Striving for Light News

Welcome back Wanderers to the 1.0 Release Reveal Marathon #2, where we will unveil a major part of the extensive 1.0 content update.

Note that everything which is presented here is still in development and testing and might change until release.

Last week we covered: Character Slots, Honour System, Unknown Wanderer Redesign, Hybrid Skill Nodes and the new Evasion Skill Nodes
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1646790/view/543356943483273818?l=english


Since we have been working on this game for around 4 years, some art assets look quite dated compared to all the new additions. For the 1.0 release we will be reworking nearly all gatekeeper map boss designes with fresh animations and new art. We tried our best to maintain the character and personality of each character.






We also did further refinements on the perspective of the gatekeeper arena. But wait this is not all, we have also redesigned all the secret bosses, the phoenix and someone else we have encountered on our journey...

Do you recognize him....? He got some surprises in store...




Not only enemies and bosses have become dated due to our long early access journey. Some world events also are showing their age and not reflecting our current visual standarts. Gatekeeper portals have received a redesign as well as all chests got a complete visual overhaul.

We also added some new chest designs to not only better communicate on which chests you need a key, but also make awakened gatekeeper chests look more impressive and apropriate in size to hold all the loot they hold in store for you.




Since the heart of Stiving for Light is the skilltree we thought it deserves a complete redesign as well.



All skill nodes have been completely redesigned with an entire new concept for the skill node frames. Up till now plenty of melee, range and companion skills had the same skill frame design and only a colour difference was indicating the type of skill. We went the extra mile to redesign ALL skill nodes icons.

We also created distinct skill node frames for all different skill types. Range skills will now be indicated by a spikey arrow type skill frame. Melee skills will have a more massive steel inspired skill frame. Companion skills will have wings. Universal ability skill nodes that trigger effects but are working with melee and range attacks now have a more universal skill node frame. Attack replacer skill nodes now have a exchange inspired skill node frame indicating that you can only pick on of those and that this skill will replace a functionality.

Melee Skill Nodes:

Range Skill Nodes:

Companion Skill Nodes:

Universal Skill Nodes:

Attack Replacer Skill Nodes:

Advanced Skill Nodes:

Basic Skill Nodes:



We also think this will be a further step in making it easier when navigating the skilltree with less hovering is required to distinguish where you want to go. Furthermore the skilltree background got reworked as well.



A new enemy ragdoll system will make combat feel more impactful and fun. Slaying enemies will now trigger a ragdoll effect with a gradual death animation. This will be a huge step up from the simple vanishing before, which looked odd especially on big enemies like endbosses.

Here is how it looks in action.




We hope that this preview excites you for the upcoming 1.0 release! We are looking forward to hear your thoughts on all the new features and content.

But behold, this is only a fraction of what will come with the 1.0 Release, we will continue the reveal marathon on next Wednesday 21st of May.

You are invited to join our official discord. Chat with fellow SfL Players, discuss builds, the new content update or just hang out with us.

Welcome back Wanderers to the 1.0 Release Reveal Marathon #1, where we will unveil a major part of the extensive 1.0 content update.

Note that everything which is presented here is still in development and testing and might change until release.


We heard your feedback and have put in tremendous work to expand the file save system to make this dream come true.

4 Character Slots will be added for each Game Mode, so you will be able to have up to 8 active characters on each season or save file. This will now allow you to start new runs without terminating your current active run. All items will be synced anytime between all your characters, so you are able to farm shards on a new character and jump back to your highest character once you found some crafting materials to improve your weapon for example.




With the current leaderboard the focus is entirely on the maximum reached level and terminating a run just before reaching your previous milestone just feels not very satisfying. Therefore, we want to further shift the focus away from the maximum level and introduce a gradual progression where every run feels meaningful for the progression on the leaderboards.

With coming 1.0 the leaderboard ranking will be based on a new ladder system called honour. After each run you will gain honour based on the amount of experience gained during your run. You will then gain honour levels that determine your sesonal leaderboard placement. For players with the same honour level the ranking will be determined based on your highest character level. Your honour level is unique for each game mode (hardcore and softcore) and is also unique to each season or save file. So each season you will start with honour level 1. This new honour system will let you constantly progress on the leaderboard and prevent runs feeling useless for leaderboard pushes when you did not beat your current max level record.




Unknown Wanderers starting characters have been redesigned to focus on hybrid build playing styles. Therefore both characters have received plenty of new specialisation skill nodes that empower hybrid playing styles. This should also give those characters a unique space among the roaster of different character options. Male Unknown Wanderer now has +30% increased melee damage and +20% increased projectile damage. Female Unknown Wanderer now has +30% projectile damage and +20% melee damage.

Furthermore Unknown Wanderers will be the only character classes that have access to increased spawn rate of a new type of skill nodes: Hybrid Skill Nodes granting endurance and energy resources.

New Specialisation Nodes have been added to the Unknown Wanderers Specialisation Trees:

• Hybrid Mastery: Max Energy +1, Max Endurance +1, Endurance Regeneration +100%, Energy Regeneration +100%, Hybrid Skill Spawn Chance +30%
  
• Hybrid Potential: Max Energy +1, Max Endurance +1, Endurance Regeneration +150%, Energy Regeneration +150%, Hybrid Skill Spawn Chance +50%
  
• Hybrid Combat: Melee Damage +120%, Projectile Damage +80%
  
• Hybrid Aim: Melee Damage +80%, Projectile Damage +120%
  
• Hybrid Training: Melee Range +15%, Additional Projectiles +1, Attackspeed +10%, Area of Effect +10%, Projectile Range +20%
  

2 new hybrid resource skill nodes will be added.

• Hybrid Empowerment: Increase you maximum endurance +2 and maximum energy +2
  
• Hybrid Regeneration: Increase you endurance +100% and energy regeneraton +100%
  

Evasion that previously was exclusive to the Rogue character class will now be available as a basic skill node in the skill tree. Evasion grants you a chance to decrease your incoming damage by 50%. It will need some investment to effectively utilise this stat, but combined with the Rogue you will be able to push evasion up to 100% to reduce all incoming damage by 50%.

• Evade: Increase your evasion chance by +2%. Evasion reduces your incoming damage by 50%.
  

We hope that this preview excites you for the upcoming 1.0 release! We are looking forward to hear your thoughts on all the new features and content.

But behold, this is only a fraction of what will come with the 1.0 Release, we will continue the reveal marathon on next Wednesday 14th of May.

You are invited to join our official discord. Chat with fellow SfL Players, discuss builds, the new content update or just hang out with us.

[h2]Hello Wanderers![/h2]

After more than 3.5 years of active, non-stop development, the long Early Access adventure of Striving for Light is finally approaching it's biggest milestone yet: the full 1.0 release!

This moment marks the culmination of countless updates, community feedback, and dedicated work - and we couldn't have done it without your support.

To celebrate, we're excited to present the official Cinematic Release Trailer for Striving for Light 1.0!

Watch it now and get a glimpse of what's to come.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]But that's not all...[/h2]

🔥 Starting today, we're kicking off the Release Content Patch Reveal Marathon!

Every Wednesday, leading up to the launch, we’ll unveil a major part of the extensive 1.0 content update. Expect exciting new features, fresh content, massive improvements, overhauls, and much more.

[h3]First reveal next Wednesday May 7th[/h3]

The road to 1.0 is paved with surprises - stay tuned, and thank you for being part of this journey!

— Igniting Spark Games

[h3]Bugfixes:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused your current leaderboard rank to not be displayed on the game over screen
  

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused tooltips on the skill gems panel get displayed after a skill gem or a skilltree shard was used.