diff --git a/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh b/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
index 1d32a4807..10ae63c97 100755
--- a/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
+++ b/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,13 @@
 
 RELEASE_VERSION="$1"
 
-# Delete until and including the first line containing "<!-- Release notes generated"
-sed -i '1,/^<!-- Release notes generated/d' temp_change.md
+if grep -q "<!-- Release notes generated" temp_change.md; then
+    # Delete up to and including the first line containing "<!-- Release notes generated"
+    sed -i '1,/^<!-- Release notes generated/d' temp_change.md
+else
+    # Otherwise, delete up to and including the first line containing "--" (The release metadata)
+    sed -i '1,/--/d' temp_change.md
+fi
 
 # Check if there is more than one non-empty line (the full changelog line) before we continue
 if [ $(grep -c '^[[:space:]]*[^[:space:]]' temp_change.md) -le 1 ]; then
@@ -19,12 +24,12 @@ sed -i 's/\r//g' temp_change.md CHANGELOG.md changelog.txt
 sed -i '1h;1d;$!H;$!d;G' temp_change.md
 # Convert "**Full Changelog**: URL" format to markdown link format "[Full Changelog](URL)"
 sed -i -re 's/\*\*Full Changelog\*\*: (.*)/\[Full Changelog\]\(\1\)\n/' temp_change.md
-# Delete everything from "## New Contributors" line to the end of file
+# Delete everything from "## New Contributors" line to the end of the file
 sed -i '/## New Contributors/,$d' temp_change.md
 # Convert GitHub changelog entries to markdown format
 # "* description by (@username1, @username2) in #1310, #1311" → "- description #1310, #1311 (@username1, @username2)"
 sed -i -re 's/^\*\s(.*)\sby\s\(?(@[^)]*[^) ])\)?\s+in\s+(.*)/- \1 \3 (\2)/' temp_change.md
-# Convert @usernames to github links
+# Convert @usernames to GitHub links
 # "(@username1, @username2)" → "([username1](https://github.com/username1), [username2](https://github.com/username2))"
 sed -i -re 's/@([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/[\1](https:\/\/github.com\/\1)/g' temp_change.md
 # Convert full PR URLs to linked format  
@@ -43,13 +48,17 @@ cp temp_change.md changelog_temp.txt
 cat CHANGELOG.md | sed '1d' >> temp_change.md
 # Create new CHANGELOG.md with header containing version and date, followed by processed changes
 printf "# Changelog\n\n## [$RELEASE_VERSION](https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding-PoE2/tree/$RELEASE_VERSION) ($(date +'%Y/%m/%d'))\n\n" | cat - temp_change.md > CHANGELOG.md
+
+# Delete up to and including the line containing "## What's Changed"
+sed -i "1,/## What's Changed/d" changelog_temp.txt
+
 # Convert changelog entries from markdown link format to simplified "* description (username)" format
 # First remove all PR links
 sed -i -re 's/( \()?\[\\#[0-9]+\]\([^)]*\),? ?\)?//g' changelog_temp.txt
 # Remove markdown link formatting from usernames in parentheses
 sed -i -re 's/\[([^]]*)\]\(https:\/\/github\.com\/[^)]*\)/\1/g' changelog_temp.txt
-# Create new changelog format: add version header, remove lines 2-3, format section headers, remove ## headers with following line, prepend to existing changelog
-echo "VERSION[${RELEASE_VERSION#v}][$(date +'%Y/%m/%d')]" | cat - changelog_temp.txt | sed '2,3d' | sed -re 's/^### (.*)/\n--- \1 ---/' | sed -e '/^##.*/,+1 d' | cat - changelog.txt > changelog_new.txt
+# Create new changelog format: add version header, format section headers, prepend to existing changelog
+echo "VERSION[${RELEASE_VERSION#v}][$(date +'%Y/%m/%d')]" | cat - changelog_temp.txt | sed -re 's/^### (.*)/\n--- \1 ---/' | cat - changelog.txt > changelog_new.txt
 mv changelog_new.txt changelog.txt
 
 # Normalize line endings to CRLF for all output files to ensure consistent checksums with Windows
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-check.yml b/.github/workflows/release-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cda4ddb32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+# These checks are run for PRs preparing a release
+name: Release Check
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    types:
+      - opened
+      - synchronize
+      # ready_for_review is needed for the workaround described at https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request/blob/main/docs/concepts-guidelines.md#workarounds-to-trigger-further-workflow-runs
+      - ready_for_review
+    branches:
+      - 'dev'
+    paths:
+      - 'manifest.xml'
+      - 'changelog.txt' # To detect if this is a release PR
+  workflow_dispatch:
+jobs:
+  check_manifest:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Set line endings
+        run: git config --global core.autocrlf true
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Update manifest
+        run: python3 update_manifest.py --quiet --in-place
+      - name: Check if the generated manifest is different
+        run: git diff --exit-code manifest.xml
+      - name: Check if the manifest version is correct
+        if: startsWith(github.head_ref, 'release-')
+        run: |
+          MANIFEST_VERSION=$(grep -o '<Version number="[^"]*' manifest.xml | sed 's/<Version number="//')
+          BRANCH_VERSION=$(echo ${{ github.head_ref }} | sed 's/release-//')
+          if [ "$MANIFEST_VERSION" != "$BRANCH_VERSION" ]; then
+            echo "Manifest version ($MANIFEST_VERSION) does not match branch version ($BRANCH_VERSION)"
+            exit 1
+          fi
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 2b7bfdf6b..3c2acbca0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -14,30 +14,42 @@ jobs:
   release:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
+            - name: Set line endings
+              run: git config --global core.autocrlf true
             - name: Checkout
-              uses: actions/checkout@v3
+              uses: actions/checkout@v5
               with:
                 ref: 'dev'
             - name: Generate Release notes
               if: ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseNoteUrl == '' }}
               run: >
                 echo "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" | gh auth login --with-token;
-                gh release view $(basename $(gh release create v${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }} --title "Release ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}" --draft --generate-notes)) > temp_change.md
+                gh release view $(basename $(gh release create --target dev v${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }} --title "Release ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}" --draft --generate-notes)) > temp_change.md
             - name: Use existing Release notes
               if: ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseNoteUrl != '' }}
               run: >
                 echo "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" | gh auth login --with-token;
                 gh release view $(basename ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseNoteUrl }}) > temp_change.md
+            # The initial draft release must target dev for the changelog generation, but the final release should use the last commit on master to avoid tagging a wrong commit
+            - name: Change release target to master
+              run: |
+                gh release edit v${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }} --target master
             - name: Tweak changelogs
               run: |
                 # Remove carriage returns to be able to run the script
                 sed -i 's/\r$//' .github/tweak_changelogs.sh
                 chmod +x .github/tweak_changelogs.sh
                 .github/tweak_changelogs.sh "v${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}"
+            - name: Update manifest version
+              run: |
+                sed -ri "s/<Version number=\"([^\"]*)\"/<Version number=\"${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}\"/g" manifest.xml
+            - name: Update manifest.xml
+              run: python3 update_manifest.py --quiet --in-place
             - name: Create Pull Request
-              uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v5
+              uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v7
               with:
-                  draft: true
+                  # draft: always-true is needed for the workaround described at https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request/blob/main/docs/concepts-guidelines.md#workarounds-to-trigger-further-workflow-runs
+                  draft: always-true
                   title: Release ${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}
                   branch: release-${{ github.event.inputs.releaseVersion }}
                   body: |
diff --git a/.github/workflows/sync-release-to-master.yml b/.github/workflows/sync-release-to-master.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..723f5020d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/sync-release-to-master.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+name: Sync Release to Master
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    types: [closed]
+    branches:
+      - dev
+
+jobs:
+  sync-release-to-master:
+    # Checks that the push to dev was from a pull request whose head branch started with 'release-'.
+    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true && startsWith(github.head_ref, 'release-')
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          ref: master
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Configure bot user
+        run: |
+          git config --global user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
+          git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
+
+      - name: Merge fast-forward dev into master
+        run: |
+          git merge ${{ github.sha }} --ff-only
+          git push
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 6dc161a82..769cfdf33 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ on:
     branches: [ dev ]
   pull_request:
     branches: [ dev ]
+    types:
+      - opened
+      - synchronize
+      - ready_for_review
   workflow_dispatch:
 jobs:
   run_tests: