Shady Knight News

Hi everyone!
I've been working on the new practice mode and I still need more time to finish it.

In the meantime, I've prepared a ton of neat weapon improvements, style point fixes, bug fixes and more.

[h2]Weapon Improvements[/h2]
[h3]Strike Cancel[/h3]
If you've ever had that moment when you're charging up a strike and suddenly there's no one to hit, or you've changed your mind on the fly, you've had no choice but to release your strike. That was before...

Now you can cancel the current attack (while charging/holding it) by pressing an opposite key (throw/strike). Each weapon has a special spin animation to indicate the cancellation and add a new verb to your creative expression : )



[h3]Dagger[/h3]

• Slightly reduced cooldown after grappling an enemy (when grounded and mid-air),
  
• Holding jump while finishing the chained dropkick allows you to get a vertical boost (instead of a knockback)! It's a small special variation to the move to make even crazier combos possible.
  

[h3]Bow Improvements[/h3]

• Now you can fire the basic bow shot MUCH faster, this quick shot does less damage (like with a quick sword slash), but allows you to juggle enemies and react quickly to jumping enemies, or you can wait a bit and charge it for full damage,
  
• A jump instantly charges your first basic bow shot to the full damage,
  
• Added new sound for the Rapid Three strike.
  

[h3]Fixed Spear[/h3]

• Your first move on a jump should always be Stingray (the piercing move). There was an inconsistency where you would charge Sweep instead. Fixed now.
  
• Fixed. Spear clipping trough walls when thrown too close to a surface,
  
• Fixed small visual bug when spear appears more thick.
  

[h3]Shield Improvements[/h3]

• Stamp is triggered not only by knocked enemies, but also by jumping enemies,
  
• Stamp Slam is more consistent,
  
• Air Parry now works with the shield(there was no knockback in the air).
  

[h3]Style Points[/h3]
There are special achievements for unlocking ALL style points in each category (Actions, Parkour, Chaos, Bonus). These achievements are really hard, but having 0.0% completion in 3 out of 4 of them seemed very suspicious. If you are just one or two style points short in some categories, you should be able to unlock them now! Hints below:

• Fixed Object Slam style point,
  
• Fixed two missed chaos points: Flaming Domino, Friendly Fire,
• Fixed Crashed. Now called Surface Bounce (it's a non-lethal crashing kick).

Other SP changes:

• Fixed the description for Crashing Kick (it only triggers when lethal),
  
• Kicked Arrow is now Kick Parry (a well-timed kick to send back an arrow or blessed heavy projectile),
  
• Added New Air Parry style point. This move deserves its own

[h3]Flow improvements[/h3]

• You can slide immediately after an edge climb (just hold the key in advance, like with slide on land),
  
• You can slide immediately after dashing to a grounded weapon,
  

[h3]Other Things[/h3]

• Improved Headless. They can now turn 180 and slash when you approach (you don't have to collide with them, they'll hear you). Now they are more comfy, to practice parry for example,
  
• It takes a bit less time for Deadmen to turn around after their pierce strike.
  
• You can't slam a barrel if there's no ground underneath it, you'll just pull it towards you instead (just like with enemies),
  
• Debug/Speedrunning. Hold TAB to activate in-game timer with a kill counter.
  

[h3]Steam Deck / Controller
[/h3]

• Jumping off Ropes & Chains is now triggered on button press (not on release) to avoid accidental jumping off.
  
• The Ropes & Chains option is hidden from the options as it only works for keyboard & mouse controls.
  

Whew... that was a big one.

Let me know how the new Strike Cancel feels. At first I only made one animation (for the sword) as a test and was wondering if it was worth including in this patch, but when I turned it off I immediately missed this feature, sounds like a good sign!

Yours.
cptnsigh

• New AIR PARRY improvement. Parrying spikes gives you the same vertical boost as parrying a jumping enemy.
  
• The chained dropkick softlock (when you stuck with swaying camera) when an enemy warps while you dropkick. Hopefully fixed for good!
  
• Improved stagger wave on slams. Slamming an enemy will stagger nearby enemies in an area around the slam's hit position.
  
• A successful dropkick will also stagger nearby enemies (within a smaller range than a slam, but still) to avoid unfair damage if you dropkick an enemy surrounded by other baddies.
  
  
• Some bugs are just so rare and crazy. Check out this one. Fixed. A quick restart during the process of slamming an enemy (the slamming process usually takes less than 0.2s) would prevent you from harming this particular instance on an enemy on your next run, but only when it's being knocked, i.e. it's still killable, but not when it's falling. Only in Shady :D
  
  
• Fixed Style Point. Thrown Weapon sometimes counts as Kicked Weapon style point.
  
• Fixed. Wrong number of filled orbs on the exit Nexus-portal on WRATH.
  
• Knocked heavies can be killed with a falling crate.
  
• Fixed. Enemy introduction arenas (first arenas on hubs) would sometimes end before the last enemy was killed.
  
• Fixed. inconsistency of the new Damage On Focus = OFF option.
  

Yours,
cptnsigh

Hi everyone. Let's start with the fun things first.

• [h3]NEW Air Parry[/h3] You can parry a jumping enemy in the air by holding a strike. I've been thinking about how to reduce the unfairness of some mid-air collisions with enemies. The main point is to help with unexpected enemy jumps, but nothing stops you from using it as an actual move.
  
  
  
  
• Touching an enemy during a sword air strike will force you to land (if possible) to avoid losing momentum. It's a subtle change, but if you've ever bounced or slipped off an enemy's collider while delivering a powerful overhead chop, you'll notice the difference ;)
  
• Added an option to tweak the duration of Focus On Damage: 3s, 2s, 1s or OFF. The new option can be found in Pause Menu > Options > Gameplay
  
  
  
  
• Burning enemies are counted as DEAD when the orb is destroyed. As with falling enemies, you don't need to wait for burning enemies to die if you want to be fast and flawless!
  
• You can revisit the endings at any time by pressing 'Continue' on the Results Screen after completing the final levels (Broken Knight, One Hundred).

[h3]New Enemy Behavior Improvements
[/h3]

• Heavies can't use their bash (step forward) strike while you are in the air (to prevent unfair bounces)
  
• Lancers can't roll towards the player when too close (to prevent unfair damage)
  
• Fixed inconsistency with grappling knocked down heavies
  
• Enemies can only jump on and off platforms one at a time to prevent unfair jump spamming. Combined with the new Air Parry move, you now have far more chances to recover from an unexpected mid-air collision!
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed sleepy knights. Some enemies weren't able to stand up if there was a barrel or something nearby.
  
• Fixed bug where a falling enemy would trigger Terminal Velocity multiple times.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where Enemy Introduction Arenas (the first level in Hubs) would end before the last enemy was killed.
  
• Fixed Broken Circle ending below 100
• ]Fixed ONE HUNDRED achievement if you beat the arena but didn't get the achievement. Try replaying the arena. you'll get your achievement if the arena was completed before.
• Fixed FLOWRIDER Achievement. It was working, but required you to do one of the trials again before the achievement would be granted.
• other smaller fixes.
  

Now I really want to get into making a new practice arena and improving the Style Point UI!

I'm not always able to react to all the comments under patch notes but be sure I read every single one.
Once again thank you for all your support!
Yours,
cptnsigh

More improvements, QoL features and bug fixes.
[h2]New SSShady Leaderboards[/h2]

• You can SSS the Broken Knight. On your second playthrough, the armless battle will end with a results screen once the knight is dead. You may need to watch the ending again, this is just to avoid accidentally skipping the end game achievement.
  
• You can SSS One Hundred. The level is now a truly endless arena. Even after completing all the parkour trails, the fight won't stop until you're dead, and only those who manage to survive a hundred knights will see their names on the new rankings. states until you reach 100, and you won't lose them if you get hit or die. The Flawless Leaderboard counts the time it took you to reach 100.

[h2]QoL Changes[/h2]

• Controller Layout UI, available from Pause Menu > Options > Controller
  
• New UI visibility option. You can hide Style Ranking UI but keep your States Icons by selecting the new 'Show UI' option called 'Only States' in the Gameplay Options.
  
• The leaderboard can be viewed for each rankable level from the Pause Menu.
  
• Cravenness levels show the Results Screen on your second play.
  

There's a similar request to add a style points UI to the pause menu. That UI uses stats that are only available after a level has been completed so I can't move it as is, but I'll try to find a solution for this in the next update.

[h2]New Player Experience[/h2]
All the hubs in the Nexus open one at a time upon completion. While I still like the idea of an open-door approach when you can reach some areas with enough skill, in the case of Shady it was a bad design choice. The very possibility of skipping the first hub, Ignorance, leads to nothing but unfair difficulty and lack of basic knowledge. I hope this fix will help more people get into the game!

[h2]Fixed Bugs[/h2]

• Fixed. Crash floor breaks after a Quick Restart (most noticeable on Overwhelmed)
  
• Fixed. Triggered ballista shoots after a Quick Restart
  
• Fixed. Dancing Blades stopped falling after a few resets + a new hint on how to deal with them when they are loose.
  
• Fixed. A softlock after performing Chained Dropkick on Lancers (if they were killed or rolled during the process)
  
• Fixed. Clipping through the ground on The Orb when sliding under the wooden logs.
  
• Fixed. Walled Weapon Runes gave you a weapon at startup if triggered a moment before a Quick Restart.
  
• Shield slide throw now works with the grapple.
• + Some minor issues
  

Almost two weeks after release, but it feels like two months and my to-do list isn't getting any smaller haha. Thank you so much for playing! I'm so happy to see more and more amazing runs and awesome speedruns
Yours,
cptnsigh

[h3]Quick Fixes[/h3]

• Blessed Aura v2. The first iteration was barely noticeable from above, making it hard to spot Blessed during cool mid-air combos. While on the ground, it's also easier to spot the Blessed, as the aura is stronger near the ground, which is much easier to see than the old outline against the bright sky.
  
• Fixed Local & Friends leaderboards. You should be able to see your local position on the global leaderboards as well as your friends' scores.
  
• Fixed 'Back to Hub' for parkour trials,
  
• The Broken Knight is harder to cheese with Flying Kicks and Head Boosts,
  
• New Hint for the tangent wall-kick on Blessed Heavies.
  
• One Hundred has a death counter (shows each 5 kills),
• Fixed invincibility bug after killing over 100 enemies on One Hundred.