Patch Notes — v0.35, New Characters, Phalanx Pressure, and Flashier Rewards

This update pushes Where Giants Fall forward in several important areas at once.

The biggest changes in v0.35 are two new playable characters, movement and animation polish, stronger boss encounter readability, and reward presentation upgrades that make progression feel much more satisfying.

Highlights

• Aeris and Gemma have joined the playable roster.
• Player movement, idle returns, diagonal presentation, and jump-roll transitions have all been polished.
• Phalanx now hits harder and its major arena-control attacks are more dangerous and easier to read.
• Reward cards, reward notifications, and weapon projectile upgrades now have cleaner and more satisfying presentation.
• Several UI, encounter-flow, and stage-transition reliability issues were cleaned up across the run.

This patch adds new characters, sharpens boss readability, and gives reward moments a much stronger sense of payoff.

New Playable Characters

Two new characters are now available in the roster.

• Aeris has joined the lineup.
• Gemma has joined the lineup.
• Both can now be selected from the loadout menu.

Gemma joins the playable roster in the v0.35 update.

If you’ve been settling into a favorite build path, this update is a good excuse to break that habit and bring some fresh chaos into your next run.

Gameplay & Character Feel

Player feel received another polish pass this week, with attention on motion clarity and cleaner transitions.

• Characters now blend more cleanly back into idle.
• Diagonal movement keeps a more natural body presentation.
• Jump and roll transitions no longer end with the small animation twitch seen previously.

Jump-focused item tuning was also updated:

• Harefoot Charm now grants +40% jump height.
• Hare’s Lure now grants +10% jump height while keeping its +5% movement speed bonus.

These changes are subtle on paper, but they matter a lot in motion. The goal is to make the character feel more deliberate and more polished in every run.

Enemies & Bosses

This patch also sharpens enemy readability and improves the reliability of several boss-related systems.

Enemy & Encounter Updates

• Nightking enemies are now 50% larger, making them read more clearly as giant threats in combat.
• Orb Magnet encounters are now more reliable. The magnet is only consumed after Ashen Colossus has actually spawned, and used magnet visuals now disappear immediately after confirmed activation.
• Dormant giants in Ritual stages now use a proper idle pose before awakening instead of standing in a T-pose.

Phalanx & Arena-Control Attacks

Phalanx has been made more dangerous.

• Firebreak Formation now hits harder.
• Inner Rupture now hits harder.
• Outer Rupture now hits harder.

Boss arena-control attacks were also given a more distinct identity across encounters:

• Ashen Colossus uses Ashfall Crucible.
• The Iron Tyrant uses Tyrant Protocol.
• Phalanx uses Firebreak Formation.

These attacks now:

• Fire five distinct blasts per cast
• Use stronger arena layouts
• Give extra warning time before each detonation

The result is a better balance of danger and readability: more threatening attacks, but with clearer telegraphing and stronger encounter identity.

Rewards, UI & Controls

A lot of this update is about making rewards feel better the moment they appear.

Reward Presentation

• Random +projectile weapon rewards from beacons and Ember Talisman now use a dedicated notification, cleaner reward animation, and clearer upgraded-weapon naming.
• Weapon slots now show a blue +N badge when a weapon has gained extra projectiles.
• That badge stays hidden until the weapon is actually above its original projectile count.
• Reward cards for items, weapons, and active abilities now reveal faster and feel more satisfying, with rarity-scaled sparkles, glints, hover lift, and a stronger claimed-card flourish.
• Reward card-edge sparkles now appear correctly in exported builds.
• Gameplay inventory icons now use the same fantasy item-card style as item draft rewards.

UI & Flow Fixes

• Gambling Man purchases no longer open old item hover windows after buying from the shop.
• Pause-menu settings now close cleanly with ESC instead of accidentally resuming gameplay behind the overlay.
• Removed characters should no longer reappear in the loadout menu from older saved selections.
• Added a gameplay setting to disable the player gunfire clip animation for weapons that use the shared firing overlay.
• Several HUD, overlay, and intermission flows now behave more reliably through gameplay startup and stage transitions.

Audio & Visual Effects

Several effect passes in this patch focus on making the game feel cleaner and more intentional during high-pressure moments.

• Mark of Death cleanse zones now use a looping Healing Seal effect for the full safe-zone duration.
• Tyrant Protocol and Firebreak Formation now use a softer wall-of-flames glow during their interior pulse and detonation flash.

Polish & Stability

This update also includes a broader round of reliability work across the run.

• Boss encounters are more reliable.
• Reward flows are more reliable.
• Stage transitions are smoother.
• UI behavior is more consistent.

Taken together, these changes help runs feel steadier from start to finish while preserving the spectacle and pressure that the game is built around.

Looking Ahead

v0.35 is a strong polish-and-expansion update.

New characters expand player choice, encounter cleanup improves boss readability, and reward upgrades make progression feel much more exciting moment to moment. It is another solid step toward making Where Giants Fall feel sharper, heavier, and more satisfying across the full run.