Hey there again! We're beginning to move towards the finish line. We'll be taking signups for playtests of the other two major characters pretty soon, and starting to get the game ready for final release. This update brings the game current with the demo version on Steam with some major quality of life and balance changes. It contains the following improvements:

General:

• Added an option to auto-target enemies when there is only one enemy left. This option is OFF by default, and you can change it in the settings menu.
• Dice input requirement tooltip text appears faster.
• Slightly changed Area 1 pathing options for tutorial seed.
• Increased icon and text size for status effects.
• Improved clarity in event dice selection screens. It will now tell you dice requirements for the input and describes the outcome of your choice.
• Enemies with the Retaliate status will now spawn a text effect when hit.
• On the dice hover tooltip during combat, dice rune tooltips for faces currently not rolled are now darkened to help highlight the currently rolled dice rune.
  
• Reduced loading times between areas.
• Increased the number of events offered per area by 1.
• Dice input tooltip descriptions changed for improved clarity.

Balancing, Dice Bodies and Runes:

• Growth Dice Body: Gains more Max HP, from 2 > 3.
• Vitality Dice Body: Gains more Max HP, from 15 > 18.
• Warm Dice Body: Gains more HP, from 5 > 7.

Balancing, Spells:

Now that I have some proper information from the analytics regarding spells, I decided to make a few changes. I'm sure there will be more to come but the focus this time was increasing player options for gaining barrier, as well as fixing the most broken spell in the demo, Rising Stampede.

• You will now receive 3 choices for spells in combat rewards. 2 spell choices was a byproduct of when the game had more floors and more combats, so you could see almost every spell over the course of a run (which was obviously not fun). Now that runs are shorter and with less combats, 3 makes more sense again.
• Dune Drop: Increased number of Charges from 1 > 2.
• It Gets Everywhere: Increased number of Charges from 1 > 2.
• Landslide: Increased damage from 6 > 7.
• Rising Stampede: Reduced dice input requirement from Min 5 > Min 4. It will now permanently gain Repeat 1 only if the spell has not been cast previously this combat.
• Coarse and Rough: Removed consume and added "gain 5 barrier" to the spell's effect.
• Root Burst: Added "otherwise, gain 15 barrier" to the spell's effect.
• Staying Power: Added "gain 10 barrier" to the spell's effect. Requires one more dice to cast, from Min 2 > Any Rune & Min 2.
• Stone Strike: Increased repeat from 1 > 2.
• Pure Water: Increased barrier from 5 > 6.

Balancing, Events:

• Self-Help Guru: Options cost less gold and increased the amount of runes gained.
• Totems of Sacrifice: Options take less HP and give better rewards.
• The Crown: Gives an extra rune.
• Blades of Shadow: Gives extra runes on success.
• Cursed Blood: Gives more Vampire Runes.
• Eternal Decision: Added an option to leave.
• Fate Weaver: Options cost less gold and max HP.
• Hex Dealer: Gives more gold.
• Chaos Implement: Costs less HP.
• Omnipotence: Costs less HP.
• Vitality Transfer: Gives more max HP.
• Get Juiced:  The unit ability gained in this event changed from "Gain 5 Might. Lose 5 Might at the end of turn." to "Make 3 Ethereal Dice."

Balancing, Enemies:

The win rate didn't increase from the last balance update as much as I would like, so most of these balance tweaks are nerfs (thought here are a few buffs). I would like the base difficulty to be slightly more accessible. For people who want a more difficult game, there will be a difficulty system (called Worthiness) similar to Heat in Hades to increase the difficulty in the final version.

• Tiny Ogre: Reduced damage output, barrier gain, and HP.
• Armored Rat: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Hextress: Reduced damage output and HP. Made unit ability easier to use.
• Slime: Reduced damage output. Made unit ability easier to use.
• Punch Wizard: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Hexbeast: Reduced damage output and Might gain.
• Punch Warlock: Reduced HP, increased damage output.
• Spellmaw: Reduced damage output. Made unit ability easier to use.
• Replicator: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Luck Feeder: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Bladed Dancer: Reduced damage output and HP. Made unit ability easier to use.
• Emerald Demon: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Armored Homonculus: Reduced damage output and HP.
• Golden Armadillo: Reduced damage output.
• Arena Hero: Reduced HP.
• Master of the Armory: Reduced damage output and Might gain.
• Writhing Slime: Increased barrier gain and damage output.
• Demon of Misfortune: Reduced damage output and Might gain.
• The Sacrifice: Reduced HP and the amount of starting Retaliate. Made unit ability easier to use.
• Cleric of Beauty: HP increased.
• Ogre Husk: Reduced damage output and Might gain. Adjusted attack pattern to curse dice less often.
• Orb: Reduced HP, barrier gain, the amount of starting Hexproof, and the amount of Weak and Frail inflicted. The win rate for most of the fights with Orb were worse than the final boss. Whoops.
• Trickster: Increased HP. For damage-only attack, increased base damage but reduced randomness range.
• Chaos Mass: Reduced damage output, HP, and starting Hexproof.
• Volatile Being: Reduced damage output.
• Origin of Sickness: Reduced damage output. Increased the heal percentage of its unit ability from 35% > 45%.
• Avatar of the Soul: Reduced number of dice cursed in first attack from 5 > 4. Reduced damage in large attack from 55 > 50.
• The Double Orb fight has been removed from Area 3. Continue Run save data is incompatible with this update for this reason.
  

Make sure you check us out during Steam Next Fest, and ask your friends to give the game a shot too! We will be taking signups for playtests on Steam starting before Next Fest begins, but we will make a separate announcement on Steam for that. Keep an eye out!