Element TD 2 News

Version 0.63 was supposed to release about now, but we didn't quite hit our estimates. However, we can confirm in testing that it's pretty close to done. You can expect it to release by next weekend, to ring in 2021!

In the meantime, we have a preview of what to expect below.

By my eyes, I spot 1, 2, 3... 4 portals?

[h2]Map Variants[/h2]
Every FFA & Teams map now features an alternate version of it, all based off the versions seen in the Campaign. Effectively, we're adding 8 New Maps to the game! These variants are generally more difficult than the standard versions, some of them supporting 3 or even 4 Paths.

Remember this old gem from initial Early Access release? It's baaack!

Speaking of paths, some of our maps are designed to be played as 2 Path maps. As such, we're adjusting the Paths option. Instead of choosing between 1 or 2 Paths, you'll now choose between:

• Standard: Play the map the way it's meant to be played. It'll have 1 or 2 Paths on by default.
  
• Advanced: Play an advanced version of the map, containing at least 2 Paths and scaling up to 4.
  • For some of the base maps, Standard & Advanced will be one and the same.
    

That said, you'll no longer be able to play certain maps as 1 Path.

RIP Wasteland as the easiest 1-Path map.

[h2]Balance[/h2]
For the last few months, certain builds have been absolutely dominating, both the Leaderboards and in Ranked Mode. In particular, 2 Element and 6 Element Builds. We don't mind them being viable options, but they're strictly better than everything else right now. So, here's the general list of changes:

• Diminishing Returns:
  • All Slow & Damage Amp Towers will now have diminishing returns. How this works is, after the first debuff, for each additional unique debuff, all debuffs are 5% less effective.
    
  • Debuff Effectiveness = 95% ^ (# of Stacks - 1)
    
  • As a result of this change, the effects of all Level 2 Slow & Damage Amp Towers will be drastically improved. This should give 4 & 5 Element Builds more of a chance while tampering down 6 Element.
    
• Buff Towers:
  • Well & Blacksmith effects are being rescaled from 10% / 20% / 100% to 10% / 30% / 90%.
    
  • Trickery effect is being rescaled from 40% / 80% / 400% to 36% / 108% / 324%
    
  • With these changes, going for the Level 2 early will be more meaningful, while the Level 3 will be a bit less efficient.
    
• Cost Increases:
  • Single Element Towers, especially the upper tiers, are cheap. Too cheap. To the extent that you can safely do Level 3 rush strategies with them using only 2 Elements. Not to mention the overwhelming power of Pures. So, we're raising the costs:
    • Tier 2 Singles cost increased from 650 to 675
      
    • Tier 3 Singles cost increased from 2250 to 2500
      
    • Tier 4 Singles & Periodic cost increased from 12250 to 15000
      
• Wave Order:
  • Ever since the change to Temporal, having that be the first ability to show up is... too brutal. There were also sections that were skewed too heavily towards one element or creep type. As such, we've shuffled some of the Wave Order around.
    
  • Most of these shuffles are within the first half of the game.
    
• Other Changes:
  • 2-Path can be annoyingly hard to rush, so we're reducing the wave timer increase from +3 to +1 seconds
    
  • Cursed attack speed reduction raised from 10% to 15% per stack
    
  • Cursed duration reduced from 15 to 10 seconds
    

That's the general list; we have more individual changes as well. The numbers listed above aren't quite final, but they should be close at the very least.

As usual, with any Balance Patch is a Leaderboard Reset. Note this is just for the Score Leaderboards, not Ranked. That won't be reset until the official release.

Anyone wanna take a guess how this one works on the Advanced Paths option?

[h2]Autumn[/h2]
Although Winter is meant to be the most difficult map, Autumn is arguably worse, especially since the creeps branch out in opposite directions. We're not changing that aspect, but we are adjusting the map to make it more fair and improve the viability of some spots.

It's almost the same, we just extended things a bit. Oh, and it looks prettier.

It's already a big patch with the above notes, but there will also be New Cosmetics & Achievements, tweaks to the Campaign, new Visual Options, and a whole lot of fixes. Look forward to it next week!

If you want to try out these changes early, hop into the Element TD Discord Server, check the #roles channel, tag yourself as part of the @testers, and you'll gain access to the #testers channel.

A lot of work goes into making the in-between areas pleasant to look at. Take a look around sometime! Just don't die in the process.

[h2]Tribute[/h2]
Lastly, one of active community members, Wade, has made an awesome 10-minute tribute to our game, showcasing beautiful visuals that we didn't even know were in the game. Check it out here!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Did we say first week of December? Because we clearly meant the third week apparently. Anywho, after a bunch of constant mini-delays, Chapter 3 has finally arrived! It contains some of the toughest challenges to date, with New Creep Types, increasingly layered map designs, and Triple Element Specializations!

Also included in this update is New Music, improvements to Ranked Mode, a bunch of fixes, and more. Check it out below!

New missions, new maps!

[h2]Campaign[/h2]

• Chapter 3 has arrived, with 7 New Missions! Hold your ground across snowy mountains, overgrown ruins, cities of autumn, and more. Experience your hatred of Cursed Creeps like never before, as well as new Creep Types not seen in the standard game!
  
• All Triple Element Towers now have two Specializations you can choose between.
  
• Additionally, the Campaign has received several other fixes and updates:
  • Wave Preview Icons now display individual timers, so you can tell when each sub-wave is going to spawn.
    
  • Wave Break Messages have been updated to be more helpful, or just outright troll you.
    
  • Fixed an exploit that let you gain more Unlock Points than intended. This finally fixes fluctuating Unlock Points for players.
    
  • Fixed a bug where, if you hovered over a Specialization Icon and then a Tower Icon, it'd continue to display the Specialization Tooltip even if the tower was mismatched.
    
  • Fixed Wave Clear messages sometimes showing up early in a wave, if you kill all creeps while waiting on the remaining sub-waves to spawn.
    
  • Chapter 2 bounty reduced by 20%.
    
  • You now start with 75 Lives on all Chapter 2 Missions.
    
  • The time between waves has been about cut in half, meaning the speed-based achievements in the Campaign are much more doable than before.
    
• The following Specializations have been tweaked:
  • Darkness Spec 1 reduced from +35% to +30% damage
    
  • Darkness Spec 2 reduced from 20% to 15% HP damage
    
  • Geyser Spec 1 number of attacks need to proc effect increased from 3 to 4
    
  • Geyser Spec 2 ability AoE reduced from 750 to 600
    
  • Life Spec 1 changed to increase damage by 50% if you have 25 Lives or less
    

The classic Winter returns, with a few tweaks.

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Builders now react with the height of the terrain.
  
• Fog of War is now somewhat adaptive, meaning it'll black out non-relevant parts of the map, particularly if you're playing solo or in War & Team War Modes.
  
• Score label in the top-right now says Boss Score instead of Ronald Score, in case you're not using the Ronald Skin.
  
• The Region of each player is now listed in the Lobby.
  • Note, this doesn't change the actual Region of the hosted game, just roughly what to expect lag-wise.
    
• In War Mode, when you use Nuke, Frost Zone, or Dimensional Rift, it'll now display an icon over the targeted location with a timer, so you know when they'll end.
  
• War & Team War Lobbies no longer list Very Hard Difficulty in their lobby/notification description, since it's locked in anyways.
  
• In Teams Mode, if you're on the second slot, your Elemental Bosses will now always spawn out of the second portal.
  

Is that a portal on the wall?

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where you could get spontaneously disconnected from Ranked Games.
  
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to join the lobby of an in-progress game.
  • If this is still happening, please let us know.
    
• Fixed a bug in Ranked where the pop-up at the end of the game would display the wrong MMR Calculations.
  
• Fixed a bug in Teams Mode where, if the first player in a team gets disconnected, all remaining creeps for that team would be permanently Hyper Boosted.
  
• Fixed a bug where, if a Geyser Tower landed a kill on a Splitter Boss with its ability, it'd partially launch it upwards, causing all of its remaining subdivisions to walk on the air.
  
• Fixed a bug where loading from checkpoint would give you the wrong wave's Preview Icons.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where Disease could fully heal a creep or boss back to full health.
  

A new tropical paradise. Looks relaxing... in theory.

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• The game's Music has been updated! A bunch of new tracks were added, while some were culled.
  
• Music has been optimized, so even though there's more tracks overall, it should take less memory than before.
  
• Every Campaign Mission now has a unique Intro Theme.
  
• Lastly, the sounds for Game Over, Mission Clear, & Buy Customization have all been replaced.
  • RIP "That's a bad omen". It will be missed. But someday... it will return. With a vengeance.
    

Believe it or not, this is not the biggest map in Chapter 3.

[h2]Ranked Mode[/h2]
In an effort to prevent new players from jumping into Ranked and getting slaughtered, as well as make it easier to find Ranked games, the following changes are being made:

• The Level Requirement for Ranked has been increased from Level 10 to Level 20.
  
• You can now receive Notifications for Ranked Games. Once you hit Level 20, this'll turn itself on by default. Like all other Notifications, you can toggle it off.
  • Just like the standard search queue, you'll only be notified of a Ranked Game if you're within 225 MMR of the challenging player.
    

With these changes, over time, Ranked Mode will hopefully see shorter queue times and repopulate.


Showing off one of the Triple Specializations, as well as a snippet of something greater...


And that's it for Version 0.62! We meant to get a preview of this patch up ahead of time, but there was a lot more work than expected, so instead, we put that time into making Chapter 3 as grandtastic as possible. Now that we've given the game's Singleplayer some love, expect to see a bunch of love for Multiplayer next patch, which will include:

• Balance Updates
  
• Map Variants
  
• New Achievements
  
• New Cosmetics
  

Also, as many of you may well know, we were a part of Jingle Jam 2020 this year, and as a result, we've seen a lot of new players join the game. Online games fill pretty quickly now, and we're also seeing more activity on the Element TD DIscord. We hope the trend continues as we release the final updates leading up to Official Release!

If you enjoy the increase in activity as much as we do, please consider leaving a Review for our game (if you haven't already). Positive, negative, whatever your honest thoughts are, let us know what you think of Element TD 2, and what you hope to see in its future.

Over the last few days, we've received reports of spontaneous disconnects, particularly on the EU region. We're working on a fix to this, but if you're still getting disconnects, try using a different region for now. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Also, Chapter 3 should be releasing within the next week, so keep your eyes peeled for an update!

Welcome to yet another week of "no seriously, where's Chapter 3", where once again, we deliver a patch that doesn't actually contain more of the Campaign. Don't worry, it's coming for real next patch, just in time to clash with Cyberpunk 2077, because we're absolute geniuses complete idiots.

Anywho, in the meantime, we're bringing up a new batch of Achievements, more fun Cosmetics, a bunch of improvements and fixes, as well as updates to War Mode! Read on for the full notes:

We heard you like UFOs, so we put some UFOs in your UFOs so you can UFO while you UFO!


[h2]Achievements & Cosmetics[/h2]

• Achievements:
  • First War - Win 1 Game of War Mode
    
  • War Veteran - Win 5 Games of War Mode
    
  • Master of War - Win 25 Games of War Mode
    
  • Elemental Diversity - Cast all six War Mode Abilities at least once in a single game in War Mode
    
  • Total Stasis - Catch 20 creeps in stasis with a single Dimensional Rift in War Mode
    
  • Annihilation - Blow up 10 of your Opponent's Towers at once with a single Nuke in War Mode
    
  • Mega Killer - Kill a total of 10 Mega Creeps in War Mode games
    
  • Full Counter - Decrease the opponent's lives by 15 in a single wave in War Mode
    
  • Domination - Win a War Mode game without losing a single life
    
  • Win Streak - Win 3 Ranked Games in a row
    
• Cosmetics:
  • New Builder - Burning Skull
    
  • New Builder - Trident Fighter
    
  • New Hat - Trident Hat
    
  • New Trail - Lightning Trail
    
  • New Trail - Path of Ice
    
  • New Trail - UFO Squad
    
  • New Wings - Snakes of Wrath
    
  • New Wings - UFO Guards
    

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• On/Off Modifiers in Singleplayer & Lobby settings changed from dropdowns to checkboxes.
  
• Essence in the top-right HUD now lists "Spent / Max".
  • It'll still list the actual Essence Upgrade Picks in the Scoreboard, just like before. This is for distinguishing the total number of Essences you have and are capable of getting.
    
• In the Campaign, the wave display at the top now lists the total number of waves in the Mission.
  
• Friendly indicators replaced with a colored outline, instead of a big blocky shield.
  
• There is now a sound for when an enemy leaks, provided your viewpoint is near or on the respective portal.
  
• Minor visual improvements & optimizations on several maps.
  

Lamps now properly glow on all maps, at no performance cost either!

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed drag-building letting you bypass the Tower Limit in Teams, Co-op, War, & Team War Modes.
  
• Going past the threshold for an Achievement will now award you properly for it.
  • This is retroactive, so if you're missing Achievements from this bug, they should be awarded properly upon booting up the game.
    
• As lobby host, you can no longer input any commands after the countdown starts, preventing you from doing last second changes to the settings or last second player switching (which broke the game previously).
  
• If someone quits a lobby, it'll now unready everyone else, which fixes a bug where games could start preemptively.
  
• Fixed new players in a lobby showing up as Red in the chat before they type anything.
  
• Fixed a bug in Campaign where loading a checkpoint wouldn't reset the clock, thereby making the speed clear Achievements an absolute pain to get.
  
• Fixed a bug where, if you joined a lobby via notification while you were in-game, the lobby would be displayed incorrectly.
  
• Fixed a bug where, if you played Boss Hunt length, and then a game on a different length, the Boss Score indicators in the top-right would appear from the start of the game and remain there the whole game.
  

[h2]War Updates[/h2]

• Hyper Boost duration reduced from 5 to 2 seconds
  • Speed boost increased from 100% / 133% / 200% to 200% / 266% / 400%
    
• Frost Zone duration increased from 15 / 20 / 30 to 30 / 40 / 60 seconds
  • AoE reduced from 600 to 300
    
• Rejuvenation heal reduced from 50% to 25% / 33% / 50%
  • Cooldown rescaled from 150 / 125 / 75 to 120 seconds
    
• Spawn Mega HP reduced from 1000% to 400% / 533% / 800%
  • Cooldown rescaled from 150 / 125 / 75 to 150 seconds
    
  • Movement speed increased from 50% to 75%
    
• Long War option added:
  • Increases the starting lives from 50 to 100
    
  • For Team War, this is now the default option
    
• Team War Wins stat added
  
• Hostile indicator size reduced, should no longer badly obscure towers.
  
• Fixed a bug where Elemental Bosses were being affected by Hyper Boost & Rejuvenation.
  
• Fixed a bug where having a Mega Creep out while someone uses Dimensional Rift on the last creeps of a wave would stall it, requiring said creeps to die before next wave would start.
  

Now you can blend in with the terrain! If it's the right map...


[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
Next week, the long awaited Chapter 3 will finally release! We were trying to get it out before the almighty Cyberpunk 2077 releases, but that's looking extremely unlikely. So, if for whatever reason you're not playing Cyberpunk next weekend, know that we'll have your back with 7 new missions of content. It doesn't sound like much, but in reality, the total length eclipses the first 2 Chapters combined! Plus there'll be new Specializations to try out.

After Chapter 3 releases next weekend, we'll be working on the next balance patch. Numerous folks have noted various problems with the game's current balance, and fear not - we're well aware of them, so expect the silly 2 Element & 6 Element builds to no longer automatically dominate, and more love for 4 & 5 Element builds. There'll also be more juicy surprises in said patch, so look forward to it!


[h2]Jingle Jam[/h2]
If you're not aware, we are participating in Jingle Jam this year! As a result, you may notice a surge in players over the next few weeks, especially tomorrow on Saturday, December 5th, when Yogscast will be livestreaming Element TD 2 on Twitch! Stream runs from 8pm to 11pm UTC, so stop on by and show your support!

It's been a while, but we're back with a new patch! With this, we're rebranding Duel Mode into War Mode, which sees two players face off in a fast-paced match of constant counterplay, leading to cut-throat games! And if you want things even more frantic, we've added Team War Mode, which has 4 players in a 2v2 vying for control!

Also in this patch are improvements to Lobbies, some welcome fixes to Ranked Mode, quality-of-life updates, and a bunch of other fixes. Read on for the full notes!

Nuclear launch detected... oh, too late.


[h2]Features[/h2]

• [h3]War Mode:[/h3]
  • Originally known as Duel Mode, War Mode is a 1v1 mode where both players are placed in the same maze. Your towers damage enemy creeps while healing your own. Additionally, the elements you choose affect which War Abilities you get, which are powerful abilities that can influence the tide of the battle!
    • Rush your creeps forward with Hyper Boost, spawn an intimidating Mega Creep, or even launch a Nuke to decimate a group of towers!
      
    • Most games end in 15-20 Waves, and we've personally never seen games go past 25 Waves. It can also be very back-and-forth as builds get more complex. Choosing your Elements, positioning, and timing has never been more important.
      
• [h3]Team War Mode:[/h3]
  • Because 1v1 wasn't frantic enough, you can now do 2v2s! All 4 players are on the same map, and each player has their own abilities. Coordinate with your partner to push your creeps to the end and survive the opponent's onslaught!
    
• Players now join "slots", instead of being automatically ordered around. As a result, the Host of a game can now move players around to different slots.
  
• Teams Mode now denotes who's on what team in the Lobby itself.
  • Instead of having to quit/rejoin in order to order yourselves, now just make the request from the Host.
    
  • This even allows you to do Solo Teams Mode, where each player is on their own team.
    

This is war.


[h2]Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Host Game now looks 100% fancier.
  
• Creeps have received a visual update and should stand out better than before.
  
• In Multiplayer, Player Nametags are now color-coded.
  
• When someone clears a wave in Teams Mode, it now lists the Team that cleared it instead of the player.
  
• Pings have been made 50% more visible.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Campaign where you had 1 less Unlock Point than intended.
  • Note this also fixes a longtime bug where some folks had way more than intended. So if you had 30+ points before and you've noticed you're suddenly down to 22, welcome to everyone else's level.
    
• Fixed a bug where, if you somehow passed the exact threshold for an Achievement, you wouldn't receive it.
  

A fancier way to encourage playing new modes


[h2]Ranked Mode[/h2]

• Ranked is now restricted to players Level 10 or higher. New players are encouraged to try and learn the game first, before getting smashed by the difficulty of the mode itself.
  
• If the opponent quits the match, the game will now automatically end.
  
• Reduced Silver threshold from 700 to 600.
  
• Reduced Gold threshold from 1000 to 900.
  
• The Customize button is now disabled when searching for a Ranked game.
  • In the future, we'll allow you to peruse the menu as you please during search, I promise! This is just a temporary fix for now.
    
• Fixed a bug where you could find a game and then immediately get disconnected.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ranked Leaderboards would sometimes be flipped.
  
• Fixed the in-game MMR Pop-up sometimes displaying something wrong entirely.
  

That's it for this patch! I know it's been a while since the last patch, but fret not, we've got a bunch more on the way over the next month. In favor of releasing an update sooner, new Achievements & Cosmetics aren't in quite yet, but don't worry, they'll be here next week. And a week after that, we'll have Chapter 3 finally in the game!

On top of that, we have a surprise for you coming up soon. We can't say when exactly, but it's soon. In the meantime, enjoy the new War Modes!


On last thing: on Sunday, November 29th at 10:00am GMT, we'll be running some server maintenance, so if you're playing online during that time and you suddenly get disconnected, that'd be why.


Arriving in Chapter 3! This looks a bit different than I remember...