9 Kings News

[p]Hey, everybody. We've been working hard on new content but we felt it was important to take a beat to finesse what's already here.

This patch contains new features that we hope will address your feedback. We made meaningful changes to give more agency to players, with QoL features, a lot of rebalancing, and bug fixes.

Our key goals:[/p]

1. [p]Give all players more agency.[/p]
2. [p]Turn down difficulty a notch while providing a challenge to those who want it.[/p]
3. [p]Making sure King of Time is a sustainable king on high-end difficulties.[/p]
4. [p]Making sure reported bugs are fixed.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]New features/QoL:[/h3]

• [p]You can now re-roll the king you're facing in the next battle. The re-roll button appears when you move your mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen, on top of the enemy preview.[/p]
• [p]You can now re-roll blessings.[/p]
• [p]During a battle, there is now a Surrender current battle option in the pause screen. It should increase the pacing of the game when you know you'll lose a fight or just want to intentionally lose a life for strategy reasons.[/p]
• [p]You can now go straight to your current king's perk screen from the after game menu.[/p]
• [p]Game start and post-run sequences are now faster.[/p]
• [p]Camera movement between states is now more dynamic. Losing lives and ending runs should all be more snappy.[/p]
• [p]When you beat a difficulty in the game, you will get a stamp to all difficulties that come before it.[/p]
• [p]Regressed plots will now show a "regression counter" on their tooltip so you have more visibility on its actual level.[/p]
• [p]Walls now display an HP bar during battle.[/p]
• [p]Improved Level Up animation for clarity and juiceness.[/p]
• [p]Perk button will now pulsate whenever you have a new perk. This was added after we learned that several difficulty complaints came from people who didn't know perks existed. [/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Balancing:[/h3]

• [p]All difficulties should now give more XP (from +10% to +20% depending on the difficulty).[/p]
• [p]Bastion's damage was heavily buffed.[/p]
• [p]Orbiter's base HP & damage were buffed. Its behavior remains the same, but we're now seeing it as Time's tanker unit.[/p]
• [p]Warper was rebalanced. Its stats are now higher, and its minions will inherit 50% of all buffs it gains. Though it’s only 50%, the minions’ base stats are now much stronger. The result is a drastic improvement in early-game performance and base-run scaling, especially on harder difficulties.[/p]
• [p]All Trapper stats were buffed.[/p]
• [p]All Mangler base stats were buffed[/p]
• [p]Cauldron now properly works with Bastion.[/p]
• [p]War Horns decree now properly affects Warper's Minions.[/p]
• [p]Amplifier now properly grants Paladin's bonus HP buff.[/p]
• [p]Early game buffer was increased (meaning scaling will take a couple more years before it fully hits you)[/p]
• [p]Base troop multiplier was decreased on all difficulties (this means roughly 5%).[/p]
• [p]However, on higher difficulties, you will still face a challenge.[/p]
• [p]King difficulty was mildly tweaked down (we've personally beaten King difficulty with no perks with all kings before posting this).[/p]
• [p]Added Minion as an independent Time enemy troop, leading to more enemy variety.[/p]
• [p]Warper enemy "cost" is higher, which means fewer will appear in the mix of an army.[/p]
• [p]Defender enemy "cost" is higher, which means fewer will appear in the mix of an army.[/p]
• [p]Shaman enemy "cost" is higher, which means fewer will appear in the mix of an army.[/p]
• [p]More Lab Rats should appear in the Enemy Progress mix.[/p]
• [p]Enemy Progress and Time strengths were re-equated with the other kings. Bear in mind, however, every build has its own weak spots.
  [/p]

[h3][/h3][h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• [p]Regressed plots now retain their status when Migrated.[/p]
• [p]Wallmaker's walls no longer disappear (visually) when Regressed.[/p]
• [p]Bunker decree buffs no longer appear on support buildings besides Amplifier.[/p]
• [p]You can now wage war & make peace after waging war & making peace with all kings simutaneously.[/p]
• [p]Fixed decree grouping during late late game (when you have 10+ decrees).[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with Concabulators + Shrines + Portals that caused the game to soft lock.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a glitch where Paladins would reapply all their HP buffs every time a game is loaded.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a recurrent visual glitch in fonts on menu headers.[/p]
• [p]Steamdeck: In shops, the Merchant card is no longer on top of the Re-roll button.[/p]
• [p]Bastion attacks now play intended SFX.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Let's talk about agency[/h3][p]We've been trying to find that sweet spot between giving you strategic autonomy and the game's chaotic RNG fun. We are aware of the requests to be able to pick your starting kings. This is something we've contemplated several times and that will be implemented in the "custom mode" we're cooking. In this patch, we're adding the battle re-roll feature, which is a major change to the game's RNG that will allow you to finesse your build with A LOT more agency, while retaining the unexpectedness 9 Kings is all about. If you want, you can always quick restart to get a new set of kings. But we want to be clear that, currently, this is not how we envision the game to be played. Our main goal is to make any set of kings be viable, and to let unexpected combos you never thought of surprise you. We'll keep working hard on balancing to make this happen. And we'll watch you play with our hearts open to change our minds and think of new fun ideas to improve the system.[/p][p][/p][h3]Let's talk about difficulty[/h3][p]We've been in a bit of a pickle on this one. Some people think the game is too easy. Some people the game think is too hard. One of the challenges of having 9 base difficulties is that it's not always easy to convey our vision to players. On this patch, we're working hard to make that vision clearer and make sure the game appeals to everyone. It's worth noting we've noticed some people are frustrated that they're struggling on Prince difficulty. But the main point of the 9-level base difficulty system is that everyone can have fun in whichever way they please. Prince is now a bit harder to address the feedback of the players who wants a bigger challenge, but Duke difficulty is still there for you, providing exactly the same experience and rewards. Also, it's ok to chill and play on Peasant forever if that's what you want! There are many different ways one can enjoy 9 Kings and we really want to keep that spirit going. For clarity, here's how we've envisioned the game difficulties:[/p][p][/p][p]Peasant: CHILL[/p][p]Squire: VERY EASY[/p][p]Knight: EASY[/p][p]Lord: MEDIUM-EASY[/p][p]Baron: MEDIUM[/p][p]Count: MEDIUM-HARD[/p][p]Duke: KINDA HARD[/p][p]Prince: PRETTY HARD[/p][p]King: HARD[/p][p]King II and on: VERY HARD[/p][p]Kng IX I and on: POSSIBLY UNWINNABLE[/p][p][/p][p]This patch comes with some game changing improvements. Some of which will give players more agency. Summed with all other tweaks and fixes, it will hopefully improve everyone's experience and make this the funnest 9 Kings build yet. We're still working hard and we'll keep tweaking. Please keep us posted and share your thoughts with us. We're looking forward to sharing all the new content we have lined up. [/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. It's really important to us! Please continue sharing your thoughts, so we can know to focus on for each upcoming patch and make 9 Kings the best game it can be. We'll keep balancing the game and improving at every patch.[/p][p][/p][p]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][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]

[p]Hey, everybody. Hope you're having a good time with the new king.

With his ambitious deck, came your game-breaking reports we knew would arrive. And we're happy to say most of them are now fixed! We’re thrilled with the reception of the craziest thing we’ve released so far and are working hard to make sure it lives up to our vision. We’re only getting started, and we want to make sure you have the best experience possible with it. Your help in making that happen is essential. Please keep you feedback coming. We're reading everything.[/p][p][/p][p]Today we're bringing you some new tweaks + a consolidated patch note with everything that has been going on in the last few days. It's been busy![/p][p][/p][h3]New content/features:[/h3]

• [p]Destruction perk: a time perk that will give your Orbiters +10% starting damage.[/p]
• [p]Big Bang decree: a time decree that makes Hourglasses stun enemies the first time they hit them.[/p]
• [p]Eyeglass now works with Amplifiers.[/p]
• [p]Freshmen decree now works on Regressed troops.[/p]
• [p]When the game is processing the respawn of thousands of units at once, it will now display an hourglass loading icon for feedback.[/p]
• [p]Warper's minions now inherit your king's color[/p]

[p]

[/p][h3]Balancing & Fixes:[/h3][p]Over the past few days, we’ve been posting hotfixes for the King of Time. But we felt it was important, for clarity, to put all the tweaks in one place so you can track them if you’re interested. Here are all the balancing tweaks and fixes from this patch and also everything that was changed in the previous days:[/p][p][/p][p]October 10th:[/p]

• [p]Summons will no longer randomly walk to the center of your base when they don't immediately find a target enemy. Summons should be stronger in late game scenarios now.[/p]
• [p]Decoupled the tower battle processing system from the troop system to make sure tower's attack speed is always properly computed. High DPS towers should be more powerful in late game scenarios now.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused the winning screen not to appear after loading a saved run.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused Portals triggered by Shrines to soft lock players with high troop count.[/p]
• [p]Your free re-roll counter is now consistent across all events.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a glitch that caused Warpers to freeze when they had +40 Adrenaline stacks or massive attack speed.
  [/p]

[p] October 8th/9th:[/p]

• [p]Traveling to year -1 should now work properly in all scenarios.[/p]
• [p]Critical damage buffs are now properly calculated.[/p]
• [p]Agnostic achievement is now being triggered properly.[/p]
• [p]Boared to Death achievement is now being triggered properly.[/p]
• [p]You can now properly make peace and wage war with all kings with Banisher decree equipped.[/p]
• [p]Regression + Portal now work properly.[/p]
• [p]Illuminism lettering won't linger on screen when you double-concabulate a portal to a blessing year (yes, if you didn't understand a single word of this fix, you're not alone)[/p]
• [p]Punctuality broken decree won't give you Bastion cards if you're playing with another king.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a soft lock interactions between Portals and Shrines.[/p]
• [p]-1 boss now is now called emiT fo noipmahC as the time gods intended.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused -1 boss to die instantly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed all ghost Raptor occurrences.[/p]
• [p]Amplifier no longer wrongly displays "move speed"[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused Warper’s minions to receive double the intended stats from Warper (this should make enemy Warpers easier to beat as well)[/p]
• [p]You now need to finish a battle before saving and quitting.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an Embalming decree bug that caused enemy Warpers to go whack.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]What's next?[/h3][p]We'll keep working on finessing the King of TIme so that you all can enjoy his best version. But we're only getting started. With a solid foundation, we'll finally be able to really expand the game beyond it's core. A lot more content will come soon and you can expect a patch with new decrees & cards in the coming weeks. But our main goal right now is introducing you to the new game modes. As we keep balancing out the current kings, we'll finally be able to bring you new experiences to you that are bigger than any deck. Challenge and Ranked modes will hopefully take 9 Kings to a new level. And yeah, you might've noticed a "coming soon" deck in the king selection screen. Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you just got here and have no idea what the King of Time is... here's our super cool trailer![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][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. It's really important to us! Please continue sharing your thoughts, so we can know to focus on for each upcoming patch and make 9 Kings the best game it can be. [/p][p][/p][p]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][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]

Earlier this week, we dropped our biggest update yet for 9 Kings. The ninth king, The King of Time, has finally arrived on the battlefield. This king is a multidimensional traveler who can manipulate the time continuum to his will -- and his deck provides new ways to bend time and break the game.

In addition to the new king, this update adds 10 new cards, 9 new perks (plus 1 new Rainbow Perk), 5 new decrees, 9 new broken decrees, 19 new achievements, and a new battlefield. Not to mention some visual updates, FX updates, and other quality of life changes. Check out the full changelog for more details!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2784470/view/534358622649452261?l=english
Now, you can experience the King of Time and everything else 9 Kings has to offer for 55% off during our Steam Weekend Deal!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
9 Kings is a fast-paced roguelike kingdom builder. Grow your empire and fight massive battles against powerful rival kings. Break the game with thousands of insane builds to become the King of Kings.

[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]

[p]You've given us time. And now, we're giving you the King of Time. The 9th king that will finally make 9 Kings to live up to its name, and that will unlock dozens of new combos for your strategies and unprecedented ways to break the game. Seriously, it's our most ambitious (dare I say reckless) update yet. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]
Who is the King of Time?[/h3][p]A multidimensional gentleman who travels through the ages in search of more kingdoms to conquer, the King of Time joins our roster to break time continuum and the game like never before. His kingdom lies in the fringes of time, somewhere between magic, sci-fi, and steampunk technology. Which one is it? Only time will tell.

[/p][p][/p][h3]A deck where timing is key[/h3][p]Time is one of the unfathomable variables of 9 Kings. And with this deck, we want to explore how far we can take it. Some cards reward you for being fast, some cards reward you for being slow, but most importantly: some cards will allow you to bend time and travel across the years.[/p][p][/p][h3]Time traveling[/h3][p]That's right: you can now time travel. Thanks to the Portal card, you can go to a previous year while keeping your kingdom's progress, allowing you to relive key events in broken ways. Portals are not easy to use, but when you get it right... you'll be able to stack more building buffs, trigger dozens of diplomacy events in a row, get extra royal decrees, maybe travel to a negative year (???). Tomes like Rewind will also allow you to regain some cards you've played in the past. Regression will allow you to bend time in a different way. Not to mention the decrees that will take things to the next level as always. The possibilities are endless and, as usual... quite scary for us devs to balance the game. But we think it's gonna be super fun and we can't wait to see what you're gonna do with that big new layer of freedom.
[/p][h3]Timing in battle[/h3][p]Troops and enchantment of the King of Time play with the timing during battle. Cards like Adrenaline will make a unit faster the longer it stays in battle. Hourglass is a tower that rewards long battles with massive effects while also giving you wiggle room to mess with it with attack speed buffs. Bastion is a base card that will make enemies travel back to the beginning of the battlefield, giving you the time you need to survive another year. Warper will bend space to summon troops during battle (can you believe we're about to hit 100+ cards and didn't have a proper summoner yet?).

[/p][h3]Amplification of effects[/h3][p]One of the most fun things of 9 Kings is finding new synergies between plots. And this deck brings a couple of cards to help you go crazier with those synergies. Amplifier is a building that will replicate every buff it gets to adjacent plots, while Orbiter is a troop that benefits from adjacency like no other. As if we didn't have enough ways to snowball things already.
[/p][h3]Perks and decrees[/h3][p]The King of Time introduces, initially, 5 new decrees, 9 unique perks, and 9 broken decrees. Broken decrees are a new mechanic that comes with time traveling. The decrees and perks will introduce a new range of mechanics exploring the boundaries of the new deck design and some other gaps we've noticed in the game. More will follow.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Bane enemy kings[/h3][p]With 9 kings in the game, we believe it is time to give you some agency when picking your enemies. So we're introducing Banisher, a new rainbow perk. When equipped, it will trigger a new screen before the game starts that will allow you to banish a king from the next run. This means they won't appear as enemies nor in diplomacy events. Banisher perk is unlocked when you beat king difficulty.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balancing & RNG[/h3][p]There are two main types of feedback when it comes to game progression: for some players, the base difficulties are too easy; for others, the harder ones feel too unfair and RNG-reliant. With the addition of new cards and perks, base difficulties were, indeed, easier than intended. On the other hand, the steep curve on higher difficulties also made the game more RNG than we want it to be.

In this patch, we’re implementing meaningful tweaks to address both issues:
[/p][p]1) Game difficulties are now slightly more challenging. We increased the enemy cap and made King of Nothing a bit stronger as an enemy, which should make things more fun to watch and raise the bar a little. Since we know some players just like to chill, Peasant difficulty remains unchanged. [/p][p]
2) The first years of a run are now easier on all difficulties. This means more openers will be viable even on higher difficulties, allowing you to explore new builds. You’ll be able to survive the first few years even with an unlucky hand (or with a card that’s strong later on but weak early in the run). These changes, along with the Banish perk, will hopefully help address your feedback on the RNG side of things. Randomness is part of the fun, but now we wanted to give high-end strategy fans a bit more control as well. Please let us know how the balancing feels. We'll keep improving!

Bonus: some ugly ducks have been buffed and will hopefully make new builds viable (see the list below)[/p][p][/p][h3]A lot of new achievements (19)[/h3][p]Again, having 9 kings in the game means that a bunch of achievements we always planned are now viable. We have a total of 50 now! The final number of achievements will be decided based on your reception, but we already have plenty of fun new ideas to bring to you when timing is right.[/p][p][/p][h3]Patch summary:[/h3][p]
New content:[/p]

• [p]NEW KING: King of Time[/p]
• [p]NEW CARDS (10): Bastion, Orbiter, Warper, Portal, Hourglass, Amplifier, Rewind, Regression, Adrenaline, Temp Null[/p]
• [p]NEW PERKS (9): Physicist, Destructive, Wise, Manipulative, Agile, Exiler, Invoker, Horologist, Brutal[/p]
• [p]NEW RAINBOW PERK (1): Banisher[/p]
• [p]NEW DECREES (5): Oddity, Megaminion, Devolve, Flux, Big Bang, Wormhole[/p]
• [p]NEW BROKEN DECREES (9): Enrage, Recovery, Provisions, Nullify, Punctuality, Fastforward, Interest, Loot, Redo[/p]
• [p]NEW ACHIEVEMENTS (19): Timerelapse, Mega Mega Minions, Nobel Prize, The Enemy of My Enemy is my Enemy, King of Kings, Your Grindness, Agnostic, Wall Street, Suburban King, For Scraps, Meh, Whatever, Babylon, Self-Sufficient, Spoiled, Cold Cold Heart, Flash Mob, Stardew Kingdom, The Spire Slays, Global Warming.[/p]
• [p]New battlefield, visuals, and FXs
  [/p]

[p]Updates & Fixes:[/p]

• [p]You can now see how many free re-rolls you have left.[/p]
• [p]Nature's Fertility decree has been buffed (from 3 to 5 Procreate cards).[/p]
• [p]Enemy base count and enemy cap have been increased.[/p]
• [p]All difficulties (but Peasant) are now more challenging.[/p]
• [p]Enemies are weaker in the first years of battle (making more openings viable).[/p]
• [p]XP gain increased for all difficulties.[/p]

• [p]Trapper base stats have been buffed.[/p]
• [p]Bomber base stats have been buffed.[/p]
• [p]Static stacks now deals twice as much damage.[/p]
• [p]Supplies decree has been rebalanced and the 9 cards you get will now replace your current hand.[/p]
• [p]Enemy King of Nothing has been buffed.[/p]
• [p]Treant's attacks are stronger, base damage area is smaller.[/p]
• [p]Mitigated the "Ghost Raptor" bug (monitoring for a final fix).[/p]
• [p]Gamble decree bug where you'd only get two cards in year 34 has been fixed.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused issues when loading a game in year 33. [/p]
• [p]Palace now deals 999 damage instead of Infinite (this is part of the bigger ongoing attack speed design rework).[/p]
• [p]Attack speed system cap is now visible. Disclaimer: this was already a system limitation taking place in the backend, as many of you have noticed. Since the battles happen in real time, there are thousands of calculations being made per second in the game, and there’s no sustainable way for attacks to go beyond a computer’s FPS. We have decided to properly structure this and be transparent with players, incorporating it into the game design. When you hit the attack speed cap, all attack speed buffs the plot gets will now be visually converted into damage so you can properly strategize with more clarity. Worth noting, this change also is crucial to make our upcoming game mode work properly and fairly. Please share your thoughts as we improve this together.[/p]
• [p]Updated game engine's (Unity) version.
  [/p]

[p]Hotfixes (as of 10.9, 12pm EST)[/p]

• [p]Traveling to year -1 should now work properly in all scenarios.[/p]
• [p]Critical damage buffs are now properly calculated.[/p]
• [p]Agnostic achievement is now being triggered properly.[/p]
• [p]Boared to Death achievement is now being triggered properly.[/p]
• [p]You can now properly make peace and wage war with all kings with Banisher decree equipped.[/p]
• [p]Regression + Portal now work properly.[/p]
• [p]Illuminism lettering won't linger on screen when you double-concabulate a portal to a blessing year (yes, if you didn't understand a single word of this fix, you're not alone)[/p]
• [p]Punctuality broken decree won't give you Bastion cards if you're playing with another king.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a soft lock interactions between Portals and Shrines.[/p]
• [p]-1 boss now is now called emiT fo noipmahC as the time gods intended.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused -1 boss to die instantly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed all ghost Raptor occurrences.[/p]
• [p]Amplifier no longer wrongly displays "move speed"[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that caused Warper’s minions to receive double the intended stats from Warper (this should make enemy Warpers easier to beat as well)[/p]
• [p]You now need to finish a battle before saving and quitting.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an Embalming decree bug that caused enemy Warpers to go whack.
  [/p]

[h3]What's next?[/h3][p]The King of Time is the 9th king. But we're only getting started. With a solid foundation, we'll finally be able to really expand the game beyond it's core. A lot more content will come soon and you can expect a patch with new decrees & cards in the coming weeks. But our main goal right now is introducing you to the new game modes. As we keep balancing out the current kings, we'll finally be able to bring you new experiences to you that are bigger than any deck. Challenge and Ranked modes will hopefully take 9 Kings to a new level.

Stay tuned. For now, we hope you have fun bending time and breaking the game like never before.[/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. It's really important to us! Please continue sharing your thoughts, so we can know to focus on for each upcoming patch and make 9 Kings the best game it can be. [/p][p][/p][p]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][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]

[p]9 Kings is on sale at 50% off during the Hooded Horse Autumn Publisher Sale. 9 Kings is a fast-paced roguelike kingdom builder. Grow your empire and fight massive battles against powerful rival kings. Break the game with thousands of insane builds to become the King of Kings. [/p][p] Hooded Horse Autumn Publisher Sale[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]