Aggro Meter — A visible red meter displayed above each boss replaces the previous instant-pull system. The meter fills from two sources: proximity (being in the boss's vision cone) and attacks (each hit from any source). The meter drains slowly when the boss has no targets in sight and no attacks are landing. Bosses enter three escalating states based on fill level.
v1.0.2 — Aggro Meter & Balance Pass
Made the Bay Harbour Butcher survivable for the first time.
Four days after launch, the community had identified two main friction points: accidentally pulling bosses by walking too close, and the Bay Harbour Butcher being tuned so punishingly that a significant portion of players couldn't progress. v1.0.2 addressed both — the aggro meter replaced instant boss pulls with a graduated system, and the Butcher received its first meaningful damage reduction.
🧙 Developer Note — Cakez
"It's very tedious to pull the boss just because you accidentally hit him. Or to get nuked because you walk around with Tangy. As a solution, I added an aggro meter that fills with vision and every attack. The aggro reduces slowly over time if no target is in sight. In addition to those changes, I have further done minor tweaks to the spawn patterns, as well as some changes to boss damage and enemy health."
Steam Community post · March 13, 2026
New Mechanic
Boss Aggro Meter
1 mechanic
ADD
0–33%
Low Aggro
Boss turns to track. No movement. Safe to approach briefly. Meter drains if you back away.
33–66%
Moderate Aggro
Boss begins pursuing. Slow movement toward the aggro source. Retreat is possible.
66–100%
Full Aggro
Boss fully engaged. Normal movement and attack speed. Fight begins in earnest.
🔮 Build Impact
Eliminates accidental boss pulls during wave clearing — previously the primary cause of failed Bay Harbour Butcher attempts. Players now have genuine setup time between killing the last wave enemy and intentionally pulling the boss. Pre-fight positioning is viable for the first time: you can place your Archer and Healer in their correct positions, verify the Defender is at the chokepoint entrance, and then deliberately approach to begin the fight. See the full Bay Harbour Butcher guide for the new pre-pull checklist.
The aggro meter applies to all bosses, not just the Bay Harbour Butcher. On later bosses where pre-fight positioning is even more critical (the Hollow King's phase-specific safe zones, the Final Witch's movement pattern), the aggro meter provides the same deliberate setup window.
Bug Fixes
Bug Fixes
2 fixes
FIX
Shield Orb infinite exploit — Patched an interaction where the Shield Orb, under specific conditions involving simultaneous hits from two damage sources in the same frame, could enter a state of near-permanent activation — providing continuous damage absorption rather than its intended periodic proc. The Shield Orb now correctly enforces its cooldown in all conditions including simultaneous-hit edge cases. Runs that relied on this exploit will see increased Defender damage taken. The Defender is still sustainable with the Healing Circle setup.
FIX
Bay Harbour Butcher catapult spawn timing — Catapults were occasionally spawning before the boss reached the intended 65% HP threshold, creating situations where players were managing both boss damage and catapult fire simultaneously at a point the game didn't intend. Fixed to consistently trigger catapult spawns at exactly 65% boss HP. This change, combined with the damage reduction in the balance section below, makes Phase 2 management significantly more tractable.
Balance Changes
Balance Changes
3 changes
NERF
Bay Harbour Butcher damage reduced approximately 15% — Applied to all attack types: Heavy Swing, Charge, and Spike Attack. The Butcher was dealing disproportionate damage relative to the party HP available at the point players reach the fight on a typical first playthrough. Additionally, the Spike Attack wind-up animation was extended, providing a larger reaction window to move non-Defender towers out of cardinal directions. This change, combined with the catapult fix, made the fight consistently survivable for the first time.
NERF
Bay Harbour Wave 5 and Wave 6 HP reduced — The two enemy waves immediately before the boss fight received HP reductions across the enemy units. Intent: players arrive at the boss fight with more HP remaining and more items on their party than they did before this patch. No specific percentage disclosed.
CHANGE
Spawn pattern adjustments — Several waves across multiple maps received spawn timing tweaks. Focus on reducing "spike" moments where an unusually large group spawns simultaneously in a narrow window. Cakez noted no specific values, just "minor tweaks." Community testing has not isolated specific changed maps.
🔮 Build Impact
The Bay Harbour Butcher is now consistently survivable without a perfect build. The Fortress Defender with Healing Circle support now sustains through Phase 3 without the Spike Attack one-shotting the Archer. The extended Spike Attack wind-up provides enough time to reposition non-Defender towers to the diagonal safe zones (NE, NW, SE, SW from the boss). Strategy has not fundamentally changed — the fight is the same fight, just with numbers that allow a thoughtful player to win.
Context on the Bay Harbour Butcher
The Butcher was the primary reason many players refunded the game in the first two days. The combination of instant boss pull, catapults surviving the boss kill (fixed in v1.0.1), and damage values tuned for expert play created a wall most new players could not pass. v1.0.1 fixed the catapult issue. v1.0.2 fixed the damage and added the aggro meter. The fight as it exists now — post-patch — is moderately hard. All strategy on this site assumes v1.0.2+ behaviour. See the Bay Harbour Butcher guide.
Quality of Life
Quality of Life
1 change
ADD
Manual Level-Up Control (preview) — An early version of manual level-up control was added in this patch. The full, polished implementation shipped in v1.0.3 with the QoL overhaul. This version allowed skill point allocation deferral but without the Settings toggle — behaviour was enabled globally for all players rather than as an opt-in.