General changes:

• Exploration recipes for common biomes are now instant, making it much easier to dig long paths. There will be a nice satisfying animation for digging in the future :)
• Monster groups no longer disappear on defeat, allowing to retry the fight later.

Improved beginner experience:

• Cages with basic companions now spawn only in the limited region, to avoid polluting the warehouse with too many useless companions.
• Elementalists get all their starting skills equipped on hire.