Element TD 2 News

[h2]Release Date[/h2]
It's been a long road since the start of Early Access. The scope and scale of the game has increased substantially over time. We've added a Campaign, new Modes, Ranked, Achievements, Cosmetics, and so much more! Our playerbase and Discord have grown considerably as well. However, believe it or not, we're actually nearing release...

We're proud to announce that Element TD 2 will be leaving Early Access on February 19th, 2021!


[h2]The Price[/h2]
Currently, the game is available for $9.99. However, when we officially release, we'll be increasing the price to $14.99, to account for the substantial increase in scale and content. So if you know any friends interested in the game, tell them to get it now!


[h2]What's Left?[/h2]
We actually have our plans for the next few versions drafted up, as well as estimated release dates:

• Version 0.60:
  • Before the end of November
  • Updates to Duel Mode
  • Team Duel Mode added
    
  • Improved Lobby System
  • Various fixes to Ranked Mode
• Version 0.61:
  • Last week of November
  • New Achievements and Cosmetics
• Version 0.62:
  • Second week of December
  • Chapter 3 of the Campaign!
    
  • Specializations for Triple Element Towers
    
• Version 0.63:
  • First week of January
  • Balance Update
    
  • New Maps (Variants)
    
  • Chapter 3 Achievements
    
  • New Cosmetics
    
• Version 0.64:
  • Second week of January
  • Third Co-op map
    
  • Proper Visuals for Atlantis Map
    
  • New Achievements
    

After Version 0.64, we'll be focusing on bug fixes and quality-of-life updates as we work on Chapter 4, which will finish the Campaign and signal the official release of the game.


We've got some surprises in store for you all. Some of it's arriving in the coming updates, and some of it... well, we can't tell you yet, but we do have something big coming up soon! In the meantime, look forward to the next few patches, which will increase the game's content by a considerable amount... again.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Reduced MMR Search Range from a max of 450 to a max of 225
  • This should result in a lot less lopsided matches.
    
• When searching for a Ranked Game, the Customize button is now hidden.
  
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to send your Boss Score entry to the Ranked Leaderboard.
  
• Fixed a bug where, if you searched for a Ranked Game, cancelled, and then tried to Host/Join a Lobby, it'd immediately disconnect you.
  
• Fixed a minor lighting inconsistency on Grand City.
  

It took its sweet time, but Ranked Mode is finally here! Compete against friends, random strangers, and possible developer cameos, as you climb the rankings and destroy everyone else! Or die miserably, depending on your skill level. Also included in this patch is Stats, some optimizations, quality-of-life updates, and bug fixes. Enjoy!


Start climbing the rankings!

[h2]Features[/h2]

• Ranked Mode is here, complete with 1v1 Matchmaking and a Ranked Leaderboard!
  • It's split into two categories:
    • Ranked Pick has you playing on Pick + Very Hard.
      
    • Ranked Random has you playing on Same Random + Very Hard + Chaos.
      
    • Regardless of which you choose, map selection is randomized, and certain maps have 2-Path forced on.
      
  • Each category has its own Leaderboard, meaning that even if you're a god at Pick, you're not obligated to play Random to raise your MMR.
    
  • Unlike the standard game, a Ranked Game immediately ends when one player dies.
    • That said, if you quit the game mid-match, that will count as a loss for you.
      
  • Winning more games = higher MMR = raising your Division, which for now, will get you slightly fancier avatar borders. We'll be expanding its rewards over time.
    
• Player Stats have also been added to the game!
  • You can find a list of your lifetime stats under your Profile.
    
  • You can also view other players' profiles on the Ranked Leaderboards.
    
  • Note, only a few of these stats are retroactive. The majority of them will be starting from scratch.
    

It even tracks Duel Abilities. You know, that one mode no one plays.

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Desyncs should happen far less often than before.
  
• Optimized what's rendered on-screen. The game should no longer try to render stuff way off screen.
  
• Disabled numerous spammy debugs, should help performance a bit.
  
• All trees now have a little wind effect on them. No more still trees on Forest!
  
• Adjusted the top-left corner of Grand City, in an attempt to make that path a little more fair.
  
• If you're playing 1-4 Players on Grand City, the bottom half of the map will now be obscured.
  
• If you're scrolling through the Wave Browser, it'll replace the "Next" text with said wave number.
  • It will only say "Next" if you're on the current wave.
    
• Improved the Tower Table Highlight upon getting a new Element.
  
• Forest has been made 10% greener.
  
• [Campaign] Removed the Loadout button. Instead, hitting Play will now bring you to the Loadout screen.
  
• [Campaign] Each Mission now has a few towers it suggests to help clear it.
  
• [Campaign] Flipped Trickery specializations.
  
• [Campaign] Adjusted the sub-wave start sound to be more different from the wave start sound.
  
• [Campaign] Clear Speed now uses MM:SS instead of HH:MM:SS
  
• [Campaign] Replays are no longer saved, due to a whole lot of bugs. We'll re-enable Campaign Replays in a future patch.
  

Poison nods its hats off to you.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed Damage Number options not working properly.
  
• Fixed Wings not showing up for other players' Builders.
  
• Fixed rounding shenanigans on the Money Tower Bonus in the HUD.
  
• Fixed an error that could occur when, if you're the last to survive but you're not the actual winner, it'd count as a victory anyways.
  
• Fixed a bug where if you had Turbo on in a Singleplayer/Multiplayer game, and then played a Campaign Mission, you'd be forced to play it with Turbo on.
  

That's it for this patch! As usual, if you wish to find more players to chat or fight against, join the Element TD Discord, which has surpassed 1000 users!

As for you folks clamoring for Chapter 3, you can expect that to drop at the end of the month, alongside some other updates. We'll be announcing more details in the coming weeks. In the meantime, enjoy smashing folks in Ranked Mode!

Ladies and Gentlemen, behold - Hats on Towers:

Introducing the first Tower Defense ever to let you stick hats on towers. Because we can!

In addition, this patch also features a few new Cosmetics, a dangerous No Sell Mode, updates for Duel Mode, numerous quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, balance updates, and more!

[h2]Features[/h2]

• Hats on Towers!
  • Hats on demand! Customize each of your towers with a different hat. Just go to the Customize menu, strap on your hat, and become a Valve employee practitioner of hats!
    
• In the Cosmetics Preview Pane, right-click will now rotate around the Builder/Towers.
  
• 3 Cosmetics Added!:
  • New Builder: Ghost of a Chance - Requires Level 40
  • New Hat: Pumpkin - Requires Level 25
  • New Hat: Ghosty Pal - Requires Level 65
• No Sell Mode has been added!
  • Turn this on to prevent anyone from selling any of their towers, and making Buy/Sell Abusers cry. Or anyone that makes mistakes, really. Good luck not making mistakes!
    
  • Note, since Interest is no longer as silly as it used to be, this straight up replaces the No Interest modifier. More Modifiers is fun and all, but we try to avoid redundant ones.
    
• 1 New Achievement:
  • It Was All Skill - Beat the game on Very Hard + Random + No Sell + 2-Path in an FFA game, on any map
    
• Our Discord has been updated with a #games-hosted channel:
  • Anytime anyone hosts a game, a post will be made here, telling you who hosted, as well as the settings.
    
  • That way, you'll be notified of games being hosted even you don't have Element TD 2 open!
    

The Main Menu backdrop has been given a slightly festive makeover.

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Scaling for Co-op has been applied:
  • If you're playing with 1-4 Players, it'll only spawn 4 Paths now.
    
  • If you're playing with 5-8 Players, it'll spawn all 8 Paths, and you'll start with 200 Lives instead.
    
• Co-op Starting Gold increased by roughly 20%.
  
• If you're playing Teams, Co-op, or Duel Modes, there is now a limit to the number of towers you can place, equal to the (# of Total Spots) / (# of Players):
  • This was primarily done to reduce griefing. In most cases, you won't notice this.
    
• On the Leaderboard, you can now filter the rankings by Global, Self, & Friends!
  
• The Customize button is now hidden when you're on the Lobby, preventing certain menu hijinks.
  
• Camera Rotate hotkeys are no longer backwards.
  • Page Up/Down now control vertical rotation, while Home/End control horizontal rotation.
    
• Within the first 5 Waves of a game, Eliminations no longer count for XP & Achievements. RIP abuse shenanigans.
  
• Game Notifications now list the actual player that hosted.
  
• Game Notifications now also list what Region it's hosted on.
  
• Pressing F9 to hide the UI will now hide the Builder Select Circle as well as Elemental Boss Nametags.
  
• Player Nametags have been raised, they should no longer overlap most builders.
  
• Increased how close you can zoom in.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Attempt number #9000 at fixing Campaign Unlock Points not transferring from saves.
  • If you're still running into an issue where you cannot progress in the Campaign because you have way less Unlock Points than you should, please let us know.
    
• Fixed XP Bar blocking input on the Unlock Stuff menu, even when disabled.
  
• Fixed a bug where Howitzer's Heavy Cannons was applying the multiplier twice. Whoops.
  
• Fixed Tower Select UI in Campaign not displaying Specialization icons.
  
• Fixed a bug where Audio Settings were resetting themselves.
  
• Fixed a bug in Boss Hunt Length where the Essence Pick Upgrade was giving you 4 Essences instead of 2.
  

[h2]Duel Mode Updates[/h2]

• New Duel Mode ability: Dimensional Rift:
  • Places all creeps affected in stasis, preventing them from taking damage. It also removes them from the current wave, meaning they can carry into the next wave.
    
• Spawn Mega has been rescaled:
  • HP increased from x5 to x10
    
  • Lives taken increased from 5 to 10
    
  • It now moves at half the speed
    
• Lockdown AoE reduced from 400 to 300
  
• Fixed hostile indicators not showing up
  
• Fixed creeps remaining at the end of a Duel Mode game
  
• Fixed abilities not being recorded in Duel Mode replays
  

Its VFX may be prettier, but its effect has been slam dunked by the nerfbat. Git gud, folks.

[h2]Balance[/h2]

• As usual, the Leaderboard has been reset.
  
• Reverted the Focus Targeting changes from 0.57:
  • The only towers that focus targets down now are Light, Atom, Infernal & Flooding.
    
• Arrow damage increased from 45 to 50
  • Projectile speed also increased 25%
    
• Light consecutive damage reduced from 5 / 30 / 180 / 1800 to 3 / 18 / 108 / 1080
  
• Atom damage increased from 280 / 1120 / 4480 to 300 / 1200 / 4800
  
• Poison rescaled:
  • Damage-per-second reduced from 70 / 280 / 1120 to 50 / 200 / 800
    
  • Duration increased from 10 to 14 seconds
    
• Ice rescaled:
  • Damage reduced from 750 / 3000 / 12000 to 525 / 2100 / 8400
    
  • Attack Speed increased from 1 to 1.5
    
• Infernal damage increased from 650 / 2600 / 10400 to 700 / 2800 / 11200
  
• Mushroom damage increased from 110 / 440 / 1760 to 115 / 460 / 1840
  
• Life adjusted:
  • Damage increased from 800 / 3200 / 12800 to 1250 / 5000 / 20000
    
  • Attack Speed reduced from 1 to 0.66
    
  • Number of kills needed to gain a life changed from 6 / 4 / 2 to 15 / 10 / 5
    
• Howitzer damage increased from 165 / 660 / 2640 to 170 / 680 / 2720
  
• Laser damage increased from 4200 / 16800 to 4500 / 18000
  
• Astral damage reduced from 1800 / 7200 to 1600 / 6400
  
• Runic damage increased from 1000 / 4000 to 1200 / 4800
  
• Haste rescaled:
  • Attack Speed increased from 1 to 1.5
    
  • Damage increased from 900 / 3600 to 1000 / 4000
    
  • Projectile Speed increased by 25%
    
  • Attack Speed gain per attack reduced from 10% to 7%. Still caps at 6 attacks per second.
    
• Money damage increased from 5500 / 22000 to 6000 / 24000
  

Well well well...

Whew, that ended up being a lot more than we expected! Strike fear into the hearts of your enemies as you plaster Tophats and Pumpkins onto your towers. Make your friends regret making mistakes in No Sell Mode. And if you haven't played Duel Mode before, grab a friend and give it a shot; expect more improvements for it down-the-road.

Speaking of stuff coming down-the-road...

[h2]Where's Ranked Mode?[/h2]
We're actually close to releasing this one! We were trying to get it done for this week, but it's taking more time than expected; meanwhile, everything else planned for the Ranked patch was done, so we decided to release Version 0.58 now. Expect Ranked to arrive in Version 0.59 next week!

[h2]Where's Chapter 3?[/h2]
Admittedly, this one's kind of behind schedule. At the moment, I can only say it'll release by the end of November. However, I can guarantee you that when it does arrive, it'll be packing some surprises!

[h2]When's the Launch Date?[/h2]
Well, after Ranked Mode & Chapter 3, we do have a Chapter 4 planned, among a few more things. However, compared to what's come before, it's really not too much. That said, next month, we'll be announcing the official release date for Element TD 2. Look forward to it!

Version 0.57 has arrived, folks! With it arrives a UI update, a difficulty increase (and with it, a leaderboard reset), the ability to add friends, new Achievements, new Cosmetics, bug fixes, and more!

Combine some of the new Cosmetics to acquire the Cursed Sheep on a Cloud!

[h2]Features[/h2]

• UI has received a bit of a facelift! The Main Menu in particular should be much less monotonous than before.
  
• At the end of a multiplayer game, on the Scoreboard, we've added an Add Friend button, next to everyone's names.
  
• 8 New Achievements added:
  • Monument - Get 500 kills on a single tower
    
  • Boss Hunter - Reach Wave 64
    
  • How Interesting - Get 20,000 Interest in an FFA Game
    
  • Greed is Good - Get 20,000 Money Tower Bonus in an FFA Game
    
  • Breaking the Bank - Get 150,000 Networth before Wave 56 in an FFA Game
    
  • In Good Health - Reach 70 Lives in an FFA Game
    
  • Extreme Conditions - Clear through Wave 55 on Full Length + Hard + Extreme, on any map
    
  • Perfectionist - Clear through Wave 55 on Full Length + Insane without losing any lives, on any map
    
• 10 New Cosmetics added:
  • New Builder: Plague Skull
    
  • New Builder: Sheep on a Cloud
    
  • New Hat: Cupcake
    
  • New Hat: Well
    
  • New Hat: Runestone
    
  • New Hat: Om Nom Nom
    
  • New Trail: Fairy Streams
    
  • New Trail: Trail of Thorns
    
  • New Wings: Spark Wings
    
  • New Wings: Ungodly Wings
    

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• The Customize button is now on the main menu at all times.
  
• Tower Count is now displayed in the top-right corner.
  • Presently, the "cap" that you see is just the total number of build locations on the map.
    
• You can now build over Trickery Clones, thus replacing them.
  
• The score column on the Scoreboard now remains hidden until Wave 56.
  
• The Wave Browser now hides itself starting from Wave 56 onwards.
  
• Periodic now lists all 6 Elements on its tooltip.
  
• You can no longer steam invite someone that's on a different version.
  
• Adjusted some XP values on the Co-op Achievements.
  
• Adjusted various offset Cosmetics.
  
• Trails that previously didn't have Passive VFX now do.
  
• Undead grave should be slightly more visible.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed Unlock Points on the cloud save not transferring properly.
  
• Fixed a bug where building from the Tower Table was faster than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where killing the previous wave would not unfreeze your Interest.
  
• Fixed a bug where Nature, Astral, Runic, & Golem Towers would activate their effects before they started shooting, thus wasting part of their effect.
  
• Fixed a bug with Atom Tower where, if it shot at a target, it goes out of range for a moment, and then shoots it again, its stacks would reset to 0 instead of resuming the stacks.
  
• Fixed various pop-ups not getting adjusted by UI Scale.
  

[h2]General Balance[/h2]

• Base HP increased from 110 to 120
  
• HP Scaling reduced from x1.158 to x1.155
  
• Team HP Scaling reduced from x1.163 to x1.16
  
• Wave Times reduced by 2 seconds on all difficulties
  • Scaling wave time adjusted from +1 second per 15 Waves to +1 second per 20 Waves
    
  • Extreme wave time increased from +3 to +5 seconds
    
  • Co-op wave time increased by +10 seconds
    
• Target Front has been adjusted so that it actually shoots the creeps closest to the end, instead of the oldest creeps.
  
• Most towers will now focus targets down, instead of reevaluating on every attack.
  
• Pick Sell reduced from 90% to 80%
  
• Level 2 Singles gold cost reduced from 700 to 650
  
• Level 3 Singles gold cost reduced from 2500 to 2250
  
• Level 4 Singles gold cost reduced from 12500 to 12250
  
• Perfection Score Bonus now only works on Full Length.
  
• Base Speed Score Modifiers adjusted:
  • Full increased from x4.0 to x4.2
    
  • Short increased from x3.4 to x3.6
    
  • Extra Short increased from x2.4 to x2.5
    
• Minimum Speed Modifier increased from x0.5 to x1.0
  
• Temporal jump duration reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 seconds
  

[h2]Tower Balance[/h2]

• Earth rescaled:
  • Shockwave damage increased from 30 / 180 / 1080 / 10800 to 45 / 270 / 1620 / 16200
    
  • AoE growth reduced from 50
    
• Poison rescaled:
  • Damage-per-second reduced from 90 / 360 / 1440 to 70 / 280 / 1120
    
  • Duration increased from 9 to 10 seconds
    
• Solar damage-per-second reduced from 150 / 600 / 2400 to 140 / 560 / 2240
  
• Infernal damage increased from 600 / 2400 / 9600 to 650 / 2600 / 10400
  
• Mushroom rescaled:
  • Damage increased from 80 / 320 / 1280 to 110 / 440 / 1760
    
  • Max damage reduced from 300% to 200%
    
• Geyser rescaled:
  • Damage reduced from 900 / 3600 / 14400 to 600 / 2400 / 9600
    
  • Attack speed increased from 1 to 1.5
    
• Blacksmith rescaled:
  • Damage increased from 400 / 1600 / 6400 to 500 / 2000 / 8000
    
  • Damage bonus rescaled from 15% / 30% / 90% to 10% / 20% / 100%
    
• Well rescaled:
  • Damage increased from 400 / 1600 / 6400 to 500 / 2000 / 8000
    
  • Attack speed bonus rescaled from 15% / 30% / 90% to 10% / 20% / 100%
    
• Trickery rescaled:
  • Damage increased from 300 / 1200 / 4800 to 375 / 1500 / 6000
    
  • Clone damage rescaled from 60% / 120% / 360% to 40% / 80% / 400%
    
• Astral damage increased from 1500 / 6000 to 1800 / 7200
  
• Runic search AoE increased from 250 to 300
  
• Flooding damage reduced from 350 / 1400 to 320 / 1280
  
• Money gold bonus increased from 25% / 35% to 30% / 40%
  

That's it for this week! Apparently, Insane difficulty is genuinely really difficult this patch, according to our testers; so much so that the new Perfectionist achievement took quite a while even for our top players to get. We hope that the Co-op + Insane achievements are possible with the tweaks this patch. If not, we'll address it next balance patch.


[h2]Where's Ranked Mode?[/h2]
Don't worry, we're still hacking away at it. We're hoping it'll be ready to release in about 2-3 weeks. We'll release more details when we get closer to release. If you'd like to test it out early, hop aboard our EleTD Discord, check the #roles channel, and tag yourself as part of the @testers!