Ember Knights News

Greetings, Knights!

We’re back with the second edition of Nexus News so let's recap our recent update and find out what we’ve been working on!

The Weapon Modding update has arrived and we hope you’ve found a new way to enjoy your favorite weapons! We had a lot of fun designing the mods and it’s been awesome to see all the positive comments. We rely on your feedback so please, keep it coming!

This update was one of our biggest yet and was also jam-packed with features suggested by you! Steam achievements, updated stat gems and kicking players were all inspired by requests from the community. Let's also not forget about all of the bug reports either.




With Anville, the latest Prime World to enter the Ember Knights universe, around the corner, the enemies in Wightsbury needed some love. The Forlorn and the Weald Wolf both received updates to improve the clarity of their attacks and the Condemned had their throwing daggers confiscated.

Some took these changes better than others…




But that isn’t all we’re doing to prepare for Anville. While the team is hard at work forging the new area, we’re still planning to release a nice quality of life update next week! The September Update will address more community feedback so without further ado, let’s shoot some spoilers your way!

The September update will have a few weapon changes that didn’t quite make it into the previous update. The Guardian Bow can now chain together “Perfect” shots to unleash a barrage of damage.



The Nexal Staff will also be getting its own unique starting skill but we aren’t ready to share what it does quite yet.


This isn’t all we have in store for the September Update as we’re also adding increased Ember rewards to higher difficulties, making some relic improvements, a full pass on our UX and more!




We regularly receive feedback about which relics are too strong and which need a boost so we’ve decided to finally settle the score and share the two most popular relics.



You might be shocked to find out that the title of “Most Popular Relic” is a tie between Conduit Spike and Thundering Hammer. Thundering Hammer has the highest Pick Rate at 80%, with the runner up being Bitter Chisel at 72%. Conduit Spike has the highest Total Pick Count at over 6,000 picks with Volt Claw sitting at second with almost 5,000 picks. We were curious why these relics were so popular and then it struck us. These relics must be the best at conducting damage so let’s give these relics a round of thunderous applause.


And now for some very special community shout-outs!

Check out this awesome piece of fanart by Steam community member Owlakh, showing off a couple of Blue Knights. In their own words, “I think they would be besties” and we agree!




From the Official Ember Knights Discord, LostIllustrator#3589 created this awesome Ember Knights collage featuring their own fan-made weapon classes! Which “Lost Hero” is your favorite? Deatoka#0736 also shared an awesome hand drawn portrait of a Knight!






If you haven’t had the chance to check out the mods for the Rift Hammer yet, take a look at Short and Mad’s video where he takes on the game using the Leap mod. It’s a hopping good time!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The v0.4 speedrunning world record was absolutely shattered in the v0.5 update. Discord member, Low :)#3541 has dethroned Asudo#2082 with a blazing fast 4 minute and 24 second run. This mind-blowing time was achieved using the Nexal Staff and Phantom Spear! It can’t get much faster than this, can it?? Try to keep up here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you think you have what it takes to beat this time, check out https://www.speedrun.com/ember_knights, the community-managed speedrun leaderboard.


As always, if you have something you’ve created that you want to share, show off in the Official Ember Knights Discord. You may just make it into a future edition of Nexus News!



And what’s a Nexus News edition without a little spoiler?
Anville, The Great Forge will be entering the Ember Knights universe in the v0.6 update, dropping at the end of October!
We hope you’re looking forward to this new area joining The Prime Worlds and trust us, the inhabitants are eagerly awaiting your arrival.




Until next time!

Doom Turtle

Hello Knights!

With your help, we’ve identified some issues that we feel couldn’t wait until our next update. Please see below for the full list of inclusions for this hot fix update.

• Renamed the Bulwark mod to Safeguard
  
• Updated description for Ember Blade Thrust mod regarding stun and knockback
  
• Repositioned Arlan’s dialogue in the Nexus shop
  
• Added hours to the run timer to prevent a bug that was causing the time to reset to 00:00 if exceeding an hour
  
• Adjusted the volume on various sounds
  
• Fixed a bug with Ballista that was causing various softlocks
  
• Fixed a bug that was not properly equipping the first mod when unlocking from a new slot
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing mods from being equipped for the host if equipped via the left click button
  
• Fixed an issue with the ultimate skin being applied incorrectly to other weapons
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing the increased damage from the difficulty modifier to be applied when equipped with the Safeguard mod
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing the proper visuals from being shown on shared weapons
  
• Fixed a bug with resetting the Ember Tree that was counting towards unlocking weapons
  
• Fixed an issue that was allowing Weald Wolf to jump out of bounds of a room
  
• Fixed a bug where the Chained status was not preventing Warrior Wisps from moving
  
• Fixed an issue related to Knight’s Charge and dashing through pedestals in the Nexus shop
  
• Fixed some collision issues in Wightsbury and the Nexus
  
• Fixed a bug with the crows in Wightsbury that was preventing them from animating
  
• Fixed some visual issues related to the Mimic rooms
  
• Fixed a bug related to the player glow disappearing after skipping through the game over sequence
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing some sounds to persist
  

Doom Turtle

Hello Knights!

This patch contains improvements based on our roadmap and your feedback, as well as important balance changes and fixes. It also brings the opportunity to keep track of your progress in the game with the introduction of Steam achievements! And of course, let's not forget, the modding of weapons!

Note: we've added a flame of passion 🔥 next to every new feature that was directly inspired by your feedback, so you can see the great influence this fantastic community has on us. Thank you again!

Let's dive right in.

Weapon Mods – When you defeat the Phantom, you now unlock Mechanical Arms Robot Variant 1N or Marvin, the robot.



Marvin is a friendly NPC who will offer you the ability to customize your weapons, granting them various traits and bonuses to match your desired playstyle. Specifically, each weapon now has 3 modification slots that will radically change the way you fight with it, thus opening the door to even more unique builds and synergies. In order to unlock the full potential of your weapons, you will need to gather Ash, which you obtain by defeating enemies affected by Praxis' buff during special encounters.



So, whether you're a dasher or more of a leaper, you now get to reflect that in combat with this update!

Online Multiplayer Updates - We've made some strides towards making the game even more multiplayer friendly!

• Share your weapons! If ANY player in an online game has a weapon unlocked, ALL players will be able to use it.
  
• Access your mods! Players with Modding unlocked can access their Mods in any online game. Freely equip, unequip, and unlock new Mods!
  
• Saving your progress! Ash acquired and Mods unlocked in online games are saved to your local file.
  


New Warrior Wisps!
• Now include specific attack types like Lightning, Burn, Freeze and Poison!
  
• Updated to be able to fly over pits
  
• Updated to take their attributes (crit %, maxHP/2, skill damage modifier, move speed multiplier) from the casting player

Player Feedback! To address some great feedback from our community, we’ve included the following:


Steam Achievements 🔥

• Our first batch of achievements are in! We’ll continue to add to the list as we work towards 1.0.
  

Respite Rooms 🔥
• To give you a little breathing room, we’ve disabled the run timer in starting rooms, healing rooms and shops.
  
Kicking Players 🔥
• We've added the option to be able to kick players during a game. It can be found in the Gameplay tab in the Options menu.
  
End-Level Awards 🔥
To be a little more beginner friendly, we’ve made some more improvements to the end-level awards. Included:

• Nicer names (already in v0.4.1)
  
  • Punching Bag -> Sponge
    
  • Wimp -> Spectator
    
  • Dead Weight -> Zombie
    
  • Dreadful Aim -> Wild Aim
    
  • Oblivious -> Unlucky
• Better distribution of awards
  
Stat Gems 🔥
To accommodate some recent improvements, we’ve made the following changes to stats:

• Removed the Crit DMG stat
  
• Updated the values for MaxHP (2/4/6 -> 5/10/10)
  
• Broke out each stat into their own room type
  
• Changed the color of the Crit Chance % gem to be yellow. Updated the stat icons in the UI, including matching the gem color
Shops/Selectors 🔥

• Rerolls will now exclude options from the previous roll.
  
Mystery rooms - replaced with specific rooms for all layouts.

We’ve also tweaked and adjusted the following:

Wightsbury changes:
General
• Removed collision from small rocks
  
• Changed spawn placement of Craven, Rats and The Forlorn from medium to far
  
• Adjusted aggro move speed for all enemies. Increased for small enemies like Craven and decreased for big enemies like Wolf and Forlorn
  
  Craven
• Lowered stun value (100 -> 20) to align more as a jobber
  
• Slightly increased move speed
  
• Slightly decreased HP
  
  The Forlorn
  
• Updated the laser attack hit collider to activate after it extends
  
• Removed evade chance (0.4 -> 0)
  
• Slowed down attacks for projectile (350 -> 275) and laser (120 – 75)
  
• Slightly decreased range on laser attack. Players should be able to roll backwards to avoid it
  
• Significantly decreased dash distance (75 -> 10)
  
• Reduced aggro move speed
  
• Increased CastDelayRate on chain projectile i.e., more time between casting chain projectiles
  
• Changed projectile colors for clarity (projectile is now green instead of purple)
  
  The Forlorn (Elite)
• Updated the attack collider for the laser beam attack
  
  Condemned
  
• Removed the throwing dagger attack
  
• Will now temporarily get stuck after the dodge attack
  
  Pox/Putrid Rat
• Updated to transform in a few different states
  
  Weald Wolf
• Reduced jump speed for better readability
  
• Added better tell and longer hold animation before leaping
  
• Added additional attack visual and audio indicators
  
Relic updates:



• Updated Empowered Bangle, Decayed Sceptre, Harvest Scythe, Brittle Sceptre and Supreme Ambition to work with Warrior Wisps and Ballistas
  
• Updated Overcharge Gauntlet to not trigger from Warrior Wisps and Ballistas
  
• Updated Storm Ward to trigger for the Lightning Wisps; 4s cooldown for triggering
  
• Updated Thundering Hammer to trigger from Lightning Wisp attacks
  
• Updated Stun Powder to trigger from Fire Wisps; only triggers on the first attack of the first Wisp per enemy
  
• Updated Combustion Stone to trigger for Fire Wisps when they burn enemies
  
• Updated Arctic Axe to trigger from Frost Wisps freezing enemies
  
• 🔥 Except for the first few map layouts, replaced the random skill and relic reward rooms with selectors
  
• Tweaked all map layouts to accommodate the new rewards and mystery room changes
  
• Added the ability for mimic chests to jump pits
  
• Made the Heroic Horn unbreakable
  
• Added a blue down arrow to enemies affected by the slow status effect
  
• 🔥 Updated the unlocked items popup to support left stick/WASD/arrow keys for scrolling
  
• Updated the credits to reflect new team members
  

And finally, some more bug squashing. Those include:

• Fixed a bug with the Ballista that was triggering the effect from the Toxic Bangle relic
  
• Fixed a few instances where the player colors weren’t updating correctly
  
• Fixed a few bugs related to enemies spawning in multiplayer games
  
• Fixed a bug with revive when the player and boss (or miniboss) would die at the same time in a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed a visual bug when players would die while in a doorway during a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed a visual bug where clients wouldn’t see status effect damage in a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug with the Ember Tree where the game would receive input from more than one player
  
• Fixed an issue with Bob’s Containment Field where it wouldn’t destroy the bubble if the relic was triggered during the bubble sequence
  
• Fixed a targeting issue with the lightning bolt relics
  
• Fixed a few bugs with the shop in the cases where the player would own the maximum number of a relic
  
• Fixed a bug where any player resetting their controls would reset the controls for all players
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing the game over screen from appearing if a disconnected player still had revives available
  
• Delayed the Perfect callout for Bow to after the arrow is fired, not when the attack button is released
  
• Fixed a bug where the player’s position wasn’t being set properly when travelling through doors
  
• Fixed a bug that was always showing not enough currency when inspecting shop items
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where the FX for the slicing of drops wasn’t showing for non-local players
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the interact dialog boxes weren’t being hidden during the game over sequence
  
• Fixed some visual bugs in the inventory related to the player color
  
• Fixed a visual bug with enemy health bars that made it appear like their low health was at zero
  
• Fixed a bug where Knight’s Charge was pushing the target dummy
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing summons skills from attacking the target dummy
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug that was showing Nexus props continually die for clients
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where the ice door to the boss in the Steadfast Citadel would get destroyed for clients if the host attacked it twice
  
• Fixed a bug where the Mimic King's Consort relic wasn’t properly being unlocked and added to the new list of relics
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing the visuals and sounds of the status effects to loop beyond the lifetime of the status effect
  
• Fixed a bug with the Shiver Mage that would cause the projectiles to die if the enemy was stunned
  
• Fixed a bug with the Shiver Mage that was preventing the projectiles from dying if the enemy was frozen
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where clients could desync on room messages if on a bad connection
  
• Fixed a bug that was showing skills as new even if the skill was already equipped
  
• Fixed a bug with the Phantom Spear where it was applying more Poison, and stacks, than intended
  
• Fixed a few visual bugs with the Phantom Spear’s projectile trail
  
• Fixed a visual bug with the compendium that was sometimes displaying the incorrect enemy if moving through them quickly
  
• Fixed a visual bug where enemies would continue to move during the player’s death sequence
  
• Fixed a few visual issues with the Rift Hammer attack animation
  
• Fixed a few visual issues with the victory animations for the Rift Hammer and Guardian Bow
  
• Fixed a bug with Empowered Bangle. It was adding an extra spell damage modifier to Warrior Wisps and Ballistas
  
• Fixed a bug with Diligent Work where it wasnt applying extra poison from Warrior Wisps and Ballistas
  
• Fixed a bug where some projectile indicators weren’t clearing when getting destroyed by Containment Shield
  
• Fixed a few visual bugs related to the player HUD
  
• Fixed a bunch of various sound bugs
  

In the coming months we expect to keep adding features, weapons, foes, relics and more. We are planning a minor update at the end of September, before a major content update one month later, at the end of October, when you can expect numerous additions, including the new level in an environment we have never showcased yet.



As always, if you want to stay on top of the news, see new content before it's live, share your favourite memes, or simply chat strategy about the best weapons and skills, join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

We will also be especially grateful for your feedback and suggestions during the Early Access and beyond, so be sure to join our Discord to share your comments directly with our development team!

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

Doom Turtle

Greetings, Knights!

Welcome to the first edition of Nexus News! We’ve got a lot to share but first, we’d like to extend a very big thank you to our amazing community. It’s been awesome to watch everyone have as much fun playing Ember Knights as we’ve had making it. The support and feedback from our community has been incredible and we’re as motivated as ever to make the game the best it can be. Sincerely, thank you!


Now, let’s take a peek at what’s been happening in the Prime Worlds since the release of our version 0.4 update. This was a smaller update for us as we bridge the gap between the Rise of Praxis and all the new content coming in v0.5.

The Mimic King made his grand entrance into the Prime Worlds and brought some friends along the way. They say to let sleeping dogs lie but that’ll be up to you!



We received a lot of great feedback about the revival system and we’re happy to say, Knights can now revive whenever they want! Gone are the days of wasting revives right before the boss dies, unless you want to, of course.

Finally and also based on player feedback, we made some tweaks to the Rift Hammer to allow it to deal damage a bit more safely.

But that’s old news as v0.4 is so three weeks ago! So, what’s next? We’ve got a lot to share about v0.5 so let’s jump right in!



If you’re familiar with our Early Access Roadmap on Steam, it’s no surprise that the theme for our v0.5 update is Weapon Customization!


“I’ll try spinning, that’s a neat trick!” - The Ember Blade is really spinning into action now!


Up next is the Guardian Bow. Wait…where’d it go??


Finally, the Nexal Staff has a new trick or two up its sleeve!

These examples are just scratching the surface of what we have in store for weapon customizations coming in the next update. We hope you’re excited about discovering what your favorite weapon is capable of!

We have a bunch more coming in v0.5 but we can’t spoil everything!

Now that we’ve taken a small look at what we’ve been up to, let’s take a look at what some of you have been up to. We’ve been blown away by the amazing content you’ve been making and always have a blast sharing it around the office! Now, let’s share some with you!

Starting with fan art, here are two awesome pieces made by Sticil#2425 and PickAxe_Hime#4023 from our Ember Knights Discord server.



We’d also like to showcase BaldE’s guide to getting Arlan to set up shop in the Nexus! We get a lot of people asking how it's done and BaldE has done a great job explaining it! He also has some videos showcasing the game’s many secrets, but you didn’t hear that from us…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you’ve created something you’re proud of, please let us know! If you haven’t already, check out our Official Ember Knights Discord and show us your creation!

Last but certainly not least, we’d like to give a special shoutout to our speedrunning community. The current world record for v0.4 is a lightning-fast 6 minutes and 43 seconds by another one of our Discord members, Asudo#2082! And he did it with the Nexal Staff! Check out the video below and be sure not to blink!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you’re into speedrunning and have a fast run you want to share, check out https://www.speedrun.com/ember_knights, the community-managed speedrun leaderboard.

Well, that’s about it from us but before we close off this edition of Nexus News, we have one last teaser for you! With the addition of a new Prime World coming soon, we’d like to introduce you to one of the enemies you’ll encounter.



A new race of enemies has been discovered and by using the environment to their advantage, they’re sure to be a bigger threat than anything you’ve seen before!



Until next time!

Doom Turtle

Hello Knights!

This month was the hottest ever recorded in the Nexus and yet, we managed to keep our cool and deliver you this fresh content update on schedule! It introduces additional features such as the manual revive, as well as another secret room where you will face off against an optional mini boss, the Mimic King. We have also reworked the gift shop and the timed chests rewards.

Discover all the latest changes in the full patch notes below.






[h3]"A little care package to help you out"[/h3]

• The Mimic King! Includes new room, fight and reward!
  
• The Nexus Shop has been updated with an extra podium (4 podiums for 4 players), a reroll option, added Skills, and some adjusted costs. Our goal with the Nexus Shop is to act as more of a late-game option to boost your next run, rather than something you buy out every time. The extra podium combined with the reroll option should help players who really want to manipulate how their run will go.
  
• We are working on a deeper dive into weapon balance taking into account community feedback, but for now we've made some initial adjustments to the Rift Hammer:
  
  • Increased attack speed by ~15%
    
  • Increased each attack’s full charge damage
    
  • Increased max damage for 2nd and 3rd attacks
    
  • Attack animations can now be interrupted by Skills or Dodging at any time
    
  • Removed some recovery frames from the 3rd attack
    
  • The jet on the back of the Hammer now appears when 'maximum range' is reached
• Manual revive! Reviving via Relics or Ember Tree upgrades will now require player input to activate. No more automatically reviving just before the Boss dies!
• Evee Care Package
  
  • This is a retheme of the existing timed chests at the end of each area
• All spawned gold will now automatically be collected when leaving a room, regardless where the spawned gold is or if the visuals fail to catch up to the player leaving the room
  
• Added food interactions for the Staff and Hammer
  
• More screen transitions
  

[h3]"Maybe we eat you"[/h3]

In addition to the new content and features, we’ve also made the following changes:

• Beguile adjustments
  
  • Reduced the number of teleports
    
  • Increased the time between teleports
    
  • Increased the time between attacks
    
  • Decreased the number of teleport chains left on the ground and reduced their duration
• Reduced the max HP for all area 3 miniboss variants
  
• Reduced tracking time of the jump attack for the Weald Wolf
  
• Changed the name of the Ember Tree upgrade #12 from Boss Slayer to Giant Slayer
  
  • Updated the description to indicate that it also applies to minibosses
• Updated the description for the Chronograph relic to indicate that it also works in miniboss rooms
  
• Revisited and updated all Relic costs in the Nexus shop
  
• Reduced the damage delay on Effigeist’s projectiles
  
• Added missing animations for the Rotworm Champ and Scout Champ enemies
  
• Removed the Ember Tree fog (was causing performance issues)
  
• Added a bunch of sounds to the Phantom boss
  
• Bunch of memory profiling and optimizations (continued improvements and Switch compatibility)
  

[h3]"Fixed that"[/h3]

And finally, we tackled a bunch of bugs. See below for the full list:

• Fixed a bug with the credits mini game where it was possible to load multiple instances of the player
  
• Fixed a bug where Knight’s Charge explosion FX was only playing locally in a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed a bug that was showing a different completion % between the save slot and compendium
  
• Fixed a bug with the boss and miniboss health bars where it was flashing behind the remaining health indicator
  
• Fixed a visual issue with the Frostbite relic
  
• Fixed a bug with the ice door in Steadfast Citadel that was preventing it from being broken with the Staff
  
• Fixed an issue with some enemies where they were immune to status effects while transitioning between attacks
  
• Fixed a bug with Lord Bruma where he was able to execute a double ice ring attack
  
• Fixed a few bugs with Arlan and his cutscenes that were causing issues in multiplayer games
  
• Fixed an issue with the bonus chest at the end of an area where it wasn’t spawning for clients in multiplayer games
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where clients weren’t properly disconnected on subsequent games
  
• Fixed an issue with the healing pool in multiplayer games where it would continuously be used after interacting with it once
  
• Fixed a few random audio issues
  
• Fixed a few minor UI issues with the selector screens
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where clients could pick up a dropped item due to latency issues
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where cutscenes could occasionally revive dead players
  
• Fixed a bug with the visuals for the Fire Wheel relic
  
• Fixed a bug with Rupture where it would occasionally not fire
  
• Fixed a few multiplayer bugs with Pox Rat where it could apply damage to clients multiple times and not deal damage when in its poison puddle
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug with The Forlorn and Effigeist where they could spam multiple projectiles or deal damage multiple times to clients
  
• Fixed a few visual bugs related to projectile shadows
  
• Fixed a visual issue with Condemned’s death animation
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where Cyclone was not applying damage at the correct rate for clients
  
• Fixed a bug with Hailstone Armor that was causing it to deal damage more frequently than it should for clients
  
• Fixed a bug with Skrixxa Za where players could occasionally avoid getting hit
  
• Fixed a bug with the Containment Field where it was breaking projectiles it shouldn’t
  
• Fixed a calculation bug with the completion percentage
  
• Fixed a bug with the Skill tips not showing when picking up a Skill
  
• Fixed a bug with the Praxis buff not being applied right away to frozen enemies
  
• Fixed a scrolling issue on the secrets tab of the compendium
  
• Fixed a visual bug with Skrixxa Za where its jumping FX were being shown in the compendium
  
• Fixed a visual bug with gold not spreading out when breaking a gold prop
  
• Fixed a bug with Warrior Wisps and Ballistas not interacting properly with General’s Sabre relic
  

As always, if you want to stay on top of the news, see new content before it's live, share your favourite memes, or simply chat strategy about the best weapons and skills, join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

We will also be especially grateful for your feedback and suggestions during the Early Access and beyond, so be sure to join our Discord to share your comments directly with our development team!

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

Doom Turtle