Shattered Pixel Dungeon News

Hey Dungeoneers!

..And here's the second patch for v2.4! this one focuses a little more on balance tweaks, and I expect it'll be the last patch for the update.

[h2]Changes[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
Weapon Ability Buffs
[expand]
Overall success rates are up across the board for the Duelist and weapon abilities, but I'm giving out some buffs to a few abilities that didn't benefit as strongly from v.2.4.0:

- Harvest bleeding increased by ~30%
- Harvest now deals regular damage to bleed-immune foes
- Spin damage boost up to 8+lvl from 6+lvl
- Runic Slash base enchant boost up to 300% from 200%

I'm also making a general change to the Duelist's weapon ability charge cap to improve her scaling a tiny bit, especially at level 4:

- Duelist now gains another weapon charge every 3 levels, down from 4
- Max possible charges unchanged, but they are now reached at level 19, down from 25

I had mentioned in v2.4.1 that I was planning to make more changes to trinkets, but I've decided to hold off on that for now.
[/expand]

Misc. Changes
[expand]
- Buffed the bonus damage on the Warrior's new Provoked Anger talent. Now grants 2 or 3 damage, up from 1-2 or 2.

- Cursed wands can no longer turn important NPCs into sheep
- Spectral necromancers now only kill wraiths they are aligned with when they die
- Dwarf King now only clears minions that are still allied with him when transitioning phases.
[/expand]

Bugfixes
[expand]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v2.4.0: - Wondrous Resin not triggering when using wild magic
- Lingering magic duration stacking instead of resetting when re-triggered
- Various rare actor order issues caused by dagger blink ability
- Alchemy UI disabling cancel button when it shouldn't in specific cases

Existed Prior to v2.4.0: - Various minor visual and textual errors
[/expand]

Hey Dungeoneers!

Here's a first patch for v2.4, mostly focused on fixing up bugs and some early balance tweaks.

[h2]Changes[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
Trinket Balance Changes
[expand]
I'm making some balance tweaks to trinkets based on early gameplay data. I expect I'll be making more tweaks here later on, both to trinkets and the new Duelist abilities, once a little more time has passed.

- Mossy Clump upgrade cost increased

Ebony Mimics (from Mimic Tooth) adjusted to be more rewarding:
- Stats reduced by ~20%, now a little weaker than golden mimics
- Surprise attack damage unchanged (still really hurts!)
- Now contain two random item drops, in addition to normal golden mimic loot

- Trap Mechanism upgrade cost reduced
- Dimensional Sundial upgrade cost reduced
- Thirteen Leaf Clover upgrade cost reduced
[/expand]

Misc. Changes
[expand]
- Enemies seen via mind vision can now be auto-targeted, but the game won't auto-aim as aggressively for performance reasons
- Added dev commentary for v1.3.0
[/expand]

Bugfixes
[expand]
Fixed the following bugs:
Caused by v2.4.0: - Saves from before v2.4 sometimes generating trinkets in the dungeon
- Errors when DM-300 took massive amounts of damage
- Duelist harvest ability being reduced by damage reduction effects twice

Existed Prior to v2.4.0: - Various minor visual bugs and typos
- Swiftness glyph not working near neutral characters
- Specific cases where damaging immune enemies would count towards regen time during boss fights
- Ascension hero speed debuff triggering at 7+ amulet curse stacks instead of 6+
- Fixed view distance becoming 0 during final boss in specific cases
[/expand]

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


Shattered is also 33% off on Steam right now as part of the endless replayability fest!

[h2]What’s new in v2.4.0[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
v2.4.0 features a new category of item: trinkets! They are more about tweaking gameplay variables than giving direct power or utility. There are also a bunch of smaller additions and tweaks, most notably to the Duelist and to Alchemy. Be sure to check the changes screen for full details.

I talked about this update in two previous blog posts:

• Coming Soon to Shattered: Trinkets!
• Status Update: v2.4.0

Here's the full changelog for v2.4.0! Click or tap on each entry to read more. Note that this changelog may become slightly outdated as patches are released, so check the changes screen in-game for the most up to date version.

New Content:

• Developer Commentary[expand]
  - Released May 15th, 2024
  - 118 days after Shattered v2.3.0
  
  Dev commentary will be added here in the future.
  [/expand]
  
• Trinkets! [expand]
  A new category of item has been added: Trinkets!
  
  Trinkets are a new item type produced and upgraded via alchemical energy, and are more about tweaking gameplay variables than giving direct power or utility.
  
  Look out for a trinket catalyst in the early stages of the game, which you can use at the first alchemy pot to produce one of three trinket options. There are 11 trinkets in total.
  [/expand]
  
• New Rooms [expand]
  New standard rooms have been added to the various regions of the game!
  
  This includes one totally new room per region, and two new variants of entrance/exit rooms per region. Rooms that are mostly empty rectangles are now much less common, and there's a bunch of variety for which rooms can have entrance/exit stairs in them.
  
  Entrance rooms are now also capable of merging with other rooms in a dungeon floor, but there are some guarantees so that enemies won't ever be near you right after descending to a new floor.
  [/expand]
  
• More Holiday Items [expand]
  I've added more holiday items for the rest of 2024!
  
  Expect to see some new temporary holiday overrides for cornish pasties for:
  - Pride in late June
  - Shattered's Birthday in early August
  - Pixel Dungeon's Birthday in early December
  - New Years in late December and early January
  
  This is in addition to the usual pumpkin pie around Halloween and candy cane around the Winter Holidays.
  
  ...I may have also added a tiny little surprise for Rat King's birthday, but that won't appear until 2025.
  [/expand]
  

Changes:

• Duelist Weapon Abilities [expand]
  I'm making some overarching changes to the Duelist's weapon abilities, to make them stronger and feel more impactful:
  - Weapon ability charge speed down by 33%
  - Weapon ability charge cap reduced to 2-8, from 3-10
  - Weapon abilities buffed across the board
  - Some talents adjusted to account for weapon charges being less frequent
  - Weapon abilities now directly state their damage ranges
  Check the buffs and talent changes section for specific weapon ability and talent changes.
  
  There are also some changes to the Champion subclass to go along with this:
  - Champion's two weapons now share a charge count, but Champion gets boosted max charges and charge speed.
  - Champion's secondary charge talent has been replaced with a new talent that encourages varied ability use.
  [/expand]
  
• Alchemy Changes [expand]
  I've made a bunch of changes to the alchemy system to streamline things and complement the addition of trinkets:
  
  - Catalysts have been removed entirely, recipes that required one now simply cost 8 or 9 more energy.
  - A new unstable brew and spell have been added, which give random potion/scroll effects.
  - Aqua Blast and Featherfall are now a brew and elixir, otherwise unchanged.
  - High value potions/scrolls now grant a little more energy if they are energized.
  - Alchemy pots now always spawn on the 3rd or 4th floor in each region.
  - Various UI improvements have been made to the alchemy screen.
  
  Various specific alchemy items have also received changes to their energy cost, output quantity, or mechanics. Check the buffs and nerfs section for more details on those.
  [/expand]
  
• Talent changes [expand]
  Duelist talents have been changed to account for adjustments to weapon charge mechanics:
  - Aggressive Barrier shielding increased to 3/5 from 3, threshold changed to 50% from 40%/60%.
  - Focused Meal charge boost reduced to 0.67/1 from 1/1.5.
  - Weapon Recharging boost reduced to every 15/10 turns from every 10/6 turns.
  - Counter Ability now grants up to 1.5 charges, instead of reducing cost.
  
  I've made some changes meant to improve some of the least popular T1 talents:
  - Cached Rations now awards a smaller number of unique 'supply rations'. These rations grant a little healing and cloak charge.
  - Test Subject and Tested Hypothesis have been replaced with two new talents that grant small combat bonuses.
  
  Plus one change to an unnecessarily complex T1 talent:
  - Hearty Meal has been simplified, now just has one threshold at 30% HP
  [/expand]
  
• Miscellaneous Changes [expand]
  Highlights:
  - Potion and Scroll talents can now trigger from elixirs, brews, and spells
  - Ankh resurrection window now warns if two items aren't selected
  - Trying to attack an enemy that has charmed you now shows a warning
  
  Heroes:
  - Gladiator and Monk now include brief ability descriptions in their subclass descriptions
  - Ability descriptions for Gladiator and Monk now change if their abilities are empowered
  
  Items:
  - Thrown weapons now state when they break in the game log
  - Tipped darts now last forever when reaching 100 uses, like other thrown weapons
  - Dried rose now includes the ghost's strength in its description
  - Plant effects (e.g. fadeleaf) now trigger before traps when time freeze ends
  
  Misc:
  - Updated various code dependencies
  - Slight optimizations to memory use
  - Improved the error message on Android when native code is missing
  - Removed the power saver setting on Android 4.4+ devices, if the user hadn't already enabled it.
  (Power saver was always meant for very old Android devices. It gives no real benefit for more modern ones.)
  [/expand]
  
• Bugfixes [expand]
  Fixed the following bugs:
  
  Highlights:
  - Ruins rooms in the last region using incorrect wall shapes since v2.2.0
  - Rare cases where some victory badges would not save if game was immediately closed
  - Rare cases where game actors could continue to process for a moment when hero falls into a chasm
  - Various cases where characters would not play death animations if they died while paralyzed
  
  Enemies:
  - Newborn elemental boss rarely firing its attack through walls
  - Rare cases where the final boss could command minions to attack themselves
  - Gnoll geomancer and sappers potentially dropping boulders next to entrance
  - Gnoll sappers granting armor to corrupted gnoll guards
  - Necromancer skeletons not following necromancer's aggro in some cases
  - Teleportation effects not accounting for large characters in specific cases
  - DM-300 not becoming supercharged if exactly damaged to the supercharge threshold
  
  Items pt.1:
  - Armband not working on hiding mimics
  - Chilling enchant reducing chill duration in rare cases
  - Rare cases where lucky enchant wouldn't trigger
  - Runestones affecting terrain when thrown at a character
  - Thrown weapons sticking to downed ghouls in some cases
  - Camouflage glyph not working if hero uses ethereal chains to move into grass
  - Sandals of nature incorrectly interacting with artifact charging
  - Various specific errors with artifact charge boosting
  - King's crown not preserving armor hardening
  
  Items pt.2:
  - Brimstone glyph not benefiting from glyph power boosts past +50%
  - Errors when leaving/entering blacksmith's area while a boomerang was circling back
  - Transfusion not benefiting from wand damage bonuses
  - Dwarf King's crown automatically IDing armor
  - Armband allowing more than one steal in specific cases
  - Swiftness glyph ignoring nearby enemies in specific cases
  - Stone of fear applying to hero and allies
  - Spike ability overriding elastic enchant in some cases
  - Geyser traps and aqua brew not extinguishing flames
  
  Heroes:
  - Duelist's swift equip not working during time freeze
  - Monk's flurry of blows not using projecting enchantment when empowered
  - Various battlemage on-hit effects not showing as magical damage
  - Empowered strike talent not working with blastwave
  - Challenge ability incorrectly working on neutral mobs
  - Seer shot talent not working in blacksmith quest area
  
  Misc:
  - Various minor visual and textual errors
  - Various rare crash bugs
  - Specific cases where unbreakable traps could spawn in halls in the caves
  - Music not properly pausing in background on desktop in some cases
  - Various rare errors when game launches in fullscreen
  - 'taste vengeance' badge not being earnable in a run after unlocking it
  [/expand]
  

Buffs:

• Weapon Ability Buffs [expand]
  - Lunge damage up
  - Cleave damage up, is now instant if it kills, but no longer chains
  - Heavy Blow damage up, non-surprise penalty changed to no bonus damage
  - Sneak charge cost down to 1 from 2, invis duration now scales
  - Combo Strike damage up, combo duration now resets on hit (like gladiator)
  - Spike damage up
  - Defensive Stance charge cost down to 1 from 2, duration now scales
  - Harvest charge cost down to 1 from 2, bleed amount dealt is now constant
  - Sword Dance charge cost down to 1 from 2, duration now scales, ACC boost up to 50%
  - Block duration now scales, now keeps blocking until you attack
  - Lash now deals bonus damage and is guaranteed to hit all targets
  - Spin charge cost down to 1 from 2
  - Runic Strike enchant boost now scales
  - Charge Shot AOE up to 7x7 from 5x5, dart durability boost now scales
  - Retribution is now instant if it kills
  - Brawler's Stance now deals bonus damage, reduces recharge speed instead of costing charge per hit
  [/expand]
  
• Alchemy Buffs [expand]
  Firstly, many items have received simple energy cost reductions. Note that all energy costs are after accounting for catalyst removal
  - Caustic Brew cost down to 1 from 2
  - Blizzard Brew cost down to 8 from 11
  - Shocking Brew cost down to 10 from 14
  - Aqua Brew cost down to 8 from 11
  - Elixir of Dragon's Blood cost down to 10 from 14
  - Telekinetic Grab cost down to 10 from 11
  - Beacon of Returning cost down to 12 from 15
  - Magical Infusion cost down to 12 from 13
  - Recycle cost down to 12 from 17
  
  Some alchemy produce has also received bigger buffs:
  - Elixir of Toxic Essence cost down to 8 from 10, spreads gas quicker, and gives 5 turns of lingering gas immunity
  - Elixir of Icy Touch cost down to 6 from 14 and now applies 3 chill each hit, up from 2
  - Wild Energy now requires a regular scroll of recharging, instead of mystical energy
  - Reclaim Trap cost up to 8 from 6, but output quantity increased to 5 from 4
  - Alchemize has a new recipe, it is now much cheaper to make
  - Summon Elemental cost down to 10 from 15 and buffing the spell now persists after use
  [/expand]
  
• Ghost and Blacksmith Enchantments [expand]
  I've given a slight boost to the rewards of the Ghost quest and Blacksmith's smith reward, aimed at making enchantments/glyphs more likely. this should hopefully make these rewards a bit more interesting more.
  
  - Ghost reward enchant rate up to 20% from 10%
  - Blacksmith smith reward enchant rate up to 30% from 0%
  [/expand]
  

Nerfs:

• Alchemy Nerfs [expand]
  - Elixir of Might cost up to 16 from 14 (after account for catalyst removal)
  - Phase Shift cost down to 10 from 13, but output quantity down to 6 from 8
  [/expand]
  

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

• The next update to Shattered will likely be v2.5.0, which will be a fairly small update focused on following up v2.4.0's changes and making some interface/QoL tweaks.
  
• v2.4.0 ended up being a pretty massive update balance-wise, with a new item category and sweeping changes to both the Duelist and alchemy. More fine-tuned adjustment will definitely be needed once the dust settles a bit, and so I expect that will be an important aspect of both v2.5.0 and v2.4.0's patches. Ideally most of the followup changes will be buffs, but we'll have to see how everything shapes up.
  
• Given that v2.5.0 won't have a new content focus, I'd also like to take the chance to make some smaller interface-driven changes that players have been asking me for. I can't guarantee what will be in v2.5.0 specifically yet, but frequent requests include better journal functionality (landmarks, catalogs, notes, etc.), a bestiary, and better support for controller users and keyboard users.
  
• The next major content addition I have planned is the Cleric, coming in v3.0.0. While I do think it's a good idea to do a small v2.5.0 update first, I will start actively designing the cleric now behind the scenes, so keep your eyes peeled for info on that as well!
  

I expect v2.5.0 will have a shorter dev time than usual, what with it being more about smaller changes. Hopefully things will have shaped up enough for me to make a blog post about it and commit to a release date sometime in July. 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!

In the meantime you can subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter, or follow me on Mastodon if you'd like more frequent incremental updates.

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

Hey Dungeoneers!

After some disruptions back in February and March, Shattered Pixel Dungeon v2.4.0 is finally ready for beta! Read on for more details about what's coming in this update.



[h2]Trinkets[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
The major new content in v2.4.0 is an entire new category of item: Trinkets!

Trinkets are produced and upgraded via alchemical energy, and are more about tweaking gameplay variables than giving direct power or utility. Look out for a magical catalyst in the early stages of the game. You can use this catalyst and a bit of alchemical energy at an alchemy pot to produce a trinket. You'll get three different trinkets to pick between each run.



Once you have a trinket, its effect will passively apply for the rest of your run (unless you decide to drop it), and can be upgraded using more alchemical energy. At +0 most trinket effects are fairly minor or subtle, but they can be made quite a bit more pronounced when upgraded to the max at +3.



These effects are all about mixing up the variables of a run a little bit. You might encounter rare enemies more often with the rat skull, find exotic potions/scrolls instead of regular ones with the exotic crystals, hit for max or minimum damage more often with the 13-leaf clover, encounter enchantments and curses more often with the Parchment Scrap, or encounter visible traps and chasms more often with the trap mechanism. I'm planning for v2.4.0 to have 10-12 trinkets in total when it releases.

It's my hope that trinkets will add another layer of variety on top of every run, making the game feel more fresh and varied without changing things up enough to disrupt regular gameplay. There's also a lot of room to add more trinkets in the future, which will mix things up even further!


[h2]Alchemy Changes[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
To go along with trinkets, v2.4.0 also includes some very substantial changes to the alchemy system.



Alchemical and arcane catalysts are being removed entirely in favor of having recipes just require more energy instead. This makes recipes more flexible, simplifies the process of creating a bunch of items, and doesn't actually change the cost of creating anything. Many recipes are also getting small or large balance changes (mostly buffs).

These changes should hopefully continue to push the alchemy system away from needlessly complex recipes and toward it's original goal: giving players more control and choice when it comes to consumable items. I am sorry that alchemy recipes itself are becoming less detailed as a result of this, but it's very clear to me at this point that the alchemy system is at its best when its streamlined and gets out of the way as quickly as possible.

[h2]Duelist Weapon Abilities[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
I'm making some big changes to the Duelist by scaling back her weapon ability charge speed quite a bit, but am also buffing weapon abilities across the board.



Every single weapon ability has been made stronger, received mechanics changes, or had its charge cost reduced. The goal here is for abilities to be less frequently available, but also **MUCH** more impactful when the player does use them. This better fits their nature as an addition to weapons, which already have a default attack that has unlimited availability. I expect this to both feel much stronger, and actually be stronger as well.

I'm also taking this chance to streamline the champion a bit. Her two weapons will now share a single charge meter, but with a bigger cap and faster charge speed. The secondary charge talent is also being replaced with a new talent that rewards using varied weapon abilities with even more charge boosts. This should hopefully make the champion a bit less fiddly to use while still encouraging varied and frequent weapon ability use.

[h2]Side Content[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
And, of course, v2.4.0 has a bunch of smaller changes and additions as well. Most notably:

• I've added a new standard room type to each of the five regions of the dungeon, and added two new variants for entrance and exit rooms to each region as well! These new rooms further increase level variety and substantially reduce the number of plain empty rooms.
  
• I've added a second batch of new holiday items for events later in the year. Expect to see holiday overrides to the cornish pasty during Pride, New Years, and the birthdays of both Shattered and the original Pixel Dungeon.
  
• In addition to Duelist talent tweaks, I've also changed up some of the less popular T1 talents. The Mage and Warrior get a new damage-boosting talent, and the Rogue's cached rations talent has been changed up.
  

[hr][/hr]
The beta for v2.4.0 isn't quite content-complete yet, so I expect that it'll last a bit longer than normal, perhaps 2 weeks. If you'd like to keep up to date on that progress, or get more updates in general, you can subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter, or follow me on Mastodon. Folks who's been following those have been getting little bite-sized trinket teaser for almost the last two months now.

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

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

Hey Rat Punchers,

You may remember that when v2.3.0 released I gave a rough ETA of 'early to mid March' when it came to hearing back from me on v2.4.0. Well, early March is here, so where are we at?

Unfortunately, I've got some bad news when it comes to progress on Shattered: v2.4.0 has been substantially delayed. For pretty much the whole month of February I've been dealing with helping my family with a surgery recovery and recovering from getting sick myself. None of these things are life threatening or anything, but they have made work on Shattered almost impossible for the last month or so.

In addition to all of that, I'm going to be steadily moving where I live over the course of March, which is sure to also get in the way of Shattered dev a fair bit.

[h2]A new ETA for v2.4.0[/h2]
[hr][/hr]
If we take my initial timeframe for v2.4.0 and shove everything back about a month and a half, then you could expect to hear from me sometime around mid to late April. I think that's a reasonable estimate for now, at the very least I should have enough content finished to show off in a blog post by then.

In the meantime you can subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter, or follow me on Mastodon if you'd like more frequent incremental updates.

In fact, so this post not being completely barren, here's one little thing that I showed off in a small update recently:

v2.4.0 is a fairly alchemy-focused update with the addition of trinkets, so I'm making some other changes to the alchemy system as well. Here's a streamlining change I'm making to the alchemy system, meant to simplify a bunch of the higher end recipes: replacing catalysts with a simple energy cost.



This change won't just go through in isolation though, I am planning on making adjustments to catalysts themselves so that there's still some reason to make them, and both aqua blast and feather fall are getting changes so that their produce better matches their input items thematically. Here's a quick look at how those items look now: