As I said in the patch notes for 0.4.1, I wanted to focus on filling out other areas of the game RuneLight is lacking in. so without further ado...
Before, RuneLight was completely lacking in any meta progress. This update, I have added 18 new meta unlocks in the form of starter equipment, which can be chosen before entering a run. While they're not the most powerful of equipment, each item has a build they can be slotted into, or work as stepping stones to force certain builds earlier.
I have also added new achievements to go along with each of the meta unlocks, plus a bonus achievement for beating the game with no equipment
For 0.4.2, I wanted to take some steps to smoothen out the new player experience so the game is more approachable.
I added a new tutorial to explain the basics of the game. it's just a few quick popup boxes that explain each main component of the game. I'll be gathering feedback and seeing how people interact with the tutorial and making adjustments as I see fit
I personally witnessed people roll over key items without knowing it, and the rate at which players gained new weapons was inconsistent. To remedy this, I added a guaranteed weapon equipment on level 8, which cannot be skipped.
One big thing RuneLight was lacking is a proper difficulty curve. To remedy this, I added two new difficulties, one easier and one harder. Players can now choose a difficulty more in line with the game they want to play, whether that's sit back and relax or lock in to survive.

Right now, the difficulty system is exclusively stat modifications, which isn't really interesting or fun. In the future, when I rework the maps, I will be overhauling the difficulty system to be more of an ascension climb, but for the time being this will have to do.

0.4.2 Majorly shifts the damage and balance meta
I wanted to give each of the status effects more impact, make them better to use. but the issue was statuses and crowd control didn't matter because most things die in one or two hits. so I nerfed everything.

• [Buff]ALL weapons now have more consistent damage range, from -5 - +5 to -2 - +2

Starting Weapons have all had their damage majorly cut

• [Nerf]Base projectile 20 damage -> 10 damage
  
• [Buff]all Projectiles now have 20% damage falloff, previously 50%
  
• [Nerf]Base Grenade 20 damage -> 10 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Base Orbiter 10 damage -> 8 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Base Blast 18 damage -> 9 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Base Pulse 30 Damage -> 14 Damage

The equipment weapons and their upgrades have had their base damage cut in half, following the scaling nerf from 0.4.1

• [Nerf]Spiked shoes 5 damage -> 3 damage
  
• [Nerf]Magic Shield 25 damage -> 12 damage
  
• [Nerf]Philosopher's Orb 10 Damage -> 7 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Sorcerer's Robes 10 Damage -> 5
  
• [Nerf]Sorcerer's Robes now have a 0.25s Cooldown
  
• [Nerf]Root Boots 20 Damage -> 10 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Ripostal Wraps 25 Damage -> 12
  
• [Nerf]Spike Charm 15 Damage -> 7 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Dark Helmet 15 Damage -> 7 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Hunting Tracker 20 Damage -> 10 Damage
  
• [Nerf]Bloody Coat 30 Damage -> 15 Damage

The Set Bonus Weapons had their scaling cut majorly. Some of the weaker ones got buffed to compensate

• [Nerf]Energy Javelins 2 Damage per Speed -> 1 Damage per Speed
  
• [Nerf]Sunsteel Shield 0.5 Damage per Armor -> 0.25 Damage per Armor
  
• [Buff]Sunsteel Shield 0.2s Cooldown -> 0.15s Cooldown
  
• [Nerf]Scholar's Stance 2.25 Damage per Wisdom -> 1.5 Damage per Wisdom
  
• [Nerf]Duelist's Strike 1.5 Damage per Dodge -> 1 Damage per Dodge
  
• [Buff]Inertia Bolt has more range
  
• [Nerf]Timed Detonators 1.5 Damage per item Droprate -> 1 Damage per item Droprate
  
• [Nerf]Explosive Leap 2 Damage per Dash Speed -> 1 Damage per Dash Speed
  
• [Nerf]Crystal Heart 1 Damage per Regeneration Point -> 0.75 Damage per Regeneration, 5 Base -> 2 Base
  
• [Nerf]Cursed Body 1.5 Damage per Spawnrate Point -> 0.5 Damager per Spawnrate Point

While the damage potential for every weapon has gone down, to compensate I have doubled the effect of every debuff. Additionally, I have increased the effects of the non-elemental debuffs to match their elemental counterparts. The inital idea was they were weaker because they could be stacked infinitely, but in practice, they would rarely match their elemental counterparts before the enemy died.

• [Buff] Shocked is now +10% damage per stack
  
• [Buff] Fear is now +10% damage per stack
  
• [Buff] Turtle Gloves +3% damage per bleed -> +5% damage per bleed
  
• [Buff] Fire 3 Damage per Tick -> 6 Damage per Tick
  
• [Buff] Bleed 2 Damage per Tick -> 6 Damage per Tick
  
• [Buff] Iced -10% attack speed -> -20% attack speed
  
• [Buff] Rooted -10% movement -> -20% movement
  
• [Buff] Fatigued -10% movement -> -20% movement

Additionally, Nature charm's movement slowing was much more impactful than Frost charm's attack speed slowing, so I flipped their damage penalties

• [Nerf] Nature charm -15% damage -> -45% damage
  
• [Buff] Frost charm -45% damage -> -15% damage

Because cutting the base damage of everything also nerfed the damage charms as a side effect, I buffed them to compensate.

• [Buff]Power Charm +35% Damage -> +50% Damage
  
• [Buff]Sharpness Charm +70% Crit Mult -> +100% Crit Mult

The dynamic crit charms were also numerically worse than the flat crit chance charm, so I buffed them

• [Buff]Momentum Charm +1% per dash point -> +3% per 2 dash points
  
• [Buff]Riposte Charm +1% per 3 dodge -> +3% per 2 dodge
  

equipment

• resprited and renamed runner's gloves and super speed gloves
  
• reworked knight's boots and upgrades
  
• renamed knight's boots and first upgrade path
  
• [buff] lightning charge bands +50% Dash Recharge -> +60%
  
• [buff] elven steel boots +6% Dash Recharge per Speed Boost -> +8%

maps

• slightly reduced spawnrate of the crystal golems on the forest

visuals

• exp bar now shows level rather than exp required
  
• completely redid end of run screen
  
• Charms with scalar effects now show how much stats they give

misc

• added two additional resolutions, 1600x900 and 2560x1440

bug fixes

• fighting spirit description now correctly say epic
  
• fighting spirit description no longer has regeneration popup attached
  
• healing hands description now correctly say legendary
  
• in game settings now correctly display credits on page 3

The next update is going to be a major update, version 0.5. This will be a milestone update that brings a lot of content and mechanical updates, and as such it will be a while before it's ready. The focus of the update will be adding more weapons and weapon modifiers. I don't want to promise anything before it's set in stone, but I expect the update to be out in Q4 of 2024. I will be sharing more along the way

Just a few fixes from yesterday's release

• auto-moving items to the upgrade interface can no longer accidentally delete items
  
• when unequipping an equipment piece that has a weapon, any modifiers attached to that modifier are now automatically moved back to the inventory. no more losing track of or accidentally deleting weapon modifiers
  
• deactivating a set bonus attack automatically moves any equipped weapon mods back to inventory
  
• removed infinitely rerolling. you now correctly get 1 free reroll per level.