1. Inkbound
  2. News

Inkbound News

Early Access Patch 0.1.2

[h2]Letter from the Team[/h2]

Hey everyone! Andrew here (Avarem on Discord), and I wanted to talk a bit about this first major patch we're putting out to you and where we're headed from here. I also wanted to take the time to thank all of you for joining us as we make a whole new kind of game, already since our launch on Monday and at the time of this writing on Thursday afternoon we've seen 126031 runs started. And I'm certain it won't be too long before we hit a million.

This patch is a mixture of bug fixes, balance, and some updates to our monetization systems. We've gotten a massive amount of feedback from you all and we're going to be attempting to hit all of the pain points we can as soon as we can. In terms of balance, now that we have a much wider audience playing we're seeing that our difficulty at the baseline is probably too high. We've been seeing the meta shift at the high end and new strategies continue to be developed, so we want to keep our top ranks where they are, but this patch weakens enemies somewhat at Bronze ranks and below, including Unranked. We also have attempted to adjust some battles which were the biggest outliers. That said there's still much more work to do here and we anticipate a few additional rounds of balance during Season 1 before we get it where we want it.

Finally, our monetization changes. Obviously things launched in a state that has had some of our fans be upset about it, and we think that's fair. We used systems that we had seen in other titles without being critical enough about what those systems entail, and without getting enough feedback before launch. We believe that a cosmetic driven system is the right one, we want to make sure we can keep the box price low and the content updates free so that our community can stay together, but we understand how some of the mechanics in place could be seen negatively. Towards that end we've made some rapid changes in this patch to help improve it: adding a 50 Shinies option to top up, removing buying season levels since these rewards won't be going anywhere, and removing the rotation on the store to let players get what they want when they want to. We're also actively working on a design for the full system for the pass itself to be available after this season is over and we'll be unveiling that soon. We appreciate all the feedback we've gotten here as we do some learning about what makes these systems work for us, the game, and you. Our goal is that they exist to let you support us when you feel it's valuable and worth it.

All that said we're continuing to keep on top of Discord for feedback and we'll have a few more patches heading your way before too long, and the next season is cooking here at Shiny Shoe HQ - the new Aspect is going to be a fun one! And speaking of Discord, if you haven't joined us there you really ought to, just make sure to look for the special code as a bonus and a thank you for joining us this early on our journey.

Until the next update,
- Andrew and the Shiny Shoe Team

[h2]Release Timing[/h2]

This patch will be released at approximately 6 am PDT on May 26th, 2023.

This link might help you see when that is in your local time. Let us know if it doesn't!

[h2]Full Patch Notes[/h2]

Gameplay Changes

  1. Reduced outgoing damage of all enemies by 20% in Bronze 1 and under. Enemies at Silver 3 onwards are equally as damaging as they are currently.
  2. Always attempt to pick different items if you re-roll insatead of re-rolling to the same items.
  3. Rerolling Augments now requires one Glyph instead of kwillings.
  4. Increased amount of Glyphs rewarded from Globules and Globes by 1.
  5. Increased Gylph reroll for Epic Augs from 1 >>> 2.
  6. Additional Book 1 encounters have had more Inkling Slashers substituted in for other enemy types so that there are fewer immediate full on direct attack turns.
  7. Increased the base damage of Thread from 10 >>> 20.
  8. Fixed Bonk Season quest bug where Bonk ascensions didn't count towards progress.
  9. Fixed rare vestige Mobius Vine poison damage cap at 10 instead of 20.
  10. Fixed Pilfer epic upgrade Lucky Pilfer vestige drop chance rolling very low chance instead of 25%.
  11. The "Dodge Attacks or Apply Spiked" Run Quest has been reduced from 50 >>> 40.
  12. Fixed Hunter's Dash uncommon upgrade Shielding Dash granting an extra shield.
  13. Fixed Hunter's Dash rare upgrade Strengthening Dash granting extra 2 ability power.
  14. Updated epic vestige Bottled Whirlwind: On end of turn, gain 1 stack of Evasive >>> On your turn, gain 1 stack of Evasive.
  15. Fixed Sitch common upgrade elemental stitch not working with stitch ascension Splice.
  16. Cleanup proc also fires on friendly units.
  17. Fixed an issue where "A Lost Kwill" sea breach option was removing a vestige.
  18. Fixed bug where Applying multiple stacks of a status effect at once wouldn't count towards quest progress.
  19. Fixed Smash ascension Detonate not spreading with the AOE upgrade.
  20. Fixed Detonate spreading to non-burning enemies after defeating an enemy with Detonate.
  21. Slightly increased Weave width and range with the lengthy thread upgrade.
  22. Updated Cultivate pickup tooltips to show dynamic value. Updated Mushroom Growth description to clarify ability power lasts until end of combat. Updated Mushroom Growth buff to use generic status effect.
  23. Reduced the amount of kwillings dropped from Pilfer but increased the value of each kwilling dropped, due to a lag spike with spawning too many kwillings, especially with the Greedy Pilfer upgrade.
  24. Moved Lapi Fishing Hole to not collide with bridge.
  25. Text consistency fix for Scorching Bonk upgrade.
  26. Fixed bug with Grenala's Pendant quest not finishing correctly.
  27. Fixed Bead of Metal old version showing up in the vestige pool instead of recently changed version. "+10 spiked damage" >>> "+5 spiked damage. On collecting an Orb, gain 4 stacks of Spiked.".
  28. Fixed Shadow Shroud stats to be in a consistent order.
  29. Removed inconsistent text from Swift Hare.
  30. Improved communication of The Inkbound questline so that there's no more dead ends.
  31. Fixed Wolo's Bloodletter not stacking.
  32. Fixed rare vestige Inkley Map not stacking.
  33. Updated Acknowledgement of Exemption, specified that the vestige does not stack.
  34. Gunk/Blight no longer show 'death' event in combat log.
  35. Fixed uncommon vestige Alchemist's Toolbelt not stacking.
  36. Fixed uncommon vestige Powder Monkey's stockpile not stacking.
  37. Fixed uncommon vestige Twin Fangs not stacking. Fixed crit chance tooltip not showing up.
  38. Fixed common vestige Tarnished Treasure not stacking.
  39. Fixed Weaver passive not granting controlled weaving if an ally killed other enemies.
  40. Fixed Headbutt damage not matching description. Fixed Headbutt ability damage highlighting.
  41. Fixed Armored Porcupine proc referring to old name.
  42. Fixed missing word "damage" on Tangle.
  43. Fixed Accurate Image referring to "Crit" instead of "Critical Charge".
  44. Added tutorial for opening the multiplayer party invite UI when returning to the hub, when solo, after at least one real run.
  45. Removed an Inkpot from one of the normal battles which was overtuned.
  46. Fixed Legendary vestige Forged Lightning Bolts extraneously granting extra Smite damage in addition to Smiting twice.
  47. Fixed Chain Lightning ascension Zap and Chain Lightning uncommon upgrade Empowering Lightning not dealing bonus damage to each additional Enemy reached.
  48. The Will cost reduction upgrade for Shield Bash no longer will be offered a second time if upgraded once.
  49. Removed a Tangled Kwill from one of the normal battles which was overtuned.
  50. Increased number of enemies on some book 2 hard battles that were undertuned.
  51. Increased health slightly on Shield Spindlecaster and Supportive Spindlecaster.
  52. Jumper does slightly more damage when hitting with jumps.
  53. Increased health slightly on Nim the Lost.
  54. Decreased health slightly on The Captor.
  55. Updated the Needle enemy type to no longer gain Rager or other similar types of challenge buffs.
Art & UI Changes

  1. Added purchase option for 50 Shinies.
  2. Removed ability to purchase season levels.
  3. Made all cosmetic shop items available at all times.
  4. Disabled refresh button if party join is open in Party Invite screen.
  5. Adjusted various "Claim Rewards" button visuals, including for the run quest, to try to make them stand out more.
  6. Made the Orb Decay anim more noticable.
  7. Added new FX for Pile of Tiles, Grim Vortex, and added a drink to drink emote.
  8. Added setting for changing behavior on toggling combat details on and off.
  9. Allowed escape key to open Settings screen from Main Menu.
  10. Fixed bug where Shinies purchase screen would sometimes fail to load when attempting to purchase a cosmetic item that you do not have enough Shinies for.
  11. Added tooltips to bottom menu buttons.
  12. Fixed bugs where pressing multiple menu bar hotkeys simultaneously would open multiple screens at once.
  13. Fixed rare bug where large white squares would sometimes appear over world entities.
  14. Fixed bug where you could get tooltips stuck on the Emote Play screen by triggering hovers after closing the screen with the hotkey.
  15. Improved Garden's Edge bridge visuals.
  16. Improved Promenade bridge visuals.
  17. Adjusted animations to minimize foot sliding on Figment Shield, Tangled Kwill and Shadow Kwill.
  18. Villain_Raven: Removed mushrooms within combat ring to help with visibility of spawning mushrooms during gameplay.
  19. Promenade_Event_Merchant: re-baked lights.
  20. Promenade_Combat4. Add geo to occlude lava drips sorting on top of sea of ink to hide glitch.
  21. SilentPromenade chunks: removed glowy mushrooms from Voting area to avoid visual conflict with UI icons.
  22. Flipped facing direction on Magma Miner set hammer that was facing the wrong way.
  23. Fixed Cynder sometimes not playing the correct death animation depending on how it died.
  24. Scaled down Vengewood destructible statue by 25%.
  25. Added initial tutorial WASD text replacement to respect key bindings.
  26. Fixed visual bugs when using the escape key on Draft Screen, Sea Breach Screen, and Swap Screen.
  27. Fixed issue where the Season progress screen at the end of the run would think you had more cosmetics to collect when you didn't, causing the Season button to blink erroneously.
Audio Changes

  1. Added Gardener VO.
Engine Changes & Other Bug Fixes

  1. Stopped processing and broadcasting queued client events after disconnect.
  2. Reduced targeting/movement ring vertex count. May have positive performance impact on low spec PCs.
  3. Fixed party chat rarely showing as enemy chatter - like enemies announcing a player leveling up.
  4. Fixed client appearing to apply 2x heal amount for end of combat heal stat.
  5. Made it so voting is canceled if their is a change in party membership during a vote. Fixes softlock.
  6. Fixed softlock at main menu if you went AFK for a long time with the Settings screen open.
  7. Fixed load screen so that you don't sometimes see into the grey void.
  8. Run servers now stay up for 6 hours for folks who need the extra time in multiplayer. Previously it was 3 hours.

Dev Stream Mini-Marathon

Want Inkbound loot codes? The next two days are going to be mini-marathon dev streams! We'll be giving away codes throughout so be sure to join!

Here are the start times:
Thursday, May 25, 2023 11:00 AM

Friday, May 26, 2023 12:00 PM

I'll have new guests for each stream so, if you want to meet other members of the team, join at those times!

Tune in on Twitch to enter the giveaways here.

Don't forget to get your FREE SHINIES by checking out the #free-shinies-here channel in the Inkbound server!

Hope to see you in the chat!
~Cami
Community Manager at Shiny Shoe

FREE SHINIES CODE

We're giving out 300 Shinies to everyone as a thank-you for joining us on this wild early-access ride.

To claim, please follow these steps:
1. Head over to Discord.
2. go to the #free-shinies-here channel
3. copy the code in the channel
4. redeem in Inkbound!

To redeem in Inkbound:
1. Enter the Atheneum
2. Click the gear button on the bottom bar menu or press escape
3. Click "Redeem Code"
4. Paste in the code
5. Click "Redeem"

That's it!

See you in the Atheneum!
~Cami
Community Manager at Shiny Shoe

Early Access Hotfix #1

Inkbound Patch Notes May 23, 2023
Early Access Hotfix #1
(Build 16573)

Gameplay Changes
  • Reduced threat on some battles that were doing outsized average damage, generally by removing ranged direct attackers.
  • Replaced many Inkling Jabbers with Inkling Slashers in early encounters. This will result in fewer encounters where most or all of the enemies directly attack players immediately.
  • Increased the duration of Cleansing Shrooms in the Cynder Villain encounter from 1 turn >>> 2 turns.
  • Made enemies in Unranked runs deal less damage if you are on a losing streak. (Note: these modifiers don't exist in Ranked mode.)
  • Fixed a quest that had an incompletable goal based on an old design about "Purchasing Ascensions." Changed to "Purchase Augments."
  • Moved the first free Season Pass reward to unlock later. The goal with this change is to delay drawing players into this system until they've played the game more.
Art & UI Changes
  • Added a "Join Party" text element to the party/friends button in the HUD while in the Atheneum. The goal is to make it more obvious where to go to find/create parties and invite Steam friends.
  • Fixed Cynder gunk not playing an animation when you are in-range of it. This should increase clarity.
  • Fixed Burrower underground dirt VFX popping up every time you hit them.
  • Fixed Dazed VFX flipping around like crazy on certain enemies.
  • Fixed Gaze VFX not rendering properly on larger enemies.
Engine Changes & Other Bug Fixes
  • We are experimenting with adding server capacity in Singapore to try to improve connection quality for players in Asia. This will require more testing but we wanted to try to give it a shot quickly.

INKBOUND NOW ON STEAM!

[h3]Hi, Inklings! [/h3]

Inkbound is now available right here on Steam! Dive into a run and uncover over 200 powerful items, party up with your friends and defeat two more final bosses, level up and unlock the Clairvoyant and the Obelisk, and be the first to reach the ultimate rank: Inkbound!

Get Inkbound! Now available on Steam!

We’ve got a week full of exciting events to celebrate Inkbound’s launch! Join us for one (or all!) of these events:

[center]

Check out the links below to join!

Welcome Stream on Twitch!
May 22, 2023, at 11:00 AM PT

Q&A on Discord
May 23, 2023, at 2:00 PM PT

Inkbound Stream and Giveaway!
May 24, 2023, at 4:00 PM PT

Inkbound Marathon!
May 25, 2023, at 3:00 PM PT

Dev Stream and Shinies Giveaway
May 26, 2023 at 12:00 PM PT [/center]

I hope you'll be able to join!

The journey to this day has been a long but amazing one. It’s been so much fun getting to know you in the past year and I can’t wait to meet more of you as the Inkbound adventure continues! Hopefully I’ll see you at one of these events and don’t forget to say ‘Hi!’ if you see me in Inkbound.

See you in the Atheneum!
~Cami
Community Manager at Shiny Shoe!