The next Darkest Dungeon update is available on Steam, and it brings with it a unique, loot-oriented class and some small but significant changes meant to mitigate late-game grind.

The new class, the Antiquarian, plays on Darkest Dungeon's existing risk/reward trade-offs, sacrificing almost all of her fighting strength for the opportunity to haul more treasure back to your estate. "The Antiquarian is an under-powered combat class, but very useful in camping and also for driving up profitability of a quest," Red Hook's Tyler Sigman told me via email. The Antiquarian also "has a chance to draw antiques of various value from every combat and treasure curio. These antiques get sold like gems at the end of the quest for a tidy sum," says Sigman. "She does have some useful self-preservation skills as well as some skills that pair very well with blighting classes and some general team buffs as well."

I love the idea of a class that lets me roll the dice with a weaker party for a chance at more treasure—it feeds nicely into existing mechanics like the torch, which you can dim to increase your probability for big loot at the cost of endangering your party. I'm looking forward to seeing an expert player attempt an all-Antiquarian run. If you want a gander at her skills, a commenter on Reddit pointed to this cobbled-together image of her abilities and stats:

via /r/darkestdungeon

via /r/darkestdungeon

Just as welcome, though, are the metagame changes made in this update. Higher-level heroes can now be recruited from the Stagecoach (which gets a corresponding new upgrade tree), so you won't have to level everyone you add to your party from the ground up. Heirlooms, the resources needed to upgrade your town, can now be traded within the town at a cost, and the rewarded heirloom is no longer locked to a specific region, which should encourage you to fight in different zones more often. Likewise, the heirloom cost of some town upgrades has been reduced or increased—check the Darkest Dungeon blog for the full rundown.

Take note: Red Hook is releasing the update in beta form today so it can gather a bit more feedback before finalizing the update. Red Hook assures on Twitter that your save file won't be harmed or deleted by switching to the beta.

Here's how to grab the update: