EARLY ACCESS V0.0.1 · The Rampart, the town, the wiki · gear carries its own power · the Vendetta hunts you
The relaunch. BreakEven starts its Early Access count at V0.0.1 with the biggest update it has had: a tower-defense game inside the game, a town instead of a tab bar, a handbook that is a wiki, uniques and ores rebuilt, upgrades baked into every item, a ten-tier Descent, Renown, the Gilded, the Vendetta, and a fight-based Power number that never makes you wait.
New Content
The Rampart · a tower defense at the town wall. Place six of ten defenders drawn from your classes, familiars and wardens, hold 15 lives over five waves, then go endless · depth is your score. A new map every calendar day in one of four shapes (winding road, fork, twin gates, crossing) and three difficulties. The first full hold each day pays 180 Marks, your best depth feeds Renown and two new honors: Warden of the Wall and Foes at the Wall.
The town · the tab bar is gone. Fourteen themed buildings open everything, doors light up on hover, cards open over the town, and the Darkness switch shows the night falling with windows, lanterns and fires. Every hero of your roster walks the streets with their name over their head · click one to switch.
The handbook is a wiki · 35 articles, one per page, a search that returns a hit list instead of a wall of text, and cross-references between articles.
The Vendetta · slay 300 foes in a row in the field and one of five hunters calls you out at the Tyrants: its tier is the act you were in, you have 12 minutes, and the first win over each hunter claims a permanent power.
The Gilded · a rare foe (about one in 1,800 kills) that pays 40× gold and always drops an Ultimate.
Renown · your personal score from Tyrants, Ordeals, the Vaults and the Rampart, shown in the Hall of Honors with a breakdown.
Six ores · Copper, Iron, Azurite, Tungsten, Meteorite and Starmetal on top. The Starmetal Seam replaces the Starmetal mine, Starforged rings and amulets, Ultra helms from Darkness schematics, powder from Azurite up.
Hero's Quarters, filter presets (up to eight saved chip filters) and a ★ stage on Prefix/Suffix filters: click a stat twice and it must be one of the item's Ultimate stats.
Chinese on Steam Deck, Proton and the web build · the full Noto Sans SC font ships with the game.
Balance
Gear upgrades are gone · the upgrade station is deleted and its power is baked into every item: +15% at tier 1 rising to +50% at tier 10. Items you already own are converted once on first load. Skill lines no longer roll at random · they say where an item came from: +1 normal drop, +2 Darkness Zones 1-4, +3 Darkness Zones 5, +4 Exalted on tier-10 keys and merchant jewelry.
Uniques · one shared pool with class weight, the AOE ladder scaled down with two double-rollers and a sixth AOE unique (Basilisk Visor), Soul Tether and Twin Crowns ramp up, four uniques untangled. Reactive procs, thorns and damage over time count only through Power, because Power is a real fight.
The Descent · ten tiers instead of thirty-plus. Tier 10 pays what tier 23 paid, Hard mode is gone, the entry is 1 Tithe and 15 Marks, victory gold is a fixed ladder, every victory Ultimate carries at least two Ultimate stats and the Keeper gives a 10% unique. Souls harvested there carry at most tier 10. Your cleared tiers and first clears are mapped onto the new ladder.
Power · not a formula. Your build fights three simulated shades of the Gravemaw (the Gravemaw, a Swift Shade, an Enduring Shade), each tier tougher, and Power grows with the cube of your average tier. DPS on tooltips is a formula from your sheet and shows the same way the benchmark does.
Economy · the daily chest and rerolls pay flat amounts, Tyrant bounties pay per boss per day, fence and kingpin prices are set, the ore-for-ore converter is gone. Ordeal goals follow their rule type.
Three side games removed · glassblowing, the Athanor and woodcutting are gone with their stocks and bonuses. The game is the fight, the mines and the forge.
Necromancer · the court replaces busy shades too, Cursed Ground follows the court, and the display DPS no longer jumps with the size of the court. Mage · Seepwell node. Archer · the display DPS no longer jumps with the bow/blade stance.
Quality of Life
Loadouts · gear and skills are one loadout, loading asks before overwriting, Undo restores the last load, and every saved piece is locked so no sell rule can touch it.
Bag and shared chest · sort by Matches, best N per slot, an Any-skill chip, a sell rule that names Ultimate sells Ultimates, the advisor suggests upgrades from the chest (Take), selection box and group drag in the chest. Value sort is gone.
Keybinds · 43 actions rebindable with a controller column. Theorycraft matches the live fight one to one.
The Descent's victory prizes come as veiled Ultimates with a reveal card of three candidates per slot.
Tooltips · dodge shows its raw value in brackets like resistances, the set picker in the workshop shows your class's version of a set bonus, Power shows a dash instead of a false zero while the tower cannot measure.
Fixes
Optimize Loadout no longer invents a swap when your stance or court changes during the scan.
Panel DPS no longer reads zero above 36 million.
A Masterwork no longer decays when mining starts, and cancelling a booking refunds exactly what was paid.
Darkness · fields and forest open at 90, the night plan books Voidglass and skulls, powder discounts show only where they apply.
Achievements · a guard against orphaned Steam achievements, Mine Magnate counts estate ore, Thronewreath Crown works.
Notice
Your save upgrades itself on first load · an older build cannot open it afterwards. Items are converted to the new power curve once, ore stocks, mines and Voidglass are rebuilt for the new ore ladder, and Descent progress is mapped onto the ten-tier ladder.
The three removed side games take their stocks and bonuses with them.