Demo has been updated to v1.298 from the release version of v1.279. Below is an inconclusive list of changes made.

Patch Notes: v1.280 → v1.298

Highlights:

Balance

- F1/F2/F3 enemy stat pass: most enemies got +15–30% HP and damage. Bosses now actually use their mechanics before dying. F4 also bumped so the climax floor reads stronger than F3.

- Vanguard rework: Overkill heal (max 5 HP/kill) moved from Titan Chassis to a class-wide passive. Titan Chassis now grants +1 Thorns on HP damage instead. Fortify swapped Evade for Hardened and dropped to 2 AP.

- Striker leans into Evade: three Striker cards (Agile, Blast and Roll, Dive and Dodge) now carry Evade; Striker is the home class for it.

- Technician nerf: incoming damage now splits 2/3 player / 1/3 drones (was 50/50). Drone HP cut 25% on the workhorse drones; drone damage/block scales with HP%.

- F1-F3 turn-1 burst trims: Patrol Squad, Splitter Pack, Tax Collectors, Hardened Squad, Kamikaze Wave, Buzzsaw alpha-strikes pulled back.

- Drone Commander & Mother Drone: summons now pull only real native minions (no demoted F1-weak shapes acting like full-tier enemies).

- Chest reward bumped to 25 (reads cleanly as 20 at Ascension 4+).

Clarity & UI

- Floating numbers everywhere: implant damage, passive blocks, Thorns reflections, hazard tiles, enemy heal/regen (green +N), enemy block (cyan), enemy self-damage all now show floating numbers.

- Intent telegraph audit: six display vs. actual-damage mismatches fixed (Tracker Virus bonus, Ghost Module Weak modifier, Vuln/Hardened on debuff damage, secondary debuff stacks). Several were MP-only gaps.

- Ascension 9 telegraph now matches landed damage; uses normal rounding instead of always-up.

- Plasma Barrage preview shows per-hit damage instead of total.

- Striker Momentum stays uniform across all hits of a multi-hit card.

Bug fixes

- Hardened/Exposed now apply before block (were nearly worthless against shielded hits).

- Shop fuel gate carrying over from previous runs.

- Splitter shards spawn stunned: one turn to react.

- Hex movement drift: multi-step dashes now land where the preview shows.

- Stranded finished run: quitting after F4 boss before clicking RETURN TO BASE no longer leaves a broken Continue button.

Multiplayer

- Demo Steam multiplayer was broken: env-var-first AppID resolution + removed conflicting config file. Now works for demo, playtest, and main from the same binary.

- Coop event credit grants only landing on host: now broadcasts post-mutation player state so client credits actually move.

- Shop refill + fuel grant events desyncing between host and client: both now route through the host.