The biggest update so far. The Deeper Hollow now has a gate in its north wall, and beyond it a whole new stretch of the west: a hedge maze, a market town, a purple maze under a well, a haunted wood and a graveyard. You can also change your keys and controller buttons, go full screen, and shrink the enemy panel in battle.
If you are playing in the browser, the game now asks for keyboard focus when it loads. If W A S D do nothing, click the game once.
The road west
The Gate in the Atrium Aldous Wend stands at a new gate in the north wall of the great atrium in the Deeper Hollow and gives you the quest "The Gate in the Atrium". The gate leads out of the Hollow Lands.
The Maze of Gardens (level 80) A sunny hedge maze, 91 by 91 squares, with fountains, statues, lamps, peacocks, rabbits, bees and chests. Guards wake as you come close: knights, hounds, gargoyles, lions, briar beasts and snapping plants, and the Hedge Warden. It has its own map with a numbered list of rooms.
Wenlock (level 80) A country market town with a church, a hall, a windmill, a watermill, a well, a green with a pond and a maypole. About 45 people and animals walk about. Every door opens to a room: shops with level 80 stock, an inn, a church where the vicar heals and raises the dead, a school, a library with eight books to read, and homes of fourteen different kinds. The mayor gives a chain of ten quests. The road further west is a shut gate: the Western Kingdoms are not open yet.
The Purple Maze under the well (levels 80 to 83) Four levels of purple brick. Each stair needs its own key, found by solving puzzles: a scale that must read exactly 80, a mirror hall, a bell code, and lanterns to light in the right order. There are levers, hidden pits and secret closets. The boss, the Well-Warden, waits at the top and guards a level 80 sword.
Blackbriar Wood (level 82) A dark, foggy forest north of Wenlock with ten glades, a dried brook and a witch's cottage with three more floors. Eight quests, "Into the Oven", lead to a fight with Grisselda Blackbriar. A gingerbread stall opens in Wenlock afterwards.
The Black Swill (level 80) Cinder in the Deeper Hollow sends you after a level 80 boss on the island in the Underlevel's black sea. Bring a boat, healing, mana and escape potions. It splits into slimes as it is hurt, and it does not come back once dead.
The Wenlock Graveyard (levels 84 to 87) A lane at the end of Churchyard Lane leads through a lych-gate to a graveyard with 55 readable epitaphs, and a crypt below. Four torch-lit mazes, each with its own colour of light and its own boss: The Red Ossuary (Lord Corwin Vane), The Grey Charnel (Digger Grimsby), The Black Barrow (Sir Aldric the Forsworn) and The Pale Catacombs (Prioress Morwenna). Five ghost quests lead to Lady Aldith's ending. This is the hardest content in the game so far.
The world map and the atlas
The western lands are on the world map, with the roads between them. There is a new Atlas button with four pages listing every maze, dungeon and hidden place, with levels and ratings. A gold dot shows where you have been. The 52 desert dungeons and the Sand Road burrows have marks on the map too.
Settings
- Screen: full screen, picture shape (fit the window, fill it, or whole pixels) and smooth or hard-edged pixels.
- Keyboard: every key can be changed. Click a key, then press the new one.
- Controller: buttons can be changed too. Settings, Controller, "Change buttons".
- Enemy panel: a small - button shrinks it to just the fight rating, the rounds to win and the gauge.
- The fonts are now part of the game, so text looks the same on every machine and works offline. Map labels no longer pile up on the Deeper Hollow map.
Other changes
- Better gear in the early shops. Thornwick and Ironhill sell higher tiers, and there is new stock in Fenwick's Goods in Anaea and the Hunter's Pack in Gandrick's Wood. A shop's stock is now saved with your game.
- Trees no longer block the doors of Corvin's Arcana and the Cauldron.
- No teleporting (stones, maze stones, Potion of Escape) while a fight is on.
- Bandits ask for mercy less often, and a bandit you strike after he surrenders fights on.
- Sut, Lord of the Red Desert, is now one level above his area.
- The Go to level "+" button goes up to 88.
Known rough edges
- The Western Kingdoms themselves are not open.
- Some graveyard art is rough: the Bone Hound looks like a thin man, and the yews look plum in the mist.
- The new shop gear uses recoloured plain icons, not painted art.
- A save made in the middle of the Black Swill fight loses the boss's health.
- The iPad and the itch.io browser build have not been tested with the graveyard.
Thank you to the player who sent feedback about full screen, keys and map text. It shaped this update. If you find something that looks wrong, tell me the area name and your screen size.