v0.2.5: Dwarven Heroes & Kings

👑 v0.2.5: Dwarven Heroes & Kings

Twelve named dwarves join your hold, four old Kings wait under the Wardens, plus ten hard achievements and a Minimal UI

👑 Dwarven Heroes & Kings

🛡️ The Hall of Heroes. Twelve named dwarves join your hold when you have done their deed: break 250 cave-in walls, reach depth 30, earn a Gold medal and so on. Each one changes one rule while seated, such as cheaper rooms, faster expeditions, a stronger active mining bonus or more Ancestral Knowledge.
🍺 First arrivals. Old Gruff, Nettle Cartwright and Halvi Mortarhand turn up at the Tavern when you first reach depth 8 with a Tavern built.
🪑 Three seats. The first opens with your first heroes, the second at your first New Dig, the third at 5 New Digs. Change a filled seat on the Next Dig screen (new Heroes row above Begin). An empty seat can be filled at any time.
⭐ Ranks. A seated hero earns a mark for every dig that reaches depth 10, and grows stronger at Rank 2 (3 marks) and Rank 3 (8 marks).
👑 Kings. Each Warden held an old ruler of its biome. A King is freed by the first defeat of their Warden, or by an Ascension, whichever comes first. One King can sit at a time, after your first Ascension.
Heroes, ranks and seats stay through every New Dig and Ascension. A hero rests during a challenge that targets their rule.
Seated heroes sit at the campfire, and Kings bring their own stone chair. Hover them to see who they are.
Existing saves: every hero whose deed you have already done joins when you load, and past Ascensions free their Kings.
Records shows a Heroes line, and the Knowledge Base has a Heroes & Kings section. The Hall opens with F5 (you can change the key).

🏆 14 new achievements

Heroes & Kings: First of the Clan, Hall of Heroes, The Old Throne and Four Crowns.
10 hard achievements for long-time diggers, each with a new mithril-framed icon. None of them gives a stat bonus.
- The Long Way Down. Reach Depth 70.
- The World Hollowed. Mine 1 octillion (1e27) Ore in total.
- Headlong Descent. Reach Depth 40 within 16 hours of play on a new save. Time away from the game counts as play time.
- Ever Upward. Ascend 10 times.
- Blessed Beyond Measure. Raise a Blessing 100 levels past its max level.
- Tireless Engine. Let the Ancestral Engine start 25 New Digs from Depth 40 or deeper.
- Bane of the Wardens. Defeat each of the four Wardens 5 times.
- Leave It to the Warriors. In a single dig, defeat all four Wardens without striking any of them yourself.
- Friend of Every Nation. Have all ten trade nations at Tier 15 or higher at once, with every upkeep paid.
- Full Shelves. Own every Forge piece and every relic at the same time.
If your save already meets a goal, it unlocks when you load. Headlong Descent only counts on a save started in this version or later.
Locked achievements now show their goal. Goals with a counter show your progress, such as Depth 34 / 70. Hidden achievements stay secret until found.
The Achievements window is taller, has All, Earned and Locked filters, and its descriptions are easier to read.

🖥️ Minimal UI

New setting. Settings > Gameplay/Stats > Minimal UI (off by default) cuts the screen down to icons and numbers and leaves more of the cave in view. Press F8 to switch it on or off at any time.
Your resources sit on one row at the top right. Point at one to see its name, its rate and the full breakdown.
The logo and menu button names are hidden, and the side panels drop the lines their tooltips already show. The music bar folds to a small note button.
Small event pop-ups and gain numbers go to the log only. Raids, cave-ins, Warden fights and their warnings show as before, and every button stays on screen.
Calm HUD and Minimal UI work together or on their own. A short note under the setting explains the difference.

🏪 Trade Post

Restore last trades. A new button buys back the nation tiers you had at the end of your last dig, in your upkeep order, at the normal price, as far as your Trade Points go.
An option lets the Ancestral Engine do this after its New Digs as Trade Points come in (off by default).

🔧 Fixes and polish

The right-hand column (upgrades, depth, Dig Deeper and New Dig, cave-in) now sits on a dark backing plate like the left panel, so its text stays readable over bright biome art. Its small text is a size larger.
The New Dig and Ascension screens now list Heroes (with their seats and ranks) and Kings among the things you keep.
A large depth bonus now reads as a multiplier, for example x189.4 instead of +18843%.
The Warden raid banner shows the Warden’s name on its own line, with the raid clock and Dwarves Lost under it.
A line the raid banner already shows no longer also pops up as a message. It still goes to the log.
Pip on the title screen moves smoothly now, and the first click on him no longer causes a short pause.
V-Sync is now on by default for new players, which smooths movement on high-refresh screens. If you already set it, your choice is kept.
Less work per frame in the HUD with the Smeltmaster, the Trade Post and Max buy mode.
Sounds: seating a hero and a few other buttons make a soft click instead of the pickaxe sound. Ancestral Engine digs play a short chime instead of the full New Dig jingle. Ascension now has a jingle, and defeating a Warden plays a victory fanfare. The same sound can no longer stack on itself many times at once.
The Guild Hall’s quest tile now says quests refresh every hour.
Japanese, Chinese and Korean: numbers from 1,000 to 9,999 show as whole numbers.

🌍 Localization

All new text is translated into all 9 languages.