- Danger Tiers — a whole new difficulty ladder. Pick your challenge from Danger 0 up to Danger 5 on the character screen; every step up makes enemies tougher, faster, hit harder, and swarm in greater numbers — and pays out more materials and Mastery XP to match.
- Clear wave 20 on your current tier to unlock the next one, and keep climbing toward the ultimate run.
- Every Danger tier now has its own leaderboard — flip between them right on the leaderboard screen — so a deep run on Danger 5 stands on its own, apart from Danger 0.
- Mastery ranks finally reward you: each rank you earn gives every future run a permanent head start, with bonus max HP, damage, and starting materials that grow the higher you climb.
- Eight new starting weapons unlock as Mastery milestones, one for each rank from Fighter up to Mythic — the Blade, Sniper, Grenade, Tesla, Minigun, Laser, Railgun, and Scythe.
- A brand-new blood-splatter effect bursts and settles into a pool wherever an enemy falls.
- Hit-stop — the action freezes for a split second on kills and crits, so every blow lands with real weight.
- Enemies now flash bright white the moment they take a hit.
- Every leaderboard entry shows that player's Mastery rank badge right next to their name.
- Choosing your starting weapon is now a tidy dropdown instead of a long row of chips stretched across the screen.
- Power Diverter, Riot Shield, and Cast-Iron Pan each have a distinct trade-off now, so they no longer feel like copies of other upgrades.
- Reduced Effects now also switches off the new blood splatter and hit-stop, alongside the screen shake, for a calmer, smoother run.
- The in-run weapon hotbar sits a little higher for a cleaner view of the arena.
- The Lemon Shotgunner's projectile is smaller and easier to read.
- Cheated and flagged scores can now be properly cleaned off the leaderboards, so the boards stay honest.
- The Lemon Shotgunner's projectile no longer trails red behind it.
- urst 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).