Keeper's Toll News

Build 0.6.25 is now live, and you can read the patch notes at the bottom of this thread. It's mainly a bunch of QoL changes and fixes.

We are getting close to finishing the next major content update (v0.7) and there's a lot to discuss. Version 0.7 will be our largest game content update since we launched in Early Access. Version 0.7 brings several hours of new content. Let's dive in to each of the talking points.

[h2]New Environment: Castle Usvit[/h2]
Home to knights and servants of a Demonic Overlord. This environment brings a bunch of new content and difficulty. To enter Castle Usvit, defeating Velya (the fire witch boss) in the Usvit Depths is a requirement. The castle will not be unlocked until she is defeated. It's also recommended you have a well spent talent tree. The game ramps up in difficulty and you should be prepared for a challenge.



[h2]30+ new enemies[/h2]
From servants to knights to phantoms to living armor to court jesters and wizards. You name it, the castle has it. Loads of new attack mechanics not seen anywhere else in the game, the castle boasts some really fun AI and unique encounters.









[h2]3 New Boss Fights + 1 returning boss fight[/h2]
The hardest, and coolest bosses of the game are yet to come. We've spent several months working on these bosses and they are the shining light of Keeper's Toll. We cannot wait for players to fight them.

[h2]New Main Story Quest[/h2]
A mysterious priest awaits you at the entrance to Castle Usvit. Embark on a quest to unravel the mysteries of the castle.

[h2]New Merchant Items / Blueprints[/h2]
Encounter and engage in new events and obtain new blueprints to grant you new powers.

[h2]New lighting system[/h2]
We are building the game atmosphere more and adding 2d lighting and more advanced shadows to parts of the game world. We want to capture more of the darker feel of the games that inspired us such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The lighting system we are adding really helps elevate the feel of the game more and capture the vibe we are striving to achieve.

[h2]Enhanced Environments[/h2]
Updated texture details, rain particle FX and more. We want the worlds to feel more alive, and we will continue to improve on this throughout the duration of v0.7, even after launching the update.

[h2]Enhanced User Interface[/h2]
What we began to revise in v0.6 is being continued in v0.7. This will not launch at once, but will be a continual improvement.

[h2]New Music[/h2]
Shout out to Brightbone, our composer. He's made some awesome new music for the game, which will be added in v0.7.

[h2]Chinese Localization[/h2]
We are teaming up with a Publishing partner for the launch of v0.7 and they will be handling the publishing for Keeper's Toll in the Greater China region. Due to this, they have also assisted us with translating the game into Chinese and the game will be localized when v0.7 launches.

[h2]Achievements and Tomes[/h2]
We're adding in lots of new Achievements and Tomes of Knowledge to collect and power up your characters.

[h2]New Steam Page and Marketing Assets[/h2]
We will begin marketing the game more actively once we release v0.7 of KT, and thus we will have a new Steam Page, full of updated GIF's and details. We'll also be scrapping all of our existing screenshots/video and uploading new screenshots/video trailers for the game, as everything up there now will be outdated pretty heavily once we launch v0.7. Of course we need to accurately reflect the game in its current state, and this is a major leap forward for the game, so all assets will be completely new once we launch the update.

We are staying focused on bringing the new content in version 0.7 live to Keeper's Toll, so we've dialed back a bit as for revising/improving the existing content/mechanics. We understand there's always more we can do, but bringing v0.7 live into the game is our top priority right now.

Still, version 0.6.25 brings a handful of QoL, balancing updates and bug fixes to the game.

[h2]Patch Notes (v0.6.25)[/h2]

- Tomes of Knowledge Skill: Focus Ability has been modified and no longer requires max ability rank (5) to activate. It now scales once an ability reaches rank 3. You will earn 3% bonus dmg per rank at ability rank 3, 4% at ability rank 4 and 5% at ability rank 5.

- Ranger - Summon Wolf, Poison Blast, Fleeting Quiver and Nature's Snare cooldowns have been slightly reduced between 5-10%

- UI: Level Up active abilities now display the type of attack next to the "Active" tag. For example: Spell attacks, kick attacks, sword attacks. etc.

- UI: Added an orange end cap to the stamina slider when the player's stamina becomes exhausted

- UI: Added a level icon for Castle Usvit in the World Select menu

- Firebombs will now be thrown further if the player is moving. There is now variable distance based on speed

- A movement speed cap has been set to 20, which is quite high. Much further past this value and the controls start to worsen

- Bug Fix: Animations for elite enemies now properly transition into death animation states

- Bug Fix: Sporelord Rotwood will now properly face his move direction during a strike attack

- Bug Fix: Sporelord Rotwood should now properly transition animations from any state to death

- Bug Fix: Corrupted Souls curse was not collecting corrupted (red) souls. This has been fixed, and collisions now work as expected

- Bug Fix: Bilee will no longer slide when prepping for an attack or teleport move

- Refactored code related to Souls detection and collection


Thank you for following along and joining us on our journey through Early Access. We can't wait to get to v0.7 and let you all experience what we've been working hard on for countless months now. We anticipate releasing the new content sometime in early 2024, likely end of January or beginning of February.

Happy Holidays to all, and if you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Stingbot Games

[h2]Evade![/h2]



Players can now evade by pressing "B" (Circle on Playstation controller) on their game controller or Left Shift on the keyboard. Key binding for the evade action can also be changed if you go into the options menu.

Dodge Roll, Dash or Slide depending on your character class.

A. Evading will give you a 30% speed boost for the duration of the move
B. You can perform a double dash, but your stamina meter will be completely drained. Use to your advantage, but contemplate risk vs reward
C. Become invulnerable while evading (100% i Frames)
D. Smash through crates and barrels, dark souls style, cause it's fun :)

[h2]New Boss: Sporelord Rotwood[/h2]



A new mushroom has become angry at all the little shrooms you've been destroying! He's teased you with his poisonous mine field, but now it's time to take him on! He's replacing Bloodsap as the end boss for Linden Forest. We did this because we felt that, mechanically, Bloodsap was a little tough for a lot of new players to figure out. Sporelord Rotwood seems to strike a better balance and everyone who's tested the new boss is in agreement, so we felt this was the right move as we continue forward in Early Access.

Bloodsap will make a return to the game when we reach v0.7, our next major milestone. This will be sometime in early 2024, possibly as early as January but expected no later than February.

Version 0.7 of the game is the largest update we will have launched since Early Access. It's a major milestone for the game that will include hours of new content, loads of new features and progression and so much more. You haven't seen anything yet!

[h2]Updated HUD[/h2]



Gone is the lone health bar below the player. With the addition of the evasive actions comes a new stamina bar and HUD setup. All stats are now located in the top left corner of the screen, and with this change comes improvements to hit detection and stamina tracking.

[h2]Patch Notes (0.6.24)[/h2]

- NEW: Evasive Maneuvers (unique for each character class)

- NEW: Stamina system. Each class regenerates stamina at a different rate. mods to come in future updates as we expand the system

- NEW: Boss - Sporelord Rotwood. We have temporarily removed Bloodsap from the game as the end boss of Linden Forest and replaced him with Sporelord Rotwood. We will be adding Bloodsap back to the game when we launch v0.7 in early 2024.

- NEW: Achievement for defeating Sporelord Rotwood

- NEW: HUD UI elements > HP/Stamina/Chi bars + character portraits

- Crit Chance % now displays on pause menus and level up menus

- On Level Up, Skills are now labeled as Active or Passive, improving clarity

- Added menu navigation using controller/keyboard to the merchant icons on the pause menu

- Added merchant icons + navigation to the level up menu

- Hit Detection: HP bar now quickly flashes when hit

- Hit Detection: Added a small red border that flashes on the edge of the screen when hit

- Increased default gold pickup range

- UI: Adjusted Game HUD to support 9:16 aspect ratio (vertical displays)

- UI: Adjusted Game HUD for 16:10 displays (Steam Deck) so the vertical assets will be anchored properly relative to default 16:9

- UI: Indicator Icons that border the screen will now hover above the XP bar at bottom of screen, instead of being hidden behind the bar

- Player can no longer be slowed multiple times and have the effect stack. If slowed, the effect must now wear off before being slowed again

- Bug Fix: skill icons properly display on level up menu now. A few of them were swapped to incorrect positions

- Bug Fix: Player animation speed now always properly resets after being slowed

- Bug Fix: Bogatyr's War Cry was not properly calculating haste. fixed

- Bug Fix: Key Bindings should now work properly. We needed to adjust the code to support the addition of another binding for the evade move

- Bug Fix: Pumpking's Crown Merchant Item - Properly Aligned the Smash VFX to the Pumpking's landing impact position

- Bug Fix: Catapult Curse boulders will no longer inflict damage to the player when falling. Damage will only be inflicted when a boulder reaches the point of impact

- Bug Fix: Indicator icon for the challenge event circle in Usvit Depths should no longer display if the event circle is not active in the scene

- Key Bindings: Added a key binding for the Evade action. It defaults to Left Shift on the keyboard but can be reset to another binding if you prefer

- Restructured character animators to support new moves/input

- Invader will no longer spawn exactly at 4 minutes. There is now a random spawn time range in which he can spawn

- Modified Tome 5 in the Tomes of Knowledge menu. Tome 5 is now earned when defeating Sporelord Rotwood, not Bloodsap. Defeating Bloodsap will be added back in as a new task to earn a tome in v 0.7

- Added a short, optional tutorial when first loading into Linden Forest to inform the player how to evade

- Added a simple loading screen on game startup

- Added some missing sound effect events to the Talents menu when selecting specific characters or using the Buy Button

[h2]Special Thanks[/h2]

I wanted to give a shout out to some of the playerbase who helped us test this update. This came together through the efforts and feedback of everyone involved. Thank you to Hikiko, Djezze, Broda and Nosteru.

And of course, a shout out to each and every one of you reading this. Thank you for following along as we continue development on Keeper's Toll. Early Access has been a crazy ride so far. Each and every update puts us closer to realizing our vision for the game. There's so many improvements and changes to come, not to mention the countless hours of new content. If you have any questions, comments, bug reports, or any other feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you

Stingbot Games

Before we discuss what's new in Build 0.6.20, I want to talk about some new features coming very soon to Keeper's Toll:

[h2]Evasive Maneuvers[/h2]

Many players have asked about this or suggested it for a long time now. We were always on the fence, but we decided to try it out, and were surprised by how great it felt. Being able to dodge out of an invader or elite attack or avoid a boss attack just feels really nice and also plays into our theme and direction a bit more, especially as we move closer to v0.7 of the game. We're finishing up the evasive animations this week, so in the next content update build we will be adding in a dodge roll / dash to the game (each character performs their own move).



We will have a breakdown with full details in the next content update, so stay posted for more details.

[h2]Boss Changes[/h2]

Bloodsap, the current final boss of Linden Forest, will soon be removed from the game, but only temporarily. We will be replacing him with a new boss, Sporelord Rotwood.



The reason we are doing this is because Bloodsap poses a greater challenge for a lot of new players than other bosses. He has more mechanics and is trickier to figure out, so we feel that Sporelord Rotwood is a little easier to learn and would make a better end boss as this is the first level of the game.

This is not to say Bloodsap will be going away. In version 0.7 he will make his return, but we will not spoil how. We don't want to spoil the evolution of the game and all the new content that is to come.

Sporelord Rotwood is a super fun boss fight, and we look forward to seeing how players tackle him. We'll be adding a new Achievement for defeating Sporelord Rotwood when we release the update that contains him (most likely the dodge roll/evasive update).

[h2]Patch Notes (0.6.20)[/h2]

- NEW Merchant Item (Common) - Frenzied Sash: Boost Crit Chance by 5%

- Halloween Event has been deactivated. We may add a toggle in a future update if enough people ask to bring it back. Not 100% sure yet, but we did intend for it to be a seasonal event only.

- Linked Passive Abilities that are dependent on Active abilities will no longer be presented to the player to upgrade on level up, unless the active ability is already rank 1 or higher. The following abilities are classified as linked passives:
Bogatyr: Earthen Might, Quake, Guardian's Fury
Ranger: Nature's Ally
Shadow Monk: Thunderdance, Echoing Strikes

- Added Indicator Icons for Cursed Altars and Challenge Circles, guiding the player to the location of the events.

- Added an animated glow behind on-screen indicator icons to improve visibility and help direct the player to important locations in the game world.

- Increased default Soul Collection Range and upgrade range

- Ranger: All quick shot, chilled shot and multi shot arrows will now properly rotate with the bow as the ranger changes move direction mid shot

- Banishing an ability on level up will now allow the player to select a new ability instead of closing the menu and resuming gameplay

- Level Up Menu now displays all current ability and skill values/ranks, just like the pause menu

- Talents Menu: you can now remove talent points 1 at a time, just like the Knowledge Skills menu. You no longer have to refund all points at once.

- Added a 1/2 second delay w/ visual effect when resuming gameplay on level up after making skill selection, to allow the player to prepare for their next moves without the UI blocking the view.

- Refactored code related to boss enemies and how data is stored, improving efficiency and structure for future scaling

- Necromancer: When loading into the boss lairs for Chancellor Autlaic or Velya, skeleton decay is now reset to full

- Necromancer: Bone Venom - Increase proc chance from 3 to 4% per rank

- Modified Soul Collection logic to slightly boost performance

- Reset key bindings to prepare for Ground Roll / Evasive Actions

- Bug Fix: When failing a challenge event, the indicator icon will now be disabled

- Added a Discord invite banner to the main menu


That will be all for this update. We're planning to have the next update with the Dodge Roll / Dash + Sporelord boss live in about 2 weeks. There will be a bunch of other features and additions included as well. Stay posted!

As always, thank you for your continued support and interest in Keeper's Toll. If you have any feedback, questions, bugs to report or anything else don't hesitate to reach out.

Stingbot Games

Just a small patch to address a Bug Fix w/ the new XP system. You can no longer continue to spend XP on talent points if the points for any given talent are maxed.

Thank you to the community for reporting this. You all rock!

Stingbot

Some big changes have arrived in Keeper's Toll.

[h2]Class XP[/h2]

Gold is no longer the currency that will be used to upgrade Character Class Talents. Instead, Each class will earn their own XP and this XP will be used to upgrade talents in their own tree. XP is earned in many different ways in a run, but in general, the longer you survive and the more things you interact with and the more enemies you defeat, the more XP you will earn.

[h2]Gold[/h2]

Gold is now used exclusively for purchasing items from the Merchant. Gold is also now pooled together for all characters. We want the Merchant to become a very important part of any run, especially as we move ahead to Castle Usvit (version 0.7).

We may have further uses for Gold in the future, but it will always remain pooled for all characters going forward.

For players with existing save data, we migrate and convert your Gold to XP on first launch, and then we pool your existing gold together. If you encounter any issues please reach out to us.

[h2]Halloween Event[/h2]

The Halloween Event is coming to an end. Can you slay the Pumpking and loot his crown? We will likely leave the event live until the next minor update.





[h2]Future Updates[/h2]

Since we launched in Early Access we have released a consistent stream of updates to the game. Over the next couple of months we will need to dial back the release of game updates so we can stay focused on version 0.7 of the game which will bring about the largest content update yet. This has been a massive undertaking for us, and we really need to stay focused to get this done. We will still release some updates while we remain in version 0.6 of the game, and we encourage everyone to keep providing us with feedback and suggestions, but our main priority is getting version 0.7 released as soon as possible. Version 0.7 will take the game to the next level and get us closer to the vision of where we always intended to take the game. We have a lot of announcements to make over the course of the coming months, including many good surprises. Just know we're working extremely hard to get to the next milestone in Early Access, and it won't be too long until we can preview some of what we've been up to.

[h2]Patch Notes v0.6.13[/h2]

- NEW XP system - class specific

- NEW Gold system - Gold is now pooled between all characters

- Added XP earned to end of round menu

- Updated gold drop rate and merchant item costs

- Updated talent costs

- Invader: run forward/backwalk animations are now properly synced in all circumstances

- Invader: will no longer be able to move while stunned

- User Interface: Reset panel sorting order to account for proper layer sorting

- Merchant Item: Bomb satchel, now toss between 2 and 6 bombs instead of a constant 3

- Warden Grainloch: Now becomes more aggressive the longer he's left alive

- Warden Grainloch: Sundance circle will now gradually shrink over time if the player attempts to evade the Warden and run out his timer

- Bug Fix: when leveling up back to back, fixed a rare issue that would allow player to regain movement on second level up while level up menu is active

- Layer Sorting has been improved

- Adjusted collision on some props in the forest, to allow the player to pass through or maneuver more easily


Thank you for your support. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, feedback or bug reports. We read everything and will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Stingbot