The road ahead

Enemy combat reliability — damage-over-time and debuffs now keep ticking on creatures that move out of sync range (e.g. when kited away from the party), and boss health is no longer capped by an internal limit that could break very high-level fights

Party invites are blocked while the game client is still updating — you can't invite (the option is greyed out with a reason) and incoming invites auto-decline, so an in-progress update can never force you into launching an outdated build

Ready check — when matchmaking finds a group everyone gets a 'Match Found!' prompt and must accept before the dungeon opens. If anyone declines or times out the whole group is released back to the lobby, so you never get pulled into a run you walked away from

Run history — every hero now has a History tab in the lobby listing past runs (outcome, kills, deaths, damage, gold, XP). Click any run for the full party breakdown and objectives

New-skill badge — the skill trainer button shows a count when you have newly-unlocked skills to learn, so you notice without opening it

What's New panel — a collapsible changelog on the lobby home so you can catch up on the latest updates without leaving the client

Crisp themed icons across the lobby (gold, locks, crowns, timers, play/pause) replacing emoji that rendered differently on Windows and macOS

Launcher self-update — when a new launcher version finishes downloading, a Restart banner lets you apply it on the spot instead of waiting for the next launch

Fixed the item-destroy sound only playing once per session, and the gold cost now shows an aligned coin icon in the reset-attributes and expand-stash dialogs

KrawlHero on macOS — a native Mac build is now available. The download page auto-detects your OS and offers a manual Windows/macOS toggle so you can grab either build

Invite friends by email — send an invite code straight to their inbox. The register link prefills their email and code; inviting unlocks once your account is 7 days old and verified

Persistent quest log — a new Quests tab in the lobby with a story chain, voiced narration from The Keeper, and a WoW-style quest-complete banner. Accept quests, track progress across runs, and turn them in for gold, XP, and equipment rewards

Kicked from a party dungeon? You now land back in the lobby with a clear notice explaining why, instead of a silent disconnect

Inviting someone who's offline or already in a party now tells you they're unavailable, instead of the invite silently going nowhere

Fixed the HUD health bar reading empty on spawn until your health next changed

Skill queue, extended — press a skill that's on cooldown or out of range and it auto-fires once it can: cooldown skills fire the instant the CD ends, and targeted skills walk you into range and fire on arrival

Dungeon modifiers — room-wide buffs and penalties now show as icons next to the minimap. First up: an always-on x3 XP boost while the content library is still growing

Antidote cleanses all your debuffs (and won't waste itself if you're clean), and the Scroll of Return channels you back to the dungeon spawn. Consumable tooltips now show their cooldown

Login revamp — a frosted-glass status modal walks through each step of signing in and surfaces errors clearly, instead of a tiny button label

New buff consumables — Elixir of Might (+25% attack), Elixir of Swiftness (+25% move speed), Elixir of Stoneskin (+30% defense), and a Hearty Meal that heals over time. Buy them at the market or find them as drops

Skill queueing — press your next skill mid-action and it auto-fires the instant the current one lands, instead of cancelling it. The buffered skill glows gold on the bar while it waits; moving cancels the queue

Warm outdoor sky inside dungeons — new animated stylized sky with drifting clouds and a tinted ambient pass; lobby keeps the dark vault look

Skill tooltips and the spellbook panel now show the EFFECTIVE cooldown after talents — Ground Slam reading 10s instead of 12s when you have the CD reduction node

Talent tooltip refreshes in place when you click to allocate — no more unhover/re-hover dance to see the new rank stats highlighted

Blink while moving no longer triggers an 'action cancelled' toast and no longer skips its 12s cooldown — fixed the infinite-blink exploit

Gold gained from a kill now pops as a golden '+N' over the corpse with a coin SFX, matching the damage-number presentation

Ground Slam and War Cry anim windows trimmed to 1.0s — impact frame and buff application land sooner relative to the keypress

Frost Nova cast trimmed from 1.53s → 0.9s; Blizzard cast trimmed from 2.33s → 1.5s — Lyra's spells feel snappier and the damage frame lands closer to the keypress

Pressing a channeled cast (Flame Burst / Blizzard) while walking now cancels the walk and starts the cast immediately — no more 'Can't use while moving' rejection

Ground Slam / Frost Nova cooldown only kicks in when the windup actually impacts — cancelling the slam by moving (or pressing another skill) no longer burns its full cooldown

Lyra now glows on both hands while channeling a cast — soft arcane particles billboarded to camera that follow the hand bones

New SFX: dedicated cast wind-up for Frost Nova, fresh impact crack, and a richer release boom for Blizzard

Left-clicking the ground no longer drops your selected target — only ESC or clicking another entity clears it. Move freely while keeping your auto-attack lock

Out-of-combat HP regen — 5% max HP per second after 5s of no damage taken or dealt

Instant skills (Ground Slam / Frost Nova / Heavy Strike / Execute / War Cry / Blink) can now be used while moving — only channeled casts (Flame Burst, Blizzard) still root you

Committed auto-attack swings follow through even if you start kiting; moving before impact cancels AoE windups (Ground Slam, Frost Nova) with a feedback toast

Left-clicking an enemy now turns your character to face them, even without attacking

Hero portraits in party panel, friends list and pending-invites are now painted faces with matching rounded-square frames

Lyra rebuilt on a biped rig with dedicated cast, frost nova, blizzard, blink and death clips + floating-crystal staff

Ranged skills now launch a real projectile — arcane bolt (javelin) and flame burst (wave) travel caster→target; damage lands on impact

Blizzard ripple ring scales to its AoE radius and persists for the full 4s zone

Skill timing moved to DB — impactFraction and projectileSpeed on world.skills drive server damage + client VFX together

Pre-alpha banner at the top of the screen so everyone knows the whole game is still changing

/freeze admin command — lock a targeted creature in place for skill-testing

Heroes named — Vanguard is now Kael, Arcanist is Lyra

Kael rebuilt on a biped rig with attached sword and fresh idle/attack/ground-slam animations

Combat feel pass — skills cancel on move, auto-retarget after a kill, animations follow through the killing blow

Upgraded impact VFX + weapon slash trail + hit flash + red sword cursor and enemy outline on hover

Click-to-move marker — four green arrows converge on the ground where you clicked

Hero select revamp — ability icons with tooltips, live stats panel, entrance/exit animation

Loading screen rotating tips + musical dungeon-enter sting

Breaking-news banner in lobby — scrolls long messages, minimize to a tab

Atmospheric lobby and login backgrounds

Creature hit SFX with sound variants per attack animation

Accounts portal live — manage your account at accounts.krawlhero.com. Reset password, verify email, copy your friend code

ESC in the lobby opens a menu with Settings, Manage account, and Log out

Manage account button auto-logs you into the web portal — no need to enter credentials twice

Forgot your password? link on the login screen — opens the reset flow in your browser

Community forum with single sign-on — your KrawlHero account works on the forum

Transactional emails now localized to your UI language

Dedicated boss arena — 8×8 arena at the far end of every dungeon, spawn room anchored opposite

Launcher auto-updates on launch + streaming downloads with smoother progress

Native desktop client — KrawlHero now available as a standalone Windows app

Dungeon props — barrels, crates, bone piles, rubble, and broken columns spawn across rooms with collision and vision blocking

Ranged combat overhaul — line-of-sight required for attacks, casts cancel on LoS loss, Blink can't teleport through walls

Skills require standing still — channeled and targeted skills blocked while moving, buffs and self AoE work on the move

Attack animation scaling — animations speed up with high attack speed, merged prop meshes for minimal draw calls

New door gates — wooden doors with stone arch frames replace portcullis bars, swing open on hinge

New exit portal — rune obelisk model replaces the old portal arch

Dedicated spawn room — spawn is now a separate room with a single exit, exit portal inside spawn

Epic boss target frame — skull icon, red theme, larger health bar for boss encounters

Wall decoration meshes merged into ~3 draw calls (was ~200), CSS fog overlay replaces depth shader

Character wipe — all characters have been reset. Your account and friends are preserved

Potions now share a cooldown — no more chaining different potions back-to-back

Potion drop rates reduced across all creatures (bosses unchanged)

Faster skill unlocks — all skills now unlocked by level 14 (was 22)

Optimized all 3D models — textures resized from 2048px to 512px, total asset size reduced from 840MB to 84MB

New wall models — textured stone walls with window variant, single-mesh (no more back-face hack)

Solo play — quick play button now defaults to private solo mode, party leaders create private group rooms

Personal loot — each player rolls drops independently, no more fighting over items

Lyra equipment — 15 new cloth items across 3 tiers (staves, robes, circlets, rings)

Equipment types — Plate for Kael, Cloth for Lyra. Universal boots and rings for all

Blink teleport — real 5-tile dash in facing direction, stops at walls

Flame Burst now centers on target creature, Blizzard creates a 4s persistent ice zone

WebGPU rendering engine — optional toggle in Graphics Settings, enabled by default on supported browsers

Major rendering optimizations — floor mesh merging, material freeze, shader pre-warm, store deduplication

Fixed particle effects (heal, skills) only playing once, and fog-of-war dark screen on WebGL

New hero: Lyra — ranged spellcaster with Arcane Bolt, Flame Burst, Frost Nova, Blink, and Blizzard. Full 18-talent tree included!

Hero select — switch between Kael and Lyra from the lobby. Each hero has its own progression

Spell Power — new stat for casters, separate from Attack Damage. Cast bar with WoW-style cooldowns

Cultist Healer — AoE healer enemy (Level 15+) that heals nearby allies and kites away

Spider Queen — tier 2 boss (Level 11+) with web AoE, spider summons, and frenzy phase

Boss phase system — Stone Golem enrages at 60% and 30% HP with summons and cast bar

New Stone Golem model with cast animation

Archer Skeleton — first ranged enemy with kiting AI (Level 8+)

UI zoom setting in graphics options

Market system — item shop, services, and UI

Lobby party system with invites and duplicate login detection

Friends system — friend codes, presence, and side panel

Gold penalty on death (level × 5)

3D character preview on lobby home screen

Expandable stash (vault) for lobby item storage

Plague Rat with group spawning

Spider and Slime creatures (Tier 1 variety)

Account menu with password change in lobby

Image optimization, code splitting, and cache busting

Character tab in lobby with stats, talents, and inventory