The dying moon over the front door

Public beta 0.1 · build 134 ·

  • The front page of the site now has a night sky over its battlement: a scatter of stars and the dying moon above the torches. If you have a game saved, the moon is the one your run is under (full, half or new). Otherwise it is the half moon.
  • The front page no longer plays the opening crawl: it opens straight on the title and the way into the game. The crawl is still told in the game, on your first new game.

No spoilers in the patch notes

Public beta 0.1 · build 133 ·

  • A note that would give away a late boss, or anything that happens near the end of the game, is now shut behind a tap to reveal, with a label that tells you nothing. Open the ones you want to read.

Faster turning, a fresher guide, and the fire rekindled

Public beta 0.1 · build 131 ·

  • Turning on a phone is about twice as fast: one swipe across the right side of the screen now turns you a little over half way round. Settings has Look speed and Up/down speed, so you can set both to suit your thumb.
  • New in Settings: Invert up/down (on a computer and on a phone) and, on a phone, Vibration. A phone now buzzes when you are hit, when your shield stops a blow and when you parry. It does nothing on an iPhone, which cannot vibrate for a web page.
  • After the Vigil is kept tap to reveal (spoiler)

    What used to be called Prestige is now called Rekindle. After the Vigil is kept, the end card offers Rekindle the fire, and the crest round your level shows how many times you have.

  • The guide's boss covers tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The guide at /showcase/ is brought up to date: the Drowned Lich and ten more creatures have their new pictures, the Phone tab shows the real screen next to the drawing and its buttons can be read, there is a new tip about the map, the moon and the elites, and the two last bosses are no longer both called The Final Vigil: they are now The Fiftieth Night and The Last Night.

  • The Legal page now says everything the game keeps in your browser. The site also tells search engines which pages it has, so it is easier to find.

The Vigil, kept and begun again

Public beta 0.1 · build 122 ·

  • The ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The ending is longer now. After the maidens' last verse, the Keepers' Songbook, the crowns and the tiara rise together up the moonlight, and the view turns up to the full moon. The screen goes dark and the credits roll, and then the end card.

  • After the ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The end card has a third choice: Begin again. It starts a new Vigil from wave 1, at level 1, with the Songbook and the King still to be won again. It asks twice, because it ends the run. The book of creatures, the verses on the stones, the Iron Knight's tally and your bone marks stay with you. If you chose Keep the Vigil, Begin again is also on the pause card.

  • After the ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    Every time you begin again, the dead are 15% tougher in health and in what their blows do (it stops growing at the tenth), and you have 5% more health and stamina (up to five times). Nobody has played far into this yet, so tell us if it is too hard.

  • After the ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    Five fires on the level crest: one small flame for each time you have begun again, in the colours of the five maidens. From the sixth, the whole ring burns and a number sits under it. Your prestige is also shown on the title screen's Continue line, on the Fallen screen and on the end card.

  • After the ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    Once you have kept the Vigil, Credits on the title screen plays the credits roll. The guide has a new answer about the little flames.

Made for phones

Public beta 0.1 · build 116 ·

  • On a phone, the tap that begins or resumes a run now takes the game to the whole screen and holds it sideways (Android). An iPhone cannot do this for a web page, so the title screen shows once how to: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. A swipe out of full screen pauses the game.
  • The phone's screen is much calmer: six buttons instead of thirteen, drawn as pictures. Use, Swap, Item and Bomb show up only when they can do something. Tap the little radar for the big map and tap the map to close it. Double-tap the look side of the screen to lock on to an enemy. The Codex is on the pause card.
  • The radar on a phone was the size of a laptop's and is now much smaller. Settings has a button size, a button strength and a left-handed switch. The buttons fade when nothing has touched the screen for a few seconds, and a card shows what every control does the first time you play.
  • The showcase is now a guide for players: how to play, the controls for a keyboard and for a phone, your first ten minutes, the creatures (every boss after the first is under a cover so nothing is spoiled), the gear and the spells. The old pages of numbers are still there, at the foot of the guide.
  • A new line under the title: A thousand fires were lit for the dying moon. Yours is the last that still answers. A link to the game now shows a picture when it is shared, and the front door says what is new.

A quieter start

Public beta 0.1 · build 108 ·

  • The harsh, hissing sound that started with the opening crawl and the title screen is gone. The crawl now plays over the low drone of the halls.
  • The copyright line on the Legal page now claims only the parts that can be copyrighted, and says that parts made with AI tools may not be protected in every country.

Patch notes and the small print

Public beta 0.1 · build 105 ·

  • This page: every release so far, newest first, each with its build number.
  • The foot of the front door and of the title screen now says which build you are on, and Credits says it too. Hover the label for the commit and the date, and quote it when you report something.
  • A Legal page: a plain-English disclaimer, how your saves and your privacy are kept, a note about flashing light, and who made what.
  • A second, plainer warning that the audio is still a work in progress, on the Legal page and here.
  • Patch notes, Legal and Credits are one click from the front door and from the title screen.
  • On a phone the title screen no longer says to open the game on a computer, and the front door fits a phone on its side.

The phone version

Public beta 0.1 · build ~98 ·

  • The Last Fire on a phone, played sideways: a floating stick on the left, a look pad on the right, and buttons for attack, block, dash, jump, cast, lock-on, bombs, use, items, swap, the map, the codex and pause. The spell bar and the passive cards are tapped.
  • A little aim help: an attack with nothing locked on goes for the nearest enemy in front of you.
  • A lighter picture and lighter models, so a phone's browser keeps the page alive. Turn the phone upright, or leave the page, and the game pauses.
  • The site picks the right version for your device. Play the game opens the phone version on a touch screen and the computer version on a computer; the Phone version / Computer version link in the foot switches, and remembers what you chose.
  • Add it to your home screen for a full-screen, sideways app.
  • A drawn flame for the site's icon, and the end card credits ScanHammer1.

Public beta 0.1

Public beta 0.1 · build ~95 ·

  • The game has a home: lastfire.app (thelastfire.app takes you there).
  • A front door that plays the opening crawl, with the game and the showcase one click away.
  • The showcase: a guide to the combat, the waves, the bosses and loot, the bestiary and every item.
  • Saves and settings stay in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
  • A caution that the audio is still a work in progress.

Remakes and comfort

build ~90 ·

  • Two bosses tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Drowned Lich and the Bone Colossus are remade, each with animations of its own for its blows, its summons and its stun.

  • Seven older creatures move properly at last: the Iron Knight, the Shade, the Skeleton Archer, the Shield Skeleton, the Skeleton, the zombie and the Demon have real idles, blows and staggers.
  • A Faster button on the opening crawl (F, the right arrow and the down arrow work too).
  • A full-screen button, top right of every screen where the mouse is free.
  • A boss tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Bone Colossus's heart now sits inside its ribcage.

The Final Vigil

build ~85 ·

  • The fiftieth wave tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Forge Golem waits at wave 50. The maze is his weakness: a Rune Bomb that bursts at his open furnace door stuns him. He holds the Crimson Elf.

  • A boss's gift tap to reveal (spoiler)

    His first fall drops the Keepers' Songbook. Carried, it gives each maiden a fifth passive, her own verse, which only she can teach.

  • The sixtieth wave tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Hollow King comes down to the courtyard at wave 60. His health is in five pools, and a different fire opens each one.

  • The ending tap to reveal (spoiler)

    When the King falls the Vigil can be kept. There is an ending, then a choice: keep going, or return to the title screen.

The Tree of Life

build ~68 ·

  • The Tree of Life stands at the middle of the maze, with the five maidens round it and a ring of tombstones, each cut with the verses of a fighter who has fallen.
  • A boss tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Ember Tyrant is the king's queen: she is remade, and her tiara hangs at the foot of the Tree once she falls.

  • The maze is dressed with pillars, ivy, bushes, trees and mist banks.
  • Remade bodies tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The five maidens, the Veiled Matron and the Demon are remade. The maidens curtsy once when freed, and the Demon and the Skeleton Archer step round you between shots.

  • The circle round the Tree is safe from the first wave: ordinary enemies are kept out of it. Bosses can enter.
  • Only the real bosses free the maidens now. The Iron Knight frees none, and a boss you fight again frees one who is still held.
  • A brighter title screen with the Tree behind the menu, and every model trimmed so the game loads lighter.

Playability and sound

build ~61 ·

  • A settings screen: mouse sensitivity, field of view, master volume, the maidens' song, hit-stop, screen shake, reduced motion, a colourblind-safe palette and rebindable keys.
  • One controls card, and a hint the first time each new thing happens.
  • The fighter that is coming is named before its wave, and the Bell of Challenge says who it is rung for.
  • Packs no longer knot up in a corridor.
  • A champion and a boss tap to reveal (spoiler)

    The Iron Knight is twice as tough, and wears a different watch's colours and name each time it comes round. The Veiled Matron hunts for longer between light stuns.

  • Recorded sound effects for most of the game replace the old synthesised voices (which still stand in while the recordings load).

The Last Fire

build ~51 ·

  • The game is renamed The Last Fire: Vigil for the Dying Moon. Saved games carry over.
  • An opening crawl plays the first time you start a new game.
  • A guard meter: every blow your raised shield stops wears it down, and when it is empty your guard breaks and you stagger.
  • Tab locks on to the nearest enemy. The view follows it, and W, S, A and D walk at it, away from it and round it.
  • A trail of motes drifts along the corridors to the boss, in the boss's own colour.
  • M opens a map of the whole maze without pausing.

Five bosses, five maidens

build ~47 ·

  • Two new bosses tap to reveal (spoiler)

    Two new bosses: the Veiled Matron, who hides in the dark and snuffs your torches, and the Ember Tyrant, in plates of armour that fire cannot touch. Bosses now come round in a rotation, each tougher every time.

  • A fifth maiden, the Emerald Elf, with her own passives, her own layer in the maidens' song and a fixture of crystals at the middle.
  • A slot for an active item, on V: the Horn of the Shaken Dead, the Lantern of Revealing and the Veilstep Sigil.
  • The Collar of Subjugation: a collared enemy fights for you.
  • The Skeleton Minion can shove you with its shield, and the Demon throws fire from her hand. The moon in the sky follows its phase.
  • Every boss and all five maidens stand on the opening screen.

Codex and relics

build ~22 ·

  • The Codex, on C: a book of the creatures, items and places you have met, with a tab for lore.
  • Each freed maiden speaks a line the first time you stay near her in a break, and every boss or champion that falls has a verse cut into a plate on a wall at the middle.
  • Wave mutators: from wave 3 an ordinary wave may carry a twist, such as the Quickened Dead, the Creeping Fog, a Great Horde or Moonlit Plenty.
  • Six cursed relics, each with a boon and a real curse. Look at one and press the use key to take it; you can bear two at a time.

The polish pass

build ~7 ·

  • The sword swing has a wind-up, a strike and a follow-through, and sprinting costs stamina.
  • Each boss you fell is a level: choose one of three passives, and the maidens add branches of their own.
  • A dash, a freeze on a heavy blow, a slow-motion kill, executions and wall-splats.
  • Landmarks in the maze: wide halls, ruins, chokes with gates, the Moon Fountain, shrines, the Bell of Challenge and sealed vaults. Phases of the moon change the night.
  • A vault opens one of three ways: with a Rune Bomb, with a key an elite carries, or by holding a ring while the wardens come.
  • Elite enemies with special traits, elements that react with each other, and bosses that adapt.
  • Each maiden who settles adds a fixture to the middle of the maze. With all of them there it is a sanctuary the dead cannot enter between waves.

Rarity and drops

build ~4 ·

  • Gear has six rarity tiers, with nameplates and a halo on what lies on the floor. Seven swords and five shields are balanced to them.
  • A boss's first fall drops gear nothing else gives.
  • The game saves at the end of every wave: Continue picks up where you were, New Game starts again.
  • The cast stands on the title screen, and the Demon has been rebuilt: her fireball now has a wind-up.

The port

build ~3 ·

  • The starting point: the game as it stood after being rebuilt from a single file into its present shape. Nothing new to play.