Hello all! I hope you've enjoyed the first one and a half weeks of Tangledeep early access! Friday seems like a good day to share all game development news over the past week, so if you haven't been following each and every patch, here are the highlights:

GAME POLISH

Thanks to your bug reports and feature requests, we implemented about ~100 bug fixes, as well as dozens of quality-of-life changes ranging from text improvements to UI additions, controller enhancements and more!

EXPANDED ITEM DREAMS

Compared to even our original Early Access build, Item Dreams have been dramatically improved. There are more layouts, more events, more crystal auras, and more ways to improve your equipment than ever before.

WEAPON MASTERIES

Jorito the Weapon Master is a new NPC at Riverstone Camp that will teach you advanced and unique weapon skills, from jumping bow shots to axe cleaves and passive bonuses. Many more masteries to come!

NEW RECIPES

We added about 7 new food recipes, plus a Recipes tab in your journal where you can view previously cooked or discovered recipes for convenience.

MID-LATE GAME DIFFICULTY

Through a combination of intentional rebalancing and bug fixes, the difficulty curve of the game's second half has generally gone up and should provide a good challenge for even roguelike veterans without being overwhelming.

HARDCORE MODE

Don't like meta progress? No problem, play hardcore mode. There isn't any. One death, that's it!

CLASS BALANCE

Budoka and HuSyn shipped as head-and-shoulders above the other playable jobs. Through our ~7 patches since last week, they have been made a bit more reasonable, while other jobs have generally been buffed, making for a variety of viable builds and combinations.

AI IMPROVEMENTS

Monsters are more aggressive and cunning than before; less easily kited or blocked by pets, they will lash out against anything in their way. Watch out! ------------

WHAT'S NEXT?

We're always working on general polish - bug fixes, UI, control improvements - but we have a number of exciting things in the works for the next week. Here's a sneak peek:

• A new playable class is coming soon - tentatively called the Aethyrmancer - offering an aggressive summon-focused playstyle
• We're planning a New Game+ mode for those who have beaten the game - start from the bottom on the same character, but be prepared for much tougher monsters!
• More flavor and dialog improvements and additions, including more of a proper lead-in to the first and second boss fights
• More weapon masteries types will be added, starting with Staff and Fist masteries