Keeper's Toll News

After spending a year in Early Access, we're very excited to transition to version 0.9 of Keeper's Toll. This major update brings the final character class to the game: the Blood Maiden.

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We've spent a tremendous amount of time designing and building her and we can't wait for you all dive in and play. Here's a few things that makes her unique:

1. Animated Ultimate Attacks. We gave her some slick animations, such as Crimson Fury, the attack shown above. These ultimates are the final two talents in her talent tree, and thus must be unlocked. They have a cooldown timer and you must manually activate them during gameplay by holding the action button for 2 seconds (a prompt will be shown on screen when the ultimate is ready).



2. Build Variety: The Blood Maiden has the most build variety out of any class in the game. We spent a lot of time designing unique ways to build her with various synergies across talents, actives and passives. For instance, you could go with a straight poleblade build and utilize passives to strengthen poleblade attacks. Or you can choose a blood based build and choose passives to support that build type. Or, perhaps, you want to get deeper and choose the corruption passive, which places a small but permanent penalty on you, but strengthens your power. You could then gain additional passives to boost benefits of becoming corrupted. This is just the tip of the iceberg, for as we continue in version 0.9 of KT, we have more plans for the Blood Maiden. Some cool surprises and additions will be coming, just like we created the Black Flame for the Pyromancer.







Along with the new character class comes a new Perks System. Class XP now serves a greater purpose beyond just upgrading talents. As long as you have enough XP to buy a perk, the new perks merchant will arrive at the beginning of a round.



You can choose to purchase one of 3 available perks for a variable amount of XP, providing yet another way to boost your character during a run.

[h2]Build Notes (0.9.0)[/h2]
- New Character Class: The Blood Maiden
- New Perks System: When beginning a run, you can talk to the Perks Merchant to buy a perk. The merchant will only show up if you have enough XP to purchase a perk. 3 unique perks will be on offer and they will only be applied for the current round.
- New Tome of Knowledge: Spend more than 1,000 XP in the Perks Menu
- New Tome of Knowledge: Reach level 50 in a single run
- New Achievement: Max All talents for the Blood Maiden
- Merchant Indicator icon will remain active when player runs out of range. Will now only disable when the merchant is disabled. This way the player can return to the merchant and not struggle to find him if they so desire
- Adjusted specific enemy spawn rates
- Sacrifice Altar: added a glowing red light to illuminate the altar
- Dozens of Bug Fixes
- Lots of code refactoring
- Game Engine updated to latest version

[h2]Coming Soon[/h2]

As we continue development through version 0.9 of Keeper's Toll, we will be adding the following:
- Revisions/Improvements to all character classes
- New Events
- Tomes of Knowledge
- Additional language support. Over the coming months we will be adding support for German, Japanese, Turkish and Hungarian. We're currently looking for a translator to assist with French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Russian. If anyone is interested in assisting with this (paid work) or knows someone that might be interested, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd love to chat.
- Various other improvements/fixes/additions to the game based on player feedback

[h2]The Future of Keeper's Toll[/h2]

There will likely be less build updates moving forward, as we are pushing hard towards our 1.0 release, and with the full version of the game there will be a lot of new content. We will be releasing 1.0 of KT on both Steam and Nintendo Switch, and we plan to port to other platforms in the future. We will be maintaining multiple versions of the game moving forward and it will be a bit more challenging having to maintain 3 versions of the game while simultaneously porting and testing on Nintendo Switch, so this is why updates will likely be less frequent than they have been, but rest assured we will keep you updated on progress as we move towards the finish line. Things can, of course, change as time goes on and we'll continue to keep everyone in the loop on any developments as often as possible.

Here's some important things to look forward to once we exit early access:

- Final level and boss fights. Some big surprises await unlike anything you've seen before in the game. We want the final content and gameplay to evolve and elevate the experience.
- Level tiers: Do you find the game too easy? Has it gotten easier throughout Early Access? Do you want more of a challenge? Do you want more meta/progression? If you answer yes to any of these questions then rest assured, because a secondary level tier for each world will be unlockable, which will increase the challenge, offer new threats and twists on the worlds, and elevate the game to a new level. More on this to come the closer we get to 1.0.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

We can't wait to see what you all think of the new content and we look forward to delivering more in the future. As always, if anyone has any feedback, bug reports, suggestions etc, please do not hesitate to reach out. We read everything and will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Stingbot Games

Version 0.8.7 of Keeper's Toll is your gateway to discover the Black Flame! Begin your quest at Castle Usvit. Guide the Pyromancer through its labyrinthine halls, braving battles to unveil the secrets that lie beyond. Unlock ancient mysteries, unveil fresh opportunities, and gain access to a new tome of knowledge and skill point to use in the knowledge system.





[h3]SPOILER [/h3]
To begin the quest to discover the black flame you must be playing as the Pyromancer and defeat the Ebon King in Castle Usvit. Locate and read the Tome of Black Flame once the boss is defeated.

Version 0.8.7 also brings in a handful of requests from our player feedback list, some QoL updates and some bug fixes. Full patch notes below.

[h2]Patch Notes 0.8.7[/h2]

- New Quest: Discover the Black Flame > discover ancient secrets and new powers

- Idol of Banishment now has a small chance to drop in any chest. After the first boss is defeated, if no idol has been found, the drop rate is increased significantly

- Added the option to Hide Ability FX to reduce screen clutter. Toggle has been added to the Options Menu

- Hit Detection: Added controller vibration when the player is hit. This can be toggled off in the Options Menu

- Hit Detection: When player HP is low (under 30%) the character sprite will begin to slowly flash red. The flash will increase in speed as HP goes lower

- Refactored Player Controls script, improving ambiguous references and cleanup

- Pyromancer: Cataclysm Volcanos and Emberwake Fire Patches will now check if ground exists below a spawn position to prevent spawning outside bounds/within walls etc

- Added an ailment icon above the enemy's head when they are affected by Burn

- Sacrifice Altar - Blood animation is now time scale independent, nullifying the possibility of a delayed animation

- Necromancer: A skeleton counter has been added to the game HUD, displaying how many skeletons are currently active

- Necromancer: Skeletons now have a shader outline applied to them to boost visibility. Can be toggled off via the Character Outlines toggle in the Options Menu

- Armored snail will no longer deactivate when traveling too far from the player

- Bilee's Quest text is now localized

- Bug Fix: Abilities can no longer double spawn if activated from the Fortune Knowledge Skill on round start

- Bug Fix: Ranger's Burst Shot attack will no longer auto explode when entering the trigger area of the Challenge Event Platform

- Bug Fix: Fixed a collision check issue that prevented torches and candles from animating in Usvit Depths

[h2]Coming Soon[/h2]

We are getting close to finishing version 0.9 of Keeper's Toll, and with this major update brings the next and final character class of the game: the Blood Maiden. We're going to keep details about her a surprise for now, as we are doing some interesting things with her and we feel it will be more impactful if you don't know what's coming :) We're excited to launch her and we hope to have her in the game by the middle of next month. We will update our plans for the remainder of Early Access once we transition to version 0.9.

If anyone has any feedback, bugs reports, requests etc. please don't hesitate to reach out. We read everything and will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Stingbot Games

- Updated the Steamworks SDK
- Updated a couple settings in the Save Management System

A larger update is coming before the end of month. Stay posted!

Stingbot

Hi Everyone,

A new build is live! We've added a new Merchant Item, Knowledge Skills, and a lot of QoL improvements, among other things.

[h2]Patch Notes (0.8.2)[/h2]

- NEW Uncommon Merchant Item: Ring of Infernal Embers - Fire based attack dmg is increased by 7% and any attack has a 1% chance to inflict burn on an enemy



- NEW Knowledge Skill: Fortune. Begin a round with a random reward, whether it be a merchant item or a random ability at rank 1



- NEW Knowledge Skill: Crit Bonus. Bonus Damage is added to critical attacks (+3% per knowledge point spent)



- NEW Knowledge Skill: Invigorate. Stamina regeneration speed is boosted by 10% per knowledge point spent



- NEW Tome of Knowledge: Defeat the Armored Snail in Linden Forest

- NEW Achievement: Max all Pyromancer Talents

- Tomes of Knowledge menu has been expanded to allow for the addition of tomes in future updates

- UI: Pause Menu and Level Up menus: Player Abilities now show the cooldown timers below the ability description

- When a boss is defeated, all active souls nearby will now be sucked in and consumed

- Armor Snail Event: reduced spinning snail damage by 50%, reduced move speed by 15%, reduced HP by 15% and also stopped movement when colliding with the player and applied a slight force to reverse move direction, allowing for the player to move out of the way much easier, thus preventing multiple hits back to back. Also, armored snail will only deactivate if off screen.

- Armored Snail now has a variable spawn chance after the first time it's been defeated

- Increased the XP earned from each curse survived during Curse Mode (Endless Mode)

- Traps in Usvit Depths will now only trigger once. They will not reset and allow continuous activations

- Improved targeting and ground detection for Bogatyr's Iron Smash and Pyromancer's meteor attacks

- Pyromancer: Annihilation: Giant fireball orbits closer around the player for a longer duration before disappearing off screen

- Pyromancer Talent: Cauterize Wounds - Reduced damage threshold from 35 to 25 needed to replenish health. Updated the text description as well

- Fixed some logic related to calculating cooldowns and haste

- Shrunk the hitboxes for the Jester and the Alchemist projectiles in Castle Usvit

- Updated the text description for Pyromancer's skill's: Spontaneous Combustion and Self Immolate

- Hit Detection: Boosted the opacity of the character sprite when hit, so the red is more prominent. Also extended duration slightly and refactored the code improving visibility from multiple hits. Also increased the brightness/visibility of the flashing screen border.

- Secrets

We are actively working on version 0.9 of Keeper's Toll, and our primary focus right now is developing the Blood Maiden Class. She's going to be very unique and we can't wait to share more details about her, and we're planning to launch her next month as we transition to version 0.9.

We will have one more content update while we remain in version 0.8 of KT. Expect this update closer to the end of the month. We're planning something fun! Stay posted for details!

If anyone has any feedback, bugs to report or anything else, feel free to get in touch with us. We read everything and will do our best to respond as soon as possible. Thank you, and stay posted for more content. Still lots to come!

Stingbot Games

Hi Everyone,

Keeper's Toll has transitioned to v0.8 and with this major update we bring you a new character class: the Pyromancer. Once bound to the prison of Castle Usvit, the Pyromancer has broken his shackles and seeks to annihilate all who stand in his way of finding who is responsible for his imprisonment.



The Pyromancer is a very powerful AOE class and his abilities offer the largest area of clear for any class in the game.



However, his direct damage is lower, so its important to build his strengths. He scales well with critical attacks, so getting your CRIT up is a wise decision.



As always, just like all other classes in the game, he does not share any class actives or passive abilities and is unique in builds and playstyle.



- New Event in Linden Forest: Find and defeat the armored snail.



- Rearranged the character order in the character select and talents menus

- Evasive maneuvers logic has been modified. Stamina bar no longer fully depletes when a second dodge/dash is performed. Instead, performing the move will now consume the normal amount of stamina, but still requires at least half a bar to perform a dodge.

- A Grace Period has been added to Challenge Events before loading to a boss fight. A boss fight will now only attempt to initialize once the challenge event is won or lost.

- Refactored code related to upgrading player skills, improving efficiency and adding failsafes to prevent duplicate calls

- The Soul Knight's speed boost effect will now only affect enemies once, preventing unwanted high movement speed against multiple activations on enemies

- Merchant Item: Thunderstruck Gauntlets - a 3 second cooldown has been added to the ability proc requirements. Also, Thunderstrike will now only affect enemies if they are visible on screen

- Merchant Item: Shadow Essence Vial: Summoned Shadow Men are now capped at 10 to account for balancing the new Pyromancer Class

- Bug Fix: When ally invader despawns, the toast notification now properly displays as it should

- Bug Fix: Necromancer should no longer be able to move/slide around while reviving

- Bug Fix: Lady Nox should no longer be able to pass through walls/dead space

- Bug Fix: attack fx should no longer randomly deactivate by hitting invisible collision areas

- Bug Fix: Fixed a rare memory leak issue related to particle FX management, which could cause slowdown

- Bug Fix: Player Skills will no longer double activate when closing Dialogue UI

- Updated Chinese Font

- Code refactoring and collision optimizations

[h2]What's Next[/h2]

We've updated our roadmap, and we're alternating between working on the Blood Maiden class and the next level of the game. We will continue to make improvements to existing content as we progress.

Thank you for following along as we continue development on Keeper's Toll. We always welcome feedback, so feel free to share your thoughts and hopefully we can continue to find ways to improve the game together. Lots to come!

Stingbot Games