But first off, development is now confirmed to be moved over to 2.55. Even though I've barely touched the mass of new features, the ones I've been using have made the newest content far more interesting than it could have been. Let's just say you'll want to use that double damage Lightning weakness in some areas.
At the moment, the quest was made in 2.55 Alpha 47, but also tested in Alpha 48. Should you use a later version, be sure to mention it if anything strange comes up.
So the EXP Challenge is still going, as there have been no screenshots of Max Level times posted. That said, the Leveling system is a bit more finalized now. Level cap is 45, with more levels in every stat. There are no Life, Magic, or Armor increases to find, as you get all of those from leveling. I've removed the duplicate "8th Weapon Skill" from leveling Skill, and instead added some other small bonuses to obtain. You can get a rate of fire increase for all weapons, critical hits for all weapons (weapons with crits built in are basically rolling for two damage bonuses), and a Class Bonus based on the character's Weapon of Choice - Melee, Ranged, or Magical. These give a small bonus related to what the class makes use of.
Anyway, this means the new challenge is to reach Level 45 as quickly as possible and post a screenshot of your in-quest time. There are still options to try other rates of Exp Curves, though the default is probably gonna be the one refined into the final version.
There are now 200 different weapons to find. With the new areas, you can check 300 item locations (312 if Item Rando is on).
Bosses are starting to get some refinement. Just like the player character, they too fall into Melee, Ranged, and Magical. This adjusts their HP, Damage, and Rate of Fire, and fully scale based on their Level. Boss Levels are increased by difficulty. They also have different attacks based on their type, with plans to add more attacks later on. This does mean their current difficulty will change as new attacks get added, and I have plans for the second boss set to use a larger attack library.
Going forward, I'm gonna be starting on Late Game Underworld areas with higher leveled bosses and an exit intended to connect to Late Game Overworlds. These will have a different flow than the current Late Game Underworld areas as a result. I have a few more Mid Game Overworlds left to add, then the Late Game Overworlds will be created. These Overworlds are where I plan to put a couple of important Passive Abilities that are currently in placeholder locations after the later bosses. And of course, connections to the final area.
I'm still full of ideas for more Weapons, but suggestions for some are always welcome. At some point I'll need to come up with another several hundred item locations for all of them to reach maximum level, but... I'll get to that at some point.