Final Stand: Ragnarok News

Major Features

The Dungeon Maze is here!

A brand new scenario featuring three new bosses, several new enemies, multiple new objective types, and a completely different environment from anything else you’ve seen in FS:R. Featuring four distinct wings, including FS:R’s first internal cells, navigating the Dungeon Maze will require you to complete multiple encounters to open the path forward. These encounter rooms feature new objectives - from capturing, holding, and defending crystals to facing off against hundreds of spiders while destroying their egg sacs. En route to your objective you’ll evade traps, batter down fortified doors, and if you have a keen eye, discover hidden treasure. All of this culminates in a final showdown with the Warden - a multi-stage boss fight that’s our most complex, difficult, and epic to date.

The Beta for this new scenario is live today with Update 1.1, and you’ll be able to read about it much more in depth with our latest FS:R newsletter releasing later this week!

[h2]Art[/h2]
[h3]Dungeon Maze Assets[/h3]

• The Art team has completed a major effort in populating the Dungeon Maze with new walls, ceilings, and assorted smaller props. This includes a major lighting and set dressing pass for beautification - though lighting may be tweaked slightly in the future.
  
• In addition to the Dungeon Maze itself, a background scene and skybox were constructed for Dungeon Maze to clearly illustrate the differences from our other zones.
  
• New model for some spider variants.
  

[h2]FX[/h2]
[h3]New Ability FX[/h3]

• With the addition of many new NPC types (including Elites and Bosses), we’ve also added new VFX to make their abilities stand out. From the Soul Reaper to the Skeleton Commander, you’ll see a lot of new VFX popping!
  

[h3]Graphics Options[/h3]

• Added in graphics options for adjusting anti-aliasing quality, along with being able to toggle V-sync
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]
[h3]New Dialogue[/h3]

• Dungeon Maze comes with a whole set of dialogue, including from new bosses like the Warden and Soul Reaper. We’ve also added some new lines to the Towers of Vigrith scenario.
  

[h3]Additional SFX[/h3]

• Our Audio team has been creating a whole slew of SFX for new abilities, new events, and updating outdated SFX. Listen to the audioscape and let us know how you like it!
  

[h3]Menu SFX[/h3]

• We’ve also completed a pass on audio in the assorted menus of the game, especially the Equipment and Rune Mod selection menus. Background music and SFX have been altered to more easily show what menu you’re in.
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
[h3]New NPCs[/h3]
Dungeon Maze is host to three brand new bosses, each with their own mechanics, attack patterns, and models.

• Added new boss, ‘the Soul Reaper’. The first Jailer standing in your path, this dastardly dual wielding death dealer siphons health from enemies that stand too close to his sweeping strikes.
  
• Added new boss, ‘the Dead Caller’. - The Dead Caller. The demented mistress of the Dungeon Maze’s inner depths utilizes varying runestones to protect herself, weaken her enemies, and even reflect damage dealt. Not to mention the many minions at her beck and call.
  
• Added new boss, ‘the Warden’. One of Hel’s fiercest generals, he’ll stop at nothing to prevent your escape attempt. Fight through the officers at his beck and call and the thousands of guardsmen eager to lock you back up.
  

In addition, we’ve also added a variety of Elites that will show up in this and other scenarios.

• Added ‘Forsaken General’ enemy type. Leading their fellow undead from the front, these commanders are relentless in their pursuit. They’re immune to knockback and crowd control effects, so running away isn’t an option!
  
• Added ‘Plague Bearer’ enemy type. Far larger than the hordes of mindless dead that they call their cousins, you’ll need patience and a lot of firepower to bring them down.
  
• Added ‘Skeleton Commander’ enemy type. Leading from afar, the Skeleton Commander will be a thorn in your side until you deal with it. This master marksman summons archers, deals high damage from a distance, and lays deadly traps when enemies get too close.
  
• Added ‘Broodmother’ enemy type. The largest and eldest of the spiders we’ve seen so far, the Broodmothers swarm Champions with hundreds of their children in tow, eager to tear you apart.
  

[h3]New Scenario[/h3]

• The Dungeon Maze scenario is a brand new addition to the current scenario lineup - escape from Hel’s labyrinthine fortress while slaying swarms of undead! Dungeon Maze comes with a variety of new objectives, enemies, and doors to smash down! While we still consider Dungeon Maze to be in a Beta state, there’s a lot for you to discover in-game.
  

[h3]Match Size Balancing[/h3]

• We’ve tweaked the math behind matches to balance them a bit better for different numbers of players. This includes damage and defense buffs for Champions, as well as extra lives in the Towers of Vigrith scenario at lower player counts.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Completed a number of assorted SFX fixes, including playing the wrong SFX and playing SFX at the wrong volume.
  
• Fixed some unintended behavior on boss NPCs, causing them to play animations incorrectly.
  
• Fixed Intel ARC GPUs not being able to run the game.
  
• Fixed startup issues for certain laptops, due to a false reporting of their specs.
  

[h2]Champions[/h2]
[h3]Bjorn [/h3]

• Attack damage increased for both basic attacks and the Ground Slam ability.
  

[h3]Aella [/h3]

• The Heartseeker attack has been made reworked. It will now always explode instead of requiring an enemy to be on fire to trigger. In addition, it will do extra damage to enemies that are on fire or frozen.
  
• The stun effect on Fearless Scream will now only last 1.5 seconds on bosses. This ability will still have a 5 second stun for non-boss enemies.
  

[h3]Yuki [/h3]

• The damage for Yuki's Whirlwind attack has been slightly increased.
  
• Yuki's Shadow ability now only provides 80% damage production, down from 100%.
  

[h3]Jalb[/h3]

• Shield Bash damage has been increased.
  
• Using both the Retaliate and Fortify abilities together will no longer provide a player with 100% damage reduction. The damage reduction from both of these abilities combined is now capped at 75%.
  
• Retaliate's retaliatory damage has been updated to return more damage to bosses without bonus multipliers.
  

[h3]Gwen[/h3]

• Gwen's spear projectile attack has received an increase to damage and an added splash damage effect.
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• When respawning or reviving, Champions will now be immune to all damage and will not be targeted by enemies for a short time. This effect remains in place even when attacking an enemy. While this existed in some form before, it was less noticeable and the protection it provided players respawning was not sufficient.
  
• The speed of stamina regeneration for sprinting has been slightly increased.
  
• The Healing Rune usable item has been buffed and now restores health at the same pace as the Healing Pool points of interest.
  

The following temporary changes from Hotfix 1.0.3 have been reverted.

• When starting alone in a scenario enemy health has been reduced by 14% and enemy damage was reduced by 40%
  
• When starting with 2 players in a scenario enemy health has been reduced by 10.5% and enemy damage was reduced by 30%
  
• When starting with 3 players in a scenario enemy health has been reduced by 7% and enemy damage was reduced by 20%
  
• When starting with 4 players in a scenario enemy health has been reduced by 3.5% and enemy damage was reduced by 10%
  
• All games: Players start with 3 of each rune
  

The following temporary change from Hotfix 1.0.2 has been reverted.

• Matches of 4+ players in both the Arena and Towers of Vigrith scenarios will start with three lives.
  

The reverted changes were quick balance fixes that have been addressed in other ways with Update 1.0.4.
[h2]Scenarios[/h2]

• New tree LOD models have been added that should eliminate flickering and increase performance in tree-heavy areas across both scenarios.
  

[h3]Towers of Vigrith[/h3]

• Increased drop rate of Rune pick-ups prior to the North Tower phase in the early game.
  
• Increased Tower and Pools health based on starting player count across matches.
  
• Increased Tower health regeneration when tower buttons are activated during boss fights.
  
• At lower player counts, when a pool is lost during the pool phase, nearby Dishonored Dead will begin to pursue players instead of objectives. This will make it easier for 1-3 players to defend them if one is lost.
  
• For both the West and South Tower combat phases, the total number of elites is now capped based on starting player count. Spawn rates and times have been adjusted for all player counts.
  
• During the final wave, the number of elite enemies has been capped based on player count - this cap goes away once the final fire giant spawns.
  

[h3]Arena[/h3]

• Changed how many elite enemies can be active at once for different player counts.
  
• Health of Towers and Pools has been increased at lower player counts.
  
• Difficult sub-waves that could trigger randomly will no longer do so at lower player counts. These include the poison fog, fire meteorite, and ice meteorite waves.
  

[h2]Settings[/h2]

• Damage numbers will now be displayed by default. They can still be toggled to hidden in the Settings menu under 'Show Combat Text'. The current setting will not change for existing users but will default to on if you return to default settings.
  
• The 'Mute All' function will now persist in menu after reopening it.
  

[h2]Art[/h2]

• Updated VFX for boss and elite spawns.
  
• Updated VFX for character spawns.
  
• Updated VFX for Surtr's abilities.
  
• Updated Death Priest Projectile VFX.
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Tooltip added to XP bars to tell players how much XP they have.
  
• Escape menu updated to include the player as part of the match lineup.
  
• Updated the Champion Mods/Rune Mods banner styling.
  
• Pressing ESC in the Emote/Weapons/Skins menu now closes the menu.
  

[h2]Performance[/h2]

• Improved frame rates when many entities are present.
  
• Improved issues with highly variable frame rate for some users.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fix for showing victory and objective icons in the wrong UI position while dead.
  
• Fix for an issue displaying the 'Ghostly' variant of Gwen’s Horn.
  
• Fix for Towers of Vigrith scenario ending if all players are downed while they still have lives remaining.
  
• Fix for keybind mapping text 'key already bound' overlapping with itself.
  
• Fixed an issue with the player not showing up in the ESC party menu if they failed to connect to Vivox.
  
• Fix for the wrong Champion abilities shown during the 'waiting for connections' state.
  
• Fix for the auto run icon repeating.
  
• Fix for Frost Giant dialogue that wasn’t audible.
  
• Fix for an activities error occurring during rapid fire single player matches.
  
• Improvements for the stretching of XP Potion buttons.
  
• Improvements to client correction of projectiles after a network update.
  
• Fix for players getting stuck in queue after a match.
  
• Fix for groups getting stuck in a bad state if two groups invite the same person at the same time.
  
• Fix for overlapping Champion Selection SFX.
  

Hey folks! We'll be going live for our first ever FS:R livestream on Twitch this Friday, April 19th. Tune in to chat with the devs and hear us talk about future content for the game.