Dungeons of Aether News

We've got some good news today for Steam collectibles fans. Dungeons of Aether players can now unlock cool items like Steam trading cards, badges, emoticons and backgrounds. These are all available right now for you to customize your profile with some Julesvale flair. Here's a preview of some of what you can unlock.





Collect Steam Trading Cards by playing Dungeons of Aether and trading with friends.





Craft badges and show them off on your profile. Will you delve deep enough to earn the Amsidian badge?



Crafting badges also unlocks profile backgrounds, emoticons, and more:





Customzie your profile with different backgrounds from ancient to modern Julesvale:

A small but mighty patch with a few challenge mode updates, QoL changes, and bugfixes.

Shoutouts to our current top leaderboard holders.



[h2]Challenge Mode Balance Updates[/h2]

Some items and abilities that allowed you to earn tons of gold have been changed in Challenge mode so scores on the leaderboards are more reasonable.

• STEAL now works differently in Challenge and Story modes. In Story Mode, it can be activated up to 3 times per battle. In Challenge Mode, it only works if your gold is below 20.
  
• Pirate Hook now works differently in Challenge and Story modes. In Story Mode, it can be activated up to 3 times per battle. In Challenge Mode, it only works if your gold is below 20.
  
• Leaderboard entries that are currently out of bounds have been removed.
  

[h2]Other Updates[/h2]

• By popular request, Blacksmith buffs can now be reset.
  
• Multiple fixes implemented for items with "start of turn" effects in Avarum's battle.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the voracity warning to stay on screen if Avarum is killed with a throwing knife.
  
• Players will no longer fail the "Hero of Julesvale" achievement for simply changing the difficulty in the pause menu. You now need to actually start a fight at a lower difficulty to reset its progress.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could occur when holding the right mouse button and moving to the Inn tile.
  
• Magic Mirror's description updated.
  

We're back with another patch to kick off a new week of dungeon delving. One piece of feedback we saw from plenty of players was that the game definitely doesn't pull any punches in difficulty (especially once you start to get into chapter 3 and beyond). It's always been our goal to make sure the game is tough enough for the strategies and players' choices to matter, but we also want to ensure new players have a chance to learn without getting shutdown.

To help accomplish this we've made story mode now default to the "Story" level difficulty when creating a new run. This change won't affect current runs, but as a reminder, you can always hop into the settings and change your difficulty up or down at any point during your adventure. The "Normal" difficulty has also been renamed to "Advanced". Gameplay for this difficulty hasn't changed, but we want this to better reflect the advanced tactics our AI uses as you progress on this setting. You can find these changes along with other updates and fixes in our full patch notes below.



Reminder: Tomorrow marks one week since we launched. Once we hit that milestone at 10AM PT on 3/7 our special 10% off introductory offer will end. Last call to grab the game at a discount!

• Added difficulty descriptions to give players a better idea of what they're getting into.
  
• The default difficulty for new runs is now set to "Story".
  
• "Normal" difficulty has been renamed to "Advanced". Gameplay for this difficulty hasn't changed, but we wanted this to better reflect the advanced tactics our AI uses as you progress on this setting.
  
• AI starts using advanced behaviour earlier on Hard difficulty.
  
• Fixed HP not saving properly when traveling from Town.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Blacksmith to make you pay double price (what a ripoff).
  
• Using one Tavern found within a Dungeon will no longer mark the second one you find as "used" (if you're lucky enough to come across two).
  
• Fixed an issue that caused equippables consumed by Avarum to still trigger at turn start.
  
• The Lava shader has been optimized.
  
• Fixed the shop buttons disappearing when pausing.
  
• Fixed an audio glitch that could occur on using the Tavern.
  
• Buildings descriptions updated.
  
• The Scroll of Discord will no longer create a "SKIP" button before at least one die is relocated.
  
• STUN will no longer create a "SKIP" button if at least one die can be discarded.
  

Before the weekend gets into full swing we wanted to make sure the game is in good shape for people to enjoy some uninterrupted gaming time. With that in mind, we have some patch notes here (it's quite a list) of things that have been fixed in the latest build as of this afternoon. We appreciate everyone's feedback so far, and even if we don't answer every thread directly we're taking a look and keeping track of things - so keep them coming.

Reminder - we're still on our introductory sale for a few more days! If you'd like to pick up the game at a discount for yourself or a friend, make sure to grab it before March 7th when we go back to the full $14.99 price.

(Poor crystal caves dragonfly.)



[h2]Quality of Life Changes[/h2]

• Players can now switch between all characters in Town for chapters 4 and 5, so you can swap your items using the Bank or sell them using the Shop.
  
• Added a confirmation prompt to make sure you're ready to move to the next floor.
  
• You can now take screenshots with F12.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• "Lore Collector" achievement is now properly granted.
  
• Fixed Bank refreshing gems durability.
  
• Fixed Scroll of Endurance causing multiple drafts to appear.
  
• Fixed a crash on opening coffin in Challenge Mode.
  
• Artemis heal will no longer trigger if you took 0 DMG because of Armor.
  
• Fixed an issue where eating 2 food items too fast with the Pan equipped only healed for 1 HP.
  
• Fixed whirlpool softlock in Challenge Mode.
  
• Fixed torch not working properly if equipped from spoils screen.
  
• Fixed Fleet boss' SNIPE giving stamina to player.
  
• Fixed dying to boss and simultaneously killing them causing a softlock.
  
• Fixed phoenix feather not triggering from ENGAGE self damage.
  
• Fixed phoenix feather not triggering from lava pools.
  
• STEAL now shows warning if the enemy is out of coins.
  
• Fixed an activatable bridge softlock in Challenge Mode (the switch would sometimes not spawn on the floor).
  
• You can no longer stash equipped gems to the Bank.
  
• Fixed being able to refresh shop by entering and exiting elevator.
  
• Fixed a bug in the tutorial that caused players to be softlocked if they quit in between selling the Gold Watch and buying anything.
  
• Fixed Slade unlock popup softlocking the game if ESC was pressed before the screen goes black.
  
• Fixed being able to trigger Slade's intro dialogue before Slade's unlock popup is shown.
  
• Fixed a gamepad controls issue with the Pan.
  
• Fixed voracity trigger UI stuck on screen when quitting Avarum fight.
  
• Fixed not being able to activate gems during Avarum fight.
  

First and foremost - thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone so far who's played Dungeons of Aether! We hope you're having a blast exploring the caverns beneath Julesvale and pushing the leaderboards with Challenge dungeons.

Yesterday we made a few day 1 fixes to take care of some of those launch bugs that inevitably come up when hundreds of people suddenly start playing your game at once. In addition to bug fixes, we've also been reading your feedback here on Steam (as well as our Discord) and agree with the general feedback that Hamir could use a bit of love. With that in mind we have another small patch today with some of those changes.

We've also gathered up the fixes that have already been implemented so you can see the changes all in one place. Please restart Steam to force an update to this latest version if you don't see it automatically fetch the latest build.




We've seen feedback that Hamir has been giving some players the toughest sessions so far. These changes should help push his strengths for new players. If anything we'd rather have him be a little too fun and forgiving than too punishing.

• +1 Base accuracy stat.
  
• No stamina will be lost on killing blows.
  
• Enemies are easier to bait into attacking Hamir, so that he can more effectively use his passive to block and gain stamina.
  

These have already been implemented yesterday on launch day, but we're listing them here for reference.

• Fixed a crash on startup with certain computers.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from finding a necessary key in chapter 2 with Hamir.
  
• Fixed a softlock on holding RMB and moving to a map event.
  
• Fixed a crash on game start.
  
• Fixed a crash on using gem of lightning.
  
• Fixed a crash when dying as Slade to Foreman Kohler.
  
• SNACK description updated.
  
• Fixed a crash on using bandage.
  
• Fixed dice having fishnets during chest challenge.
  
• Fixed Fleet drawing below textures at the end of Chapter 3.
  
• Fixed "Lore Collector" achievement.
  
• Fixed RAVE giving a red 5 die instead of 6 die.
  
• Fixed a crash on pressing F9.
  
• Fixed some grammar typos.
  
• "Tritanopia" spelling fixed.
  
• Fixes related to pause menu drawing.