Patch 1.6 is here!

Just in time for Halloween, I'm releasing Patch 1.6 with a bunch of new features and requested additions. Here are the full patch notes:

• New eco: Amberleaf Gardens

• New species and metamorphoses: Hog, Pumpkin

• New event: Harvest Moon

• Elemental Essences: you can now find Creature Essences for each of the elemental species, allowing for easier mutations and metamorphoses

• AddedBoon choiceyou will now unlock Mythical Boons as you play the game. You can equip one of your unlocked Boons at the beginning of each run. This allows players to experiment with builds more easily and provides a form of metaprogression that persists between runs. Certain boons also give you a specific "starting creature" when you start a new game.

• Follower survivability: all Followers now get 50% bonus Health at all times, giving players more time to react to incoming burst damage, particularly in later levels

• You can now choose between two possible Ecos when advancing to a new level - strategically choose which species, elementals, and monster factions you want to encounter

• Mutated species can now have branching choices of possible metamorphoses, allowing you to further customize the abilities of your mutated creatures as they level up.

• Replaced Apocalyptic difficulty with three new difficulty levels: Deadly I, II, and III. Each level increases the number of enemies during and after waves, and increases the stats of Bosses.

• All levels are now slightly larger to allow for more exploration between waves and accommodate a slightly faster pace due to the new Starting Boon feature

• Elemental Homes ("Springs") now drop a Creature Essence of their type when freed from corruption

• New Essence: Essence of Power - increase the current and max level of a creature by 1

• The player can now hold more than 10 types of Essences

• New input scheme: WASD movement - use keyboard keys (user configurable) to move around, while using the mouse to target, select, etc.

• Bosses now have a slight glow to make them easier to identify in chaotic defense waves

• Crystalland and Winter ecos have 1 extra elemental species present

• Stronger visual feedback when hitting enemy units

• Increased elemental species max level to 10 (from 8)

• The Deathstalker's "Death Burst" ability now triggers whenever an enemy is killed by the Deathstalker (not just by the Doombite ability)

• Increased the Energy cost of Venopod by 2

• Fixed graphical issue with Petrifying Spit

• General performance improvements and bug fixes