Major Update: Version 0.6 - The Mercenary System Is Here!

Heroes, we have big news from the Adventurers' Guild:

You can now invite mercenaries to join your party—to focus, grow, and face battles together.
What began as a solo journey can now become an adventure for up to three!

Find your adventuring companions at the Mercenary Corps!

Once your Hero reaches level 10, you can spend coins to hire mercenaries at the Mercenary Corps!
As you level up and unlock blessings, you can bring up to two mercenaries along with your Hero.Each party member must have a different Class, including your Hero.
Along with their Class, take a look at their Rank and skills to find companions who suit your party!Found a mercenary you like but haven't saved up enough yet? Click "Keep Mercenary" in the top-right corner of their card, then come back to hire them when you're ready.

Formation matters, too!

After hiring mercenaries, you can view their details on the party screen and use the "Toggle Deploy" button to choose who joins the battle.
Simply left-click and drag to adjust each unit's position.Melee attacks usually prioritize the front row, so place characters with lower HP in the back row and let your companions watch out for each other!
If you're not sure where to start, we recommend trying one companion in the front row and one in the back.
For example, a Paladin or Rogue may be better suited to the front row, while a Wizard or Ranger may work better in the back.Keep in mind, though: deploying mercenaries also makes enemies slightly stronger.
To make it farther, you'll still need to adapt your battle strategy to the enemies you face.

Your companions grow as you focus

Whenever your Hero earns EXP, your mercenaries earn the same amount and level up alongside you.And the more time you spend together, the better your teamwork becomes!
Focusing together increases your mercenaries' Loyalty, and deploying them in battle grants additional Loyalty. Higher Loyalty gives mercenaries extra stat bonuses.
The bonuses vary by Class. Hover over the Loyalty bar to see the details.However, losing a battle or having a mercenary die in battle will slightly reduce their Loyalty.

Skills not quite right? Time for some training!

Mercenaries don't have exactly the same skill combinations as a Hero of the same Class. You might discover some unexpected synergies!In "Mercenary Training," you can spend Gold Coins to reroll unlocked skills.
Lock any skills you want to keep first, but remember: the more skills you lock, the higher the training cost.A mercenary's Rank also affects the number of skills they can ultimately have. Keep that in mind when choosing your companions!

Even dependable companions get hungry!

You can now see your accompanying mercenaries out in the world, making your travels feel a little livelier!Of course, more companions also means more mouths to feed.
Focusing normally consumes one point of Satiety per minute. Each mercenary in your party adds one extra point per minute.
That means bringing two mercenaries consumes three points of Satiety per minute.Remember to stop by the Tavern and stock up before setting out!
P.S. Some mercenary passive skills seem to increase or decrease their Satiety consumption. Keep an eye out for them during training!

Unlocking the Goddess's Blessing might even let you raise your mercenaries' Rank......?

P.S. We've also added mercenary-related Adventure Skills. Take a look on the skill screen!

Fixes and adjustments in this update

Class and Balance Adjustments

Paladin

- "Blade of Judgment" now affects all allies, with its effects slightly reduced to account for the mercenary system.
- "Prayer" now affects all allies, with its effects slightly reduced to account for the mercenary system.
- Updated the Paladin's "Blade of Judgment" and "Prayer" animations to reflect their effects on all allies.

Ranger

- Increased the damage multiplier per hit of "Arrow Rain" at all skill levels.
- Increased the Direct Damage multiplier of "Poison Arrow" at all skill levels.

Wizard

- Equipping "Summon: Fire Bat" reduces your own Max HP by 30%.
- Equipping "Summon: Wind Elemental" reduces your own Max HP by 50%.
- Adjusted mage weapon stats, reducing the INT provided by some weapons.

Satiety

- Increased maximum Satiety at various levels to accommodate the extra consumption from mercenaries.
- Increased the amount of Satiety restored by some food items.

Chronoshift

- Adjusted the Sands of Time cost of an early Chronoshift to a flat 50 from level 33 onward.
- If your character or storage contains items not yet registered in the Codex before a Chronoshift, a reminder will appear and the items will be registered automatically so they are not lost.
- Removed the "Coins Spent" scoring category from Timeline Results, so players no longer need to find ways to spend their remaining coins before a Chronoshift.
- Added the "Map Exploration 100%" scoring category to Timeline Results.

System Improvements

- Added a "Crowd Control" star rating to the Class selection screen.
- Added a Back option to the map creation screen so you can close it if opened accidentally.
- Improved item and skill tooltips so their position adjusts automatically to keep them within the screen.
- Fixed drag-and-drop issues that could leave icons floating in place or at incorrect relative positions.

Village Features

- Quick Sell settings are now saved separately for each shop type, allowing you to choose which item rarities to sell at different shops.
- Added a Chronopack tab to the storage screen, making it easier to transfer items between your character, storage, and Chronopack before and after a Chronoshift.
- Removed the rarely used option to keep a set of Adventure Items when using storage. You can now choose to treat all storage pages as one large container when sorting items instead.
- You can now drop an item onto a storage tab to place it directly on that storage page.

Battle Improvements

- In battle, hovering over a Buff with more than one stack now shows its stack count before its description.
- On the battle results screen, hovering over the Retry button now shows your remaining Sands of Time, making it easier to decide whether to try again.

Bug Fixes

Battle

- Fixed how defense-based damage reduction, Block damage reduction, and other damage modifiers stack to prevent unintended zero damage. This includes incorrect damage when a Rogue with "Aim for Weakness" attacks a Gargoyle.
- Fixed the Block damage reduction cap. Blocking now reduces damage by at most 95%, preventing unintended complete damage immunity.
- Fixed the effect of level differences on Evasion Rate: higher-level defenders are more likely to Dodge, while lower-level defenders are more likely to be hit.
- Fixed Barrier handling: attacks absorbed by a Barrier still count as hits and can trigger on-hit effects, but do not trigger critical hits, Block, effects that activate after dealing damage, or status effects applied directly by that damage instance.
- Fixed effect resolution order at battle start and when units are summoned. A character's own effects now activate before field effects, and HP and MP are fully restored after all opening effects resolve.
- Fixed the scope of meal effects so they only apply to allied characters already present at battle start, excluding summoned units.
- Fixed an issue where "Apocalypse" could no longer damage enemies after its caster died.
- Fixed unintended camera displacement caused by battle camera shake.
- Fixed Phoenix Tears failing to remove an ally's debuffs when reviving them, and increased its Inventory stack limit to 5.
- Fixed incorrect descriptions or effects on some biome-specific accessories.

Map and Exploration

- Corrected the content settings of some points of interest on Giant maps and added corresponding fixes for existing saves.
- Fixed an issue where using a Supply Scroll could shift the route's starting point, preventing the character from starting at a closer node.
- Fixed an incorrect remaining travel time display in Mini Mode during a rest period before reaching the destination.

Items and Equipment

- Fixed an issue where Copper Chest Lv100 could yield no rewards.
- Fixed the missing Block effect on a level 95 shield.

Interface

- Fixed an issue that occurred after clicking the language selection option on the main screen.
- Fixed position drift in some looping back-and-forth UI animations after reopening them repeatedly.

That's all for this update!

May you all save your own deadlines.Thank you for your support. See you in the next Timeline!