Mountains: No Longer Haunted
"They're in the walls!" Yeah... they kind of were. Not the enemies — the boss runes and the crystal pickups. Both were occasionally spawning inside the wall-mountains that frame the arena, which meant the camera would cheerfully clip straight through the rock trying to follow you over to grab them.
We've now told the spawners that the inside of a mountain is, in fact, not a valid resting place for a magical glowing rune. The walls are just walls again.
Mega-Elites: Showing Up to the Party Earlier
Mega-elites used to be a strict late-game tier. The first one wouldn't appear until 5 minutes in, and across a full 12-minute run on heat 10 you'd see maybe 3-4 of them. That's not a constant threat, that's a rumor.
- First mega-elite chance now ramps in at the 2-minute mark (was 5).
- Full ramp still completes at 20 minutes.
- Roughly 1.7x more mega-elites over a 12-min run at every heat level.
On heat 10 you should now see around 6 mega-elites per run instead of 3-4. Heat 20 turns into a proper mega-tide.
Bosses Now Pay Their Bills
Every boss now guarantees a loot chest on death. Some boss types were silently inheriting elite drop rates and could end the fight giving you absolutely nothing. That's fixed. You earned it, you get the chest.