Editing Changelog (section)

== v0.54.0 — NICHES — Every Species Gets A Job, And The Staircase Is Complete ==
* '''Every species gets a job.''' For everyone past their FOURTH walk through the [[Caves#The Amber Door|Amber Door]], 35 species now wear a JOB TITLE on their card — a fact about the species, printed plainly with its stars: GATHER SPECIALISTS for the four hired-hand skills, HAULERS and PATHFINDERS for dispatch squads, and the EGG TENDER. Every one of the 13 species the min-maxers politely called dead tames carries at least two stars. Every tame matters again.
* '''The specialists work faster.''' A hired hand of a matching species works 20/40/60% faster on its base pace by stars — under a hard honesty ceiling of 0.45× your own pace, now real engine math: idle NEVER beats playing. The skill page bar wears the chip, and the hourly numbers already include it.
* SQUADS GET SMARTER, NOT BIGGER. The squad's best HAULER brings home 8/16/25% more of a mission's guaranteed haul; its best PATHFINDER cuts the trip 5/10/15%, already in the countdown you watch. Only the best of each counts — no stacking puzzle, and the dispatch sheet names exactly who and how much.
* THE OVIRAPTOR'S AURA, MADE OFFICIAL. Egg Tenders cut every egg-lay timer 15/25/40% by stars — and the Oviraptor formalizes at 2★, EXACTLY its famous −25%, so nothing changes for a single stable today. The egg ledger finally names who is tending.
* A new score row for your next walk: 25 points per NICHED SPECIES standing in your stable or stasis when you ascend — breadth, the thing the Census taught you to build, finally pays.
* Below four ascensions nothing changes: same intervals, same hauls, same timers, byte for byte. And with this, THE POST-ASCENSION STAIRCASE IS COMPLETE — Rift Ranks, the Bounty Board, the Completion Log, Mutation Lines, Item Quality, and Niches: six systems, one per walk through the Door.