5.2

Highlights

• A third book, and a long way down: The Lost Dungeons opens ten locations beneath the Crooked Mile, with new creatures, puzzles, survivors, music, and the Eye of the Beholder.
• Holga rings the dinner bell: recruit a new Fighter whose Dinner Bell bolsters her armor and draws enemy attacks. Battle Armor attire completes the invitation.
• The whole library climbs together: advance through difficulty tiers across all three adventures, replay completed runs for rewards, and keep the access your Company has already earned.
• Brains, beans, and better preparations: riddles reward your answers, Coffee Beans restore half your maximum resource, Potions help allies, and purchased armor wards are yours to keep.
• Fewer mysteries in the menus: inspect Town and combat controls for help, rename campaigns, resume interrupted fights, and enjoy clearer reward receipts and a chest-roll Continue button that behaves.

The Build 10 Update

Build 10 expands Tales from Oddwater with The Lost Dungeons, a third full adventure beneath the Crooked Mile. Meet a new companion, face new creatures, and continue the Company's story through the tangled remains of two rival castles. Across all three adventures, this update also revises difficulty progression, adds replay choices and contextual help, improves puzzles and rewards, and brings together the fixes from the Build 10 playtests.

These notes cover the changes since version 5.1.5 / Build 9, including the corrections made after the first Build 10 candidate.

The Lost Dungeons

• A complete third adventure. Explore ten connected locations with seven combat encounters, nine new creature types, eight challenge definitions, six conversations, discoveries, treasure and an indoor rest stop. The adventure has 24 authored interaction points, including a note that replaces a recruited character.
• Available from Town on Basic. The new book is immediately available, though a trained Company and a well-stocked pouch are recommended. For a fresh Company, the intended story order is The Forsaken Woods, The Heart of the Forest, then The Lost Dungeons.
• New threats and tactics. Dungeon foes introduce regeneration, guarded openings, attacks that spread across the party, attack-impairing splashes, retaliation and varied magical rays. Some enemies support or revive their allies. Combat help explains their traits as you encounter them.
• Escape from captivity. An engulfed hero appears inside their captor and must spend their turn attempting Escape. The rest of the party can still help; defeating the captor frees the captive.
• Discoveries with lasting value. Find an expedition weapon blessing and a new artifact, the Eye of the Beholder. The blessing adds +1 party Attack for its expedition. The artifact gives compatible martial heroes a random targeted ray once per combat, replacing their personal skill.
• A connected story. New survivors, conversations and Sealed Orders continue the thread from The Heart of the Forest. Prodigus's conclusion now points toward the new adventure while keeping later revelations for you to discover.

Holga Joins the Company

• Recruit a new Fighter. Holga joins the reserves, ready to swap into the active party at the Guild.
• Dinner Bell. Spend one stamina to give Holga +3 AC and draw targeted enemy attacks until her next turn. Attacks that hit the whole party keep their normal targets.
• Recruits arrive better prepared. First recruitment now starts Xov at least at level 3, Juniper at least at level 4, and Holga at least at level 5. Holga also catches up to the lowest active hero's level when that is higher. Heroes already recruited keep their existing progress.
• New attire. Battle Armor Holga is available in the Shop for 10 gold after recruitment, with no additional rank or difficulty requirement. Holga also has Gilded artwork for the existing Company entitlement, bringing Gilded coverage to all nine heroes. Attire remains cosmetic, and buying an outfit does not equip it automatically.
• No duplicate Holga. Once she joins, a readable departure note replaces her at her former post, including when she is in reserve or the Company returns on a later expedition.

Difficulty Progression and Replay

• Advance across the whole adventure library. Earn each next Company difficulty by clearing the previous tier in all three required adventures. Each book also needs its own previous-tier clear. The progression remains Basic, Advanced, Expert, Master and Master+.
• Keep access you have already earned. Existing difficulty unlocks remain permanent, including those carried forward from older campaigns. Adding The Lost Dungeons to the required set does not revoke earned access.
• Choose and replay completed difficulties. Use Choose Difficulty on an adventure's introduction to start, resume or replay. Completed tiers award normal XP, gold and completion Reputation on each fresh expedition.
• Clearer preparation advice. The selector explains missing clears and recommended preparation. Expert and above recommend a Company near level 12, without imposing a level gate. Replaying Basic or Advanced remains a way to prepare.
• Confirm before replacing an expedition. Starting another difficulty over an unfinished run asks for confirmation. Cancellation keeps that expedition. A confirmed replacement preserves the Company, earned clears and other adventures; living active heroes recover for the new run, while fallen heroes still require resurrection.
• Fixed replay difficulty. Repeated runs use the selected tier's settings. Master+ remains the final repeatable tier and does not become harder with every replay.

Balance and Combat

• Retuned for three adventures. The difficulty pass revises Advanced through Master+ enemy scaling and selected boss profiles. Basic Forsaken Woods keeps its familiar stat tuning; selected Heart of the Forest and Lost Dungeons enemies are tougher to match the Company's growth through the story.
• More deliberate higher-tier encounters. Enemy status chances scale separately from their damage and health, with limits on turn-denying effects. Selected boss multiattacks and area attacks have been adjusted, and high-tier cube battles have less health to work through.
• Revised elemental matchups. Nine existing creature profiles across the first two adventures have new weaknesses or resistances. Reconsider weapon attunements and spell choices, and consult creature information when planning a return expedition. The underlying weakness/resistance rules and Blizzard's listed Freeze chance are unchanged.
• Camouflage. Woodland Raiders can spend an action to gain +3 AC through their next two personal turn starts. The effect has a visible translucent appearance and cannot stack with itself.
• Earlier Grave Chill. The Hollow Warden uses Grave Chill on round 2, once per fight. Its Freeze chance is 50% per living hero, or 25% with Frost resistance, at every difficulty.
• Raise the Fallen. A dungeon necromancer can spend an action reviving an original fallen skeletal ally at half its maximum health. The ally returns to its original initiative position; defeating it again does not generate extra rewards.
• Interrupted fights keep their tuning. Balance updates preserve the captured difficulty settings of an already-started saved fight. New encounters use the updated settings.

Better Supplies and Blacksmith Options

• Heal another hero. Healing Potions now use the selected living active ally, including the acting hero. A healthy hero can administer one to an injured companion. Only the administering hero spends an action; the recipient keeps their turn.
• Stronger Enchanted Coffee Beans. Beans restore half the recipient's maximum mana or stamina, rounded down and capped at the maximum. A maximum resource of 4 or 5 restores 2.
• Clearer Pouch targeting. Short Potion and Beans labels show stock counts, and recipient miniatures follow the selected ally. Invalid or cancelled item use spends neither an item nor an action.
• Roomier supply shopping. The Shop presents two larger supply entries per page with shorter descriptions.
• Separate Weapons and Armor tabs. The Blacksmith gives upgrades, elemental choices and ownership information more space.
• Keep purchased armor wards. Wards are permanently owned per hero and can be equipped or unequipped freely, with up to two equipped at once. Clearing wards no longer means losing their ownership. Existing equipped wards are retained as owned options.
• Refund recent ward purchases. Purchases from the current uninterrupted Blacksmith visit can be refunded for their actual paid price. Leaving or loading ends that refund window, matching the existing weapon-attunement rules.

Puzzles, Discoveries, and Rewards

• Answers decide the riddles. The Turning Ward and Turned Stair now resolve directly from the answer, without a second luck roll. Each has twelve possible clues.
• Better puzzle rewards. Correct answers award twice their previous success XP and show BONUS XP. Wrong answers grant a small MINIMUM REWARD without taking health, mana or stamina. The required ward opens either way. Reloading or leaving does not reroll an installed clue or repay a resolved puzzle.
• Existing puzzle saves remain usable. An unresolved riddle may show a different clue when the expanded clue bank is first installed. Results already resolved keep their original rewards.
• Natural 20 challenge bonuses. A natural 20 on a rolled challenge adds 10% to its positive final gold and XP rewards, rounded up. The receipt shows the bonus. Answer-only puzzles do not use this roll bonus.
• Discoveries belong in the Ledger. Minor lore uses Record in Company Ledger and shows the actual XP earned once per expedition. Several Forsaken Woods discoveries now award 5 base XP; existing Heart and dungeon awards are retained, and Holga's departure note also awards 5 base XP. Rereading does not pay again.
• See the chest bonus roll. Eligible chests show a six-sided bonus-item roll after their normal reward. A preceding challenge roll finishes first. The result shows the actual bonus consumable or, when that item's stack is full, the converted gold. Existing bonus odds and Company perk benefits are retained.
• Clear reward receipts. Artifact acquisitions have an illustrated ARTIFACT ACQUIRED receipt. Expedition blessings state their benefit prominently, and full-stack chest bonuses show the currency icon and amount without overlapping reward text.
• Rewards survive reloads correctly. Saved rolls and receipts preserve their outcome without rerolling, paying twice or replaying a bonus celebration.
• A reliable bonus-roll Continue button. The r5 correction lets the roll finish even if a touch or button remains held or its release is missed. Continue accepts a fresh tap or press after settlement; the old gesture cannot skip the reward page. The smaller roll and receipt panels use the simple BONUS ITEM ROLL heading.

Help, Controls, and Combat Feedback

• Inspect Town and combat controls. Right-click, touch and hold, or press the right stick (R3) on a focused control to read contextual help. This covers the five main Town buttons, combat actions, spells, items, menu navigation and hero/enemy frames.
• Information that reflects the current fight. Help includes stats, effects, duration, costs, recipients, traits and reasons an action is unavailable. Disabled actions remain inspectable.
• Time to read. Combat advancement pauses while help is open; already-rolled visual feedback can finish. Longer descriptions scroll. Closing help consumes that input so a hold release or dismissal does not also activate the control underneath.
• Keyboard targeting and menu shortcuts. F1–F4 select allies from left to right. Number keys 1–4 use the current four action slots, including Spellbook and Pouch pages. The controls retain their appearance without extra shortcut badges.
• Clearer results. Natural 1/20 announcements sit over the combat artwork. Weapon damage feedback identifies the actual vulnerability bonus from an attunement. Pouch portraits show who receives an item, and chest d6 numerals are centered on their square faces.

Opening, Artwork, and Music

• A narrated illustrated opening. New Companies begin with six story passages on an illustrated parchment chronicle before the existing prologue film. Continue advances the story; Skip proceeds to the film. Existing campaigns do not restart the opening.
• A complete dungeon setting. The Lost Dungeons adds ten illustrated introductions, forty exploration layers, a cutaway map, new creatures and character artwork, props, artifact art and its own decorative frame.
• Five dungeon music tracks. Three exploration tracks and two combat tracks give the adventure its own soundtrack. Its boss battles use the dungeon combat pool.
• Smaller imported music. Six existing tracks now use compressed runtime audio while retaining their original masters. This reduces built audio content; the measured saving is not a claim about the size of the complete app download.
• Clearer scenery and character placement. Dungeon exit stairs are distinct from the impossible-stair puzzle artwork. Important props are easier to see, walking NPCs share the party's ground line, and defeated creature figures remain gone when revisiting or restoring a location.
• Polished existing views. Ragnar's dialogue portrait better centers his face; post-combat party spacing adapts to the screen shape; the Charcoal Burner chest and forest encounter artwork sit lower; and Mossy Glade gains a shallow pool positioned in the foreground.
• Story and discovery copy. The Holding Rooms discoveries have revised descriptions, the crown puzzle is titled Heavy is the Crown, and dialogue and reward wording have been cleaned up, including consistent they/them references to the Company.

Campaign and Progression Fixes

• Rename Campaign. Edit a campaign's name from Select Your Campaign, then Save Name or Cancel. Renaming preserves its identity, Company, adventure progress and save slots.
• Resume directly into combat. Continuing an interrupted fight restores its saved round, health, resources and conditions. It no longer offers an unintended Town visit to heal before resuming. Older affected saves are repaired when restored.
• Replay older campaigns successfully. Fixed a confirmation loop when replacing an expedition that contained an older suspended fight. Discarding that fight no longer imports obsolete deaths or resources into the current Company.
• Resolve simultaneous defeat. If the final hero and final enemy fall in the same action, the encounter correctly resolves as defeat, with normal recovery and no victory loot, instead of becoming stuck.
• Separate the Broken Cart chest from travel. Open the chest, return to the trail, then use the separate signpost to travel onward. Older completed or open-reward saves retain their progress without another payout.
• Explicit troll combat confirmation. Refusing a toll or trying to pay with no provisions now leads to a warning and a separate Fight action. A valid payment spends one provision. Saving and loading the warning cannot charge or start the fight twice.
• Preserve existing Companies. This update requires no campaign reset. Existing saves, earned difficulty access and recruited heroes are retained. Earlier Lost Dungeons preview completions remain valid; its new recruit and artifact must be earned through the populated adventure.