So, as always, I said that I was only gonna play for a couple of minutes, and ended up playing a couple of hours instead.
I really love the update.
Enemies are hitting harder now, but armor has been updated as well, so there is a nice balance. I love the broken shields as default armor. They make the body armour and the helmet much more valueable items, and I had to think much more carefully when considering which cards to add to my deck.
Armor also works a bit differently now. It used to be that armor shattered on first impact, even if the total hit points of the attack were lower than the armor "points". Now, the armor only gets reduced by the amount that it was hit for, which feels a lot more intuitive and I think it's "fairer".
I also like that the image for the unlocked door has changed. It's a little staircase now, and that is much more easy to understand.
Sloth cards are gone now. I loved the concept, but as more enemies get added in who flee on first attack, you used to accumulate a LOT of sloth cards.
Plus enemies get upgraded if their card is face-up and you didn't defeat them, so it's not like there isn't a penalty for "running away".
Another feature that I haven't used a lot so far, but I think is quite cool, is that you can check your "Hero Deck" while in the dungeon. That way you can find out which cards of yours aren't currently on the board when entering a dungeon, which can help you strategize better.
The game was already highly addictive, but now it feels more balanced!
My current highest floor I reached was the 8th level, before I died to a particularly nasty new enemy ;)
The only thing that I would wish for would be a way to gain more HP?
Either in the levels (gain 1 HP from stabbing a barrel, for example), or that the HP scale between the floors? So that you can gain 3 HP after floor 1 and 2, 4 HP after floor 3 and 4, something like that.
Nothing too major, just enough to tip the scales a little bit, since enemies DO get pretty tough after level 5.
Anyway, love this game and love all the little changes added!