Boons & Burdens News

Patch 0.20 brings with it a whole new way to play called Arena. This mode is heavily inspired by my last game, Gunlocked, so if you came to Boons & Burdens looking for more of that action, this is the update for you! Turn on auto-aim in the options, and you almost wouldn't know the difference (almost, lol).

If you've been waiting to grab a copy until more content and features were in, now's the time! I'm currently re-running the previous launch week sale for all of my games, including the bonus discounts on the bundles. With last week's Rings of Power and this Arena update, there's plenty of bang for your buck (shameless promotion over).

As always, if you're enjoying the game, and want to see it grow into something even greater, please leave a positive review. It's a big help!

The next several patches will be smaller, and more regularly spaced, as I work through polishing up the content in the game with new and improved visuals and sounds, some optimization, balance changes, and bug fixes. Then it will be back to adding more big stuff.

[h3]Here's a bit of what you can expect in upcoming patches, in roughly this order:[/h3]

1. Polish patches: updated visual and sound effects, optimization, balance changes
   
2. New boons, and cursed boons
   
3. Difficulty 2 of Arena
   
4. A new playable class: With alternate equipment, unique boons, achievements, etc.
   
5. Difficulty 3 for Classic and Arena
   

Oh, and a "Confirm Surrender" pop-up will be coming in the next patch too (this was delayed 1 patch).

[h3]Key Features of patch 0.20[/h3]

• New Game Mode: Arena
  
• 6 Potion Powerups
  
• 11 Achievements
  
• Balance Changes
  
• Bug Fixes
  

[h3]Arena Mode[/h3]

• Survive for 15 minutes in a single arena
  
• No burdens, sacrifices, portals, or bosses.
  
• 6 new potion powerups can show up in chests (see GIF above)
  
• Special combat events can trigger periodically, spawning unique enemy configurations and special hazards
  
• Collecting gems levels you up, allowing you to pick one new upgrade each time
  
• You get 1 reroll per level up, but the Ring of Rerolls can extend this
  
• Upgrade beacons appear, and allow you to choose boons when charged up. These favor upgrades for abilities you already own when possible.
  
• Enemies do not drop Infernicite in this mode, instead you're awarded Infernicite based on every minute you survive, with a +10 bonus for victory.
  
• Certain rings behave differently in Arena. You can toggle between arena/classic descriptions in the equipment menu.
  

Achievements

• Survivalist: Choose the Burden of Survival at least twice in a single game
  
• Unconstrained: After stage 4, spend 20+ seconds outside the safe area in the Burden of Constraint and complete the stage.
  
• Ring Bearer: Achieve victory with only 1 ring equipped.
  
• Ring Wraith: Achieve victory with 5 rings equipped.
  
• Craftsmen: Unlock 15 rings.
  
• Master Craftsmen: Upgrade 15+ rings
  
• 2 Booned 2 Burden: Achieve victory in difficulty level 2 of classic mode
  
• Lord of the Arena: Achieve victory in Arena mode.
  
• Cold Clock: Damage 150 enemies with Cold Shoulder in a single game
  
• Potion Master: Drink 5 different potions in a single Arena game.
  
• Updog: Fully charge 5 upgrade beacons in a single Arena game.
  

Balance

• Phantoms are no longer invincible, but are still extremely hard to kill.
  
• Snow Guard now has a maximum limit of 2 on screen at a time
  
• The Snow Clone boon now increases max Snow Guards by 2 in addition to its other effect
  
• Crystal Construct now has a maximum limit of 2 on screen at a time
  
• The Carbon Copy boon now increases max Crystal Constructs by 2 in addition to its other effect
  
• Blowback triggers after 30 enemies are burned, up from 25.
  
• Heat Wave has a 0.33 second recharge timer after triggering
  
• Hitbox for Cold Shoulder has been increased. Will now trigger if any part of your character touches an enemy instead of using the smaller hitbox for detecting if you're damaged.
  
• Zapyrs (red crystal enemies) collect gems faster
  

QoL

• Totem Radius effects now dim when the totem is not active. Autonomous totem radius effects are now always dim. Note: Summons that are also totems are autonomous, and attack regardless of your whereabouts.
  
• Frost Bomb has a much smaller sprite and effect trail, making it less obtrusive when 3+ of them are triggering at any given moment. The area of effect is unchanged.
  
• Divine Quiver beams are now much smaller and less obtrusive. The area of effect is unchanged.
  
• The Snow Cone innate effect now fades to transparent as it travels
  

Bugs

• Enemies should no longer get stuck on the bottom edge of the battleground when pinned between a wall and another unit
  
• Neutral units such as chests and chickens will no longer heal from the Winter's Curse Boon
  
• Ring of Rerolls should no longer grant infinite free rerolls if you skip rerolling in a round while the free reroll is active
  
• Ring of Time will now properly give +30% charge time when directly on the portal if upgraded. Was previously only giveing +15% at both levels.
  
• Ring of Recovery will no longer recharge the shield while in boon/burden menus or during pause
  
• The invincibility counter will no longer remain visible, and stuck in place at round's end in Classic.
  
• Zapyrs (red crystal enemies) should hopefully not get stuck on screen when they should have died now
  

This small patch fixes a very peculiar bug with limited impact. If you previously had trouble using the gamepad or keyboard to change equipment, this update should fix that. Most people were likely unaffected by this bug.

Been listening to the feedback, planning a few changes, and fixing reported bugs. Patch 0.15 was a huge undertaking, and changed a lot of underlying systems to make my ability systems more robust. I was bound to miss a few things in testing, so I appreciate all the help (and enthusiasm).

Patch 0.20 is the next big milestone and is quite close to being ready. I originally was going to skip straight to 0.20 and combine 0.15 and 0.20 into one mega patch, but it proved to be too much at once. With it comes new achievements and a new game mode. The new mode will actually make it faster to get Infernicite, which is why I wasn't too aggressive with reducing unlock costs, but I'll keep my eye on things, and continue to listen to feedback, and if the cost still needs to come down, I'm not opposed.

There's a few more reported bugs to fix yet, but I thought I'd get this one out now, before I sleep.

Note: The new mode is actually partially in this build (but not playable), and while I did full playthrough tests of the classic mode to make sure I didn't break anything, let me know if you come across any weird bugs related to round changes, game over, and new games.

[h3]Patch Notes[/h3]

Balance

• Fireline's recharge time has been reduced by 0.5 seconds
  
• Fireline will now collect gems in range during the dash
  
• Flamespitter now has 9 (-2) max charges, but creates 1 more bolt per charge, and deals 8 (+2) damage per bolt to the first target hit (Note: the tooltip previously incorrectly indicated it had 12 max charges)
  

Quality of Life

• The new shield health counter that shows up with rings that give shields now has a shield icon to make it more obvious what it is. Note: More interesting visuals are coming in a future polish patch, but figured this would be better for now.
  

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that was leaving some spaces blank on the Top Boons post-game list
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent innate icons from switching to the correct class when changing classes, until restart
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the Innate icons from changing to the correct equipped Innate ability
  
• Fixed a bug causing Fire Line to incorrectly apply burn too many times
  
• Fixed a bug causing Pyro's Theurgic Meter to reset between rounds
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the game timer to continue to count while paused
  
• The ring highlighter will now properly reapper when switching from the side bar to the ring menu without needing to change ring selection
  
• Fixed a bug with pyro's Giant's Heart Theurgic ability that would prevent it from healing after other boons were purchased
  
• Fixed a bug with pyro's Giant's Horn Theurgic that would make a debug UI element visible
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Pyro's Flamespitter staff to be visible during his Theurgic ability animation
  

Patch 0.15 ended up being too large for just one patch, so more content is on the way in the not too distant future, but I wanted to get this update out before March was over. I'll be waiting to see about balance and bugs in the new difficulty mode before adding the achievements for that, but they are coming. You can also expect that a lot of the new ring and equipment abilities will be getting updated sounds and visuals in subsequent patches.

As things progress, I'm getting a pretty good idea of what my content roadmap will look like all the way to 1.0, and how long that will take. When I first release a game in Early Access, I have a base idea of what i'll do to complete the game regardless of sales, and that's why I start small and try not to over promise. I can then look at sales and reception and let that determine which of my "dream features" or "bonus content" to add into my development roadmap.

There is a lot I'd love to do with Boons & Burdens, but its success will determine just how many of my dream features I can add. It's doing pretty well right now, so the future is pretty bright, but how bright is yet to be seen.

As always, if you're enjoying the game, and want to see it grow into something even greater, please leave a positive review. It's a big help!

[h3]For the more immediate future, here's a bit of what you can expect in upcoming patches, in roughly this order:[/h3]

1. Potion powerups
   
2. A new game mode, and new achievements
   
3. A large polish patch: updated visual and sound effects, optimization, balance changes
   
4. A new playable class: With alternate equipment, unique boons, achievements, etc.
   
5. New boons, burdens
   
6. Difficulty 3
   

Oh, and a "Confirm Surrender" pop-up will be coming in the next patch too.

[h3]Key Features of patch 0.15[/h3]

• 30 unlockable rings that can be equipped and upgraded
  
• Alternate unlockable equipment for both classes
  
• Hard Difficulty (level 2) with 4 new enemy types
  

Rings

• 30 rings divided into 5 categories
  
• 5 rings can be equipped total
  
• 2 rings can be equipped max from any category
  
• Rings earn experience while equipped and can be upgraded once when their experience bar is full
  

Alternate Equipment

• Each class has 4 new items that can be unlocked and equipped
  
• These function more like sidegrades than upgrades, allowing you to customize your playstyle a bit
  
• Not designed to be major alterations to the class's core playstyle so as not to encroach on future class archetypes.
  
• Unlocked with achievements, not infernicite
  

Difficulty Level 2: Hard Mode

• Unlocked when you achieve victory the first time
  
• More enemies, faster spawns
  
• Bosses have more difficult attack patterns
  
• 4 new enemy types only found in Hard difficulty
  
• 1 new medium enemy
  
• 1 new hard enemy
  
• 2 elite enemies: These are like boss rejects. Powerful for basic enemy types, but much weaker than their boss counterparts.
  
• More punishing if you ignore the threat clock and take too long
  

Balance

• The Pyro now gains invulnerability for the full duration of his Fire Giant's Horn Theurgic ability.
  
• The Cryomancer's base Theurgic freezes enemies for 1 more second. Note: The text previously said it froze enemies for 6 seconds, but was only freezing enemies for 4 seconds. It now freezes enemies for 5 seconds.
• The spinning enemies around the Qrystle Queen boss had their health reduced by 15
  
• Steadyshot Cursed Boon: This is now a 25% damage increase for staff bolts instead of a flat 5 damage.
  
• Psychic Splitter: Now has a brief recharge period of 1.5 seconds, bolts created by it now do damage based on a % of the bolt that hit it
  
• Shadow Chant: Now also instantly resets any recharge time left when empowering the next trigger
  
• Psyche Up: New effect: Psychic splitter now only changes directions when you recharge your staff. Still grants +2 staff charges.
  
• Sacrifice Lethality: Now reduces damage by 2/3/4 down from 4/6/8
  

QoL

• Adjusted a number of texts in the equipment menu to accurately reflect current stats
  
• Any time you're invulnerable a small timer will appear above your head. Note: This will eventually be updated to be more accurate (only shows whole seconds), and will be coupled with additional effects, but works well enough for now.

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that was causing achievements not to save locally. Note: This was not affecting steam achievement unlocks