Posted July 15, 2026 by TheRealMaiika
#devlog
The last few days were mostly spent staring at the game until something broke. Eventually, something did: after roughly 40 seconds, runs would regularly become almost unplayable.
The main problem was the XP orb merging system. It kept starting new threads for a task that really did not need them. The system is now much simpler, and performance remains stable during longer and busier runs.
After that, I worked through the visual effects. Some effects ignored the active effect limit, while others kept creating new objects instead of reusing existing ones.
Weapon sprites were also stacking on top of each other, which made certain attacks look like two weapons were flying out of the character at once. Their size, rotation and positioning should now feel much more consistent.
The HUD also received another pass. Active items, passive items and fusions are now clearly separated.
Fusion progress is displayed as soon as you collect one of the required items. However, the completed fusion will not become available until every required ingredient has been fully upgraded.
Item choices have been adjusted as well. Once you start collecting items from a specific fusion path, related ingredients are more likely to appear.
This should make it easier to complete a build you have already committed to without making every level-up completely predictable.
To finish things off, I ran a deliberately excessive stress test with all 72 regular items and all 28 fusions active at the same time.
The game remained at around 144 FPS throughout the 95-second test, while the limits for effects, projectiles and XP orbs worked as intended.
Next, I am planning to shift the focus back toward content and balancing.
The technical foundation finally feels stable enough that I no longer have to watch the FPS counter every time I add a new weapon.