Early Access - v0.74.89

Wardens of Wen - Major Update Notes: v0.74.89

This update bundle covers major changes from v0.74.35 through the current build, focusing on a broad font-scale and readability overhaul, rebuilt dialogue and shop overlays, new trader and inventory quality-of-life tools, summon pathing fixes, melee survivability rebalancing, and a major pass on overhead combat information.

Large-Font UI Reflow Across HUD and Core Overlays

A major focus of this update range was making the game hold together much better at different fonts and UI scales.

• Rml UI scaling now respects the selected UI font scale, so panels, rows, and cards grow with the text instead of only stretching the glyphs inside old fixed layouts.

• Character, Inventory, hotkey strips, utility cards, Ability Shop, Gear Crafting, Dialogue, Trader, and Pub overlays all received layout reflow work to stay readable at larger font sizes.

• Large-font clipping, crushed columns, narrow response rows, off-screen hotkey strips, and broken list widths were corrected across the most-used in-run menus.

• The shared UI font selector was cleaned up to remove retired legacy fonts, and the live font-scale range was tightened to a cleaner, more controlled band.

Dialogue Overlay Rebuild and Interaction Cleanup

NPC conversations were substantially rebuilt so they feel cleaner, more readable, and less brittle.

• Dialogue presentation was redesigned away from a heavy single-sheet modal into a cleaner anchored overlay with separate portrait, identity, speech, and response surfaces.

• Dialogue response rows were rebuilt so hover feedback, scrolling, and click selection work together properly instead of fighting each other.

• Large-font dialogue layouts now preserve readable response cards, broader compact layouts for shorter menus, and more stable runtime hit-testing.

• Dialogue and Quest Log overlays were fixed so HUD elements no longer draw over them and the overlay pass recognizes them correctly again.

Ability Shop, Trader, and Inventory Quality-of-Life

Run management and item handling became more deliberate and more convenient.

• The Ability Shop was rebuilt into a full-board layout that keeps all seven upgrades visible at once, with a dedicated selected-upgrade briefing panel and a tighter header.

• Trader and Pub offer cards were cleaned up for better readability at larger font scales, with cleaner icon clipping and more reliable selection behavior.

• Buyback rows now support right-click Inspect, making it easier to review gear before purchasing it back.

• Trax now supports stock rerolls for copper, with reroll costs rising through the run while locked offers stay pinned in place.

• Inventory items can now be locked or unlocked to prevent accidental selling, and locked items are hidden from the trader sell list.

• Character inventory now supports bulk breakdown by rarity, including full-bag cleanup options and Artifact salvage without handing out recipe-book unlocks.

• The bulk dismantle flow also received cleanup so modal presentation no longer bleeds underlying inventory icons through the overlay.

Main Menu and HUD Polish

Several presentation and menu surfaces were cleaned up to feel more intentional and less fragile.

• The main menu was tightened so larger font scales no longer shove important buttons behind lower panels.

• A new bottom-right social rail was added with direct shortcuts for Discord, Reddit, Twitch, Instagram, Bluesky, X, YouTube, and Steam Community.

• Main-menu social icons now render at crisp authored pixel size instead of scaling awkwardly with general UI rules.

• The Credits screen was brought in line with the newer square-edged parchment-and-brass presentation.

• Wallet and now-playing HUD panels were adjusted so music popups, currency text, and large-font layouts stop colliding with each other.

• Legacy keyboard close behavior was corrected so `Esc` is once again the proper default Back/Cancel key instead of old `M` behavior.

Summon and Pet Pathing Reliability

A sustained pathing pass targeted mini-units that were getting stuck, spinning, or refusing orders.

• Sage summons, George helpers, Lucian pets, and other mini-units now recover from blocker collisions more reliably instead of stalling until a teleport reset.

• Manual right-click move orders now resolve to reachable navigation goals instead of trapping units on impossible raw click targets.

• Summons now keep a more stable ordered destination, reducing endless re-clamping and wiggle behavior on explicit move commands.

• Impossible manual orders now eventually fail cleanly instead of looping forever in broken unstuck behavior.

Melee Survivability, Affixes, and Crowd-Control Resistance

Close-range Wardens received a major survivability pass so melee failure is less binary in late rounds.

• Melee-focused Wardens and forms now gain stronger inherent Tenacity, making chain crowd-control less oppressive.

• Taunt effects were upgraded into a more meaningful defensive control tool by adding `Intimidated`, reducing outgoing enemy damage while they are forced onto the taunter.

• New melee-supporting armor affixes were added, including Momentum Barrier, Crippling Aura, and Retaliation.

• These affixes also received visible feedback through persistent buff cards and live auras on the Warden.

• Gap-closing melee engages such as Dash Strike, Shield Bash, Righteous Thrust, stance swaps, and form shifts now provide brief defensive entry windows.

• Late-wave direct-contact damage was rebalanced so Infinite scaling no longer punishes melee through an old double-stacked contact-hit pattern.

• Committed melee now benefits from shared close-contact mitigation and dense-pack smoothing so body-stack pressure is less instantly lethal.

Spawn Flow and Endless Balance Follow-Through

Several systems outside the UI were also adjusted to improve run feel and long-run balance.

• New runs on the Main map now start from random authored SpawnAreas instead of the same fixed starting point every time.

• The menu-attract background Warden was then restored to its intended centered presentation without affecting real in-run spawn randomization.

• Late-game evasion stacking was reined in with lower dodge conversion, stronger diminishing returns, and more enemy accuracy pressure.

• Trax's endless permanent-shop medals were rebalanced so core stat medals remain available all run, but scale their own future costs upward.

• Dangerous permanent Travel Shop legendary access was also capped more cleanly in standard and Infinite rules.

• Beehive curse-cleansing persistence was fixed so removing and re-equipping it no longer re-locks the cleanse.

Overhead Bars, Role Icons, and Threat Readability Pass

The latest part of this update range focused heavily on battlefield readability above units.

• Enemy overhead bars now support role icons for healers, tanks, ranged enemies, elites, Captains, world bosses, and loot goblins.

• Optional threat tinting was added so those overhead markers can reflect rank and danger more clearly.

• Health and shield bars were rebuilt into cleaner stacked flat-color tracks with better alignment and stronger readability.

• Threat chevrons for elites, Captains, and bosses were added, enlarged, and recolored for clearer rank separation at a glance.

• Timed buff and debuff icon placement was cleaned up around both player and enemy bar stacks.

• A `Vital Bar Numbers` option was added so players can choose whether compact current/max values appear on overhead bars.

• Follow-up fixes then cleaned up overlap, restored stable player HUD anchoring near the minimap, improved shield-bar presentation, and limited overhead number display so the player's own world bars stay less cluttered.

• Player health, shield, and energy colors were also retuned for stronger contrast and easier number readability.