5.5

Highlights

• Meet Wick: an optional guided Old Road opening, followed by first-visit help around Town.
• Visit the workbench: new Blacksmith artwork, cleaner equipment tabs and clearer upgrades and wards.
• More stories to stumble into: twelve additions across the first four adventures and custom paintings for their major boss victories.
• Find your way: more natural controller navigation, an illustrated reference, readable pages and clearer combat feedback.
• Keep your place: a visible Venture Forth Auto-save and permanent introduction replay access.

Availability

5.5 (23) is source-ready for native iOS build and device testing. It is not yet a confirmed TestFlight delivery. Existing internal testers remain on the last delivered build until native qualification and distribution are complete. No new Apple TV build is selected. Black Tundra and Boglands remain development previews.

Wick lights the way

Start a new Company with optional guidance and follow the Old Road through movement, checks, initiative and Veyr’s scripted encounter. The rescue returns the Company safely to Oddwater, where Wick introduces the toolbar and the places worth exploring before departure.

The Shop, Guild Hall, Rest, Company, Artifacts & Skills, Temple and Blacksmith each get a first-visit introduction. Choose Your Adventure receives a final explanation before the road opens up. Large illustrated expressions, deliberate emphasis and measured pages keep lessons readable. Close a lesson with X, disable automatic guidance, or revisit lessons in Help. Tutorial effects have a separate control.

A tidier Town

The Blacksmith’s Weapons and Armor views share a bronze frame, new equipment paintings, clear upgrade ranks and prices, and distinct ward ownership and equipment states. Small screens use readable words on the equipment tabs. Town’s central painting stays in place instead of opening a zoom view.

Paid lodging progresses through four installed puzzle difficulties and allows one stay per expedition opportunity. An unfinished reservation is free to resume; No Vacancy explains when another stay becomes available. Free Company rest remains available, and the Rested benefit does not stack.

The road has company

Twelve story and encounter additions across the first four adventures bring new discoveries, artwork and effects. Failure descriptions better match the consequences applied. Check modifiers sit beside the performer and roll, while rewards keep their own space. Moonbones remains uncapped.

Veyr, the Woodsman, the Beholder and Atir now have custom boss-victory paintings. Ordinary battles keep their constructed artwork; the paintings do not change rewards or progression. Strange Brew uses three different saved potion requests, with one wrong mixture ending the attempt. New Ward Gaoler fights use a longer lock, while interrupted legacy battles retain their historical behavior.

Read, point, and play

Reading frames use measured pages, stronger contrast and reserved room for controls. Initiative fills the viewport with parchment, concise creature labels stay readable, and bright named conditions accompany HP changes. Attack targeting appears before the die result.

Controller menus follow visible rows and columns. Settings tabs move left and right; down enters the settings, and the final setting leads to the bottom actions. Pointer arrows stay out of controller focus. Campaign options match the iron-and-gold interface and scale with a pressed row, while book highlighting is soft again. An illustrated controller reference is available in the Wick Help area.

Save your place, replay the story

Venture Forth updates a visible Auto-save. Save / Load presents Quick Save, Auto-save and three manual slots; interruption recovery stays separate. Intro Replay remains available after the first viewed introduction, including older completed adventures and later tiers. Higher tiers do not force the movie to play again.

Existing Companies, preferences and the six accepted films and caption tracks are retained. The artwork folder reorganization preserves existing identities; it is not downloadable content or a promise of a smaller installation.

When native testing begins

Try the full opening, dismiss and disable help, visit Town services, and navigate settings with a controller. Check phone and tablet text, safe areas, saves and background/resume. Play all six movies with audio, captions and Skip, and watch for repeated rewards or input passing through a help window. Tell us the device, input method, screen and steps when something goes astray.