FULL MlNECRAFT ALCHEMIST

**Initial public beta** for Minecraft 1.21.1 (Fabric). Feature-complete first release — expect rough edges as balance and sync settle.

## Races
- Three playable races on first join: **Human**, **Alchemist**, **Ishvalan**.
- Human: balanced stat bonuses, +50% alchemy XP, must touch the Truth to learn alchemy.
- Alchemist: starts with school selection; no Truth gate; 25% shorter cooldowns; resource-conservation procs on abilities, transmutation, and synthesis.
- Ishvalan: +6 hearts, +10% attack, "Life for Strength" berserker scaling at low HP.

## Five schools of alchemy
- **Flame** — Snap, Combustion Burst, Comet Leap, Breath, Wall, Signal Flare, Oxygen Lance, Searing Field capstone. Flame alchemists are innately fire-resistant.
- **Metal** — Spike Surge, Wall Forge, Hardened Blade, Iron Skin, Grapple, Bullet Storm, Repair Armor, Crater capstone. Carried iron is consumed by casts and worn as Ironclad armor.
- **Earth** — Stone Fist, Pillar Uplift, Quake Step, Stone Skin, Burrow, Boulder Throw, Seismic Sense, Wall Garden capstone.
- **Deconstruction** — Unmake Block, Entropy Bolt, Repair Alchemy, Disarm, Phase Step, Dust to Dust, Minor Repair, Unmaking Wave capstone.
- **Explosion** — Fingertip, Shock Wave, Landmine, Mortar, Chain Reaction, Napalm, Blast Jump, Kaboom capstone. Tuned not to crater terrain.

## Leveling and progression
- Levels 1–100 with a quadratic XP curve calibrated for ~7–8 hours of focused play.
- Mob-strength-scaled XP: rewards proportional to victim max health, capped at 10× base for boss-tier mobs.
- **+1 permanent heart every 5 alchemy levels** (30 hearts at level 100), persists across death, stacks with race bonuses.
- School abilities evenly spaced across the ladder; each school's capstone unlocks at level 100.

## Body Loss and Automail
- Failed transmutations and overreach can cost limbs.
- **Automail Engineer's Bench** for fabrication.
- Three tiers: **Iron**, **Steel**, **Carbon Fiber**, with stronger stat trade-offs per tier.

## The Philosopher's Stone path
- **Philosopher's Stone** with charges, fed by **Soul Crystals** that absorb the souls of nearby kills.
- A charged stone bypasses Equivalent Exchange and empowers ability casts.
- Die while holding a charged stone and you don't die — you become a **Homunculus**.

## Homunculus and Sin powers
- Seven Sin powers, one per Sin: **Envy** (Disguise), **Lust** (Finger Spear), **Greed** (passive resource-conservation), **Pride** (Shadow Lash), **Sloth** (Quake), **Gluttony** (Devour), **Wrath** (Riposte, level-100 capstone).
- Sin selection happens once after the conversion.
- Sin powers gate behind alchemy levels (1 / 15 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 85 / 100) — the homunculus still has to earn its way up.

## Vessel Binding, Chimeras, and lore
- **Vessel Binding Altar** to bind a **Soul-Bound Ally** that follows and fights for you.
- Chalk-circle **Chimera fusion** of two creatures.
- **Theory of Alchemy** lore book with progressively unlocking pages.

## Loadout and combat
- 9-slot loadout editor (default `B` to open).
- B-toggled hotbar overlay, number-key casting.
- Live cooldown timers and ability-cost display in the editor.
- Loadout, levels, XP, race, school, and ability unlocks all survive death.

## World content
- **Wasteland biome** with a Military Checkpoint structure and Lust's lab.
- **Ishvalin Desert biome**.
- Mobs: Amestrian Soldier, Ishvalin, all seven homunculi (Lust, Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath), Father, and Chimeras.
- All custom mobs animated with GeckoLib.

## Known limitations
- Four sin ability icons (Gluttony Devour, Pride Shadow Lash, Sloth Quake, Wrath Riposte) ship as visually-clean placeholders cribbed from related ability art; real art is planned for a follow-up patch.
- This is a beta — balance numbers may shift in the next few patches based on feedback.