Hi all, Today I have pushed all of the changes from the beta branch to the default stable branch. If you played on beta than you are probably familiar with most of them, but if not you can learn about what has changed from this post. Please be invited to join Lost Flame's discord server at https://discord.gg/cq4YkS946F

Major changes

Brokbrog, the giant from Hythe

You will finally have a reason to visit him. Brokbrog can eat any kind of item and in some cases he will spit something out afterwards. For example, if you feed him any 2 rings he will probably spit out a new random ring. There are few combinations right now with more to come.

Soul essence

Some of the bosses will drop their essence which will allow you to craft some items at Hythe. Those items are always the same. The goal is to have all bosses give essence and have their respective items that you can craft. The items are quite specific in what they do, so there won't be clear "always need to craft it" candidates.

Bottle Knight update

Now you can give items to bottle knight! He will wield any weapon you give him, and wear any armor (or jewelry) that you give him. He will also use any items that you give to him. This creates an additional layer of item combinations and synergies between yourself and the bottle knight. As a consequence his base armor and resists were slightly reduced. Another change is that the bottle knight will pick up some items by himself if he thinks they are better than what he has - however you can always ask him to give them back.

Other changes

Changes in existing content

• Grand Executioner level and fight slight rework
• Calven Duning fight slight rework
• some enemies will pick up items
• all summoned monsters will grant you exp when killing enemies
• removed Infested Tunnel level (Hungry Caverns now connect directly to Abysm)
• monsters summoned by scrolls of summon monsters will usually be friendly and will fight for you
• scroll of teleport is usable when webbed now

QoL changes

• added new option in the in-game menu for changing zoom/scale of the display
• alt-tab will not force the game to revert to windowed mode
• all rings, amulets and wands will have icon in the inventory - similiar to potions and scrolls - so that is easier to recognize them in the inventory
• improved the visibility of item counts in inventory for stackable items
• you can enable/disable chat sounds in in-game menu
• you can enable/disable borderless mode in in-game menu
• some clean up in text messages
• added status icon and text notification when fighting unarmed
• the game will load it's data differently, so launching your first game should no longer take as long
• added the possibility to rebind the chat key (via options.config file)
• improved the visibility of which item is currently selected in inventory
• added the visual indication of items' enchant level when in inventory (let me know if it makes the UI messy/too convoluted)
• you can press shift+space to hide/show ui (e.g. if messages cover the area too much)
• killing istimid gargoyles will give a notification in chat
• changed how the results of the ladder mode are displayed
• added status and text notification when fighting unarmed

Balance changes

• slightly more drops on easy and normal difficulty on early levels
• slightly more drops in early levels and slightly less drops later
• bottle knight will last much longer before disappearing and he can also follow you between areas
• butchered convicts will now explode also on death
• significantly reduced the amount of gold you get from sacks
• charred behemoths now deal much more damage with their melee attacks
• some other small balance changes that I didn't note down

New content

• new special type of potions - grant you permanent buffs, at a cost
• ~30 new items
• added 3 new achievements (crafting an item, getting an item from brokbrog, defeating Arnet, the Honest)
• added a little more variety to Dismal Lowlife's den

Bug fixes

• bug fix for some messages in tutorial not disappearing
• fixed duplicating item glitch when having 2 stacks with the same cursed/uncursed/blessed status
• axe attack - swap places will move you even if you kill enemy
• added some missing sound effects
• fixed a bug when sometimes inventory would open with menu and the player would not be able to close the inventory.
• fixed rune of leech crashing the game
• blighted Spikeshield now works properly and grants weapons the on-hit bonus
• player does no longer move when typing in chat and movement is bound to hjkl
• fixed game crashing when using cursed wand of fires
• improved error handling in general - even in case of errors the game is more likely to handle it without crashing
• fixed some issues with giving/taking cursed items to/from bottle knight
• added some missing sounds
• fixed Moonsword not increasing the lifesteal strength with enchants
• added missing status icons and descriptions
• fixed a small bug when displaying to hit bonus for weapons

If you encounter any bugs, or unexpected behaviour don't hesitate to ping me! Cheers, Bartek