Shattered Pixel Dungeon News

(Update Jan 5th: I've just released v3.3.3 as a quick followup patch to fix one serious bug introduced in v3.3.2, sorry for the trouble!)

Happy New Year Everyone, Shattered Pixel Dungeon has been patched to v3.3.2!

I've made some progress over the holidays on the new quest tester area. It's now entirely generated by the game's levelgen system, whereas the previous iteration was mostly hardcoded.

There's also the usual bunch of patch fixes and other small tweaks. There's still quite a bit I plan to do in future v3.3 patches as well.

Here's a full list of changes:

[hr][/hr]
[h3]v3.3.3[/h3]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v3.3.2:
- Crashes caused by resurrection via unblessed ankh while holding a skeleton key."));

[h3]Quest Tester Area Progress[/h3]
I've made some progress over the holidays on the new quest tester area. It's now entirely generated by the game's levelgen system, whereas the previous iteration was mostly hardcoded.

[h3]Misc. Changes[/h3]
- Shocking Enchantment now has a flat 1/3 chance to trigger (instead of (lvl+1)/(lvl+4)), but damage ratio increased to 50% from 40%. Previously shocking effectively scaled based on weapon level twice, which made it disproportionally powerful at high levels and/or with arcana ring.
- Glyph of Swiftness now requires a distance of 2 tiles from an enemy, up from 1. This effectively reverts its power to what is was prior to v3.3's change to speed boost logic.

- The main target is now prioritized for sniper's mark if a force cube hits multiple enemies
- Remains no longer appear in the vault tester level
- Updated translations and translator credits

[h3]BugFixes[/h3]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v3.3:
- Monk energy starting at 10 instead of 0 after subclass is chosen
- Game showing a warning about save file errors in more cases than it should
- Rare cases where keys would be discarded when they shouldn't be
- Landmark for distant well rooms not being cleared when the skeleton key is used to open their door
- Various rare crash bugs
- Various minor textual errors

Existed prior v3.3:
- Crash on launch on old iOS devices with A7 and A8 processors
- Cases where the Steam version could hang on launch on Linux
- Reclaim trap counting as being cast for talents even when it isn't consumed
- Pickaxe being marked as seen before it is given to the player
- Specific cases where ghost ally could regenerate past max HP

Hey Dungeoneers, Shattered Pixel Dungeon has been patched to v3.3.1!

Nothing really exciting to note with this patch, it's just some bugfixes to various reports I've received since v3.3.0 launched about a week ago. I expect to be making larger patches in the future with improvements to the vault tester area, though the upcoming holidays may delay that a little bit.

Here is a full list of changes:

[hr][/hr]
[h3]BugFixes[/h3]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v3.3.1:
- Skeleton key not triggering on-artifact effects
- Tomahawk bleed damage not scaling with ring of sharpshooting
- Vault tester area being enterable with a lost inventory, causing a softlock
- Buffs from ring of might persisting outside of vault tester area
- Wand of regrowth spawning and being usable to healing in quest tester area
- Uncommon cases of cracked spyglass making thrown items hidden
- Feint afterimage lasting longer than 1 turn in some cases
- Various textual errors

(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)



Along with this update, Shattered is 45% off on Steam for the next week!

You can discuss this Blog Post here on the Steam Community, or on the Pixel Dungeon Lemmy Community.

[h2]What's new in v3.3.0[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
v3.3 includes a tester area for the upcoming overhaul to the city quest, new items, and a bunch of smaller tweaks and improvements.

I talked about this update in one previous blog post:
- Coming Soon to Shattered: Imp Quest Tester Area!

Here's the full changelog for v3.3.0! Click or tap on each entry to read more. Note that this changelog will become slightly outdated as patches are released and dev commentary is added, so check the changes screen in-game for the most up to date version.

(The sections below contain expandable text boxes, you may need to view the post directly in order to see them properly.)

New Content:

• Dev Commentary [expand]
  - Released December 4th, 2025
  - 122 days after v3.2.0 (66 days after v3.2.5)
  
  Dev commentary will be added here in the future.
  [/expand]
  
• Initial Imp Quest Tester Area [expand]
  While v3.3 does not include the new quest, it does include a tester area for it, similar to the tester area that existed before the new caves quest!
  
  This tester area can be accessed from a new room that spawns in the city, this room also contains the Imp who gives his old quest. Simply walk onto the large vault entrance to be offered a teleport into the new area.
  
  Currently the new area has fully functional storage of your current items, very basic level generation, and no quest hazards. I intend to continue iterating on and improving this tester area during the release of v3.3 and in followup patches. The quest itself isn't coming in a patch however.
  [/expand]
  
• New Artifact and Trinket! [expand]
  Two new equipment items have been added to the game!
  
  The Skeleton Key is a new Artifact that grants the player new ways to control the dungeon environment! It can be used to open almost any lock in the dungeon, lock doors that weren't previously locked, and create temporary magical walls! The existing skeleton key item (dropped by Goo) has been renamed to 'worn key',
  
  The Cracked Spyglass is a new Trinket that's a sort of milder version of the Mimic's Tooth. It generates extra items in the dungeon, but those items are very hard to see, so keep your eyes peeled!
  [/expand]
  
• Randomize Options [expand]
  It's now possible to play runs with randomly selected game options!
  
  This includes a random class and challenges (optionally) in hero select, and random talents, subclass, and armor ability within the game! This add some replayability for experienced players, or just another option for people who aren't sure about what they want.
  
  There's also a new badge to earn! To get it you need to win a run with a random hero, talents, subclass, and armor ability.
  [/expand]
  

Changes:

• Hostile Champions and Albino Rats [expand]
  I'm making a few early game tweaks, mainly meant at smoothing out difficulty spikes caused by hostile champions and floor 1 albino rats. In exchange though, the hostile champs challenge is getting a bit harsher later in the game.
  
  Hostile Champions:
  - The following enemies can no longer spawn as champions: Crabs on F3, Thieves on F4, Guards on F7, and Bats on F9.
  - Champion enemy spawn rate now scales up to 1/6 as dungeon depth increases, instead of always being 1/8.
  
  Albino Rats:
  - HP down to 12 from 15
  - Bleed damage now always starts at 2-3 if the rat did damage, instead of being based on damage dealt. This means it no longer benefits excessively from bonus damage effects.
  [/expand]
  
• Chalice of Blood Upgrading [expand]
  The Chalice of Blood has received significant changes to how its upgrade mechanics work. Previously the player was given no direct info about the damage it would deal when upgraded, which led to most people just looking the numbers up on the internet.
  
  The player is now told the damage the chalice will deal, but the chalice deals a range of ~83% to ~117% of its current static damage. The player is told the exact % chance this damage has of killing them before damage-reducing effects are considered.
  
  Additionally, damage from the chalice is now reduced by ALL damage-reducing effects, instead of just ones that apply to physical damage.
  [/expand]
  
• ~20 Misc. Changes [expand]
  Highlights:
  - The 4th trinket option is no longer hidden until selected.
  - Damage-dealing Cleric spells (holy lance, most notably) now disqualify for the "No Weapons in His Presence" badge.
  - Hitting an enemy no longer resets Gladiator's combo time down to 5 if it was above 5 already.
  - Hero movespeed is now calculated based on the terrain the hero is moving toward, not moving from.
  
  Levels:
  - Slightly tweaked gold generation in the caves quest. The player now always must find 1/2 secret rooms to reach 40 gold. This eliminates cases where the player had to find 1/1 or 2/2 secret rooms, which could be excessively frustrating.
  - Gardens and magic well rooms are now locked and require an iron key.
  - Large or giant sewer pipe rooms with only two doors now lay themselves out with a 3rd phantom door to ensure they aren't overly tiny.
  
  Characters:
  - Tengu now has a one-turn delay before he starts attacking
  - Warrior's shielding buff now has a dedicated icon and description if cooldown is negative
  - DM-200s and Golems are now more willing to swap targets if they can't reach their current one
  - Characters spawned due to an action occuring on a partial turn now have their time moved forward to the next whole turn
  
  Items:
  - Added vfx to movement-speed influencing glyphs to show when they are active
  - Heavy Crossbow now more directly shows the damage it grants to darts
  - Elixir of Honeyed Healing recipe cost down to 2 from 4, energy value down to 8 from 12
  
  Misc:
  - Removed support for runs in progress from prior to v2.5.4 (Oct. 2024)
  - Added a warning when the player attempts to energize their trinket
  - Adjusted ascension challenge text to make it more clear whether the player has killed any enemies so far
  - Updated various internal code libraries
  - Shattered's Windows version now requires Windows 10, up from 7
  - Sharing gameplay data on iOS now requires iOS 15+, up from 12+
  [/expand]
  
• ~20 Bugfixes [expand]
  Fixed the following bugs:
  
  Highlights:
  - Freezes caused by enemies dying to DOT effects while thrown weapons were attached to them
  - Exploits that could result in certain Imp shop items being free
  - Rare cases where thrown weapons would not disintegrate when they should
  
  Characters:
  - Cleric's holy ward not applying to damage from bone explosions or Chalice of Blood
  - Characters being able to wander into the entryway of toxic gas rooms
  - Monk not gaining energy back if she kills with an ability while at full energy
  - Mimics being susceptible to surprise attacks after they surprise the hero
  - DM-200s and Golems not switching from targets they can't reach
  - DM-300 still sometimes using abilities right out of supercharge
  - DM-300's gas shot dealing damage instantly in specific situations
  - Demon Spawners not being recorded as alive in very specific cases
  
  Items:
  - Transmuting tipped darts destroying the original dart stack
  - Unstable Spellbook not triggering Siren's Song effect properly if the hero is also under time freeze
  - Charge count on Duelist's weapons being always set to 2 in rankings
  - Spirit Form not properly working with ring of force
  
  Misc.:
  - Compass pointing to exit staying visible if exit becomes hidden
  - Very rare cases where doors would not properly hide and then reveal in the tutorial
  - Extremely rare cases where the game could hang while generating the wandmaker's quest
  - Specific cases where Goo's pump up warning vfx could be in incorrect positions
  - Very rare cases where tunnel rooms could generate tiny tunnels to nowhere
  - Various minor errors with multi-touch and scrolling panes
  - Various cases where translations did not fit in the UI and could be shrunken or repositioned
  - Various minor visual and textual errors
  [/expand]
  

Buffs:

• Thrown Weapon Talents [expand]
  A lot more data has come in after v3.2 increased thrown weapon usage, and there's room to buff up some of the changed talents after that update:
  
  - Projectile Momentum bonus damage nerf reverted, damage bonus up to 15/30/45% at +1/2/3, from 10/20/30% at +1/2/3
  
  - Durable Projectiles nerf reverted, bonus durability up to +50%/+75% at +1/+2, from +33%/+50% at +1/+2
  - Point Blank Shot Accuracy boost up to +25/50/75% at +1/2/3, from +20/40/60% at +1/2/3
  [/expand]
  
• Thrown Weapon Buffs [expand]
  Thrown weapons are mostly in a pretty good place balance-wise since the patches to v3.2, but I'm making two targeted buffs regardless:
  
  - Telekinetic Grab is now cast instantly if the only items it picks up can be instantly collected (i.e. throwing clubs and throwing hammers)
  - Tomahawk bleed now has its own damage range, instead of being directly tied to damage dealt. Bleed amount increased by ~20% on average.
  [/expand]
  

Nerfs:

• Bolas and Boomerangs [expand]
  There are also a few targeted nerfs to specific thrown weapons:
  
  Bolas continue to do really well despite their nerfs in v3.2. Clearly the cripple effect they have is almost worth it on its own, so I'm scaling back the damage further:
  - Bolas base damage down to 4-9 from 6-9, damage scaling down to 0-2 from 1-2.
  
  Boomerangs also continue to do extremely well, especially for the Huntress. I'm holding off on larger changes here for now, but in general it seems like the circle back effect is so strong because of how dependant thrown weapons can be on the telekinetic grab spell.
  - Boomerang circle back delay increased to 5 turns from 4.
  [/expand]
  

[h2]What's Coming Next?[/h2]
[hr][/hr]

• Overview and ETA [expand]
  The next major Shattered update will be v3.4 or v4.0 (I haven't decided on a version number yet) and will, finally, feature an overhaul to the Ambitious Imp quest in the metropolis!
  
  While work has started on the new quest, I do still expect this update to take some time. You'll hear from me in patches to v3.3, and early in the new year with my usual year in review blog post. I expect I'll be able to give a more solid eta in one of those.
  
  Please keep in mind that while I always try to keep to the ETAs I provide, they are just estimates. If you don’t hear from me by the ETA, it means I’m still busy with the update!
  [/expand]
  
• Expanding Tester Area in Patches [expand]
  Just like with v3.2, I expect that v3.3 is going to have a longer than usual patch cycle. I've purposefully designed the new quest tester area such that it can be iterated on and expanded in patches to v3.3. This lets me make relatively quick experiments relating to the layout and some of the hazards in the new quest area.
  
  I don't think that the tester area will end up looking complete in v3.3 patches, but it's going to get a whole lost closer than it is currently.
  [/expand]
  
• Imp Quest Overhaul [expand]
  After v3.3 patches are done and the tester area is getting closer to finished, It'll be time to step back, take a bit longer, and eventually release the overhauled imp quest as primary content in the next update!
  
  As mentioned before, the new quest will have you infiltrate a dwarven vault full of danger and treasure! It's going to be a new kind of challenge, as you won't be able to take your existing items with you, but I expect the reward will be well worth it!
  [/expand]
  
• Other Changes [expand]
  I expect the next update to be fairly light on smaller changes, as I want the focus to be on the new quest. There will surely be the usual amount of smaller tweaks and bug fixes though, and in particular I expect there will be at least a little balancing to follow up on the new items and item changes in v3.3.
  [/expand]
  

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If you'd like more frequent incremental updates, you can:
- Subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter
- Follow me on Mastodon
- Follow me on Bluesky

(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)

Hey Dungeoneers, it's been a couple of months since the last patch for v3.2, so it's time for an update!

Previously my plan was to release the new city quest in a single large update, almost certainly in 2026, but I've decided to change my tactic on that in favor of a more incremental release. That does mean that v3.3 is going to be a much smaller update, but also means that it's ready for beta right now!


In this blog post I'm going to go over the reasoning for this change, and what's coming in the now-smaller v3.3 update.

[h2]Why Shrink v3.3?[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
There are three major reasons why I've decided to break the new quest into multiple updates:

Firstly, a particularly nasty bug in v3.2.5 surfaced shortly after I moved onto development for v3.3.0. The bug only affects certain users, and causes the game to hard-freeze if characters die while a projectile is attached to them. This flew under the radar initially, but for a small % of users it happens every time and is pretty game-ruining. I would really rather not leave this unfixed for even more time.

Secondly, and this won't come as a surprise to long-time readers, I have regretted trying to release huge updates all at once literally every time I have done it. Releasing updates in a more incremental fashion (when it's possible to do so) has always been the correct choice previously and this time is no exception. It doesn't substantially reduce my development speed, gives me time to course-correct based on feedback, and is honestly just a lot less stressful.

Lastly, a lot of the work on the new quest has been concepting that hasn't turned into actual game content yet. While doing this concepting I have also been doing my usual rounds of smaller content tweaks and additions to the game, and it seems a waste to keep them locked behind finishing the city quest when they have nothing to do with it.

[h2]City Quest Beginnings[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
Okay, so then if the full quest isn't coming, what quest content is coming in v3.3?

v3.3 will contain a sort of 'tester area' for the upcoming new quest, just like with the [caves quest had back in v2.1](https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/coming-soon-to-shattered-subfloors-and-digging.html). This includes a new dedicated room for the Imp to appear in, where the new quest will start:



The Imp is standing aside the forcibly-opened entrance to a massive dwarven vault. eventually he'll have you go down there for the quest, but for the moment he'll give you the same quest as in v3.2 and before. In addition to completing that quest as normal, you can walk onto the vault door to be teleported down into the new tester area below...



Eventually this area will be filled with all the hazards and loot you might expect from a quest, but for the moment things are pretty barren and it's mostly just a demonstration of how I'm planning for these levels to be structured. You'll note that this quest uses a very grid-like level structure, with all rooms of a set size. It would get a bit repetitive if regular dungeon floors did this all the time, but it works perfectly for one floor for a quest. Players are free to walk around and explore this empty space as much as they like, before returning to the previous floor.

Part of this tester area is also an implementation of storing and retrieving the player's inventory. You'll have an entire separate inventory in the quest area, which is scrapped and swapped back to your old inventory (fully intact of course) once you choose to leave. Feel free to play around with the items in the tester area, but you can't take them back out ;).

[h2]Other Stuff[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
As I mentioned further up, v3.3 is also releasing now as I've got a decent bit of side content finished. Here are the highlights:



v3.3.0 is releasing with Shattered's first new artifact in over a decade! The Skeleton Key grants the player new ways to control the dungeon environment. It can be used to open almost any lock in the dungeon, lock doors that weren't previously locked, and create temporary magical walls! There are a lot of cretive ways to make use of this, and it opens up entirely new interactions with all the dungeon's various doorways.



There's also a new trinket coming in v3.3.0. The Cracked Spyglass is sort of a milder version of the Mimic's Tooth. It generates extra items in the dungeon, but those items are very hard to see, so keep your eyes peeled! The GIF below has three different environments with 2 hidden items in each, can you see them all? (the sewer one is especially tricky)



Shattered now has options for picking random progression options as well! You can select a random hero, challenges (optionally), talents, subclass, and armor ability. I expect this to both help people who've got a bit of analysis paralysis, and offer a new gameplay option for experienced players who want to mix things up. There's even a new badge for winning a purely random run!



Lastly, as always, this update includes a bunch of smaller fixes and improvements. This time around there's an emphasis on adjusting various little points of annoyance that have been reported over time. This includes things like secrets in the caves being a bit too hard in some cases, the Chalice having an upgrade mechanic that almost demands the player look up numbers, and difficulty spikes on early floors caused by albino rats or hostile champions.

[hr][/hr]
v3.3.0 is already content-complete so I expect this beta to be very short, v3.3.0 should release fully in very early December!

If you'd like more frequent incremental updates on Shattered's development (such as announcements for every patch release), you can:
- Subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter
- Follow me on Mastodon
- Follow me on Bluesky

You can discuss this Blog Post here on the Steam Community, or on the Pixel Dungeon Lemmy Community.

Hey Dungeoneers, Shattered Pixel Dungeon has been patched to v3.2.5!

v3.2.5 contains a couple more minor interface improvements, and a bunch of smaller fixes for various things reported since v3.2.0's release last month. This should hopefully be the final patch for v3.2 as I move on to early work on the next update!

Here is a full list of changes:

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Interface Changes[/h3]
Two additions have been made to the game's UI:
- The Boss health bar is now larger on full size UI, taking advantage of the bigger space.
- The main menu now has a button to hide the interface, letting players look at the new background.

Further tweaks have been made to the game's UI:
- Health bars now display shielding in addition to HP, instead of on top of it.
- The Hero status pane can now extend to the right to avoid cutouts on the top-left of the display, if there is room to do so.
- Improved how the hero buff bar handles large cutouts like the dynamic island
- Further increased the permissiveness of what cutouts the game tries to render around
- Brightened the background of the game version indicator to make it look less like an empty health bar.
- Fixed cases where Shattered would attempt to draw into cutouts when they weren't properly reported by the device.

[h3]Misc. Changes[/h3]
- Updated code libraries used to build Shattered's macOS distribution. This should fix the game taking unreasonably long to launch on some newer macs, but also means Shattered now requires at least macOS 10.12 Sierra, up from 10.10 Yosemite.

- DM-300's rockfall attack now deals 6-12 damage (10-20 with badder bosses). This is for consistency with the rockfall attack done by the gnoll geomancer, and to prevent specific exploits where DM-300 couldn't damage hiding inorganic allies.

- Levelling up the dried rose while the ghost hero is summoned now heals it for the same amount that the upgrade increases max HP.

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v3.2.X:
- Thrown weapon merging prioritizing properties on weapons already stuck to enemies, instead of incoming ones
- Thrown weapons not being properly set to ID-ready by wells of awareness when hero has the shard of oblivion
- Rats attacking the hero when they should be neutral in specific cases
- Picking up throwing clubs and hammers taking time if done during time freeze
- Various minor visual/textual errors
- Various rare crash errors

Existed Prior to v3.2.0:
- Specific cases where bits of hidden walls could be seen through the fog of war
- Specific errors with inter-floor teleports
- DM-201s retaliating to corruption dmg
- Crossbow's charged shot melee not triggering in some cases
- Tab cycling not working correctly with inventory window
- Golden bees not preferring potential targets affected by aggression debuff
- Aggression debuff effect persisting on downed ghouls once they revive
- Radiance stunning enemies are they are killed by it triggering illuminate
- Prison guards being able to pull large characters into enclosed spaces
- Various minor visual/textual errors