Boons & Burdens News

Patch 0.70 touches on a lot of issues and features I've wanted to get to, but haven't yet been able to prioritize. And thanks to some incredibly detailed bug reporting on the Discord (here: https://discord.gg/YbdSHs58m9) I've been able to squash dozens of bugs that I either hadn't been able to track down, didn't know existed, or were recently introduced when I made other systems changes in other patches.

Patch 0.80 will bring a number of updates to the Arena mode, and certain rings in arena. But these patch notes are long already, so I'll detail all of that when it actually matters. Onto the notes!

[h3]Full Patch Notes:[/h3]

New Boss

• Infested Cryomancer: A more dangerous variant of the Infested Pyromancer now shows up in their place in Delve 2.
  

Quality of Life Updates

• Options and Controls now save locally and not in the cloud. This is for smoother transitions between multiple machines (such as Desktop and Steam Deck). Allowing each to maintain its own local resolution and control config. Your options and controls will be reset 1 final (hopefully) time.
  
• Support and detection of multiple controllers. You can now switch between connected gamepads during gameplay.
  
• Added an AZERTY layout option for movement controls (QZSD)
  
• You can now view your inventory at the end of the game
  
• The game should no longer immediately skip the post-game screen if you are holding the button to confirm when it pops up
  
• Made it possible to reactivate the Electromancer's Theurgic with the attack toggle button
  
• Auto-Aim will now attempt to focus the guards surrounding the Qrystle Queen boss before the boss, when targeting highest threat enemies
  
• Crystal Construct's targeting function should run faster on slower computers
  

Balance

• Bosses
  - Infested Pyromancer: Now only shows up on Delve difficulty 0/1
  - Infested Cryomancer: New boss shows up on Delve Difficulty 2
  - Qrystle Queen: Now only shows up on Delve Difficulty 3
  
• Frost Bomb
  - Cold Open: Now triggers only 1 frost bomb when you recharge your staff even if your frost bombs have gained bonus targets. Text has been updated to match.
  
• Innatrix
  - Swirling Salvo: Trigger your staff attack in 2 random directions when you activate your innate ability. No longer a signature boon.
  - Sacrosanct: When you activate your innate ability, gain +1 second of invulnerability. 6 second recharge.
  - Deja Yu: Now a signature Boon
  
• Surging Sphere
  - Zap Dash: Every 6th sphere you collect, become invulnerable and move 50% faster for the duration.
  
• Hibernation Curse
  - +2% freeze chance (5% > 7%)
  
• Snow Pack Charm
  - Freeze duration is now 1 second, down from 2
  

Text Updates

• Tome of Snow Cone now correctly states that it deals 15 damage to enemies
  
• Jolting Javeline Staff now states the recharge time and number of charges
  
• Scattershock Staff now states the recharge time and number of charges
  
• Scattershock Staff now states the recharge time
  
• Tag Toteam now states that it has a 25% chance to trigger
  
• When playing in arena, the text indicating future boon cost increases no longer shows up as it does not apply in arena
  
• The text for Deja Yu now stats "triggered when you activate your innate" instead of "when you use your innate" because there are some effects that trigger when your innate ends that are not copied by Deja Yu.
  
• The text for Combusting Rune now says "when your innate ability ends" instead of "when your innate ability finishes" to be consistent with the Recursion Boon in the same talent tree
  
• Fixed a typo in the Farlight boon description
  
• Sacrifice Proficiency now correctly states that it also affects rings
  
• The Electromancer's equipment texts have been updated in the inventory to match the changes made in recent balance updates
  
• The Burden of Hunger now correctly states that Hunger Damage is not blocked by invulnerability.
  

Bug Fixes

• Ring of Rerolls will no longer increase the reroll cost on your free reroll
  
• Fixed the scaling data for Burden of Ruins. Crystals will be easier to destroy at lower levels, and the correct number of required crystals will spawn at all levels.
  
• Fixed a misalignment of options and cursor when using mouse controls in the vfx options menu over the color settings
  
• The Targeting curse will now properly apply the bonus rune targets and reduce beam targets
  
• Thunderbird's Feather will no longer affect Will-o-Wisps
  
• Ring of Shoving should now pull the correct stats when knocking enemies back
  
• Fixed an issue with the Energy Rations boon in the Long Shock tree that would cause your staff recharge to become stuck if it triggered on your last staff charge
  
• North Pole now correctly deals the stated 25 damage, up from 15.
  
• Fixed a bug with the Hail Storm boon in the Frost Bomb tree that could prevent it from triggering if another bolt type attack wasn't happening at the same time
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing Tag Toteam to trigger 100% of the time instead of 10%, but then raised the chance to 25%.
  
• Crystal Construct beams now correctly deal 25 damage, up from 20
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent text descriptions from updating in real time when changing Control options
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow the Snypyr (armored totem style enemies) to slide around from knockback and collisions when they should remain in place.
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent further uses of the Overcharge innate ability if you equipped the Overcharger boon from the Recharge talent tree
  
• Fixed a bug with Beserking Curse that could cause move speed conflicts with other boons
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Electromancer's Lightspeed innate to move inconsistent distances
  
• Power up meters in arena will now properly align with the bottom of the UI elements in the top left when entering/exiting the shop
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Ring of Ramping from counting affected Fire Line targets
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Ring of Ramping to overcount affected targets of Snow Cone
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing Shatterglass curse from increasing incoming player damage
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent some curses from applying their modifiers to abilities that were previously equipped (they would still apply their effects to abilities equipped after)
  - Affected: Rayfocus, Light Bend, Coldlight Curse, Firelight Curse, Shocklight Curse, Spreadlight Curse, Winter's Curse, Chilling Curse, Blazing Curse, Runeburn Curse, Focus Pyre, Long Fuse, Short Circuit, Targeting, Runefocus, Phantomshock, Beastmaster, Hasty Summoning, Broadbrief Curse
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the title to be printed twice instead of the boon description, if the first boon you selected in a talent tree was the center one
  
• The talent tree in your inventory will now correctly reset when selecting equipped items (as they do not have talents)
  
• Tome of Snow Cone's freeze duration is now correctly lasting the full 2.5 seconds
  
• Hibernation Curse will no longer run multiple times when each enemy spawns
  
• Effects that could modify your health at the exact end of a level will now update your health bar immediately
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed enemy bolts to bypass invulnerability effects
  
• Light Flurry boon's freeze chance is now correctly triggering with a 35%
  
• Cryomancer's Theurgic abilities are now properly receiving the freeze tag, allowing them to benefit from freeze ability modifiers
  
• Fixed a bug with the Infested Pyromancer that would prevent their swipe attack from creating bullets if they were near the boundaries of the battlefield
  

Whew, managed to sneak one more big update in before the end of the month! The Delve Deep update brings some real challenge (hopefully) to those of you that have mastered the systems, and know the best builds. It also brings some extra variety to all difficulties of Delve so there's something for those of you that may never want to try out the harder difficulties.

The next update will add a new boss, and some requested quality of life changes I've been meaning to get to. I'm also still working on hunting down some bugs, but my play-throughs have been smoother than ever, so progress is being made, and that's what it's all about here in Early Access...or so I tell myself.

If you do experience a bug, some important things that will help me when you report them:

• What controls are you using? Gamepad or Mouse and Keyboard
  
• Do you use auto-aim?
  
• What was your build (take a screenshot if you can)
  
• Did the bug happen on your first run after launching the game, or when you played another round after winning/losing?
  

[h3]Anyway, without further ado, here's the patch notes for 0.60:[/h3]

Difficulty Level 3 for Delve has been added

6 New Enemies

• The Jackhellope (Delve 1, 2, 3)
  
• Crystal Ruins (Delve 1, 2, 3)
  
• Uber Phantoms (Delve 2 and 3)
  
• Uber Squlls (Delve 3)
  
• Uber Sqyds (Delve 3)
  
• The Phantom Lord (Delve 3)
  

6 New Permanent Sacrifices. Choose 1 at the start of a Delve 3 run.

• Sacrifice Intelligence: -10 Max Boons
  
• Sacrifice Constitution: -30 max Health, +1 damage from all sources
  
• Sacrifice Dexterity: +30% staff recharge time, +30% innate recharge time
  
• Sacrifice Proficiency: -15% base damage for all boons
  
• Sacrifice Charisma: +20% Boon Cost
  
• Sacrifice Initiative: Start the game at threat level 5 of 20.
  

5 New Burdens

• Burden of Divinity - Use your theurgic X times. Special totems spawn that generate theurgic gems.
  
• Burden of Pride - Elite enemies spawn constantly, kill X of them and escape
  
• Burden of Ruin - Destroy the crystal remains of ancient ruins around the portal, but beware their latent magical defenses.
  
• Burden of Hunting- A special, fast moving Elite spawns and must be killed.
  
• Burden of Soul - Enemies sometimes leave behind lost souls that must be collected before they leave the battlefield.
  

Balance Changes

• Uber Phantoms show up in Delve 2 and 3 if if you remain in the level too long
  
• Electromancer's Light Speed innate has had its recharge time increased by 0.5 seconds
  
• Electromancer's Light Speed innate bonus recharge time has been increased by 0.5 seconds if used again to return to your original position.
  
• Electromancer's Overcharge innate grants -4 bonus charges
  
• Electromancer's Passive Electrostatic Charm now deals 10 damage, up from 5. It's chance is now 15% down from 25%, but the previous tooltip incorrectly stated it was 15.
  
• Electromancer's Passive Thundercall Charm now grants 15 theurgic power, down from 25. Note: Both passives became much too strong after the recent changes to the Static status effect.
  
• Electromancer's Theurgic ability Thunderbird's Talon cost increased to 350 from 300
  

Quality of Life

• Delve and Arena now have unique difficulty descriptions
  

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed a bug with the ring of wealth that could move gems to other places when creating new gems
  
• Fixed a bug with innate visuals that could result in other UI elements being moved in rare instances
  
• Fixed a bug with the Burden of Many that could incorrectly move gems already on the battlefield when one of the mini portals was completed
  
• Fixed a bug with the Burden of Haste that could inadvertently reset reload/recharge times of Boons
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Hellrazer achievement to be obtained by achieving victory in Arena
  

Here we are at the halfway point! I had originally intended this to be patch 0.45, but I ended up adding double the planned Cursed Boons for this patch, and that brought me to the 50% mark on my internal content roadmap. I've also fixed a few bugs related to Theurgics and staff attacks that I introduced when fixing other bugs recently.

What's next? Like May was all about adding a lot of new boons (42 so far, in fact) and the Electromancer, June will be all about beefing up the actual game mode content for both Delve and Arena. Expect difficulty 3 for Delve, difficulty 2 for Arena, new burdens and sacrifices, new enemy types, and at least 1 new boss in June.

If you're still with me in the trenches, and enjoying the game, now would be a great time to leave a review. Many of the reviews, good and bad, are from the earliest versions of the game and haven't been updated since. I'd love for more recent feedback to greet new players interested in checking out the game. I know I've said this before, but word of mouth is my strongest marketing tool as a solo dev, and making it in this industry is not easy. I can use all the help I can get, and I have so many games I still want to make!

Anyway, enjoy the patch! Until next time!

Patch 0.50 Changes

New Cursed Boons

• Hail Mary Curse
  
• Shocklight Curse
  
• Spreadlight Curse
  
• Power Transfer Curse
  
• Broadbrief Curse
  
• Phantomshock Curse
  
• Focus Pyre Curse
  
• Long Fuse Curse
  
• Safe Space Curse
  
• Karmic Curse
  
• Beastmaster Curse
  
• Short Circuit Curse
  
• Chickenheart Curse
  
• Hasty Summoning Curse
  

Quality of Life

• Updated how Cursed Boons are added to the pool. Should now see a slight increase in variety.
  
• Add Electromancer staves to the main menu area
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that would cause the resolution setting "Full Screen, No Frame" to revert to "Full Screen with Frame" on restarting the game, or exiting from a game back to the main menu.
  
• Cleaned up various visual artifacts outside of the normal playing/viewing area when using the "Full Screen, No Frame" option on atypical resolutions
  
• Added a floor to certain stat modifiers to prevent them from giving abilities invalid stats that could break abilities.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Static counter to appear over the boon/burden menus
  
• Fixed some bugs related to the Electromancer's "Overcharge" innate. Boons that triggered effects when your innate was used could trigger the Overcharge ability itself, among other things.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause staff attacks and theurgics to break if your theurgic was used right when you leveled up in arena (a recent bug fix for theurgics made this bug possible again)
  

After countless reports and an inability to locate and replicate the Theurgic freeze bug that could lock your character, it finally happened. I found the bug. I fixed the bug. I also fixed some other bugs related to theurgics and pausing. Today is a good day.

I had previously run many theurgic tests with with the Blitz Beam equipped because I saw a lot of reports had it, but today I got yet another screenshot where the user had Blitz Beam and I knew there had to be something to it.

The issue was the boon "Nearstrike" in the "Blitz Beam" talent tree. It was missing a line to control its scope ("scope" is how the engine knows which copy of an object to apply specific code to at any given time) which allowed it to basically reset a specific value related to some spells it shouldn't have control over. Most spells didn't use the value it was resetting so it wouldn't otherwise be noticeable, but all theurgic spells relied on it.

This patch also fixes a newish bug that allowed Theurgic spell animations to keep playing while the game was paused.

Anyway, now I can get back to working on new upgrades! Until next time!

Couple more fixes for the Berserking Curse boon

• Fixed the way that the negative speed of Berserking Curse was applied and removed when used in conjunction with the Overcharge innate ability.
  
• Fixed the spelling of Berserking Curse in the description