Familiar Frenzy

🐝 A New Boss — The Hive Warden

• –A monstrous spirit-bee now drifts into the arena, hovering just out of reach.
• –⚡ It charges with a rising buzz, then looses a volley of sharp stingers — sometimes a tight cone you can circle past, but more often a radial burst that fills the air around you. Don't get caught standing in the ring.
• –🎯 Watch for the wind-up: the grunt and the gathering glow are your cue to move.
• –🔊 New sounds give it real presence — a warning buzz as it charges, and a sharp snap as the stingers fly.
• –🎲 The Hive Warden joins Elder Wisp and the Watching Hand in the boss rotation, so every run keeps you guessing which one you'll face.
• –📖 Logged in the Bestiary for study.

🕯️ Atmospheric Depths

• –✨ The dungeon floor is no longer so bare — faint arcane runes now scatter naturally across the ancient stone.
• –💀 And the depths feel more haunted: rare finds like bones, skulls, mushrooms, candles, and creeping moss now turn up as occasional discoveries underfoot.

💎 Spirit Crystals & the Wardrobe

• –Defeat bosses to earn ✨ Spirit Crystals — treasure that carries over between runs.
• –Spend them in the brand-new 🧥 Wardrobe (now on the main menu) on Outfits and Collars.

🧙 New — Outfits (a fresh look, plus a little perk)

• –🪄 Apprentice Robe — your humble starting robe.
• –🔥 Emberheart Robe — flasks heal more.
• –📘 Sage's Weave — gain more EXP.
• –👑 Gilded Mantle — earn more score.

🐈‍⬛ New — Familiar Collars (change how your cat fights)

• –✨ Spirit Collar — the classic rune bolts.
• –🌙 Moon Beam Collar — a quick beam that strikes everything in a line.
• –⚗️ Alchemist Collar — hurls flasks that burst into lingering acid puddles.
• –Your build still matters: 'spread' gives your beam/flasks extra targets, and 'pierce' widens the beam and grows the puddles.

📚 Arcane Archive

• –The Grimoire and Bestiary now share one shelf in the new Arcane Archive.

⚔️ Tweaks & polish

• –👹 The Goblin Bonker now winds up and slams a telegraphed ground stomp — watch for the ring and step clear.
• –👻 The Elder Wisp's dash is fairer to read and dodge.
• –✨ Menu spacing and UI cleanup throughout.

🆕 New creatures & power

• –🦴 Bone Mage — a spellcaster that curses the ground beneath you. Watch the telegraph and step clear before the cursed patch detonates! 💥
• –🟢 Goblin Bonker — a hulking brute that lumbers in and winds up a heavy club swing that knocks you flying. Don't just back away — it lunges into the swing!
• –🌟 Spirit Volley — a new familiar evolution: max out Restless Wisp and Spirit Focus to fire a three-bolt spread instead of a single bolt.

✨ Improved

• –📖 Grimoire is now browse-to-read — highlight any upgrade or evolution to see its details instantly, no extra button.
• –🐾 Bestiary scrolls smoothly and reveals each creature's portrait and lore as you browse.
• –⭐ Level up! now lands with a celebratory gold flourish.
• –🔊 Sound — every creature has its own voice now, the Gutter Gecko's throw and the Elder Wisp's charge have their own cues, and the menus and the battlefield play different music.
• –⌨️ How to Play controls are easier to read at a glance.

🔧 Fixed

• –🧪 Health flasks shimmer when they drop and are easier to spot, and the familiar no longer points you toward a flask that's off-screen.
• –The familiar now introduces each creature only the first time you meet it, instead of every run.

🖐️ New Boss: The Watching Hand

• –Survive to Wave 20 in Endless Mode and you'll meet a giant, many-eyed hand that crawls the arena and does NOT want visitors.
• –It hops around and slams down with a telegraphed strike — watch for the red ring and get clear before the fist lands.
• –As you wear it down, it summons bursts of Gutter Geckos to keep the pressure on while you dodge.

🎲 Bosses Now Appear at Random

• –Deeper Endless runs no longer face the same boss in the same place every time — the Elder Wisp and the Watching Hand now show up in a shuffled order, so you never quite know who's waiting.

📖 New: Enemy Bestiary

• –A field guide to the dungeon's creatures, right from the main menu. Entries start as shadowy silhouettes and reveal themselves once you've faced each foe in battle. Can you discover them all?

🐾 A Chattier Familiar

• –Your ghost cat now introduces new enemies AND bosses in Endless Mode too, not just the Tutorial — with special warnings tailored to each boss.

🏆 Personal Bests & Run Recaps

• –Beat your best Endless wave or score and you'll get a celebratory callout on the Game Over screen — your records have always been saved, and now they're impossible to miss!
• –The Endless Game Over screen now shows a fuller recap: wave, level, score, enemies and bosses defeated, and any evolutions you unlocked.

✨ Menu Tidy-Up

• –'How to Play' now lives with the play modes (Tutorial / Endless / How to Play), keeping the main menu clean.

• –NEW ENEMY — the Gutter Gecko: from Wave 5, this ranged menace skulks at a distance and flings projectiles from its pouch. Its shots are slow enough to dodge — if you keep moving.
• –NEW EVOLUTION — Spirit Bond: max out Spirit Heart and Spirit Focus, and the glowing link between witch and familiar becomes a golden blade that cuts any enemy crossing it while Spirit Imbued is active.
• –New sound effects: level-ups, healing, the Spirit Magnet's pull, eerie chittering from the dungeon's creatures, and a chirp for every line of cat wisdom — plus a new SFX volume slider in Settings.
• –Spirit Imbued is impossible to miss now: a golden spark dances over the witch and the meter glows when it's ready. Press SPACE!
• –Balance tuning: motes now pull toward you slightly from the start, Spirit Imbued takes a touch longer to charge, and late-run leveling breathes better.