Secrets of Grindea News

Recommended Level: Everyone's invited

About the Arcade Mode update

(Those of you who've already read the frontline news can scroll past this part!)

Until now only a small percentage of players got much enjoyment out of Arcade Mode. The mode was a cold, hard place with little of Story Mode's charm, but with all of the combat's brutality. Basically, we didn't feel like the game mode felt much like Grindea, and we wanted to change that, while also giving players who previously loved the mode more varied and interesting stuff to sink their teeth into.

We did several things to improve the general Arcade Mode experience, but the biggest by far is the complete revamp of the hub town, Arcadia. Before, your total score made some minor changes to the town and added a few NPCs with quests. Now, you earn gold by doing runs, which you can then spend on different buildings that all provide some useful or not-so-useful feature! Among the useful features, you'll now be able to practice against bosses you're having trouble with, make the mode easier (or harder) with treats and curses, train perfect guarding in the dojo, and getting potions to help you out.

We hope having this anchor will help people find purpose with the mode, and perhaps accidentally find meaning with becoming better at the game as well!

Aside for that we've made some pretty big changes inside the runs as well, like new Event Rooms that buff you or give you special treasure, and new NPCs that help you out in different ways.

Four new floors have also been added, ending the mode on floor 16 instead of floor 12 (featuring Mt Bloom and Tai Ming).

...but most importantly, you're now accompanied by your new best bud Trunk!

Regardless if you enjoyed the mode before or didn't care for it much, please do try the revamped version out! We hope with these changes we can capture the hearts of more players now than before!

The Future of Arcade Mode

We feel we now have a very solid foundation for Arcade Mode, which we can expand upon quite easily in small bursts by adding new NPCs, upgrades and quests bit by bit.

If you get good at the mode you're probably going to notice a shortage of quests that take place on the final floors; the idea here is that we're going to make some of the buildings upgradeable, and these upgrades unlock higher level quests (like adding a second floor to the tavern, for example). That's for another time, though!



If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



It's (let's all say it together) finally time for me to start implementing the next part of the story, which takes place in a desert and a port town! I'll put the Stable build in its own dev fork and parallel to doing desert stuff I'll fix any serious issues that might've escaped the Frontline crowd.

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: Everyone's invited

Summary

This is one of those real Frontline updates! All the sounds are either placeholder or missing, and there are some placeholder graphics! The gameplay should hold up well, though (I hope!)

Why update Arcade Mode?! It took forever!

Yes, well, when we began this effort we naively thought it wouldn't take very long to fix Arcade Mode up, but, uh... onto the "why"!

Until now only a small percentage of players got much enjoyment out of Arcade Mode. The mode was a cold, hard place with little of Story Mode's charm, but with all of the combat's brutality. Basically, we didn't feel like the game mode felt much like Grindea, and we wanted to change that, while also giving players who previously loved the mode more varied and interesting stuff to sink their teeth into.

We did several things to improve the general Arcade Mode experience, but the biggest by far is the complete revamp of the hub town, Arcadia. Before, your total score made some minor changes to the town and added a few NPCs with quests. Now, you earn gold by doing runs, which you can then spend on different buildings that all provide some useful or not-so-useful feature! Among the useful features, you'll now be able to practice against bosses you're having trouble with, make the mode easier (or harder) with treats and curses, train perfect guarding in the dojo, and getting potions to help you out.

We hope having this anchor will help people find purpose with the mode, and perhaps accidentally find meaning with becoming better at the game as well!

Aside for that we've made some pretty big changes inside the runs as well, like new Event Rooms that buff you or give you special treasure, and new NPCs that help you out in different ways.

Four new floors have also been added, ending the mode on floor 16 instead of floor 12 (featuring Mt Bloom and Tai Ming).

...but most importantly, you're now accompanied by your new best bud Trunk!

Regardless if you enjoyed the mode before or didn't care for it much, please do try the revamped version out! We hope with these changes we can capture the hearts of more players now than before!

What's left before Arcadia 2.0 comes to Stable?

We want to add a few more quests related to some buildings, and also add achievements for the higher floors... and of course fix all the bottles of bugs you guys are probably going to hand us!

Ok, ok, I get it, but... what about the story?

Arcade Mode has mostly been super intensive on the code side, with all the new features and floors that have been added. This means that while I've been stuck on this update during all this time, Fred and Vilya have made good progress on the art for the story! In fact, most of the areas and NPCs we need for the next segment have already been made, which hopefully means that when Arcade Mode is ready for Stable, I can start implementing the desert storyline right away.

Basically, if it weren't for Arcade Mode I would've been in a severe graphics bottleneck for a long time!





Fixes for 0.780l (May 8)

• Added a new late game two handed weapon to Arcade Mode: the Spiked Club (will be aquirable in Story Mode later)
  
• Changed how Arcade Mode shops select items to sell to allow for greater variety
  
• Skipping Story Mode quests completed in multiplayer games now actually works
  
• The Arcade Mode Toy Machine should now spawn its first wave of presents correctly on clients
  
• The Squire's Sword no longer takes the place of the Steel Sword in the Arcade Mode Loot Pool
  
• Buff Shrines should no longer flip out completely for clients
  

Fixes for 0.780k (May 7)

• While using Berserker, buff stacks now decay gradually instead of being lost all at once
  
• While using Berserker, perfect guarding now stops the buff stack decay for a while
  
• Teddy and Freddy should no longer get stuck on some patterns in the Black Ferrets fight
  
• Unequipping the Big Quiver perk now reduces the arrows in your quiver to the correct amount
  
• The 'Kill In Order' challenge in Mt Bloom should no longer occasionally spawn shrooms out of bounds
  
• Spinsect spawning in the Temple of Seasons due to the Big Brother curse in Arcade Mode should now keep to the walkable areas
  
• Hopefully fixed the bug where using the time crystal in multiplayer sometimes spawned players as ghosts
  
• The Giant Thorn Worm should now have its HP correctly adjusted in multiplayer
  

Fixes for 0.780j (May 4)

• Fixed a replay bug! What a day!
  
• Unlocking Candy in multiplayer should now work for everybody
  
• Clients should now be able to use Gift Boxes in Arcade Mode
  
• When fighting GUN-D4M, clients should now be able to see punches directed at Frosty Friend
  
• Clients should now be able to see the first snowstorms in the Seasonne snowstorm challenge
  
• The Black Ferrets fight should no longer desync on certain throw patterns in multiplayer
  
• Vilya should now always display her pattern bubble before a throw, even on clients
  

Fixes for 0.780i (May 3)

• Fixed even more replay bugs!!
  
• When using gamepad the character should no longer pull up the shield after dialogues
  
• The game should no longer accuse you of cheating just because you used a time crystal
  
• Clients should now be able to catch pets in Arcade Mode
  
• Bishop's nightmare runs should now work properly in multiplayer
  
• The Clock Tower should now work properly in multiplayer
  
• Using end run in multiplayer no longer allows players to keep their summons
  
• The client should no longer lose furniture and gain taming items after an Arcade Mode run
  
• Using the arrow potion in multiplayer should now grant the arrows to the person using it
  

Fixes for 0.780g (May 1)

• Increased the par time in Arcade rooms with ice winds
  
• Solo hydras in Arcade Mode will now stay on the ground much longer if they are the last enemy in the room
  
• Hydras on Hard Mode now stay on the ground longer after being knocked down
  
• Fixed a gazillion more replay bugs, hopefully most are fixed now (note: this doesn't repair old replays)
  
• The small Lood Chests no longer absorb arrows mid fight
  
• Fixed a few continuity bugs related to Remedi's alchemy quests
  

Fixes for 0.780f (April 27)

• Reduced the amount of tornadoes spawned by Autumn on Hard
  
• Dying at the same time as a boss in Arcade Mode will no longer result in a full health revive
  
• Pressing left at the first visible boss in the Arcadia Arena no longer crashes the game
  
• Using certain potions right before zoning no longer leaves a permanent color tint on the character
  
• Fixed a gazillion Cinema bugs (some still remain and will be fixed in a later patch)
  

Fixes for 0.780f (April 24)

• Typing /neversubmit in chat will disable the 'Upload to Steam?' query after a run
  
• Typing /toggletrunk in chat will let you enable/disable Trunk's speech bubbles
  
• Pressing the menu button (ESC/Start) when a quick equip notice is visible now closes it without going into the menu
  
• The bottom barricade bushes in forest areas have been lowered so they don't obstruct the playfield as much
  
• The Grindea Chests now contains a Health Potion instead of a Health Orb if your HP is at maximum
  
• Reducing the number of roaming pets to 0 no longer removes the Manage button from the farm menu
  
• The option to expand the farm is now based on the total amount of pets owned, not the amount in town
  
• Consumable Health Potions should now get auto-equipped regardless of how it was received, and no longer get equipped in multiple slots
  
• The furniture Phase Shift plates should now work properly in Arcadia
  
• The furniture Season Orbs should now work properly in Arcadia
  
• Game should no longer crash if inspecting an egg spot in certain circumstances
  
• The Shadier Merchant should now take the correct amount of health even when using HP modifiers
  
• You can no longer enter the menu while doing Dojo Challenges
  

Fixes for 0.780e (April 23)

• The Mimic should no longer crash the game when facing it in the Arcadia Arena
  
• Trying to download more replay entries no longer crashes the game
  
• The Shadier Merchant should no longer try to sell you a time crystal if you already have one
  
• The Time Crystal now properly re-apply card bonuses after being activated
  
• Card bonuses are now activated at the same time across clients/server, avoiding some extreme edge case bugs
  
• Reaching Biline's event rooms when Vavani has fled no longer crashes the game
  
• Beating a Dojo challenge and then quitting another no longer adds a temporary participation medal on the failed challenge
  
• You can no longer change the difficulty to Normal while the A Little Harder curse is active (haha...)
  
• Spam-talking to Master Ji after accepting one of his dojo challenges no longer starts multiple challenges at once
  
• Buffed the HP of a couple more Arcade Mode bosses, especially on Hard
  
• Changed the S-rank time for some of the bosses previously buffed
  
• Trunk no longer calls Arcade Mode a 'Trail of the Goddess' to avoid insinuating that Faita went to Arcadia
  

Fixes for 0.780d (April 18)

• The EP-potion now has longer recharge time in Arcade Mode
  
• A few bosses have gotten buffs HP-wise in Arcade Mode
  
• Chain Lightning has gotten a slight nerf to its MATK-scaling
  
• Using the Guaranteed Elite curse in Arcade Mode no longer infinite loads if there are no elite-able enemies in a room
  
• Reflecting the shockwaves in a mimic challenge room no longer crashes the game
  
• After defeating Black Ferrets 2 in Arcade Mode, you can now go back south again
  
• Accepting a cloning bet in Tai Ming does no longer create immortal statues
  
• Eggs now take the intended amount of time to hatch (previously only two minutes)
  
• If a Frosty Friend dies or is damaged before a Time Crystal gets used, it will now heal back
  
• If a character is supposed to own the chicken pet but doesn't, that issue should auto-fix now
  

Hotfixes for 0.780c

• Hotchange: The Shadier Merchant price for HP Pots now scales with more sanity
  
• Hotfix: The game no longer crashes when perfect guarding red projectiles in a challenge room
  
• Hotfix: Clients can now open and receive the reward of the Grindea Chest event rooms
  
• Hotfix: Finishing Chix chicken quest in Mt Bloom no longer crashes the game
  
• Hotfix: The store discount treat no longer work while in the Arcadia town
  
• Hotfix: The Arcade Mode Queen Bee fight no longer spawns adds that give exp
  
• Hotfix: Buying stuff so that your Essence reach 0 no longer locks you out of managing perks
  
• Hotfix: You can no longer press Escape to get out of the taming item selection and lose your invested gold
  
• Hotfix: Fixed a number of bugs related to pets in Arcade Mode multiplayer
  
• Hotfix: Using a Time Crystal should now work in multiplayer as well
  
• Hotfix: Connecting to someone in Arcadia now sets the score multiplier correctly
  
• Hotfix: Game should no longer crash randomly when arriving at floor 17
  
• Hotfix: Time Crystals no longer reset used pet items
  
• Hotfix: Watching replays and fighting in the arena no longer creates taming items
  
• Hotfix: The score multiplier is now set correctly in replays
  

Additions

• Arcade Mode: It's a bit of a bunch of a lot of new stuff
  
• Translations: Challenge descriptions (like 'Herd The Chickens') can now be translated
  
• Translations: Grade type names (Clear Time, Damage Taken, etc) can now be translated
  

Changes

• Balance: Shielding Rabbys now creates a small delay between their attacks
  
• Balance: Frosty Friend can now only aggro multiple enemies at once when in Gold Charge
  
• Balance: Elite Boars have been tuned down slightly. Just slightly.
  
• Balance: Boss multiplayer scaling in Arcade Mode is a bit less brutal
  
• Gameplay: The bow can now be cancelled into from attacks
  
• Arcade Mode: The game will now remember what name you chose last time you played
  
• Arcade Mode: Enemies spawning as elites now increase the time limit for S rank more than before
  

Bug Fixes

• Multiplayer: Clients should no longer be able to be left behind when fighting the Mimic
  
• Crash: Fixed a bug where Marino could sometimes get damaged by the player during the chase scene, crashing the game
  
• Oops: Freeze duration reductions between elites and bosses were flipped! Now bosses are more resistant than elites
  
• Multiplayer: Halloweeds won't use their root spell anymore if there's only one player alive
  
• QOL: Reflected Wisp projectiles should now hit their previous owners (or some other enemy) more reliably
  
• Oops: Fixed a bug where sometimes you turned into a static phase shift ball when battling GUN-D4M
  

If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



We'll fix any issues that come up on Frontline and tweak stuff according to feedback, we'll add achievements and their rewards, and we'll add a few quests. When that is done, and we've gotten all the new sounds from our sound dude, the whole shebang will go off to Stable!

Recommended Level: everyone's invited - these improvements affect all stages of the game!

Summary

This patch brings all the new reworks, balancing and Utility skills to Stable! For Frontline players, there's nothing new to see - this is basically 0.729c

Details

The following patches have been brought to Stable:

(If you want to know more about something, click the patch name to see the relevant patch notes!)

Utility Skills - Support players can be a bit more supportey, and solo players can vary their builds more!

Rebalance Patch - Overhauled every single skill in the game, reworked some, and introduced magic weapon projectiles

Talent/Bow Patch - Introduced 21 new talents and added upgrades and charging for the bow

Potion Patch - A potion rework involving recharging flasks and a ton of new potions



If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



The current list of non-story content:

• Player Housing Done!
  
• Skipping quests completed in multiplayer Done!
  
• Support Skills Done!
  
• Skill Balancing Done!
  
• Potion Changes Done!
  
• Arcade Mode Updates

What's in store for Arcade Mode?

First off, we'll add Mt Bloom and Tai Ming, resulting in four new floors for people to die on!

Then we're going to rework Arcadia to be much larger and have more stuff to build. We're also going to let the player choose how to expand Arcadia instead of having it tied to total score! We'll be introducing a new currency, gold, which will exist alongside Essence. Players will use gold (which is more forgiving to obtain) for expanding the town, while essence is used as payment in some of the places built. We wanted to separate these two things to avoid players having to deal with the headache of choosing between expanding the town and, say, purchasing a new perk!

Arcadia will become roughly three times as large and feature both silly and useful things to build. Among the new buildings are:

Dojo - Train versus enemies and complete Perfect Guard challenges to earn rewards
Arena - Train against bosses you're having trouble with
Aquarium - Look at fishes you've caught!
Bank - Convert gold to essence and back
Cinema - Watch replays of your previous runs!
Player House - Your own house to decorate, like in Story Mode
Alchemist Shop - Equip potions for your run
Candy and Muffin's Shops - Make the next run harder or easier in exchange for getting more or less score
Clock Tower - Change the time of day in Arcadia (the best building)

Last but not least (well, it's probably the least to be honest) we'll add a bunch of new kinds of event rooms to the mode itself!

Cool, but what of the story??

When the Arcade Mode updates are done, we'll finally be able to go back to working on the continuation of the Story Mode adventure!

Recommended Level: everyone's invited - these improvements affect all stages of the game!

Summary

This patch brings all the new reworks, balancing and Utility skills to Stable! For Frontline players, there's nothing new to see - this is basically 0.729c

Details

The following patches have been brought to Stable:

(If you want to know more about something, click the patch name to see the relevant patch notes!)

Utility Skills - Support players can be a bit more supportey, and solo players can vary their builds more!

Rebalance Patch - Overhauled every single skill in the game, reworked some, and introduced magic weapon projectiles

Talent/Bow Patch - Introduced 21 new talents and added upgrades and charging for the bow

Potion Patch - A potion rework involving recharging flasks and a ton of new potions



If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



The current list of non-story content:

• Player Housing Done!
  
• Skipping quests completed in multiplayer Done!
  
• Support Skills Done!
  
• Skill Balancing Done!
  
• Potion Changes Done!
  
• Arcade Mode Updates

What's in store for Arcade Mode?

First off, we'll add Mt Bloom and Tai Ming, resulting in four new floors for people to die on!

Then we're going to rework Arcadia to be much larger and have more stuff to build. We're also going to let the player choose how to expand Arcadia instead of having it tied to total score! We'll be introducing a new currency, gold, which will exist alongside Essence. Players will use gold (which is more forgiving to obtain) for expanding the town, while essence is used as payment in some of the places built. We wanted to separate these two things to avoid players having to deal with the headache of choosing between expanding the town and, say, purchasing a new perk!

Arcadia will become roughly three times as large and feature both silly and useful things to build. Among the new buildings are:

Dojo - Train versus enemies and complete Perfect Guard challenges to earn rewards
Arena - Train against bosses you're having trouble with
Aquarium - Look at fishes you've caught!
Bank - Convert gold to essence and back
Cinema - Watch replays of your previous runs!
Player House - Your own house to decorate, like in Story Mode
Alchemist Shop - Equip potions for your run
Candy and Muffin's Shops - Make the next run harder or easier in exchange for getting more or less score
Clock Tower - Change the time of day in Arcadia (the best building)

Last but not least (well, it's probably the least to be honest) we'll add a bunch of new kinds of event rooms to the mode itself!

Cool, but what of the story??

When the Arcade Mode updates are done, we'll finally be able to go back to working on the continuation of the Story Mode adventure!

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: Everyone's invited

Summary

Potion system rework, with a new quest and lots of new potions!



Potions: Old vs New System

Before, you would stack up on the potion of your choice, equip it on a quickslot, and then just spam it for what amounted to a permanent buff with close to zero effort from the player. It just wasn't a very interesting system!

With the new system, you can gain up to three magical flasks, and you can assign a potion type to each of them. When you drink one of the potions, the flask will begin to recharge, with a much increased rate as long as you're dealing damage. Only one of the flasks can recharge at the same time, so you'll have to consider that when drinking multiple potions in a row!

Which brings us to another big change: unlike before, you can now combo multiple potion buffs to create great spikes in power, but since only one potion can refill at the same time, such combos can not be used frequently!

We feel this new system gives the player a wider variety of interesting choices and trade-offs. Do you drink the always useful but fairly weak Health Potion, which takes a long time to regenerate, or do you favor aggressive potions, which refill quickly and can help you get rid of dangerous enemies?

Since these potions haven't been tested yet (except by us), we fully expect to need to fine tune some stats and durations, but even as they are we hope they will provide some interesting gameplay!

Old Potions become Pet Food

Most players didn't bother much with drinking the old potions (despite them actually being quite useful). A more popular use case was to just pour them all into your pets! Since this seems to have been an appreciated use case for the more grind-minded players, we've decided to let Oak (the guy who owns the farm in Evergrind Fields: West) follow his dream of opening up a Pet Food Shop!

So, all the existing potions in your inventories will turn into pet food, and if you've caught both the Slime and the Rabby, you'll be able to buy more pet food from Oak on his farm!



Additions

• The Potion system has been reworked - visit Remedi in Evergrind City to try it out!
  
• A new NPC has come to town, and he has a potion related quest to give
  
• Oak, the farmer, now has a pet food store where he sells pet food
  

Changes

• Talent: Fine Taste now increases potion effect rather than potion duration
  
• Quest: The story and reward surrounding Remedi's first quest has been altered - redo the quest for the new reward
  
• Arcade: Upon entering a new room, players do not have collision against each other for one second
  
• Pet Food: The feeding value of fish has been increased, and changed to better reflect fish rarity
  
• Pet Food: A lot more of enemy drops can now be used as pet food
  

Bug Fixes

• Gameplay: Dying in Arcade challenge rooms and waiting for the time to run out no longer fake-resurrects players
  
• Quest: You can now turn in the Cooking Witch Candy-quest even if you found the last ingredient in the same zone as her
  
• Housing: Adding and deleting new rooms should now work as intended for visitors in multiplayer
  

If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!



We'll fix any issues that come up on Frontline, and if it seems stable enough we'll finally patch Stable, which will get months worth of game improvements at once! After that, we're onto our final stop before going back to working on the story full time: updating Arcade Mode.

The current list of non-story content:

• Player Housing Done!
  
• Skipping quests completed in multiplayer Done!
  
• Support Skills Done!
  
• Skill Balancing Done!
  
• Potion Changes Done!
  
• Arcade Mode Updates

...and when that list is completed, it's back to focusing on the story!