Since v0.6.12, EVER BELOW has received a substantial set of gameplay, combat, equipment and quality-of-life improvements.

The biggest changes since v0.6.12 are:
- Functional Anchor Relic Signature Effects
- A complete status-condition system
- Initiative-based status timing
- Expanded combat HUD feedback
- Full equipment progression through all current biome pools
- Improved late-game recovery items
- Expanded dual-wield and second-hand equipment rules
- Rebalanced regular enemy damage
- Better character presentation and menu navigation
- Improved in-game Patch Notes browsing

This update summary focuses on the changes that directly affect your experience in the tower.

Anchor Relics
Anchor Relics now have a much stronger impact on combat.
- The first 15 Anchor Relics across Tiers I–III now activate their Signature Effects once identified and upgraded.
- Relic effects can influence outgoing damage, defensive reactions, EP recovery, survival from lethal damage and interactions with effects such as Marked and Fractured.
- Relic effects are automatically derived from your equipped Relics and their permanent upgrade progress.
- The Blacksmith's Anchor Relic services are now properly tied to progression.
- Before discovering and securing your first Anchor Relic, the Blacksmith behaves like a normal NPC.
- Once the Anchor Relic questline is unlocked, the full Talk / Anchor Relics / Salvage / Leave service menu becomes available.

New Status Condition System
Combat ailments have been significantly expanded and standardized.
The main status conditions are now:
- Sleep
- Poison
- Bleeding
- Paralysis
- Confusion
Only one major ailment can affect a target at a time.

Poison
- Deals percentage-based Max HP damage.
- Cannot reduce a target below 1 HP.
- Persists after combat.
- Reapplying Poison extends its duration instead of increasing its damage.

Bleeding
- Deals fixed damage over time.
- Can cause K.O.
- Persists after combat.
- Reapplying Bleeding extends its duration instead of stacking additional damage.

Sleep
- Prevents actions.
- Direct physical or magical damage immediately wakes the target.

Paralysis
- Prevents actions.
- Taking damage does not remove it.

Confusion
- Temporarily takes control away from the affected combatant.
- The affected character or enemy performs an automatic Basic Attack against a potentially unintended target.

Stagger
Heavy attacks and shield-based effects can now cause Stagger, interrupting the target's next action without occupying the normal ailment slot.
Status effects are introduced progressively throughout later biomes rather than appearing all at once.

Improved Status Timing
Damage-over-time effects and disabling conditions now resolve directly on the affected character's or enemy's initiative turn.

This means:
- Poison and Bleeding trigger immediately before that combatant would act.
- Bleeding can knock a character out before their queued action is performed.
- Sleep, Paralysis and Confusion consume their duration when the affected combatant actually reaches their turn.
- Poison and Bleeding no longer receive an additional duplicate tick at the end of the round.
This makes turn order significantly more important when managing dangerous status effects.

Better Combat Readability
Several combat HUD improvements have been added.
- Active status conditions now display dedicated icons and remaining duration.
- K.O. has its own presentation.
- The party member currently being assigned a command is highlighted with a clear frame around the full HUD card.
- Temporary stat increases and reductions now have dedicated visual indicators.
- Positive modifiers are displayed in green and negative modifiers in red.

Temporary combat modifiers now separately support:
- ATK
- Physical Defense
- Magical Defense
- Speed
- Accuracy
- Evasion
Multiple different stat modifiers can be active simultaneously alongside one normal status condition.

Full Equipment Progression Through Later Biomes
A major equipment progression issue affecting later parts of the tower has been corrected.
- Normal equipment and consumable pools now progress properly through Pools 1–10.
- Later biomes no longer fall back to early-game Pool 2 equipment.
- Higher-level armor, weapons and consumables now scale as intended throughout the tower.

Recovery items have also been updated.
Early pools continue to use fixed HP/EP recovery, while later pools transition to percentage-based healing:
- 25%
- 35%
- 50%
- 65%
- 75%
- 85%
of maximum HP or EP depending on item tier.

Equipment & Dual-Wield Improvements
Equipment handling has been expanded for several classes.
Adventurer
The Adventurer now uses a dynamic Second Hand slot.
- Standard one-handed weapons can be combined with Shields.
- Daggers and Short Swords can be dual-wielded.
- Two-handed weapons disable the second hand.
- Incompatible equipment remains visible but cannot be selected.

Rogue
The Rogue no longer displays a Shield slot.
Instead, the class uses Second Weapon, accepting:
- Daggers
- Short Swords

Breaker
- The main weapon slot is now clearly labeled 2H Weapon.
- The second hand visibly explains that it is occupied by the two-handed weapon.
Equipment previews have also been corrected so offhand weapon power is no longer incorrectly added to the displayed main-hand ATK value.

Enemy Damage Balance
Regular enemy physical damage has been rebalanced across later biomes.
The goal is to preserve danger without allowing normally equipped characters—especially fragile classes—to be routinely defeated in only one or two basic attacks.
This adjustment applies specifically to regular enemy direct physical damage.
Guardians, bosses and special enemies remain separate balance cases and retain their intended higher threat level.

Character & Menu Presentation
- Character Status screens now use consistent full-body character artwork.
- Shony and Garon no longer use cropped status images.
- Title-screen popups now handle keyboard and controller navigation more reliably, including screens containing both text-entry fields and buttons.
- Controller focus behavior in the Options menus has been corrected to prevent navigation from targeting hidden or unavailable controls.

Patch Notes Navigation
The in-game Patch Notes screen has also been improved.
- Patch Notes are now grouped into collapsible version ranges.
- Recent updates remain expanded by default.
- Older development history can be opened when needed.
- Navigation works with mouse, keyboard and controller.
In Short

Thank you for playing EVER BELOW and continuing to test the tower as development moves forward.