A pit that does not end...

Same kit. Same waves. Everyone. Every day.

The Daily Arena is here. It's an endless arena run where everyone who plays that day gets the same borrowed gear and faces the same waves, and the only thing you take home is your name on the leaderboard.

On top of that: companions that keep up with you, controller fixes, difficulty moved into the options, and a long list of smaller fixes.

TL;DR

• New mode: the Daily Arena. Talk to the fox statue in camp. Everyone gets the same kit and the same waves that day, with daily, weekly and all-time leaderboards.
• 12 kits, 7 edicts, 12 wave twists and a dozen kinds of rest stops between the waves.
• Bosses every chapter, and a mega boss every fourth.
• 8 new achievements.
• Companions catch up when they fall behind, keep fighting, and pick up potions.
• Difficulty now lives in Options.
• Controller double-press fix, a rune-eating craft bug fixed, and more.

The Daily Arena

Talk to the fox statue in camp and pick Enter the daily arena. The day card shows you what today looks like: the kit, the edict, the route through the lands, your best attempt and the top three.

• Everyone gets the same kit: a weapon, a rune, a companion and a full ALMA board. Your own gear and unlocks stay in camp, and you start at level 1.
• Chapters of five waves, each in a pit from a different land. Wave five is a boss. Clear it, step on the plate and go deeper. The lands come round again, and each lap is harder than the last.
• Try as many times as you like. Only your best score counts.
• Glory only. Nothing comes back to camp with you except your name on the board, your achievements and your journal.
• Difficulty is fixed at Normal in the arena, so the board stays fair.

Par, momentum and the early call

Every wave has a par time. Beat it and the wave is worth more. Clean, quick clears build momentum, which pushes your score up wave after wave. Getting knocked out costs you some of it.

When a wave is nearly done, the plate lights up. Step on it to call the next wave early for a bonus, if you trust yourself with two waves at once.

When you fall, you get the full breakdown: waves, kills, bosses, chapters, early calls, objectives, gold kept, peak momentum and flawless waves. Then it's straight into "Retry arena", or a look at the leaderboard.

Twelve kits

One kit a day, the same for everyone:

• Axe Berserker — a heavy axe, berserker cartridges and Gothar at your side.
• Huntress — a longbow, sharpshooter cartridges and Ana.
• Storm Blade — a frost-forged sword, electric cartridges and Brin.
• Iron Warden — an iron hammer, breaker cartridges and D4R10.
• Grove Keeper — a poisoned bow, healing cartridges and Lilith.
• Duelist — a rapier, momentum cartridges and Ana.
• Powder Monkey — a boomstick, explosive cartridges and D4R10 with a forge in his chest.
• Bone Bard — Pandreas, a dead bard's instrument that wakes the dead, and Lilith.
• Stormcaller — Voltor, a sword with a storm in it, and Brin.
• Plague Doctor — a plague mace, blood-hungry cartridges and Ana covering you from range.
• Boomerang Ranger — a bladed boomerang, hunter's cartridges and Gothar holding the line.
• Glass Archer — the Glassfall bow, shattering cartridges and Brin.

Edicts and twists

Every day has an edict that bends the rules for everyone: Glass Bones, Swarmtide, Bloodmoon, Iron Hide, Thin Air, Leaden Step or Frostbitten. Survive a full lap of the lands and Ascension lays another one on top.

The third wave of every chapter comes with a twist:

• Horde — many weak foes.
• Elite Hunt — only the best of them, and every one corrupted.
• Glass Wave — half their health, twice their bite. Strike first.
• Crossfire — two factions, and they hate each other too.
• Storm — the pit itself turns on you.
• Echo — something you already beat comes back, and not alone.
• The Thief — one of them carries a purse. Kill it before it slips away.
• Hold the Extractor — stand on the plate long enough and it pays a rune.
• Darkness — the lights go out. Only your own carry.
• Floor is Lava — embers rain on the pit all wave. Keep moving.
• Stampede — many, fast and flimsy, all from one side.
• Unfinished Business — whatever still stands at par walks out, and comes back stronger.

Between the waves

Before the third wave the pit offers a fork: two stops, and you get to use one. Boon Stones. A Healing Spring. The Adventurers' Guild, where you can hire sellswords, wolves or a borrowed bear. A Wager Stone that bets your gold on beating par. Metra's Altar, which grants a rite for the chapter at a price. A Bounty Board, Snip's Consignment, a stew on the fire, a corrupted envoy kneeling in the dirt, a didra stirring, ALMA wanting to recalibrate, and an anvil.

Right before the boss, Snap sets up his pit stop: his shrine and his stall.

Snap's Tonic Snap swears it is mostly water. Mostly.

A Borrowed Bear It is not your bear. It fights for you anyway, until the pit is cleared.

Bosses

Every chapter ends on a boss wave, and the deeper you go the more bosses come at once. Every fourth chapter, something enormous is coming : the mega bosses are allowed in the arena too.

Eight new achievements

• Pit Fighter, Gladiator and Bottomless — 10, 25 and 50 waves in a single run.
• Unstoppable — reach x3.0 momentum.
• Three Crowns — clear a boss wave with three bosses in it.
• Titan Fall — defeat a mega boss in the arena.
• Untouchable — clear a whole chapter without taking damage.
• Creature of Habit — play the arena seven days in a row.

Everything else

Companions

• Companions that fall too far behind are now brought back to you, and they go straight back to fighting.
• Your companion picks up healing potions and food from the ground and uses one when they drop low. Drop your spares to keep them on their feet. A one-time hint tells you about it.
• "Follow me" now calls the companion back to your side. It won't engage enemies until it reaches you.
• The dead companion animation is fixed (I believe).

Quality of life

• Difficulty moved to Options (General → Difficulty), away from the fox statue. You can change it in the main menu or in camp, and each level now explains itself. If you're struggling, a hint in camp points you to it.
• Friendly folk out in the world — merchants, quest givers, roaming companions — now have a green orb above their heads, so you know they're safe to walk up to.
• Didras you can climb are highlighted on the map.
• When an unleash is ready, your weapon now smokes and glows in the colours of its charged runes.
• Storage and pawn shrines explain what they do.
• The ALMA board tells you which tier an empty slot takes and what a tier needs before its cartridges can level up.
• On a controller, the right stick scrolls long texts like quest descriptions and the game over screen.
• Loot you leave behind in an arena pit is sent outside when you leave, so you don't lose it.

Fixes

• Some controllers pressed everything twice on Steam (one pad showing up as two devices). Fixed, hopefully.
• Crafting with an item that had a rune in it destroyed the rune. Fixed.
• The dreamstone altar sometimes wouldn't change your route. Fixed.
• The Seller, Merchant and Tycoon achievements now count what you sell at shops.
• Controller navigation on the game over screen, and focus disappearing when going from the game over screen to the main menu. Fixed.
• The Bandit Bandana's shop discount was broken. It now gives a proper discount, and the bandana finally has its own name and description.
• The flying eye's animation is fixed.
• Under the hood, the game moved to Godot 4.7.2.

Some honest words

The arena is something I wanted for a long time: one short, fair run a day that you can play over coffee and compare with friends. It's brand new, so I expect some rough edges. If a wave feels unfair, a kit feels broken or a station does something odd, please tell me.

If this one lands for you, or not, please tell me what you think on the Steam forums or on Discord.

See you in the pit.

Filip

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