Hey everyone!

Our first official Playtest update brings a new storyline, easier equipment management, and improvements based on early testing and feedback.

A new work-in-progress storyline follows your search for a forgotten past. Explore specific destinations, recover clues, and help people along the way. Each completed task reveals another piece of the story.

• The story can be completed in your current region without requiring Prestige. If you do decide to Prestige, your story progress carries over.
  
• Finishing the story grants a permanent bonus called Inner Peace. What it does is a secret for now.

• Click an equipment slot to see up to four of your best available items, with stats and comparisons.
  
• Use “Equip Best” in Inventory to update your whole loadout. Clothing prioritizes warmth, weapons prioritize combat power, and backpacks prioritize carrying capacity.
  
• Equipped items no longer appear in the trader’s sell list and cannot be sold until unequipped.
  
• Items in the sell list now show their stats and how they compare with your equipped gear.
  
• Weapon Noise and Search Bonus have been disabled, keeping weapon choices focused on combat.

• Reduced ordinary enemy encounter chances to around 10% during the day and no more than 15% at night. Active protection tasks can increase encounters at their designated hunting spot.
  
• Improved trader stock as you level up, while preserving each trader’s specialty.
  
• Known Finds now displays up to four items, ranked by how often your searches have found them.
  
• Character XP bonuses increase at levels 30, 40 and 50, making higher-level progression faster if you choose to stay in your current region instead of taking Prestige.
  
• Added a level-50 achievement for each of the three current regions.

• Refined the Character overview, equipment badges, task cards, trader portraits and page headers.
  
• Main-menu Settings and Credits now fit within the same panel as character selection.
  
• Updated UI sounds, including a softer sound for sidebar navigation.
  
• The main menu now starts with a dedicated opening track before moving through the rest of its playlist. Gameplay keeps its own music and ambience.

Thank you for playing and helping shape ISKRA. This project means a lot to us, and so does your support!