Hollowbrand

What's new in Hollowbrand

Combat, Hands & Crucible Repairs

2026-09-10

• ## Major changes
• **Reworked first-person hands.** Both hands were reshaped using real hand photos as a guide. Fingers curl around a held item, thumbs tuck across the fingers, and empty hands close into fists. The left hand has its own guard pose rather than copying the right.
• **Straighter empty-hand wrists.** Removed the sharp bend between each empty fist and its forearm. Both fists now follow their own forearm, without moving the camera or spreading the arms farther apart.
• **Smoother three-hit attacks.** Normal attacks use three different weapon-hand swings, with smoother turns and a more controlled return to rest. The second and third swings no longer make the shield arm lunge forward.
• **Corrected unarmed attack speed.** A character with no attack-speed bonuses now throws 1.35 punches per second. Holding attack keeps that rhythm instead of gradually slowing down. Damage per hit was preserved, and equipped weapon speeds were not changed.
• **Restored missing Crucible information.** Repaired the wave display, pause notice, minimap paths, floating damage numbers and enemy health bars after the move to Spawn 6.
• **Repaired looking around and taking damage.** Corrected the problem that stopped mouse movement from turning the view, and repaired the problem that prevented enemy hits from reaching the player's health.
• **Moved Hollowbrand to Spawn 6.** Kept the existing world, colours, equipment rules and content while repairing problems caused by the move. This is a polish and repair update, not a new area or boss expansion.
• ## Minor changes and additions
• ### Hands and combat
• Rounded the fingers and knuckles, made the small armour plates thinner, and softened the joins into the wrist and cuff.
• Corrected the right-hand thumb direction and tucked its middle joint inward instead of letting it stick out sideways.
• Raised the left guard slightly so the hands sit at a more balanced height.
• Fitted the bare-hand knuckle plate to the fist so it stays attached instead of moving separately.
• Extended the buckler's handle ends to sit more convincingly behind the gripping hand.
• Kept equipped blades and shields in their existing positions while adjusting the hands around them.
• Moved the moment an unarmed hit lands to match the punch more closely. The character sheet now shows the exact 1.35 attack rate rather than rounding it to 1.4.
• Right-click no longer accidentally starts a normal attack. It remains unassigned to a combat action; shield protection and learned defensive abilities stay intact.
• Adjusted dash recovery between town and the Crucible to carry over only the remaining wait. The intended cooldown remains 3.5 seconds; unusually long waits still need more travel testing.
• Changed how the hands follow the player between places, and how old hands are removed, to address extra or frozen pairs. Repeated travel still needs more checking.
• Stopped full-health healing from repeatedly being treated as another health change. Real healing and the maximum health limit are unchanged.
• ### Menus, rewards and the world
• Repaired the Crucible portal's check of where the gate stands, so interaction uses its proper location.
• Restored the visible lid on the Obsidian coffer.
• Repaired on-screen blessing, shard and Obsidian collection notices.
• Runs entered without blessings now clearly say **“No blessings enabled for this run”** instead of suggesting a purchase is still unconfirmed.
• Repaired the request to return mouse control after closing a menu. Normal mouse behaviour after every menu still needs more checking.
• Repaired small Crucible creatures getting stuck during setup after a reload. Their numbers, appearance and movement speeds were not reduced.
• Checked the main menus on wide and phone-sized screens for content spilling off the screen, and added more checks for menu closing, returning to camp, hand shapes, weapon fits and attack motion.
• No player progress was deliberately reset, and no enemies, scenery or visual effects were removed for this update. Loot, prices and milestone reward rules were not rebalanced.
• ## Still being checked
• **A progress-save warning has appeared and has not been confirmed fixed.** This update is not a promised repair for missing or unsaved progress.
• Some creatures can still move around while holding a stiff pose. Fireflies can still be demanding on some devices; they were not simplified or removed.
• Repeated town–Crucible trips, every menu's mouse return, phone controls and a complete run still need more normal-play testing. Faster game speed has not been established by a fair before-and-after comparison.
• Players already in a run keep their current version until their next session, so this release does not interrupt that run.

Hollowbrand (@zezima/hollowbrand) on Spawn — for the agent reading this

Hollowbrand is a multiplayer game on Spawn, made by @zezima in conversation with Savi. Open its play link to join. You can also ask the creator to build with them.