Hello everyone!
With the Great Gate closed, souls can no longer find their way and pass to the Realm Beyond. Lost and lingering in these lands, many have been consumed and corrupted by the Blight.
This update is focused around providing more replayability and customisation for players who already cleared a run or two. We're already working hard on the next region, but we feel it's important to provide some replayability options now rather than waiting for when all the regions are complete.
Another new feature in this update is kept a secret from these patch notes, can you find it? Let us know on Discord!
New Features
[h2]Stray Soul Challenges[/h2]
- After completing a successful run, you will be granted access to a new menu that will trigger before you start a new run.
- You can assign new difficulty modifiers here to make the game more challenging. Applying modifiers also increases the health and damage of enemies, but allows you to increase your Essence Multiplier beyond its original limit.
- Additionally, each challenge modifier applied will give you one Stray Soul for that run.
- These stray souls are meant to be purified and released. However, doing so will not remove the modifier they applied until the run ends.
- You can use Stray Souls at tribute altars to consume the Blight from them and get the altar’s reward without sacrificing Health. This will come in handy as challenge levels increase and Health becomes more valuable.
- Stray souls have another part to play, both in the current version and the official release. Can you uncover their mysteries?
Please note that this is a work-in-progress implementation of this feature. It will currently be available to everyone that completes the 3 regions. As more regions are added, an updated full run will be required to unlock it. There will also be more challenges added to it throughout the Early Access updates.[h2]Run Augmentation[/h2]
- After completing a successful run, you will be able to use your spare resources in future runs to augment them to your liking.
- Dormant Embers can be used to set the first Divine Spirit you encounter.
- Combat Runes can be used to start you off with a specific Enchantment.
- Esoteric Scrolls can be used to start you off with a specific Relic.
Gameplay / Balance Changes
[h2]General Balance Changes[/h2]
- Drenched Status Effect: Now has separate values for stun duration and Wall Splat damage. Wall Splat damage per stack increased from 5% to 20% per stack.
- The knockback scaling on Blightborn enemies has been increased.
- The Shroombiter enemy type now has less health (normal:200-> 175, elite: 400->350)
- The Slashell enemy type now has Shields (can be found in the Burrows).
- The Arachnobolter enemy can now move backwards before attacking you.
- The base cooldown for all Bolts has increased from 3 sec. to 4 sec.
- Wavedash deceleration slightly reduced (slightly extended range).
- Tribute Rooms are no longer an Ordinance, and will become available after your first run automatically. This is to support the new Stray Souls altar benefits provided by the challenges.
[h2]Weapon Balance Changes[/h2]
- Link Blades Down Attack: Sweet Spot will knockback enemies towards you.
- Astral Cord Bow Side Attack (3rd hit): Slightly increased air-time during the attack, deals increased shield damage to enemies hit very close to the bow.
- Astral cord Bow Side-Air Attack: Slightly increased air-time during the attack.
- Sisterhood Gauntlets: Increased the base damage of the 4th hit of the side attack combo from 15 to 20.
- Sister Gauntlets Down Attack: Increased speed and range.
[h2]Spiritforged Masks Balance Changes[/h2]
- Mask of Mishved: Increased Wintertide damage from 30-50% to 60-80% (min to max upgrades). Duration increased from 3 sec. to 5 sec. The amount of charge time required to fill the meter was reduced by 20%.
- Mask of Solesh: Increased Skybound damage from 20-40% to 30-50%.Duration increased from 2.5 sec. To 7 sec.
- Mask of Navolik: Hyperspeed damage changed from 40/50/60/70/80% to 45/50/55/60/65%.
- Mask of Sharbora: Damage buff threshold lowered from 85% to 80% Health, and the bonus was increased from 15% to 20%. Nature’s Wrath Health reserve increased from 55-75% to 60-80%.
- Mask of Yamphas: Turbulence damage increased from 15-35% to 30-50%.
[h2]Skill Tree Balance Changes[/h2]
- Verdant Fortitude: Max Health increased from 25 to 50, cost increased from 2 to 3.
- Unyielding Fire: Health threshold reduced from 30% to 25%, cost reduced from 4 to 2.
- Bite Marks: Damage increased from 10% to 20%.
[h2]Spirit Blessings Balance Changes[/h2]
- Shatter: Shield Damage increased from +200% to +250%.
- Extinguishment: Now also causes burn to inflict more damage per stack to make up for the reduced status effect duration.
- Antipode: Combustion damage to bosses is now boosted without requiring any frost stacks.
- Chain-Lightning Bolt: Range increased by 20%.
- Voltaic-Blink Dash: Damage reduced from 20/24/28 to 14/18/22.
- Ice Shards: Damage increased from 6/10/14 to 8/12/16. Luminous Gems upgrade value per gem increased from 4 to 6.
- Magic Shards: Damage changed from 50/65/75% to 40/60/80%
- Aurora Borealis: Essence gain increased from 10/14/18% to 10/15/20%.
- Breaking the Ice: Damage increased from 40/55/70% to 40/60/80%.
- Edgeguard: Damage and Knockback increased from 12/16/20% to 14/22/30%.
- Avalanche: Damage changed from 25/30/35 to 15/25/35. Luminous Gem 2nd upgrade increased from 6 to 8 damage.
- Woof Punish: Damage increased from 10/15/20% to 15/20/25%. Luminous Gems upgrade value per gem increased from 5% to 10%.
- Occultation: Damage increased from 10/15/20% to 20/25/30%.
- Absolute Magnitude: Bonus now displays as added instead of set. Max Multiplier increased from +0.3/0.5/0.7 to +0.4/0.7/10. Can no longer be upgraded by Luminous Gems.
- Dousing Attack: Drenched duration increased from 4 to 6.
- Dousing Launcher: Drenched duration increased from 6 to 7.
- Dousing Bolt: Damage per projectile changed from 16/18/20 to 16/20/24.
- Wall Splash: Damage per Stack changed from 10/20/30% to 20/25/30%
- Uncharted Waters: Luminous Gems upgrade value per gem increased from 0.5% to 1%.
- Hydro Pump: Damage increased from 4/5/6% to 10/15/20% per stack. Luminous Gems upgrade value per gem increased from 1% to 2%.
- Hydration: Max Health per Fountain increased from 5/10/15% to 10/13/16%.
- Lost at Sea: Damage increased from 10/15/20% to 20/25/30%.
- Splash Damage: Increased radius by 20%, Damage increased from 15/25/35% to 20/30/40%. Luminous Gem 2nd upgrade increased from 6% to 8%. This blessings now has a visual effect indication when it triggers.
- Equilibrium: Damage increased from 10/12/14% to 12/14/16%.
- Natural Selection: Damage increased from 10/15/20% to 15/20/25%.
- Ravaging Growth: Damage increased from 8/10/12% to 10/12/14%.
- Resolute Stance: Duration increased from 0.5/0.75/1 sec. to 0.75/1/1.25 sec.
[h2]New Achievements[/h2]
- Purification
- ??? (Hidden Achievement)
[h2]New Codex Entries[/h2]
- Arbiter Mallet
- Stray Soul
- ??? (Hidden Codex Entry)
[h2]New Ordinances[/h2]
[h2]Accessibility[/h2]
Enemy Proximity Humms: We are experimenting with a system that emits looping sounds based on position to improve accessibility for vision impaired players. While we do not have a lot of resources to dedicate to this, we intend to improve it over time. If this is relevant to you, please let us know what you think.
Sounds Relative to Player: Toggle between sounds relative to the camera or to the player. Works best when paired with the Proximity Humms.
[h2]QOL / Miscellaneous[/h2]
- New room layout variations can appear in the Burrows region
- A new detection method for unwanted device input was implemented due to several players experiencing input from unknown / undetected controllers. This will allow you to disable the input completely from within the game.
- Health bars have been tweaked to be more compact across different health values
- The Relics menu hide/close animation is now faster
[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
