ATTENTION!

SAVE FILES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS ARE NO LONGER VALID

BUGFIXES

• Cultists wouldn't mutate near Statues.
• Deep Ones wouldn't heal near Statues.
• Random hints displayed during Region transitions were supposed to be crossed off a list once displayed, so players are guaranteed to see a different hint everytime. Now works as intended.
• Same with Death hints.
• Removed several unneccessary (and double) message sounds.
• Fixed message sounds sometimes not playing.
• The "Damage Potential"-tutorial would pop up even though no cracked Item was equipped.
• Insta-Heal when entering a new Region wouldn't work, when players were walking in "poisoned" directions.
• Champs would always spawn with a hardcoded weapon in their inventory (would drop once defeated).
• Tombstone animation on death would be displayed in front of Pillar Tops.
• Inventory slots wouldn't shake when picking up a respective Item.
• Fixed potential undefined behavior due to a rogue *pointer.
• When picking up the Alchemy Backpack, the respective Tutorial now correctly refers to "Alchemy Item", instead of "Consumable".
• The Equip Effect showing whether a worse or better Item has been equipped, wouldn't work with the Unlit Torch.
• Closing-animation of the  Log would show a transparent box.
• Offscreen Enemies falling in pits would play the impact sound only after message validation.
• Prices for the Yuggothian Pocket Refinery would sometimes increase, even though Item was discarded.
• Fixed a potential crash issue with display of very short messages.
• Mass-unveiling among Trees would sometimes reveal tiles around the invisible "pathObstacle" on the very first stage, thus spoiling immersion.
• Fixed an issue in procGen, where a breakthrough to the invisible "pathObstacle" could happen, thus spoiling immersion.
• When Seeking Counsel, the background no longer appears with a dithering layer.
• Music tracks weren't correctly purged from RAM when entering a new Region. In very long sessions this would result in a huge and unnceccessary strain on physical memory.
• When resuming a game while the Champ Music track "Verse of the Wiccan" was playing, sometimes after defeating the Champ, the default track would fail to kick in. One needed to exit and re-enter the Region for the respective track to get buffered again.
• In rare occasions, when a knockback happened at the same time as a view shuffle, knockback direction wasn't properly updated.
• Resolved a crash issue with Champs that can reset FogOfWar upon engage (Nightgaunts, Swarm of Bats, Shoggoths).
• On a fresh start, the "loading assets"-progress bar wouldn't update.
• Fixed a crash issue with Hounds of Tindalos teleporting while standing on certain floorShades (Spawn Traps or Arcane Barrier Switches).

TWEAKS / BALANCING 

• Decreased maximum grid size of Align the Stars-minigame.
• Generating an Align the Stars-puzzle now always favors a DFS-algorithm, which makes for more interesting challenges with less dead ends (= more stars). Weird constellations may still occur, though, but they're now more rare.
• The second Region, which is also procedurally generated, can now have a Secret Passage as transition tile. Mind, that you will always get a first-time hint whenever first time approaching a secret Global Link.
• Corrupted ground is now persistent. It does no longer expand on it's own, when starting a New Game, or dying without collecting the Divine Toll.
• Slightly reduced chance for neutral obstacles (like Pillars and non-inscription Tombstones) to be turned into Candelabras, during procGen.
• For consistency reasons, Torch strain now directly scales off damage roll. Damage translates into the amount of forced fleeSteps the afflicted Enemy has to make, before resetting to Chasing mode.
• Maximum fleeSteps increased to 30.
• Slightly reduced decay of repaired Weapons buff.
• Dealing killing blows has reduced chance of triggering Weapon Strain (chance to still trigger is increased for high quality Weapons like the Blunderbuss).
• After using Stealth Ability, chance for Enemies to get alerted has been increased.
• Chance to reset Stealth Ability on certain events (e.g. finding all Lightsources) has been decreased.
• Weapons and Shield have an initial "safe usage" durability, counting down, before they become susceptible to Strain. That value no longer has a random range, but now comes as a fixed value (overall resulting in a buff).
• As long as you don't reroll the World Seed, Eldritch Crystals now appear in same spots after a fresh start. Remembering their locations might give you an edge.
• Values for regenerating bonus HP (after consuming an Alchemy Item) after each step is now weighted according to Item's quality.
• Values for Champ's regenerating bonus HP after each step are now weighted according to how far you have advanced in the game.
• Scaling abilities of Enemies no longer scale with the Exploration Level, but with the amount of Regions discovered (first time visits).
• Buffed Currency Curve (Crystal Shard items provide more value).
• The Divine Toll now has a small range from the original deathSpot, where it can spawn. This makes searching and collecting the Toll a bit more suspenseful.
• The Divine Toll can no longer spawn on Enemy-occupied tiles. This allows spawning Enemies to pick it up, even, and carry it around until killed.
• Slightly buffed chance for Alchemy Items to be created initially.
• Wicca Priestesses can now also appear as random Champ variation.
• Champ Cultists can now mutate into any other Enemy type (not just Deep Ones).
• The passive "CanCrit"-ability, which provides saving rolls for damage calculation, is now a Champ-only Ability. Also Enemies created by Champ-Abilities, like Summons or Mutations, or Swarm of Bats spreading out after killing blow, inherit that ability.

CONTENT AND MECHANICS

• Random Champs (does not apply for Wisteria Widdershin, who is a unique Story Character) now combine types of two random Enemies, accumulating all respective traits and abilities. First type selected determines appearance and base-stats, second type adds traits and abilities. Critically hitting a Champ Enemy briefly reveals second type. Will continue to monitor Enemy behavior, as certain emergent interactions between varios traits and abilities might call for a hardcoded fix.
• After performing a Binding Ritual at a Shrine, players can now choose an Icon to represent Covenants. Icons are "collected" by discovering new Covenants. It is a free action, and may be repeated each time after a Binding Ritual. All available Covenants and Icons may be selected and swapped around without restriction. This is persistent information, stored in the progress.ion-file.
• Added an additional Arcane Barrier to the 2nd level of the Watchtower on the Tutorial stage, in order to better teach functionality of the Barrier Switches (behind the new Battlements Barrier, there's always a random Item to be found).
• Added more random Hints, and various thematic blurbs.
• Reworked Poison mechanics:  hits with the Whip in "poisoned" directions now always result in Fumbled Attacks (Frenzy Strikes have priority and override Poison effect).
• Reworked Poison mechanics: In order to "qualify" for a cure-chance upon reaching max. Hitpoints, players need to be damaged by Enemies stronger than them.
• Reworked Poison mechanics: Being poisoned no longer reduces baseRegeneration for each step.
• Reworked Poison mechanics: Being boosted by Alchemy Items, depending on potency, can completely negate directional Poison effects.
• While afflicted by the Corrupted effect (either by Wicca Curse, or by walking on infested ground), Trap Warning chance is now severly reduced! Also applies to liquid Danger Zone warnings, and warnings when trying to walk through lockable Doors with respective Keys equipped. Debuff scales with how far you have advanced in the game.
• In order for the Wicca Curse to be cured, formerly you just needed to kill another Enemy. Enemies with Corrupted effect (e.g. Wicca Priestesses) only provided a chance to cure Corruption. Now killing another Enemy without Corruption effect is required for a cure to trigger! Also chance to cure scales with how far you have advanced in the game, from 100% down to 50% on the final stage.

POLISH AND QUALITY OF LIFE-IMPROVEMENTS

• Removed non-relevant Music Tracks from the Demo Build.
• Rewrote multiple strings (fixing typos, clearer expression, stronger theme, more concise).
• Repetitive thematic blurbs (like first finding an Secret Passage) now only appear once per seed. Respective tags reset as soon as you reroll the World Seed. Will continue to monitor this, maybe even increase amount of blurbs to be tagged as one-time occurence.
• The Foreign Planet sprite in the Align the Stars-minigame now looks less like a saucer (lol), and more like an actual planet. <3
• Items dropping from Treasure Chests or defeated Enemies now have a sparkly drop animation.
• Completed Items from the Yuggothian Pocket Refinery now visually drop from the Inventory.
• The Yuggothian Pocket Refinery now has a differently shaded outline. This way cables now actually appear as connected to the device, and not floating near it.
• Yuggothian Pocket Refinery: Sped up animation of adjusting height of Dice Nodes, according to value.
• Yuggothian Pocket Refinery: Dice Nodes no longer appear sorted by their sides-count.
• Added some thematic sounds and juice, when resuming the Yuggothian Pocket Refinery minigame after a Save&Quit.
• Faster fade-in of Title Logo.
• Fixed some rogue pixels on the Menu screen artwork.
• Enemies popping in and out of the Fog of War now move with decreased animation speed, making for a less jarring experience.
• Frenzy Gain-notification after resting at a Fireplace, is now being queued to appear after the Yuggothian Pocket Refinery minigame has been resolved.
• Binding-reminder, whenever first time interacting with a Shrine without an active Binding Ritual, is now being queued to appear after the Align the Stars minigame has been resolved.
• Align the Stars tutorial now comes with success sound.
• Signpost obstacle on first two stages now comes with a subtle glow, until all their hints are depleted.
• Signposts appearing beyond first two stages now hold a random gameplay hint.
• After restarting a game, the very first Tombstone holding the Inscription "You are learning fast", is now being replaced with a random gameplay hint.
• Upon dying, there's now a Dark Souls-inspired animated screen message.
• Upon dying, active Boss Bars are now hidden (as to not interfere with the new screen message).
• Different colors for Progress Bar during procGen.
• Added more "sparkly" shader variants, for various on screen effects.
• When opening the Map, the background now appears solid.
• Opening the Map now kills all active floating sprite elements.
• After closing the Map, cracked/almost depleted Items in the vicinity now appear with a red dithering shader, making them easier to read.
• Pressing Hotkey for Stealth Ability while action is not viable at the moment (Enemies alerted/no awake Enemy around),now displays a thematic blurb.
• Walking in "poisoned" directions now shows a "poisoned" dust effect.
  
• Reduced alpha of dust animation (now appears less intrusive).
• Calling ESC-menu now also displays the time elapsed after starting a new game.
• Added a thematic blurb for first-time using the Torch, emphasizing that it is a utility item, and not a Weapon to deal damage with.
• Scythe and Scimitar now both have a unique, epic swing animation.
• The Hatchet now has a unique, epic hit animation.
• The Ritual Dagger now has a unique, epic cut animation
• Added thematic smoke particles to the Blunderbuss and Alien Energy Coil.
• Revised Whip Animation
• Picking up, lighting, and using the Torch now plays a unique "flare" effect.
• Hide Healthbars during "Beat the Demo"-animation.