The Deep Shells Update: no more wall at shell 10

Progress no longer stalls after ten hatches, golden eggs stop crowding out better ones, and you can refund your perks.

NoMan.exe

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A player's review put it plainly: after about ten hatches the eggs got tougher faster than you could keep up, and every shell took longer than the last. It also pointed out that Golden Genes filled the field with golden eggs worth less than the eggs they pushed out, with no way to take it back. Both were right. In a playtest from a fresh save, the old balance hit a wall at shell 10 after a couple of hours. This update takes the wall down.

No more wall

Ancestral Wrist and Warm Nest have no level cap any more. Each level costs a little more than the last, about what it cost before up to level 10.
Deep hatches pay more. From shell 4 on, a hatch pays extra feathers that grow 4× a shell, as fast as the eggs get tougher, so your perks keep up with the shells.

Run again with this update, the same playtest has no shell after the first longer than about a quarter of an hour, and from shell 12 on they fly by.

Golden eggs that pay

With Golden Hen Rumors and Golden Genes maxed, four eggs in five used to be golden, crowding out Eye and Void Eggs worth 4 and 30 times as much yolk. Now golden eggs only take the place of plain, brown and speckled eggs. Every other kind keeps its odds, so the golden upgrades always raise your yolk.

Refund your perks

The shop's Feathers tab has a new Refund perks button. It takes back every perk and returns every feather you spent on them, to spend again however you like. Old Friends take their chicks with them; your utensil stays.

Small things

In deep shells the hatch dialog says most of the feathers come from the shell's depth, so there's no point waiting.
Very large numbers now show as 1.23e45 past the last suffix.

Your save carries over as it is: the perks you have stay, and Ancestral Wrist and Warm Nest can now go past level 30.

Thanks for the review, and happy smashing.