This update expands Cat Spirit RPG with a new parkour system, the completion of all six playable Domains, a major enemy progression overhaul, improved combat feedback, upgraded audio, new playtest activities, and significant changes to Spirit Energy and character attributes.
With the addition of Muse and Support, all 6 of the game's planned Domains are now integrated into the Closed Alpha Playtest.
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A new parkour system has been added, expanding traversal options throughout the world.
Players can now perform:
- Wall Running — Run horizontally across suitable vertical surfaces while maintaining momentum.
- Wall Jumping — Jump away from walls during traversal to reach new areas or transition between surfaces.
- Forward Ledge Vaulting — Vault forward over appropriate ledges and obstacles.
- Sideways Ledge Vaulting — Vault laterally across ledges while moving through the environment.
The Playtest map has also been expanded with areas designed specifically around these new traversal mechanics.
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All six planned Domains are now integrated and available within the Closed Alpha Playtest.
The addition of Muse and Support completes the current Domain lineup, allowing players to experiment with a much broader range of combat and character builds.
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The Muse Domain has been fully integrated into the Playtest.
Muse focuses primarily on ranged elemental combat, combining powerful elemental attacks with large area-of-effect abilities capable of damaging groups of enemies.
Muse introduces a ranged, ability-focused playstyle built around elemental damage and large-scale battlefield effects.
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The Support Domain has been integrated into the Playtest.
Support specializes in:
- Healing
- Buffing allies
- Debuffing enemies
- Cleansing harmful effects
- Restoring Spirit Energy
Support also introduces an entirely new Cat Tower system.
Support players can place specialized scratching-post-inspired towers throughout combat areas.
Tower placement includes:
- A placement ghost showing the tower's intended position before deployment.
- Invalid placement areas are clearly indicated in red.
- Towers can be manually rotated for more precise positioning around terrain and ledges.
- Towers placed within approximately 25 feet of an existing tower automatically snap into a tower stack.
- Stacked towers share a combined health pool.
- Tower health scales from the owning player's health.
- Multiple towers of the same type cannot be placed within the same tower stack.
Available tower roles include:
- Healing
- Spirit Restoration
- Buff
- Cleanse
- Hex
Each active tower reserves 15% of the player's maximum Spirit Energy, reducing the amount of Spirit available while towers remain deployed.
Players can manage deployed towers through the new recall system.
- A single tower can be recalled while the player is within 75 feet of it.
- Players can also recall all deployed towers within a 500-foot radius.
- Recalling a tower before it is destroyed triggers a 30-second cooldown.
- If a tower is destroyed by enemies, its cooldown is increased to 45 seconds.
This gives Support players more control over repositioning their tower network without requiring towers to be intentionally destroyed.
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Added new damage direction indicators to the combat HUD.
When the player takes damage, an indicator now shows the direction the attack came from based on the player's current camera orientation.
This provides clearer combat awareness when:
- Fighting multiple enemies
- Being attacked from behind
- Taking ranged damage
- Fighting enemies positioned outside the current camera view
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Added new Heal Conversion component mods.
Heal Conversion allows supported effects to convert a percentage of damage dealt into healing output, creating additional equipment options for sustain and Support-oriented builds.
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Added a new Parkour Track Race to the Spirit Wilds section of the Playtest map.
The course is designed around the new traversal mechanics and gives players an area to practice and test:
- Wall running
- Wall jumping
- Ledge vaulting
- Movement routing
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Tutorial text has been added throughout the Playtest map to better introduce players to major mechanics and activities as they explore.
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Added Volcanic Spiders to Mountains Shadow.
Enemies have also received additional vocal sounds to improve their presence during exploration and combat.
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The enemy progression system has received a major overhaul.
Enemies can now appear at different levels rather than relying on fixed statistics.
Enemy progression now scales based on both:
- Enemy Level
- Enemy Rank
Current enemy ranks include:
- Minion
- Elite
- Boss
Enemy level and rank can affect:
- Available abilities
- Maximum health
- Damage output
- Damage resistance
- XP rewards
This allows the same enemy families to remain relevant across a much broader range of world progression.
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Enemy levels now follow the recommended level range of the region they inhabit.
Recommended level ranges are displayed alongside zone titles throughout the Playtest map, giving players a clearer indication of the expected difficulty of each area.
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Ability Energy has been removed as a character resource.
Spirit Energy is now the primary resource used for sustained abilities and several other character mechanics.
Sustained abilities now continuously consume Spirit Energy while active, including:
- Stealth
- Defensive Stance
This consolidates resource management into a clearer system while increasing the importance of Spirit management during combat and traversal.
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Intelligence now increases ability damage.
Higher Intelligence improves the damage multiplier applied to supported ability attacks, making Intelligence a core offensive attribute for ability-focused builds.
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Focus now increases healing power.
Healing output scales from the equipped weapon's damage basis and is further improved through the character's Focus attribute.
This establishes Focus as the primary healing-oriented character attribute.
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Upgraded the game's positional sound system to provide more accurate localized audio.
Environmental and world sounds now better represent their position relative to the player, improving directional awareness and environmental immersion.
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The Inventory interface has received another design and systems update.
Changes improve:
- Item readability
- Equipment organization
- Component information
- General inventory presentation
- Visual separation between different item and equipment categories
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Added dedicated icons for component slots.
Component slots now visually indicate which component type can be installed, making compatible equipment modifications easier to identify.
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Ability icons now provide clearer feedback about their current activation state.
- White indicator — Ability is pending or currently being cast.
- Gold indicator — Ability is active and being sustained.
This makes it easier to identify which abilities are being activated and which sustained abilities are currently consuming resources.
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Updated status-effect icons displayed on the main HUD.
Active effects now use clearer visual representations to make buffs, debuffs, crowd-control effects, and other character states easier to recognize during combat.
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- Improved enemy audio feedback with new enemy vocalizations.
- Improved environmental sound localization throughout the Playtest map.
- Added camera-relative directional feedback for incoming damage.
- Expanded Playtest map guidance for new players.
- Updated traversal areas to support the new parkour mechanics.
- Improved visual feedback for illegal tower placement.
- Improved tower stacking and placement behavior around uneven terrain and ledges.
- Added individual and group tower recall controls.
- Improved HUD feedback for active and sustained abilities.
- Streamlined player resource management following the removal of Ability Energy.
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The Cat Spirit RPG Closed Alpha Playtest remains available through Steam for players with granted Early Alpha access.
With this update, players can explore the Playtest world, experiment with the new parkour system, fight level-scaled enemies, participate in the Spirit Wilds parkour course, and build characters using all 6 of the game's planned Domains.
Playtest access currently requires an approved Steam Playtest key. Players interested in participating can request access through the Cat Spirit RPG Discord server.