Repurposed the Auction House in Jidoor as an "Advanced" Beginner's School
Completely rewrote enemy AI with a heavy focus on more predictable behavior in random encounters that should be easier to exploit and more interesting/dynamic boss battles
Lowered the HP of many enemies and several bosses who were deemed to have more than necessary
Added a minimum number of steps between battles, slightly lowering the overall rate
Increased the pace of combat by doubling ATB fill speed during "empty" downtime
Running from battle is no longer substantially more difficult than in vanilla
Non-standard random encounters (back/side/pincer attacks) are more likely, but your party is now able to react faster to them and physical damage is no longer increased from behind
The "Defend" and "Row" commands now only consume half of a turn
Can now swap out weapons/shields in combat, but it costs half a turn per hand
When swapping equipment in battle or leaving the "rage" status, only previously-inherent statuses are now stripped (instead of all of them); maximum HP/MP (from equipment) is now also updated
Green Cherries will now cancel any action that the target has queued
Greatly improved how the game handles resistance to multi-elemental attacks
Mug no longer ignores special weapon effects, but the attack will now miss if steal fails
Allies at non-critical HP can now only be covered when they are in the back row
The "rflect" status now behaves like "image" instead of being on a timer
Updated the "Status Display" hack to include "cycling" auras and be more intuitive
Status-setting attacks now provide more feedback if that status attempt fails
White/Black/Grey magic will now display their "dot" when used in battle
Can now toggle between "max HP" and "ATB" view in battle by holding Select
Shops can now display the "full" stats of of equipment prior to purchase
The Rage and Dance menus now display the attacks of each rage/dance
Combined the equip and relic menus into one screen (includes full item descriptions)
Replaced "Relic" in the main menu screen with a shortcut to the party overview screen
Redesigned the status display screen and clarified certain terms
Redesigned the "Earth" and "Dark" (AKA "Poison") icons in extended equipment descriptions
Removed the unique item counter at the bottom right of the info panel in the inventory screen as it was taking up space and sometimes causing text overlap
Characters who join later in the WoR are now re-averaged to higher levels
Lowered character HP/MP growth at high levels
Tweaked the base stats for several characters, most notably buffs to all of Gau's attack stats
Edited the Vigor/Stamina damage variance reduction formula to have a better effect at higher values
Updated the Regen formula to rely more heavily on a character's stamina than on their maximum HP
Reverted the formula for poison damage to vanilla settings for player characters while enemies now take substantially more damage from it
Simplified how evasion works for magical attacks; rather than a hitrate, the Printme now just lists the relevant evasion stat (stamina or m.evade) for attacks that can be avoided
Changed who learns which spells (and when) again, mostly the grey ones
Swapped the locations of Crusader and Alexandr with the latter now behind a cash gate instead of the former's old boss gate; also swapped their users, EL/equip bonuses, and moved Demi/Quartr to Crusader
Raised Zoneseek's EL bonus to Magic +1/MP +20 (MP was only +15 before)
Swapped the equip bonuses on Carbunkl (now Auto-Regen) and Starlet (now +25% MP)
Adjusted the MP costs of many spells, summons, and lores - notably, there is now a much bigger price gap between the two water lores and Blow Fish no longer has an MP cost
Bad Breath no longer sets Sap (Blaze and Raze still do)
Blaze is now fire/wind elemental (was just fire)
Raze is weaker (power: 90 -> 75) and now fire/wind elemental (was fire/"dark"; see below)
Re-branded the "poison" element as "dark" and reworked its line of spells to be more useful
Per the above, Merton is now a fire/"dark" spell (instead of fire/wind)
Break and Quake are both slightly (exactly 1/9 each) stronger, but also more expensive (see above)
Mute is no longer multi-target, but is more effective than before due to resistance being much less common and enemies using spells more frequently
Scan is now a free action and can no longer trigger enemy counter-attacks
Edited several esper summons, notably buffs to Maduin and Bismark and Stray now revives allies
Major changes to Blitz: stamina options are stronger, but only physical blitzes now ignore defense
Several Bushido changes: stamina(ish) options are weaker and only Dispatch/Dragon now ignore defense
Made changes to (or that affect) most Rages, including giving Gau a better healing rage (Soldier) right out of the gate and balancing end-game physical damage around 3x damage bonuses instead of 4x
Edited several Dance steps (most of which are also Rage attacks)
Changed the 3/16 step on Earth Blues to Wind Slash (was Cave In)
Rebalanced the main winning Slot spins: Blackjack is still the strongest against most foes, Solitaire is now the weakest since it also blinds your opponents, and Trifecta (3 chocobos) is your sap-setter
The 7-7-7 Slot spin now both revives fallen allies AND heals live ones, but its power is now slightly lower (10 -> 7) than a losing spin
Raised the power of all vigor-based Tools
The Bio Blaster is no longer for sale until after the Battle of Narshe (see below)
The Flash is weaker (power: 75 -> 60) as the Blind status is now more effective
The upgraded Autocrossbow now has perfect accuracy (in addition to being 50% stronger)
Set Ninja Stars to maximum ultimate power (were previously 240)
??? is now slightly weaker on average, but now ignores defense
Desperation attacks no longer set Slow (they still set Sap)
Elixirs now remove most bad statuses (as a Remedy would)
Edited the wares of most shops, pushing back the availability of some items, making others available sooner, and (most notably) fixing instances of items becoming unavailable at certain points
Renamed several pieces of equipment; also swapped the names of the Dali and Monet Brushes
Removed several pieces of equipment
Reworked the stat boosts on elemental blades and shields to all provide magic bonuses
The Scimitar and Falchion now enable counter-attacks to encourage pairing them with other weapons
The Demonsbane no longer deals Holy damage so that it doesn't beat out the Avenger vs. undead foes
Slightly lowered the attack of (-5) and Vigor boost on (-2) the Valiance
The earlier claws are now available sooner and the later ones are stronger
Changed the random spellcasts on the Spirit Claw (Stop -> Slow) and Frostgore (Doom -> Ice)
Overhauled the "magical" katanas: stat boosts are now +Spd/+Stam (stamina is now the "common" stat on all katanas), the Ichimonji(/Nodachi) is improved, and the "wind" blade attacks are now stamina-based
Reworked the stat boosts on Shadow's ninja daggers to compliment the above-mentioned katana changes
Added the "strong vs. flying foes" property to the Kunai and Ninjato
The Kusarigama has been reworked into a Zozo-era anti-human ninja weapon that can also set Stop/Slow
Overhauled Setzer's "casino" weapons: removed all stat boosts, "always hits" (except from Dice), and the ability to dual-wield darts in favor of making them better weapons
Rods are more expensive (especially the Doomstick) and only the basic elemental ones can be broken
Larger rods (Quartrstaff and higher) now all possess physical evasion only
Lowered the attack on the Punisher (180 -> 150) as it was too strong when dragooning
Added a new Colosseum-exclusive weapon for Strago/Relm that's basically a one-handed Mutsunokami
Brushes now hit twice to increase the likelihood of random spellcasts (lowered attack to compensate for the extra "damage"); also added magic evasion (10) to all brushes and reworked their stat boosts
The Ross Brush now randomly casts Rflect (instead of Haste)
The Magic Bone (a formerly hidden/theft-exclusive weapon for Gau) can now be won at the Colosseum
The Morning Star is stronger (attack: 100 -> 125) and is now usable only by Celes and Terra
The Chainsaw now "cleaves" on insta-kill procs, thus preventing counter-attacks
Anti-undead weapons now use the "X-kill" animation (which also prevents counter-attacks)
Adjusted the prices of a lot of store-bought armor: the Light Robe and many early-game upgrades are all cheaper, while a few key items (namely the Oath Veil) are more expensive
Slightly adjusted the stats of several helmets and suits of armor, most notably a +10 magic defense increase for the Magus Hat/Circlet and +5 to physical defense for all "heavy" armor from Gold onward
Relm now comes equipped with the Memento Ring (it's no longer hidden)
Strago no longer comes equipped with a Magus Hat
The Royal Jacket no longer blocks fire damage
Removed the +25% MP buff from the Minerva and added it to the Radiant Gown
Bandanas and the Mirage Vest can now be equipped by anyone (instead of just "light" armor users)
Umaro can now equip the Skull Cap (it's the only helmet he can use)
Gogo can no longer wear robes (he must wear hides or vests)
The Hero Shield now sets inherent sap (instead of condemned) until the curse is lifted
A certain piece of hidden armor has slightly less defense (-5/-5), but now halves Bolt/Wind damage
Reworked the coverage of status protection relics; most notably, the Ribbon now only blocks instant death (it is now the only relic to do so), Stop, and Pertrify
Relics which grant statuses at critical health can now trigger again if the wearer dies
It is no longer impossible to revive a character who dies while wearing a Ghost Ring
Raised the physical evasion of the Sprint Shoes and the magic evasion of the Magic Cube
Lowered the defense of the Guard Ring and added magic defense; did the opposite for the Wall Ring
Removed both evasion boosts from the Back Guard and raised both defense stats to 20 (from 10)
Removed +7 Magic bonus from the Gem Box and the +7 Vigor boost from the Soul Box
Added stat boosts to the Storm Belt (+5 Spd) and Blizzard Orb (+5 Stam); also modified their in-game descriptions to be less cryptic about what they do (specifically their +25% damage properties)
Altered the wording of all +25% damage bonuses to clarify that they affect both damage AND healing
Changed/moved the contents of many chests, including adding the Dice to a WoR chest (so that they are no longer missable) as well as the Viper Darts (formerly a Colosseum-exclusive)
Changed several enemy steals; bosses now hold (common) theft-exclusive items instead of rare items
Changed many trades at the Colosseum and replaced the more obnoxious opponents with easier ones
Modified the enemy encounter structure to make certain foes less difficult to find on the Veldt; all missable (WoB) formations can now be found on Triangle Island and the Grenade Forest (near the Veldt)
The "Leap" command is now disabled if all rages in an enemy formation are already known
Changed the names of many enemies and their special attacks; also edited their attack animations to to make them more closely match what they're supposed to be
Removed or changed many enemy elemental resistances/weaknesses that felt unintuitive or made no sense
Overhauled enemy status resistances: only the "major" ones (Sleep, Muddle, Bserk, Stop, Petrify, and instant death) are now commonly resisted while the others are (almost) universally effective
Improved standardization of enemy stats, namely defense (both types), evasion, and speed
Reworked enemy/boss MP values: fewer enemies have MP at all, but those who do now use it frequently (see "Mute" notes above) and may behave differently if they lose too much of it
Re-tuned experience and GP drops to be more fitting with the enemies that drop them; most notably, bosses now award experience - and consequently a good deal of esper xp, to boot
Made a small improvement to the option to disable experience gains from battle
Changed how fallen allies are replaced between tiers in the final battle
Characters in MagiTek armor now attack with Tek Laser instead of elemental beams
Heal Force now revives dead allies in addition to restoring HP to live ones
Added an "unequip" NPC to the scenario select screen
Shadow is now cheaper to hire in Kohlingen (3,000 GP -> 1,000)
Made quality of life changes to several dungeons
Battles in the Narshe mines (WoB) now maintain the area's BGM
"Searching For Friends" now only plays when you are aboard the Falcon
Shortened the unnecessarily lengthy Aero/Mutsunokami animation
Phunbaba should no longer sometimes remove only one character from your party
N. Cross can now only freeze a maximum of two characters
Mind Blast now respects stamina, but gets an extra attack (4 -> 5) to compensate
Lifeshaver now respects the "float" status and is no longer reflectable
Glare and Blow Fish are now physical attacks and thus respect the "clear" status
The "clear" status is no longer removed if the target absorbs a spell with Runic or by ground-based attacks missing floating targets
The "clear" status is now properly lifted by spells cast from rods used as items in battle
The "Morph" and "Imp" statuses no longer affect (non-fractional) healing items
Items are no longer consumed in battle if the user dies or is disabled before they go off
Brushes and healing items now properly re-target if the intended target dies
X-Fight now re-targets if the first attack kills the original target, can now properly yield critical hits, and no longer bypasses "cover"
Jump no longer disables (most) special weapon effects (most notably the Atma Weapon) and dual-wield setups now attack only with the primary weapon instead of randomly selecting one
Fixed several issues with Palidor's behavior, making it much better to use
Interceptor and Golem now always use the correct animation when activated, which corrects the lowered odds of late-game Interceptor counters and Golem's artificially enhanced durability
Terra can no longer Morph while imped and is now immune to imp once Morphed
Gogo no longer does 50% more damage than intended with physical Bushidos when dual-wielding
Setzer's dice no longer receive a damage boost from the Bserk status
Flare (from the Apocalypse) now correctly receives the Morph damage boost
X-Zone no longer revives/heals undead enemies when it's cast by the Doomstick
Multi-target attacks which respect stamina now correctly check each target individually
Enemy "special" attacks that inflict sleep no longer miss on targets with death immunity
Abilities with "one ally" targeting are no longer unable to randomly target (via Rage or enemy AI) teammates on the opposite end of the field during side or pincer attacks
Inherent statuses now initialize properly on characters who are dead at the beginning of the battle and on enemies who are not present
Updated Assassin's "Optimize Fix" hack to leave slots with no valid equipment empty
Fixed several RNG errors, most notably a random encounter spike during the Vector escape
Fixed several other minor bugs and dialogue issues
Added a Spanish translation and an optional "vanilla" dialogue patch
Added a "New Game+" patch to the Unlockme
Added new alternate sprite patches to the Unlockme
Added screenshots to the Unlockme image gallery and updated existing ones
Added higher-resolution sprites and SNES Mini/Switch art to the Unlockme image gallery
Updated the (main) BNW logo in the Unlockme image gallery to the modern design
Added a damage calculator/bestiary to the BNWCP
Redesigned the Printme, now distributed as a .pdf file
Re-bundled LIPS (ROM patching utility) with the Brave New World download