This update adds a new layer to build customization: The undead merchant.
He will appear every three minutes. Collect coins and go shopping for insane build opportunities!
I also rebalanced Nightmare and buffed some heroes to create a less frustrating experience.
Challenges now spawn differently. The first boss will spawn the first shrine from N1 upwards, the second boss will spawn the second shrine from N2 upwards etc. They don’t pause the spawns anymore, by removing the arena I want to provide a more exciting challenge.
So there will be 5 challenges to beat in N5 in the near future. Beating all of them in one run will trigger something endgame related.
The new synergies are just the beginning. The focus was fire, ice, arcane and blades. The next updates will add more synergies between the different elements.

NEW: Undead Merchant & Coin drops
The undead merchant will appear every 3 minutes, offering the following items:

• Health Potions
• Spirit Potions
• Sweet Tonic: +2 min damage
• Bitter Tonic +3 max damage
• Salty Tonic: -5% enemy projectile speed
• Perks
• Dispelled items
• Companions

There are two new unlocks that will improve the merchant!

• Hard Bargain: 30% off at the Undead Merchant
• Penny Pincher: +15% coin drops
• Voltage Vortex: Regularly hurt close enemies. Deals half of your max damage as lightning damage. (Lightning Aura)
• Lucky Shots: +3% crit chance, +10% crit multiplier
• Nimble: +7% movement speed, +5% attack speed
• Quick Wits: 4% attack speed, 8% xp multiplier
• Projectile Ballet: +4% evasion, +6% projectile damage
• Bolt Blitz: +15% projectile damage, +5% movement speed
• Synergy “Frostfire Fusion“: Freezing a burning enemy will cause an explosion. (Synergy Book of Ice + Scroll of Fire)
• Whisper of Death (Challenge perk): Your projectiles curse enemies. Cursed enemies take increasing curse damage every second.
• Hex Master: Whisper of Death ticks faster. (Synergy Whisper of Death + Tome Of Mysteries)
• Frostburn (Word Of Pain + Book Of Ice): Heal 1 hp when a frozen enemy gets killed by Word Of Pain.
• Friendly Force: 50% companion damage
• Hive Leader: 100% companion damage, 20% move speed
• Monarch: 250% companion damage, +1 max health, +2 spirit hearts
• Blades Of Judiciary: Second layer of Blades (Upgrade from Blades Of Justice)
• Blade Master: Blades deal 300% increased damage while you don’t attack (Upgrade from Blades Of Justice)
• Flaming Blades: Blades burn enemies (Synergy Blades of Justice + Scroll Of Fire)
• Astral Blades: Blades reflect enemy projectiles (Synergy Blades of Justice + Tome Of Mysteries)
• Blood Money: Every 5th coin you loot will heal you. (Exclusive merchant perk)

• Companion: Cactus. Attacks nearby enemies while you are stationary. (Kaito N2)
• Challenge: Armored Warrior: +50% coin drops
• Challenge: Apocalyptic Riders: Grants the perk “Whisper of Death”
• Undead Merchant I
• Undead Merchant II

• Armored Warrior
• Mind AND Matter
• Golden Boy
• Emergency Fund
• Full Team
• Apocalyptic Riders

Improved the base movement speed of some heroes:

• Ember 2.5 -> 3.5
• Gundel 3 -> 3.5
• Aric 3.5 -> 4
• Zikk 3.8 -> 4
• Kaito 4 -> 4.5

• Increased the base damage of Kaito from 5-7 to 8-12
• Reduced the crit chance of Kaito from 50% to 40%
• Increased the base damage of Misty from 7-9 to 9-13
• Increased the base attack speed of Zikk by 50%
• Increased the base hp of Zikk from 3 to 4
• Increased the base hp of Misty from 2 to 3
• Increased the base hp of Icicle from 3 to 4
• Reduced the hp increase of enemies from 10% to 2% per nightmare difficulty
• Additional balancing to the nightmare difficulties and enemy hp
• Adjusted the general enemy projectile speed
• Rebalanced the hp of the challenge enemies
• Challenge enemies now have health bars
• Challenges don’t pause the game time anymore, providing a smoother (and more challenging) experience
• Removed the timer from challenges
• Gundels ground effect now causes less screen clutter
• The win/death panel comes with new sound effects
• The value of enemies killed and damage dealt is now formatted for better readability
• More improvements to performance
• Improved the behaviour of all companions
• Blades of Justice and Gundels burn damage now correctly scale with perks like Daredevil and Rampage
• Improved the visibility of Ghosts
• Increased the pathfinding priority of Bosses and Mages
• Slightly reduced the amount and movement speed of shadow invasion enemies
• New modifier: Companion damage
• Added companion damage to the stat panel
• There is now a sound effect when you gain a spirit heart

• Fixed the movement pattern of the ice orb companion
• Ascended perks are now correctly displayed in the perk overview
• Fixed a bug with the goblin carrier being stuck in the pickup animation when you pick up a chest before him
• Fixes the spawns of the second wave of zombie bears
• Fixed the audio problem caused by picking up a lot of xp at once