Below the Stone News

We are back again for another game changing update!
This time we are bringing you: [h2]The Combat Update (Beta 0.11)[/h2]
That's right, we are finally leaving stage Alpha after all these years. We are both excited and relieved to finally reach this point.
[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]What's this update about?[/h2]
Well it's about combat, you silly greenbeard! But let's get into the specifics.



[h2]Weapon Alt Attacks[/h2]
Melee weapons now have alternate (secondary) attacks that can be used to help you in certain situations. Right now, swords have a jab attack which does extra damage, and axes do a really cool spin attack. Both weapons' alt attacks can also block/deflect arrows, as well as interrupt enemies (like a parry) to stop them from performing any attacks.
On mouse and keyboard, right mouse button is the default way to use alt attacks.




[h2]Armor Set Bonuses[/h2]
Combine certain armor pieces to gain additional buffs. All main line armors in the game now have set bonuses to encourage you to complete the full set.


[h2]New Biomes And Armor Recipes[/h2]
Several new biomes have been added to the game. Two on Layer 2. And a long waited Layer 1 biome: The Sinkhole Biome!


Various armor sets now require a new ingredient to craft that is found in specific biomes. This is to make biome and dungeon exploration more of a requirement to progress.


[h2]And Many More New Things![/h2]
If you wish to see more details on this update, please scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full change log.


[h2]Now What About 1.0?[/h2]
After many years of being in Early Access, we are finally approaching a complete game. We are happy to announce that our next update is going to be the Full Release of the game into 1.0
Our plan is to finally add Layer 3 to the game, give both Layer 2 and 3 a boss for you to fight, and solidify the progression from each layer to the next to create a complete and cohesive progression from start to finish. Along with many other much needed changes and additions to the game.

Our plan is to have this update out before Summer of 2026.
We're going to need all hands on deck to get this update out. Our team is really small, and this game is really big. But as we've said many times in the past, one way or another, we will get past that finish line, and we hope you are going to be with us when we do.
Thank you all!

With that being said, here is the change log.

[h2]Beta 0.11 - Combat Update[/h2]

[h3][New Features][/h3]
* Introduced "armor set bonuses". Gain new perks/buffs when you combine certain armor pieces.
* Added bronze armor.
* Added fossil armor.
* Added helmetcap armor.
* Added carapace armor.
* Added unlockable crafting recipes.
* Added "titanium anvil" to blacksmith, when repaired, grants you layer 2 crafting recipes.
* Introduced "weapon alt attacks". Melee weapons now have a right-click attack allowing you to pick how you want to fight. (axe spin and sword jab)
* Melee alt attacks now do "interrupts" (similar to parry, but not) that stop various enemies from attacking you when they are hit.
* Projectile blocking (deflecting) is now possible for most swords and axes.
* Added trash slot to inventory.
* Added Honeycomb Biome.
* Added Honey Slimes.
* Added Bees to Honeycomb biome.
* Added Fungal Forest Biome.
* Added Funky Funguy.
* Finally added Sinkhole biome!
* Added Bucks and Does.
* Added Corrupted Biome to layer 1
[h3][Improvements][/h3]
* Updated cave troll's Ai and attack sequence to be WAY better than it was.
* Overall rebalance to armor defense values.
* Updated the armor damage reduction equation to now be based on "effective HP". Your armor stat now corresponds to a certain number of "hits-to-kill" for you. If your armor stat doubles, your hits-to-kill you doubles.
* Added additional ingredient to metal armor sets to encourage players to explore dungeons more.
* Various tweaks to skeletons to give them an overall nerf, but still be challenging.
* Reduced speed of slimes.
* Reduced agro distance of slimes.
* Reduced player dash distance to make it more controllable.
* Tweaked tattie's combat stats to make it a bit more reasonable.
* Various tweaks to funguy.
* Reduced player hitbox size.
* Made bat ai less annoying. Killing them right after they start flying should be a lot easier now.
* Prompt now appears for the regular escape pod, so that you don't accidently jump in.
* New sprites for metal ingots.
* Small buffs to players stamina stats.
* Pressing ESC now closes the Megamap.
* Haunted skull now has force based orbiting motion to make it smoother. Should make combat more interesting.
* Improvements to biome generation.
[h3][Fixes][/h3]
* Fixed issues regarding certain bar quests not being completable due to some items not being acquirable.
* Fixed controller navigation bug on bottom right of player bag.
* Fixed teleport bug that happened with haunted skull.
[h3][Removals][/h3]
* Removed geode biome from layer 1. It will be generated elsewhere.
[h3][Noteworthy][/h3]
* Updated Unity Engine to patch security vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489)

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Bury your beards in our sweet Holiday Sale and event![/h2][p][/p][p]30% off the game for a limited time! Holiday event is also happening, so make sure you grab your limited time candy cane pickaxes, holiday hats, and get some holiday treats in your bank like they last![/p][p][/p][p]January we have something big planned for all the fans, And we're looking for playtesters for our combat update that is slated for the same time! If you'd like to join in the new combat update, fill it out here:[/p][h3]https://forms.gle/98d96XwpcvFY5pys7!

Here's some sneak peeks:
[/h3][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]SHOUTOUT TIME![/h2][p][/p][p]Since it's the holidays, I thought I'd also share a great story about an indie studio we know, Pizza Kidd, another indie just trying to make it in the industry. He's a friend of the studio, and is also launching their Kickstarter crowdfunding page! [/p][h3]
Pizza Kidd is a a gritty sci-fi beat ’em up inspired by Street Fighter II, Streets of Rage, and 90s anime.[/h3][p][/p][p]They're looking for supporters! So check out their trailer, and also sign up for their Kickstarter page below. Here's their trailer:
[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]SIGN UP HERE:[/h3][p]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pizzakidd/pizza-kidd-2d-pixel-punchfest-with-monsters-and-mayhem[/p][p][/p][p]I hope you all have a beautiful holiday season, keep up with us, and check out the release news we have in January, we're going to make a big splash, so keep your rock radars tuned on the Below the Stone channel!

- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p]

Greetings fellow dwarves!

We just put out a small update that fixes a security vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489) inside of the game engine that powers our game (Unity Engine). Since this is a very small update that is purely to resolve this problem, there will be no version number change.

The next upcoming update (The Combat Update) will also have this security patch, as well as every update after that (of course!).

[h3]Extra information about this vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489)[/h3]

This video covers this news very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRGh5NVAbs

But there is a few takeaways that I want to make towards all of this:

#1 Steam and various other platforms have taken measures to protect us from people who may try to exploit this.

#2 From my own research, it appears that the vulnerability does not "happen" while the game is running. The vulnerability exists in how programs can take in additional data (launch parameters, command arguments, whatever you want to call them). So the exploit involves launching the game with very very specific launch parameters that allows an attacker to execute code outside the game itself (which could steal your data, or do many other bad things) by using the permissions of the game itself to bypass antivirus.

What this means for you is, in order for this to be used against you, you have to click on something (like a link or button) that launches the game with this "evil input data" that performs the exploit. So for most people, your not going to be randomly hacked out of nowhere just by having the game installed on your computer, or if you run the game without any additional data, such as if you were to double click on the .exe itself.

The exploit is still there, which is not great, but that is why we are patching it. So there is no chance of it being taken advantage of.

But again, with all this being said. We have patched this issue so it is no longer a problem. I am only mentioning all of these details to help keep people informed. And also because I know some people may want to run older versions of the game in the future. So I am saying all this to maybe give some people a bit of peace of mind that the game being actively running on your PC isn't exposing you, and that typical internet precautions are enough to keep you safe (don't click on shady stuff).

[p]Dig into the deals! Below the Stone is on SALE — gear up for your next underground adventure and save big while you mine deeper than ever. Don’t miss out… treasures await![/p][p][/p][h3]Now... for some fun news:


[/h3][p]We've also been working on a few big combat related thing`s as well. Set bonuses are going to be a part of the next update, which will include other stats outside of armor to build toward.

We're also in the middle of rebalancing a lot of enemies that were a struggle to encounter in the early game, while also making their behavior more interesting to fight during your battles beneath the stone.[/p][p]

[/p][p][/p][p]Another big change coming is making biomes part of the main progression path, requiring materials from each biome in order to progress through the game, like combining Silver Ore with Ectoplasm from the haunted biome to make Spectral Ingots. These ideas are not final listed below, but they give an idea of what the team is discussing. We'd like to hear what you think![/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]There's also been work by the art team, including a new boss battle! (Still very much wip)[/p][p]
[/p][p]I’ve been thinking about posting more casual updates as we go—just little snapshots of what we’re working on. Sometimes as a dev, I feel like I need to show off something shiny and polished, but honestly, that can strip away the realness of what we’re doing and how we connect with you all. If you're into seeing more of the messy, behind-the-scenes stuff, I’d love to keep sharing quick, unfiltered posts here. Just us, building this thing together.

- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
[/p]

[p][/p][p]Thank you all for being patient. Here is a change log with all of the bugs that were fixed.[/p][p][/p][h2][New Features][/h2][p]* Added dialog to Bartender.
* Added some profound dialog for many of the NPC's in the bar.
[/p][h2][Fixes][/h2][p]* Fixed Bartender not being clickable.
* Fixed journal quest entries overflowing out of the book UI.
* Fixed some rare errors that were discovered.
* Potential fix to a rare random bug where you can't close your inventory with the UI button. Because we couldn't reproduce the bug, we have no idea if this fixes it, but we can only hope.
* Fixed clicking through category tabs in journal would cause certain journal sections to not fade away completely, and result in 2 different journal sections being visible and overlapping each other.
* Fixed pressing "next category" keybind taking you to a non-existent category tab and being shown a blank page.
* Fixed gold coin bag in kingdom (from mission bonus rewards) not giving you the money you deserve.
* Fixed bug where quest lines would include completed prior quests the offering UI.
* Fixed issue with Head Explorer not showing quest offering UI, and thus not giving any quests.
[/p][h2][Improvements][/h2][p]* Added safeguards to help prevent invalid quest data in save files not persisting and causing other potential issues like progression locks.
* Updated Head Explorer sprites.
* Improved random quest generation to help reduce duplicate quests.
[/p][h2][Removals][/h2][p]* Removed evil pickaxe from quest line.
* Tho Roach has temporarily left the kingdom, and will be back later.[/p]