Talented News

Reworked the Friendly Fire Achievement in response to the removal of Contract Abilities

Greetings Talented Gamers!

Talented has officially been on Steam for 1 year, and what better way to celebrate than an update packed full of spooky surprises.

Portals and Endless Mode

Our most requested feature is finally here! You'll never have to put down your run just as it's getting exciting again...


Additionally, if you were concerned you might run out of Talents you can put that fear behind you. Portals allow you to teleport to a completely new Talent Tree!



You can find Portals at the very top of the tree and each comes with a powerful upgrade...



You'll be needing them as the enemies will be gaining more powerful bonuses in Endless!



More Talent Packages

We're wrapping up Talent Package work on Bandit and Alchemist this update with everything from rolling tons of dice to throwing books at your enemies! Which builds are you excited to try out?





Challenges

Challenges both new and old will be getting thrown into the mix with update 0.15. Bosses will be receiveing much requested health bars and you can now see the Challenge Description in the Run Info Panel.



With 6 new Challenges coming you'll be collecting more loot than ever, finding out what getting old feels like and stealing Abilities from other classes. And of course new Challenges mean new unlocks!



There's also plenty of balance changes coming to the existing challenges, which can be seen below in the balance section.

Overachiever

And with all of this new content there's new Achievements to unlock.. As well as the expected round of Endless Mode Achievements we've added some Challenge specific ones that will help spice up Challenges that our veteran players may have already completed!



Balance

General

• A Knockback Reduction Enemy Bonus has been added
  
• All Ability Cast Times have been reduced by 80%
  
• (Meta Game) Class Experience granted each night per Mastery Level increased by 60%
  
• Tatty's pre-burrow Movement Speed reduced by 25%
  
• MP Regeneration Up Talents now grant 10% reduction to time between regeneration ticks (down from 12%)
  

Archer Upon inspection we are fairly happy with the number of viable win conditions Archer has, although we have observed that he can be on the weaker side in endless. The big exception to this was the Shrink Package - we've replaced this with a shiny new Pierce Package and moved some other things around. We also felt that it was unclear which Abilities counted as Inventions and which didn't. So we've ditched the Inventioned Tag and reworked the related Package to empower both Active Abilities and Homing Missiles.

• All Projectiles now pierce through Shrunk Enemies
  
• The Inventions tag has been entierly removed from the game
  
• The Shrink Package has been replaced by a Pierce Package
  
• Scoop Up has been replaced by Vortech Trap in the Pierce Package
  
• Hole in One has replaced Science Project in the Pierce Package
  
• Spectral Quiver has replaced Tiny Quiver in the Pierce Package
  
• Spectral Quiver now causes Basic Attacks to Pierce all targets (up from 1 additional target)
  
• Spectral Quiver activation chance reduced to 5% (down from 8%)
  
• Tiny Quiver has replaced Iron Quiver in the Quiver Package
  
• Tiny Quiver's Activation Chance has been increased to 5% (up from 4%)
  
• Toy Box has been replaced by Trick Shot in the Pierce Package - If you kill 3 or more enemies with a single Basic Attack you gain 2% Critical Strike Chance until the end of the Night
  
• Charmed Weapon has been added to the Base Package
  
• Frost Trap has been added to the Base Package
  
• Vortech Shrink Ray now has 1 Charge (down from 2)
  
• The Gadgeteer Package has been reworked to focus on Homing Missiles and Active Abilities (instead of Inventions)
  
• Remote Detonator has been moved to the Gadgeteer Package
  
• Buttermint Collector has been moved to the Gadgeteer Package
  
• Conservation is now an Epic Talent
  
• Conservation can now activate from any Directional Ability
  
• Increased the activation chance of Conservation to 50% (up from 25%)
  
• Epic Collector has been added to the Base Package - Enemies have a 3% chance to drop an Epic Candy when killed (Epic Candies give a huge amount of Experience)
  
• Cold Streak has been reworked into [Face Melter] - You gain 10% Critical Strike Chance. Your Critical Strikes apply Wounded
  
• Binoculars has been added to the Critically Acclaimed Package - Every time you kill an enemy with a Critical Strike you gain 0.05 Range until the end of the Night
  
• Vortech Bounty has been added to the Military Grade Package - Killing 25 enemies fires 2 Homing Missiles
  
• Cola Bottle Collector has been added to the Ooh Shinies! Package - Enemies have a 3% chance to drop a Cola Bottle that increases Range by 0.05 Range until the end of the Night
  
• Blast Quiver and Spark Quiver Activation Chance increased to 10% (up from 8%)
  
• Strategise now grants 3 Attack Damage on Activation (up from 2)
  
• Grindstone now grants 10% Critical Strike Chance (up from 10%)
  
• Vortech Aimbot now grants 25% Critical Strike Chance (up from 15%)
  
• Typhoon now creates causes your first 5 Basic Attacks to create an additional Orbital Arrows (up from making 3 Basic Attacks Orbital)
  
• Vortech Turrets can now take 4 hits before being destroyed (up from 2)
  
• Vortech Turret time between missiles is reduced to 2.5 seconds (down from 6)
  
• Vortech Turret cooldown increased to 15 seconds (up from 14)
  
• Vortech Turret now has a cap of 10 possible Turrets (down from no cap)
  

Wizard

• Illuminate Vision increase reduced to 50% (down from 100%) (Note: This is to ensure that the maximum Vision increase on the Talent Tree is always 100% including the new Portal)
  
• Illuminate Bonus Experience Gain increased to 15% (up from 10%)
  

Summoner While we're very happy with the number of unique strategies available in the Summoner Class, we recognise that only a small subset are viable on Mastery 25. We've added capstones to win conditions like Tanky Summons, Gravestones and Snail Builds and removed some of the less useful Abilities (namely Contracts)

• Evil Scheme has been reworked - The first time you use each Ability each Night it has no cost
  
• Gigantify now buffs 3 basic attacks (up from 2)
  
• Helix Squad has been reworked - Gigantifys cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds and grants 50% Summon Speed while active
  
• Flame Shells has been reworked - Your Snails have an 8% chance to create a flame on death that deals (1x Helper Damage) and applying Burning to enemies that pass through it
  
• Slow and Steady has been replaced by Slow and Shieldy - Gigantify also grants Basic Summons a Shield that blocks the first hit and reduces their movement speed by an additional 25%
  
• Two By Two has been reworked - Whenever you use an Ability your next Basic Attack summons two Snails instead
  
• Laid To Rest has been moved to the Base Package
  
• Shudder has been added to the Rest In Pieces Package - Create a Frost Nova from each Gravestone you control dealing Helper Damage and applying Frostbite to all nearby enemies
  
• Grimoire has been added to the Refreshments Package - Use all remaining Magic Points to Cast all other Abilities without putting them on Cooldown
  
• Good Boy has been moved to the Base Package
  
• Call of the Haunted has been moved to the Forever Home package
  
• Call of the Haunted now restores 50% Health (changed from flat 10)
  
• Royalty has been moved to the Rotten Package (replacing Corrupted Contract)
  
• Twisted Contract has been replaced with Snail of Arrows - Your next 2 basic attacks create snails in all 4 directions
  
• All Blobs need to move quicker and should critically strike instead of dealing double damage
  
• Osmosis has been reworked - All Blobs deal 2 more damage and move 25% quicker
  
• The Altar has been reworked - All Sacrifice Talents Activate an additional time when they are
  Activated
  
• Initial Magic Points reduced to 25 (down from 30)
  
• Premature Burial now has a 50% chance to Activate per Gravestone (down from 100%)
  
• Squelcharim cooldown increased to 10s (up from 5s)
  
• Frightful Motivation now grants 2 damage (down from 3)
  
• Gravestones now have a cap of 10 per lane (up from 30 in total)
  
• Gravestones spawning directionally now spawn 1.0 Range further than they did before
  
• Messy Sacrifice no longer Activates when a Fly dies
  

Bandit Currently the Shop is simultaneously weak in the early game and an infinite Talent printing machine in the late game. We've reduced the cost of all Talents but made it scale quite quickly so spending money in the late game remains a choice.

• Reload Speed Up reduced to 5% (Down from 6%)
  
• All Rounds Talents Activation Chance increased to 25% (Up from Various lower values)
  
• Round Robin now increases Activation Chance of Rounds Talents by 5% (Up from 2%)
  
• Lightning Rounds now applies Shocked in an area
  
• The Cap on Gold has been removed
  
• Whenever you buy something from a shop the cost of all Talents increase by 10%
  
• Remove reroll cost cap (but it increases by 50% per use down from 2x)
  
• Common Shop Talent Cost reduced to 5 (from 15)
  
• Rare Shop Talent Cost reduced to 10 (from 30)
  
• Ability Shop Talent Cost reduced to 25 (from 60)
  
• Epic Shop Talent Cost reduced to 25 (from 100)
  
• Legendary Shop Talent Cost reduced to 50 (from 250)
  
• Monopoly has been reworked - You Gain X Gold (50 x Nights Complete) and then double your Gold
  
• The One Ring has been removed from the Shop Talent Pool
  

Alchemist

• Runes now have a cap of 10 per lane (up from 30 in total)
  
• Runes now explode 3 times (up from 1)
  
• Runes now deal 100% Ability Power per explosion (down from 300%)
  
• Comprehension now adds 50% additional Ability Power scaling to each explosion (up from 100% to a single one)
  
• Increased the range of all Lances by 0.5
  

Challenges

• Reduced the Health of the Smushroom in Threat: Smushroom by 15%
  
• Tattys will no longer appear in the Curse of Luck Challenge
  
• Insider Trading will no longer appear in the Pirate's Life Challenge
  
• During the Investor Challenge you now gain 25% Luck per Night (instead of 175% Luck immediately)
  
• Marathon has been reworked to increase the duration of each Night by 5 seconds (instead of being a 30 Night long run)
  
• Basic Enemies no longer spawn automatically in the Detlenat Challenge
  
• Enemies created in the Detlenat Challenge appear closer to the entrance of the lanes
  
• Marathon has been reworked into a new Aging Gracefully challenge
  
• All Abilities in the Whack A Rune Challenge now have double their initial charges
  
• Abilities learnt in the Extinction Challenge now have 15 Charges (up from 6)
  
• Abilities now appear 100% more often in the Extinciton Challenge (down from 150%)
  
• Replaced Earthquake with Fury Unleashed in the Threat: Gulf Challenge
  
• Increased enemy spawn rate by 15% in the Threat: Gulf Challenge
  
• Increased boss movement speed in the Threat: Queen Challenge
  
• Runes will now always spawn closer to the player in the Whack A Rune Challenge
  

Bug Fixes

• Lances and Throwing Weapons should no longer travel over the heads of small enemies
  
• Fixed a bug where Wave, Lance and Nova Packages would always appear first for Alchemist
  
• Fixed a bug where a Talent Package could be rerolled into one that had already appeared in that discovery screen
  
• Chefs Hat will no longer try to unlock purchased Alchemy Talents
  
• Magical Hat will no longer try and unlock rare talents that have been rerolled by Talent Packages
  
• Beginning a Night with Pure Brilliant and a Brilliant Combo will now grant 1 of each Common Talent instantly (instead of needing to lose the combo and regain it)
  
• Vicious Sacrifice now correctly increases the damage of Ability Helpers instead of just Basic Attack ones
  
• Added a maximum size multiplier of 5.0, reduced the size of the Warrior's hit box significantly when at large sizes
  
• Fixed an issue where Shop Prices would appear unchanged by Slot Machine when the Shop was opened and had more than 3 Slots
  
• Fixed an issue causing the range indicator for Talent Packages to be incorrect
  
• Fixed a bug where Echomancy could appear on the same Talent Tree twice
  
• Fixed a bug where some unlocked Legendary Talents would not actually appear in runs
  
• Book of Souls no longer shows whenever Magic Points are regenerated and the package it is from is discovered
  
• Arc Reactor and Massacre will no longer appear in the "The Basics" Challenge
  
• You can no longer time out and fail the Whack A Rune challenge shortly after completing it causing you to not get credit
  
• Batteries now correctly give an additional charge to Alchemist Abilities in the Pruning Challenge
  
• Refine, Revitalise, Regenerate and Replenish now activate multiple times in the Big Gulp Challenge
  
• Fixed an issue stopping the Abstain Achievement from unlocking correctly
  
• Fixed a bug where the Warp Speed Achievement could not be unlocked by crafting Abilities as Alchemist
  
• Fixed a bug where Warp Speed and Restock Achievements would not unlock when Abilities were added from sources other than Crafting or Ability Talents (e.g. Three of a Kind)
  
• Fixed a bug where the Goosebumps Achievement would unlock without the correct amount of enemies being feared
  
• Enemies below 25% Health Points will no longer instantly die to Decay
  
• 1UP no longer causes all damage related achievements to unlock
  
• Premature Burial no longer creates giant flies when combined with Deathrite
  
• Fixed an issue where Core Talents unlocked in Challenges could show the Core Talents of the incorrect Class
  
• Tiny Blobs from the Replication Core Talent will no longer appear larger than Lil' Blobs
  
• Talent Purchase sounds will no longer play when attempting to purchase a Talent that cannot be purchased on Gamepad
  
• The Talent Package tooltip should now appear in the correct place when learning a new Talent Package on the run end screen on Gamepad
  
• Talents in the Shop should now be correctly navigable when the middle Talent has been purchased on Gamepad
  
• Talent Tooltips should no longer disappear when moving between Talents on the Talent Tree while using Gamepad
  
• Fixed various typos and incorrect descriptions
  

Performance

• Optimised collision and damage logic to improve performance accross the game for all Attacks and Abilities
  
• Added a hard cap on the amount of loot that can spawn per frame and be active at one time (any loot above the cap will give its benefit immediately)
  
• Added a cap to the number of Attacks and Abilities that can be spawned per from (50 per frame, so this will only come into play in extreme cases!)
  
• Added a cap of 1,000,000% Bonus Experience Gain
  
• Added a cap of 1,000,000% Bonus Ability Power
  

Quality of Life

• You can now spend Talent Points before beginning the Eternal Nightmare Night
  
• Added a range indicator for the D6 Talent
  
• Auto-Fire can now be toggled with a hotkey (T)
  
• Holding (R) now restarts the current run
  
• Added a Select Random Class Button to character select
  
• Added a more subtle sound to the Alchemist Basic Attack
  
• Added a fade when entering a new run
  
• The Challenge info can now be accessed from the Run Info Panel
  
• The Run Info Panel now correctly displays enemy Health when it is above 1000
  
• Added an indicator for the previous highest mastery completed on a class to the run setup screen
  
• Clicking a crafted potion ability will now automatically add the ingredients for that potion to the crafting panel
  
• Added Enhancements (the description below the Player Portraits) to various Talents
  
• Added a visible cap on the Stats Panel to Basic Attack Range (it was always present but not shown)
  
• Reroll buttons are now disabled in the Talent Package Discovery screen if no new Talent Packages can be seen
  
• Added a Deck List for the Funky Dealings Challenge on the Challenge Info panel of the Run Info screen
  
• Added a maximum number of times Skelebobs can ressurect to guard against them becoming stuck in untargetable states in rare cases
  
• Hornets now have their own character sprite
  
• Animations for moving between Talents on Gamepad are no longer faster when the Game Speed is increased
  
• Zooming In/Out on Gamepad is no longer faster when the Game Speed is increased
  
• Minimum time between movement on Game Pad is no longer shorter when the Game Speed is increased
  

...and that's an update! We can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the highly requested Endless Mode, we'll be paying close attention to feedback to make sure we do the best job we can at ensuring it delivers on your expectations! Until next time...

Stay Talented

Greetings Talented Gamers!

The death bell tolls - Talent's most requested feature is here and you may yet regret asking for it.

Endless Mode

Let's begin with the basics - Endless Mode will unlock when you've completed any run on Mastery 10 or higher. If you've already unlocked the Eternal Nightmare you'll have access to Endless Mode from the moment 0,15 drops!

You'll be able to continue any Standard run and choose between Endless Mode and it's predecessor (Note: This now means Nightmare Mode can be played on runs lower than Mastery 10).


After spending your Night 20 Talent Points you'll move straight into Night 21 and continue from there, but that's where things really start to heat up...


From Night 21 the Enemies will begin to gain Rare Enemy Bonuses. These are significantly more powerful than the ones you're used to and you may even find yourself needing to adapt your build for them!



To make matters worse, after Night 25 the enemies will gain Epic Enemy Bonuses, These will really put the pressure on and should put your build to the test.



And after Night 35 things will get even more insane for those looking for a real test..



As usual there will be a suit of Achievements for surviving long enough in Endless Mode and you can track your best run on the Character Select Screen. We can't wait to see just how far you Talented Gamers can get!

Extra Challenging

Challenges are back in the Workshop for 0.15. We've been cooking up some new surprises and returning to some of 0.14's Challenges that didn't quite hit the mark.

First up, we've added the much requested Boss Health Bars so each of our 6 Boss Fights. Now it should be much easier to track your progress and see how close you were to that sweet kill!



We've also added the Challenge Description to the Run Info Panel while inside a Challenge. You can access the Run Info from the Pause Menu.



Better yet, you can now see your Deck List in the Funky Dealings Challenge!



When it comes to new Challenges, you'll be firing out giant waves of bullets in the Round 'Em Up Challenge.



And if you complete it you'll unlock the new Booma-Rounds Legendary that brings the power of Orbitals to Bandit!



Finally, as mentioned we're adding a new Unlock System for Challenges. Every 5 Mastery Levels you complete will now Unlock a new pair of Challenges.



Note: Any Challenges that were completed during Early Access will remaing Unlocked and Rewarded, so there's no need to worry about your progress!



So... Which Class will you be taking into Endless Mode first? I personally can't wait to find out what happens when Wizard is set loose on a second Talent Tree! Until next time...

Stay Talented

Greetings Talented Gamers!

We're hare at work bringing a new core feature to Talented's standard mode, and I'm here today to reveal what it's all about! Ready to take the leap into our new...

Portals



Portals are our brand new game-warping system that will give you access to as many alternate Talent Tree realities. Finally, you will be able to get all of the Talents your hear desires.



Each Portal comes with an additional bonus, some are simple bonuses that you'll be happy to see but some can weaken enemies or allow you to prolong the run by making you invincible for a Night.



Portals will appear at the very top of the tree, so we only expect them to come into play in runs that are going particularly well or are on high mastery levels. Of course they will also play a big role in the upcoming Infinite Mode too...



To make them more accessable we've also reduced the size of the standard Talent Tree by around 25%. This is still huge (with an average of 750 Talents!), we don't expect this to make a difference in 9/10 runs, but of course we will be monitoring internal and external feedback to make sure this is an overall positive for the game.



Inflation

We've recieved quite a bit of positive feedback on the Bandit changes made last update - Abilities seem more viable in general, and we've made some progress untying him from Reload Speed Up talents, but there's still more to do!



One of the main issues this has uncovered is an unbalance in the way Bandit uses the Shop. Currently the Shop is okay/weak in the early game and a Talent printing machine in the late game once your Gold economy gets going.

We want Shops to feel appropriately powerful with meaniningful choices at all stages, so we're overhauling the costing and adding some new mechanics to try and reach that goal.

• The Gold cap has been removed
  
• All Shop Talent prices now increase by 10% after every purchase (scaling multiplicatively)
  
• Removed the cap on reroll costs, rerolling now increases in price by 50% after each reroll (scaling multiplicatively)
  
• Base Cost of Common Talents reduced to 5 Gold (down from 15)
  
• Base Cost of Rare Talents reduced to 10 Gold (down from 30)
  
• Base Cost of Ability Talents reduced to 25 Gold (down from 60)
  
• Base Cost of Epic Talents reduced to 25 Gold (down from 100)
  
• Base Cost of Legendary Talents reduced to 50 Gold (down from 250)
  

The lower prices should make openning a Shop more valuable in the early game, and the Gold scaling should stop Shops offering an easy way to obtain 100+ Talents per Night later on. These changes are already live on the Community Branch, so anyone who's interested can get their hands on them right away!



Another day, another devlog... Next time we'll be revealing the new Infinite Mode and a much requested rework to the Alchemist's Rune Talents! Until then...

Stay Talented