Patch Notes: v2.0.0-beta.5802 (Beta)

FEATURES

World Bosses

• The World Boss system is now live and joins the World Events pool. I wrote a deep dive breakdown over here for all the deets on the first Boss and how it all works.
• New World Boss event: "The River Hilt Burns". For a full year the Ashen Stag holds the River Hilt and you climb its ladder on the War Table. It can roll for guilds at Guild Tier 5 or higher, rarely in winter and mostly in summer and autumn. While it is coming the region shows the boss and a countdown. Once it arrives, the region burns.
• The Stag fights in four stages: Smolder, Blaze (two Charging Stags on a burning glade), Wildfire (a second phoenix and four Charging Stags) and Ashfall (two Dire Wolves and an enraged Stag that hits harder every round from round 12).
• The Ashen Antler, Ashen Bow and Ashen Cloak are won at levels 4, 8 and 12. The Antler and the Cloak take 40% less Fire damage. The Bow grants Ashen Arrows, a burning shot up to 4 hexes away that hits everything around its target.
• Driving the Stag off at level 20 pays 150 renown and a bunch of secret goodies. From week 44 a rival guild may bring it down first. You still earn renown for the levels you climbed. If it returns in a later year it picks up where you left off.
• The hero who lands the killing blow on a won level earns the boss's title for life. For the Ashen Stag that is Stagbane.

War Table

• The Commander's Briefing: up to three paper cards on the top edge of the War Table rank what needs you this week. They cover a warband near the gate, a threat that strikes next week, a front line about to fall, expiring contracts, a cut or stalled supply line, a hold about to flip, an idle ready party and an expiring trade offer. Each card has one button and can be dismissed for the week. With nothing to rank it says "All quiet. Advance the week."
• Threat clocks: a small segmented clock beside each timer fills as the weeks turn. Clocks cover a named threat's next strike, the Tower's front line, a warband's road to the gate, the next siege wave, convoys, a contract's last two weeks, a party's return and an outpost's build. Its card says what happens when it fills ("Bog Hag strikes the patrol in week 11."). A threat striking next week draws a dashed arrow to its target. A new Clocks switch hides them.
• A new "Plan the week" switch draws a faint arrow from Hiltcrest to a quest for each ready party, with a reason: "Expires this week", "Keeps your Marshlands hold", "Best odds" or "Fits its orders". The plan panel lists what the Commander would send with Review and Send on each, plus Send all. Nothing goes out until you send it. With a Tactician hired the plan carries their name.
• Rival guilds now march on the War Table. Each week a rival's banner, in its own color with a dot per party, stands on the road into each of its two operating regions. Hover or hold a banner for its tier, home frontier and this season's quests and raids. A new Rivals switch shows or hides them.
• Rivals now make announced moves. A rival working a region you hold can contest it, surging its presence for 4 weeks with two weeks' warning. A rival whose trust is below −10 can raid a supply line on its road, making ambushes 1.75× as likely for 4 weeks. Answer a contest with quests and patrols or a raid with guards. You can also call either move off with a Rival Challenge win from the new "Challenge them" button.
• World events now tilt the map. A Major World Event crisis raises road ambush risk ×1.25 and threat odds ×1.5 in its region. A boon lowers them. A sealed Surface Breach adds presence to its region and the region card lists the creatures you have met there. An escaped Goblin Warlord camps in a region between sieges, raising its threat odds ×1.5. A live Factions request shows at its faction's town.
• The board now wears the season. Winter is pale with snow on the peaks, spring greens up with blossom, autumn turns golden with falling leaves and frost in its last two weeks. Each season eases in over two weeks.
• The frontier remembers. Cairns stand where heroes fell, with the newest name, the week and a link to the Memorial. Laurels lie on regions you have held 8 weeks or more, on the year's longest hold and on a rival's home ground you won. A toggle shows or hides them.
• Margin notes: pin a short note (up to 80 characters) on any region or road. Up to 20 notes. They stay on this device and are not part of the save.
• Season in review: once a year ends, the War Table offers a replay of that year. Scrub week by week to see who held each contested frontier. Recording starts with this update, so the first replay arrives at your next year's turn.
• New Settings ▸ Display option, Command from the Table (off by default). When on, the War Table's frame carries Advance Week, the Front Desk and the Treasury, so you can run a whole week from the map.
• The War Table now has sound and touch feedback: a quill scratch when you arm a coin, a tap when it lands, a wax seal when a deploy goes out, a war horn for a threat that struck and a cart creak for a convoy that came in. Every cue follows the Sound toggle. Glows stop pulsing under reduced motion.

Heroes & Dossier

• Ambitions can now ask for role deeds: damage dealt, damage taken, damage prevented and healing done, on quests, raids or the Tower. Progress counts from when the goal begins, so a veteran's lifetime totals don't finish it at once.
• Twelve new Drives, one per sun sign, such as Blood and Thunder (deal 18,000 damage on quests), The Anvil (take 29,000 damage on quests) and Field Surgeon (restore 18,500 health on quests). The Slayer, The Champion and The Renowned can now be reached through role deeds as well as top performer credits.
• Gear bond scene: when one hero has worn a piece of gear for 26 weeks, End Week stops in the ceremony room to deal its two specialization paths. Press and hold to seal one or choose Decide later. The 52-week Soul Bond plays there too.
• Party bond scene: the first time a group of heroes reaches Bonded or Transcendent chemistry together, End Week stops for a short scene with their names. Both scenes have a row in Settings ▸ Alerts if you'd rather skip them.
• Active skills get a level-50 rank. A hero who took a New path at 20, 30 or 40 can climb one more rank at level 50.
• The year-end celebration has a new Titles Held section for living heroes who carry a record title into the new year. Each realm record they hold pays +2 Renown.

Rapport

• A new Keep close button on the Rapport tab marks up to 6 heroes as your inner circle. They ask for your word first and come to camp first. Once the guild has more than 20 heroes only the inner circle, the Commander, party captains, a hero you made a promise to and a grieving hero come to camp. Anyone can still be spoken to from their Rapport tab.
• New use for the weekly word: send a hero to talk with a guildmate. A friendly tie between them grows by 5 on both sides or a new friendship starts. Pairs already at odds are not offered.
• Settings ▸ Alerts adds a Camp scenes row: "Come to me" or "Wait in the week summary". The camp scene card now shows the hero's Bond, your last three exchanges and your Astrologer's read. Heroes already Devoted to you now come to camp only when grieving, after a broken promise or over friction.

Interface

• The End Week summary is now a letter from your receptionist with tabs for Overview, Adventurers, Fights, Guild and CCL. It covers the realm too: the season turn, world events, a World Boss and the siege, each with a door to the War Table.
• Every hero moment of the week stays on the page under "Adventurers this week" to watch again. Level-up cards gain "Skip the other N" and "Keep level-ups in the week summary".
• A "things need you before next week" list shows waiting graduations, ceremonies, offers and choices. "On your desk next week" flags contracts about to end and heroes back from the infirmary.
• The Front Desk's Weekly Report tab now shows the letter one week per page, with "Full report ▸" for the classic card. Settings ▸ Alerts ▸ Week summary style switches between the Letter (default) and the Full report.

Multiplayer

• In a league every guild now reads the same War Table map, so two guilds can no longer both hold the same region. League rivals contest regions on it too. In a co-op league the coalition holds as one side.

Settings

• New Settings ▸ Gameplay ▸ World Bosses switch, per save and on by default. Turn it off and no World Boss comes to this save. Turn it back on and a boss still in the realm arrives with its ladder where you left it.

BALANCE

War Table

• Holding a region now helps every party you send there, not just patrols. Quests in a region you hold resolve at +10% party OVR. A region a rival holds costs −8%. Patrols keep their own +25% / −15%. It needs a War Room.
• Supply lines now pay their way. Every road pays back its 2,000 gold charter in about 40 to 53 weeks unguarded. Guards now cost +25% upkeep instead of double, so they pay for themselves on a dangerous or rival-held road. Each road also carries its own rare material, with a 25% chance of one more per safe delivery.
• An ambush now loses the cargo and stalls the road for 3 more weeks before the next convoy leaves. The road keeps paying upkeep.

Armory

• Heroes can now only equip weapons, offhands, armor and helms their class can use, through every equip path including Optimize and loadouts. The Gear panel says "Not for this class". Accessories and relics stay open to all. Gear a hero already wears stays on, even after it breaks and is repaired.
• Starting gear for magic ranged classes and Monks now matches their class.

Map & Combat

• Ranged heroes now hold behind their own tanks and melee instead of running ahead of the line. Once an enemy reaches them they step back and keep shooting. In testing an archer's death rate on a well-matched quest fell 60%. This covers quests, lairs, practice, raids and garrison fights.
• The Aggressive stance's focus orders now apply only to tanks and melee. Archers keep their own instinct unless you point them at Ranged yourself.
• Tanks on hex-fought quests and raids now earn Top Performer credit from the damage they actually took instead of their defense. Tanks went from about 35% to 54% of Top Performer credits to about 12% to 21%, so other roles earn them more often. The Battle Report now marks the Top Performer.
• In PvP bouts (Crown Cup, Rival Challenge, Crown Combat League and Trial by Fire) ward abilities now wait until an enemy is within 2 hexes, so tanks advance on their first turn instead of warding in place.

The Tower

• Hero of the Day now earns +50% of the floor's XP after a won floor instead of an instant level. One hero no longer pulls away from the rest of the roster.

Multiplayer

• A league duel party must now be five different heroes still on your roster, or the challenge isn't sent. Each side is scored across all five seats, so an empty seat counts as zero.

QUALITY OF LIFE

War Table

• Hold-to-peek cards now work on any touch screen, not only the iPad app. Patrol incidents, named threats, sigils, the World Boss marker and the guild roosts open their own cards. Marks get bigger tap targets.
• The region race now reads in plain words with a tug-of-war bar ("You 3 · The Red Wings 10", "Win 2 more quests here to take it"). The math moves into a "Why" fold. A guild at its tier cap is told the cap is what stops the hold.
• The map key gains a "The frontier" section. A damaged War Room lists what is still running on the region panel.
• Hover a "New quests in <region>" line on the week card to light that region's new quest markers.

Interface

• End Week popups now open one at a time in one fixed order: fight reports, replays, memorials and arrivals first, then the letter with nothing over it, then notices, decisions, celebrations and tips. Escape on the letter no longer dismisses a hidden tip.
• Quest titles now name a foe the fight actually fields and a place that suits its terrain, so a dungeon delve is no longer called "Forest". Titles can now name Spiders, Ogres, Elementals, Slimes, Fey, Harpies and Constructs.
• The Idle party reminder (Settings ▸ Display ▸ End of Week) now has Off, Badge and Confirm. With Confirm, ending a week while a ready party sits idle with no orders asks first.
• A ready craft in Upgrade Advice now has a "Craft · <crafter>" button that queues it with your best free crafter.
• Settings search no longer offers Force GPU Acceleration where it does not exist. Searching "lag" or "stutter" now finds Battlefield View.
• The stats registry's All view adds Floors Cleared, Flawless Floors and Hero of the Day columns.
• The top header is tidier. On the Classic look it fits on one line at every desktop width. Appearance, Notepad and Edit Layout moved under a new More button.
• Ascension and Level Up now play in the Milestone Ceremony's room. Choosing a Guild Specialization lays out four charters and takes a press and hold to seal. Hall of Fame inductions play as a ceremony with the eulogy inked in line by line.

Crafting

• The Workshop can now queue a craft whose missing materials are already on an inbound caravan. The job starts the week the cargo lands. A new "Buy missing and queue" button orders and queues in one press. Materials the caravan already covers turn amber instead of red.
• Refining now shows its workshop-time cost and the Refine button tells you when the week's workshop time is spent, instead of failing after the click.
• Refining recipes and Projects gain a "Buy all missing" button. Projects show have/need for each input and say where each missing input comes from.

Contracts

• The Receptionist's Report order (Favorites First, Highest OVR, Cheapest) now actually orders the Week 48 renewal report and the Auto-Renewals dashboard.
• New optional Renewal budget: set how much in yearly wages the desk may renew. It signs in Report order until the budget runs out and holds the rest for you. Off by default.

Parties & Training

• With "When idle: Train" on, a party held home by a hurt member now trains its fit members until that member recovers. Commander's Orders parties with "Rest if hurt" do the same. The training window ends a week early so the party marches the week the hero heals.
• You can now pick how long a "When idle: Train" window lasts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 weeks. It defaults to 4.
• Clause holders now show an "Uptime N/12" chip in the party picker that counts benched weeks toward their Questing Uptime clause.
• "Auto-train idle" now respects your Max program length.

Factions

• A faction Request reply that leads to a mission now opens the squad picker right away and says how big a squad it wants, how long it is gone and what it pays.
• The squad picker groups heroes under their party with a Fill the squad button on each party header.
• The Wire has a new Order switch next to Density: Oldest first or Newest first.

Markets & Trade

• The Front Desk's Realm Markets panel shows an All Offers chip while offers wait. Price Trends rows open their material on the Exchange, your pinned materials head the list and a new Price | Now% switch shows each price against base.

Armory

• The Quartermaster has a new Keep sets together toggle (off by default). When on, Optimize and Fill put set pieces on one hero first so they earn the set bonus.
• Registry ▸ Crafters now has "Send all to seminar".
• After using a grimoire the panel says what happened. Picking a second class with the Grimoire of Duality shows the class card first. The Grimoires page shows labeled chips for each grimoire a hero has used.

Raids

• The Raids tab gains a "Raid allowance: N a year" breakdown listing each building that grants raids and what its next tier adds.

Guild Commander

• A Commander party call now has an "Open Party Optimization →" button that lands on the matching swap card, with a visible Apply swap button.
• The Commander's open call is always listed on Party Optimization and marked as the open call.

Map & Combat

• Battle log lines now show the overkill on a killing blow and the overflow on a heal, so the log squares with the Dealt and Healed totals.

Language & Translation

• The battle end cards, the Class Field Guide, the Auto-Renewals view, contract posture names, the Grimoire panel and most Armory buttons are now translated into every supported language. Vietnamese now calls the Healer "Người chữa trị" instead of the German "Heiler".

BUG FIXES

War Table

• A tap on a contract now opens the contract even when a sigil or marker is drawn over it.
• A damaged War Room no longer stops you dismissing guards or canceling a supply line.
• In the popped-out War Table window, the briefing's Advance the week button hides while a dialog is open.

Contracts

• A hero whose contract runs out on a garrison or patrol now comes home at the turn of the year instead of staying on station at the old wage forever. A healed hero with a lapsed contract is no longer sent back to the post.
• A contract renewed at a raise now re-prices its Release Clause and Performance Bonus at the new wage. Veterans carried into New Game+ get the same re-price.
• A Party Preference clause signed after the hero mulled the offer now works. Before, it never fired.
• Renewals skipped for being over your raise cap are no longer reported as "over budget". They get their own section in the Week 48 report and their own chip on the roster.
• The roster's Term column now shows the weeks left beside Extend.
• A Set Commission can no longer be farmed by moving the same set pieces from hero to hero.

Factions

• Answering either letter of a two-letter faction dispute with the compromise now closes the other letter at once, with no cost and no slight. Before, the other letter still offered its full backing and, if ignored, cost you standing. A letter an earlier build left open closes the same way.
• Faction letters about a rival faction now show the rival's name instead of "{{rival}}".

Heroes & Dossier

• A hero's solo training length now matches everywhere it is shown.
• The Rival Challenge wager screen now shows what a win actually pays, including High Stakes and Grudge purses.
• A hero wounded in a Crown Combat League bout, or injured any other way, now stops solo training until they heal. Injured heroes no longer count toward a party drill.
• The dossier's stat radar now counts each stat's own room to its ceiling. A category with every stat at its ceiling shows a gold check.
• The Year Schedule now shows the seasonal recruit influx and the quarterly Rival Challenge on the weeks they really land.
• Four camp confessions no longer state a fixed age, so a young hero no longer mentions a nine-year-old daughter.
• Skipping a ceremony's intro while its art is loading now stays skipped.

Custom Difficulty

• The MAX badge and stat check marks now follow Uncap Potential and F-Tier Challenge. Under F-Tier Challenge an Ambition reward no longer pushes a stat past 40.
• With No Party Restrictions on, formation slots show "Any role" instead of "Required". Patrols and queued contracts no longer refuse a party without a Tank, Healer and damage dealer.

Armory

• The Sets panels now say why a hero's gear is locked (on quest, on raid, on contract or dispatched) instead of "deployed" for all of them.

Recruiting & Scouting

• Hiring a Treasurer no longer fails when your crafter and gatherer slots are full.
• An applicant who is mulling your offer or refusing to negotiate now shows a grayed-out Hire button with the reason.

Parties & Training

• A locked Tower Preparation card now names the gate you are actually missing: Guild Tier 6, War Room T2 or both.

Recruiting & Parties

• A refused Mutiny Ultimatum no longer reopens at every End Week. The Guild Stability Warning now opens only when there is news.

Interface

• The quest board's Gold and Gold/Wk sorts now follow their arrow.
• Quest titles no longer read "Clear the The Ruins".
• The Front Desk's Action Required tab shows its count when inactive. Opening the Front Desk from the Wire marks reports read so the badge clears.

World Bosses

• The World Boss card now says "Faced already this week" beside a muster problem.

Multiplayer

• Undying Roster now works in a league. It used to switch off in every league save, so heroes could still die. [NOTE?: heads-up for league hosts who picked it]
• A league week that fails on the server no longer keeps half of that week.
• AI rival guilds in a league now restock their trade goods each week. A guild already drained refills slowly, so an empty shelf right after the update is expected.
• A hero who took a third New path at level 50 keeps their kit in leagues.

Academy

• A graduate the Academy lifts back to the tier they enrolled at now gets that tier's stat ceilings.

Look & Feel

• Emoji now draw on Steam Deck and Linux under Proton instead of showing as boxes.

Crown Combat League

• Watching a settled match now replays the fight that was recorded. Before, it could show a different fight and result.
• The live event view now scrolls on short windows instead of cutting off the bracket.