Build 26589051

Night Raider — Major Update: A New Prologue, Memory Fragments, and Two Reworked Characters
Release date: November 11, 2026 Platform: Steam / Windows

Hunters,

This one runs deeper than it looks. We rebuilt the opening, rebuilt how two of the three characters fight, and worked through the手感 — no, let's say it plainly: the game feel, performance, and save-data issues you reported most. We recommend starting a fresh save — the prologue and the "Memory Fragments" tutorial will both replay.

1. A New Opening: The Prologue Boss Fight
A new save no longer starts in the Gloomy Forest — you drop straight into the Obsidian Arena and face the Fallen Knight unarmed
The amnesia monologue is down to three lines, skippable with any key
Going down transitions straight into the Memory Fragments tutorial instead of a wall of keybind text
2. The "Memory Fragments" Tutorial
The old keybind tutorial is gone, replaced by a reflection on the water: it triggers the first time a character dies, and you recover three fragments of memory
Each of the three characters has their own lines, and each triggers once
Now includes a spirit sparring partner, auto-charging ultimate, and the real inventory panel — nine steps total
Water fully reworked: six-direction layering without banding, Fresnel sky reflection, sharpened sun highlight, ripples under your feet
Camera, environment, and post-processing now match the main game, and trajectory previews work here too
3. Squire Reworked
Available from the start — no longer locked behind the second boss
Starts with a longsword (bound equipment, cannot be unequipped) and the Golden Flame Kasaya
Melee gains a combo-cancel window and recovery release: interrupt and you can swing again immediately
Attacking and moving now interrupt each other; while holding a direction you must release before you can cancel a swing
Wider swing arc, angle, and tolerance; roll distance +35%, higher move speed, four-direction locomotion
No more firing artifact projectiles — artifacts now recolour the slash trail and add elemental/cursed damage, and ranged gear converts to melee value
Slash audio rebuilt as a layered pool that rises in pitch with the combo; more HP and damage reduction
Accessory skills now work on melee characters: 16 new conversions plus lifesteal and burn resolution
4. Squire Ultimate: "Buddha's Palm"
A giant golden palm slams down from above and covers the battlefield, with a contracting target ring, area bursts, palm-print embers, and screen shake. After several passes we dropped the splash art and the vertical light pillar in favour of a magic circle plus the palm, cut the fall to 0.32s, and layered on glow.

5. Plague Doctor Reworked
Starting weapon is now a thrown elemental flask (poison / fire / ice) that bursts on impact and leaves burning ground
The flask's element is decided by the artifacts you're carrying; with several, throws cycle through elements and spread their landing spots
Every ranged weapon automatically becomes a throw; throws benefit from multishot, and the arc preview draws multiple trajectories
Auto-aim locks on with hysteresis and smoothed landing points, and only targets enemies on screen
New throw trajectory preview: dashed arc plus a blast-radius circle at the landing point
All-new throw VFX: lantern-shaped projectile, impact shockwave and mist, ring-shaped ground fire and orbiting spores
Throw, hit, and landing audio reworked — shield break, glass shatter, and bounce impact layered separately
6. Combat Feel and Aiming
Bullet weapons now have soft lock-on and slight auto-aim: locks the nearest enemy within 34°, bends 62% toward it within 9°
Bullets and throws share one trajectory preview: dotted line plus impact marker
Multiple weapons in the same hand stagger their rhythm and phase; fire intervals at high fire rates are no longer quantised by framerate
Ultimates can be stacked; active skill cooldowns are no longer compressed by attack speed
7. Equipment and Relics
Pickups equip automatically, and displaced gear returns to the bag; duplicates of the same item only apply the highest level, and three of a kind combine into an upgrade
Fixed relic gems being wiped when saving (both death-overwrite and autosave paths)
Clicking a relic now switches the detail pane immediately, and the panel no longer jumps with text length; reward popups are brighter overall
8. Levels and Bosses
The run is down to 8 levels, with bosses moved to 3 / 6 / 8 and total wave volume cut by 28%
The boss arena grows to a 44m radius, with a light barrier and ground halo
Every level now uses a dusk palette; night levels gain a "Daybreak" lighting event
Boss HP and enemy damage rebalanced (enemy damage −15% globally)
Giants now show a danger zone before they fall, with a warning ring that follows the fall trajectory
Non-forest maps get a small-town blockout (four walls, street-facing doorways, roof beams)
9. Visuals and Audio
Every status effect now has its own tint: poison green, burning orange-red, frozen blue-white, bleeding dark red, cursed violet
Outlines now use the built-in inverted hull, fixing enemies rendering as flat silhouettes
Boss-fight VFX (spikes, sword rain, smoke) now spawn across frames with shared meshes and caches
The audio pool is up to 48 voices, fixing late-run sounds being cut off or stacking into noise
10. Performance and Stability
Fixed pooled particles never being recycled, which grew the node count without bound (the main cause of Windows frame drops)
Framerate capped at 144 FPS, with automatic downscaling when frames dip
New F3 performance overlay (frame time, draw calls, object count, render scale)
11. Interface
Character select regains its light/dark hierarchy: locked 0.55, current character full brightness, others 0.78, hover brightens
The last character you picked is remembered
Bottom hotbar, XP bar, and ultimate bar realigned; dark maps brightened across the board
Warning dialogs are centred and wrap their text
Thank you to everyone who filed reports and suggestions during Early Access — a lot of what's in this update came straight from you.