Below the Stone cover
Below the Stone screenshot
Genre: Adventure, Indie

Below the Stone

BUNDLE: Below the Stone x Forsaken Isle! + 30% off sale!

⛏️ New Bundle Available: Below the Stone + Forsaken Isle! 🌴

[p][/p]

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/fbd6b0a016b01f0bcdaf694bedf1cd660c838617.png"]

Delvers, we’ve got something special for you today.

[p]We’ve teamed up with the creators of Forsaken Isle to bring you a brand new survival‑and‑mining bundle that pairs Below the Stone’s deep‑delving dwarven crafting with the island‑bound crafting adventures of Forsaken Isle.[/p][p]Whether you’re digging through the perilous layers beneath the world or fighting to survive on a mysterious island above it, this bundle delivers two distinct takes on exploration, danger, and discovery.[/p][p][/p]

🎁 “Below Forsaken Stone Bundle”

[p]Includes:[/p]
  • [p]Below the Stone: A dwarven extraction roguelike where every descent is a fresh, procedurally generated run full of rare ores, monsters, crafting, and high‑stakes escapes.[/p]
  • [p]Forsaken Isle: A 2D sandbox survival‑crafting adventure where you gather resources, build a base, explore a procedurally generated island, and fend off threats to stay alive.[/p]
[p]Buy them together and save, or complete the bundle if you already own one!
[/p]

🛠️ Why These Two Games Fit Together

[p][/p][p]Both games celebrate:[/p]
  • [p]Procedural worlds full of secrets[/p]
  • [p]Resource gathering and crafting[/p]
  • [p]Risk‑reward exploration[/p]
  • [p]Challenging survival gameplay[/p]
[p]One takes you deep underground. The other leaves you stranded on a hostile island. Together, they scratch that “just one more run” itch from two different angles.
[/p]

💎 Perfect for Fans Of:

  • [p]Mining and crafting[/p]
  • [p]Survival challenges[/p]
  • [p]Pixel‑art adventures[/p]
  • [p]Roguelike progression[/p]
  • [p]Building, exploring, and improvising[/p]

⛏️ Grab the Bundle & Start Your Adventure!

[p]If you’ve been looking for a reason to dive back into Below the Stone or try something new in the survival‑crafting space, this bundle is the perfect excuse.[/p][p]Thanks for supporting indie devs, and happy delving — whether you’re digging down or washing ashore.[/p]

Just One More Hotfix (Beta 0.12.1)

Hay yall, we're gonna keep this one short.

One more hotfix update to fix a few last issues and complaints we've had recently. Hopefully this should make things a lot better now.

Beta 0.12.1 - Yet Another Hotfix



[Improvements]


* Various changes to armor recipes.
* Vile now drop a little bit more often in corrupt biome.
* Rebalanced melee weapons.
* Scaled up health of every creature by 1.5x (Don't worry, various improvements have also been made to weapons in general as well).
* Reduced "ranged weapon equip time ratio" so that there's more of a reward to quick swapping ranged weapons again.
* Tweaked many layer 2 creatures' HPs and damages.
* Improvements to fossil armor set bonuses.
* Improvements to platinum armor set bonuses.
* Updated knockback of most melee weapons. Swords are meant to have considerably less knockback compared to axes. And hammers should have even more.
* Slight reduction in sell value of crossbow bolts and shotgun shells.
* Updated spawn rates of many enemies in swamp biome. Now it feels more like a swamp again.

[Fixes]


* Fixed Vile Bone item not being used in certain armor recipes.
* Reduced sell value of flares.
* Fixed issue where you could rapidly click LMB and then RMB with a melee weapon to perform both your primary and secondary attack (alt attack) at nearly the same time. There was meant to be a small cooldown between LMB and RMB attacking. Don't worry, the delay is small enough that you can still do combo attacks.
* Fixed the "Died in the Dungeon" frog once again, where it was having the issue of being behind the bar stool when it shouldn't.
* Fixed toad jumping WAY too high.

⛏️ Introducing the Below the Gem Miner Bundle! 💎

⛏️ Introducing the Below the Gem Miner Bundle! 💎

[p]Dwarves, Miners, and Diggers, today’s a big one. ːcraftsdwarfː[/p][p]We’re excited to announce the Below the Gem Miner Bundle, a brand‑new team‑up between Below the Stone and Gem Miner TD! If you love digging deep, crafting clever builds, and surviving by the hairs of your beard, this bundle brings two wildly different flavors of mining mayhem together in one shiny package.[/p]

ːredbeardː What’s Inside ːpickaxː

[p]Below the Stone, as you know, you'll descend into deadly, fully destructible caverns, mine rare ore, completing guild jobs, and extract before the creatures of the deep turn you into cave dust. Gem Miner TD, Carve your own maze, merge powerful gems, and defend against waves of enemies in a roguelike tower‑defense twist that rewards creativity and chaos.[/p]

🧱 Why We’re Teaming Up

[p]Both games celebrate the thrill of diggin', danger, and deep dwarven-tier determination just in totally unique ways. One tests your survival instincts, the other tests your strategy and gem‑crafting genius. Together, they make a bundle that’s perfect for players who love to dig deep and think deeper.[/p]

💎 Grab the Bundle & Save ːsteamthumbsupː

[p]The Below the Gem Miner Bundle offers a discount when you own one game or pick up both. Whether you’re a longtime delver or a fresh recruit, it’s a great way to expand your mining empire.[/p][p][/p]

ːsteamthumbsupː Hope you dwarves have been enjoying the new combat update, as 1.0 is only around the corner! ːsteamthisː

Beta 0.12 Update Out Now

Greetings fellow dwarves! Here is one last update to round things off for what we missed in the Combat Update. Since there is a significant amount of new things added in this update, this will be a minor version bump from Beta 0.11 to Beta 0.12.

Hopefully these changes are well appreciated.

Summary

[p]
The one thing I am the most excited to present in this update is the long awaited introduction of...
[/p]

Accessories!

[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/c8e4323dd4431cc15cab21f556488b44c8ca0e5d.png"]Most of these can be found at the Craftmaster at the moment.

We have also added a new throwable explosive to the game called:
[/p]

Combat Bomb

[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/d95058b64c99164020ad93a7fa41d85fb0067e00.gif"]I wish this gif could be longer, but I had to make it under 5MB.

A cheaper version of dynamite, doesn't break walls, and now uses our new "throwable physics" logic that is also used by the throwable flares.
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/6ad55161af96db5c060e99cb68dae43a485115ab.png"]
A not as interesting, but a possibly cool feature to some people. I have also added crafting recipes for gem shards. I also updated various loot tables that contained shards and gems so that the overall progression is that you're mostly getting shards, and you make gems from the shards.
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/ae7098c39d3c187b7ae88659b9032529039b46dc.png"]
There are plenty of other cool changes in this update, but probably not screenshot worthy.
So I will now leave you with the changelog to see what all we have done.

[/p]

Change Log:



Beta 0.12 - Stuff that didn't make it into Beta 0.11



\[New Features]


* Finally added Accessories; a new category of wearable item.
* Added Light Pendant
* Added Health Necklace
* Added Agility Boots
* Added Spotcap Charm
* Added Gold Bracer
* Added Gold Ring
* Added Ranger Belt
* Added Combat Bomb item. Effectively a grenade, like dynamite, but doesn't break blocks.
* Added recipes to craft gems from shards.
* Rebalanced the sell value of shards and gems to account for this change. The main way to get gems now will be through shards.
* Introduced new "overheal" mechanic. If you have an overheal buff, you can heal above your max hp to a specified level, but your health will slowly decay back down to your max hp over time.


\[Improvements]

[p]* Reduced most melee weapons' (excluding pickaxes) swing speeds to 75% of what they were.
* Slimes that spawn smaller slimes on death now also drop items when they die; the "split slimes" now drop items.
* Slight improvement to camera shake system. Now when slimes "explode" and cause screen shake, the shake amplitude will be smaller as you get further away from the shake source.
* Made potions a tad bit cheaper to see how people react to that.
* Made some adjustments to fossil and helmetcap armor recipes.
* Buffed armor values of helmet cap, fossil, and carapace armors.
* Made some tweaks to how tooltip text is displayed for item descriptions and wearable items.
* Updated loot table for gold bonus chest in kingdom to have better values for the shard gems, also removed ethereum gem from loot table.
* Updated loot table for basic bonus chest in kingdom.
* Updated loot table for gold dungeon loot chest.
* Updated loot table of gold vase based on changes to shards.
* "Carapace set bonus radiation burst" projectiles now have a shorter travel distance.
* Bee soldiers now do a bit more damage.
* Made it so projectiles will do slightly less damage to dungeon walls and ores above layer 2. Everything else is the same.
* Updated Imogen's (shopkeep) stock values based on feedback from people on Steam.
* Slight changes to how certain buffs were applied to ranged weapons.
* Reduced Baby Spooder hp to 9 so it can be 1 shot by an iron sword.
* Slightly reduced speed buff from speed potion.
[/p]

\[Fixes]

[p]* Added Rage Spore as ingredient for helmetcap armors. It was meant to be that way from the beginning.
* Fixed another issue that allowed people to do sword jab alt attacks through walls.
* Fixed slimes not spawning smaller slimes on death
* Fixed Deer (Buck and Doe) journal sprites not being correct.
* Fixed Melee Damage buff not having any affect on alt attacks.
* Fixed "Died in the Dungeon Frog" in tavern having a single animation frame where they are behind the stool, when it shouldn't.
* Fixed ice bat not having proper animation data.
* Fixed error with poltergeist.
* Fixed helmetcap and fossil armor sprites.
* Fixed tutorial button not working in blacksmith.
* Fixed radiation crystal applying "zero damage" to nearby objects, leading to sound spam.
* Fixed an dormant accessory related bug that nobody would've noticed because accessories didn't exist until now.
* Fixed scorpion (and bee) projectiles being slow.
* Fixed small bee not animating at all. (This also fixes an older bug that has existed for a long time now, but nobody ever noticed because it only happened off screen).
* Fixed Fire Troll and Baby Spooder not jumping to the correct heights.
* Fixed carapace armor set bonus being rewarded if you only wear 1 carapace glove, when you should have to wear 2 carapace items.[/p]

Hotfix Out Now! (Beta 0.11.1)

Thank you all for bearing with me the past 24 hours. And thank you to all the people on our Discord who have been reporting all these bugs and giving us feedback on the new update. Be sure to close and relaunch your Steam client in order for the update to show up.

If you have a bug you wish to report to us or help us fix existing bugs, you can join our Discord here:
https://discord.com/invite/MW72QReXKh
Also, the team's at Magfest right now! Just thought I'd mention that.

With that being said, here is the change log.

Beta 0.11.1 - Hotfix



[New Features]


* Added set bonuses to titanium and platinum armor

[Improvements]


* Adjusted the spawn rates of various entities in the new biomes.
* Also made some small artistic adjustments to some entities in some of the new biomes.
* Slightly increased cost of throwable dynamite.
* Various rebalances to layer 2 armor (and their recipes) based on feedback.

[Fixes]


* Fixed issue where the sword jab alt attack's attack range was so large, you could hit things through walls. You can no longer do that.
* Throwable dynamite no longer breaks dungeon walls.
* Fixed new saves not being able to see any recipes at blacksmith
* Fixed "save engineer" quest not showing up at the Head Explorer when it should've been.
* Funky Funguy now uses proper sprite in the journal's bestiary.
* Fixed haunted skull still floating and glitching out after you killed it.
* Fixed gloom's void aoe rapidly applying zero damage to random objects, like vases, causing them to make a lot of noise.
* Fixed frost troll accidently hurting itself all the time, resulting in all of them dying.
* Fixed spelling error of "Resistence" to "Resistance" in armor tooltip.
* Fixed stray pixels on iron left shoulder pad sprite sheet causing "blinking eyes" on the player when there shouldn't be.

New Year, New Update!

We are back again for another game changing update!
This time we are bringing you:

The Combat Update (Beta 0.11)


That's right, we are finally leaving stage Alpha after all these years. We are both excited and relieved to finally reach this point.
[p][/p]

What's this update about?


Well it's about combat, you silly greenbeard! But let's get into the specifics.



Weapon Alt Attacks


Melee weapons now have alternate (secondary) attacks that can be used to help you in certain situations. Right now, swords have a jab attack which does extra damage, and axes do a really cool spin attack. Both weapons' alt attacks can also block/deflect arrows, as well as interrupt enemies (like a parry) to stop them from performing any attacks.
On mouse and keyboard, right mouse button is the default way to use alt attacks.




Armor Set Bonuses


Combine certain armor pieces to gain additional buffs. All main line armors in the game now have set bonuses to encourage you to complete the full set.



New Biomes And Armor Recipes


Several new biomes have been added to the game. Two on Layer 2. And a long waited Layer 1 biome: The Sinkhole Biome!


Various armor sets now require a new ingredient to craft that is found in specific biomes. This is to make biome and dungeon exploration more of a requirement to progress.


And Many More New Things!


If you wish to see more details on this update, please scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full change log.


Now What About 1.0?


After many years of being in Early Access, we are finally approaching a complete game. We are happy to announce that our next update is going to be the Full Release of the game into 1.0
Our plan is to finally add Layer 3 to the game, give both Layer 2 and 3 a boss for you to fight, and solidify the progression from each layer to the next to create a complete and cohesive progression from start to finish. Along with many other much needed changes and additions to the game.

Our plan is to have this update out before Summer of 2026.
We're going to need all hands on deck to get this update out. Our team is really small, and this game is really big. But as we've said many times in the past, one way or another, we will get past that finish line, and we hope you are going to be with us when we do.
Thank you all!

With that being said, here is the change log.

Beta 0.11 - Combat Update



[New Features]


* Introduced "armor set bonuses". Gain new perks/buffs when you combine certain armor pieces.
* Added bronze armor.
* Added fossil armor.
* Added helmetcap armor.
* Added carapace armor.
* Added unlockable crafting recipes.
* Added "titanium anvil" to blacksmith, when repaired, grants you layer 2 crafting recipes.
* Introduced "weapon alt attacks". Melee weapons now have a right-click attack allowing you to pick how you want to fight. (axe spin and sword jab)
* Melee alt attacks now do "interrupts" (similar to parry, but not) that stop various enemies from attacking you when they are hit.
* Projectile blocking (deflecting) is now possible for most swords and axes.
* Added trash slot to inventory.
* Added Honeycomb Biome.
* Added Honey Slimes.
* Added Bees to Honeycomb biome.
* Added Fungal Forest Biome.
* Added Funky Funguy.
* Finally added Sinkhole biome!
* Added Bucks and Does.
* Added Corrupted Biome to layer 1

[Improvements]


* Updated cave troll's Ai and attack sequence to be WAY better than it was.
* Overall rebalance to armor defense values.
* Updated the armor damage reduction equation to now be based on "effective HP". Your armor stat now corresponds to a certain number of "hits-to-kill" for you. If your armor stat doubles, your hits-to-kill you doubles.
* Added additional ingredient to metal armor sets to encourage players to explore dungeons more.
* Various tweaks to skeletons to give them an overall nerf, but still be challenging.
* Reduced speed of slimes.
* Reduced agro distance of slimes.
* Reduced player dash distance to make it more controllable.
* Tweaked tattie's combat stats to make it a bit more reasonable.
* Various tweaks to funguy.
* Reduced player hitbox size.
* Made bat ai less annoying. Killing them right after they start flying should be a lot easier now.
* Prompt now appears for the regular escape pod, so that you don't accidently jump in.
* New sprites for metal ingots.
* Small buffs to players stamina stats.
* Pressing ESC now closes the Megamap.
* Haunted skull now has force based orbiting motion to make it smoother. Should make combat more interesting.
* Improvements to biome generation.

[Fixes]


* Fixed issues regarding certain bar quests not being completable due to some items not being acquirable.
* Fixed controller navigation bug on bottom right of player bag.
* Fixed teleport bug that happened with haunted skull.

[Removals]


* Removed geode biome from layer 1. It will be generated elsewhere.

[Noteworthy]


* Updated Unity Engine to patch security vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489)

HOLIDAY EVENT! + Sale + Pizza Kidd Shoutout

[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/28793193779e49ca8b1bc7ba4610ee6fb7cb08fa.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/934a2b176ae80670338350b32d67674620161b7f.png"][/p]

Bury your beards in our sweet Holiday Sale and event!

[p][/p][p]30% off the game for a limited time! Holiday event is also happening, so make sure you grab your limited time candy cane pickaxes, holiday hats, and get some holiday treats in your bank like they last![/p]

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/d52355a46af261bc1aa881f96e5b33b2a147bc19.png"]

We have a big announcement regarding when Below the Stone's release will happen in January!

[p][/p][p]January we have something big planned for all the fans, And we're looking for playtesters for our combat update that is slated for the same time! If you'd like to join in the new combat update, fill it out here:[/p]

https://forms.gle/98d96XwpcvFY5pys7!

Here's some sneak peeks:

[p][/p][p][/p]

SHOUTOUT TIME!

[p][/p][p]Since it's the holidays, I thought I'd also share a great story about an indie studio we know, Pizza Kidd, another indie just trying to make it in the industry. He's a friend of the studio, and is also launching their Kickstarter crowdfunding page! [/p]


Pizza Kidd is a a gritty sci-fi beat ’em up inspired by Street Fighter II, Streets of Rage, and 90s anime.

[p][/p][p]They're looking for supporters! So check out their trailer, and also sign up for their Kickstarter page below. Here's their trailer:
[/p]

SIGN UP HERE:

[p]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pizzakidd/pizza-kidd-2d-pixel-punchfest-with-monsters-and-mayhem[/p][p][/p][p]I hope you all have a beautiful holiday season, keep up with us, and check out the release news we have in January, we're going to make a big splash, so keep your rock radars tuned on the Below the Stone channel!

- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p]

Small Security Patch Out Now

Greetings fellow dwarves!

We just put out a small update that fixes a security vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489) inside of the game engine that powers our game (Unity Engine). Since this is a very small update that is purely to resolve this problem, there will be no version number change.

The next upcoming update (The Combat Update) will also have this security patch, as well as every update after that (of course!).

Extra information about this vulnerability (CVE-2025-59489)



This video covers this news very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRGh5NVAbs

But there is a few takeaways that I want to make towards all of this:

#1 Steam and various other platforms have taken measures to protect us from people who may try to exploit this.

#2 From my own research, it appears that the vulnerability does not "happen" while the game is running. The vulnerability exists in how programs can take in additional data (launch parameters, command arguments, whatever you want to call them). So the exploit involves launching the game with very very specific launch parameters that allows an attacker to execute code outside the game itself (which could steal your data, or do many other bad things) by using the permissions of the game itself to bypass antivirus.

What this means for you is, in order for this to be used against you, you have to click on something (like a link or button) that launches the game with this "evil input data" that performs the exploit. So for most people, your not going to be randomly hacked out of nowhere just by having the game installed on your computer, or if you run the game without any additional data, such as if you were to double click on the .exe itself.

The exploit is still there, which is not great, but that is why we are patching it. So there is no chance of it being taken advantage of.

But again, with all this being said. We have patched this issue so it is no longer a problem. I am only mentioning all of these details to help keep people informed. And also because I know some people may want to run older versions of the game in the future. So I am saying all this to maybe give some people a bit of peace of mind that the game being actively running on your PC isn't exposing you, and that typical internet precautions are enough to keep you safe (don't click on shady stuff).

Below the Stone Sale! + Combat update Sneak peek

[p]Dig into the deals! Below the Stone is on SALE — gear up for your next underground adventure and save big while you mine deeper than ever. Don’t miss out… treasures await![/p][p][/p]

Now... for some fun news:

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/020fdbe390d9e4dcb49d77ada47496ab49805dd7.png"]

[p]We've also been working on a few big combat related thing`s as well. Set bonuses are going to be a part of the next update, which will include other stats outside of armor to build toward.

We're also in the middle of rebalancing a lot of enemies that were a struggle to encounter in the early game, while also making their behavior more interesting to fight during your battles beneath the stone.[/p][p]

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/3fa597960aba6b569fb808dd6e360b74667e9d7b.png"][/p][p][/p][p]Another big change coming is making biomes part of the main progression path, requiring materials from each biome in order to progress through the game, like combining Silver Ore with Ectoplasm from the haunted biome to make Spectral Ingots. These ideas are not final listed below, but they give an idea of what the team is discussing. We'd like to hear what you think![/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/731d2699e57c925010e5f673a7655ff09c2f75cd.png"]
[/p][p]There's also been work by the art team, including a new boss battle! (Still very much wip)[/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/78a2a54d779a9d8e4d33f43b653e1a7fe387f4c4.gif"][/p][p]I’ve been thinking about posting more casual updates as we go—just little snapshots of what we’re working on. Sometimes as a dev, I feel like I need to show off something shiny and polished, but honestly, that can strip away the realness of what we’re doing and how we connect with you all. If you're into seeing more of the messy, behind-the-scenes stuff, I’d love to keep sharing quick, unfiltered posts here. Just us, building this thing together.

- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
[/p]

A Sneak Peek at What We’ve Been Working On

[p]Some people have been asking us what we've been working on, so I think it's due time we do another Steam announcement.[/p][p][/p][p]A lot of our current work is centered around Kingdom NPCs and connecting that to new in-game objectives, such as Quests and Kingdom Upgrades.[/p][p][/p]

Improved crafting UI

[p][/p][p]A lot of this work required us to refactor various bits of code so that us programmers don't lose our minds while trying to implement new features.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/5729d7c9d7302eaf24e32743a485fd07d7656050.png"][/p][p]
One of which is the refactoring of the Crafting UI. To keep things simple, there were 2 separate files that were essentially copy/pastes of each other, one was for the Blacksmith, and one was for the Alchemist. Since we are adding a new NPC with new crafting recipes, it's high time we refactored that code to something general that would be used by all NPCs.[/p][p]Because maintaining 3 (or more) separate files that do basically the same thing is a programmer's worst nightmare.

Additionally, we have made various nuanced improvements to the "base" crafting ui that all NPCs use. Such as snappier animations, sizing and positioning changes, and proper scaling of certain UI elements based on window resolution.

On that note, the next thing I would like to show is the [/p]

Craftmaster.

[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/588717a4907dfaf3ac09d693530af5d80bb0c218.png"](Work-in-progress screenshot of the Craftmaster and her workshop station.)[/p][p][/p][p]The Craftmaster is a tireless maker of various wonderful gadgets and contraptions, but can also make some typical and important items when needed. She supplies her fellow dwarves with many useful gadgets that other professions in the kingdom simply can't.[/p][p]She is also known to experiment once and a while. Well... Maybe it's all the time. So many projects, but only so much time in a day![/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/5022da47b8823742b741d1af467f369411b37c48.png"][TAG-40][/p][p][/p][p]For the player, several of the Blacksmith's crafting recipes will be moved to the Craftmaster, and many new items/recipes will be added to the Craftmaster as well.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/b70b6ce461ae921d41b99f5b061770a9a979cd43.gif"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/9312471303b69da14eb6b2b29c792f48cfa26246.gif"][TAG-50][/p][p](Special armor for different play styles)
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/dfa89a51994b3cdd97c6a99a674d594f4ab456c0.png"][/p][p](^ Some potential new items to be introduced with the Craftmaster ^)[/p][p]All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality![/p][p]https://www.dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Craftsdwarf%27s_workshop[/p][p][/p]

Next up, Quests!

[p][/p][p]Firstly, a point of clarification. The Foreman gives "missions". "Quests" are similar, but don't have to be completed to exit the caves.[/p][p]The player can accept and complete quests from various NPC's. Some of these quests are relevant to the story, and others will unlock things in the Kingdom. There is a lot more variety potential with Quests compared to Missions. There will even be some quests that serve as something like a tutorial, in that the quest will help introduce the player to important aspects of the game.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/13eb585881d4d520d2db5488f9a6489702aea899.png"][/p][p](A work-in-progress screenshot of quests showing in the journal)[/p][p][/p][p]Once you start accepting quests, you will be able to see/track them in your journal. When a quest is completed, you go back to the NPC that gave you the quest and it will be removed from your journal, and you will be rewarded.
[/p][p]This new quest system will be used to present the player with the existing "save this NPC" quests that already exist in the game.[/p][p][/p][p]Quests will also be very relevant to our next feature to discuss:[/p]

The Bar!

[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35936341/f23f20fbd84f6e04a74e0989ee0d7b9801e09c16.png"][/p][p]The bar is an area where you will find many new NPCs with various colorful personalities, and stories to tell. The bar will also be a place where the new quest system will see a lot of use, as the owner of the bar will need your help repairing it and getting it ready for customers again. Other NPCs may also offer special quests with unique rewards.[/p][p][/p][p]Overall, we want the bar to be a lively and atmospheric place that you will want to visit just to see what's going on.[/p][p][/p]

Some other good mentions

[p][/p][p]We are also introducing a gold cost to crafting so that there is a bit more meaning behind the gold you all are accumulating.[/p][p][/p][p]We have also added a "low health passive regen" mechanic. This will heal you very slowly over time if your health is under 20 hp. It will help you out when you're in a rough spot with only 1 hp left and still need to escape the cave.[/p][p]Additionally, we have internally talked about introducing random fireplaces in the caves that you can ignite and cook foods that give you special buffs. We have not started work on this yet, but it's a highly anticipated idea.[/p][p][/p]

This is all for now

[p]I know I am probably missing some smaller things we have done already, but I have covered all the major stuff we have either done or are currently working on.[/p][p][/p][p]If you wish to ask us anything regarding Below The Stone or learn anything else about what we are working on, we can be reached on our Discord server. https://discord.com/invite/MW72QReXKh[/p][p]We typically post what we are working on there.[/p][p][/p][p]Anyways, thank you for reading.[/p][p]We hope you are digging it![/p]