I did a focused polish pass on clarity this week.

The game now explains itself faster while keeping the tone weird in a good way.

## What changed

I replaced the old fading hint toast with a bottom-center contextual panel that waits for confirmation.

It now supports three channels: Unlock, Gameplay, and Story. You can toggle each channel in settings, and unlock/story messages are tracked once per save so they do not spam every run.

I also added the first story snippets with The Death voice. They trigger from real progression points (first shed, first extractor, first karma engine), so onboarding feels more intentional.

On progression balance, I reworked several achievement targets and rewards:
– Some early goals were too trivial compared to the actual pacing.
– Soul Collector and Karma Farmer now give permanent modifiers.
– Population achievements were moved to meaningful milestones (150k / 500k), so they feel earned.

On upgrades, I adjusted Death Worker branch sequencing and improved descriptions/tooltips. Upgrade and building rows now expose clearer flavor + effect context, so buying decisions are less blind.

## Player impact

You should feel less “what just happened?”

Unlock guidance is clearer, progression rewards are less noisy, and upgrade choices carry more readable intent.