Hey gamers.
Since the last patch I've shown Grove at a convention, and many of the changes that follow are a direct result of that.
New players just were not understanding how the Shell on turn 1 mechanic works. This is an issue I've been struggling with for the past 3 years, and I think it's time for a new approach!
Instead of having the critters have Shell on turn 1, critters now have double health. But a new mechanic called Confidence will give the player bonuses the longer the encounter goes for. The main bonus being: from turn 2 onward, you remove double the Malice.
This mechanic accomplishes the same thing as the Shell, but will hopefully make more sense to new players and not feel as arbitrary.

I didn't keep track of all the changes made to the game while travelling unfortunately, so below is a rough guess.

Gameplay changes:

• Hike was removed from Camila's started deck, and replaced with another Pet.
• Critters no longer have Shell at the start of encounters
• Critter health is doubled from what it was
• You now gain Confidence over the course of the encounter, gaining progressively more powerful bonuses:
  • From turn 2 onward: You remove twice as much Malice
  • From turn 3 onward: You draw an extra card at start of turn
  • From turn 4 onward: You get a Temporary Block at start of turn

• Plea and Versatility are now Improvable.
  
• Critter attacks now give less information to the player. For example, attacks that give ouches now only say that they give an Ouch, but not which Ouch they give.
  
• You now always get only one tired for moving sideways.
  

Non-Gameplay changes:

• The critter's Malice bar is now bellow their art instead of above.
• When you're selecting a card in your hand, invalid choices are visually unhighlighted.
• When hovering an ally, cards you can't give them are unhighlighted.
• Many quality of life changes and more detailed explanations when you hover on things.
• Empty hex tooltip changed.

Balance changes:

• Many cards, companions and trinkets have been adjusted to match their old previous power levels.