Unique Items, Loot Overhaul, Accessibility Update

[p]Hey everyone,
Before we dive into the full patch notes, I wanted to make a quick request: I’m looking for a Spanish (Spain) localizer, ideally someone who actively plays the game like our Russian and Chinese translators. If that sounds like you, or you know someone who might be a good fit, please reach out.[/p][p]This update is focused on improving early and mid-game retention. I’ve been looking closely at the data, and far too many players are dropping off early. As much as I’d love to spend all my time adding new challenging content for hardcore players, over 90% of people never even reach that point. I want more players to actually experience the content I’ve worked so hard on.[/p][p]That said, I still plan to add a super challenging true ending fight that completes the story, along with a leaderboard-based challenge mode. But first, I want to make sure more people are getting far enough to see everything the game already has to offer.[/p][hr][/hr][h2][/h2][h2]🛡️ 12 New Unique Items[/h2][p]The biggest addition in this update is a full set of 12 all-new ultra-rare unique items. These are designed to feel wild, overpowered, and synergistic with other stats and skills. They’re not just stronger — they break rules, open up fresh builds, and add rare moments of power that can completely reshape your run.[/p][p]You’ll have a better chance of finding them by stacking Luck, or by visiting crafting anvils and completing rare armor quest rewards. Right now these are all armor, boots, helmets, and gloves, but I plan to add more unique weapons later. The only current one is Helena’s Divine Retribution.[/p][p]There’s already plenty of randomness in the game that exists to challenge you — enemies, traps, curses, scares — but not a lot that surprises you in a good way. I want to change that. Let me know what kinds of uniques you’d like to see in future updates.[/p][h3]⛑️ Helmets[/h3]

[p]Neuroshard Helmet – Synaptic Freeze: Freezes time while you are invincible. Invincibility duration scales with your speed.[/p]
[p]Calistra’s Embrace – Singularity: Every combo level summons a black hole. It pulls in enemies and detonates after a short delay.[/p]
[p]Enimatik’s Eclipse – Sinburst: Using your ability triggers a delayed explosive blast.[/p]

[h3][/h3][h3]👢 Boots[/h3]

[p]Phantom Treads – Ghost Skin: You have a chance to evade damage based on your luck.[/p]
[p]Infernal Treads – Ember Wake: Greatly increases movement speed while charging attacks. Charging summons fiery wisps that damage nearby enemies. You cannot be stunned.[/p]
[p]Spectral March – Soul Conduit: Kicking an enemy summons void blades and casts all of your spells. Can only trigger once per combo level.[/p]

[h3]🧤 Gloves[/h3]

[p]Crystal Fang – Glass Reaver: Greatly increases all damage dealt. Reduces your maximum health.[/p]
[p]Divino’s Decree – Finger of Death: Thrusting attacks fire death beams. Death beam damage scales with your thrust damage.[/p]
[p]Teraminkla’s Grasp – Hellwheel: Power Strike Whirlwinds trigger bursts of flame. Flame damage scales with your Whirlwind damage.[/p]

[h3]🛡️ Chest Armor[/h3]

[p]Stormplate – Arc Lash: When you block an attack, release a shock blast. Its damage scales with your defense.[/p]
[p]Bloodhide – Blood Magic: Skills consume health instead of mana, at a greatly reduced cost. Greatly increases your maximum health.[/p]
[p]Sparkcoil – Static Discharge: Bashing an enemy unleashes a shock blast. Shock blast damage scales with your Bash damage. Can only trigger once per combo level.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]⚙️ General Improvements and Bug Fixes[/h2]

[p]Fixed issue where quests were being regenerated every time you entered the game, even during a session already in progress.[/p]
[p]Added a highlight to the item inspect hotkey since a lot of people were missing it.[/p]
[p]Quest objective UI bounce animation now only shows for quests you can still visit in the current run.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where the cannon skeleton's kick parry warning would stay on screen after the animation ended.[/p]
[p]Slightly reduced damage on sword skeleton (dual-wielding enemy).[/p]
[p]Fixed a softlock caused by getting grabbed by the Pursuer while he was despawned.[/p]
[p]Added generic weapon descriptions for all weapons. Also added equipment descriptions to commonly asked-about armors like Caestus, Claws, and Guillotines.[/p]
[p]Skills that require armor or weapon slots now show red text if you don’t have the slot, and green if you do.[/p]
[p]Falling in levels is no longer an instant kill.
You’ll now be teleported back to the level, but lose one piece of equipment, 10 percent essence, and 25 percent health. This applies to places like the Cave and the infamous Maw of Sin spike pit or blood ocean.
While I have to admit I got some good laughs watching people fall into the spike pit, it’s just not polished game design, especially for a roguelike. This change keeps the punishment but avoids the cheap frustration.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]🧠 Item and Stat System Changes[/h2]

[p]Implicit stats were accidentally removed last update. I’ve decided to leave them out permanently, but the amount they used to give is now added directly on top of whatever stat the item rolls.[/p]
[p]Gift of Might no longer raises stat caps. Increased the defense percentage hard cap from 75 percent to 80 percent.[/p]
[p]Gift of Insight now grants stats equal to 50 percent of the normal value. It still gives bonus skill stacks.[/p]
[p]Major item rework:
Items now roll at most one stat and one skill, but both are greatly increased — sometimes 4 times higher than before.
This change serves two big goals:[/p]

[p]Speed up item comparisons, so you can tell quickly whether something is worth using.[/p]
[p]Make items feel more impactful, so a single pickup can meaningfully shift your build.
Now when you find something with Speed or Attack, it might give +40 percent instead of the old +5 percent. A single Health or Defense item can now make the difference between being squishy or tanky.[/p]

[p]To further differentiate equipment types:[/p]
- [p]Armors now roll stats.[/p]
- [p]Weapons do not roll stats, but have increased skill stacks.[/p]
- [p]You can still get stats on weapons by upgrading them or using Gift of Might.[/p]
[p]Luck formula for item rarity now uses diminishing returns. It still helps a lot with finding unique items, but it no longer guarantees the best drops every time.[/p]
[p]Doubled the duration of Sin Ward.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where unarmed thrusts didn’t count as thrusts for skill purposes.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]💥 Difficulty and Progression[/h2]

[p]Added Easy Mode: Path of Grace
Reduces enemy speed, health, and damage. Also reduces scare speed. Grants one free cheat death per run.
This mode is mostly intended for new players who want to learn the game, but it’s also great for experienced players who want to try out new builds or have a more relaxed run.
I’ve noticed that the difficulty of the game often pressures people into sticking with one strategy. Hopefully this gives you room to experiment without losing progress.
This mode does not grant achievements except for class completions.[/p]
[p]Fixed bug where Path of Torment didn’t grant class completion achievements.[/p]
[p]Class completion achievements now unlock retroactively when you boot up the game.[/p]
[p]Save data is now unified across all difficulties, so you no longer need to unlock things again when switching modes.[/p]
[p]Path of Torment is now unlocked from the start.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]🧙 Class Changes[/h2]

[p]Hoarder can now use armor but not weapons. No longer scales with gold essence.
I’m trying to emphasize build diversity, and Hoarder was too much of an outlier. He’s now stronger than ever and can use many skills he previously couldn’t.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]Thank you again to everyone who left a review.
Last week I asked for help because of an influx of low-effort reviews. You came through in a big way, raising the recent average from 87 percent to 94 percent. That’s huge and I appreciate it more than I can say.[/p][p]That said, the Overwhelmingly Positive overall score is still on a razor’s edge. If you’ve been enjoying the game and haven’t left a review yet, now is the time. It really helps.[/p][p]My next focus is to flesh out replayable content, complete the lore and final area, and add the true final boss fight, which will unlock after you complete a run with 3 Oaths and have Divine Retribution. That’s meant to be the ultimate challenge for the most hardcore players.[/p][p]In the meantime, I’d love your thoughts:
What kinds of things would keep you chaining runs back to back?
Let me know.[/p][p]Thanks for playing,
Nikola[/p]