Inkbound News

[h2]Letter from the Team[/h2]

We are happy to see so many people enjoying the game! Thank you for playing.

This first patch after launching 1.0 is focused primarily on bug fixes with a few balance changes. We will continue to fix as many bugs as we can. We expect to patch again next week.

[h2]Release Timing[/h2]

This patch will be released at approximately 12 pm Pacific (UTC-7) on April 12, 2024.

[h2]Full Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]Gameplay Bug Fixes[/h3]

1. Fixed Tuhning Guardians using a discontinued mechanic that grants +25% damage buff whenever a player uses a binding every other turn. Increased base attack from 7 >>> 9.
   
2. Fixed Unbound tentacles able to spawn multiple in the same spot. Fixed tentacles re-gaining inkshield every 3 turns.
   
3. Fixed Hemmorhage having 3 max stacks.
   
4. Fixed Striker 4 Victory board quest having incorrect unlock condition (Venomous 4).
   
5. Fixed Eruption ascension Tethering Surge not being able to grant Combo when gaining 3 or more Martial Master while already having a stack of Combo.
   
6. Fixed Chainbreaker Rare vestige Freedom Tally granting Combo instead of Martial Master.
   
7. Fixed certain book mutators no longer affecting player after dying and being revived in multiplayer.
   
8. Fixed Mosscloak Legendary vestige The Emerald Leaf increasing Shuriken max stacks by 10 instead of to 10.
   
9. Fixed Incendiary ascension Wildfire not properly inflicting half burn stacks to all other Enemies.
   
10. Fixed Uncommon vestige Barbed Bones granting extra stacks of Spiked while you have the Ambusher set bonus active.
    
11. Fixed Quicken ascension Expedite reducing highest Binding cooldown to 0 instead of random Binding cooldown.
    
12. Fixed Chi Eruption Rare augment Overflowing Eruption status effect staying around in the next turn even after cost discount has expired.
    
13. Fixed Rare vestige Shocking Corecap limiting triggers for number of enemies crit instead of number of times you used a Binding with a critical charge.
    
14. Fixed Common vestige Stationgrade Klaxon not stacking.
    
15. Fixed Constrict ascensions not properly being affected by crit chance by Uncommon augment Critical Constrict.
    
16. Fixed Weaver vestige Rare Faded Mandela not triggering while you have Weaver Epic vestige Strings of Fate and Constrict ascension Rope Burn.
    
17. Fixed Thread ascension Tether not removing Threaded when targeting both threaded and un-threaded enemies.
    
18. Fixed Trinket Sanguinity of Witt increasing chance but not guaranteeing seeing Cleave in Binding draft.
    

[h3]Gameplay Balance Changes[/h3]

1. Updated Frostfire set from 3, 6 >>> 4, 7.
   
2. Updated Warden set from 2,4,6 >>> 2,4,7.
   
3. Updated Reaver 8 "+125 crit damage. On Critting, +25 crit damage until end of turn." >>> "+120 crit damage. On Critting, +15 crit damage until lend of turn."
   
4. Adjust slightly enemy appearance rate on some battles that were too hard and one battle that was too easy.
   
5. Updated Trinket Marker of the Unbound. "...After using a Binding in Blight 5 times, gain 6 Omni damage." >>> "...After using a Binding in Blight 5 times, gain 4 Omni damage."
   
6. Updated Chain Lightning Uncommon augment Empowering Lightning: "+25 Omni Damage until an Attack Binding is used." >>> "+15 Omni Damage for the rest the turn."
   
7. Vestige Trade Up mutator will no longer swap with other class's class-specific vestiges.
   
8. Updated Bounty of Sentient beings to not apply Bounty onto Villains or Guardians.
   

[h3]Other Changes and Fixes[/h3]

1. Improved the Chinese translation in various places.
   
2. Fixed some minor text bugs in other languages.
   
3. Fixed typo in Epic vestige "Melting Sprout" >>> "Melting Spout".
   
4. Fixed Trinket Talons of Cyn referring to "Poison Cloud" binding instead of "Poison Vapor".
   
5. Fixed bug where tooltip would not appear on gamepad for Max HP entry in Stat Details screen on entry to the screen from the Radial Menu screen.
   
6. Fixed Redeem Code button from being disabled in Atheneum in some circumstances.
   
7. Adjusted default selectable in Logbook Quests on gamepad: prioritize going to tracking buttons over reward items, when available.
   
8. Fixed issue where the stats tutorial could trigger upon returning to the Atheneum and be unable to be dismissed.
   
9. Fixed The Stigmatist having the wrong display name in a specific context.
   
10. Adjusted tutorial UI on gamepad to not show LB/RB helper icons in bottom HUD until a class is selected.
    
11. Fixed players rarely seeming to get randomly renamed when playing online.
    

Welcome to our 1.0 update, Rise of the Unbound! This update to Inkbound includes new quest lines, a new final boss, many balance changes, new items, full controller support, full English voice over, localization into Chinese/Japanese/French/German and a lot more. If you’re interested in all the details, read on!



[h3]New Final Boss: The Unbound[/h3]
Waiting for you beneath the inky expanse, the entity behind the Unravelling is gathering in strength. But in order to reach it, you must dive further than you ever have before. Are you prepared, Needless?



[h3]New Quests[/h3]
Unravel the final mysteries of the Atheneum and its reclusive Inkbound as you embark on the final chapter of the Inkbound story to defeat the Unbound and decide the fate of the Atheneum once and for all.

[h3]Vestige Mastery and Vestige Lore[/h3]
When you win a run with a Vestige equipped, it will become “mastered”. We indicate this in a variety of places in the UI. Upon mastering a Vestige you can read some additional lore about it in the Logbook Collection, fleshing out the story and world.

Can you master them all?



[h3]Challenge Buffs on Villains and Guardians[/h3]
To increase run variety we’ve implemented Challenge Buffs on both Villains and Guardians (book bosses). These modifiers change the gameplay in a variety of different ways. At higher Ranks, your choice of Villain also tells you what the Challenge Buff will be, giving you a gameplay reason to decide to go for one Villain or another.



[h3]New Vestiges and Vestige Sets[/h3]
There are 25 new Vestiges added into the mix, bringing the pool of Vestiges up to 242. We’ve also added 5 new Vestige Sets to a total of 37 vestige sets. Fun fact: that’s over 8 trillion potential Vestige combinations!



[h3]New Trinkets[/h3]
There are 2 new trinkets that have been added, bringing the total up to 20. In addition, several trinkets have been reworked to make them clearer to read and more interesting to use.



[h3]Full Controller Support[/h3]
We’ve implemented support for controllers across the entirety of the game. We support button icons for Steam Deck, Xbox Series, PlayStation DualSense, and Switch Pro controllers. It was challenging to provide controller-based access to all of the UI information in the game but it’s all accessible.



[h3]Keyboard Proximity Interact[/h3]
Prefer to use a keyboard instead of clicking with the mouse? We’ve added the ability to interact with objects in Inkbound with a press of a key. This feature was added for controller support initially but we extended it to the keyboard as well. In case you don’t like seeing these hint prompts, you can disable them in the settings.



[h3]Improved Steam Deck Support[/h3]
Of course full controller support will improve the experience on the Steam Deck tremendously. On top of that, we’ve also implemented support for the virtual keyboard where needed, and made a few other Deck-specific tweaks.

[h3]Full English VO[/h3]
In Early Access part of our NPC dialogue was voiced. Now, at 1.0, all of it is. We hope you’ll enjoy the work of both our returning and new actors.

[h3]Localization into Chinese, Japanese, French, and German[/h3]
Inkbound has been fully localized into these four new languages. You can continue to play in English if you wish, or switch to one of the new languages to give it a shot! If you have any bug reports for the localization you would like to share with us, please join us in Discord or press F8 to report them in-game.



[h3]Story Cutscenes[/h3]
In a few places in the game we’ve upped the polish level by implementing animated cutscenes. The screenshot below is from the start of the game. And yes, you can skip them if you don’t want to watch.



[h3]Added Augments to Logbook Collection[/h3]
Ever wanted to know what all the Augments are for a Binding? Now you can see them all in one place and plan out your build.



[h3]More Steam Achievements[/h3]
We added 11 new Achievements for you Achievement hunters out there bringing the total to 39.



[h3]Major Balance Rework[/h3]
Our goal with balance changes was to make sure the first book wasn't a 'free win' - your build has to start to come together at least a little, and at the same time we added a lot more ways for builds to grow and develop within Book 1. Book 2 and beyond have felt too easy in the live game and we simply wanted those to have increased challenges. In general as we increased the challenge it also pushed us to make things more fair, certain unfair feeling challenge buffs have been cut, and we've generally rebalanced the weight of a variety of player power sources against each other to feel more like even contributions. On top of these changes we've wanted to bring down slightly the total amount of units so that battles can be clearer and cleaner and we've made some of those changes as well. Of course all balance is a process and we will definitely be watching closely in the coming weeks to continue to fine tune these numbers.

[h3]Quest Progression Simplified[/h3]
All existing quests have been reworked and, in some cases, simplified to reduce RNG dependencies and simplify progression. Various pieces of content that are locked behind quests (e.g. the Star Captain Aspect) have been given special attention both to make it clear how to unlock as well as to significantly reduce the amount of time to unlock it.

[h3]Run Types Simplified[/h3]
To simplify starting a run, we merged the concept of an Unranked Run and a Ranked Run into a single run start option. Daily Challenge continues to be a separate option.



[h3]Improved Rank Changing and Daily Challenge Detail UI[/h3]
After the last note, you might be wondering how you can play an Unranked run now. Well, never fear, it’s still possible in a new and improved UI accessible in the Atheneum. From this UI you can lower your Rank if you wish via a handy drop-down and can review the details of the Rank before committing to starting a run.



We also applied the same treatment to the Daily Challenge, giving it a dedicated UI screen for reviewing information about the current Challenge.



[h3]Refreshed Victory Board[/h3]
We’ve fully refreshed the Victory Board with 108 new objectives and new cosmetics to unlock by completing them.

(The cosmetic rewards from the prior Victory Board have been moved into the Cosmetic Vault.)

[h3]Improved Display of Bindings in Logbook Collection[/h3]
We reorganized the UI in the Logbook’s Bindings section to make it easier to see which Ascenions are related to which Binding.



[h3]Change Your Character Name[/h3]
Name yourself “asdf” before realizing that your name would be publicly visible when playing online? Just me? Well you can change it yourself now in the Character Customization screen.



[h3]Improved Support for Various Monitor Aspect Ratios[/h3]
In Early Access we had good support for 16:9 and 16:10. Now, we’ve made polish improvements to wider aspects like 21:9, and have implemented numerous bug fixes for closer-to-square aspect ratios like 4:3 and 5:4.

[h3]Punchier Audio and Visual Effects[/h3]
Interspersed throughout the game we’ve added new visual effects and new audio to juice up and improve the game feel.

[h3]Rearrange Vestige Bar[/h3]
You can now rearrange your Vestige bar by dragging and dropping Vestiges into different slots to swap their order.


Beyond the larger features we have made hundreds of small changes to improve balance, fix bugs, and generally polish the overall experience. We are super excited to be releasing this major update and look forward to hearing your feedback!



Want to see the detailed list of changes? You can view those here.

Hello Inkbound fans!

If you’ve visited our weekly streams you’re probably well aware of who I am (and if you haven’t stopped by our streams, you should!). That said, my name is Andrew Krausnick and I’m the Creative Director here at Shiny Shoe. What that means is I’m generally responsible for developing with our team a unified creative vision that we are all working towards, and that as we create, playtest, and gather feedback on our games that we update that vision and continue to work towards creating the best possible games for you all to play.

In this blog post, as we head towards our upcoming 1.0 launch, I wanted to spend a little time looking at where we started, where we are now, and where we’re headed.
Where we started

Inkbound as a project was born out of a desire to create a new type of roguelike that married multiplayer, tactics, and creating incredibly broken builds. Of course that’s no small task, and of all projects I’ve worked on this has been the one that has faced the most iteration and challenges. Some that we expected and many we didn’t!

For us as a studio it was our first multiplayer game, our first time trying out alternative monetization ideas, and as far as we know the combat system is one of a kind.

Some of our initial ideas paid off - I’m very pleased with how our combat system can feel fast and reactive in multiplayer. And some of those ideas had to go (nobody seems sad that we no longer have a battle pass). Other ideas came to us along the way, as methods to further enhance core ideas. Such as the impact and appearance of Vestige Sets in the most recent update.

One of my favorite things to do at launches is to look back at some of the earliest screenshots of a project. Here are a few I pulled out of the depths of my hard drive (it’s like looking at baby pictures - a little ugly and a little cute?)


The oldest screenshot on my hard drive. The original ‘biter’ is about to chomp.


A real world exists! Also we had equipment with abilities on it. Also an inventory that was persistent (between runs!). Trying out a lot of ideas here. Chat is 20% of the screen.


The Inklings exist! Also we have resource bars, experience points, and abilities. We had arcing attack lines from enemies in real space at this point.


The first figments, also the combat arena works at this point and enemy variety is ramping up.


The first augment drafts. They had bonus effects at the time! Everyone just always chose the bonus effect ones though. More of a level up system and less mix and match.

[h3]Where we are now[/h3]

We’ve grown a great community, iterated heavily, added languages, controller support, and much more with this upcoming update. The narrative is voiced and there’s a payoff at the end. There’s a ton of balance changes that will make the game more engaging and rewarding than ever, with more tough choices and big wins (and close losses!). In short, our launch brings basically a whole new game. The launch is incredibly exciting and the amount of changes and polish is staggering - I genuinely can’t wait until it’s in all of your hands.

[h3]What we see in the future![/h3]

And of course looking at the above screenshots I can’t help but wonder if by the time we’re at 2.0 if the current game will look just as old. So what’s next? To a large degree that’s up to all of you and all of our new fans! We look forward to hearing from you all on what you’d like to see.

Of course we have a few aspects we’ve been cooking up, a variety of new Bindings, as well as a range of discussions about how we can expand the game even further. What game modes could we introduce? What about more unique book effects, or even books themselves? Let us know in the comments what you’d love to see and we’ll hopefully be talking about all of that very soon!

Hi everyone!

It might be April 1st but we have some very real and important news to share with you today. We are moving our release date up by one day from April 10th to April 9th! In addition, between now and April 9th, we’ve enabled an XP boost in the current Early Access version of the game.

We are excited to get this massive update into your hands. A new final boss, new quests, improved balance, new vestiges, new trinkets, controller support, full English voice over, and text translation into Chinese, Japanese, German, and French.

We are patching the game today to add the XP boost and to update the countdown timer, which now reflects our new launch date.

We are looking forward to seeing you in the world of Inkbound on April 9th!