Every place where the new game intentionally behaves differently from the old one (v0.26.1, commit 7289405). Nothing changes silently: if it is not on this list, the new game matches the old one.
Decided and in place
•The damage forecast runs the same math as the real hit, so the numbers you see before attacking are the numbers you get. (Agreed fix: the old forecast ignored crits and bonus damage, up to 54% off.)
•Every fight gets a new battle seed, and loading a save rolls a new one, so reloading never replays the same dice. (Agreed.)
•Shuffles are fair: when a multi-target skill picks its extra targets, every enemy in range has an equal chance. The old game used a shortcut that favoured some picks and could differ between browsers. (Approved 2026-10-09.)
•Monsters use the same version of a skill as heroes. In the old game six differed: monster Fireball, Thunder and Frost Bolt reached 1–3 tiles instead of 2–6, and monster Shot, Snaring Shot and Power Shot reached 7 tiles instead of 6. One version for everyone now (approved 2026-10-10). Their look will differ, not their rules.
•A fallen hero can be revived however they died. In the old game, heroes killed by poison or bleeding could not be revived. (Approved 2026-10-10.)
•Formulas that were written in several places in the old code (XP needed, potion healing, monster level, "is this skill usable?") exist exactly once. This changes no numbers.
•A Trapper's traps spring on any tile a monster walks over. The old game only noticed a trap on the tile a monster stopped on, because it checked after the walking animation. (Agreed fix; in place since Phase 6.)
•Every class learns the same number of skills on one schedule: two normal skills and an ultimate at Lv 1, a normal skill at Lv 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 and 27, a second ultimate at Lv 20 and the ascension ultimate at Lv 30. All skills are learned by Lv 30. In the old game the Healer had 12 skills and most classes 7, with nothing new between Lv 20 and 30. 53 new skills and the Healer's new ultimate Last Light were added; Execution, Fortress Slam and Resurrection became normal skills (Resurrection is still once per battle); the Mage's Thunder moved to Lv 3; most old skills now arrive a little later. The full list is in skill-plan.md. (Approved skill by skill 2026-10-10; in place since Phase 6.)
•Monster types learn on the same schedule, from the hero skills plus their old monster skills, and fight with their 4 newest normal skills, their newest ultimate and Strike. Elites follow the schedule too; bosses keep their own kits. Monster healers can bring back a fallen monster with Resurrection. In the old game a monster had a fixed list plus 2-3 skills at set levels, and elites got none of the level skills. (Approved 2026-10-10; in place since Phase 6.)
•A hero with no weapon in hand counts as their class's usual weapon in the weapon triangle (Warrior sword, Tank axe, Knight and Dragon Knight lance), both when attacking and when attacked. The old game skipped the triangle for unarmed heroes. (Approved 2026-10-10; in place since Phase 6.)
•Putting on gear in the middle of a battle uses up the hero's turn. The old game let you swap gear any number of times for free. Switching weapon sets is still free. (Approved 2026-10-11.)
•After a level-up, a hero's attack counts the weapons in hand. The old game quietly went back to weapon set 1's weapons until the next set switch. (Approved 2026-10-11.)
•Legendaries only drop once any one hero reaches Lv 30; before that, a roll that would give a legendary gives a purple item. Legendary weapons a hero can't use yet still turn into legendary armor or charms, as in the old game. The old game dropped legendaries from bosses and gold chests at any floor. (Approved 2026-10-11; in place since 6d.)
•A purple (epic) tier sits between rare and legendary: power 6, weapons need rank A, and each item carries one purple bonus that names it ("Vampiric Gravewarden Blade") plus 2-3 ordinary bonuses. 8 weapons, 9 armor pieces, 3 charms and 14 purple bonuses, two of them new (Executioner's: more damage to a target below 30% HP; Warding: a chance to shrug off a harmful status). Purple drops from floor 21; before any hero is Lv 30 a legendary roll gives purple; gold chests give 65% rare, 30% purple, 5% legendary. Combining in the shop (Phase 7): two rares make a purple, two purples a legendary. The old game had four tiers. (Approved 2026-10-11; in place since 6d.)
•A hero can change its skills once per floor: one change can swap any number of skills and the ultimate, then they stay until the next floor. It doesn't use up the turn; a skill kept on the bar keeps its cooldown and one brought in starts ready. The old game let you swap skills from the gear sheet any number of times, even mid-fight. (Owner's rule, 2026-10-11; in place since 6d.)
•A Necromancer's Grave Bloom raises the skeleton right after the kill. The old game raised it on a half-second timer, so it could appear in the middle of the enemy turn depending on how fast you played. (The referee has no clock; in place since Phase 6.)
•Each skill's stack of attack-effect pictures is picked once, in a fixed order, so a skill always looks the same. The old game picked a stack the first time a skill was used in a session, so a few skills could look different from one session to the next. Same pictures, same rule for picking them. (Claude's call while porting the effects, 2026-10-11; the owner can ask for it back.)
•The 53 new skills and Last Light each have their own drawn effect and pose, chosen to fit the skill (listed as NEW in `web/game/js/fxbook.js`). The old game had no such skills; it drew a plain white slash for any skill it had no entry for. (2026-10-11, for the owner to check.)
•Choosing a hero no longer zooms the camera in, and when a hero finishes acting the camera stays put instead of moving to the next hero (⇥ Next hero still does). The "Auto-zoom on selected hero" setting still zooms in when turned on. (Owner, 2026-10-11.)
•Smarter enemies as you climb: from floor 20 (bosses and elites from floor 10) a monster prefers a hero it can defeat this turn, then healers, then heroes weak to its attack, and picks where to stand with that in mind; from floor 50 it avoids ending its move within 2 tiles of two or more heroes when it can't attack. Floors 1-19 play like the old game, where monsters always hit the lowest-HP hero in reach. (Owner, 2026-10-11; Phase 9.)
•Fire Emblem counterattacks: a unit (hero or monster) that survives a single-target hit strikes back once with a full Strike, if the attacker is within its Strike range (melee 1 tile; bows, guns, staffs and wands 2-6; monsters by their class's usual weapon). No counter while stunned, frozen, rooted or cloaked, and never against area skills, ultimates, heals, buffs or another counter. The forecast shows the counter or why there is none. A Duelist does not counter; his Riposte replaces it (owner, 2026-10-16). In the old game only a Duelist (and the new Riposte Stance) struck back. (Owner, 2026-10-11; Phase 9.)
•Height: attacking from a hill onto lower ground deals 10% more damage with +10% hit; attacking uphill has −10% hit (one step counts: hill against anything lower). Climbing onto a hill costs 1 more move, except for fliers, Rangers and Knights. The forecast says HIGH GROUND or UPHILL. In the old game height only changed the look of the map. (Owner, 2026-10-11; Phase 9.)
•New monster pictures replace the old ones. Four bosses join the rotation after the old six: Bone Hydra, Fallen Seraph, Brood Matron, Ash Colossus. Fallen Seraph flies. Six elites join the elite list: Crowned Slime, Goblin Captain, Grave Knight, Dire Wolf, Iron Minotaur, Blight Reaper. The same floor seed can now roll a different elite, and boss floors after the old six show one of the new bosses before the list repeats. The huge pit-lord demon is drawn but not in the game yet. (Owner, 2026-10-17.)
Decided, arriving with later phases
•Team select and deployment: all 10 heroes (one of each class) are yours from the start, and there is no recruiting; the old game started with one hero and offered a new one every 25 floors (up to 8). Start with 5 hero slots; one more slot at floors 25, 50 and 75 (8 is the most). Each floor: look at the map, choose who to bring from all 10 heroes, fill every slot, then place them. Only the heroes who fight on a floor earn its XP. You place them yourself on blue starting tiles, and each map has more blue tiles than heroes, so where you start is a real choice. If you don't choose, the game brings your highest-level heroes. Monster level is set when the map is made, from your strongest heroes for that many slots (the old game used the whole party). The old game took the whole party into every fight. (Approved 2026-10-10; arrives in Phase 7, screen in Phase 8.)
•Monster level on a floor is set when the map is made, from your strongest heroes for that many slots, since you now see the map before choosing your team. The old game used the team you brought, which was always the whole party. (Owner, 2026-10-11; arrives in 7c.)
•Changing ascension (once per floor) happens between battles, not in the middle of one. Purple items cost 200 gold before their numbers (rare 100, legendary 400). The shop stocks items for your strongest heroes (the old game: for its whole party, which was always the team). (Approved by the owner, 2026-10-11, with the other Phase 7 calls: leaving a battle keeps what was earned; winning a cleared floor stays on it to farm; pre-battle gear and skill changes for team heroes only; a defeat doesn't give back once-per-floor changes; the 100-floor gift goes in a random slot; saves stay in the browser (export to move them); only a climb autosaves; a loaded battle uses fresh dice.)
•Shops no longer take a floor number: every 7 floors the shop comes up between floors (before floors 7, 14, 21...); you shop, then go on to that floor and fight it. In the old game floors 7, 14, 21... were shop floors that counted as cleared without a fight. (Owner, 2026-10-11; arrives in Phase 7.)
•A battle ends the moment it is won (the old game let heroes keep acting until the next floor loaded), and an undo that can't happen says why. (Approved 2026-10-11; both already work this way in the new referee.)
•Versus, online 1v1 (new; the old game had none; owner, 2026-10-11 and 2026-10-16). Two players each bring 8 different heroes at Lv 30 with their chosen ascensions. Every class wears one fixed purple set: a purple weapon for each weapon set, purple armor of its first armor weight and a purple charm, with bonuses rolled once from the class's name, so a class always wears the same set. The map is random but mirrored, at the climb's biggest size, 32×32 (12×12 at first; owner, 2026-10-16). Versus has fog of war (owner, 2026-10-16): each side sees only the enemy units within 6 steps of one of its own units and can't target what it can't see; the ground is always seen; the fog lifts when the match ends; watchers in an online room see everything; single player has no fog. The first player moves first. Each player has 5 minutes for the whole match and may spend it all on one turn; there is no per-turn limit. Running out of that time loses the match. Online, the server keeps the clock and the first 2 seconds after each move are not charged. A refresh keeps the same seat. A phone that missed a move jumps to the server's board. There's no experience, gold, loot or chests, and a player loses when no real hero is left. Both sides' heroes keep every hero power: abilities, ascension powers, Guardian cover, revives of their own fallen. The numbers are in `data/rules/versus.json`. Exploit fixes (owner, 2026-10-16):
•Online, the free seconds only follow a new turn or a real turn action (attack, ability, wait, defend, potion, end turn). Moving, undoing, swapping weapons or changing gear can't be repeated to stop the clock.
•A move that uncovers an enemy in the fog can't be undone.
•Players never see the other player's traps, and see their fire, banners and kegs only in sight.
•Each player has their own bag.
•An enemy walking out of the fog is shown only from where it came into sight.
•Watchers in an online room see the whole board, but one round behind (the board as it was when the turn before last began), so they can't tip off a player. Once the match ends they see it as it is.
•Grave Bloom in versus raises only the other player's fallen heroes, and an enemy hero who falls while it lasts rises for the Necromancer's side.
•Raised monsters are built the same for both players.
Online rooms (owner, 2026-10-16): a room password shared by up to 4 people; two play, everyone watches, the others wait in line; the winner stays on and the loser goes to the back of the line.
Kept on purpose
•A defeat re-runs the same floor with no penalty. The game is built around reaching a floor you can't beat yet, then going back to earlier floors to farm XP and gear, so losing is not punished (owner, 2026-10-11). The balance autoplayer will report how often runs get stuck, without making the game harder.
•Legendary rework (owner, 2026-10-17; details in `legendary-proposal.md`). Every class has its own legendary weapon that only it can use: Warrior Bloodcrescent, Tank Voidreaver, Knight Frostspire, Dragon Knight Dragonbone Lance, Ranger Silverwing, Gunslinger Cinderhowl, Assassin Nightfang, Mage Umbral Scepter, Healer Staff of Eternity, Witch Hexflame Crook. The pictures are the owner's picks from Grok's sheets. Each has 2 unique class powers (for example Battle Rhythm and Unbowed for the Warrior), 3 ordinary bonuses, and a class bonus when it is in hand with all 3 pieces of one legendary armor set. Every legendary has 5 bonuses; legendary armor and charms got 2-3 more each. New items roll exactly 1 (common), 2 (uncommon) or 3 (rare) bonuses, and an epic 3 plus its epic bonus. Epic armor gets 2- and 3-piece set bonuses by weight (Vigil, Wolfsteel, Shadowweave), and the legendary armor set bonuses are about double those. A legendary weapon drops only for its own class; the same power twice (two Nightfangs) counts once; epic armor from older saves joins its set when loaded. In the old game the 8 legendary weapons went by weapon type (the Healer and Witch shared one staff), items rolled 0-1, 1-2 or 2-3 bonuses, legendary armor had 2-3, and epics had no sets. The retired legendaries Dawnbreaker, Heavensfall, Gale Piercer, Thunderhowl and Emberheart Scepter no longer drop; ones already owned keep working.
•Tapping an enemy attacks it only when the chosen hero can reach it from where they stand; otherwise it shows the enemy's info and says "Out of reach". The hero never walks on its own, because the player controls movement. In the old game (v0.24), tapping an enemy out of reach walked the hero to the nearest tile in range and aimed. (Owner, 2026-10-17.)
•While placing heroes before a battle, a hero can be dragged onto a blue starting tile; dropped onto another hero, the two swap. The old game only placed them by tapping. (Owner, 2026-10-17.)