diff --git a/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh b/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
index 5bea6e653f..1d32a48078 100755
--- a/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
+++ b/.github/tweak_changelogs.sh
@@ -4,15 +4,33 @@ RELEASE_VERSION="$1"
 
 # Delete until and including the first line containing "<!-- Release notes generated"
 sed -i '1,/^<!-- Release notes generated/d' temp_change.md
+
+# 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
+    echo "No changes to release $RELEASE_VERSION"
+    rm temp_change.md
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Remove all CR characters from all changelog files
+sed -i 's/\r//g' temp_change.md CHANGELOG.md changelog.txt
+
 # Reverse the order of lines in the file (last line becomes first, etc.)
 sed -i '1h;1d;$!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
 sed -i '/## New Contributors/,$d' temp_change.md
-# Convert GitHub changelog entries from "* description by @username in pull/URL/number"
-# to "- description [#number](pull/URL/number) ([username](https://github.com/username))" format
-sed -i -re 's/^\*(.*)\sby\s@(.*)\sin\s(.*\/pull\/)(.*)\r?/-\1 [\\#\4](\3\4) ([\2](https:\/\/github.com\/\2))/' 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
+# "(@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  
+# "https://github.com/repo/pull/1310" → "[\#1310](https://github.com/repo/pull/1310)"
+sed -i -re 's/(https:\/\/[^) ]*\/pull\/([0-9]+))/[\\#\2](\1)/g' temp_change.md
+
 # Username substitutions for preferred display names
 sed -i 's/\[Quotae/\[Quote_a/' temp_change.md
 sed -i 's/\[learn2draw/\[Lexy/' temp_change.md
@@ -20,22 +38,22 @@ sed -i 's/\[Voronoff/\[Tom Clancy Is Dead/' temp_change.md
 sed -i 's/\[PJacek/\[TPlant/' temp_change.md
 sed -i 's/\[justjuangui/\[trompetin17/' temp_change.md
 
-sed -i 's/\r//g' temp_change.md
-
 cp temp_change.md changelog_temp.txt
 # Append existing CHANGELOG.md content (excluding first line) to temp_change.md
-cat CHANGELOG.md | tr \\r \\n | sed '1d' >> temp_change.md
+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
 # Convert changelog entries from markdown link format to simplified "* description (username)" format
-sed -i -re 's/^- (.*) \[.*\) \(\[(.*)\]\(.*/* \1 (\2)/' changelog_temp.txt
+# 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 | tr -d \\r | sed '2,3d' | sed -re 's/^### (.*)/\n--- \1 ---/' | sed -e '/^##.*/,+1 d' | cat - changelog.txt > changelog_new.txt
+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
 mv changelog_new.txt changelog.txt
 
 # Normalize line endings to CRLF for all output files to ensure consistent checksums with Windows
-sed 's/\r*$/\r/' CHANGELOG.md > CHANGELOG_normalized.md && mv CHANGELOG_normalized.md CHANGELOG.md
-sed 's/\r*$/\r/' changelog.txt > changelog_normalized.txt && mv changelog_normalized.txt changelog.txt
+sed -i 's/\r*$/\r/' CHANGELOG.md changelog.txt
 
 # Clean up temporary files
 rm temp_change.md
diff --git a/.github/workflows/beta.yml b/.github/workflows/beta.yml
index 131f5d58d0..4196ab3369 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/beta.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/beta.yml
@@ -20,10 +20,6 @@ jobs:
               run: |
                 git config --global user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
                 git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
-            # The hash suffix will help identifying if the beta version is up-to-date
-            - name: Add commit hash suffix to manifest version
-              run: |
-                sed -i "s/<Version number=\"\([^\"]*\)\"/<Version number=\"\1-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)\"/g" manifest.xml
             - name: Generate Release notes
               run: |
                 echo "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" | gh auth login --with-token
@@ -35,11 +31,18 @@ jobs:
                 gh release create beta --title "Beta Release" --draft --generate-notes
                 gh release view beta > temp_change.md
             - name: Tweak changelogs
+              id: tweak-changelogs
+              continue-on-error: true
               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 beta
+            # The hash suffix will help identifying if the beta version is up-to-date
+            - name: Add commit hash suffix to manifest version
+              if: steps.tweak-changelogs.outcome == 'success'
+              run: |
+                sed -i "s/<Version number=\"\([^\"]*\)\"/<Version number=\"\1-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)\"/g" manifest.xml
             - name: Update manifest.xml
               run: python3 update_manifest.py --quiet --in-place
             - name: Push to beta branch