Thanks for playing!
Starting builds will be redone at some point, they're currently too random. Might be reworked into a manual choice system, but it will also be an unlockable thing
Unlocking things that start appearing randomly has the purpose of time gating complex mechanics until the player knows what they mean and (admittedly artificially) encouraging trying different builds. This is a first iteration of unlocks so unlock conditions and the actual unlockables are subject to change
I understand why you feel the map is too free. I might crank up the obstacle and enemy counts on later chapters, or as a thing for higher difficulties. I tried generating the map with higher obstacle count and it turned it into a maze with enemies frequently blocking the way and dead ends. It's not necessarily a worse design, but it doesn't work well with Bouncers. Personally I feel like there's enough pressure to min-max my moves - if I mess around too much, Bouncers might kill a shop with an item I was saving for. Perhaps this would be felt more if the balance was tighter
I might add a thing where refusing a symbol or item choice refunds portion of money spent, then it wouldn't feel as bad to get a dud for 100
Red Wine indeed dissolves, I forgot to update its custom description
