Strength in numbers...

Hire them. Keep them.

Update 0.9.16 is a small one, about fairness and feel. The fighters at your side now stick around, you can hire three of them from the start, dash attacks are easier to land, and getting swarmed hurts a little less. The Daily Arena also stops serving the same kit two days in a row.

TL;DR

• Hire three mercenaries from the start instead of one.
• Allies stay with you from level to level for as long as they live, including the ones from pacts, merchant jobs and the Daily Arena's guild.
• Dash attacks are easier to land.
• A split second of safety after you're hit, so a crowd can't land every blow at once.
• Daily Arena: no kit or companion comes back within four days, and D4R10 brings the skills you gave him.
• Emerald ore breaks faster, and Teodar's camp no longer blocks the road.

Strength in numbers

• Three mercenaries at once, right from the start. It used to be one. The Leadership cartridge raises the limit further.
• The Heartwood Harness and the Druid's Hood summon up to the same limit, so they bring three at the start too.
• Fighters you're given now stay with you from level to level, and from chapter to chapter in the Daily Arena, for as long as they live. That covers pacts, merchant job rewards and the Adventurers' Guild.
• The fallen stay fallen. A hire who dies is gone for good, and their place is free for someone new. They used to come back on the next level.

Dash attacks that land

Swing while you dash and the blow hits harder and builds more fury. Landing one used to take perfect timing, because the blow had to connect before the dash ended, and running into an enemy ended it early. Now a swing you start during a dash, or a moment after it, counts. Gothar's dash attack lesson in the tutorial counts your hits properly too.

Taking a hit now also gives you a split second of safety before the next blow can land. Getting surrounded no longer means five hits in the same instant. Burns, poison and other damage over time still tick as before.

Daily Arena

• No repeats: no kit, and no companion, comes back within four days.
• D4R10 brings your own arrangement. If you've built him and set up his skills at camp, that's what he fights with in the arena. If not, he gets the kit's skills like before.
• The Adventurers' Guild's hires follow you into the next chapter while they live.

The new schedule changed one day that was already running: 18 October switched from Glass Archer to Huntress.

Also

• Emerald ore breaks faster.
• Teodar's house on the Rainy Road could block the path. His camp now has more room.
• The stats panel shows your follower limit, and explains what it does.

Some honest words

These are small changes, but most of them came from watching how runs actually go: hires vanishing, dash attacks that didn't count, a crowd landing every blow at once. If something still feels unfair, 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 on the mountain.

Filip