Dear applicant,

Head Office wishes to confirm that nothing unusual has been found beneath the island of Belmora. Please disregard the rest of this notice.

Hi everyone! Since our first post we've been very busy underground, so here's a look at the new mines, and at the fighting below them.

We tore out the old caves and built something much bigger. Each mine is now one huge place with a shape of its own, worth exploring before you've swung a pick. They leave the Mine Station on their own lines and open as you level up.

• The Gallery: timbered drives and your first copper

• The Shaft: one huge drop to black water, with a ramp winding down its wall

• The Geode: a hollow lined with crystal, with great spikes standing in a shallow pool

• The Frozen Lake: a cavern of ice over a lake frozen to the bottom

• The Caldera: plank bridges between stacks of basalt, over a lake of lava

• The Buried City: streets and houses under a fallen roof, and a temple in the plaza

• The Heart: we'd rather you saw this one for yourself

The shapes stay put, so you'll learn your way around, but every Blast moves the ore and fills the mine again. You can also place blocks in a mine now, to reach a ceiling or cross a gap.
Getting to all of them takes better tools, so the tool ladder has grown too: ten tiers, from a wooden pick to Heartvein.

From Level 20, the Department of Unusual Excavations sends crews below the mines. Up to four of you pick a dungeon and a difficulty, from Routine to Strongly Discouraged, and go in together. Every run lays the dungeon out anew.

So far there are two:

• The Temple: the sealed halls of the Makers, in sandstone, gold and cold blue light, guarded by Keepers and a Seal Warden who doesn't want visitors

• The Old Workings: a mine older than Head Office's records, and home to the Collector, which keeps the hard hats and lanterns of the miners who went down before you

Fighting is about reading a creature and answering it: dash through a strike, guard, parry at the last moment, or charge up something heavy. If you go down, your crew can help you back up. You'll come home with artifacts, rolled gear, armor, and pages of a story Head Office would rather you didn't read.

The danger stays down there, and you choose when to go. The town, your plot and the mines stay safe.

Our first post said up to 16 players. Co-op is up to 8 players, which is what the new world is built for, and the store page now says so too.

If this looks like your kind of shift, please hit Add to your Wishlist and Follow. It really helps a small studio like ours, and Steam will let you know the moment the game launches.

Thanks for stopping by, and see you underground!
The Active Meltdown team