Hello everyone, Nenly here.

Since V0.2.0, the game has received two smaller updates focused on expanding starting options, adjusting martial arts and items, and fixing issues that affected your runs. This announcement combines the changes from V0.2.1 and V0.2.2 so you can catch up on everything in one place.

Let's start with three of the more noticeable changes. Detailed numbers and the full list of fixes are in the second half. If you'd like to check whether your favorite martial arts or items have changed, you can look them up by name below.

More Starting Sects and a Martial Art Catch-Up Mechanic

The sects expanded in V0.2.0—Shaolin, Cuiwei, Lingxiao, Furong, Fengming, and Donghai—are now available as starting sects. Together with the existing choices, that brings the starting roster to ten, with suitable starting martial arts and supplies for each sect and combat style.

As the sects' martial art collections grow, the shop offers more variety too. To make it easier to change styles and try new combinations, I've added a catch-up mechanic to martial art proficiency:

Equipped External and Internal Arts that fall behind other arts of the same category you still know in the current run receive up to 100% additional proficiency gain. The bonus decreases as the gap closes, ending when the art is only one level behind or reaches Level 8. External and Internal Arts are calculated separately, and arts you no longer know do not count.

The shop also adjusts its preference for each sect's wares based on the martial arts you know and the training milestones your Internal Arts have reached. In addition, the five discount items that previously only reduced item prices now also apply to External Art, Internal Art, and Qinggong manuals, significantly lowering the cost of higher-tier manuals for discount-focused builds.

Hopefully, this makes you more willing to try a promising new art you find midway through a run!

New Features: Direction Indicators, In-Run Codex, and More

V0.2.0 expanded the Endless Mode maps to several times their previous size, and some players reported having trouble locating bosses across the larger battlefield. To help, I've added a simple direction indicator.Off-screen bosses now have portrait-based pointers, while chests, manuals, and medicine have their own pickup indicators.

These indicators are enabled by default. If you don't need them, you can disable "Off-Screen Indicators" in Display Settings. BTW, the large boss health bars at the top of the screen can now be hidden separately too.

Another requested feature is here: checking the Codex during a run. You can now open it from the pause menu to browse martial arts, items, and Resonances whenever you need a reference.

There are a few smaller improvements as well. In response to feedback that the colors of "Fentian Altar: Collapse," which appears every ten waves in Endless Mode, were too harsh, Display Settings now includes an "Eye Comfort Mode." Once enabled, subsequent appearances of that map will be replaced by the snowy "Fentian Altar: Ruins." The music player also now has pause and resume buttons, among other improvements.

Martial Art and Item Balance Changes

After the update, I spent some time reviewing every martial art currently in the game—including those present since V0.1—and made a round of balance adjustments. Meanwhile, several underperforming items received stronger stats or lower prices. The overall aim is to bring the sects and builds closer together in strength, encourage a more even spread of choices, and help each sect play more like you'd expect it to.

Some changes also come from fixing existing mechanics: Debuff Resistance now correctly participates in late-game Endless Mode status checks, Origin Qi Cultivation's missing External Art damage bonus has been restored, and duplicate calculations affecting Pure Heart's Empowerment and Qinggong movement speed have been removed.

These changes will affect the strength of some existing builds. You can find the specifics in the full update list below.

Save System Improvements

One important change: if you save and quit during combat, continuing your run will now restore the state from the start of that wave. Silver, drops, progression, and resources spent during that wave will all roll back together. You can no longer replay a wave while keeping the gains from the previous attempt.

Saves made after completing post-wave settlement will still retain those results. Older saves retain their existing resources and establish a compatible checkpoint after loading. Item stats in existing runs affected by this balance pass will be adjusted by the appropriate difference, preserving permanent pill bonuses, silver, and existing progress. Repeatedly loading a save will not grant the adjustments again.

Normal play shouldn't be affected. But no more farming silver this way! ( • ̀ω•́ )✧

Full Update List

The following combines the player-facing changes in V0.2.1 and V0.2.2.Unless otherwise noted, "old → new" compares V0.2.0 with V0.2.2. Where something changed in both updates, only the final result is listed. External Art hit damage percentages are based on that art's Power. They do not represent the damage reduction of an entire build in actual combat.

New Features and Quality-of-Life Changes

• Added six starting sects: Shaolin, Cuiwei, Lingxiao, Furong, Fengming, and Donghai. The starting roster now has ten options, each with its own starting martial arts and items.

• Sect selection supports horizontal browsing, the mouse wheel, arrow controls, and controllers. New-unlock notifications clear after you confirm the relevant sect.

• Adjusted the starting External Arts and items for some sect/style combinations. Some newly added sects now consistently start with white-quality saber arts when choosing the saber style.

• Added proficiency catch-up for lower-level equipped External and Internal Arts, granting up to +100% additional proficiency. Each category uses the highest-level art you still know in the current run as its reference. The bonus decreases as the gap closes and ends when the gap is no more than one level or the art reaches Level 8.

• The shop's sect preference now uses five stages of build progression, combining known martial arts and Internal Art training milestones to adjust appearance weights. Leveling up does not automatically reroll displayed or locked wares.

• The discounts from Jianghu Abacus, Black Market Ledger, Copper Coins, Haggling Handbook, and Merchant's Bell now apply to items as well as External Art, Internal Art, and Qinggong manuals.

• Added portrait-based direction pointers for off-screen bosses and pickup indicators for off-screen chests, manuals, and medicine.

• Added an "Off-Screen Indicators" master toggle to Display Settings. It is enabled by default and can be changed immediately while paused.

• Added a "Top Boss Health Bars" toggle to Display Settings. It is enabled by default, takes effect immediately, and operates independently of off-screen indicators.

• Added "Eye Comfort Mode" to Display Settings, disabled by default. Starting with the next wave, it replaces "Fentian Altar: Collapse" with "Fentian Altar: Ruins" in Endless Mode while retaining the transitions and music timing.

• Added a Codex entry to the pause menu. Closing it returns you to your previous position in the pause menu. The menu supports scrolling with the mouse wheel, directional buttons, and right stick.

• Added pause and resume buttons to the music player and refined their icons.

• Added an overwrite confirmation before starting a new game when an unfinished run already exists.

• Holding the dialogue skip button now shows a progress indicator and skips the entire sequence as soon as it fills.

• Updated 61 martial art and item descriptions and corrected several item, dice-effect, and buff explanations.

• Added the missing inline Unarmed style icon and 43 final buff icons.

• Improved sect-browsing prompts, Endless Mode result wave displays, and end-of-wave silver-loss messages. Removed internal English identifiers and debug IDs from combat status descriptions.

External Art Balance

• Northwind Snowstorm: Base Power remains 168. Inner Breath scaling: 1.4 → 0.6; Blade/Sword scaling: 1.2 → 0.5. Storm damage per second: 20% → 17%; finishing ring slash: 44% → 37.4%. The ring slash's bonus damage against Frozen targets: +100% → +30%. Ice Shatter follow-up damage per stack: 8.8% → 7.48%, or 13.2% → 11.22% at maximum level. Storm rounds, Freeze, and the movement speed and damage reduction during the snow form are retained.

• Cold-Listening Sword: Base Power: 56 → 42. Execution duration is unchanged.

• Taiji Fist: Reduced the maximum-level persistent field's damage to 5% of the art's Power per tick. Its persistence, hit frequency, and damage reflection against Staggered targets are retained.

• Moon-Cleaving Gate Saber: Width bonus at Levels 5 and 10: +100% → +35%. Length, critical bonuses, and attack timing are retained.

• Sea-Sunderer: Charge and final-impact range bonus from Level 5 onward: +35% → +20%. Maximum-level giant-wave range bonus: +30% → +15%. Damage is unchanged.

• Thousand-Gu Jar: Poison cloud radius increased by 30%, and this art's poison coefficient doubled. Base total poison damage per stack: 3.6% → 7.2%; base poison damage per second: 1.2% → 2.4%.

• Palace Guard's Sweeping Saber: Maximum-level reverse sweep damage: 60% → 15%.

• Grass-Whirling Saber: Redistributed upgraded blade-wheel damage. From Level 5 onward, each hit deals 45.5%. At maximum level, the main wheel remains at 45.5% per hit and the additional wheel deals 17%. Rapid hits and the dual-wheel effect are retained.

• Raging Tide Slash: Redistributed damage during its extended maximum-level duration. Each hit deals 20.33%, over 3.3 seconds.

• Vajra Grappling Hand: Maximum-level additional circular burst damage: 50% → 20%. Pull, Stun, and Exposed effects are retained.

• Springing Kicks: Redistributed multi-hit damage. The five hits total 110% at Level 5 and 125% at maximum level. The five-hit sequence and heavy finisher are retained.

• Tide-Treading Kicks: Redistributed multi-hit damage. The three hits total 105% at Level 5 and 110% at maximum level. The +40% Power against Staggered targets is retained.

• Wave-Tumbling Kick: HP scaling: 0.10 → 0.05. The maximum-level additional wave burst: 60% → 10% of the triggering hit's damage. Unarmed and Movement Speed scaling are retained.

• Wave-Striking Palm: HP scaling: 0.20 → 0.08. Unarmed scaling is unchanged.

• Silken Shadow Combo Fists: Each of the first five punches: 22% → 16.5%; finishing palm: 34% → 25.5%. The sixth punch added through leveling: 22% → 15%; the seventh and eighth punches: 22% → 10% each. Hit counts at each level and the finisher enhancement are retained.

• Pale Shadow Swordplay: Fifth thrust: 25% → 20%; sixth and seventh thrusts: 25% → 10% each. The first four thrusts remain at 25% each. The fifth thrust's guaranteed critical hit and follow-up synergy are retained.

• Falling Blossom Palms: Each of the five palm waves in the second round: 20% → 10%. The first round, Level 5 addition, and Blossom Mark range are retained.

• Wave-Chasing Whirlwind Kick: Second-circle damage: 100% → 50%. Additional damage from Movement Speed when used while moving is capped at +40%. The second circle's range, range scaling from Movement Speed, and post-attack Movement Speed buff are retained.

• Sixfold Swordstorm: The two smaller finishing bursts: 22% → 16% each; the larger finishing burst: 66% → 45%. Each of the six sword waves remains at 11%. Projectile cancellation and other conditional benefits are retained.

• Xuanzhen Swordplay: Simplified the maximum-level effect to apply one stack of Exposed for 4 seconds on hit, removing the three-hit requirement within a single use that could not be properly fulfilled.

• Glimmer Lock: The ninth dart now correctly deals 1.8× damage. The first eight darts retain their multipliers. Fixed consecutive-hit counting against the same enemy within a single volley.

• Plum Blossom Darts: Removed the maximum-level launch at the end of the orbit. Replaced it with an additional +25% damage per orbiting-dart hit.

• Soul-Chasing Blade: Return-strike damage multiplier: 30% → 12%. Nearby target search radius reduced by 40%. Ongoing homing and return strikes now follow the same distance limits.

• Serpent Roams the Eight Directions: Level 5 now only widens the hit area by 30%, without also increasing the serpentine movement's amplitude. Poison damage is unchanged.

Internal Arts, Qinggong, and Resonances

• Xuanzhen Sect Resonance: The damage bonus now applies to the final External Art in the current Cycle instead of waiting for the triggering art in the next Cycle. Bonus amounts at each tier are unchanged.

• Wuji Heart Method: As a Primary Art, its Empowerment damage bonuses against crowd-controlled targets at Levels 1／4／5／10 are now +25%／+33%／+38%／+43%, fixing the decrease at Level 5. On-hit duration extensions now only affect Slow and Stagger, still adding 0.5 seconds each time; Stun is no longer extended. Other benefits that previously recognized Stunned targets still do.

• Origin Qi Cultivation: Restored the missing External Art damage bonus at high Inner Force. Empowerment inherits that same bonus. The maximum-level additional +30% for the next free Empowerment is retained.

• Pure Heart Meridian Sutra: Removed duplicate application of the same combo damage bonus to Empowerment. External Art combo bonuses, cost reductions, and Secondary Art effects are retained.

• Xuanzhen Breath-Locking Formula: Damage bonus per stack: 15% → 10%, or 18% → 12% from Level 9 onward. Cost reduction per stack: 10% → 8%. From Level 5 onward, free Empowerment while exhausted at full stacks is limited to once per wave. The allowance is only consumed when the attack actually begins; changing slots or resetting the Cycle does not replenish it.

• Red Lotus Heart Method — Primary: Removed the maximum-level effect that refreshed dash cooldown on kills during invulnerability. The additional 1 second of invulnerability after a dash, kills extending the Cycle-speed buff, and other level benefits are retained.

• Vajra Sutra: Primary Art follow-up damage cap: 45%／50% → 35%／40% of the hit's damage. Secondary Art cap: 25% → 20%. Constitution scaling and conditional bonuses are retained.

• All Qinggong: Fixed Qinggong Movement Speed being counted twice toward running speed. Their own Movement Speed, dash distance, and cooldown benefits are retained.

• Snow-Treading and Snow-Gathering Formula: Fixed successful status applications not fully triggering the corresponding Lingxiao and Snow-Gathering effects. Corrected the timing and target handling of Snow Intent. Clarified that Snow Intent accumulates once per successful Slow application; applying multiple stacks at once does not count multiple times.

• Blossom Mark: The stronger-damage comparison now uses the full expected damage, fixing an incomplete comparison.

• Donghai Synergies: Wavebreak, Tide-Suppressing Force's Gathering Waves, and Tideweaving Formula now trigger knockback follow-up effects only once per target per use of an art, reducing unnecessary palm-wave visuals from single-target bonus damage.

Item Balance: Stats and Training

• Iron Arhat: Constitution: +5 → +8; Guard Strength: +8% → +12%.

• Compass: Exotic Weapon Power: +6 → +10; Range: +3 → +8.

• Gold-Thread Gloves: Agility: +4% → +6%; Constitution: +2 → +3; Guard Strength: +5% → +8%.

• Black Silkworm Robe: HP: +20 → +30; Constitution: +2 → +3.

• Feathered Cloak: Blade/Sword Power: +5 → +8; Agility: +6% → +8%.

• Unmarked Waist Token: Blade/Sword Power: +4 → +6; Critical Chance: +3% → +5%; External Art Power: +6% → +10%.

• Radiant Mirror: Wuji External Art proficiency bonus: +12% → +25%.

• Red String Bracelet: Critical Chance: +2% → +4%. Power bonus for External Arts with both the "Fengming" and "Sword" tags: +18% → +30%.

• Feather Fan: External/Internal Art proficiency gain bonus: +12% → +20%.

• Copper Ring: Constitution: +3 → +5; Shaolin External Art proficiency bonus: +20% → +25%.

• Twin Harmony Sabers: Base price: 220 → 130 silver; Blade/Sword Power: +5 → +6; Saber External Art Power bonus: +15% → +25%.

• Repeating Thumb Ring: Exotic Weapon Power: +4 → +6; Power bonus for External Arts with the "Rapid Throw" tag: +15% → +25%.

Item Balance: Healing and Consumables

• Medicine Pouch: Base end-of-wave HP recovery: +5 → +8.

• Qi-Restoring Powder: HP restored: 28% → 40%.

• Life-Sustaining Pill: HP restored: 45% → 60%. The maximum-HP penalty for the next wave is retained.

• Cold Pool Water: HP restored: 25% → 35%. The next-wave Debuff Resistance bonus is retained.

• Snake Soup: Next-wave poison damage bonus: +25% → +35%. Immediate healing is unchanged.

• Rebirth Pill: Permanent maximum Inner Force: +25 → +40. Removed Constitution -4 and replaced it with Inner Breath +8. Strength -4 and the full heal are retained. Pills consumed before this change do not retroactively grant the new recipe's benefits.

• Snake Gall: Base price: 220 → 130 silver. Effects are unchanged.

• Pill of Renewed Creation: Next-wave bonus to all base attributes: +4% → +8%.

• Miao Gu-Insect Salve: Next-wave poison damage bonus: +40% → +60%; additional damage taken: +15% → +10%.

• Tea Snacks: Next-wave Critical Chance: +3% → +6%; Critical Damage: +8% → +15%.

• Black-Jar Liquor: Next-wave Strength: +8 → +12. The Dodge penalty and immediate healing are retained.

Item Balance: Special Effects and Prices

• Travel Permit: Base price: 120 → 80 silver.

• Copper Coins: Base price: 55 → 40 silver. The shop discount now also applies to manuals.

• Taiji Diagram: Replaced +1 maximum Stagger stack with +20% duration for all Stagger effects you apply. +1 maximum Slow stack is retained.

• Incense Burner: Inner Breath: +4 → +10; chance to apply Stagger on hit: 12% → 20%.

• Life-Warding Pill and Secret Passage Map: When their death-prevention effect triggers, it now clears negative statuses, grants 1.5 seconds of protection, and shows a brief white screen-edge flash and a "Death Averted" message. The trigger still leaves you at 1 HP rather than restoring you to full health. Existing charges and their duration of availability are unchanged.

• Star-Cutting Sword: Retains +25% Saber and Sword External Art Power. Replaced the previous single-target critical-hit condition with an additional +25% damage from Saber and Sword External Arts against elites or bosses.

• Firmament: Sword External Art Power bonus: +12% → +20%; exclusive damage bonus to Sixfold Swordstorm: +20% → +30%.

• Sunlit Fragment: Removed Guard's additional Inner Force cost penalty. Retains +100% Guard Strength, its Inner Force bonus, and Constitution-based recovery.

• Edict of Reward and Punishment: Each elite or boss kill now grants +2 instead of +3 to all base attributes for the next wave. Still triggers up to five times per wave.

• Ice Silkworm: Completed the effect that adds Slow to poison applied by items. Poison gains +25% damage if the target is already Slowed when it is applied, including when the same item's poison application also adds Slow. The bonus is determined at application time.

• Dragon Vein Treasure Map: Each acquisition starts a five-wave collection sequence, rewarding 150 silver and one eligible Legendary item. If no Legendary item is available, that item reward becomes an additional 300 silver. The map no longer repeats after paying out; selling and acquiring it again starts a new sequence.

• Crimsonwood Token: Base price: 220 → 130 silver.

• Bloodburn Token: External Art Power bonus: +12% → +20%. Its existing all-base-attribute bonus and end-of-wave self-damage are retained.

• Soul-Chasing Writ: The kill-relay effect and direct-damage penalty are now explicitly limited to ordinary hidden-weapon projectiles.

• Cycle Compass: Base price: 220 → 130 silver. After completing a Cycle, the next External Art's execution-time reduction increases from 15% → 30%.

• Broken Sword: Base price: 520 → 300 silver; External Art execution-time reduction: 8% → 15%.

• Fairweather Jade Disc: Base price: 520 → 300 silver. Odd-wave External Art Power bonus: +8% → +25%; even-wave healing: 5% → 20%. Remains Legendary.

• Empty Coin Purse: Legendary → Rare; base price: 520 → 220 silver. Chance to refund half the amount actually paid after a purchase: 10% → 20%.

• Lucky Clay Figurine: Legendary → Rare; base price: 520 → 220 silver. Chance to gain a free additional level when a martial art levels up: 5% → 8%. Free levels do not trigger this effect again.

• Judge's Brush: Base price: 520 → 300 silver. Execution threshold for ordinary enemies: 6% → 12% HP; for elites and bosses: 3% → 6% HP. Targets exactly at the threshold are also eligible.

• Ice-Shattering Chime: Removed its +1 maximum Slow stack effect. Bonus damage to Northwind Snowstorm's Ice Shatter: +40% → +70%.

• Fortune Stick Cylinder: Luck-based fortune upgrades can now move up at most one tier per calculation, preventing repeated tier jumps.

Mechanic Description Corrections

The following clarifies or corrects descriptions of existing effects. These wording changes should not be read as additional buffs.

• Afterimage Candle and Smoke Pellet: Clarified that repeated triggers only refresh the duration, rather than stacking the same effect's stat bonuses.

• God of Wealth Statue: Clarified that its interest and title-based interest use whichever is higher; they do not stack.

• Wild Song: Corrected the trigger timing to the completion of each Cycle, rather than the start.

• Street Gambler's Dice Cup: Clarified that the dice effect adds to other silver-drop bonuses rather than applying a separate multiplier. Direct payouts such as end-of-wave prizes and interest are unaffected.

• Twin Shadow Wall: Clarified that the shadow attacks independently, dealing 50% of the corresponding External Art's normal damage. It does not add Empowerment or consume "next attack" buffs.

• Taiji Fist and Eighteen Cloud-Mist Swords: Corrected the base Power and attribute formulas displayed on their cards to match the existing damage calculations. Taiji Fist's persistent-field damage adjustment is listed separately under balance changes above.

Enemy and Combat Fixes

• Increased the ongoing supply of Embroidered Guards and Crossbowmen in Wave 19. Regular enemies continue appearing until the wave ends even after all bosses have left the field.

• Cannoneers now track the player with a red targeting circle while loading, then lock the impact point before firing. Cannonballs no longer track the player in flight, and travel time varies with distance.

• Fixed Debuff Resistance not participating in application checks for Poison, Internal Injury, Stun, Slow, Stagger, and Exposed.

• Fixed lethal Poison and Internal Injury ticks bypassing available death-prevention charges. Tick numbers now show the HP actually lost.

• Fixed persistent damage areas potentially missing their final damage tick at the end of their lifetime.

• Fixed fixed-distance benefits from some External Art upgrades not being properly retained.

• Fixed cast-ID collisions between Twin Shadow Wall and the player, which could cause damage caches and effect cleanup to interfere with one another. Reduced duplicate preparation work.

• Fixed free Empowerment and Empowerment discounts being consumed before an attack actually began.

• Fixed an error when Hundred Flowers Bloom read its hit count.

• Fixed the Sweeping Monk title not granting Secondary Internal Arts the same experience bonus as the Primary Art.

• Fixed enemies potentially stopping their navigation together when the player reached a bridge corner at Fentian Altar.

• Fixed silver and medicine dropping outside the walkable area and becoming unreachable.

• Fixed Endless Encounters potentially removing the player's last External Art or granting level-up rewards to Qinggong that cannot level up.

• Fixed Li Lianzhou's opening saber wave in the finale potentially becoming stuck in its charge-up state.

• Fixed rendering errors in some enemy warning shapes.

Save, Interface, and Stability Fixes

• Fixed quitting and continuing mid-wave allowing players to replay the wave while retaining its gains. New saves restore the complete start-of-wave state, while post-wave saves retain completed settlement results.

• Fixed returning to the main menu even when saving failed. A failed save now keeps the current screen open and allows another attempt. Failed attempts to continue a run also display a clear message and return to the menu.

• Fixed potential repeated combat or settlement when continuing during the finale or the final Endless wave.

• Fixed training reroll allowances resetting when continuing from a post-wave save.

• Fixed abnormal martial art swapping when older saves lacked Empowerment toggle data.

• Fixed a potential low-level input freeze when certain composite controllers were connected or switched device interfaces.

• Fixed background frame-rate limits also slowing combat timers when the window lost focus.

• Fixed Chinese text not wrapping correctly between characters in the release build.

• Fixed missing source filters in martial art screens and the Codex, obscured options at the bottom of lists, Resonance name cards covered by icons, and some remaining outdated names.

• Fixed delayed callbacks continuing to access shop cards after those cards had been destroyed.

• Fixed interactions remaining available during finale blackouts and old cinematic sequences continuing to affect new screens after leaving a run.

• Fixed career and Steam statistics for the new sects. Starts are now counted only when a run actually begins, preventing previews or mid-run changes from affecting the records.

• Existing saves and earned achievements are retained. Static item stats in older runs affected by balance changes receive a difference-based adjustment, preserving permanent pill bonuses, silver, and existing progress.

• Neither update introduces a forced reset of display settings. Your existing settings are retained.

This balance pass touches quite a few martial arts and items. If a build feels noticeably wrong after updating, please let me know which arts and items you were using, the wave you were on, and what happened.

If you encounter a freeze or an error, you can also export a diagnostic package from [Settings → Diagnostics] and submit it through the feedback link in the letter on the main menu.

Thank you, everyone!