New Features
- Introduced a new keyword called "solve." An item that solves a cell will correctly flag OR unflag it.
Developer notes: previously, there were items that would "reveal a hidden cell." Some players were wondering why this effect could hit cells you've already flagged. The reason is this: if such items avoided flagged cells, it would incentivize players to flag every cell except for the few they wished to target. We believe the wording of the "solve" mechanic circumvents this problem.
Items affected by this change include: Compass, Parasol, Boomerang, Minion.
Balance Changes
- Reduced the overall monster density in Quest 1 from 0.155 to 0.148
- Reduced the overall monster density in Quest 2 from 0.160 to 0.158
- Greedy Pig rework: "Lose a random amount of coins at the end of each stage." -> "Lose up to half your coins at the end of each stage."
- Broken Rib rework: "Instead, your defense is added to damage." -> "Your defense is capped to the minimum stage power."
- Pagan stage mod rework: "At the start of the stage, lose a random number of items." -> "At the start of the stage, lose up to 10 random items."
- Aching, Bleeding, and Toxic stage mods can now be found in Normal difficulty
- Melting and Liberated stage mods are now restricted to Hard difficulty
- The first two chests opened will never contain an omen (up from 1)
- After clicking on a toxic cell, the toxic aura is removed
Developer notes: we received a number of reports from players who were struggling with the first quest, so we have decided to make it (and the second quest) a bit easier. When making such changes, we want to be careful not to overshoot our goal; if Quest 1 was too easy, veteran players would not find it engaging. This is important because there are actually reasons for veterans to return to Quest 1 later in the game. For now, we will continue to monitor player feedback and make small adjustments as necessary.
We also hear you loud and clear with regard to omen design: there are some omens that offer little-to-no counterplay. Greedy Pig and Broken Rib were two such omens that would often punish you for playing correctly. We have altered their designs so that they don't completely cripple gold and defense builds. Let us know what you think.
You may have noticed that Straitjacket is unchanged. Hear us out on this: we believe it is important to have one omen in the item pool that is significantly more dangerous than the rest. It helps maintain suspense when opening chests, whereas most other (arguably better designed) omens can be subverted to a build's advantage. Straitjacket is unique in that it's pretty much always bad. It's the ultimate low roll.
It's also worth mentioning that, as we expand the item pool, Straitjacket will become increasingly rare; omen drop rates are not weighted in any way. And we would like to start adding more items to the pool relatively soon. :)
Resolved Bugs
- Fixed a crash that occurred when a cell-based status effect activated on the same turn as Smog
- Fixed a crash that occurred when Dreamcatcher had no space to spawn loot
- Fixed certain items not activating through Gluttony
- Fixed a crash related to Duster
- Fixed a crash that occurred when picking up rare loot that was previously contained in a bubble
- Fixed a bug where KNIGHT II wouldn't give you defense if you were wearing a helmet (don't ask)
Known Issues
- We received a report that you can resume Q5 on Hard after finishing it, but we're told the issue resolves itself if you restart the client - so far we haven't been able to reproduce this
- Those dang ol' Frozen cells
Enjoy!