About three months into Early Access, major update v0.6.0 is out. Built on your reviews and forum feedback, it rebuilds how the dungeon works from the ground up. The demo has been updated too (playable through Beast Woods).
What's new
- A room-to-room dungeon — Free roaming is gone. Resolve one room and two or three paths open deeper in. Each entrance shows the reward size and enemy strength waiting beyond it. Paths you don't take are lost.
- Spirits join by contract — After a victory, a Summoning offers three spirits and three cards to contract with, and you can redraw. Contracts have a duration; when it runs out, the spirit returns to the forest.
- Field and reserve — Spirits are arranged on the field and in the reserve, and swapped through card effects. When a field spirit falls, one steps out from the reserve, and fallen spirits do not come back. The reserve can be expanded at summonings.
- A clear win condition for each race — Beasts swap, Bugs play many cards, Plants trigger Blossomfall. Ability keywords are trimmed to 15 and shown as 【】 tags.
- New race: Dragon — The only race that reacts to all three of swaps, cards played, and Blossomfall, and can borrow other races' keywords. Dragons appear only in summonings in the deeper zones and bring a card of their own when contracted.
- Four dungeons — Three introductory dungeons (Beast Woods, Insect Nest, Verdant Garden) plus the main Hollow Forest. Clearing one opens the next gate. The Hollow Forest runs through five zones (Trail of the Pack, Thicket of Wingbeats, Grove of Falling Blossoms, Elder Dragons' Deepwood, Hollow Depths), and the enemy lineup and grade change with each zone.
- Bosses with unique powers and telegraphs — Enemies announce their next action, bosses grow stronger the further you go, and reinforcements arrive in waves you can see coming. At the end of each zone, an elite room becomes a mid-boss fight.
- 37 Blessings (relics) — Choose one of three after beating elites and bosses, or buy one in the Merchant Room.
- The Spirit Altar at the base — Spend Spirit Dew to unlock bundles of cards and spirits, tier by tier. Progress that carries between runs.
- Healing consolidated — The inventory and item system is removed. HP is restored only at Healing Shrines, by Blessings, or in the Merchant Room.
- New look and onboarding — Monsters, spirits, and NPCs are now 3D models, placeholder art has been replaced, the tutorial and prologue are rebuilt, and screen shake can be turned off. Hand size is always shown, and controller focus dead-ends are fixed.
From your feedback
| What you told us | What we did |
|---|---|
| Bugs are overpowered / Plant photosynthesis spam | Redesigned each race's engine; permanent buffs changed from % to flat values |
| Too easy overall, too much healing | Fallen spirits stay fallen; healing limited to three sources |
| Regular fights aren't worth it | Entrances show the reward; a summoning follows every victory |
| Enemy tracking, hitboxes, getting stuck on the map | Free roaming removed entirely |
| The same forest all the way down, flat bosses | Race zones, intro dungeons, boss powers and telegraphs |
| Can't see what enemies will do | Intent display and live effect values |
| Nothing carries over, gold piles up | Spirit Dew and the Altar; summonings and the Merchant Room as sinks |
| Mixed parties have no upside | Dragons, cross-race cards, and mixed zones |
| Option to disable screen shake | Added to settings |
About your save data (please read)
The first time you launch after updating, a notice appears on the save slot screen. Your run in progress has ended and you will resume from the base. Spirit Dew, and the spirits and cards unlocked with it, start again from zero. Your catalog discoveries, furthest point reached, and clear count carry over. Introductory dungeon gates start again from the first gate, resident conversations start over, and the tutorial plays again (you will be asked whether to skip it).
If you want to finish your run on the previous version, before launching the new version, right-click Spirit Dungeon in your Steam library → Properties → Betas → select legacy_0_5. Once you launch the new version, you cannot go back.
Feedback and bug reports are welcome on the forums as always. If you enjoy the update, a review would mean a lot.
Nemora