerous targets while covering the surrounding cluster.
• Meteor damage has been adjusted from 80 to 72 to account for the Ultimate's new defensive control.
• Ambient Ultimate charge spawns now occur every seven seconds instead of six, and enemy charge-drop chance has been reduced by 15%.

This gives players a deliberate escape tool without requiring them to stop attacking or wait for a movement opening.

12 New Relics

The relic pool has expanded from 39 to 51 relics, adding more ability transformations, scaling paths, defensive options, and meaningful tradeoffs.

Ability-transforming relics

• Helios Prism (Epic): Solar Lance refracts into two angled beams dealing 45% damage.
• Thorned Chalice (Epic): Every 25 Life Tendrils overhealing releases a volley of five homing thorns.
• Event Horizon Loom (Epic): Singularity Field periodically contracts, pulls harder, and deals a 2x damage tick.
• Resonant Fork (Epic): Every seven seconds, the next ability hit echoes after 0.3 seconds for 50% damage.

Scaling and tradeoff relics

• Ascendant Hourglass (Rare): +20% XP Gain; each level gained while held adds +2% Damage, up to +20%.
• Ghostfeather Charm (Rare): +5% Evasion; evading primes the next damaging hit as a guaranteed critical.
• Anchorite's Vow (Rare): -10% Evasion, -15% Damage Taken, and +20 Max HP.
• Impact Anvil (Rare): +45% Damage and -15% Attack Speed.
• Deadeye Shard (Epic): -60 Max Shield, +12% Critical Chance, and +60% Critical Damage.

Shield recharge relics

• Recharge Coupler (Uncommon): +25% Shield Recharge Rate.
• Phase Relay (Rare): -20% Shield Recharge Delay.
• Aegis Dynamo (Epic): +40% Shield Recharge Rate and -20% Shield Recharge Delay.

Shield Recharge Rate and Shield Recharge Delay are now fully supported player stats and appear in relevant stat displays.

Existing relic adjustments

• Voidstep Engine: Dash cooldown reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds; passive Ultimate charge changed from one every 10 seconds to one every 12 seconds.
• Capacitor Node: Passive Ultimate charge changed from one every eight seconds to one every 10 seconds.
• Overdrive Core: Passive Ultimate charge changed from one every six seconds to one every seven seconds.
• Overcharged Shield: Changed from +80 Max Shield/-10% Damage to +120 Max Shield/-18% Damage.
• Relic reward cards now have a more distinct reveal, clearer benefit and tradeoff labels, and improved stat descriptions.

In-Run Progression & Pickup Quality of Life

• XP Gain has been renamed XP Magnet and now combines XP Gain with Pickup Radius in a single five-rank upgrade.
• The separate Pickup Radius level-up upgrade has been removed, reducing redundant early choices and making utility builds easier to plan.
• Early AOE Size ranks have been strengthened so the upgrade feels more useful before reaching its later levels.
• Singularity Field now fires radiation beams at regular targets within range instead of reserving them for distant bosses or an empty field.
• Multiplicity now increases Singularity Field's simultaneous radiation beams, up to four targets.
• The selection confirmation lockout has been slightly increased to reduce accidental upgrade or relic choices during reveal animations.

Pickup range now applies consistently to:

• XP gems
• Aether Seeds
• Ultimate charge orbs
• Ultimate relic and overload pickups
• Field vacuum pickups

Magnetized pickups now accelerate based on both Pickup Radius and player movement speed. Once an item has entered your magnet range, high Move Speed should no longer let you outrun it and leave it trailing behind. Players should not need to stop or turn around to collect an item they have already pulled in.

Large Aether Seed rewards can also appear as packed 10x and 50x pickups with visible multiplier labels, reducing reward clutter.

Hard Mode Boss Order & Balance

Hard Mode now has a more deliberate difficulty curve. Normal Mode boss tiers are unchanged.

• Splitter Prime: Moved from Hard Tier 2 to Hard Tier 1. Its Hard stage health multiplier has been reduced from 1.50x to 1.25x for the earlier appearance.
• Starforge Core: Moved from Hard Tier 3 to Hard Tier 2, with Hard health adjusted for the new position.
• The Overlord: Moved from Hard Tier 1 to Hard Tier 3 and given additional Hard health.
• The damage dealt to Hard Overlord when a summoned mini-boss is defeated has been reduced to 1%/0.75%/0.5% of boss max health across phases 1/2/3, making the Tier 3 version more durable.

Aegis Colossus normal-run adjustments

• Normal-run health reduced by 20%. The Aegis Core Unbound trial retains its intended health.
• Normal radial-pulse safe gaps widened from 11 degrees to 14 degrees. Hard Mode remains at 11 degrees.
• During normal runs, the exposed-core punish window now remains open until players deal at least 18% of Aegis's max health, up to a 30-second cap. This gives lower-damage early builds a fairer opportunity to complete the cycle.
• Radial pulse telegraphs and damage bands have been made clearer, with improved repeat warnings.

Boss Presentation & Combat Readability

• Bosses now receive clearer phase-transition presentation from Phase II onward.
• The boss HUD displays PHASE II and PHASE III during transitions.
• Duelist and Starforge Core receive custom transition treatment, with a dedicated Phase III treatment for The Overlord.
• Standard boss defeats now use a longer destruction sequence with clearer visual effects, reward timing, and a victory fanfare. Dreadnought retains its custom defeat sequence.
• Added segmented Health and Shield status arcs around the player's ship.
• Status arcs fade when resources are full and pulse during low-health or shield-recharge states.
• Added a Player Status Arcs toggle under Video settings; enabled by default.

Late-Game Performance Pass

0.43 includes another broad optimization pass focused on late-game enemy density, projectiles, pickups, targeting, rendering, and save checkpoints.

• Enemy bodies, base sprites, and role overlays are now rendered in larger batches.
• Enemy movement, separation, player checks, and other high-frequency updates have been reduced or batched.
• Chain Lightning, Pulse Strike, Meteor Strike, Singularity Field, and other targeting paths now avoid excessive candidate scanning.
• XP gem updates and vacuum collection have been streamlined.
• Routine checkpoint serialization and disk writes now run asynchronously to reduce gameplay hitches. Critical lifecycle saves remain synchronous.
• Hidden UI and overlay state avoids unnecessary updates.
• The baseline late-game enemy ceiling has been reduced from 240 to 200. Boss 1 and Boss 2 target densities are unchanged, with the adjustment concentrated in the latest stages of a run. Late-game role pressure, empowerment, distance scaling, and surge modifiers remain active.

In our internal tests, the broad synthetic benchmark suite improved average throughput by approximately 14%, while a realistic heavy late-game workload on an older test laptop improved by approximately 19%. Results will vary by hardware and run state.

Additional UI, Audio & Polish

• Added Hero in the Dark to the boss music rotation and Jukebox.
• Added the new Victory Fanfare track to boss victories and the Jukebox.
• Gameplay music crossfades now use a smoother equal-power transition, avoiding the volume dip that could occur between tracks.
• Character Select now highlights bonus ability slots granted by Pilot Mastery.
• Achievement and Unlock category prompts now change between keyboard and controller hints based on the active input method.
• Controller hold actions in the Heart Tree and Rift Trials now suppress conflicting navigation input, preventing accidental movement or interrupted holds.
• Expanded the Stats Dashboard and Power Summary for new Heart Tree, cap, reward, and shield-recharge stats.
• Updated Field Guide and Glossary entries for Meteor Strike, Singularity Field, Tree Points, and the rebuilt Heart Tree.
• Updated English, French, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese text for the new systems and content.

Thank You

Thank you for all of the feedback that helped shape this update - especially around early permanent progression, build planning, flanker counterplay, pickup behavior, boss readability, and late-game performance.

Good luck rebuilding the Core, and choose carefully if Captain Voss offers you a peaceful exit.
~~~