Demo Update: The Next Fest Final Weekend Patch!

Demo Update: The Next Fest Final Weekend Patch!

Hey everyone! As we head into the final days of Steam Next Fest, we want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has played the demo, joined the streams, and shared feedback. We've been reading all of your notes and have put together one final, massive patch for the festival.

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTICE: PROGRESSION & SAVE DATA WIPE ⚠️

Due to the massive scope of the architectural changes in this update—specifically the overhauls to the party system, mid-run captures, and progression saving—we unfortunately have to perform a complete reset of all save data. We know losing progress mid-festival is frustrating, but this wipe is absolutely necessary to ensure the new systems function correctly and to prevent corrupted saves. Thank you so much for your understanding and for helping us stress-test these new features!

This update brings some incredibly fun mid-run mechanics, huge visual and audio upgrades for loot, difficulty tuning for our high-level players, and a massive wave of bug fixes.

Here is what’s new in today's patch:

🎮 Gameplay & Major Features

• AddedMid-Run Captures Join the FightCapturing a new Minimon during a standard Path run will now immediately drop them directly into the arena to fight alongside you (up to the 2-unit party limit)! Any earned XP is automatically split 50/50 between your active duo.

• Endless Mode Duos: Endless Mode now officially supports multi-unit parties. You can multi-select up to two Minimon from your roster right from the start to tackle the endless waves together.

• Smarter "Continue" Button: The Main Menu's Continue button is no longer hardcoded to standard paths. It now perfectly remembers your last active session and seamlessly drops you right back into your exact Path, Raid, or Endless run.

⚖️ Balance & Economy

• AdjustedRaid Difficulty SpikeRaids are now the ultimate challenge! Enemies in Raid Mode now dynamically scale with extra abilities and massively increased HP pools (scaling 15 to 35 levels over 10 waves).
• AdjustedMassive Raid Loot BuffTo compensate for the intense new difficulty, we have significantly increased Raid loot drops across all phases of the run (Early, Mid, Late, and Legendary).
• AdjustedPath RebalancingWe have tweaked the difficulty curve across all adventure paths. The very first path is now much more forgiving to help new players get their footing, but expect a noticeable difficulty spike once the Tinosaur drops!
• AdjustedTighter Combat PacingAdjusted wave timings across the board to make combat feel tighter, faster, and more active in all three waves.

• Roster Bloat Fixes: To keep your roster manageable and prevent duplicate spawning bugs, standard Minimon and Evo 3 forms are no longer granted as end-of-path rewards.

✨ Visuals, Audio & UI Polish

• "Juicy" Currency Drops: Defeated enemies now erupt with physical coins that bounce across the arena and fly directly into the UI portrait of the Minimon who earned them. Loot is automatically calculated and split among your active party based on their individual gold multipliers!

• AddedSatisfying Audio EngineAlongside the visual currency drops, we added a casino-like audio "ticker" effect that intelligently throttles itself. You get the immensely satisfying sound of collecting massive loot bombs without blowing out your eardrums.

• Adventures UI Overhaul: We've made sending Minimon on idle Adventures much clearer. The "Start" button now dynamically changes color and provides clear text feedback if you are missing the required Gold or specific Minimon.

• Evolution Alerts: The sidebar portraits of your deployed Minimon will now enthusiastically bounce and wiggle when they have leveled up and are ready to evolve.

• AddedUpgraded Currency HUDWe added your active Minimon's portrait and real-time health bar directly to the Currency Overlay, keeping you anchored to your active unit's status even when deep in the upgrade menus.

• Improved Spawn Audio: We completely revamped the audio system for unit spawning to ensure satisfying drop and impact sounds trigger perfectly across all game modes.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Stability

• FixedCaptured Ability PointsFixed a bug where captured enemy Minimon would join your roster with incorrect unspent ability points. They now arrive with the mathematically correct number of points based on their current level.
• FixedArena Boundary FixFixed an issue where player units could spawn slightly outside the visible arena boundaries when starting or resuming late-wave Endless or Raid runs.
• FixedParty Save State PersistenceFixed several under-the-hood issues regarding party persistence. Your exact deployed party composition, mid-run captures, and newly evolved forms will now properly survive quitting to the main menu and reloading.
• FixedRespawn DesyncFixed a bug where dying in Path mode would only respawn the primary Minimon and accidentally delete your mid-run captures from the arena.

Thank you all again for making this Next Fest incredibly special. Jump in, test out the new mid-run duo fights, and let us know what you think!