Floors set the difficulty, not the clock. Monster health and damage scale with depth. Floors 1-3 are gentler; floor 5 onward lands where it always did. Lingering on a floor no longer buffs its monsters - the shard light is the only timer.
Two armor brackets. Floors 2-5: a light plate that breaks in a few hits. Floor 6+: the heavy plate, elites always wear it. Earth, fire, lightning and poison still shred it fastest.
Weapon tiers are a real step - tier I ~1.1x, tier II ~1.4x, tier III ~1.8x - with new Tempered tier II versions of every weapon. Only tier I drops before the first boss; tier III comes from boss chests only until floor 10 and is never sold in camp. The shop and gamble shrine stock tier II once you have reached floor 5.
Class DPS retuned. Sword unchanged. Bow shoots faster, softer per arrow. Elemental and bolt staves roughly doubled. Storm Caller's ball lightning pulse finally hurts.
Elements. Burn stacks to three; dark curses one stack per proc (three on bosses); explosion 2x (was 3x); wind marks targets for +15% damage taken; holy beam procs heal 5%. New element upgrade lines at level-up, only for elements you hold.
Mana. Smooth 1%/s regen; every weapon gains 2 mana per hit (capped 8/s); each special has its own cost and follows the weapon in hand. Fire beam: 4 s cooldown, charge-scaled. Tornado and poison cloud tick correctly on enemies walking in and out. Overload scales with your damage. Cooldown reduction applies to every special.
Dungeon
Trap rooms now cover the whole room wall to wall, with a safe island in the middle. Three patterns: wide diagonal stripes, a big plus alternating with its corners, or a wave sweeping the room - step in behind it and follow.
Wall decorations: cave, ice on floors 6-10, lava on floors 12-16.
Challenge room mobs wear a gold rim so the room's objective stands apart from a roaming horde.
Hordes that chase you into a room no longer jam on a sealed door or freeze mid-room.
A mob knocked out of its room slides back in instead of teleporting; nothing gets stuck mid-charge, mid-death or mid-grab.
Visual
Death aura, quicksand, bubble shield and wind blades redrawn.
Consumables pop with a burst and a flash when used.
Projectiles burst in their element's own way when they hit a wall or expire.
Ice ball shard storms have a new crystalline look.
Fixes
Delete Save wipes progression only - settings and controls stay, and the first run after a delete no longer loses its progress on the next launch.
The Shard champion no longer grows forever while chasing you.
Skuleroz blobs and Georg's lightning balls stop at walls again.