Dungeon Settlers Update v0.4.29: Build Rebalance, Growth Buff, and QoL Wave

v0.4.29 landed on October 10, 2026 — the first patch since the September balance line (v0.4.23 plus its next-day archer revert) and the Tokyo Game Show booth post, and the fifth post-launch patch overall. CanOpener frames its skill block as changes “made in response to reports that certain builds were unreasonably overpowered,” wrapped in a QoL wave that runs from auto-pickup weight limits to keyboard layouts.

What changed at the system level in v0.4.29?

Per the official notes:

• Barriers are capped — a unit’s total barriers can no longer exceed 200% of its maximum health
• Cooldown reduction applies to the global cooldown — the stat no longer only shortens individual skill cooldowns; it also shortens the global cooldown
• Weight-limit option for automatic item pickup — the default setting is “Until becoming Heavily Encumbered”
• Left-behind confirmation — when returning from a dungeon or moving to the next floor, if any surviving expedition member would be left behind, their names are displayed and extra confirmation is required
• Dungeon stay penalties fixed — stay duration no longer resets when moving between normal floors, saved runs restore their stay start and penalty stage, and a higher penalty stage clears the previous stage’s effects instead of stacking both
• Passive effects keep their progress — internal timers and progress states of certain passives are no longer reset when moving between the settlement and dungeons

Which skills and inscriptions did v0.4.29 rebalance?

The patch’s own framing: some of these changes answer reports of unreasonably overpowered builds.

• Storm Inscription — bonus damage now uses the correct attack stat for each damage type (it previously calculated from Physical Attack even for magic damage); duplicate-target handling and the maximum target count are fixed; the surrounding attack occurs around the original target’s position even if the triggering critical hit kills the target
• Burning and Bleeding Inscriptions — their critical-hit effects now apply to skill damage, not just basic attacks
• Wave Cycle — reduces remaining skill cooldowns by its specified rate (fixed); the reduction can trigger at most once per second; and it triggers when a barrier is granted even if the barrier value is already at the cap
• Become Fire — the Magic Attack increase now scales with the Burning stacks applied by the skill itself rather than the unit’s total stacks at cast, and the buff ends when all Burning stacks are removed from the unit
• Sword Counter — counterattacks only when defending against melee attacks (it previously also countered ranged attacks)
• Healing Touch — no longer heals only once when used while holding position, and can no longer target the caster or buildings
• Water Dive — newly generated Bubbling stacks now count toward Deep Sea stacks
• Strange Seeds — healing is calculated from each seed’s actual summoner (previously the last summoner’s stats overwrote the rest), the same seed can no longer germinate twice, and target validity is checked immediately before germination even during automatic casting
• Execution Inscription — can no longer select units of the player’s faction as execution targets; application, removal, and save/load handling improved

How did v0.4.29 change recruiting and growth?

• Higher attribute growth — per-level primary attribute growth for recruitment candidates moves from the “Normal” offering standard to the “Abundant” standard
• Higher minimums at upper talent grades — minimum growth values increase at higher talent grades; maximum values are unchanged
• Duplicate Training Inscriptions fixed — candidates can no longer receive Training Inscriptions for skill trees they already possess
• Attribute icons now appear on the recruitment screen

For how candidates, talents, and prices fit together, see the recruiting guide.

What else is in the QoL wave?

Condensed from the official notes:

• Combat and movement — allied units are properly informed of combat when monsters detect them first, enemy units overlap less when moving and attacking, ranged enemies keep their distance instead of closing to melee range, and monsters spawned by dungeon core activation initiate combat first
• Crafting, storage, and work — units vacate work positions after using beds, research stations, and play stations (not just storage and crafting), step aside when new walls block them mid-construction, and tasks no longer hang when the crafting option switches from “Craft Until Target Quantity” to “Craft Continuously”
• Food, sleep, and surgery — surgery tasks manage patients individually, and the missing-food notification now appears when all consumption is prohibited and no edible food is left
• Controls and display — keybinding settings can display QWERTY, German QWERTZ, French AZERTY, and Japanese JIS layouts, tooltip pinning gets a B-key alternative where Caps Lock misbehaves in Japanese input environments, and the cursor can be confined to the game screen in borderless windowed mode
• Saving and loading — with autosave disabled, automatic saves occupy a single slot instead of accumulating, and existing saves adopt updated portraits, hair, and skin colors — including a new Perion hairstyle
• Visual and audio — Gloth’s call animation and charge effects are in, greatsword and spear sounds are refined, four-digit status-effect stack counts no longer overlap adjacent UI, and elite battle music no longer plays on the settlement screen
• Text and fonts — corrections for Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese translations, expanded CJK glyph coverage, and a slimmer font layout that trims loading data

What does v0.4.29 mean for your builds?

The patch changes the math, and the community is still re-measuring it. Cooldown reduction touching the global cooldown makes the stat broader than it was; the 200% barrier cap narrows stacking strategies; and the Storm, Wave Cycle, and Become Fire reworks change how those pieces combine. CanOpener’s own wording — builds “unreasonably overpowered” — is the clearest official signal that the affected combinations had become dominant.

This wiki’s inscriptions guide covers the inscription system’s odds and reroll economy; the weapon tier list tracks weapon-tree balance, where the v0.4.23 bow cuts and spear buffs still stand.

Which planned items did v0.4.29 ship?

Two items from the roadmap’s planned-improvements queue moved:

• Gloth pre-cast animation — the call animation and charge visual effects shipped; the roadmap had asked for a pre-cast animation/delay for the Gloth summoning ability
• Weight threshold options — the roadmap’s hauling-weight-threshold request now has a sibling on the pickup side: the auto-pickup weight limit. The hauling-side threshold itself remains unshipped

See the known issues tracker for the full queue state.

Where to read the full notes?

The official patch notes live on the game’s Steam news feed — “[Update] v0.4.29”, October 10, 2026. This wiki’s Updates section tracks each patch as it lands; the next major milestone, Update 4, remains announced-only in its Q4 2026 window.

What to read next

• Inscriptions Guide — the system the rebalance touched
• Recruiting Guide — how the growth-standard change lands in the candidate market
• Known Issues & Fixes — which planned items shipped and which are still queued
• Update 4 Preview — the next milestone, still to come