Wardens of Wen - Early Access v0.38.0

Greetings, Wardens!

Update v0.38.0 is here, bringing a big wave of quality-of-life improvements, new artifacts, combat tuning, loot changes, and a long list of polish and bug fixes.

This update heavily improves the overall feel of the game, with better HUD support, cleaner menus, stronger late-run scaling, and more satisfying combat feedback across the board.

HUD, UI & Accessibility

• Crafting System Overhaul - The crafting screen now includes a live search bar, a toggle to hide uncraftable items, and recipe tracking. Right-click a recipe to track its reagents, which now appear highlighted in inventory and trader slots.
• Buff & Debuff Tracker - Added a new MMO-style status tracker beside the minimap for buffs, debuffs, temporary effects, and global powerups. Hover for live timers and descriptions, and right-click removable buffs directly from the HUD.
• Controller Command Wheels - Added remappable radial wheels for controllers, including a Menu Wheel and Utility Wheel, for smoother access to menus, abilities, logs, and consumables.
• Adaptive Input Prompts - Input glyphs now update automatically based on your active device using the new PromptFont system.
• Credits Screen - Added a dedicated Credits page on the main menu to recognize contributors, playtesters, music artists, and supporters.
• Menu & Input Polish - Fixed mouse-wheel input leaking into gameplay zoom, improved pause-menu locking indoors, and corrected gear comparison deltas so downgrades display properly.
• Hotkeys Panel Polish - Cleaned up the Hotkeys panel layout and styling to better display keybinds and controller prompts.

Items & Loot

• New Artifact - Strawhat - A rare artifact helm that halves ability costs and dash cooldowns, provides strong cooldown and regen support, guarantees +5 Luck, and rolls additional powerful affixes.
• New Artifact - Thundertwig - A unique magic weapon with a rainbow world effect. Equipping it grants a 5th ability slot containing Jade's Lightning Bolt spell.
• Artifact Restrictions - Artifacts can no longer be salvaged, and their recipes can no longer be learned or generated from recipe books.
• Endgame Socket Expansion - Rings and amulets can now rarely roll sockets. Trinkets can now rarely roll 1 or 2 sockets as well, opening up more late-game build scaling.
• Loot Display Fixes - Restored missing bag icons in inventory and shops, and fixed missing ground indicators for several food drops.

Gameplay, Balance & Mechanics

• Melee Combat Scaling - Reworked Weapon Range upgrades so they properly support melee Wardens such as Jack, Ellis, Maria, and Robin's sword stance. Melee growth now follows a clearer and more intentional progression.
• Late-Game Scaling Updates - Increased EXP gain multipliers after wave 45 and improved how Strength and Dexterity convert into Attack Power deeper into a run.
• Revive Overhaul - Extra lives now trigger a Kalibros time-rewind event that fully resets the current wave, restores the Warden, and clears spawned shrines, hidden chests, and boss pylons before restarting the fight.
• Luck Support - Gear can now roll +Luck alongside STR, DEX, INT, and END. A new Luck Medallion has also been added to Trax's shop.
• Boss Encounter Pacing - Vampire Lord now summons support waves at 75%, 50%, and 25% HP. Dragon regeneration has been adjusted to those same thresholds.
• Persistence Improvements - Dropped powerups, consumables, and revive pickups now remain for a full round cycle instead of disappearing too early.

Bug Fixes & General Polish

• Combat Audio Improvements - Added a large number of new spell and projectile sound hooks across multiple Wardens and enemy attacks to improve combat feel.
• Enemy Pathing Fixes - Fixed Dragon boss gate stalls so dragons now steer correctly and fully exit portals.
• HUD & Stability Fixes - Resolved crashes tied to timed buff and debuff popups, fixed tooltip hover issues, repaired raw scancode keyboard prompts, and corrected misleading neutral gear comparisons.
• Tooltip Improvements - Updated Verdaxis and Baron Von Dreadmoor inspect tooltips with anchored health and shield presentation matching nemesis encounters.

Thanks for playing and helping shape Wardens of Wen during Early Access. More updates are on the way.