"Way too easy"
The owner played all three acts back to back and called it way too easy. Enemy scaling, a difficulty setting and boss health multipliers went in that same night, and the next test run got the verdict the numbers were aiming for.
Written up later from the repo's history and dated to the days it describes.
On the night of October 16 the owner played Earfh from Act 1 to the end of Act 3, back to back for the first time. The verdict, from the session that night, was that it was "way too easy" and needed more variety. That was fair. Act 3 had only just landed, with a placeholder boss at the end, and nothing in the run pushed back.
The fix shipped before morning, in one combat tuning pass.
One role per mob
Every regular mob now has a single job: swarm, rusher, bruiser, ranged, support or hazard. Health, speed and damage were rewritten to fit, and the glossary names the role. The Box Golem went from 150 health and 16 damage to 240 health and 26 damage. The Delivery Drone went from 6 damage to 10 and gained a faster flight speed. Twenty-two mob rows changed.
Acts that scale
Before the pass, enemies in Act 1 had no scaling at all, and Acts 2 and 3 added only a little. They now multiply health and damage by act:
- Act 1: health 1.3, damage 1.25
- Act 2: health 1.8, damage 1.5
- Act 3: health 2.5, damage 1.9
A new Difficulty setting sits on top of that table, with Easy at 0.8, Normal at 1.0, Hard at 1.25 and Brutal at 1.5. It scales enemy health, enemy damage and boss health.
Bosses and Last Stand
Boss health is now the base number times 12 times a factor for the act (1.4, 1.9 and 2.5). On Normal that makes the Comb Overlord 10,080, the Pen Pal 18,240 and the Big Gulper 27,000. Every boss also makes a Last Stand at 10% health, with attack pauses cut to 75% and movement speed up 15%, and a banner announces it.
One mechanic got a gate. The Dash Chain now makes no shield until the chain reaches link 12.
The second verdict
After the owner's next run, the report was that the hordes "were killing me, but not in a bad way." That is the target. The hordes were dangerous without feeling unfair.
The numbers here are the first pass, and a few of them are already being reconsidered. The Act 3 spec shipped with 1.5 and 1.3 and was replaced by this table within a day.