Radical Fish Games has outlined several changes coming to Alabaster Dawn’s Somu’s Dream mode following player feedback, including the removal of its damage penalty, another explorable layer, additional Blessings, and more bosses.
Somu’s Dream runs are intentionally divided into relatively small layers because the mode will continue growing alongside progression through the main game. Areas cleared during the story can later appear within the dream. Update 0.2 will add the swamp as a fourth layer, while considerably more layers are planned for the future.
The Blessing pool is also getting more content. Some additions will strengthen particular Enchantments to support more specialized builds, while others introduce risk-and-reward effects. One example is Shard o’ Maniac, which sacrifices some strength in exchange for increased Shard gains. Blessings tied to the upcoming Cryo Aspect are also planned, alongside previously omitted Physis and Aether options.
There are currently no plans to reduce perk prices. The studio expects the upcoming changes to speed up progression and eventually intends to tie perk availability to main-story progress. During Early Access, however, all perks will remain accessible from the beginning. One new perk in the next update will let players select a free Blessing when starting a dive.
Boss variety will increase as well, with more bosses appearing in the appropriate areas. A separate Nightmare Mode is planned for a later update. Inspired by configurable challenge systems found in games such as Hades, Nightmare Mode will let players increase the difficulty of a dive in exchange for better Shard exchange rates. The team is also developing a Somu’s Dream menu containing high scores, run history, faster perk toggling, and other information.
One of the largest immediate changes concerns the damage penalty. Player feedback indicated that losing a significant portion of a run’s payout from taking damage discouraged pushing into deeper layers, particularly when combined with the additional penalty for dying. The team has decided to remove the damage penalty entirely in the next update. Flawless combat encounters will instead provide a bonus for clearing them without taking damage.
A later update will further rework the bonus system so rewards scale according to depth. Clearing later layers and completing objectives such as flawless runs will provide progressively larger bonuses, while more difficult bosses are also planned to award additional Shards. The results interface will eventually show bonuses earned on individual floors, along with statistics such as enemies defeated and total damage dealt.
Alabaster Dawn is available on PC via Steam Early Access.
