Patch #18: Rainbow content + Revamps + Blessings + More!

[p]Today, we're bringing you a lot of new content and improvements to 9 Kings![/p][p][/p][p]With this patch, we're setting the terrain for the new game mode that is coming later this month. But more than that: we're adding a lot of new content that will hopefully improve your gameplay (a lot). We're super excited about these updates![/p][p][/p][p]Here are the highlights:[/p]

[p]New rainbow content (cards, perks, decrees!)[/p]
[p]Blessing revamp[/p]
[p]King of Spells revamp[/p]
[p]Improved calendar events[/p]
[p]Balancing & Other minor revamps[/p]
[p]Bug fixes[/p][p][/p]

[h3]1. Rainbow content:[/h3][p]A lot of new gamebreaking stuff here. We hope you have some fun with it! [/p][p][/p][p]Decrees:[/p]

[p]Diversification: You can now pick between 6 loot cards but the loot comes from all enemy kings.[/p]
[p]Oddity: Gets a completely random card every odd odd year.[/p]
[p]Multiculturalism: Triggers a Royal Council with decrees from other kings.[/p]

[p]Cards:[/p]

[p]Gacha (Building): When it gets to level 3, triggers a Rainbow loot event.[/p]
[p]Golem (Troop): Massive tanker. Any Tome used on it has double effect.[/p]
[p]Osmosis (Tome): All plots of the same card as target plot get +10% to all stats.[/p]

[p]Perks:[/p]

[p]Moderate: All your Universal perks are now level 2. No more, no less.[/p]
[p]Seasoned: Grants you extra XP.[/p]
[p]Lunatic: If this is your only perk, you'll start the run fighting against the Jack of Rainbows![/p]

[p][/p][p]The Rainbow Army leader is now called the Jack of Rainbows (more on this soon).[/p][p][/p][h3]2. Blessing revamp:[/h3][p]We want to make blessings more useful and fun in a wider range of situations. So we're improving the effect ratio of all blessings and adding some new ones we think will be pretty fun.
[/p][p]New blessings:[/p]

[p]Hegemony: clones the target plots' cards to your hand.[/p]
[p]Feudalism: if the target plots are empty in the year of the blessing, gets +1 card from your deck.[/p]
[p]Nostalgia: all target plots are Regressed by one level.[/p]

[p]Reworks:[/p]

[p]Prophet event now happens earlier so you have more room to plan.[/p]
[p]Prosperity is now triggered if you have under 30 gold instead of 20.[/p]
[p]Baby Boom now affects 2 plots.[/p]
[p]Zenith now affects 2 plots.[/p]
[p]Peacetime now affects 2 plots.[/p]
[p]Tutorial run no longer has a blessing event.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]3. King of Spells revamp:[/h3][p]Same as like what we did with the King of Nothing, we wanted to give some more love to the King of Spells troops! [/p]

[p]Wizard now gets a damage buff whenever it gets an Enchantment[/p]
[p]Warlock now gets an HP buff whenever a Tome is used in your kingdom.[/p]
[p]Athanaeum: a new decree that will give you 9 random Enchantments, allowing you explore more strategies around that type of card.[/p]
[p]Static was reworked, simplified, and heavily improved. It will now deal a flat 9 damage and each stack will make its effect chain +1 time. This update should make the card more powerful and viable in the early years of a run. It's important to keep in mind this Enchantment was designed to combo with attack speed builds (much like Cauldron, that also has flat damage, it can be very powerful when used right). This rework also makes the card's effect clearer to players (before, there was a damage dilution going on in the backend that was simply impossible to properly explain in-game - and if we're being honest, was not very fun).[/p]
[p]Enchantment descriptions were updated to improve clarity.[/p]
[p]Thunders now look cooler.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]4. Calendar improvements:[/h3][p]This improvement is long due. The current order of events in the game has been around since the demo. And we believe some little tweaks can go a long way to make player's choices more intentional and the gameplay more consistent.[/p]

[p]Earlier blessing event: the prophet will now appear in year 3, giving you the proper room to plan if you want to pursue a blessing. This tweak, alongside the new & revamped blessings should make the mechanic more interesting and viable.[/p]
[p]Consistent Merchants: merchant events are now properly distributed across a run, every 12 years. The first one will appear earlier (year 7), providing you with another option for that extra boost needed in the early years. If you ask us why the hell in the previous iteration there was a gap of 15 years with no merchants only to have two merchants in a row in the end of a run, I wouldn't have a great reason to give you. We're much happier with this tweak and the run feels much more dynamic and well balanced now.[/p]
[p]Clearly distributed decrees: decree years remain practically unchanged. But they are now appearing precisely every 8 years, starting on year 5. This changes very little, but if you should know: the second decree will show up one year earlier, while the first will show up one year later. You could wonder if moving the first decree to year 5 could affect high-difficulty runs, and what we learned is that it doesn't - especially after early year buffering update. If anything, it makes a couple of instant effect decrees slightly more viable as a first decree.[/p]
[p]Two rainbow events: that's right. That's double the fun![/p]

[p][/p][h3]5. Balancing & Revamps: [/h3]

[p]BONUS: Gardening Decree (Nature): Forests now give +1% HP. [/p]
[p]BONUS: Futurism Decree (Progress): All Progress troops have no max level.[/p]
[p]REVAMP: Exploration decree (Universal): you can now pick which plots you want to unlock.[/p]
[p]All troops gained a 10% to 20% HP buff.[/p]
[p]Demon's Altar now gets buffs when you destroy troop plots with destruction cards.[/p]
[p]Bomber base damage was heavily increased.[/p]
[p]Imp base stats were increased.[/p]
[p]Trapper base damage was increased.[/p]
[p]Lab Rat base stats were increased while mildly decreasing upgrade %, for a more balanced and stronger early game.[/p]
[p]Dragon's Den base damage was increased.[/p]
[p]Elf base attack speed was mildly increased.[/p]
[p]All tower buffing decrees now properly work with Stronghold.[/p]
[p]Increased enemy Mercenary and Thief costs, meaning 10% fewer will appear in battle.[/p]
[p]Forest now works with Demon's Altar and Cemetery.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]6. Bug fixes[/h3]

[p]Fixed a rare bug that caused two armies to fight you at once when you re-rolled a king.[/p]
[p]Swords buff numbers were corrected when used on Demon's Altar.[/p]
[p]Fixed a Compendium bug that was causing the different decks to not be displayed properly.[/p]
[p]Compendium screen will now always open on the deck you're currently playing with.[/p]
[p]VSync options are now saved properly between sessions.[/p]
[p]Fixed localization typos[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Coming next ːsteamthisː[/h3][p]Our brand new QUEST MODE is coming later this month. We can't wait to share it with you :)[/p][p][/p][p]As always, after downloading the patch, please start a new run, as your previous run won’t have the updates stored and they may cause conflicts. If you experience any issues, please email us at [email protected].[/p][p][/p][h3]Steam Reviews: Your Feedback Matters[/h3][p]We've been reading through all your Steam reviews, and we appreciate the feedback we've been receiving. We'd love to continue seeing more of your thoughts! It helps us know what to focus on for each upcoming patch. [/p][p][/p][p]Please join us on Discord and Reddit. You can also find the 9 Kings wiki page here for information on the game! Love, Sad Socket team Love, Sad Socket team[/p]