Curse of the Dead Gods News

[h2]The Cursed Temple Update is live now![/h2]Last week saw the release of our first major update during the Early Access of Curse of the Dead Gods. How did you like it? We are very happy with the reception of the Cursed Temple update, and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store for later!



We were so glad to introduce these new features into the game, especially some that were highly requested by the community. We are going to continue creating more content in the Cursed Temple theme, but our main focus right now is the Serpent Temple 🐍

Here’s a little snippet of a new enemy for you:


Can you guess what it is and its name? 😏

Of course, you can keep up with our updates by checking out the Roadmap for the upcoming months:



[h2]Official Curse of the Dead Gods Wiki[/h2]Our official wiki got a small facelift on Gamepedia. If you’d like to contribute, you can add content or update some pages to help the community! We’ll appreciate it!

Curse of the Dead Gods Official Wiki

[h2]Join our Discord community[/h2]We’re very active on Discord, and it’s also a great space to share thoughts and feedback with other players. If you feel like it, join us! Cool stuff is coming (live Q&A and more!)

-----------------

That’s all, Pretenders! We are working on a small batch of fixes that should be ready next week (no promises). If you have any bug reports or immediate feedback about our latest update, please share them with us on Steam, Discord or Reddit. Have a good one in the Temple!

Join our Discord Join our Reddit
Follow us on Twitter here and here

Hello Pretenders,

With the Eternal Curse game modes, rediscover the Jaguar Temple and each Exploration with different rules and thematic runs. New ways to play, creative challenges and unpredictable themes are available to unlock in our first MAJOR UPDATE for Curse of the Dead Gods: THE CURSED TEMPLE. We have lined up some fun modes for each level of difficulty in Curse of the Dead Gods and we are excited to share them with the community!

https://youtu.be/lWfxyDue7pM
Step foot in the Temple and face a new batch of Curses: turn them to your advantage, but don’t be too greedy. The new set of Cursed weapons and relics may also aid you in your quest to defeat the Dark Avatar of the Jaguar.

⚠️ Beware, this update may delete your current run (only the run, not your unlockables). Remember to finish it before updating the game on Steam or it will be lost.

[h2]Version 0.18.0 - April 22, 2020[/h2]🍉 = Community additions

[h3]New features[/h3]

• 8 Eternal Curse Game Modes:
  + Old Nightmare
  + The Cursed Marksman
  + Mad Temple
  + Bullet Hell
  + The Darkest Explorer
  + Fire Purge
  + For Gold and Blood
  + Game of Death

Unlock all Eternal Curse game modes and uncover new ways to discover the Jaguar Temple

• 10 New Curses:
  + Trapped Chests
  + Deadly Obsession
  + Dark Fervor
  + Sincere Offerings
  + 🍉 Blurred Vision
  + Sulfurous Barrels
  + Bloodlust
  + Dancing Flames
  + Creeping Gloom
  + Torch of Sorrow

The Torch of Sorrow can put out fire and so much more. Use it wisely.

• 2 New Cursed Weapons:
  + Fulmination, Death's Rampart: Parrying reflects projectiles
  Design Note: We are introducing reflected projectiles with this weapon! According to community feedback, we may extend this mechanic to more weapons or even to generic parry itself.
  + Annihilation, Bow of Madness: Perfect Shots explode on impact in a Dark blast, dealing damage to ALL characters around

• 1 New Regular Weapon:
  + LeMat Grape Shot Revolver: Perfect Shots deal damage to all targets in a cone behind the impact

• 2 New Cursed Relics:
  + Accursed’s Codex: +50% to all weapons’ base damage, +50% to all damage taken
  Dev Note: Localization for other languages than English and French will come soon!
  + Glyph of Darkness: Level +1 on Cursed weapons
  Dev Note: Localization for other languages than English and French will come soon!

Fulmination, Death's Rampart in action

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• 🍉 Weapons: Two-Handed Heavy Standard Attacks preventing dodge and parry for a time can now be dodge/parry canceled as long as the attack has not reach active frames. Change also applies for Sword Charged Attack, Mace Charged Attack, and Two-Handed Spear Charged Attack.
  Design Note: Heavy Weapons were uncomfortable to use when facing fast attacking enemies due to the long defense lockdown. You can now safely dodge/parry cancel your moves until they actually hit (you still have a defense lockdown from there). Note this does not apply to Heavy Charged attacks!
• Weapons - Two-Handed Spears: Charged attacks now deal 2x 75% damage (from 2x 50%)
  Design Note: 2 Stamina for a better AoE effect was too expensive, now with a damage buff as well, charged attacks should be more attractive
• Weapons - Two-Handed Heavy Weapons: Charged attacks now deal 150% damage (from 100%)
  Design Note: Similar to Two-Handed Charged attacks' buff, spend more to deal more damage!
• Weapons - Two-Handed Bows: Recovery time of special dash has been reduced to 0.4s (from 0.5s)
  Design Note: Dashing right after a shot was slightly less effective than just standing and chaining shots, it's now even.
• Weapons - Two-Handed Bows: Dark Swiftness Curse no longer prevents special dashes with bows
  
• Weapons - Off-Hand Pistols: No more aiming assistance for “Off-Hand” combo
  Design Note: Aiming assistance for large AoE attacks has a tendency to limit the ability to target "between" enemies to damage them all.
• Weapons - Stonebreaker: Charged attack now deals 100% + 75% +75% (from 100% + 50% +50%)
  Design Note: Adapted this weapon's charged damage to match other weapons of this category.
• 🍉 Weapon - Barbed Javelin: Raw Damage decreased to 24 (from 30)
  Design Note: Barbed Javelin was a little too powerful compared to other Spears, especially considering the new Charged Attack buff.
• 🍉 Affixes:
  + Main/Secondary Weapons Affinity Base Damage increased to 20% (from 10%)
  + Simple Base Damage increased to 10% (from 5%)
  + Lightness Base Damage increased to 15% (from 10%)
  Design Note: These affixes were considered to be "bad" ones, having a too-small impact to be attractive. They should do better now.
• Relic Stat Affixes: Stat Affix value is now dependent on Power Level and Rarity (was only dependent on Power Level before). Better quality Relics now give greater Stat upgrades than lower quality ones (it was totally random before). The formula has been reworked
  Design Note: It feels more natural that the best relics (in terms of rarity) bring more power. It will also give more incentives to pay for the Rare relics in shrines rather than relying on random common drops with high stats.
• 🍉 Relic - Gleaming Sapphire: Max damage increase reduced to 20%/40%/60% (from 100%)
  Design Note: Common Gleaming Sapphire required 50 (1000 Gold) stacks to be fully effective, which was quite unattainable unless using a very specific combination of blessings. In this case, the relic was too powerful and outclassed other damage increase relics. You can now consistently know that 10000 Gold in stock is enough to max out these relics.
• All Weapons Codex and Manuals add 20% damage to specific weapons category (from 10%)
  Design Notes: Codex was quickly outclassed by other relics, having a good combination of weapon and relic is now more powerful.
• Blessing - Brutal Temper: Killing Window to activate Fury effect reduced to 1 second (from 2)
  Design Note: Changes made on Two-Handed Weapons' Charged Attacks make this blessing more efficient. 1 second window should be enough to be both challenging and rewarding.
• 🍉 Dodge: Dodging window time is now consistent if you are under the Haste (Move Speed Buff)
  Design Note: Dodge window was previously reduced due to speed buff, making it harder to use. It should now be more comfortable to perfectly Dodge while being under the Haste buff.
• Poison review: Change Poison attacks application to "100% immediate damage + 50% Poison damage over time" (was 100% immediate damage + 100% damage over time). Poisonous Weapons' raw damage have scaled up to fit their previous overall damage
  Design Note: Poison attacks relied too much on damage over time, they should now be more punchy on hit with still a correct bonus damage over time.

Annihilation, Bow of Madness makes devastating damage

[h3]Visual changes[/h3]

• Greed Kills: New icon and overall FX for greed kills

[h3]Fixed bugs[/h3]

• 🍉 Timer: Timer is no longer running in Sanctuaries (for you speedrunners!)
  
• Enemies: Enemies will be properly alerted when an unalerted neighbor is killed in a single blow
  
• 🍉 Weapons - Poison kill: Special effects such as Stamina recovery on Kill or Weapons' affixes like Healing or Corruption Removing now properly trigger when an enemy dies from poison applied by weapon
  
• 🍉 Enemies: Fixed a bug that made intangible enemies such as teleporting Sacrificed Virgins vulnerable to other enemies' damage
  
• 🍉 Enemies: Fixed a bug that made Sacrificed Virgins not reveal themselves when attacking with their AOE blast attack while concealed by the Shadow Word Curse
  
• 🍉 Enemies: Fixed the "Fear of light" behavior of critters/bats: they now fear all illuminating source carried by the explorer (including being on fire!) and also fly away when the character is in cinematic mode
  
• 🍉 Blessing: Skillful Adaptation can now properly trigger from one room to another
  
• 🍉 Jaguar Statues: The Jaguar Statues' fireballs can now be properly parried when handling a Shield
  
• 🍉 Collision: Fixed some general collision bugs where your character would get stuck behind Jaguar head statues or Shrines.
  
• 🍉 Level design: Fixed an issue where, in one room type, the door could close in front of you if you’d shoot an enemy from a distance.
  
• 🍉 Level design: Fixed a level design bug where a secret passageway was inaccessible because of decorative elements.
  
• 🍉 Input delay: Added a small input delay when interacting with a Sanctuary or after using a Diving Favor to avoid unintentional quick validation
  
• PS4 pads delays: Fixed an issue where PS4 controllers had a delay of 0,1 to 0,5 sec.
  
• 🍉 Controller input: Fixed issue where contextual action was incorrectly buffered when switching to torch stance, often causing double-quick validation on shrines or doors
  
• 🍉 Disconnecting pad: Fixed a random behavior where a run would be successful or the game would crash if the pad was disconnected in-game
  
• Disconnecting pad: Fixed a bug where the disconnected pad message wouldn’t let you navigate the map

[h3]Localization[/h3]

• 🍉 Full Korean localization
• 🍉 Full Japanese localization

[h3]Known issues[/h3]

• In "Game of death" mode, the timer can run out during the death animation of the Champion or Boss, resulting in the death of your explorer
  
• The Bloodblade doesn't heal while under the effect of the "Bloodlust" Curse
  
• SFX of doors are not properly integrated

[h3]What's cooking in the Temple?[/h3]

[h2]The Cursed Temple is around the corner[/h2]Hi everyone!

We’re very happy that you enjoyed our latest news update, addressing some of your feedback and suggestions for Curse of the Dead Gods. It’s something that we’ll gladly repeat later on in development because we believe it’s important to be transparent with our community. Today, we’ll talk less and show more things from our upcoming CURSED TEMPLE updates! Without further ado, let’s begin:

When we say CURSED TEMPLE updates, that obviously means new Curses. Over the last few weeks, you got a glimpse of some of the new dangers coming into the Temple.

This time, have a look at an old friend turning against you:

[h3]Dancing Flames[/h3]Flamethrowers activate automatically if players enter their AOE. A powerful tool, that if well used, can do dramatic damage to your foes. Or yourself...



[h3]Introducing the Dark Torch[/h3]The Dark Torch is not a new weapon (stay tuned for that), but you’ll be able to use this cursed source of fire while under the effect of a special Curse.



Last but not least, new Cursed weapons are coming to Curse of the Dead Gods! This one was highly requested by the community, meet the newest addition to Xbeltz’aloc’s arsenal, a reflective shield:

[h3]Fulmination, Death’s Rampart[/h3]“Smell the gust of putrefaction, Pretender, coming for those who shall soon be pierced by Fulmination. Those who sow the winds of death plow their own grave.”



Of course, more content is coming for the CURSED TEMPLE updates in April and later on in May. Keep yourself up to date with releases by following us on social media, joining our Discord or checking our Steam community page! Here is our latest living Roadmap:



[h2]Contest: Your most painful death[/h2]Our first contest “Your most painful death” is over! Thanks to everyone who sent a video or a gif of your most atrocious moment in Curse of the Dead Gods. It is now time to reveal our favorite picks:

And our top the winners are...

1. CoffeeCrash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5JEtFN_Ds
2. Shiro94
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4BoOVTbUHs
3. Ninetailorochimaru / Iaminvalid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqvcvoPnlk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ezTvOSFgtg

Yes, we have a tie for the last position! You all won a Steam key of Curse of the Dead Gods to gift to your friends, family or online communities! Please note that you cannot resell the key.

We should be able to get in contact with you through Steam, Discord or Reddit, so don’t worry! If you haven’t received anything from us in a couple of days, contact us directly at [email protected] and we’ll see what we can do then!

Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who participated in our first contest! Stay tuned for more contests in the future!

-----------------

That’s all, Pretenders! Next week, our major CURSED TEMPLE update will finally be live! We are very grateful for your patience in these difficult times. We understand that you’re excited to play new content, and we can’t wait to see your feedback. France, where our studio is based, is still in confinement for at least one more month, meaning updates are taking a bit more time than usual. Don’t worry, our production schedule is not too disturbed by it, though! Stay tuned for more information soon.

Join our Discord Join our Reddit
Follow us on Twitter here and here

[h2]What's coming next (and when)[/h2]Our team at Passtech is still working hard producing new content for the CURSED TEMPLE update coming this month on Steam! Just a few more weeks to wait and it’ll be ready for you to get your cursed hands on. In the meantime, we felt like talking a bit about what’s coming next, so if you don’t like huge speeches, come back next week for a more visual explanation of our upcoming plans (sweet Update trailer coming soon)!

Last week we sort of teased you with the new Trapped Chests Curse, coming soon in Curse of the Dead Gods. Our next major update will not only add lots of Curses but also new ways of playing and discovering the Jaguar Temple. Let us introduce the Eternal Curse game modes 😈

No need to be a skilled player for enjoying these new modes. Each exploration (from the easiest to the hardest difficulty modes) now lets you experience new rules in the Temple. Working like a curse, each mode gives you your own advantages and disadvantages. Learn to play with the rules to make the best out of it. Let’s make it more clear with an example, shall we?

⚠️ Beware of spoilers!

[h3]Old Nightmare[/h3]• You are permanently under the Haste buff
• The map is disabled, the route is randomly chosen
• Permanent Black & White Run, passive Cadaverous Infestation effect (you cannot get Curses with related effects)



Expect many more...

One of the main feedback we got from players was to let you start a run with different Weapons - not because the machete and pistol aren’t cool, but it’s always fun to switch things up. Eternal Curse Game Modes will allow those kinds of changes and you’ll definitely be able to go for thematic runs.

[h2]Addressing some feedback from the community[/h2]We thought we could use this time without an update to elaborate on how we process the community’s feedback, and globally what is our vision of the game regarding those suggestions. We carefully read all comments posted on Steam forums, on our Discord server and even on other platforms such as Reddit. We then list them on a file where the design team can add comments and notes. In that way, we get a general feeling of your impressions of the game and the changes we make. We try to add a few of your suggestions on the go, with patches and minor updates dropped regularly. We are also planning a special Update filled with your ideas for new Gear, Curses, and general improvements.

Too difficult? MAYBE
We have to be honest here, Curse of the Dead Gods is a challenging game, like most roguelites. Our intention here is not to make the game impossible to play or complete, that’s why we’re taking a special interest in feedback about the game’s difficulty. What we want players to feel is a strong skill-learning curve and have a fair chance each time. Different game modes (Explorations) are supposed to emulate this curve, but it’ll need more tweaking of course. The more we add content to the game, the more we’re giving players tools to reach a new level of difficulty. Perseverance and attention are ones of the keys to winning in Curse of the Dead Gods. It is never our intention to deprive people of playing the game.

Parry timing is too short? NO (but…)
The thing about Parry in Curse of the Dead Gods is that it’s a very powerful mechanic that players need to learn properly before being able to use it. It cannot be used the same way that dodge roll is working (no point in having two different mechanics if they are the same fundamentally). The current parry timing is 10 frames. We are looking at ways of improving the Parry system though, such as by adding new relics of weapons linked to it.

What a successful Parry does is:
• Prevent you from getting hit
• Counter every attack (except AoE)
• Stun enemies
• Use no Stamina
• Recover 2 Stamina
• Works 360

Shields increase the parry window time to 12 frames instead of 10, and some can even trigger auto-parry.

Pretty powerful, right? The risk and reward should be high.



More diversity and not enough replayability? AGREED
We received tons of feedback about the lack of diversity in Curse of the Dead Gods, and of course, we can only agree. We are still at the early stages of Early Access, and more content is on the way. New Temples, new Game Modes, new Curses, and Gear will bring that replayability we’re all craving. Stay updated by following our social media or joining our Discord server. We’ll of course post some news and new road maps when we can on Steam.

It is also a good time to start talking about story and lore. Expect cinematics, a bestiary & codex in the future!

Final Curse is too punishing? NO
The Final Curse is here to tell players “beware of your greed”. Corruption is dangerous and it should feel this way. That’s what’s making the Gold/Blood offerings mechanic interesting in our opinion. The Final Curse represents the wrath of Xbeltz’aloc, the God of Death. Reaching it should be unfortunate or a choice (some relics are useful in that case). Another suggestion we got was to have several Final Curses, and it’s a great idea! But they will never be nice with you 😈

New room types? YES
This is the ultimate goal, yes. We already got some great ideas from the community, but it takes time to create. Especially since our level designer is currently focused on the upcoming Serpent Temple 😏🐍

Multiplayer/Co-op? NOT NOW
Making Curse of the Dead Gods multiplayer or a co-op game, even though we love the idea, would mean completely re-doing the whole game. Balancing, level design, game design mechanics… Everything is made towards a solo experience. Never say never, but it is not our plan at the moment (first we need more content and new Temples!)

More Settings? YES
We’ll do our best to improve the QoL of the game, and we already have a shortlist of the community’s requests. Bring it on!

Other languages? YES
Hopefully, we’ll be able to add as many languages we can in Curse of the Dead Gods. In the meantime, know that Korean and Japanese localization is coming for our next update!


[h2]Contest: Most Painful Death[/h2]One more week left for our Curse of the Dead Gods contest to win extra keys for your friends!

This week’s theme is: Your Most Painful Death



What will you win:
Top 3 winners will get a digital key of Curse of the Dead Gods! We’re sure you’ve got a couple of friends that’d be happy with that. Not to mention the fact that you’ll get mad respect from the community and ourselves!

Rules:• Only one death should be showcased / One entry per person
• 5-10sec maximum
• Montage/Edit are accepted

How to participate:
1. Shoot a short video or gif
2. Upload your video or gif on Steam, Twitter, Discord or Reddit with the hashtag: #COTDGContest for us to find
3. Wait until our next Steam news to discover our top 3 winners

End of contest: 04/14/2020

Looking forward to your entries!

-----------------

And that’s everything for today! THE CURSED TEMPLE UPDATES are almost ready, stay tuned for more info on our social media!

Join our Discord Join our Reddit
Follow us on Twitter here and here

[h2]What a crazy month[/h2]March has been a crazy month, both for the world and our studio. We launched Curse of the Dead Gods on March 3rd, 2020 and we’ve already added a handful of content, balances, and bug fixes. Yes, definitely a crazy first month. We are very glad about the positive reviews that Curse of the Dead Gods received over the course of this first month in Early Access, and we’re hoping to continue on the same road for as long as we can! There won’t be a patch this week, but we have something big cooking in the Temple 😈

Before we get to that, have a look at the new content already added in March:



[h2]The Cursed Temple Updates[/h2]You may have already noticed the “UPCOMING FUTURE UPDATES” section on our living roadmap. We are hoping to create a theme each month for our future updates, and well, it is time to announce the first one: THE CURSED TEMPLE UPDATES coming throughout April!

What can you expect from these themed updates?

• New Game modes (as requested in a lot of feedback)
  
• New Curses (as also requested in a lot of feedback)
  
• New Cursed Weapons
  
• Overall, Xbeltz’aloc is going to put you through living hell.

Should we stop here before we say too much? Perhaps we could reveal the first new Curse that will cross your path in April:

[h3]Trapped Chests[/h3]Chests trigger an attack on the hero when interacted with. They require a successful parry to open, but there is a 50% chance of it containing 2 pieces of gear (Weapons or Relics)

Work in progress VFX

Expect many more...

On another note, we’re still working on a whole new Temple. Although COVID-19 is having an impact, we’re still able to put some touches here and there and move things forward. Check our social media soon for exciting teasing about new foes and environments 🐍

[h2]Contest: Most Painful Death[/h2]What better way to entertain ourselves while in confinement than to create a small contest for Curse of the Dead Gods players! We’ll try to regularly challenge you to create a video or a gif on a specific theme.

This week’s theme is: Your Most Painful Death
Traps, enemy attacks, chained reactions. Show us how merciless the Temple can be with your poor explorer.



What will you win:
Top 3 winners will get a digital key of Curse of the Dead Gods! We’re sure you’ve got a couple of friends that’d be happy with that. Not to mention the fact that you’ll get mad respect from the community and ourselves!

How to participate:
1. Shoot a short video or gif (5-10sec max)
2. Upload your video or gif on Steam, Twitter, Discord or Reddit with the hashtag: #COTDGContest for us to find
3. Wait until our next Steam news to discover our top 3 winners

End of contest: 04/14/2020

Looking forward to your entries!

[h2]How to get the Blood Stake and Moonblade, Night’s Sword[/h2]
A couple of weeks ago, we released the Champions’ Weapons update (0.17.1), where we made it possible to drop weapons from the Blood Hunter and the Moon Twin Champions. We deliberately stayed quiet on how to drop them, as part of an investigation game for the community, but a handful of players were able to find the mysterious conditions! It is now time that we reveal the mystery to everyone!

For both weapons, there is a 20% chance of drop if the condition is met. Only one condition is required for each Champion, and it is never too late to complete it.

Kiliz’Puzah, Blood Hunter:
Kill all the Jaguars before giving the final blow that kills the Champion.



TChi’U, Moon Twin:
During the Dark phase, parry successfully at least 3 hits from the Moon Twin.



-----------------

That is all for this week. Stay tuned on our social media for some new details about our next Major update in April, as well as our on-going contest!

Join our Discord Join our Reddit
Follow us on Twitter here and here