0.3.0 (alpha) - 2026-08-13

The swords stop being interchangeable. All fifteen have their own technique, and Bankai is now something you fight for.

Every sword plays differently

Hold right-click in a released form to charge, release to fire. It works like a bow — a longer draw hits harder, a tap does nothing and costs nothing. Techniques spend Reiatsu, and every one of them is usable only in spirit form.

Those last three have no activated technique on purpose. In canon their power is what happens when the blade lands, so right-clicking them does nothing and says so.

Bankai is earned in a fight

• Meditating while eligible still returns you to your Inner World — but your Zanpakutō now fights you for it, and the fight starts the moment you arrive. Nothing to click first.
• It fights with your own sword's technique, turned against you, and it wears your own face while doing it — black body, your head.
• It stops holding back below 40% health.
• Losing costs only the attempt. No XP lost, no cooldown, eligibility untouched. Walk back in and try again. It can kill you, and dying is an ordinary spirit-form death — your blade is stashed, not dropped.
• Kyōka Suigetsu and Wabisuke now reach the top stage too. They have no Bankai in canon and still don't; what they get is the same Shikai made stronger, shown as "Wabisuke (Charged)". Previously their XP simply stopped meaning anything past Shikai.

The uniform

Hollows now drop something. A Plus — a soul cut free of what it had become — drops about one time in four, and only from a Hollow you purified: a spirit-form kill with your own Zanpakutō in hand. Drown one, burn one or push one off a cliff and there is nothing to collect, exactly as there is no sword XP.

Three of them, plus leather, make the shihakushō:

• Netherite's protection, exactly — 8 / 6 / 3, toughness and knockback resistance included.
• It never wears out. No durability at all, so no bar and nothing to repair.
• There is no helmet, and there will not be one. A shihakushō has no headwear in canon.
• Only a spirit can wear it. Try it in your body and it refuses.
• It travels with your Zanpakutō, not with your gear. Step back into your body and the uniform comes off and is put away with the blade; step out again and you are already wearing it. Craft a piece while standing in your own body and it will be on you the next time you leave it.
• It fades with you. Worn in spirit form it renders as translucent as the rest of you — except where the ghost effect already stands down for Epic Fight and friends, where it will look solid, as you already do.
• It is not enchantable, deliberately. Unbreakable and Netherite-grade is enough.

Also

• Zangetsu never seals, its upkeep is cheaper to offset that, and Tensa Zangetsu makes the blade smaller while making you faster — the only sword that shrinks.
• New sprites for Zangetsu's released forms, and Katen Kyōkotsu now draws as two blades once released, as it splits in canon.
• Two new status effects you may see on things you have hit: Bleeding Petals and Crushing Weight.
• allowFire and allowBlockDamage now do something. Both remain off by default, and no sword's combat depends on either.

Every texture is still a placeholder. The techniques, the Bankai trial and the shihakushō have now each had a playtest pass, but the numbers behind them have only ever been judged against one person's game — balance feedback is the most useful thing you can send.