Early Access v0.49.3

Wardens of Wen - Early Access v0.49.3

Greetings, Wardens!

This update path from v0.48.21 through v0.49.3 brings a strong mix of new loot, inventory improvements, controller polish, summon fixes, and run-reward reliability. Across these builds, we've focused on making itemization more exciting, smoothing out rough edges in the Character screen, and fixing a few frustrating progression issues that could interrupt the flow of a good run.

The biggest additions in this stretch are the new Dragon Set equipment tier and the dangerous new Beehive Artifact, while the biggest fixes target Sage summon behavior, controller usability during gear comparison, and Vault Gold banking when ending or restarting runs.

Items & Loot

Dragon Set Added - Added a new full equipment set category with its own Set rarity and a complete five-piece Dragon gear lineup: Dragon Sword, Dragon Shield, Dragon Chestplate, Dragon Leggings, and Dragon Boots. Dragon Set items roll at high power, feature a distinct crimson presentation, and sit apart from the usual Artifact styling.

Live Set Bonus Progression - Dragon Set bonuses now scale dynamically as you equip more pieces. Reaching 2, 3, 4, and 5 equipped pieces upgrades the active set bonus immediately, and removing gear drops the bonus back down in real time.

Set Tooltip & HUD Support - Dragon Set tooltips now preview the bonus ladder directly in the item details, and active set bonuses also appear as a persistent HUD buff card once you have enough pieces equipped to activate the set.

Beehive Artifact - Added the new Beehive Artifact head item. While equipped, it periodically spawns hostile bees that chase targets, inflict poison, and stack additional poison pressure on hit. Beehive also has its own cursed-style identity, remaining bound to the Warden until Father Mathias cleanses it.

Gameplay, Balance & Mechanics

Sage Beetle Fix - Fixed a regression where Sage's ranged beetle summons could stop functioning correctly in combat. Beetles now reacquire nearby enemies properly and once again fire their projectile attacks as expected.

Beehive Swarm Tuning - The Beehive swarm has gone through several balance passes to make it more readable and fair. Bees are now much slower, easier to outrun, capped at 4 living summons at once, and delayed before their attacks begin.

Reduced Beehive Self-Damage - Self-inflicted player damage from Beehive bees has been toned down heavily. Enemy-facing damage remains threatening, but player sting and poison damage are now much less punishing.

Improved Passive Swarm Behavior - Bees spawned by Beehive now continue moving toward targets during their passive warm-up instead of awkwardly stalling in place before combat begins.

HUD, UI & Controller Improvements

Controller Gear Compare Scrolling - Fixed a long-standing controller usability issue in the Character screen. Players can now use the right stick to scroll the Details panel while comparing equipment, making long stat and modifier comparisons much easier to read.

Fallback Details Support - This controller scrolling improvement was also carried into the fallback non-RML details view, helping keep inventory readability consistent across both character detail surfaces.

Dragon Set Compare Cleanup - Dragon Set comparison output was also cleaned up so the item details better reflect currently active set effects instead of presenting misleading inactive bonus information.

Progression & Economy Fixes

Vault Gold Restart Fix - Fixed an issue where Vault Gold banking could fail after immediately restarting into another run. Follow-up runs in the same session now correctly treat carried gold as depositable instead of acting like it was already banked.

Quit Path Gold Banking Fix - Ending a run through manual quit paths now properly finalizes the run before resetting it. Returning to the Main Menu from an active run will now bank your carried gold into Vault Gold as intended instead of dropping that payout on the floor.

Bug Fixes & General Polish

Summon Combat Reliability - Fixed Sage beetles getting stuck near their idle anchor instead of transitioning cleanly back into combat behavior.

Run-End Reliability - Unified more quit and return-to-menu paths so defeat, victory, and pause-menu exits consistently pass through the proper run-finalization logic.

Inventory Readability - Improved long-form gear inspection for controller players, especially in cases where compare text, set effects, and detailed stat deltas would previously extend beyond the visible panel.

Thanks for playing and helping shape Wardens of Wen during Early Access. More updates are on the way!