- Spell effects fully overhauled (Mage). Custom glowing particles (flames, embers, smoke, ice shards, snow, runes, shadow tendrils, lightning), ground shockwaves, actual lightning strikes, and screen shake during heavy impacts.

  - Fireball / Frost Bolt / Lightning Bolt — glowing core with custom trail and impact per element.

  - Shadow Nova / Frost Nova — darkness or snow is drawn toward you, followed by a slam on the ground with a shockwave (Frost Nova shoots ice spikes out of the ground).

  - Meteor — warning circle, after which a burning meteor falls from the sky with a massive explosion.

  - Chain Lightning — branching lightning that leaps from enemy to enemy.

  - Hex, Blink, Frost Armor, Arcane Surge — each with its own unique effect (runic circles, streak of light, crystallizing ice).

- Cast animations — your character actually casts spells: arm forward, pushing hands, arms raised and slamming down, pointing, summoning meteor. Visible in both first and third person.

- Dungeon: Gloomhol — underground goblin dungeon featuring barracks, a trap-filled treasure room, a hidden Dungeon Key, and a locked throne room.

- Boss: Grubnak the Goblin King — three-phase fight (jump + shockwave, goblin summons + bombs, frenzy with ring of fire). Scales in strength with additional players; drops a loot chest and a guaranteed Epic item.

- Party system (press Y) — up to 5 players, invite system, leader settings (friendly fire, XP sharing, quest sharing, invite permissions), HUD party frames, `/party` and `/pc` for party chat.

- Companions (mercenaries) — hire a Warrior, Cleric, or Ranger from the innkeeper or town crier. They follow you, fight alongside you, level up with you, and can be instructed to wait or be dismissed.

- Damage numbers and hitmarkers — floating numbers with animations (color-coded by element, gold for crits, kills marked with ☠) and a hitmarker around the crosshair.

- Discord button in the main menu (replacing Realms) and custom Aetheria splash texts.

- Meteor now hits only when the meteor actually touches the ground (over a second after casting) — giving enemies time to run away.

- Shadow Nova and Frost Nova trigger their effects the exact moment the slam animation hits the ground.

- Shadow Nova now knocks enemies slightly upward and further away.

- All screens redesigned in the Aetheria style: Character Sheet (with 3D model), Quest Journal, Spellbook, Skill Tree, Stable, Bounty Board, dialogues, lockpicking, lore pages, Alchemical Workbench, and the Party screen.

- New HUD: health/mana/stamina panel with level badge, XP bar, and "+XP" notifications; cleaner quest tracker, skillbar, and target frame.

- Aetheria-style Boss bars (for all bosses, including the Wither and Ender Dragon), featuring health percentage and damage afterglow.

- Title screen and pause menu themed with the AETHERIA logo; all buttons, sliders, and text fields in the game restyled.

- Enemy spell projectiles (Coven, Hexmother, wisps) and the elemental staff also utilize the new effects.

- Dialogue options with long text are now stacked vertically instead of being truncated.

- Warrior, Ranger, and Paladin skills temporarily use the new particles (dedicated effects will follow in a future update).

- Towns no longer generate on top of the starter town.

- Custom NPC voice lines (guards and male voices) were not playing.

- "Got any work for me?" stopped responding (caused by swapping JAR files while the server was running).