Keeper's Toll News

Hi Everyone,

This update brings some highly requested improvements to the game, as well as some new features. Lots of new items have also been added to the Merchant Pool.

[h2]WHAT'S NEW[/h2]

- NEW Curse Mode setup. When defeating the end boss of any level you now have the option to begin curse mode for greater rewards, or end the run and keep your current rewards. Seek out a new NPC named Hitch. She resides at a bonfire once the final stage boss is defeated.


- NEW Merchant Rerolls. Now you have 1 free re-roll per merchant instance. Any purchased item slot is not eligible for a reroll.



- NEW Merchant Item (Uncommon): Shadow Essence Vial - Critical strikes have a 10% chance to summon a shadow minion that temporarily fights alongside you.



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Thunderstruck Gauntlets - Critical strikes have a 10% chance to burst lightning, chain attacking nearby enemies.



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Ring of Serpents - Any attack has a 1% chance to spawn an AOE poison cloud



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Celerity Veil - Receive a temporary 30% movement speed boost when collecting a healing shard or using a healing flask



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Dreadroot Tonic - poison abilities inflict 20% more damage and last 20% longer



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Voidshroud Scroll - Renders character immune to slow and stun. Boosts slow and stun ability duration by 30%



- Merchant menu will now be opened manually by pressing the action input when the player is in close vicinity to the merchant. This helps avoid unwanted activation of the menu. Input will be shown to the player when the merchant can be activated.

- Adjusted text descriptions for character classes on the character select menu. Descriptions have been simplified to help clarify the style/attributes of each class

- Ghosts of Behelit can no longer be feared or slowed and their materials will not change based on status effects

- Necromancer: Skeletons now target Soulus

- Necromancer: Auto Flail spawn in visual has been improved to account for proper rotation

- Bogatyr: Shieldwarden - shield will no longer be lost when accepting a blood sacrifice

- Bogatyr: Stunning Blow: added a slight delay to the stun/KB to match the animation frames

- Ranger: Fixed some collision issues with Burst Shot being affected by colliders it should not have been affected by

- Nightmare Cloak is now exempt from mystique vial rewarded items

- Sporelord Rotwood: healing shrooms will now be disabled on death

- Soulus: if Soulus is left alive for longer than 3 minutes, it will now enrage and seek to destroy the player

- Bug Fix: Fixed some disabling of environment assets on spawn checks

- Bug Fix: Toast notifications should now properly disable at all times. Modified the class structure to prevent unwanted disabling of logic during a notification

- Bug Fix: healing animation should not play while dead. added additional checks to prevent animation from playing

- Bug Fix: Shadow monk can no longer teleport to the left of Chancellor Autlaic's hand position in the boss fight

- Bug Fix: Shadow monk teleport will no longer get stuck if time scale changes during the sequence

- Bug Fix: ghosts of behelit were not disabling properly due to incorrect animation reference. fixed

- Bug Fix: Usvit Castle props/destructible collision issues with some props such as tables/chairs not properly destroying

- Bug Fix: Rain Particle Droplet FX is now properly disabled when loading back to Castle Usvit halls from the Ebon King's arena

- Bug Fix: Sporelord Rotwood will no longer get stuck in his summon animation

- Nibbler: the rat's deactivation timer will no longer count down while he's stunned, and he will only disable when running off screen

- Disabled treasure chest icon when loading into a boss arena if the treasure hunt is active

- Mystique Vial no longer rewarded from Challenge Event. It's now only available to purchase via the shop

- Level End Screen: Bonus Gold only displayed if a bonus has been earned from entering Curse Mode

- Boosted gold rewards for surviving curses

- Updated Game HUD and menus for displaying gold count

- Updated Game Engine


[h2]COMING SOON[/h2]

We are working on a new event for Linden Forest, as well as some secrets. These will likely be going live in the next update.

Our primary focus is building the Pyromancer class. We are planning to launch him in the game next month, which will transition KT to version 0.8.

As always, we welcome and appreciate feedback. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, additions, or bug fixes, please don't hesitate to share with us.

Thank you for your support and following along as we continue development. Lots more to come!

Stingbot Games

We have some new items added to version 0.7.3 of KT, as well as some balancing/bug fixes. We're working on building up the merchant pool so we can add a merchant reroll system within the next month. The pool of items is too small to add that feature in, but it's coming as soon as Likho stocks up his wares!

[h2]Patch Notes (0.7.3)[/h2]

- NEW Merchant Item (Uncommon): Behelit: When health drops below 0, recover 20% HP but become cursed until the revive effect wears off. A swarm of ghosts will haunt you and attempt to fully kill you, forcing you to run from them until the effect wears off.



- NEW Merchant Item (Uncommon): Mystique Vial: Want to take a risk? Purchase this item from Likho, the Merchant and be rewarded 1 common item and 1 uncommon item at random.



- NEW Merchant Item (Common): Barbed Helmet: Shoot a circular burst of spiked barbs every few seconds



- Merchant Item: Nimble Boots - added a 10% stamina regeneration effect

- Merchant Item: Shield of Thorns - modified to only affect enemies while evading, allowing you to use the "Evasive Maneuvers" as a way to deal additional damage. Also, boosted damage by 50%

- Bogatyr: Defense talent has been replaced by a new talent called "Shieldwarden." Collect shields as rare drops from Destructibles and Elite mobs. Use the shields to boost the Bogatyr's defense by +1 per rank. Taking damage will remove a shield



- Bogatyr: Recklessness Talent - modified the defense reduction value and removed the additive value, thus reducing the penalty on defense when taking the skill upgrade

- Necromancer: Restless Bones Passive has been boosted to summon 1 exploding corpse (meatbomb) per rank instead of 1 total

- Necromancer: Bonecaster - reduced cooldown by 20%

- Ranger: Reduced Homing Shot, Arrow Volley, Fleeting Quiver and Nature's Snare cooldowns by 30%

- Character Select Menu: Set Necromancer's default control scheme to be Auto instead of Physics/Manual

- Updated the Bogatyr's Rage FX to be more visible

- Added a toast notification when collecting a missing page in Castle Usvit

- When reloading the scene from the pause menu or after a round is complete, "Loading" will now be localized if English is not the active language

- Sporelord Rotwood: added a movement pause and healing FX when he summons healing shrooms

- Soulus: adjusted the swipe motion to be a little more fluid

- Soulus: spawns more swords the longer he is left alive

- Options Menu: added a toggle for Screen Shake

- Bug Fix: Ranger's skill Poison Blast skill type is now properly registered as an AOE, not a sword attack

- Bug Fix: When exiting merchant menu with full flask charges and using a flask and coming back it should not say "sold" unless you bought it. It will now be available and display the appropriate response to the player

- Pumpking Merchant Item will no longer be summoned during the Ebon King fight

- Updated/Fixed various chinese localization

- Key bindings have been reset to prepare for additional bindings

[h2]Future Content Updates[/h2]

Moving forward, we are planning to release a content update about once very 2-3 weeks. These updates will most likely include new items, new systems and features while we build the next character class: the Pyromancer, as well as improve existing content. We'll keep everyone updated as we continue development. Of course, small patch builds will be pushed out as needed.

Some of what you can expect in the next build:

1. New Events/Points of Interest (working on a new event for Linden Forest, but we have plans for the other scenes as well)

2. Merchant Item Reroll System

3. A new system that makes curse mode optional, but offers rewards for entering the mode.

Our goal is to finish version 0.8 and 0.9 of KT as soon as possible, which will add the final 2 classes of the game: the Pyromancer and the Blood Maiden. Then we will likely remain in version 0.9 for some time to focus on strengthening each character class, balancing the game more, and adding new abilities for each character. When we reach 0.9 we would like to spend some time working on character builds, synergies and all sorts of things while we develop the final scene of the game.

Thank you for following along, and if anyone has any feedback, bugs to report, or anything to share with us, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Stingbot Games

Thank you to our awesome community and testers for your continued support. We've managed to squash a lot of bugs since launching v0.7, and we've improved a few other things in the process.

[h2]Patch Notes (0.7.1)[/h2]
- Modified Curse "Sundance" in Castle Usvit. It will now shift around based on the player's position, no longer trapping the player against a wall

- Added a ground check in catacombs/castle to prevent collectibles, flesh pickups and Necromancer Effigies from spawning inside walls or in void space

- Nibbler's Cheese Wheel will now despawn when loading into a boss arena

- Added a check for Pumpking's Item Spawn Position so that Pumpking always spawns in bounds in Usvit Depths/Castle

- Added a check to remove all tweens from enemies on death

- Added a check to kill all movement on Ebon King when he dies to prevent overlapping animation states

- Bug Fix: Potion of Insight icon now shows up properly in Items Icons list in the Pause/Level Up menus

- Bug Fix: Cyaegha enemy death animation now plays

- Lrod, the Gatekeeper, now spawns a boss soul on death

- Necromancer: Skeletons will no longer randomly die in Castle Usvit. Fixed some layer issues which allow safe traversal through "kill trigger zones"

- Blood Altar: on rank up, skill names should now be properly localized into Chinese if Chinese is the active language

- Localization: End Round menu now properly localizes "Damage" text

- Adjusted curse spawning logic to allow Bilee's curse in all worlds

- Chancellor Autlaic: slightly raised the lower threshold spawn position of the shield masters so the player can't get stuck below them

- Screenshake adjustments

Stay posted for more announcements. Lots to come!

And as always, don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback, bug reports or anything you like. We read everything and will do our best to respond as fast as we can. Have a great weekend!

Stingbot

We are thrilled to announce that after countless months, we have finally arrived at version 0.7 of Keeper's Toll. We want to thank everyone for following along as well as the entire team who is working on the game. We're all in this together, and it's amazing to see the progress on the game. As players, your feedback has been incredibly valuable and we want to thank everyone for contributing feedback, especially our dedicated community and testing team. We're turning the game into something special and can't thank you all enough!



[h2]New Environment: Castle Usvit[/h2]
A once beautiful castle now lies in ruins at the hands of a tormented king who has been consumed by his own demons. Explore the castle's halls as you seek to put an end to the demonic forces at play.

[h2]New Healing System[/h2]
You can now heal on command with our new flask healing system. As a new player, you will start out with 2 charges of a healing flask. Each flask heals 50% total HP by default. You can purchase a recharge from the Merchant. 2 Recharges per run, one per merchant instance. You can also upgrade your total charge count to 5, by killing each of the 3 mini bosses in the game: Warden Grainloch, Bilee and Soulus. When these bosses are killed for the first time you will be rewarded with a new charge to your flask.



Press [X] on Xbox Controller / [Square] on Playstation controller or [R] on keyboard to use a healing flask. You can rebind the keyboard key under key bindings in the options menu.

There is no longer health potions that will drop from crates/barrels/chests, as the flask system is now the main healing system for the game. However, we added new healing crystals to the game, which will now drop instead of potions. The crystals have a chance to drop in crates/barrels/chests and the drop rate scales with player level. The crystals heal over 10 seconds and heal a total amount of 15% of your total HP.



[h2]New lighting system[/h2]
The world has gone dark, but is lit with intensity! We want to capture more of the darker feel of the games that inspire us such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The lighting system we added really helps elevate the feel of the game more and capture the vibe we are striving to achieve.



[h2]30+ new enemies[/h2]
All sorts of new enemies await you in Castle Usvit. If you find some of the new enemy projectiles a bit difficult to deal with, toggle on the new "Enemy Projectile" outlines setting in the Options Menu.

[h2]3 New Boss Fights + 1 returning boss fight[/h2]
It is your goal to seek out and destroy the Ebon King and all those that serve the tormented lord.

[h2]New Main Story Quest[/h2]
Upon entering Castle Usvit, you will meet a mysterious priest named Kalinov. He will guide you on a path to end the reign of the tormented king.

[h2]New Merchant Items / Blueprints[/h2]
Encounter and engage in new events and obtain new blueprints to grant you new powers. More items are in production and will be released as we progress through v 0.7. We are also planning a merchant re-roll option in the coming months.

[h2]Enhanced Environments[/h2]
Updated texture details, rain particle FX and more. We want the worlds to feel more alive.

As we progress through v0.7 we also want to add some more points of interest throughout the environments, enhancing what you can do within the worlds you explore.

[h2]Enhanced User Interface[/h2]
New additions for the new healing system and more clarity added to existing content.

[h2]New Music[/h2]
Shout out to Brightbone, our composer. He's made some awesome new music for the game.

[h2]Publishing Partner and Chinese Localization[/h2]
We have teamed up with Doyoyo Games for the launch of v0.7. Doyoyo Games is handling the publishing/marketing of Keeper's Toll in the Greater China region as well as providing localization support for Chinese. You can change the language in the options menu.

[h2]Achievements and Tomes[/h2]
Lots of new Achievements and Tomes of Knowledge are available to collect and power up your characters.

[h2]Revamped Talents[/h2]
This is a WIP that we will continue working on throughout version 0.7. Bogatyr has a new talent called Rage that is a Tier 1 talent and can be unlocked almost immediately. It provides him with a hefty Cooldown reduction based on how fast he hits enemies. If you play very aggressive and can maintain a high level of rage, you will reap the benefits.

[h2]New Trailer and Screenshots[/h2]
New Video Trailer and screenshots posted on the main page. Check em out!

There has been several hundred other changes included in version 0.7, from skill balancing, to boss balancing, to visual effects, sound effects, bug fixes, you name it. We've fixed/tweaked hundreds upon hundreds of things.

We always appreciate feedback, and we understand that this is a big update. We hope you take some time to get used to the changes and also play some of the new content. Part of Early Access is about learning what works and what does not work for the game as a whole, and we are always striving to improve on these things as we continue development.

We welcome feedback, and if anyone has anything to report, from general feedback, to suggestions, bug fixes, etc., please do not hesitate to reach out. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your interest in Keeper's Toll, and we look forward to everyone playing v0.7 and we shall continue on our journey to version 0.8, in which we will be launching our next character class: the Pyromancer. We maintain our roadmap in the game description, so feel free to check in from time to time to see where we are at and what we have planned.

Stingbot Games

We hope everyone had a great Holiday break and New Years!

Soon, we will be launching our biggest game update since Early Access began. On January 25, players will get to experience the largest content update, filled with dozens of new features and challenges. We are still testing/polishing and preparing for the launch of version 0.7. Lots has changed/been improved and we will share a list of the major changes when the update goes live. Most notably, we have spent an enormous amount of time on a new lighting system and visual upgrades, with great improvements to the game's ambiance, feel and style. Updated textures, effects such as lights on explosions, screenshakes on slams, and all sorts of finesse has been added. And we're just getting started!

We created a teaser video showing a little of the next environment and updated visuals of the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

It's unlikely we will be pushing any new builds live in version 0.6 of KT, simply because 0.7 is now very different and impossible to maintain consistency. Besides just a new lighting system, there has been over 300+ changes to existing content, from bug fixes, to various stat improvements, to effects changes, and more.

We can't wait to see you all play the new content when it launches on January 25, and if you are returning to the game, you will notice loads of things have changed, so we hope you take some time to revisit old content as well as enjoy the new content. It's been quite the adventure getting to this point, and we thank everyone for joining us along for the ride.

Stingbot Games