Volume not persisting on reload was just a "better than nothing" measure. It was a very late addition to the the update, and given that I don't have any kind of save system in the game yet I didn't want to delay the update further implementing one.
The intention with the starting loadouts was specifically not to give the player anything *too* powerful. I still wanted players to have to trade for the good stuff, but there are probably a few more ingredients, like Blueberry, which would be perfectly acceptable and could offer more variety.
Yeah, the sticky slime might be slightly overtuned atm. It was pretty underpowered before, now it provides both good disruption and tempo. I'll also be keeping a close eye on the Idol.