Hello All, This update for The Baleful Tower contains the 11th of the planned 12 character classes: the Ranger. The Ranger, as the name would suggest, is another ranged focused class, with some very powerful abilities. The first is Poison Arrows, when activated, all of the Rangers ranged attacks will poison their targets upon collision, in addition to dealing damage. The Ranger also has the ability to place Traps throughout the map, immobilizing enemies that walk into them, and deal damage to their Ensnared captive repeatedly over time. Perhaps most important for the Ranger is the ability to summon their Wolf companion. The Rangers Wolves are incredibly strong, loyal summons that can tear through enemies at close range, while the Ranger lobbies arrows from afar. Unlike the Necromancer, who can summon up to 7 of the Skeletal Warriors, Rangers can only have one Wolf at their side at any given time, however the might of the single Wolf is markedly greater than that of a single Skeletal Warrior. All of these abilities are supplemented by the Rangers Essence: Hunters Resilience. Whenever the Ranger would have normally succumbed to some ailment, such as getting Frozen or Panicked, there is a chance that the Ranger immediately recovers, and this chance increases at higher values of their Essence.
In addition to the new Ranger class, this update also adds in the penultimate biome in The Baleful Tower: the Monochrome Biome. This biome is notably different from the others in its containing more elaborate and mechanical hazards and enemies, with a soundtrack inspired by industrial rock music to match. The first of new enemies that can only be found in the Monochrome Biome is the Rover, a small, tank-like enemy that can shoot a fast, high powered rocket from one side and emit a powerful particle beam attack from the other. There is also the Mecah-Droid, tall mechanical foes, all hard metal and whirring gears, that leap onto their foes, viciously slicing at them with their massive blades. The last of the enemies exclusive to the Monochrome Biome is the Chronomancer, mages whose spell attacks have a chance at Slowing their targets, causing them to move and attack at half speed for some time. This magic that the Chronomancers use exists throughout all the floors in the Monochrome Biome, which are littered with clocks on the ground, spinning at all manner of different speeds, slowing down any intruder who walks over them.
All these mechanical creations are the products of the boss of the Monochrome Biome: The Artificer. The Artificer might first appear unimposing, a relatively small fellow flying around on the hovercraft he fashioned for himself, but from his control console on that craft, he can unleash a litany of deadly attacks onto the players. At any point, a series of rapidly spinning blades might expand out from the base of his craft, dealing repeated damage to all nearby opponents. He might also issue commands to the satellite dishes positioned in the corners of the room, which will then send out a series of drone projectiles that will fly across the map, launching smaller projectiles from their sides at regular intervals. He will also constantly call forth windup soldiers that will chase after the intruding players and explode after a short time, damaging all within the blast radius. As the Artificer sustains damage from the player, he will engage some more countermeasures, such as using some of the Chronomancers magic to create slow zones in the floor, which regularly expand and contract, slowing all players and summons in their radius. Lastly, the Artificer will erect shields that orbit around himself, in hopes of blocking incoming attacks. All of this combines to make the Artificer likely the greatest challenge players might face, so far, in The Baleful Tower.
In addition to these regular updates, Ive added some quality of life improvements, per some greatly appreciated player feedback. The first of which is having the goal for each floor popup over the players head at the beginning of the floor, making it abundantly clear to players who might be in a bit of a rush what the objective is. Ive also made a Hints Page that can be accessed via the Pause or Main Menus. This lists all the controls as well as descriptions for all the items available to purchase at the shop and some general tips about some of the more obtuse mechanics in the game. And lastly, Ive added sound effects that play whenever enemies fire their ranged attacks, in hopes of increasing the sense of immersion and providing some additional player awareness to the combat situation at any given time.
If everything goes as planned, the next update for The Baleful Tower will be the official 1.00 release. I set out over four years ago now, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make a game containing all the ideas that I had occasionally jotted down in an old notebook for several years, and have been working on it in some capacity in my spare time ever since. Now, we are getting close to having what I envisioned all those years ago finally existing in a complete package. Im proud of the work I have done so far to get to this point, and I am immeasurably grateful to all of you who have given me your hard earned money in exchange for my work, and I am especially grateful to those who have reached out with feedback and have helped me shape this game into the best version of itself. I cannot wait to have the full picture finally in place in the coming months. Thank you and enjoy, Grant

• Added the Ranger Class
• Added Monochrome Biome and Artificer Boss
• Added 10 new enemy types
  • Kobold
  • Slicer
  • Salamander
  • Troll
  • Frog
  • Harpy
  • Radar
  • Rover - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
  • Mecah-Droid - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
  • Chronomancer - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
• Added new Slow ailment
• Renamed Entangled ailment Ensnared
• Added a Hints pages that display some useful information, accessible via the Pause and Main Menus
• Floor goal now pops up above the players head at the beginning of each floor
• Added sound effects for enemy projectiles
• Lowered unlock threshold values for Pugilist
• Fixed issue where Groovys attack would not cause Summons to dance if they enter the area of effect
• Playing the tutorial now has the player play as any of the unlocked player classes, selected at random
• The Zombie at the end of the tutorial now can be one of any of the classes available in the game, irregardless of the classs unlock status
• Replaced two of the statues in the Gorgon fight with statue versions of the Ranger
• Gorgon projectile explodes into smaller projectiles upon collision now, in addition to after a period of time
• Disabled collision for Statues after Gorgon is defeated
• Fixed a bug where Gorgon would sometimes not die when her health reaches 0