s&box

Mastery Ranks — a brand-new account-wide progression: every run earns Mastery XP and climbs you through nine ranks, from Recruit all the way up to Mythic, each with its own potato-warrior badge.
Your rank, level and XP bar now sit right on the title screen, with a new Mastery screen (tap your rank) that shows the ranks you've earned.
The next rank stays a mystery until you reach it, so every new badge is a surprise.
Save & Quit — you can now stash a run into one of three save slots and step away.
Continue — pick a saved run from the main menu and drop straight back into it, right where you left off, after a quick 3-second countdown.
Leaving a run to the main menu now asks you to confirm first, so you don't lose progress by accident.
Deleting a save asks you to confirm too.

The Select Character screen is bigger, with larger text that's much easier to read.
Your armor now protects you during boss dodge phases — it works at half strength instead of being ignored completely.
The end-of-run screen now shows the Mastery XP you earned, with a LEVEL UP / RANK UP banner when you climb a tier.

The Demonic Lord now turns to face you as it stalks around, instead of always staring one direction.
Pop-up prompts and panels no longer show through the menus sitting behind them.

Burst weapons like the Revolver still display their fire rate in the shop as bursts-per-second, so it reads slower than it actually fires.
The Tater Tot's held weapon still doesn't animate its swing or jab (purely cosmetic)

Spears & Six-Shooters 0.58 23 June 2026

New weapon — the Spear: a melee weapon that jabs straight ahead and pierces a whole line of enemies instead of swinging.
New weapon — the Revolver: a burst-fire pistol that cracks off three quick shots, then pauses to reload.

The Scavenger now starts each run with the Revolver instead of the Pistol.
The Soul Reaper now looks bigger and meaner in hand.
Cleaned up a few weapon sizes when held.

Menu panels no longer drift or jump when you flip between pages on the stats and leaderboard screens.
The shop no longer shifts around when you select a weapon — the sell button now holds its place.
The shop no longer jumps when the Tater Tot joins your run or gets armed.
Leaderboard pages with crowns (the top 3) no longer make the list shift between pages.
The Spear now reliably hits enemies in front of it instead of occasionally passing through.

Burst weapons like the Revolver display their fire rate in the shop as bursts-per-second, so it reads slower than it actually fires.
The Tater Tot's held weapon doesn't yet animate its swing or jab (purely cosmetic).

Ghosts, Grit & New Faces 0.57 23 June 2026

New character — Brawler: a tanky melee bruiser (+35% HP, +40% melee, knockback & regen; −25% projectile damage, −10% move speed)
New character — Gunner: a glass-cannon gunslinger (+25% damage, +20% fire rate, +1 pierce; −20% HP, takes +15% damage)
New character — Scavenger: an economy snowball (+50% coins, +25% XP, huge pickup range; −15% damage)
New character — Berserker: hits hardest near death (+15% crit, faster, ramping damage as HP drops; half HP, takes +25% damage)
New weapon — Giant Spatula: a slow melee sweep with huge reach and heavy knockback that flings the horde back
New unique upgrade — Soul Harvest: your ghost allies have a 25% chance to raise a new ghost from enemies they kill
New unique upgrade — Whispering Turret: your turrets have a 75% chance to raise a ghost from enemies they kill
New melee upgrade — Meat Tenderizer: +45% melee damage & knockback, but −8% crit chance
New melee upgrade — Butcher's Cleaver: +55% melee damage, but −15% overall damage
New melee upgrade — Cast-Iron Pan: +35% melee damage & big knockback, but −20% crit damage
New achievements — unlock each character: Knuckle Up (Brawler), Locked & Loaded (Gunner), Dumpster Diver (Scavenger), Off the Rails (Berserker), and Full Roster for the whole squad
New option — Damage Numbers frequency slider in the pause menu: show a number on every hit, every Nth hit (up to 1-in-20), or turn them off entirely

Soul Reaper — the ghost it raises now scales with the scythe's rarity: weak at Common, terrifying at Legendary (and the held scythe is bigger and easier to read)
Laser — now stuns enemies on hit, with stun length scaling by rarity
Smarter ghosts — a raised ghost now keeps the behaviour of whatever it came from: ranged enemies shoot, bombers kamikaze, chargers dash, watermelons slam — and their projectiles are now spectral black-and-white
Ghost ally damage rebalanced — ghosts now gain half of your ally-damage (Engineering) bonus
Melee reach — +Range upgrades now extend melee weapons too (at half rate), and the swing visibly reaches further from your body
Cold Snap — now slows enemies by 10% (was 3%)
Scrap Cannons — its +15% ally damage now costs −10% crit damage (was +10% enemy speed)
Achievements menu — cleaner, smaller, better-organised tiles

ater Tot now actually lands its melee hits — it closes the distance instead of hovering at gun range and whiffing
Melee weapons no longer miss at high attack speed (fast re-fires were cancelling the swing before it could connect)
Added a cap on simultaneous ghosts so the new ghost-chains can't cause slowdowns

The old Damage Numbers on/off toggle (replaced by the new frequency slider)
The "Getting Started" achievement category ("Finish your first run" moved into Survival)

Soul Harvest's chain doesn't trigger from Bomber or Watermelon ghost kills yet (their explosive kills don't carry the chain) — planned for a later patch

The Onion Sorcerer 0.56 22 June 2026

Onion Sorcerer — a new elite caster that blinks around the arena and lobs homing magic bulbs at you. The bulb's tip points your way so you can read the threat and dash clear. Elite waves now spawn a random mix of the Axe Knight and the Sorcerer.
Five new achievements: Spud Squad (field all three allies at once), Axe to Grind (face three Elite Axe Knights at once), One-Spud Army (defeat 1,000 enemies), Crate Expectations (claim rewards from 10 crates), and Deep Pockets (hold 1,000 coins) — under a new "Spoils" category.
A chest-opening sound when you crack open an elite reward crate.

Rebalanced late-game shop prices — item costs past wave 25 now climb far more slowly (+5% per wave instead of +20%), so the late game stays affordable instead of pricing you out of everything.
Lots of other rebalancing

Garlic Knight Update 0.55 20 June 2026

Garlic Knight — a new melee ally bruiser. Recruit him from the shop and he charges into the fray, cleaving whole packs of enemies with his sword. Scales with Engineering like your other allies, completing the ranged / turret / melee trio.
Three new achievements: Knight Hunter (slay 10 Elite Axe Knights), Cleanup Crew (defeat 150 enemies), and Extermination (defeat 500 enemies).
New sound effects for buying and selling in the shop, blocked actions you can't afford yet, and unlocking achievements.

The follow/hunt toggle now controls ALL allies (renamed to "ALLIES"). In Hunt mode your Tater Tot and Garlic Knight now split up and target different enemies instead of swarming the same one.
The achievements menu is now sorted into categories (Combat, Bosses, Survival, Arsenal, Getting Started) with tidier tiles.
The calm coin-pickup flash is now smaller and more subtle.
Tidied the options menu — the speed slider now sits alongside the SFX and music sliders.

Elite Update 0.54 19 June 2026

Elite Axe Knight — a tanky elite that storms in every few waves, keeps its distance, and slams a wide shockwave you have to dash through to dodge. A "!" marks where it's entering so you get a heads-up.
Reward crates — defeating an elite drops a crate. Walk onto it to take one of a random weapon or two upgrades, or sell the whole crate for coins.
Bleeding — the elite's hits make you bleed for a second, shown by a new bleed icon next to your health bar.
"Calm" coin pickups — a new pause-menu option that collects coins in place with a soft flash instead of having them streak across the screen, so you can stay focused on dodging.

Elite numbers ramp up after every boss wave (up to three at once) — but a whole group now leaves only a single crate.
Elites are invincible for a few seconds as they enter, so they can't be picked off before they reach the arena.

Turrets Update 0.53 18 June 2026

Turrets — a rare, stackable ally from the shop. Each one telegraphs in with a flashing green X, auto-fires at enemies, and jumps to a new spot every wave.
Engineering — a new stat that boosts the damage of all your allies, the Tater Tot and turrets alike.
Six new shop items: Toolbelt, Drone Uplink, Power Diverter, Scrap Cannons, Lone Operator and Cold Snap.
Shotgun Lemon — a new ranged enemy from wave 11 that fires a far-flying shotgun spread.
Watermelon Smasher — a new heavy enemy from wave 21 that winds up and slams a marked zone, knocking you back.
Damage Numbers toggle in Options.
A "NEW" turret banner on the main menu.

Volume and Speed sliders can now be clicked and dragged, not just stepped with the +/- buttons.
The "Reduce Effects" option now also hides the fire on burning enemies.
Balance — Shuriken damage reduced by 30%.
Balance — the Tater Tot and Turrets now show up a little less often in the shop.

Mini Me? — Meet the Tater Tot 0.52 18 June 2026

Tater Tot — a brand-new ALLY you can buy in the shop. A pint-sized you that fights at your side!
New green ALLY tag in the shop so allies stand out from weapons and items.
The Tater Tot now turns up in the shop pool while you don't own one — reroll for it (one Tater Tot per run).
The Tater Tot has its own weapon inventory and spawns holding a random weapon.
Arm your Tater Tot from your own loadout: in the shop, select one of your weapons and click the Tater Tot's slot to hand it over — it keeps the weapon's rarity, so you can MASH something up to Legendary and give your buddy a monster gun!
New Options toggle: choose whether the Tater Tot FOLLOWS you or HUNTS — wandering the arena to chase down and splat enemies on its own.

The Tater Tot scales with you — it fights at 50% of your damage and attack speed and 75% of your range, growing stronger as your build does.
Title screen version text now has breathing room and no longer crowds the line beneath it.

The Achievement Unlocked banner no longer overlaps the WAVE banner — it now sits cleanly above it.

Arming the Tater Tot is click-to-assign (select a weapon, then click its slot) rather than literal drag-and-drop for now.
Handing the Tater Tot an unusual weapon type (e.g. a grenade) can behave a little differently than on you — its kit is tuned around standard guns.

Fire & Fixes 0.51 15 June 2026

Fire is here — boss fireballs now set you alight, burning you over 2 seconds after a hit. Dash through them to avoid it entirely.
On-fire and poisoned status icons now sit next to your health bar so you always know what's ticking you down.
You now flash orange while burning and green while poisoned.
Three new upgrades, each with a real trade-off: Glass Eye (crit chance, shorter range), War Profiteer (more damage, fewer coins) and Glory Hound (attack speed, less XP).
A new wave-start sting plays as the WAVE banner drops in, plus a crackling sound while you're on fire.

Cupcake's phase-3 fireball gauntlet is bigger and meaner — triple the fireballs, and larger ones.
Boss dodge phases now punch straight through your armor — your armor readout turns red to warn you while it's happening.
Reroll costs rebalanced: cheaper to start (3 coins) and they scale more gently as the waves climb.
Boss health now reads as clean abbreviated numbers (9.6M, 480K, 8.5K) instead of giant digit strings.
Predator Cells reworked into a unique pickup: a big hit to damage and attack speed, but enemies fire double projectiles.
Field Medic retuned for stronger sustain with a damage trade-off, so it no longer overlaps other healing items.

Fixed a crash during Cupcake's phase-3 fireball gauntlet that could exhaust the texture manager and bring down the game.

The buffed phase-3 fireball gauntlet is tuned aggressively — feedback welcome if it feels too punishing.

The Cupcake Update 0.5 14 June 2026

New boss — Cupcake: a three-phase demon-dog that chases you down, leap-slams, and summons packs of Demon Dogs, then locks the arena into a rolling-boulder gauntlet (with fireball lanes in the final phase) where it can't be touched.
New enemy — Demon Dog: fast melee hunters the Cupcake boss summons in waves.
New unique upgrade — Razor Heart: +45% damage, but you take 20% more damage.
New upgrade — Sharpshooter: +8% crit chance and +30% crit damage.
New upgrade — Predator Cells: +15% damage and +12% fire rate, at the cost of 20 max HP.
New upgrade — Field Medic: +2 HP/s regen and +20 max HP.
Wave intro: the arena dims and "WAVE X" sweeps into the centre at the start of every wave — enemies hold back until it finishes.
Boss HP readout added to the wave bar (current / max).
Brand-new PLAY button on the main menu.

Boss line-up reordered — you now face the Garlic Titan, then Cupcake, then the Demonic Lord.
Later bosses are far tankier (5× HP from the second boss onward).
Enemies get slightly faster every wave (up to +60%).
Reroll cost now compounds each time you reroll in a shop (and resets when you move on).
The shop always offers exactly two weapons, with the remaining slots as items — steadier builds and easier merges.
Bigger, longer boss-name intro banners.
The main-menu PLAY button now animates when you hover it.
Slimmer turnip projectile so it reads more clearly.

Fixed a crash during boss boulder gauntlets ("texture manager out of space").
Razor Heart's tooltip now correctly reads "+20% damage taken" (it previously showed "−20%").
Fixed the main-menu PLAY button rendering sideways and stretched.
Fixed the "WAVE" banner appearing on the left edge instead of the centre.

The Demonic Lord V0.45 13 June 2026

The Demonic Lord — a brand-new boss that alternates with the Garlic Titan, rising on every other boss wave (20, 40, 60…)
A three-phase fight: the Lord charges in, hurls fireball volleys, and summons demons before forcing you into its survival phases
Survival gauntlets that fill the arena with spike patterns and rain fireballs from every edge — including diagonal sweeps
No-heal seal — a red bubble surrounds you during the Lord's survival phases and blocks all healing until you outlast it

Wave 20 and beyond now rotates between two distinct bosses, each with its own moveset, for more variety on boss waves
The Lord's final phase layers fireballs that track your position over the spikes and edge-sweeps

The boss banner now shows the correct name and phase — the Demonic Lord no longer mislabels as "Garlic Titan"

The Demonic Lord's survival phases are deliberately invulnerable — your damage won't register until it drops back down

The Glow-Up Update 0.4 13 June 2026

A 3D MASH & SLASH logo now headlines the main menu — it floats in place and glows
A version tag on the menu, so you always know which build you're playing
The Minigun joins the SPECIAL tier — a rare, shop-only bullet-hose with the blue SPECIAL badge

The potato got a fresh redraw — cleaner idle, walk, and dash animations all around
Smoother sprite edges, no more rough cutouts on the character
The Railgun is held a touch smaller for a tidier look

You no longer turn invisible while standing still
The walk and dash animations no longer bleed into each other — no more flickering double-potato
Hot Potato now explains itself: explodes on enemies when you take a hit
Ricochet now reads clearly — bounced shots deal -35% damage (no more cryptic "bounce")
Panic Dash now says what it does — +40% dash distance below 30% HP

The Minigun is no longer a starting weapon — the starting lineup is now Pistol, Crossbow, Shotgun, and SMG

The Demons & Specials Update 0.3 12 June 2026

NEW WEAPON TIER — SPECIAL: ultra-rare weapons with unique mechanics, found only in the shop
Tesla Tuber (Special) — chain lightning that leaps between up to 5 enemies. Weak alone, devastating in a crowd
Railgun (Special) — slow, deafening, and pierces everything in a line. Lining up a horde never felt so good
Railgun firing animation, muzzle flash, screen kick and glowing tracer
The Demon — a high-HP guardian that crawls out of totems left standing too long
Demon roar attack — 3 red X marks appear, then floor spikes erupt for 50 damage and wall you in for 4 seconds
Wave types! Horde waves (60s, endless flood), Totem waves (45s, demon-infested), and varied 30/45s normal waves
Wave announcement banners so you know what's coming
Garlic Titan Phase 2 — acid ring on every slam landing, faster slams, bigger impact zone
Garlic Titan Phase 3 — lobbed acid balls that burst into more acid, plus a charging dash attack
Acid poison — getting splashed melts you for 10 damage per second over 3 seconds
The boss now flashes while invulnerable between phases
1 second of spawn protection at the start of every wave

Totems now take 3 dashes to destroy — they flash, rattle, and crack with each hit
Totems summon demons alongside imps the longer they survive
Weapons you already own appear more often in the shop, making merges easier to chase
Shop weapons climb in rarity as your run goes deeper — Legendary offers in the late game
Owning a Special weapon lets merge copies of it appear in the regular shop pool
Cleaner shop cards with coin icons on every price
Cleaner HP, level and dash bars with gradients and better contrast
Railgun hitbox now matches its size — no more bullets ghosting through enemies
Coins now drop from about 75% of kills, tightening the economy
Lucky Coin is now a UNIQUE item — one per run

Fixed dying instantly when leaving the shop after a brutal wave
Fixed the Railgun's shot being silent when firing alongside fast weapons
Fixed fast projectiles skipping over enemies between frames
Fixed totems failing to summon demons when the arena was full of imps
Fixed floor spikes rendering in the wrong position

The old single-dash totem kill — earn it now

Very low framerates can occasionally make dash hits on totems feel inconsistent

The Totem Update 0.2 9 June 2026

Summoning Totems — a new enemy from wave 15 that erupts out of the arena floor and keeps spawning Imps until it's destroyed
Totems can't be shot — dash through one to shatter it in a single hit, complete with an explosive break animation
Wave 15 tutorial banner introducing totems and how to destroy them
Leaderboard crowns — gold, silver, and bronze crowns float above the top three potatoes
Knockback system — landing hits now shoves enemies backward
New upgrade: Concussive Rounds (adds knockback)
New unique upgrade: Explosive Impact (your shots detonate)
New unique upgrade: Double Tap (fire an extra projectile)
Enemy shadows for better depth and readability
New potato-coin pickup art
New lava-rock arena floor
New main menu background

The arena is slightly larger now so it fills more of the screen
Darker arena floor for stronger contrast against enemies, coins, and effects
Tidied up the top-left HUD stat layout and spacing
Bigger, clearer coin pickups
Currency renamed from "Scrap" to "Coins" throughout the game

Double Tap now correctly registers as a unique upgrade (it could previously be picked up like a normal stacking item)
Totems now actually summon their Imps — the red warning circles used to appear but never spawn anything
Coin pickups no longer show a square glow box; they now have a soft round glow

The old gold-disc coin pickup (replaced with the new potato-coin art)

Major Update (June)0.1 8 June 2026

Garlic Titan boss — a three-phase brawl that crashes the party every 10th wave, with ground-pound stomps, summoned adds, and spore bursts.
Bomber — rushes you down and detonates, so don't let it get cozy.
Charger — winds up, locks on, and dashes in a dead-straight line. Step aside.
Dragon Fruit — a quick lancer that closes the gap in a hurry.
Armor system — stack armor from items to soak incoming hits (capped at 80%); some enemies armor up too, and armor-piercing rounds cut right through.
Ban Tokens — bank one from every boss and spend it on a shop card's BAN button to delete that item or weapon for the rest of your run.

Your potato now faces the way it's moving and aiming.
Reworked the ban flow into a one-tap per-card BAN pill instead of a separate menu.

Character Stats no longer overlaps the shop — opening it now cleanly takes over the whole screen.
Menus no longer leak the arena's edges or the in-game HUD around the sides of the screen.
Shop weapon locks no longer reset themselves when you reroll.

The old standalone "Ban Upgrade" menu — rolled into the per-card BAN buttons.

Audio's still being wired in — most sound effects aren't hooked up yet, so it's quiet for now.
The corner HUD (HP / scrap / level) is hidden while you're shopping — intentional for this build.