v0.2.3: The Ancestral Engine & the Runic Warblade

16 Oct 2026Developer post

The last automation helper, raids you can fight yourself, a Trade Post with upkeep, and shelves for your collection

⚙️ The Ancestral Engine

🔧 The last helper on the automation rack. Earn it by Ascending once, or by earning 6 challenge medals. Saves that already qualify get it when they load.
🔁 New Digs on their own. Switch it on and pick a trigger: start a New Dig once this dig's Ancestral Knowledge reaches your number, or once you reach a chosen depth. If you leave the number unset, it aims for what your last New Dig paid. It never Ascends.
🛑 It waits for a good moment. It only fires once a dig is at least 5 minutes old and would earn Ancestral Knowledge, and it holds off during raids, Warden fights, cave-ins, Deep Cavern choices and while a window is open. Pause All pauses it too.
📋 Your last loadout. "Use my last loadout" (on by default) keeps your last challenge going into the next dig. Omens never repeat back to back, so those digs start with No Omen.
✨ Optional Blessing buying. "Spend AK on Blessings after each New Dig" buys the cheapest next Blessing level, one level at a time, until the Ancestral Knowledge runs out.
Its settings stay through New Digs and Ascensions. The status line shows it while it is on, each New Dig it starts is written to the log, and a small brass engine puffs away by the shaft once you own it.

🗡️ New at the Forge. Once you have seen off your first troll or dragon raid, you can craft the Runic Warblade in the Forge's Artifacts tab for Ore, Blueprints and Mithril. You only craft it once: it stays through New Dig and Ascension.
💥 Strike raiders. With the Warblade, click a troll, Lithodore or a Warden to strike it. Each strike deals half a second of your Runic Warriors' damage, so a bigger Runic Barracks makes your strikes hit harder too. Even with no warriors, steady clicking can still beat a troll before it gets away.
🛡️ Wardens stay a real fight. Your own strikes can take at most 25% of a Warden's HP, so your Runic Warriors still decide it. The raid banner shows the limit and tells you when your strikes have done all they can. The "outmatched" warning now counts what your strikes can add.
Strikes have a slash, sparks, a damage number and their own hit sound. The slash and the small knock-back are off with "Reduce screen shake and flashes".
Strikes share the normal click limit (10 a second). Holding the mouse button down does not attack.
Before you have the Warblade, hovering a raider tells you where to get it. Saves that already had a raid can craft it right away.
New stat in Records: Raid Strikes.

💰 Nation upkeep. Every nation tier above the first now costs a small amount of Trade Points per hour, paid automatically from your Trade Point income. With normal income it is covered: it only matters when income runs short.
↕️ You choose the order. Nations are listed in upkeep order, with arrows to move each one up or down. The top of the list is paid first.
📉 Slow decay. An unpaid nation loses one tier every 4 hours without upkeep, never below Tier 1. Once it is paid again the loss stops, and a lost tier can be bought back as usual.
A line at the top of the Trade Post shows your upkeep against your income and which nations are not paid.
Upkeep also runs while you are away, at the same reduced pace as offline production. The welcome-back card tells you if a nation dropped a tier.
Existing saves keep every tier, and no tier can be lost in the first 12 hours after updating.
The screen is tidier: Mercenaries and Embargo fold away under their titles, and Trade Influence takes one line, with its explanation in the tooltip.
The help text no longer calls nation bonuses permanent: they last until your next New Dig, as they always have.

New in the cave. After your first Forge craft, a shelf in the upper left of the hold shows every artifact, gem and Mythic Upgrade you own, the Runic Warblade included, and a second shelf in the upper right shows your relics.
The shelves gain a plank as your collection grows, and every piece has a place once you own them all.
Hover a piece to see its name and effect. Click a shelf to open the Forge on that piece's tab, or Relics.
Newly crafted pieces pop onto the shelf. Mythics have a soft violet glow, which stays steady with "Reduce screen shake and flashes" on.
Past Depth 20 the shelves take on the look of the biome you are in, like the ore vein.

Hints that show up during a raid now sit above the raid banner instead of covering its HP bar and the tribute button.

Full notes are also on our site: https://mithrilandmud.com/blog/patch-v023-ancestral-engine/