Delve Choices Explained, Thesis Takes Time & Hosting Balance
26 October 2026
Delves now show exactly what your encounter choices bought and what they cost, right where the numbers change, and every delve ends with a recap of the choices you made. This one came out of a delve of my own: I paid two tolls on the way down and then couldn't tell from any screen what I had bought, or whether any of it had shortened my injuries. Along the way I fixed the haul preview so it matches what the floor actually pays, and an encounter that sometimes failed to appear if you left the delve window open.
Thesis now takes time. Studying used to be instant, so a scholar could work through the whole Journal in one sitting and bank every fragment at once, which was never the intention. Your envoy now spends a while on each fragment, longer for rarer ones, and you claim the Cultural Influence from that fragment's page in the Journal, or The Steward claims it for you.
Keeping an envoy at home is worth more too: Warm Reception now multiplies your envoy's Grand Host share as well as the city's, and your envoy can check into your own Hotel and rest fully there. School Donor pays far more, and Seasoned Trekker now counts the lore your envoy finds.
The guided start for new players is smoother too, especially on phones: it points you at the right building at each step, brings you back to your list after each build, and carries on through your second collection.
Delving: see what your choices bought
On the Continue prompt and the encounter's outcome rows, an outcome a choice ruled out stays in the list at 0% with "Can't happen this run" ("Can't happen" on a phone), and a severe injury a choice turned into a moderate one reads "Counts as moderate". A chance a choice raised or lowered turns red or green. Minor Injury shows this run's own recovery, for example "1.5h recovery" after a choice halved it, where it always said 3h. The Possible Haul is marked when a choice multiplies it, for example "×2 from your floor 7 choice", and a floor a choice made longer shows its time in red. Each of these opens a card with the floor, the choice you took and the toll you paid.
It appears after the rewards table on every end screen (a severe or moderate injury, a dead end, or Return) whenever the run made a choice, free ones included, and it is there again when you reopen a finished delve. A benefit the run never received is greyed with the reason, such as "Not earned: floor 7 was not cleared" or "Ended before it was used". Delves finished before this update have no recap.
Gameplay & Balance
Nerf
UNLOCKS: Your envoy studies a lore fragment from your journal. Studying takes 20 minutes for a Common up to 2 hours for a Legendary, and pays Cultural Influence by rarity when complete, from 100 for a Common up to 500 for a Legendary. Studying does not use up the fragment, and each fragment can be studied once.
WasUNLOCKS: Your envoy studies a lore fragment from your journal for Cultural Influence based on its rarity, from 100 for a Common up to 500 for a Legendary. Studying does not use up the fragment, and each fragment can be studied once.NowUNLOCKS: Your envoy studies a lore fragment from your journal. Studying takes 20 minutes for a Common up to 2 hours for a Legendary, and pays Cultural Influence by rarity when complete, from 100 for a Common up to 500 for a Legendary. Studying does not use up the fragment, and each fragment can be studied once.Studying was instant, so the whole Journal could be studied in one sitting. It now takes 20, 40, 60, 80 or 120 minutes from Common to Legendary. Your envoy must be idle to start, wherever they are; being in residence, recovering from an injury or nurturing an investment does not count as busy. A study cannot be abandoned, and while it runs your envoy cannot travel, explore, delve, learn or take on any other activity, though you can invest with them or start a residency. The Thesis card in the Journal greys out busy envoys with the reason, and shows a running study with a progress bar and the time left. When it finishes your envoy reads "Study Complete" until you claim it on the fragment's page in the Journal. The map menu offers Thesis, which opens the Journal, and Complete Studying, which opens the fragment. The Steward claims finished studies for you and lists them in his report. Merging away the city of an envoy who is studying cancels the study without paying it.
Buff
While your envoy is stationed at your own city, your city earns 1.5x / 2x its usual share of every visitor who arrives there. If your envoy holds Grand Host, their Grand Host share is multiplied the same.
WasWhile your envoy is stationed at your own city, you earn 1.5x / 2x the usual host's share of every visitor who arrives there.NowWhile your envoy is stationed at your own city, your city earns 1.5x / 2x its usual share of every visitor who arrives there. If your envoy holds Grand Host, their Grand Host share is multiplied the same.An envoy kept at home should be worth keeping there. With rank 2 of both skills, your envoy earns the whole of each visitor's arrival Cultural Influence. Warm Reception on its own pays your envoy nothing. Grand Host's card now ends "Warm Reception multiplies your envoy's share.", and your envoy's standing effects quote the multiplied rate.
Buff
UNLOCKS: Your envoy earns more Cultural Influence for learning skills or attending a lecture at a player's School they invest in: +75% / +150% / +225% by tier. From tier 2, their lessons and lectures there are also 15% / 30% shorter.
WasUNLOCKS: Your envoy earns more Cultural Influence for learning skills or attending a lecture at a player's School they invest in: +25% / +50% / +75% by tier. From tier 2, their lessons and lectures there are also 15% / 30% shorter.NowUNLOCKS: Your envoy earns more Cultural Influence for learning skills or attending a lecture at a player's School they invest in: +75% / +150% / +225% by tier. From tier 2, their lessons and lectures there are also 15% / 30% shorter.Buff
Your envoy earns more Cultural Influence from exploring with experience: +0.5% / +0.75% / +1% per exploration by rank, counting the first 40 they ever make, so a seasoned envoy is permanently at +20% / +30% / +40%.
WasApplied to the exploration's base Cultural Influence only, which is 0 on a lore, ruin or wonder findNowApplied to everything the exploration earns: the base and every lore award, Legacy Explorer's bonus fragment included, before Verdant Blessing and Keen Expedition double the totalOn a lore find the bonus added almost nothing. The card says it applies to exploring, so it now applies to all of it.
Buff
WasThe empire benefit does not stack; a second Foundation city adds only its own -10%.NowThe empire benefit does not stack; a second Foundation city adds its own -10% and gives the first one the -50%.A Foundation city never takes the -50% from itself, only from another Foundation city. The upgrade costs, the discount card and the empire totals all follow the new rule.
Buff
WasA stay at your own Hotel stopped at RestedNowA stay at your own Hotel reaches the Hotel's highest rest tierA stay at your own Hotel earns no Cultural Influence, and that is cost enough.
Your city's Hotel lists your own envoy with an "At Home" badge while they are on your city's tile. Checking in does not move them, so Grand Host and Warm Reception go on paying for the whole stay.
Withdrawing is confirmed first: the stake stops paying, nothing is refunded, and your envoy is free to travel unless another sponsorship still holds them. The invest confirm restates the city's Town Hall level and city score. Neither is shown to an envoy holding Absentee Patron, who is never held at the city.
Interface
It counts Grand Host at your city and Renowned Hospitality from Hotel stays, names the sources in one line, and shows your envoy's level and Cultural Influence gained on a light level card, with Cultural Influence in blue. Grand Host is no longer listed among the city's own festival income, since it is paid to your envoy.
The stacking rule line is left off when the chips already say it. On a phone the card is laid out as a grid, with the flavour text and bonus lines across the full width.
Upgrades, collections, diamond finds and lore finds each have their own art, and an envoy's action shows in that envoy's skin. Trade Skimming names both the city that was collecting and the city the resources landed in, where it said "your home city". A tip names its feature as a link to its shop card. Errors, warnings and tips keep their glyph.
- improved: Decoding at the Wound: the result now opens with a large SUCCESS or FAILED, and a failure names the envoy who had to stop to rest
- improved: School Ties: the learning success screen now offers Complete Trade Route
They read as "Someone you invited" or "Another player". The diamond recap reads, for example, "2 diamonds came out of your extractors" where it said "1 diamond find" over "+2".
On a phone the unread dot and time sit under the title, so it has the full width. A change log message stays open after it is marked read, until you choose Show less.
- improved: City page: a building you have not built yet now shows its Build button right under its header
Achievements earned before Town Hall 3 arrive together as one "You've earned N achievements" toast when it is reached, and there is no "While you were away" for a player who never left. The Goals walkthrough always ends by pointing back to the city and says whether the Sawmill is ready, then the envoy goal is explained. The Master Builder tip waits for Town Hall 3, nameplates are explained only once you own one, and the new-player tutorials never show to a player at Town Hall 3 or above.
- improved: Profile: the unsaved changes notice now sits directly above the Nameplate Style title
Fixes
- With the delve window left open, the encounter on an encounter floor sometimes failed to appear and Continue was refused with "a choice is required"; each floor now asks for its own encounter
After a choice that doubles resources, the prompt showed the floor's plain figures beside a "×2" mark, and the floor then paid double.
Resting at the niche, for example, makes that floor take 25% longer, and the estimate now says so. The odds are labelled with the floor being resumed, not the one after it.
- An Intuitive Spelunker retry crashed the delve panel; your envoy now carries on from the mark, and the event says they found another way through
Greeting, whose card says "at other players' cities", no longer pays at any of your own cities.
- An envoy held by a City Sponsorship read as "Visiting" beside a greyed Travel, and counted on the nav badge as waiting on you; they now read "Nurturing Investment"
The Invest screen also stopped counting expired investors, and an expired stake no longer blocks a starter plot from being reclaimed.
The stay's breakdown says when a stake covered only part of it, for example "Hotel Patron, tier 1 (26h of 67h)".
- Checking in at your own Hotel showed a visitor's per-hour Cultural Influence rate and its breakdown under the line saying the stay earns none; the confirm and the stay cards now read 0 / hr with no breakdown
- Completing a lesson at a School sometimes skipped the Skills Learned screen, and the screen showed an estimate; it now always appears, with the Cultural Influence credited, the School city's share, the ranks taught and the points spent
- A Mentor city got no collection bonus from your other Mentor cities, though its card said it did; it now takes +5% from each of them on top of its own -15%
- A Foundation, Cradle, Mentor or Teaching city that was merged away, or a reclaimed starter plot, kept giving its empire-wide bonus; these bonuses now count only the cities you hold
- The Market told an envoy with a Market investment at a foreign Market that they were not trading there; Silent Partners now trade through the Market they funded
