Playtest Update 0.4.2

Playtest Update 0.4.2

Languages

• Added Simplified Chinese and Russian.

• Improved text at large UI sizes.

Gameplay and Balance

• Added clearer gaps between major growth stages for slightly improved pacing

• Geothermal Vent research now requires Growth 3.

• Kept the Geothermal Vent in its existing Research Tree position.

• Preserved existing Geothermal Vent research progress before Growth 3.

• Assigned Research Bugs now return until Growth 3 is complete.

• Blood Fragments now increase all resource production by 0.01% each.

• The total Blood Fragment bonus stops at 25%.

• Defeating a Watchdog now grants 10x the stolen maximum for each resource.

• The reward increases to 100x after at least 50% recovery.

• The reward increases to 500x after at least 75% recovery.

• Watchdog deaths now create more Blood Fragments, blood spray, and splatters.

• Biomass Gatherers now throw harvests across different parts of their building.

• Items from one harvest batch still land close together.

• Underground Eyes now increase Memory production by 25%.

• Underground Eyes still decrease Blood production by 5%.

Controls

• Controller navigation now moves between buildings without opening their panels.

• Press A to open the selected building.

• LB and RB now move focus between menu buttons instead of upgrade rows.

• Controller zoom now works while a menu or panel has focus.

• The B button now closes the current panel and keeps focus on its menu button.

• Left and right input now moves focus between menu panels.

• Sliders change only after selection.

• The right stick now scrolls patch notes smoothly.

• Fixed controller focus loss on the hotbar and menu corners.

• Added tooltips for the top-left menu buttons.

Interface

• The custom cursor now appears above all text and panels.

• The NEW marker now clears after opening a building from the hotbar.

• Settings and Credits now open at the center of the screen.

• Focused rows now use opaque, dark backgrounds.

• Orange action buttons now use a golden focus color.

• Added Prestige tooltips for memory nodes, locked rows, help buttons, and lower action buttons.

• Improved the Research Tree header, padding, status area, and tooltip layout.

• Fixed tooltip positions in the Controls and Chitin Scratcher panels.

• Fixed the visual jump at the end of the main-menu transition.

• Replaced the Bluesky link with X.

• Unavailable patch-note buttons now have a clear disabled style.

• English now uses the Tower-style pixel font by default.

Visuals and Audio

• Pupa worms now appear above airborne Chitin rewards.

• The Relic Pavilion now shows more varied relic icons and hanging groups.

• Reduced Chitin collection and delivery sound volume by 50%.

• Watchdog sounds now use the Effects volume setting.

• Resource popups now rise and disappear faster.

• Improved padding around toast close buttons.

Saves and Stability

• Steam Cloud now uses one main save file.

• Added retries for unfinished cloud saves.

• Save loading now selects the newest valid local or cloud save.

• Save status messages now use shorter text.

• Fixed controller and mouse conflicts that stole focus.

• Fixed several layout errors at large UI sizes.