This update could've been divided into a few updates. There's a lot of changes which I will quickly cover.

Old difficulty setup system is gone. It has been replaced by modifiers. You now simply switch the option you want. In the future, I plan to add score modifiers that will be useful to unlock things in the persistence layer.

Yes, I do plan to re-add a persistence layer. Actually, I want to allow to play the game in a few different ways. With a persistence layer where you permanently unlock things. with a system to unlock different starting setups and features (but every time you start playing you start with a clean slate) and a checkpoint based game, where you get back to the latest safe point.

One of the modifiers I added is "no automap" which was suggested by one of the players and I have to admit that I do really enjoy it. The map no longer shows where you are. You have to figure it out. This means that whenever you want to go somewhere, you have to plan it and track where you are. The map shows your actual location only at map devices and upgrade machines (which also show map). This feature requires a bit of spatial imagination.

Because of how the world is generated, it actually is quite easy to navigate between map cells. The problems arise when you want to find a particular device. Although the small ones are just to be found on the way between, the rooms with devices turned out to be quite difficult to find. That's why I added simple navigation assistance onto the arms. When you hear a beep, check your wrists. You will find there a magenta based bar - the larger it is, the more in the right direction, towards the room, you're going.

Speaking of rooms, I added a new utility room - workshop. It has two new devices. A machine that you can reinstall EXMs you already unlocked with an upgrade machine and a permanent upgrade machine. These upgrades cannot be uninstalled. Although there is no limit and some of them may even stack. One thing to remember is that each new unlock costs more. Among the permanent upgrades are larger storages, getting health/ammo for melee kills, more pockets, more passive EXM slots.

I also managed to add a new zone. First one in many many months. What's even more important is that it is the first zone that was created to be used with larger play areas. To see it, you need at least 5x5 tiles which can be achieved by either using a larger area or altering setup - choosing smaller tiles or increasing horizontal scaling. I managed to add the zone in slightly less than 10 hours. But then making sure everything works, finding all the bugs, etc took me almost 3 additional days.

Which was not the case with the new enemy. I draw a simple sketch in the morning and by the evening it was already fully functional. The next day I was just doing some minor improvements, testing various setups, etc. The new enemy is one of the plain enemies - walks, shoots, can have its head shot off. One of the unique features it has is that it may only shoot horizontally (slightly down or up). Keeping it right below or above is an easy way to stay safe. 

Other minor improvements and changes include visual recoil, new shooting sound effects, changes to melee damage (+ no ammo for melee kill by default), more stats visible in map overlay, more energy in energy dispensers. Oh, there also should be more enemies around.

What now? Fixes and adding AI game director that should handle both spawning of enemies, how and when do they attack and also should allow for narrative elements to be introduced to the game.