Talented News

Hello Talented Gamers!

Now the Alchemist Rework is live and our new Supporter Pack is available (including 6 Shiny Colour skins!), we can continue chatting about the upcoming Wave of Shadows DLC!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3423250/Talented__Wave_of_Shadows/

The second major feature added with the DLC is the brand new Waves Mode - this is intended to be a different way to play Talented with all of your favourite classes... Let's take a look...

[h2]Waves Mode[/h2]



Rather than the purely random spawns you're used to in Talented's Standard Run, this mode faces you against a sequence of Enemy Packs that are hand designed to test your build as you play.

These waves can be anything from a Googly spawning from each direction to an entire forest of Tronks and Treedle Twins each with random Elite Traits ploughing through the lane.

Each Wave consists of 5 Enemy Packs - only when you've survived all 5 are you able to progress to the Talent Tree and spend your hard earned Talent Points. After that it's off to another Wave...



Fans of Talented's truly crazy builds will be happy to hear that Waves Mode is fully Endless from release, with difficulty scaling designed to test even maxed out builds. Additionally, whereas builds with an extremely high number of projectiles tend to shine in Standard Runs, many waves are designed to test other things such as damage with a single hit or even how much crowd control you have!

[h3]Special Enemy Packs[/h3]

As you progress through Waves Mode you will start to see Rare, then Epic, then Legendary... and even more types of Enemy Pack.



Each increase in Rarity is not only a significant increase in raw difficulty, but also how specialised the challenge becomes. As the run heats up you'll start to see uniquely modified enemies and if you survive long enough you might even recieve and unwanted visit from a Boss Enemy!

[h3]Hexes[/h3]

In addition to the scaling difficulty of Enemy Packs, each run will apply up to 5 Hexes...



These are permanent modifiers that will apply to all future encounters. As they appear less often than Curses in Standard runs they can afford to be far more impactful, they might even force you to adapt your build.

...And don't be caught off guard by that simple example... As the run progresses, later Hexes will be much more devilish.



[h3]Experience and Combo[/h3]

Particularly insightful gamers may have already identified that Experience and Combo cannot work in quite the same way in Waves Mode due to the varying number of enemies per Wave.

We're currently experimenting with solutions, but the one that appears to be coming out on top is giving each Enemy Pack a budget of Experience and Combo Points that is split evenly between each enemy in that Pack.

This means you'll get a consistent amount of experience whether you're fighting a horde of 100 Lil' Blobs or a giant boss.

Note: All Experience Bonuses will apply to the Experience Budget, so they'll definitely still be worth picking up!



Hopefully you like the direction we're moving in! There's still lots of surprises in store as we continue to expand both Ninja and Waves Mode so we may drop a few hints in future devlogs...

Next time I'll be showing an early version of the heavily requested Key Rebinding feature and we'll be dipping our toe into lava pool that is Mastery 30!

Stay tuned and...

Stay Talented

Supporter Pack Skins are now automatically equipped the first time you open the game after accessing them.

Greetings Talented Gamers!

As promised we've paused work on the DLC and 1.1 update to address the most common feedback on the 1.0 version! Here goes nothing...

[h2]Alchemist Rework[/h2]

We hear you loud and clear - the Ingredient gathering and Crafting aspect of Alchemist can get tedious (especially adfter multiple runs) and Runes appearing almost offscreen can also be very frustrating. We're aiming for some high impact changes that will bring Alchemist in line with the other classes in terms of fun factor. We can't wait to hear what you think!

• Forage has been reworked to give 2 random ingredients (instead of allowing you to pick 1 of 2)
  
• Forage is now slightly more common (but still less common than Forage and Cultivate combined)
  
• Cultivate has been replaced by Attack Speed Up
  
• Alchemy is now significantly less common, but you can now craft as many Potion Abilities as you want (Note: You can no longer craft Potions with 0 ingredients)
  
• Alchemy now only starts to appear slightly higher on the tree
  
• The Maximum Ingredient cap has been raised to 99 (up from 9)
  
• Green Fingers has been reworked to - Forage now grants 3 random Ingredients
  
• Farmer Talents have been reworked to - Whenever you learn a [Forage] Talent you have a 25% chance to collect an additional that ingredient
  
• All Sigil talents have been reworked to - Killing X enemies Creates a Rune. This Rune will appear in the center of the lane (intended to be hit by all Potion Abilities)
  
• Linguist has been reworked to - Rune Talents require 50% fewer kills to Activate
  
• Energy Bolt charges reduced to 3 (down from 8) - with the limit on Potion Crafting removed Energy Bolt turned out to be much, much stronger in playtests.
  
• High Tide damage bonus increased to 2 (up from 1)
  
• The Abstain Achievement now requires crafting a Potion with a single ingredient
  

[h2]Other Balance[/h2]

• The Divinity Curse now allows enemies to ignore the first 3 hits (down from 5)
  
• Rune Damage increased by 300% in the Read the Room Challenge (up from 200%)
  
• You can now control 2 Ghost Puppies in the Woof Woof Challenge (up from 1)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Added a cap to Bandit's Shop Prices to stop the costs becoming negative
  
• Fixed an issue where the Symbolic Achievement would not unlock in some circumstances where no runes were missed in the Whack a Rune Challenge
  

[h2]Supporter Pack[/h2]

Given the low price point, throughout the development of Talented we had the occasional request for an additional way to support the development team and the number of requests has substantially increased over the last few weeks. For this reason we've decided to begin work on a Supporter Pack!



The main purpose of this pack is to support our continued development of Talented and future projects, but it will include a unique Shiny Skin for each of the 6 original Classes and a special Thank You Note from the team. There's even a clue to one of Talented's great mysteries!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3529280/Talented__Supporter_Pack/



That's a wrap for this patch! We'll be continuing to pay close attention to feedback and there will be another chance to address balance and quality of life in the 1.1 update! Stay tuned for more on that and...

Stay Talented!

Greetings Talented Gamers!

Let's get back to talking DLC! In Devlog #72 you might recall I highlighted how Ninja didn't use a resource for his Abilities like other Classes - there's a good reason for that!

[h2]Quests[/h2]

Ninja has access to objectives that can be completed during combat.



Completing a Quest will grant a Trophy and grant you a new random Quest. As the run continues the Quests will slowly increase in difficulty and may even require access to certain tools to complete.

Trophies can be spent to increase your Reputation with...

[h2]Clans[/h2]



Instead of Talent Packages - Ninja has access to Clans, a new way to access high power rewards. Each of the 3 Clans have hideout Talents dotted around the Talent Tree, when entering the Clan Hideout you are able to deposit your hard earned Trophies to gain reputation.

Each Reputation Level offers a reward - the very best rewards are always at the very end of the Reputation track. Will you focus on a single Clan any gain the high tier rewards or collect lots of immediate power by spreading your influence?

As you'd expect, there are Rares, Epics and Legendaries to collect - but there's a brand new tier of Ability Available too!

[h2]Ultimate Abilities[/h2]



This brand new tier of Ability should create a win condition in its own respect. Always available as the final reward of a Clan, the Ultimate Ability makes space for itself by adding an additional Ability slot to your bar.



Each Clan has its own unique Ultimate - the Spirit Clan offers a unique type of Soulflame that never expires!



So... Which Clan will you be dedicating yourself to in your first run?

Next time we'll be taking a look at the other big feature coming to the Wave of Shadows DLC - Wave Mode. Remember, you can Wishlist the DLC here so you won't miss it on release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3423250/Talented__Wave_of_Shadows/

Until next time...

Stay Talented