Hi, crawlers! It’s been a few weeks, so here’s the latest changes from trunk:

New timed portal vault: the Desolation of Salt. Entrances appear in Elf and Vaults. (It’s guaranteed to appear in the current trunk, more or less, but that’s just for testing purposes; it’ll become less common shortly.) Features an open layout filled with huge, blinding saltstorms, and ancient, treasure-filled ruins. New monster: saltling, a small golem roughly similar to orc warriors. New monster: peacekeeper, a mechanical beast with Battlecry (affecting other golems) and manticore barbs. New monster: servant of whispers, casting Lightning Bolt and Still Winds, a new effect which temporarily disables all clouds. New monster: ragged hierophant, casting Injury Bond and Resonance Strike, a smite-targeted damage effect that becomes more powerful for every golem next to the target. New monster: imperial myrmidon, a fast, tough melee enemy with a variety of hexes and the ability to halve magic resistance on melee hits. New monster: halazid warlock, a lich with a variety of powerful spells, including Ghostly Sacrifice, which turns an ally into a devastating explosion of negative energy. …and various other guest monsters from other branches, including molten gargoyles and crystal guardians. Tiles by the indomitable CanOfWorms!

Monsters: Sheep have been replaced with dream sheep, a new pack monster that, when present in large numbers, can put enemies to sleep. Anubis guards have been merged into ushabti. The latter get anubis guards’ warning cry and dispel undead. Battlecry has been simplified; instead of working differently for every monster that casts it, it always and only affects all allies of the same genus. (So orcs can might other orcs, angels can might other angels, etc.) This means that orc knights can now might warlords. Iron giants are back to speed 10 (from 8), but have had their other stats reduced somewhat. Snorg goes berserk less often, but can berserk from full health. Giant eyeballs now cast Paralysis Gaze in only two tries, instead of three. Instead of sixfirhies being tier 4 demons and chaos spawn being tier 3, the opposite is now true. Monster descriptions have been revised and improved; thanks, MarvinPA!

Clarity now gives immunity to sleep.

Gozag and exploration gods should now work better in sprints; their gold and piety (respectively) have been multiplied, as with other gods.

Beogh no longer enhances worshippers’ armour or shield bonuses.

The regeneration mutation’s strength has been doubled, matching most other sources of regeneration (e.g. artefacts). Vine Stalkers now gain regen at XL 4 and 12, instead of 1, 6 and 12.

Cure mutation is slightly rarer, though still more common than it was prior to rMut removal.

Temporary mutations only have a 50% chance of causing statrot for undead.

All temporary allies, including but no longer limited to summons, are unable to attack out of your LOS.

Crawl’s secret “monster stealth” mechanics have been removed; all monsters now have the same chance for their location to be guessed at while invisible.

Friendly detected monsters (for e.g. Jiyva) no longer interrupt resting.

Right clicking on the webtiles minimap should work properly again.

Very long-running bug, finally fixed: low-HP monsters will no longer fireball themselves to death or banish their allies. (This also fixed the “Hep allies will confuse the player” bug.)

Grate traps should no longer instantly obliterate poorly-placed items.

Eustachio the Eustachio Skeleton will no longer appear in anyone’s game.

Happy crawling!