Two New Heroes, AI Allies, Difficulty and Loot

Cryptr Update

Since the last build I added two new heroes, gave solo runs a full party, put difficulty and loot in your hands, and named the four regions you have been crawling. Multiplayer is still in active testing, so this remains a good time to bring friends. Thank you for the feedback that shaped all of it.

Two New Heroes

Two heroes join the roster

the Dwarf Brawler and the Druid. The Dwarf throws down his weapon and fights bare-knuckle. Hammer out a punch combo on the left mouse button, then plant a heavy front kick on the right that boots foes back across the room. He runs on raw stamina and soaks hits like a wall. His ultimate (R) is the Haymaker , a charging ability that drives him through the pack, flattening and knocking back everything in front of him. His talents can make every punch stun, or turn his kick into a ground-splitting quake. The Druid keeps his distance with a green thorn bolt on the left mouse button and snares packs with Bramble Snare on the right, a thorn field that roots enemies in place and poisons them.

His ultimate is Wild Shape

he transforms into a towering Oak Tree Ent for a couple of minutes. The change erupts in a shockwave that flattens nearby foes, and as the ent he fights with a new moveset: raking claws on the left mouse button, a feet-stomp on the right that quakes the ground and slows enemies caught around his feet, and a boulder ultimate he can tear from the earth and hurl down a lane to bowl through a whole line of foes. The ent is rooted and heavy but can still lurch into a sidestep when you dodge, and tapping Jump bursts you out of the form early to leap clear as the Druid. Both classes have deep, distinct talent trees, and they bring the first crowd control in Cryptr, so enemies can finally be frozen in place. The Druid can heal the party. Spec into his Restoration talents and his nature magic mends the whole party, not just himself: Renewal siphons life back to you and nearby allies with every strike, Harvest mends the squad on each kill, and Grovekeeper blooms a living grove that heals everyone around you. The healing peaks in Wild Shape, where he radiates a standing grove and all his heals land harder.

Never Adventure Alone

Empty party slots now fill with AI ally heroes when you head into a dungeon, so a solo run feels like a full Gauntlet-style party. Your allies are real heroes of other classes: they follow you, fight with their own kit (knights wade in, rangers and wizards hang back and fire), and go after whatever is hitting you. They level with you, cheer your kills, call out when hurt, and banter with the rest of the squad. In co-op the party fills the same way. The moment a real player joins, an ally steps aside to give them the slot. The new AI Allies picker on the main menu lets you choose 0 to 3, right under the difficulty selector. In co-op the host sets it for the party. Your party talks between the fights. When the killing stops a hero will sometimes pipe up. What they say tracks how the run is going: a fired-up bark on entering a fresh dungeon, a quiet mutter through the grind, a "victory's in sight" cheer near the objective or player leveling up.

Choose Your Challenge

Before a dungeon (or in co-op when the host sets up the run) you now pick a difficulty: Relaxed, Normal, Hard, or Nightmare. It is not just thicker health bars. Crank it up and the crypts fill with denser packs, more Elites, and heavily armored shield brutes you have to flank or break. Enemies hit harder and the rarest finds and biggest gold and experience payouts come from the toughest runs. On Hard and Nightmare each run also rolls one or two modifiers that change how it plays: Frenzied (enemies move and strike faster), Bulwark (armored shield brutes everywhere), Feral (Elites in numbers), Swarm (far more bodies per room), or Famine (health and mana pickups run scarce). The whole dungeon scales to your party size. A full squad faces more bodies without each enemy turning into a sponge. In co-op the host picks once for everyone.

Loot and Loadout

Win weapons at the end of a run. Clear a dungeon and once the gold finishes pouring in, you are awarded a weapon: a new look for your class that also carries a small stat boost. Rarity is color-coded, grey for common up to orange for the rare legendary. Each class only finds weapons it can use and in co-op every player gets their own reward. Back in the Tower press L to open your Weapon Loadout and pick which to carry into your next run. You can only change it in town, so choose before you head out. Dye your armor. Dungeons also drop armor dyes: color swaps any class can wear, from plain iron and bone up to deep violet and a glowing molten orange for the rarest. Open the same Loadout menu and flip to the Armor tab to recolor on the spot. Same rarity colors as weapons. In co-op everyone gets their own. Outfit your hero at the merchant's table. The Weapon Loadout now lives at the hub merchant. Walk up and a "Press E to open Loadout" prompt appears. It no longer freezes the world when you open it so the hub keeps living around you while you browse. See who got the kill. A kill feed now stacks down the right side of the screen: each kill prints "your name killed the enemy". Your name appears in your color and the enemy in red (gold for an Elite), then fades. In co-op each player gets their own color so you can tell who is racking up the kills. Every line shows on everyone's screen.

New Ways to Crawl

Carry the soul relay to the altar. One of the Catacombs dungeons is now a hands-on escort. Walk up to the cursed idol on its pedestal for a "Press E to Pick Up" prompt. Lift it and your hero cradles it in both arms as you run. You cannot swing a weapon while your hands are full, every enemy in the ruin turns to hunt the carrier, and the idol slowly drains your soul; move fast or pass it to a friend. Press the left mouse button any time to set it down and fight, then pick it back up. Carry it to the soul altar and place it to clear the dungeon. The four regions have proper names now. Each side of the Tower leads to its own named biome, shown overhead as you arrive: the Ruins of Lordenfel to the north, the Frostspire Citadel to the east, the Drowned Coast to the west, and the Blighted Sands to the south.

Command Your Hero

Top-down view improved. Zoom all the way out into the overhead view and your aim changes to match. The mouse becomes a free cursor that ranges across the floor instead of being pinned to the center. Your hero turns to face wherever you point, and sword swings, arrows, and spells all aim at the cursor across the field. Works for every class. Zoom back in and it returns to the normal over-the-shoulder aim. Your heroes show up in 3D on the results screen. When a run ends, each player's class now stands in the lineup as a full 3D character, idling and breathing in place above their score card. In co-op the whole party lines up side by side. Access first person view using P.

Look and Feel

The Ranger's talent aura got a glow-up. The flat blue sparkle that used to hang over Ranger talents is gone. In its place a green hunter's circle wheels around your feet. It is no longer always on: it stays dim until you start landing hits, brightens as you build a charge with every arrow that connects, blazes to full when it tops out, then cools off and has to recharge. Stop fighting and it fades back down on its own.