Version 3.4.5 Alpha Released

Version 3.4.5 Alpha is a Stability & UX Pass following the dedicated Shield update. The review focused on state normalization, Job-specific Shield compatibility, Gear Set recovery, Binder resilience, contextual guidance, localization and practical system actions.

Corrective changes

Save normalization

Before rendering, the build now repairs or rejects malformed player values, invalid Job Card records, duplicate inventory IDs, unknown equipment slots, malformed affixes, excessive socket capacities and broken equipped references. Valid profile data is preserved.

Shield compatibility

Shields remain independent from Relics, but the Shield position is active only for Jobs whose weapon profile supports Shields. The same rule is enforced by direct equipment, migrated profiles, saved Gear Sets, equipment summaries and fully-equipped counters.

This closes a balance loophole where every Job could otherwise gain an unconditional tenth equipment source.

Gear Sets and legacy Sets

Saved Gear Sets apply all available compatible pieces and skip missing, level-locked or incompatible entries. Unknown legacy Set identifiers no longer break Gear rendering; the item remains preserved while the invalid bonus is ignored with a visible warning.

Contextual guidance

Twenty-four applicable primary systems now receive a dismissible first-visit guide. Each guide states the system's purpose, recommends a next action and links to the complete Tutorial. Dismissal persists independently per system.

Regression results

Route and layout matrix

• 26 primary routes
• 4 viewports
• 104 rendered route/viewport views
• no empty route output
• no document-level horizontal overflow
• no duplicate DOM IDs
• no visible unlabeled buttons
• correct contextual-guide policy

Deep navigation

• 8 Jobs workspaces
• 5 Gear workspaces
• 3 Forge workspaces
• 3 Market workspaces
• 6 Chat channels
• 21 Story entries
• 10 World chapters

Gameplay and persistence actions

Seventeen grouped action checks exercised Job acquisition, party changes, equipment, Campaign progress, Arena, Abyss Tower, Atlas Maps, Labyrinths, Quest Director contracts, Guild Expeditions, Village, Mine, Aquarium, social simulation and save recovery rotation.

State scenarios

The build was tested with fresh state, progressed Binder state, deliberately malformed profile data, incompatible Shield assignments and unknown legacy Set references.

Totals

• 42/42 grouped regression assertions passed
• 17/17 grouped gameplay-action assertions passed
• 104 route/viewport views checked
• 0 JavaScript page errors
• 0 console errors
• 0 asset-validation errors

Compatibility

• Save Schema remains 34.
• The historical Version 3.4.x browser save key is unchanged.
• Existing shield items and Version 3.4.x equipment profiles continue to migrate.
• The new repair pass may unequip only references that are missing, duplicated, level-locked or incompatible with their Job.

Test boundary

Runtime automation was performed in Chromium. Firefox, Safari and physical mobile devices require separate manual verification.