Malice & Greed News

This update brings a new mechanic: Channeled Skills!

Instead of being cast immediately, you must finish a number of rounds to prepare the Skill. Once ready, it can be used on ANY ally's turn, causing the Channeling unit to cast the Skill for free, even if they are a corpse.



An icon appears on a unit, showing the progress of the Channel.



This gives you the freedom to play skills out of order for stronger combos, or prepare for a future turn where you expect to not have enough Crystals!

- Will overwrite any existing Channel or Combat Technique.
- All Skill costs are paid at the start of Channeling.




Some skills can create empty Channeling Slots on units, which can be used to Channel skills that do not naturally have the keyword. The next non-Channel Skill you cast will be placed into this slot, and Channeled for the specified number of ally rounds.



This allows you to integrate a wide variety of skills into your Channeling setups!






Some Channeled Skills can be improved even further by giving them time to Amplify!

If the Channelled Skill is ready to cast, but you did not cast it, the effect is activated each time your round ends. Some Amplify effects improve the card's effect, while others trigger their own effects at the time of Amplification.

For example, Dynamo will continue dealing lightning damage each round that it is Amplified.




When Amplify is triggered by another effect, it will activate even if the Channeled Skill is not ready.




Because the cost of Channels are paid upfront, the turns where they are activated can be extremely bursty and swingy. While Guarding is an effective option against a team of prepared Channels, you can also use Skills to interfere with the enemy.



Keep an eye out for other mechanics that might do a good job at dealing with Channels!



Strength & Technology offer ways to enhance your Channel skills. This effect is much less common in Arcane & Dexterity.






- Maximilian's Wrench [Boss Item]
When an Elite or Boss Channels a Skill, delay it by 1 round.

- Demon Skull [Boss Item]
Pandemonium also affects you, but lasts an extra round.

- Chaos Whistle [Boss Item]
All Skills on all units have Expose Affinity.

- Yellow Jacket[Rare Item]
When an ally Channels a Skill, Amplify it twice, and delay it by 1 round.

- Lead Pipe [Common Item]
When an enemy becomes a corpse, cancel their Channeled Skill.

- 8-Ball [Common Item]
Each round, the first time an ally Channels a Skill, progress the Channel's duration.

Pressure Cooker [Common Item]
- When an ally consumes a fully stacked buff with affinity, they gain 1 stack of that buff.




Here's a list of all 95 channeling-related skills in this update. About 60% of them are existing skills adapted into Channel skills, and 30% of them are new.

Edit: Since the time of posting, skills that buff/counter channel have generally been reduced in cost, and new ones added. New channel skills have also been added, and some of the listed ones have gained additional Amplify effects.





- Fixed a bug causing multi-hit random-target skills to switch teams mid-attack.
- Fixed a bug causing the Spin Orb to spawn in act 1.
- Fixed a bug causing the camera to get stuck in a zoomed in position during combat.
- Fixed a bug causing turn order issues when summoning in combat.
- Fixed a bug where enemies would check their own team for corpses instead of the opposing team when deciding to cast a skill meant to target enemy corpses.
- Various skill bugfixes.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566090/Malice__Greed/

A new keyword has been added to skills! Affinity allows you to consume buff and debuff stacks to pay for the Potential cost of a skill. Here's how it works:

Intimidate is a fairly pricey skill, but applies a full-power attack debuff onto an enemy while stripping the power away from most of their buffs. Spending 2 Potential usually means that you'd need to wait to get it back to continue using your strongest skills...

But now that the skill has Enrage Affinity, you can consume up to 2 stacks of the Enrage buff to pay for the cost instead of spending Potential!




Some skills can also have affinity with debuffs, meaning not only do you get to skip the cost, but you also get to cleanse yourself of potentially deadly status effects.

This is a massive power boost compared to casting it normally, and is a great way to turn Battle Modifiers that spam you with debuffs into an advantage!




The exact wording of Affinity is as follows:

- When this Skill spends Potential, stacks of the specified buff or debuff are consumed to reduce the amount of Potential spent.

Here is the first set of affinity cards. Most of them are existing cards that have gained an affinity, along with a couple of new ones. Another set of affinity cards will be coming soon, covering the buffs & debuffs not included in Set 1.



After the first 2 sets of Affinity Skills have been completed, a set of Items & Passives related to Affinity will be added into the pool.

Future Update Preview: Channeling!

A new pair of keywords is coming: Channel and Amplify!

Channel:
Instead of activating immediately, you must begin the specified number of rounds to complete the Channeling. Once ready, the Channeled Skill can be used for free, during any Ally's turn.

Amplify
If this Channeled skill is ready to cast, and you did not cast it, activate this effect when your team's round ends.

Example:

Dynamo - 2TT

Channel 1
Fully Shock a unit.
Amplify: Deal 4 Lightning Damage to all enemies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566090/Malice__Greed/

- Skill damage numbers now update based on factors like Attack, Defense, and immunities.




- Damage Over Time on units is now pre-calculated and shown on their health bar.



If the unit will die, the bar turns pink:



Additionally, status effects now have differently colored duration ticks, and a colored arrow, indicating whether they are a Buff or Debuff.


- You no longer need to abandon enemies & allies when you are out of space in your party and don't want to Butcher. You can instead Devour them to increase your Max HP for the rest of the run.




- A new tutorial compendium has been added, with info about all game mechanics.



- You can now forcibly increase your maximum difficulty in the upgrade shop.




- The health barrier on Elite & Boss enemies that causes them to immediately retaliate with Pandemonium if they have not used Pandemonium yet is now visible on their HP bar.




- There are now additional options for displaying enemy resistances.



- You can now enable Free Demonform in the Preferences menu.

- You can now choose a custom starting ally in the Preferences menu.



- Many tooltips have been changed to a new system, allowing them to follow the cursor and more reliably prevent them from going offscreen.

- Ally and Enemy camera movement can now be toggled independently.




- Summoning allies now only costs a half crystal instead of a full one.

- The "Anarchy" Malice modifier has been changed.

Old: Summoning allies is no longer free during the first round of combat.
New: Summoning allies costs a full crystal instead of half.

- Enemies no longer spawn unrestricted in all locations. You can see what areas a unit will appear in by inspecting them.



- A variety of underwhelming units have had their skill loadouts refreshed.









- Some new Haven Influence options are available to unlock in the upgrade shop.



- Perception now offers a Rare item instead of a Common item.





https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566090/Malice__Greed/

This update is focused around reducing the amount of brain melting caused by the game, while adding more strategic payoffs that don't require a Ph.D.



- Buffs and Debuffs have been reduced in complexity to more appropriately fit the current scope of game mechanics. Many of them are now stronger, more reliable, and have more synergies and payoffs.

- The "Resist" status against damage has been removed from the game.
As a result, a large number of units have had their immunities and health values changed.

- Hits against weaknesses now also bypass Defense.

- Enemy damage in Pandemonium no longer counts as always hitting a Weakness, but their skills still become Efficient. Enemies can no longer enter Pandemonium on the first round, unless you bring an Elite or Boss unit to low HP.

- Elite Battles now spawn 2 units instead of 4, but they are much more powerful.

- Common Battles now usually spawn fewer units, but they are more powerful.

- You can now defy death with Demonform even if your protagonist is destroyed.



Bleed
- When Bleed is applied to you, and when its duration is progressed, lose HP equal to the amount of Bleed on you.
(Note: Bleed is how HP Loss instead of Physical Damage.)

Sick
- When you would gain 5 or more HP, lose 1 stack of Sick instead. Does not affect Revives

Decay
- When you lose HP, you also lose 1/3 that amount of Max HP per stack of Decay on you.

Burn
- When Burn's duration is progressed, you take 1 Fire Damage for each stack of ANY debuff on you.
Not affected by Attack or Defense.

Freeze
- When you start a round while Frozen with at least 1 full Crystal, turn a full Crystal into a Fading crystal. Then, your Freeze is reduced by 1.

Shock
- When you start a round with 3 Shock, you deal 10 Lightning Damage to yourself, and lose a Crystal. Then, all Shock on you is removed.
(Note: This damage comes from the shocked unit. It will be affected by their Attack and Defense, and can gain effects like Lifesteal, Cull, and Hunt.)

Maim
- When you use a skill, lose HP equal to the amount of Maim on you.

Trauma
- Decreases Attack by 1 per stack.

Expose
- Decreases Defense by 1 per stack.




Haste
- When another Buff is applied to you, if it isn't fully stacked, apply another stack of it and lose 1 Haste.

Lust
- When you deal damage, give it Lifesteal. Then, your Lust is reduced by 1.

Thorns
- When an enemy uses a skill on you, they lose HP equal to the amount of Thorns on you.

Invigorate
- When Invigorate is applied to you, and when its duration is progressed, gain HP & Max HP equal to the amount of Invigorate on you.

Focus
- When your damage hits an immunity, bypass it and lose 1 Focus.

Zombie
- Allows your corpse to use skills, as if you were alive.
- 2 Stacks: Generate a Fading Crystal when your round starts.
- 3 Stacks: Generate a full Crystal instead.

Protect
- When you would be affected by an enemy Skill, if the amount of Protect on you is at least as high as the Skill's Crystal cost, prevent its effect on you. Then, you lose all Protect.

Enlighten
- Reduces potential requirements by 1 per stack.

Enrage
- Increases Attack by 1 per stack.

Brace
- Increases Defense by 1 Per Stack.




- Difficulty settings now have their own dedicated interface.



There are 9 difficulty milestones:

• Normal Difficulty (0 Malice)
  
• Brutal Difficulty (1 Malice)
  
• Ruthless Difficulty (4 Malice)
  
• Devious Difficulty (8 Malice)
  
• Sinister Difficulty (12 Malice)
  
• Malicious Difficulty (16 Malice)
  
• Apocalypse Difficulty (20 Malice)
  
• Godslayer Difficulty (25 Malice)
  
• Oblivion Difficulty (30 Malice)

Warbands (Changed)
Allies lose an extra Crystal when their damage is negated.

Warbands+ (Now has Warbands' old effect)
Enemies gain 1 Defense.

Synthesis (New)
Whenever you lose permanent Max HP, the amount lost is increased by 2.

Synthesis+ (New)
Whenever you gain permanent Max HP, the amount is reduced by 2.

Harvest+ (New)
When you reroll a Skill, the cost of further rerolls is doubled, instead of increasing by 1.



- Demonic Skills have now been integrated into the current battle menu.



- You can now adjust game brightness.



- The Inspection interface has been improved.



- The Skill Mastery interface has been improved.



Guard's Combat Technique upgrades have been redesigned.

Reinforce
Increases Guard effectiveness by 20% ( 50% -> 70%)

Safeguard
When a Guarding ally with more than 1 HP takes lethal damage, they survive on 1 HP.

Fast Guard
Allies no longer stop Guarding after using a Skill.







The following skills have been changed:






- Some of the dankest battle modifiers have been toned down in difficulty, however..

- The Spin Fragment cost of rerolling battle modifiers has been drastically increased.
Old Cost: 1 per Battle Mod
New Cost: 2 + (Battle Mods * 2)

- Some skill interactions have been cleaned up to more reliably benefit the player. For example: Lethality's damage boost now only triggers when an ally damages an enemy, rather than when they damage any unit.

- Elon, & Bill now generate 7 Crystals per round instead of 8. The 'Onslaught' Malice Modifier that adds 1 crystal to the enemy team brings them back to the maximum of 8. Previously, it did nothing, as they were already at the maximum by default.

- Some battles have new backgrounds.

- Hovering on a unit will now show Base Max HP before modifications.

- The default Battle Speed has been reduced to make it easier to keep track of the battle.

- "Torment" Haven Influence now offers 1 of 2 boss items, instead of giving a random one.

- Added "Rod of the Krill Son"

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566090/Malice__Greed/

View details about this update here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1566090/view/3211637628714938770