Combat tuning

• Blood Scythe reworked — new hand-painted VFX, blade now rotates tangentially as it orbits, with a wider hit band and longer reach.
• Executive Strike (+21% reach) now rotates with your aim — the long vertex of the diamond points at the target instead of being locked to cardinal axes.
• Contact Explosion reach increased by 40%.

Movement feel

• Your character now faces the direction you move (WASD or left stick), not the mouse cursor. No more walking backwards because an enemy got close.
• When you cast an active skill, the character briefly turns to the target (0.2s) and returns to following your movement.
• Right stick still aims manually on gamepad.

City Defense bar redesign

• Inverted gradient: red at the base (urgent), green at the top (safe).
• Reactive icon: skull while the kill threshold isn't met, castle once it is, burst when you take damage.
• Pulsing glow when complete; subtle flash on every kill that counts toward the threshold.

Tutorial and clarity

• New starting-skill hint appears right after you pick your active skill — explains the resource cost (Energy or Essence) and suggests what to look for in the shop.
• Adventurer's Guide reviewed for terminology consistency across all eight supported languages.
• Active and auto skill slots: locked-slot label and tooltip now show the same wave number (the wave it becomes available on, not the one before it).