We've made a number of improvements to the Labyrinth based on player feedback. The biggest change is that scrolls will no longer provide buffs in the Labyrinth, and instead, 9 new permanent buff upgrades are available in the Labyrinth Shop. Scrolls were originally designed to be used outside the Labyrinth, but as players started bringing them along, they became all but required for any serious run, adding significant cost to actively manage them. Permanent upgrades are healthier long-term: progress carries forward, there's no need to actively manage scroll usage, and your strength scales with time invested. Players will be slightly weaker until they accumulate enough new upgrades, but this is a one-time transition. To help bridge the gap, existing scrolls can now be decomposed into 5 Labyrinth Tokens each via Alchemy.

We've also added a 1000+ total level requirement to enter the Labyrinth for the first time. Looking at our data, only a handful of players below this level have engaged with the Labyrinth with reasonable success, and many newer players were getting confused or frustrated trying it too early. Gating the entry encourages newer players to focus on their core progression first and approach the Labyrinth when they're more prepared for it. Existing characters who have already entered the Labyrinth are unaffected.

For high-level players who can reach floor 12 or higher, we've heard feedback that Labyrinth runs take too much total time. The permanent buff upgrades will reduce overall run time by a moderate amount, and we'll continue to monitor this issue to determine if any additional adjustments are needed.

In other news, the Steam client's built-in extension manager has been completely redesigned. The new manager behaves much like a browser extension manager: paste a userscript URL to install or update an extension, and most browser-compatible scripts should run unchanged. This addresses the compatibility issues and manual setup overhead of the previous version.

We've also looked at some of the underperforming combat builds and decided to give Bulwark and Crossbow setups some buffs in this update.

Visit the Patch Notes for the full list of changes.

Labyrinth:

1. Added 9 permanent Labyrinth Shop buff upgrades.

2. Scroll buffs no longer function inside the Labyrinth.

3. Scrolls can now be decomposed into 5 Labyrinth Tokens with Alchemy.

4. Labyrinth full automation upgrade limit increased from 12 to 15.

5. Labyrinth now requires a total level of 1000+ to enter. Existing characters who have entered labyrinth previously are unaffected.

6. Travel time between rooms reduced from 3s to 1s.

7. Rush to exit now takes a more optimal route that also tries to maximize the number of visible rooms revealed.

8. Enhancing rooms now have a fixed target of +5, making difficulty consistent with other skilling rooms.

9. Labyrinth item and XP gains are now included in offline progress tracking.

10. Loot tracker for Labyrinth condensed to 1 row per full run.

11. "Dungeon Refiner" achievement renamed to "Refiner" and now includes labyrinth items. (Anyone who qualifies will be granted the achievement.)

12. Mimic minimum attack interval lowered from 1s to 0.5s, allowing Bulwark to be more effective against it.

Steam Client:

1. Redesigned the built-in extension manager for installing and updating userscripts. It should support all browser extensions directly now.

   1. Note: You have to reinstall existing extensions due to format changes. Your previous scripts can still be found under %APPDATA%\\milky-way-idle\\scripts\\ if you need to reference them.

2. Steam client remembers window position and size across restarts.

3. Fixed a rare issue where some players could see a white screen due to an anti-virus or computer security policy false positive.

Rebalance:

1. Sinister Cape: Defensive Damage 6% added.

2. Anchorbound Plate Body: Defensive Damage 6% added.

3. Anchorbound Plate Legs: Defensive Damage 5% added.

4. Fighter Necklace: Defensive Damage 4% added.

5. Philosopher's Necklace: Defensive Damage 4% added.

6. Sundering Crossbow: Ranged Accuracy increased from 145% to 160%, Ranged Damage increased from 118% to 120%.

7. Soul Hunter Crossbow: Ranged Accuracy increased from 132% to 140%.

QOL:

1. The game can be added to the home screen and launched like an app.

2. Allow queuing Party Ready multiple times for certain rare use cases.

3. Zero-cooldown abilities are now automatically placed in the last ability slot in battle so they don't block other abilities if positioned incorrectly.

UI:

1. Added a global Help chat channel.

2. Misclick Warnings: warns if the protection item used is priced much higher than the cheapest valid option, and warns if coinifying an expensive item at a loss.

3. Queueing actions will no longer open the full action list (which could get in the way).

Other:

1. Added Rule 2.4 forbidding coordinated market manipulation (such as pump and dump schemes).

2. Expanded FAQ in Game Guide with a Support section and additional questions.

Bug Fix:

1. Defensive damage from Defense Coffee now updates on the first battle instead of the second.

2. Correctly validate whether the character has enough items to initiate enhancing when the protection item and the cost item are the same.

3. Header success rate display now correctly reads 100% when using Philosopher's Mirror.

4. Personal buff expiration no longer briefly displays 0s for a few extra minutes.

5. Can now add labyrinth to the action queue when only party combat is running.

Labyrinth

1. The Labyrinth consists of floors of skilling and combat challenges with increasing difficulty. Navigate through a grid of rooms to progress, collect loot, and advance to deeper floors.

   1. Each floor contains skilling challenges, combat encounters, treasure rooms, and a floor exit.

   2. Bring supplies into each run: Torches, Shrouds, Beacons, and Crates. Each comes in three tiers.

   3. Earn Labyrinth Tokens, Purdora's Boxes, and Labyrinth Refinement Chests. Rewards increase with floor depth. Spend tokens in the Labyrinth Shop on upgrades and unique items.

   4. Item rewards include: 4 Skilling Capes, 3 Combat Boots, and Seals which is a new type of item that grant timed personal buffs.

   5. Automation system with per-room loadouts, skip thresholds, and full auto-pathing.

   6. 4 new achievements related to the Labyrinth. Achievement tier buffs will require the completion of newly added achievements, although they should not be too difficult for those who have the rest of the tier completed.

   7. New collection items and bestiary entries for labyrinth monsters and items.

   8. Labyrinth points and labyrinth depth leaderboard.

   9. See the Game Guide for more details.

Seasonal:

1. New Spring Festival seasonal cosmetics: chat icon, avatar, and avatar outfit.

QOL:

1. Browser notifications for various events. Configurable in Settings. (experimental)

2. Allow "Start Now" to optionally insert actions to the front of the action queue instead of replacing it. Enable this in Settings -> Game.

3. Queue Party Ready can now be queued after solo actions, so you can automatically return to party combat without being present.

4. Unrefine alchemy action: converts refined equipment back to its base version, preserving enhancement level and returning half of the refinement shards.

5. Party combat experience debuff now requires a minimum of 10 level gap before it can take effect. This prevents low level players partying together from being debuffed.

6. Increased the number of buyable loadout slots by 10.

UI:

1. Special chat icons now display in most places with character names, not only in chat.

2. Level up messages in general chat now only show for level 150+ or TL2000+, as lower level messages were too spammy.

Other:

1. Creator code program: revenue share for partnered content creators. If you are a content creator and are interested in promoting the game, email https://contact@milkywayidle.com or contact us on Discord.

2. Hourly marketplace.json API data now includes volume and average price.

Features and Content:

1. Achievements:

   1. 73 Achievements spanning 6 tiers of difficulty.

   2. Completing each tier grants permanent buffs.

   3. Achievements are synced with Steam achievements when playing from Steam client.

   4. View other players' achievements on their profile.

   5. Most achievements are not retroactive and must be earned again.

   6. Ironcow-only: Elite and Champion tier item-related achievements will be retroactive if you have earned the item previously.

2. Collection:

   1. Track all items you have collected throughout your adventure.

   2. Collecting 1, 10, 100, 1K, 10K, etc of each item grants increasing collect points.

   3. Earn milestone rewards based on collection points.

   4. Collection progress is displayed on leaderboards.

   5. Share collected items in chat by linking them.

   6. Marketplace and General Shop purchased items do not count toward collection.

   7. Task badges and back slot items owned will be retroactively added to your collection.

   8. Ironcow-only: a number of rare items owned will be retroactively added to your collection.

3. Bestiary:

   1. Track all monsters you have defeated.

   2. Defeating 1, 10, 100, 1K, 10K, etc of each monster grants increasing bestiary points.

   3. Earn milestone rewards based on bestiary points.

   4. Bestiary progress is displayed on leaderboards.

   5. Higher tier monsters count as 1 extra defeat per tier.

   6. When in a party, bestiary credit is divided among party members.

4. Philosopher's Mirror: Allows merging equipment to enhance with 100% success. (ex: +13 item, +14 item, and Philosopher's Mirror -> +15 item)

5. Community buffs can now be purchased using supporter points.

QOL:

1. Loadouts are now editable - modify saved loadouts directly without recreating them.

2. Combat triggers can now be saved and loaded with combat loadouts.

3. Click your avatar in the top right corner for a quick menu for faster navigation.

4. Market listings now show all of your own listings even if they are below the top 20.

5. Added real-time market price warnings when creating listings significantly above estimated fair price. (experimental)

6. Added double confirmation for unreadying from party combat.

Bug Fix:

1. Fixed loadout visual bug incorrectly displaying missing item.

2. Fixed various localization and translation issues.

Other:

1. Custom cosmetic requests will no longer be available after end of the year.

We’re aware that a large number of players in mainland China are currently unable to connect or are experiencing severe connection issues. This appears to be caused by network or firewall restrictions within China, not by any recent changes on our side.

To help affected players, we’ve set up a temporary mirror site that should work better from within China:

https://www.milkywayidlecn.com

You can:

• Update the Steam version of the game to automatically connect to this mirror site, or

• Visit the site directly in your browser to play.

We’re continuing to monitor the situation and will look for a more stable long-term solution. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Combat Rework

1) All combat styles now require the Attack skill for accuracy. Players will now receive Attack experience equal to 15% of their existing Ranged experience and 12% of their Magic experience. This adjustment is based on leaderboard data to ensure comparable total experience across the three combat styles.

2) Bonus magic evasion from the Ranged skill and bonus resistances from the Magic skill have been moved to the Defense skill.

3) The Power skill has been renamed to Melee.

4) The Regal Sword can now parry damage for party members.

5) Pestilent Shot has been reworked to debuff Armor/Resistances instead of HP/MP regeneration.

6) Critical rate and other buffs have been added to Ranged equipment to compensate for the loss of accuracy.

7) Magic damaging abilities now scale by 0.5% per ability level instead of 1%.

8) Rippling Trident now restores 10 MP when Ripple activates.

9) Ability damage and other buffs have been added to Magic equipment to compensate for the loss of accuracy and reduced ability scaling.

10) Bulwark:

10.1) Bulwark has been reworked to include a new stat, Defensive Damage, significantly increasing its damage output.

10.2) Spiked Shell has been reworked to include both physical and elemental thorns, scaling based on both Defensive Damage and Armor/Resistances.

10.3) Arcane Reflection has been converted to Retribution, granting a Retaliation buff that reflects a percentage of incoming damage as a Smash attack.

10.4) Shield Bash's Armor scaling has been increased from 60% to 70%.

11) Auras:

11.1) Aqua and Flame Auras have been converted into Mystic Aura, which grants an amplify bonus to all elements.

11.2) Sylvan Aura has been converted into Guardian Aura, which grants healing amplify, evasion, Armor, and Resistances. Guardian Aura can temporarily be traded into Mystic Aura in the Shop.

11.3) Base Aura stats have been adjusted.

11.4) Each Aura now additionally scales with the caster's corresponding skill: Speed Aura → Attack, Guardian Aura → Defense, Fierce Aura → Melee, Critical Aura → Ranged, Mystic Aura → Magic.

11.5) All blue ability experience will be reverted into books at a rate of 1 book per 500 experience. Any remaining experience below 500 will stay on the ability. This is a one-time conversion.

12) A fixed amount of combat experience is now granted based on the monster defeated, with an increasing Survival XP bonus the longer the fight lasts. 30% of the experience is granted to the primary training skill determined by your weapon. The distribution of the remaining 70% can be chosen using the new Charm equipment. This system allows players to optimize their experience distribution across preferred skills. Experience rates are balanced so that players can gain more in their primary skill, but potentially less total experience overall.

13) Monsters no longer have base regeneration.

14) Monsters will now enrage every 3 minutes, increasing their accuracy and damage by 10% (stacking up to 10 times). Bosses use a 10-minute timer instead of 3 minutes.

15) Some monster stats have been adjusted to balance around these changes.

16) Combat level formula has been updated.

17) Party combat experience is now divided equally among all party members, regardless of damage contribution. Party members who are at least 20% below the highest combat level will receive an experience and drop debuff, increasing by 3% for each 1% level difference beyond 20%.

18) All combat styles have been balanced to deal comparable damage and achieve similar experience rates.

Features and Content:

1) Combat Zones now have selectable difficulty tiers ranging from T0 to T5. T0 corresponds to the previous normal zones, while T2 is slightly above the previous Elite zones. Higher difficulty grants additional experience, increased drops, and some unique drops.

2) Charms:

2.1) Charms are new equipment that can be equipped in the Charm slot to grant bonus experience to a specific skill. They can also be used to focus experience toward that skill in combat.

2.2) Trainee Charms can be purchased from the Shop for 250K.

2.3) Higher-tier non-combat Charms can be crafted using Skilling Essences.

2.4) Higher-tier combat Charms can be obtained as drops from higher-tier combat zones.

2.5) Charms can be combined into higher tiers using the Crafting skill.

2.6) Charms can be enhanced and grant 5x the normal enhancement bonus, like other jewelry equipment.

3) Dungeons now have higher difficulty tiers, up to T2.

4) Refinement:

4.1) T1 and T2 dungeons drop Refinement Chests, which are opened using the same Chest Keys to obtain Refinement Shards.

4.2) Refinement Shards can be used to upgrade Lv.95 equipment and back-slot items from their respective dungeons.

4.3) Refined equipment grants +5% extra stats (+10% for back-slot items) and increases weapon special effects.

4.4) Refining an existing item will transfer 100% of enhancement levels.

5) Enhancement scaling has been moderately increased for +11 and higher.

6) Supporter chat icons (different tiers of Cowbells) have been added to the Cowbell Store. They can be purchased with supporter points and will display as a special second icon.

7) Default loadout slot count increased from 2 to 3.

Other:

1) Official market data now updates every 1 hour instead of every 6 hours.

Features and Content:

1. Chat Report System: Players can now report rule-breaking messages in the chat.

   1.1. Reports are sent to moderators for review and potential action.

   1.2. Automod may be applied to messages that receive enough reports. Penalty can still be adjusted after manual review.

   1.3. Sending correct reports will increase the weight of your future reports and incorrect reports will significantly reduce it.

2. You can now delete character in Settings.

3. Added special icons (Contributor, Bug Finder, etc) that can be granted to players for significant contributions. They will display as a second icon.

QOL:

1. You can now reorder action queues.

2. You can now link market listings in chat. This should improve trade chat experience with different languages.

Other:

1. Added official market data that can be accessed at https://www.milkywayidle.com/game_data/marketplace.json. This is updated every 6 hours (with some randomness and delay to prevent manipulation) and contains a snapshot of the top ask and bid prices for each item.

2. Removed @mod command from the chat as it is no longer needed.

3. Server optimizations to improve backend performance and support additional players.