Secrets of Grindea News

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: N/A

Summary

Some of Story Mode's dead ends in the world have been filled!

Details

About the patch

So you know how there is a bunch of stuff in the game that teases content but you can't really get there? Well, this is the first of two (perhaps three) updates where we aim to iron out those things! This update in particular is mainly focused on the little sprouts you've seen around the world and wondered how the heck you make them grow. The answer is here, and it's Super Fertilizer!

Oh, and you can now enter Marino's Mansion and hang out with his wholesome dad...

This update basically makes the game a little "fatter", adding 14 new NPCs, 5 quests, and some new areas with secrets within!

We initially wanted to release a smaller patch faster, but the sprouts was so heavily connected with other content needing to be made that it really wasn't possible to chop it up much!



Hotfix Patch 0.893d

• The default skin for the furniture trees have changed to match the inventory appearance
  
• Camera panning now properly resets upon zoning
  
• Fanita no longer bends spacetime while arguing with the guards outside HQ
  

Hotfix Patch 0.893c

• There's now a player animation for using the Super Fertilizer
  
• The 'use fertilizer' prompt now informs the player about how many bags of fertilizer they are carrying
  
• Leafcifer now properly shows up in the player's inventory after rescuing him
  
• You can no longer re-trigger the toaster cutscene by interacting with the open chest again
  
• In multiplayer, the server no longer magically gets a copy of Leafcifer in addition to the toaster
  

Hotfix Patch 0.893b

• Fixed another bug related to BranDi's rum!
  
• Fixed a bunch of typos
  
• The Red Slime Hammer now have proper graphics when charging
  

Patch 0.893a

Additions

• There's now a quest to bring (back) butterflies to Evergrind City!
  
• Marino's Mansion is now accessible, with a couple of quests inside
  
• Red Slimes can now be found in Story Mode, and have been given a card
  
• Added a new Two Handed Weapon obtainable after Flying Fortress: Red Slime Hammer
  
• Two more wobbly sprouts have been added, and all four can now be grown using Super Fertilizer, unlocking new locations
  
• Some minor quests/secrets have been added to give the player said fertilizer
  
• The Alchemist storyline can now be concluded with a final quest
  

Changes

• Changed the stats of Green Slime Hammer, and changed the Smashlight into a Hybrid (ATK+MATK) weapon
  

Bug Fixes

• In Arcade Mode, furniture in Carpenter's store now unlocks properly with the new floor numbers
  
• In Arcade Mode, Arena boss fights now unlock properly with the new floor numbers
  
• When failing to catch a circle with the Increase Damage Every Circle-pin, the indicator now disappears properly
  
• Advanced translation features should now work together with trophy names and descriptions
  
• When entering someone else's Player Home in multiplayer, the prompt should no longer appear twice
  
• Helping BranDi's ghost as a client no longer makes it impossible to help him on your own save file
  
• Smashie and Bashie no longer bug out the Pin-fae's fireballs
  
• The Museum is Closed-quest can no longer be started until the Crystal Clear quest has been completed
  
• Quitting the game in the middle of the moving tree-cutscene no longer bugs the Season Temple quest
  
• The spinsects in the Mt Bloom Spinsect challenge once again collide with the small rocks properly
  
• Marion will no longer have a permanent quest update icon if you skip finding the Translation Tome
  
• Killing Captain Bones while his head is channeling a spell now stops the channel sound properly
  

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 continue on this track for a bit since we want Story Mode in its proper place before doing the final push towards the end of the game! There are still some loose ends in the world. When we get sounds for the new stuff in-game, we'll probably push all this to Stable as well (it depends a little on the timing)!

Recommended Level: N/A

Summary

Arcade Mode additions + changes, and enemy balance changes

Details

About the patch

Arcade Mode used to be a hellish and monotone experience for most players - even those who usually enjoy roguelites. One might've beaten Story Mode on Hard and then struggled to make it past Pumpkin Woods in Arcade Mode.

While we do think the toughest challenges of Arcade Mode should be brutal (and Triple Catalyst runs with curses surely still are), we needed to do a better job of easing people into the pain, like frogs being boiled slowly alive. Wait, what were we talking about?

Anyways, the base difficulty of the mode has been lowered, and a lot of unfair situations mitigated! By beating the mode (currently this means beating Tai Ming), you'll unlock the higher difficulties.

As for addressing the feeling of every run being the same, we've introduced a mechanic called "Pins" that grant a plethora of modifiers to empower the player in many different ways. Play a few rounds and they'll unlock, changing the mode drastically!

More details of the changes and their reasoning is pretty well described in the Frontline post, so check that out!

So far the feedback has been almost entirely positive, though there are some people that mourn the old version and the length of each run! We'll think about ways where players who want to can get some of that feeling back - though this would be in the form of optional modifiers, since most players seem to greatly prefer the new, shorter experience.

Note that this update does not include the Desert or Lost Ship floors! They'll arrive a few patches down the line, after we've focused on Story Mode for a while again.



Patch 0.890b - July 19th 2020

Changes

• If you have the Hide Hat or Hide Facegear option selected during an Arcade Mode run, the game will now remember this preference
  

Bug Fixes

• It's now possible to clear the Frostling Boss Dojo challenge even on Catalyst 0
  
• If someone had the Hard Mode curse equipped in the old Arcade Mode version it will now be unequipped
  
• Pressing the cancel button during the dojo victory screen no longer makes it repeat
  
• The dojo challenges now unlock properly using the new floor numbers
  
• Killing a Wisp in Arcade Mode exactly as it spawns no longer causes it to rise again as an unkillable demon ghost to claim vengeance for your unsportsmanlike behavior
  

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!



Those following the blog will have seen a lot of Story Mode related graphics, and now that there's a sizable chunk of that we'll switch focus to Story Mode for a while!

For those who aren't in the loop, before we begin implementing the final dungeon we're going to plug in the holes of the world (the growable plants, inaccessible areas, unfinished quest lines, etc).

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: N/A

Summary

Arcade Mode additions + changes, and enemy balance changes

Details

About the patch

So while Fred and Vilya have been making graphics for the upcoming Story Mode polish phase (wrapping up loose ends in the game world), the programming budget has been put towards a last push at making Arcade Mode a more pleasant experience, and in the process improving some enemy behavior for both Arcade and Story.

If you've been on the fence about Arcade Mode before, please do give it a try to see if you enjoy it more now!

Enemy Changes

A bunch of enemies have received changes of differing magnitude, and the shield has become stronger in general - especially shielding without perfect guarding. All these changes are basically "quality of life" changes that remove certain jank scenarios, especially for people playing close-range builds.

You can see the details in the patch notes, but the kind of changes we're talking about is stuff like more readable indicators, less disruptive randomness, more clear windows of vulnerability, etc.

Arcade Mode

In what will be our final attempt at sweeping changes to Arcade Mode to make it more accessible, we've made three significant additions to it: Pins, Length Reduction and Catalysts.

Pins

When playing Arcade Mode, it's easy to fall into a groove of doing the exact same thing over and over, and it can become quite monotonous. Pins is a mechanic that, when unlocked (happens early), will give the player various modifiers that can make them very powerful if used the right way. Your arrows might suddenly explode on impact, basic attacks might empower the next spell, or you may simply get a cloud summon for free! The idea with the pins is to give a little bit more uniqueness to every run.

There's currently 100 different pins available, and four can be equipped at the same time.

Length Reduction

Before this update, Arcade Mode featured two floors per biome. The floors also increased in size as you went, resulting in one complete run being an endurance test that could last well over an hour. Looking forward, with the Dragonbone Dunes and Lost Ship being added, the double-floor layout seemed unsustainable.

So, we've now made each floor represent its own biome, and also capped the maximum amount of regular rooms that can be created each floor. We hope this will result in less fatigue when playing!

As a part of this we've also introduced "gauntlet rooms", which is basically regular rooms but with different types of enemy reinforcements arriving! These rooms are generally much tougher than the normal battle rooms, and adds some variation to the run.

Catalysts (Difficulty Range)

Lastly, Arcade Mode has been way too difficult. A player that could easily beat Story Mode might struggle greatly to get even halfway through Arcade.

We still wanted the skill ceiling in Arcade Mode to be very high, so we decided to implement difficulty looping (like Dead Cells' loop mechanic Boss Cells, etc).

By beating Arcade Mode (a proposition that's no longer a Herculean achievement) you will unlock a Catalyst that can be inserted into the Grindea-statue in Arcadia. Beating the mode again will unlock another Catalyst, up to a maximum of 3.

With this, there are now four difficulties in Arcade Mode. The new "vanilla" difficulty should be a decent challenge for people who are used to Story Mode. With all three Catalysts equipped, it's extremely difficult, yet more fair than the old Arcade Mode thanks to the reduction of absurd situations.

What do you mean "final attempt" at Arcade Mode?

Obviously this is not the end of Arcade Mode in terms of actual content; the new floors must still be added, and we'll also be adding a little final segment for those mad enough to beat it with all three Catalysts. Content pieces like additional pins or new event rooms is also very likely to get added, as well as changes to dysfunctional sub-systems (like more interesting bets made by Bishop during the runs).

However, as mentioned above, we don't want to make any more big overhauls after this. We feel like we've done what we can to make the mode approachable now, and any further effort into widening the appeal will likely not be worth it!



Patch 0.889e - July 16th 2020

Changes

• Red Spinsects can now be Perfect Guarded, making them stop spinning for a while
  
• You can now take a tiny bit more damage without losing your Floor S-rank
  

Bug Fixes

• The pin which increases basic attack damage after firing an arrow no-longer spawns extra red cubes
  
• Pins that automatically cast Reaper's Blade should no longer target enemies that are invulnerable
  

Patch 0.889d - July 15th 2020

Additions

• The new Arcade Mode cutscenes (Traveller/Bishop's Catalysts) now have sounds
  

Changes

• Cacute Projectiles are now more forgiving to shield against
  
• Adjusted HP of some bosses in Catalyst 0-2 to stand a little more chance against the player
  
• Enemies spawning in gauntlets now have a (very) short delay before taking action
  
• The pin that grants permanent ATK/MATK for killing elites now has diminishing returns each floor
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that would crash the game when certain spell-creating pins were triggered by another spell
  
• Time Crystals no longer re-activate the sticky 'skill point'-pin, mistakenly granting its effect again
  

Patch 0.889c - July 14th 2020

Bug Fixes

• The twice-upgraded bow now properly pierces enemies as advertised again
  
• Fixed a rare bug that would make the game tragically crash during the Mimic's death sequence
  
• Added five pins that for some reason weren't in the pool of possible spawns
  
• Fixed some dialogues and descriptions that reference the wrong floors after the change
  
• Fixed a bug causing the game to freeze if using a circle spawning pin on certain bosses
  
• If phase shifting as a pin spawns, the pin will land at the origin phase plate instead of in the air
  
• You can now actually get a Pin Lood egg to hatch in Arcadia
  
• The pin that greatly damages all enemies on critical player health no longer tries to kill Chickens (an outrageous venture that naturally crashed the game)
  
• Spirit Slash can once again crit from the player's base crit chance
  
• Wisps defeated the moment before firing no longer rise again as unkillable Skynet zombies
  

Patch 0.889b - July 9th 2020

Additions

• You can now find Pin Loods in Arcade Mode!
  

Changes

• Polished the UI-feel when doing actions within the Pin Equip Menu
  
• The QuickLevel interface in Arcade is now infinite, and maxed skills/talents we be placed first next run
  
• Equipping Catalysts now grant a bonus to score multiplier
  
• The Treasure treat has been changed to create an extra treasure chest each Treasure Room
  
• Bishop's second Arcade quest (reach floor X without healing) now requires you to reach Flying Fortress
  

Bug Fixes

• Reaper's Blade should now function properly against Temple of Seasons enemies
  
• The room where the Traveller appears can no longer spawn elite enemies
  
• If a Client tries to change the Catalyst level, Bishop will now tell them they can't
  
• The Pin Traveller will now unlock properly even during a multiplayer session
  
• Getting S on both damage and time should now automatically grant a floor S rank
  
• The Pin that increases MaxHP on Perfect Guard now correctly increases current HP along with it
  
• Herded chickens no longer drop hazards spawned by the Booby Trap curse
  
• The All Elite quest and nightmare now affect gauntlets, too
  
• Fixed a bunch of text mistakes
  
• Perfect guarding a spinning Autumn Knight into a Yeti no longer makes the Yeti want to kill the Autumn Knight
  
• The 'Every Skill fires an Arrow'-pin now works properly with Static Touch
  
• Pin descriptions should now display properly in langauges with custom fonts (Chinese/Korean/Japanese etc)
  

Patch 0.889a

Additions

• A new mechanic - Pins - has been added to Arcade Mode!
  
• Arcade Mode has received a rebalance and slew of changes, including reducing the number of floors
  
• In-game chat command /overrideinput added, to help in setups where the keyboard resumes command - type '/overrideinput 1' for default controller slot
  
• Beating Arcade Mode unlocks Catalysts, increasing the difficulty
  

Changes

• Bee and Bird attacks now deal significantly reduced damage to shields, so blocking many of them is much less risky
  
• Enemy projectiles reflected by Perfect Guard now passes through most obstacles
  
• The shield now recovers much quicker when broken
  
• The shield breaking now offers a small window of invulnerability
  
• Bombs spawned from Presents are now much easier to push around while moving
  
• The Wisps have had their projectiles reworked
  
• Brawlerbots now show an indicator if they are about to flank you
  
• The Power Flower-battle has been adjusted slightly to make it easier to avoid a certain death-state
  
• Tornadoes spawned by Autumn and Autumn Mages are now nearly static but can appear anywhere
  
• The spin done by Autumn Knights can now be interrupted by shielding
  
• Thorns summoned by Summer Mages now get removed in one hit
  
• A bunch of enemies now idle for a little while extra if their attack is shielded (non-PG)
  
• Spinsects should now behave a bit better in multiplayer
  
• Echoes of Madness now telegraph their flanking intention, and will not flank on Normal difficulty
  
• Changed the timing of elite Statues on all difficulties, and added shockwaves on harder ones
  
• The Plasma Bracelet has been slightly nerfed
  
• Enemies in Arcade Rooms now have a (very) short delay before taking action upon entering the room
  
• The winds in Arcade Mode Seasonne are now much less oppressive
  
• The Tier 2 rings now cost a bit less in Arcade Mode
  

Bug Fixes

• The Lantern Jack projectiles should no longer sometimes get past your shield in weird angles
  
• Fixed an issue that sometimes made clients unable to drink potions
  
• The Mimic Shockwave challenge in Arcade Mode should no longer disrupt Shadow Clone or Cloud
  
• Mini-Bubbles spawned from perfect guarded Bubbles vs Captain Bones no longer damage players
  
• Gold Smashing a Spinsect into Power Flower should no longer displace it
  

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!



part from fixing bugs that appear in relation to the new stuff, I'll probably do some additional quality of life-improvements before putting these things on Stable.

After that, I'll shift most of my focus towards Story Mode-related stuff for the time being!

Recommended Level: 26-30

Summary

Now everyone can get wet and scared on the Lost Ship!

Details

(This patch basically moves the Frontline content to the Stable branch - so Frontline players don't need to read this)

Players on the Stable branch can finally access the Lost Ship and the surrounding extra content!

Something to note: this release might be a bit less stable than regular Stable updates, since I've fixed a lot of bugs that hasn't passed through Frontline (and sometimes fixing a bug might lead to unintended behavior elsewhere - we have all seen the classic programming movie Butterfly Effect). The reason is because I added a pretty big feature to the Translation Tools that I realized would break the game for all those who play with translations if not everyone got their game updated at the same time. I apologize in advance, and will be keeping a close eye on things so I can fix any issues as quickly as possible!

Soundtrack Update

The soundtrack should update sometime today to include all the new tracks!

DRM-Free Update

The DRM-free version on the Humble Store will be updated next week! Since that installer does not automatically update, I want to observe the build for at least a few days to make sure as few bugs as possible slip into that installer.



A few weeks back we had a discussion about what was left to do. We are, after all, at the doorstep to the end of the game - main story wise, at any rate!

As many of you know, there are a number of "holes" in the game right now: promises with no conclusion, like those wobbly plants, the house visible from Evergrind East, the strange stump in Seasonne, and so forth.

In essence, the four big parts left to do are: Final Dungeon, Game Finale, Arcade Mode Finish and Filling The Holes. The Game Finale will be very content heavy so we feel it's best to separate it from the dungeon leading up to it.

Initially, we were really intent to steam ahead and go with the Final Dungeon, but thinking about it some more we actually didn't like that approach. If we kept on thinking like that, would Filling The Holes be the last thing we did? That didn't seem very exciting, and might also inadvertently trigger people who have resolved to wait until the finished product to instead buy it early "since the story is finished", and getting a rather weird experience for someone expecting a finished game.

So instead we've decided to do things in the following order:

• Filling The Holes
  
• Arcade Mode (add Desert + Ghost Ship floors)
  
• Final Dungeon
  
• Game Finale (including a proper "finish line" for Arcade Mode runs)
  
• Release!
  
• Post Release*
  

In other words: the next segment we'll be working on is resolving the "promises" found throughout the game! Some of you might feel a bit deflated since you're eager for the conclusion to the story, and we feel you (since we are, too), but unless we add these things now the timing will be even more awkward!

The filled in holes will arrive chopped up as several Frontline patches, and possibly even more than one Stable update, since many of them are small, self-contained systems, quests and areas that can be polished to Stable quality individually.

We've actually become quite excited about the coming segment, and hope we can make you happy with what comes out of it!

* Post Release content will range from balance changes to brand new content, as well as adding backer rewards for people who sent in their design requests late



Hotfix 0.880c (April 15th)

• A new loading tip has been added, describing the feature of increasing respawns when grinding
  
• Zoning out of the ghost bridge room while the screen is zoomed in no longer make it remain that way
  
• Braazlet no longer remains in inventory when she shouldn't be
  
• The Ghost Ship bridge room should now work more smoothly in multiplayer
  
• The Lost Ship's end boss has received some further performance optimizations when in prolonged fights
  
• Fixed a crash in Tai Ming if watching memory orbs in a specific order after finishing the first area
  
• Fixed an obscure multiplayer crash while fighting the Living Fridge in the Lost Ship
  
• Fixed a potential multiplayer crash at the Lost Ship's end boss during his weapon throw move
  

Hotfix 0.880b (April 3rd)

• The rolling, exploding eyes are no longer named 'Cacute'
  
• Fixed some usability issues with the translation tools
  
• The Thorn Worm card and shield can no longer damage enemies meant to be untargetable
  
• Insect Swarm and Spirit Slash no longer cause Boss names to be redundantly displayed in the corner
  

Additions

• All Lost Ship-patches has been merged into Stable!
  

Changes

• Added the option for Translators to use conditionals outside of dialogues
  
• If a player seem to not understand how Twilight Mode works, they'll get a hint inside the first twilight battle room
  

Bug Fixes

• You can no longer temporarily soft-lock the game by teleporting out of the Evil Eye fight
  
• Defending against a boss attack with Perfect Barrier (aka casting it the moment before getting hit), no longer pushes them away
  
• Vegetable pets should no longer randomly get stuck in a jumping animation
  
• The Giant Scimitar no longer has a graphical glitch when using Heroic Slam
  
• Taunt should now work properly on the Lost Ship enemies
  
• Fixed a bunch of text mistakes
  
• Spirit Slashing slimes in 'Startington?' now shows their proper names
  
• While inside the Twilight Bridge room, blink will now reset its position upon shift to prevent getting stuck
  
• The adverse effect of using the Blade of Echoes is now cancelled if entering a cutscene
  
• During the final cutscene of the Lost Ship, all player-effects are cancelled to avoid certain visual bugs
  
• Dying against Captain Bones while water balls are present no longer leave behind fake-bubbles
  
• In multiplayer, the Lost Ship's last boss no longer retains its target indicator after defeated
  
• The Lost Ship's last boss can no longer be targeted or damaged during cutscenes
  
• Improved a number of small polish issues regarding the ship's final cutscene in multiplayer
  
• The note in the Lost Ship's cargo hold now has a working indicator
  
• Fixed a bug where the Skeleton Wizards' elite projectiles would get the wrong IDs on clients, disrupting other spells
  
• The cleaning ghost should now sync better between server and clients
  
• Ribb now plays the proper animation for clients after giving him his item
  
• Talking to Spengler while not gathered in multiplayer no longer crashes the game
  
• Talking to Marino after the Collector's Exams no longer crashes the game
  
• In Arcade Mode, the Camera item is now disabled inside the Arcadia Arena
  

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!

Frontline only! Click here for Frontline instructions



Recommended Level: 26-30

Summary

Hey, listen! Sounds! And a final touch to the Lost Ship story arc.

Details

About the patch

This is a so-called "Stable candidate", in that from here on it's just bug fixing and monitoring for a while before the whole Lost Ship will sail into port for the Stable-branch!

In this update, the Lost Ship finally got its sounds, and it feels a lot better with them! I especially recommend battling the last boss of the ship again, if you can muster it, because those sounds were great in our opinion.

We also put the arc end-point a tiny bit further into the story, as we felt that was a better way to end it for now. Hopefully you'll enjoy what you see!

We'll bug fix this one over the weekend and sometime early-mid next week we hope to move this thing over to Stable so we can focus on the next step of development!



Additions

• The Lost Ship now has sound effects!
  
• To better end the Lost Ship arc, we've added a tiny bit of story in the HQ
  
• Our favorite villain trio (no bias) gets some catharsis in the Evergrind Cafe
  

Changes

• Inspecting the DNA Door to the optional phase shift course with Tannie waiting outside now triggers a hint to go into Twilight
  

Bug Fixes

• The vision stealing eyes in the Evil Eye boss fight are no longer called Obsession
  
• If sent to a magical journey to a land far away, the torch puzzle mask now returns after a little while
  
• The Solem Shield now triggers properly when perfect guarding Skeleton Warriors
  
• The first enemies of the Lost Ship fight rooms can no longer be hit while out of Twilight
  
• The Lost Ship's third boss no longer disappears randomly in multiplayer if the connection is too superb
  
• Mirar giving his mirror should now play properly on clients
  
• If the server selects the correct item for a ghost, the item-give interface should now close properly on clients
  

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!



Bugwatch until sometime early-mid next week, which is when we finally hope to get this thing to Stable so more people can enjoy it and we can move on to the next chunk of development!