Novus Orbis News

No new content for this update, just a few changes and bug fixes.

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (General) Changed how Great Strength behaves on enemies: it will now be removed at the end of the NEXT enemy turn. The way it worked so far forced me to have the few enemies that gain great strength to do it as their first action, otherwise they would lose it at the end of their turn, and basically gain nothing from it. With this change, I can now have these enemies cast great strength as their last action (which is a lot more fair to the player). Affected enemies: Wealthy Abomination, Mimic, Paralux.
  
• (General) Mimics are back in the game in normal mode too.
  
• (Enemy) Paralux will now copy the player's statuses after attacking, with the statuses remaining until the next turn.
  
• (Enemy) The change to great strength means that Wealthy Abomination can now use its Weak Spot attack (150 damage) with great strength, bringing it to 300 damage. Because of that I'm decreasing its base damage to 90.
  
• (Enemy) Decreased Paralux base damage.
  
• (Enemy) Kobolds now show a "Friendly Bond" status to tell you about the (so far hidden) ability to get strength when another Kobold dies.
  
• (Enemies) Darkness Elemental and Ebonactite's actions that would have you discard their whole hand, will now make you discard only one card.
  
• (Card) Boiling blood now deals 1/4 of your current blood instead of 1/2.
  
• (Card) Platinum Melon can now be found only from the second level.
  
• (UI) Added "(Currency)" to the Monster Blood tooltip.
  
• (Event) The Blood Bank will now show the current deposited blood in the sprite itself.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• "Gods Protection" blessing's name changed to "Gods' Protection".
  
• Fixed the ability to open the draw pile by spamming it during After Image's activation (soft locking the game).
  
• Removed "AoE" tooltip from Boiling Blood.
  
• Paralux was meant to always have the same statuses as the player, but it would wrongly not lose obtained statuses when the player didn't have them (for example, strength obtained through Warrior's Fortify (which is lost at turn end) would persist for Paralux when copied. Fixed.
  
• Fixed pad controls not working on the newly added branching levels.
  
• Fixed the game unlocking the Caves achievement when winning Echo Tower. The game will now unlock all level achievements when accessing the world map, instead of at the start of the next level.
  

[h2]Biggest update since release![/h2]

This update introduces one new level and a major feature that’s been planned for a long time, along with two new systems to make each run more varied and engaging.

[h3]20% off for the next 3 days[/h3]
Grab the Novus Orbis + OST Bundle for additional savings!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/51454/Novus_Orbis__OST/

[h3]Additions:[/h3]

• (General) Branching Levels System
  
• (General) Levels Difficulty System
  
• (Level) Echo Tower
  
• (Level) Lands - Evening
  
• (Level) Lands - Night
  
• (Level) Lands - Storm
  
• (Enemy) Attack Duplicarta
  
• (Enemy) Skill Duplicarta
  
• (Enemy) Slimer
  
• (Enemy) Current Elemental
  
• (Mini Boss) Paralux
  
• (Mini Boss) Forgotten Knight
  
• (Boss) Eye Of The Storm
  
• (Card) Fire Wall
  
• (Card) Momentum
  
• (Card) Pocket Watch
  
• (Blessing) Risk Of Heat
  
• (Blessing) Invisible Flame
  
• (Blessing) Solid Flame
  
• (Blessing) Quick Step
  
• (Blessing) No Pressure
  
• (Event) Sage
  
• (Event) Blood Bank
  
• (Achievement) Tower Explorer - Warrior
  
• (Achievement) Tower Explorer - Mage
  
• (Achievement) One Step Ahead
  
• (Achievement) Two Steps Ahead
  
• (Achievement) Three Steps Ahead
  
• (Achievement) Sunset
  
• (Achievement) Moonlight
  
• (Achievement) I Need An Umbrella
  

[h3]Branching Levels System[/h3]

Previously, a full run consisted of a fixed sequence of 4 levels. The long-term goal is to expand the game to include 9 levels, with branching paths. Each run will still be 4 levels long.

The first step in this plan is the addition of Echo Tower, the starting point of a new second path that leads to a second ending. After completing the first level (Lands), you’ll now be able to choose between:

• Caves (original path)
  
• Echo Tower (new path)
  

After either one, the run continues to Abyss.

More levels for the second path will be added in future updates. Once the entire second path is implemented, players will follow one complete path per run (original or new). After completing the second path, each level will branch into a direct counterpart.

[h3]Level Difficulty System[/h3]

To keep runs fresh, a new system dynamically adjusts the difficulty of Caves and Echo Tower based on your choices.

• Winning a level increases its difficulty by 1.
  
• Losing a level resets its difficulty to 0.
  
• Each win also lowers the difficulty of the other level by 2.
  

Difficulty Tiers (0–3):

• 0 – Base Difficulty
• 1 – One fewer Treasure/Healing room (specifically before the boss)
  
• 2 – Shorter level (3 fewer Event/Enemy floors)
  
• 3 – Forced Mini Bosses (2 mini-boss portals appear)
  

This system currently only applies to the Caves/Echo Tower choice but will be applied to every branching level in the future.

[h3]Lands Variants[/h3]

Since the first level (Lands) is always played regardless of path or result, it tends to be the most repeated. To add variety, the level will now cycle through 4 different versions:

• Lands – Normal
• Lands – Evening
• Lands – Night
• Lands – Storm

Each version features different visuals, slightly more challenging layouts, altered room counts, and varied events. They also include a few enemies from later levels.

Progression:

• Winning a run moves you to the next version.
  
• Losing a run resets Lands back to Normal (restarting a run does not).
  

This is a tentative system and may be tweaked based on player feedback.

[h3]New Event – Blood Bank[/h3]

A new event called Blood Bank has been added to the event pool of every level (different chance to appear depending on the level).

In the Blood Bank, you can deposit or withdraw Monster Blood. This currency persists across levels and between runs.

• You can perform only one action per encounter (either deposit or withdraw).
  
• Deposits are capped at 9999.
  

This feature is meant to address how Monster Blood often becomes excessive late in a run but is sometimes scarce early on. The Blood Bank aims to give players more control over their economy across multiple runs.

[h3]Notes:[/h3]

• Echo Tower and its enemies use music and sound effects from other levels/enemies. They will be properly updated when ready.
  

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• (General) Lands level's chance to have Hurt Creature and Bird Events increased to 60% each.
  
• (General) The tips you get when loading or losing the game will now cycle in order instead of being chosen at random.
  
• (Card) Boiling Blood won't consume blood anymore, but will now target one random enemy instead of being AoE.
  
• (Enemy) Slight increase to Fungal Knight's base damage.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that would show the "do you want to play hard mode?" screen without being able to remove it when loading a game.
  
• Fixed a bug that would leave the game stuck in "copy a card" mode when drawing Paper Airplane on your first turn when having After Image blessing.
  
• The recent adjustments in difficulty made it so the player was forced to replay the tutorial when they hadn't won the game yet. Added a "Replay Tutorial" button to the classes selection screen until you win once.
  
• Concrete Barrier and Imposing Presence had a wrong card text border (was rare instead of legendary), fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug that would do weird stuff when using some cards that let you discard while having the Stasis status.
  
• Fixed an issue that would leave the game in "no input" state for a few moments when using cards that make you draw from your deck.
  
• Fixed some instances where the enemy's intent's damage value wouldn't be updated when it was modified during a multiple intents action.
  

I have to say I'm happy with the amount of stuff I managed to make in less than a month.
The next levels for the second path will come as soon as possible.

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]Remember, if you like the game,
each single positive review helps me a lot![/h3]

If you have any feedback or want to discuss about the game, join my Discord server.

Hello!

I've come to the realization that, while hardcore players seem to have fun with the game in its current state, some of the choices I've made create a thick wall for new players.

This update goes to hopefully address this issue.

Easy Mode was there just for people who are having a hard time with the difficulty I consider normal for my game, but it turns out most people would rather fail 100 times (and then probably quit) rather than setting a game to easy mode.
And to be honest, I would be one of them.

So, I've made a big change to how the game handles difficulty for new players:

The game will now start in what used to be "Easy Mode" (from now on, I'll refer to it as "Normal Mode"). Once the player wins the game once, they will be presented with the option to activate "Hard Mode" (what was currently the normal game's difficulty). Once the game is cleared twice (either in Normal or Hard Mode), the player will be presented with the challenges selection screen on a new run (with one challenge unlocked if the game was cleared in Hard Mode).

This change won't impact existing players, but hopefully new players will have a smoother beginning.

I'm also adding three new blessings, and the usual difficulty balance and bug fixes.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Blessing) Courage
  
• (Blessing) Craving
  
• (Blessing) Red Eyes
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (General) Reworked the game's difficulty for new players.
  
• (General) Added "One Pet Item Card" to the possible initial rewards. Note that the selection won't contain Minic (because it's slightly stronger than other pets) and Fu/Florasanctum (because there is already a chance to get them from the Bird event). Future pets will be added to this reward.
  
• (Achievement) Since I removed Easy Mode from the game, I had to change what is unlocked when losing two times. Now, the achievement "You Can Do It!" will unlock the new blessing Courage.
  
• (Balance) Challenge 5 will now give a choice between 3 Affliction cards, and you have to pick only one.
  
• (Balance) In the first level, both the "hurt creature" and "bird" events have now a 50% chance of not being in the events pool.
  
• (Balance) Normal Mode (previously Easy Mode), additionally to giving you 5 SP and making enemies weaker, will now also NOT include Mimics. Moreover, the "Lose Blood" pixies are replaced with "Healing" ones.
  
• (Card) Nuclear Blast now multiplies each element 10x instead of 2x. Cost out of combo raised to 9.
  
• (Enemy) Decreased Pond Monarch's second form's damage.
  
• (Enemy) Dreadspinners will now be able to spawn max 2 eggs per fight in total.
  
• (Blessing) Removed "Innate" from Fortify's description.
  
• (UI) Changed the color for some keywords (like Burn) to match the same color of they statuses keywords (for better readability).
  
• (UI) Cards and Blessings that mention Affliction and Special cards now will show a tooltip that gives a short explanation about them.
  
• (UI) Increased the space between name and description for Blessings and Statuses tooltips.
  
• (UI) When winning a run, the score page will now give you only the option to go to main menu (and not to restart).
  
• (Others) The speed selector can now be clicked even when the game is in "no input" state.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where, when opening and closing the draw or discard pile while you should be choosing a card to discard, burn or copy, cards would be played instead of the supposed function.
  
• Fixed the fact that drawing Paper Airplane twice in a single draw would lock the game on the next draw.
  
• Fixed a bug that would reset the combo state of the game when alt tabbing.
  
• Fixed a bug that would lock the game trying to draw cards forever when using a Tonic card.
  
• Bite Mark card would show a "Great Strength" tooltip for no reason. Fixed.
  

Aside bug fixes, I think I will finally start to focus on making a new level, as well as implementing the system I have in mind for branching levels in the world map.
So, it may take a while until the next official update. If you want to follow my progress more closely, I will post stuff in the Discord server.

The 0.1.4 update was a bit of a mess, I had to remove it temporarily, I managed to fix the major bug it had, but it still had a few "new" issues that I needed to address.
Hopefully things will go more smoothly this time!

The main dish for this update is a new, alternative boss for the Abyss level, Husk!
I decided again to go for a modification on the same visual design of the original boss, while giving it completely new mechanics.

Considering it's in the third level, testing it organically is a little tricky, so please let me know what you think about it and if it needs adjustments!

As always, a lot of changes and bug fixes too.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Enemy) Husk (Abyss alternative boss)
  
• (Card) Parasite
  
• (Status) Veinlink
  
• (UI) Portals will now specify their content (aimed to new players who seem to get confused about which portal contains what).
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Card) Renamed Quintessence Grimoire to Penta Grimoire
  
• (Card) Random Page now gives a random number of SP from 1 to 9 (was 1 to 5).
  
• (Card) Raised cost for Center of Gravity to 6-2 from 4-2.
  
• (Card) Fancy bottle can't be found anymore in normal fights in the first level (can still be found in other ways, like the trash event).
  
• (Blessing) Completely reworked Fierce Cuteness. It used to have your pets act before the enemies actions (instead of after), but I realized that with statuses that disappear at turn start (like block) you would basically waste the status most of the times. I couldn't find an elegant solution to the problem, so now the blessing will have one random pet act twice.
  
• (Others) Events that can damage you (Firepit, Dummy, Masochist) can't be interacted with anymore if you don't have enough HP. As a result, you can't die from them anymore.
  
• (Others) You now can't find a third pet item room if you already have 2 pets (or 1 pet and 1 pet item card). The third pet must be obtained from the Great Mimic.
  
• (Language) 日本語翻訳をアップデートしました。 (updated Japanese translations)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that would leave the enemy without visible intents in rare cases.
  
• Fixed a bug that would take you out of "discard a card" (making cards playable instead of discardable) when pressing TAB or defocusing/refocusing the game's window.
  
• Fixed a bug that would (often) softlock the game when drawing cards.
  
• Fixed Zap stating Swift when it wasn't supposed to have it (nor it was actually acting as a Swift card).
  
• Added a tentative general system to avoid (or at least reduce) the amount of unexpected interactions that may cause softlocks during fights.
  
• (Probably) fixed a bug that would show the wrong combo value, sometimes. Please let me know if this happens again.
  
• Fixed the fact that if an enemy was performing a multi attack that gives you an Affliction card, and you had Evasion, the attacks would happen at the same time.
  
• Solved an infrequent instance where the vignette effect during enemies attacks would not appear.
  
• Fixed Wind Blades showing its base damage value in green.
  
• I recently changed the game so that it wouldn't give you duplicate grimoire cards. That was working in normal circumstances, but you could still find them as a shop item. Now the shop also accounts for that.
  
• Discharge card wasn't taking into account the recent added requirement of 5 Thunder charges. Fixed.
  
• Phoenix Soul's elemental variable wasn't correctly set: the card was showing it as a fire card, but the game was treating it as a wind card, so you could find it with a wind related grimoire (and couldn't with a fire related one).
  
• Copying a Slime card would lead to bad interactions. I've set the game so that Slime can no longer be copied (can be selected but it wont be copied).
  
• Fixed the fact that killing an enemy with an attack card that draws cards, would draw them before ending the fight. This would create bad interactions, for example with Slime card.
  
• Fixed the fact that Bouncy status would activate even when having Evasion.
  
• Fixed the fact that you would lose Bouncy charges when damaged from entities other than enemies.
  
• Fixed a bug that would show the attack arrow for non single target cards, when using the old card selection system.
  

That's it for this update.
I don't think I want to have an alternative boss for the last level, so with this update I've reached the amount of bosses I want to have for these four levels. More may be added in the future, but now I think I should start working on the new levels.

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]Remember, if you like the game,
each single positive review helps me a lot![/h3]

If you have any feedback or want to discuss about the game, join my Discord server.

[h2]NOTE:[/h2]
I realized a number of new bugs were introduced with this version, I'm temporarely reverting to 0.1.3 and will fix the new bugs ASAP. Thank you for understanding.

[h2]Note 2[/h2]
The game is now back to version 0.1.4, the bugs should be fixed, with the addition of a few more bug fixes that will be reported in the next update's announcement.

Hello!
The Steam Spring Sale starts today, and Novus Orbis will be 10% off for one week!
Alongside the sale, we're also releasing the Digital OST! Sorry for the delay.

I'm very happy with the music that was made for the game by St. GOGO and I can't wait to hear what new stuff he'll make for the future levels!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/51454/Novus_Orbis__OST/

All the revenue from selling the OST will go directly to him! If you enjoy Novus Orbis' music and want to listen to it outside of the game this is your chance!

[h3]To the update's contents:[/h3]

The game has had 5 pets in total for a long time now, and I really wanted to make new ones.
It's not as straightforward as it may seem: not only do I need to think of mechanics that make sense and are not redundant with other pets, I need to make the sprite, code them, add the "event" for when you find the card, need to make the card, and then implement everything.

Additionally, I needed to change how the game handles them, because there is no more "free" space for them. So, from now on, pets will share a "slot" around the player, and new pets will be in the same place as other ones. Which means that during one run, you'll be able to find only one of the pets that share the same slot.

For this event I'm adding one new pet, but more are coming in the future :)
With the pet comes its card and a new status.
Then, unrelated to the pet, I'm also adding one new Blessing.

There are also A LOT of changes and bug fixes.

[h2]Additions:[/h2]

• (Pet) Fu
  
• (Card) Mysterious Bean
  
• (Blessing) Ignorance
  
• (Status) Bouncy
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• (Important) The current last boss will now be an easier version of itself until the player defeats it once, with either class. Once defeated, it will be at its normal difficulty from the next run.
  
• (Enemy) Deep Worm's "creep" action will now only give it 1 evasion instead of 2.
  
• (Enemy) Mentamanoki HP raised to 800 from 500.
  
• (Enemy) Rafflesia HP raised to 700 from 500.
  
• (Enemy) Abyss Gaze HP raised to 300 from 250.
  
• (Enemy) Mentamanomi HP raised to 50 from 30.
  
• (Card) Familiar Fury now has Swift ability.
  
• (Card) Zap now requires 1 thunder and consumes 1 thunder.
  
• (Card) Shock Blast cost increased to 7-3 from 4-2.
  
• (Pet) Increased Genryuu's damage when having All For One blessing.
  
• (Others) Added Angel Form as a good interaction card with the hurt creature.
  
• (Others) With the introduction of new pets, the mechanic behind which you find has now changed. They used to be 5 in 5 differents positions. From now on, new pets will be in the same position of an existing one. This means that you will only be able to find one of the pets that share the same position. For example, the newly introduced Fu is in the same position as Florasanctum (in front of the player), so if you find Fu you won't be able to find Florasanctum, and vice versa.
  
• (Others) Bird event will now have a chance to drop a Mysterious Bean card.
  
• (Others) The game used to always force an item chest and an equipment chests as the first 2 events in Lands (in random order). Now this will happen only until you beat Lands for the first time (for new players), after that, any even will be findable from the first room.
  
• (Others) Added an "angry vein" to the shop's eye to signal that the next reroll will trigger its fight.
  
• (Others) Removed the possibility to click on a card during fight to make it stick to the cursor. From reviewing play sessions, it didn't seem anybody was actively using it, on the other hand it could make some misplays happen. You can now double click on the card for the same effect.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to find the blessing Fierce Cuteness.
  
• Fixed a bug that would break your deck (and softlock the game) if an enemy that removes cards from your deck (for example Pond's Monarch) removed a card created during the fight. These enemies now will not be able to target these cards.
  
• Disaster Recipe didn't have "Limited" specified in its description. Fixed.
  
• Fixed Reactive Poison making the "electrify" sound when obtained by the enemy, instead of a poison sound.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes not show the enemy's intent damage doubled when the player had Fragile status.
  
• Fixed a bug that would call a boss' blessings after the player and boss die at the same time.
  
• Fixed a bug that would softlock the game when trying to draw more cards than the total you own.
  
• Fixed a bug that (under certain circumstances) would not show the attack arrow when placing an attack card not on an enemy.
  
• Tentative fix for a rare bug that could try to draw an infinite amount of cards, softlocking the game and then making it crash.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that would softlock the game when an enemy is deciding its new action, after losing vs a multi hit attack, and starting a new game.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that would make it impossible to check the contents of your deck and discard pile.
  
• Tentative fix for a bug that, under rare circumstances (a mix of the player clicking repeatidly and with lower spec machines), would play a card when clicking on it even if not dragged above the set treshold.
  

That's it for this update.
For the next one, I have the alternative boss for Abyss well planned in my head :)

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]Remember, if you like the game,
each single positive review helps me immensely![/h3]

If you have any feedback or want to discuss about the game, join my Discord server.