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Chronicon: Survivors News

Major Content Update 1.3 is live!

Hey Everyone!


This update adds a whole lot of new stuff, improves on existing stuff, and fixes some issues.
The focus for this one was the new Shrines & Boons system, which is another layer of meta progression that also enables you to make defined builds during your runs.

For instance, praying at the Holy Shrine will make Holy weapons drop more often, and enable the Avatar from this Shrine to appear during your run, killing all enemies and granting you a powerful Boon. Boons are special effects that enhances and enables builds, for example by increasing the damage of a specific element, or adding a stat based on how many weapons of another element you're carrying. More advanced Boons may add extra attacks and other new mechanics to your build!

These Shrines also needs to be upgraded via Gold offerings, and "Feats of Strength", which requires you to for example survive a map after having Prayed at the specific Shrine. Upgrading Shrines unlocks new tiers of Boons, and makes the Prayer more effective, further increasing your chances of getting weapons of the matching element.

You can have two Prayers active at the same time, and the final tier Boons are often direct synergies with other elements.

Now to make all of this make sense I've also had to limit the number of weapons and items you can carry, as without limitation it doesn't matter what you pick or in what order you take things as you'll have all of it eventually... and that's no fun! Every run and build the same - yuck. But fret not, you can still carry a large amount of items. Specifically 8 weapons and 10 passive items. This allows you to carry all weapons of your primary element, and most of a secondary supporting element (or just a bunch of random stuff, you do you).

Beyond this I've also focused on general polish, changing up enemy spawn patterns and the overall game pacing, improving most aspects of the UI, a bunch of new sounds, changed some perks... oh and 42 new Scryer nodes to boost your elemental damages!

Anyway - thank you everyone for your support, bug reports, and comments!

I'm eager to make this game worthy of the Chronicon universe - as admittedly I fumbled the 1.0 release - and I'm happy to take your suggestions and wishes of what you want to see in the game.

//Squarebit


[h2]==== 1.300 ====[/h2]

NEW FEATURES:
*SHRINES & BOONS:
*Pray at the Shrines located in the Keep (in the camp) to increase likelihood of weapons with a matching element to the prayer to drop.
*Praying for a specific element also enables Boons of that element to appear during your run.
*Prayers are saved per character, so you can set each character up for different builds.
*Boons are special upgrades that help define builds.
*Boons will appear on set Time and Level intervals during the game, as an Avatar appears and offers you a choice between two of the same tier.
(in Anomaly mode, Avatars do not appear on time but on Boss kills)
*Boon Tiers are Common, Rare, Epic, and legendary.
*Legendary Boons offer special synergies between Elements & other Boons.
*To unlock new Tiers, the Shrines in the Camp must be upgraded & restored to their former glory via Gold donations and by honoring the gods through feats.
*Each upgrade unlocks a new Tier, and increases the likelihood of getting weapons of the matching element.

*ITEM SLOTS:
*There are now weapon and passive slots; 8 weapon slots and 10 passive item slots.
*You must now be more careful with your item picks and can now create synergies and proper builds for your characters rather than just picking everything.
*Beyond more interesting gameplay and build crafting, this also leads to getting more Money Bags & Coal as you'll hit the item cap much quicker.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
*Added 10 new Achievements.

SHADY DEALER EVENT:
*Now only deals in blood... as in, you can only buy his wares with health as a currency. (and it no longer uses weird button prompts)

CAMP:
*Redesigned the camp area by expanding on the keep area and moving all Shrines inside it.
*The Seasonal waypoint is now an orb like the regular one.
*Moved Fungimancer and Killbot to better spots.

ITEMS & WEAPONS:
QUAKE: The Attack Speed upgrades are now smaller.
VORTEX STRIKE: Now has a much larger hitbox.

SCRYER:
*Added 42 new nodes for Elemental Weapon Damage to the Scryer tree.
*Adjusted the positioning of many nodes for mostly aesthetic reasons.

PERKS:
FORCEFUL DASH: Now knocks away enemies at the end of the dash, rather than the start. Enemies are also damaged and stunned for a short time.
WAR MAIDEN MASTERY: Now gives the Chakram the ability to bounce off the War Maiden when no more new targets are found. The Chakram will also reset its targets when doing so, allowing you to bounce it on bosses repeatedly, for example.

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS & MODIFIERS:
*Chests now open much quicker when you have the Chest Randomizer modifier active, or if the loot is depleted and they only drop the Money Bag / Coal.
*Enemy spawn numbers now vary a lot across the map, sometimes giving you some space by producing fewer spawns, and sometimes bursting out a lot of enemies all at once, rather than the old way of just trying to keep an increasing number of enemies active at all times.
*Enemy spawn locations / directions now vary with some randomization added to it.
*You can no longer stun Swarm enemies (like bats).

OPTIONS:
*Added proper windowed resolution support, with most common 16:9 and ultrawide resolutions can be picked from.
*Fullscreen mode also works properly on Ultrawide and non 16:9 resolutions now.
*Because of how the game works with spawns and visibilty, a 16:9 view is always enforced, adding black bars as necessary to fit your screen.
*No more stretchy stuff though!
*Added more options for handling flashes and lights, such as enemy hit flashes, full screen flashes, and the boss red ambience shift.

SOUND:
*Added many new sound effects for the new features (Avatars, Boons, etc).
*Added sound effect for Legendary chests.
*Added new sounds for gold and exp pickup.
*Added menu, UI, and pause sounds.
*Added a low pass filter to music while the game is paused or in a menu, such as chest menu.
*Added direction sound to chest drops so you get an idea of where they dropped via the sound cue.
*Rebalanced audio mix.

UI:
*Updated and improved the character select screen.
*Added icons of all your weapons and items to the chest loot screens, so you can reference what you have when selecting new things.
*Added progress/timer bars for random Slime events, the Corpse Sludge event, and the Shady Dealer event.
*Added some backings to the options menu to make it more legible.
*Improved display of barriers on Healthbars.
*Improved legibility of the Event HUD display.
*Improved the item display in the HUD.
*Changed text positioning on Banish buttons.
*Improved legibility of damage numbers and some UI text such as gold, kill counter, etc, for Chinese and Korean fonts.

MISC:
*Pressing F11 while having any info card displayed will "print" this card to a .png file in the game save directory.
*Enemies who are stunned now stop their animations.

FIXES:
*Fixed being able to attack and pickup stuff as the victory/defeat screens were playing, allowing unintended shenanigans.
*Fixed some item descriptions showing unnecessary decimals (.00) for some values.
*Fixed rare crash that could happen if tabbing out or changing resolution or similar during a run.
*Fixed some UI elements not refreshing when swapping characters.
*Fixed rounding issue with attack speed on some weapons which led to fewer attacks than intended over the course of a full run.
*Fixed some UI sound effects playing incorrectly.
*Fixed item display covering the EXP bar if not having any Banish Tokens.
*Fixed Bone Scythe having its duration upgrade carry over between runs, causing a soft lock if the Overclock was used in a previous run.
*Fixed the Nomad Mastery Perk not correctly assigning the free ranks to Hit Count.
*Fixed bad scaling and poor rendering across different languages of interactable popups.
*Fixed map-found weapons such as Boots of Cataclysm's item cards being weirdly offset on smaller resolutions (anything below 1080p).
*Fixed the same cards mouse hitbox not scaling accordingly as well.
*Fixed same issues for the Shady Dealer random item purchase.
*Fixed Healthbar numbers not displaying correctly with Chinese and Korean fonts.

Update 1.200 is live!

Hey everyone!

Update 1.200 is ready with a new map, and several improvements and changes based on your feedback!

Next planned update, 1.300, will be a big overhaul and improvement of weapons, progression, etc., and will take quite a while. But with those planned changes, I hope to bring the game up to a higher quality, and offer several unique and interesting features, as you have come to expect coming from Chronicon.

1.300 should be ready sometime in Spring 2025, and will also be available for BETA testing as I make meaningful progress. If you want to make a mark on the game's development during the 1.300 BETA, join our discord and make your feedback heard! We have dedicated channels specifically for feedback and test builds.

Of course, there's a Feedback & Suggestions thread here on the Steam forums as well, but that is not intended for feedback on the BETA stuff, and more for the current state of the game. While I am no longer as active on the forums as in the past, I do still read everything!

Anyway, the BETA builds should start popping up sometime in Feb/March next year, and I hope to see you there!

Thanks for your feedback, suggestions, and bug reports!


Here are the full notes:

[h2]==== 1.200 ====[/h2]

FEATURES:
  • Added a new seasonal challenge map: Winter Arena.
    • Survive as long as you can vs. a horde of Snowmen during a raging Blizzard!
    • Features a new passive item: Lump of Coal.
    • Features a new unlockable mod which allows you to enable to Lump of Coal for regular maps.
    • Awesome new soundtrack.
    • Some new Achievements too!
  • Added two new powerups: Nuke and Gold Burst.
    • Nuke deals 100 damage to all enemies 3 seconds after being picked up.
    • Nukes are quite rare.
    • Gold Burst grants a (high) chance of extra gold on each kill for 15 seconds.
    • Gold Burst is more rare than the other 15 seconds powerups, but more common than Nuke.
  • Enemies now move slower on the first map for the first couple of minutes, gradually getting faster to their intended speed, letting new players acclimatize better to the game's pacing.
    • Other maps are unaffected as of now, but if the change is received well we might add a similar ramp up to the rest of the maps.
  • Enemies now spawn slightly more spread out and further away from the edges of the screen.


NEW OPTIONS:
  • Improved Options menu, and prepared for adding more options (such as proper resolutions) in the future.
  • Added a "Simple Bars" option, giving minimalistic on-screen health, dash, and event bars.
  • Added a "Quick Cards" option, speeding up all item card animations drastically.
  • Added a "Cursor Scale" option, allowing you to make the mouse cursor either larger or smaller.


WEAPONS:
  • Seedbomb and Unstable Elixir no longer randomly throw out their bombs and will instead always target random enemies within range (if any).
  • This will apply to any similar effects.


QOL:
  • Once looting all items and only Money Bag remains, you will now automatically loot Money Bag(s) without having the card menu open.
  • This change also applies to when using the new Coal modifier and having Lumps of Coal instead of Money Bags.


FUN:
  • Added piles of gold to the base camp, which vary in size and amount depending on how much gold you have.
  • Added some more decoration to the camp, which appears when certain characters are unlocked.


MISC:
  • Enemy animations are now randomized somewhat so they no longer appear to be doing synchronized dancing.


UI:
  • Added support for progress/timer bars for events, though currently not all events have them.
  • Also added support for warnings in the event tracker, currently only available on the Winter Arena map (DANGER warning when in the Blizzard).
  • Added on-screen kill counter (lower right).


FIXES:
  • Fixed Vortex Strike not knocking enemies away correctly.
  • Fixed rare crash from some "attack enhancement" type weapons such as Zap.
  • Fixed Halloween Challenge not always correctly recording best times.
  • Fixed "Reset to Default" buttons in options menu not actually saving the settings that were reset to default, unless you did something else that triggered a save.

Update 1.101 - fixes!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the reports - all known issues should now be fixed!

Let me know if you find anything else and I'll get right on it, as always.

Thanks!

==== 1.101 ====

FIXES:
*Fixed being able to get softlocked if looting a chest when defeating the Pumpkin King.
*Fixed the run ending in Endless Mode on the Depths of Hell map when killing the final boss.
*Fixed Evil Eye locking the game when paired with Overclock.
*Fixed Tesla Orb not properly resetting its upgrade path after ending a run, and causing a lock when selected in the next run.

Major content update 1.1 is live!

Hey everyone!

The first major content update is here!
With this update, I've added 3 new game modes for all existing maps, as well as selectable map modifiers to further customize your runs. This update also adds many new weapons and items, and 5 of these new weapons are available immediately for a better early game experience!

There are many QoL, balance changes, and fixes as well, and I've included the full update notes below.

And, of course, there is a seasonal Halloween map! Unlike in Chronicon however, I have decided to let seasonal maps always be accessible, so you can do them whenever you feel like it. The new map also features a very halloweeny soundtrack

For the next major content update I am adding a new progression and power mechanic, a way to better target certain items to make proper builds, as well as QoL things such as improved options menu etc. You can already find some (inactive) things in the camp which are part of these new mechanics...

You can check out the roadmap here, with a vague list of things I want to add.

There may be some smaller updates/fixes as necessary before the next major one.

As always, thanks for the feedback and bug reports! Things did admittedly not go quite as expected with the launch of this game - and I now realize either an early access period, or a more content complete launch would have been more appropriate. You live and you learn! I hope to win back your trust with these content updates :)

Thanks!


Here are the full notes:

==== 1.100 ====


[h3]MAJOR NEW FEATURES:[/h3]
  • Added 3 new GAME MODES that can be played on all existing maps:

      Endless Mode:

        Unlocked when surviving the map once.
        After reaching the end of the progress bar (20 minutes), it loops back around and goes twice as fast, in 10 minute loops, for as long as you can survive.

      Anomaly Mode:

        Unlocked when surviving ALL maps once.
        Start on any map, and activate a boss spawner to spawn a boss when ready. When defeated, either continue to a random map for more rewards, or safely exit to claim the current reward.

      Chaos Survival Mode:

        Unlocked when surviving the map once.
        Double exp, progress bar moves twice as fast, enemies spawn twice as fast, and bosses spawn in pairs. Survive for 10 minutes!
  • Added 10 MAP MODIFIERS which are unlocked after beating all maps once in Survival:

    • You can pick one, several, or all (except the haste/slog which are mutually exclusive).
    • In addition to the "modifiers" they bring, they also grant bonus exp/gold/items depending on what you pick.
    • Many of the new items & weapons are unlocked via challenges/achievements related to the new game modes and map modifiers - check out the in-game codex to find out more!

    • Randomized Chests:
      • Chests randomly give any single item without letting you pick. Also randomizes which upgrades weapons get. Legendary chests give 3x random items.

    • Quick Chests:
      • Chests Disappear after a few seconds if not looted.

    • Only Chests:
      • No longer rank up your class weapon, only get chests on level ups.

    • Wildfire:
      • A Wildfire spawns on the map, moving slowly and dealing high damage. Small fires occasionally spawn near you.

    • Snail:
      • An invulnerable Snail follows you slowly. If it touches you, you die instantly. The Snail consumes any experience gems, powerups, chests, etc it comes across to gain increased speed and size.

    • Giants:
      • Enemies are twice as large and have more health & damage.

    • Eruption:
      • Enemies explode on death, dealing damage to both you and other enemies nearby.

    • Horde:
      • Only spawns the base enemy type for this map, but in extreme amounts.

    • Slog:
      • Player and enemies move slower.

    • Haste:
      • Player and enemies move faster.
    • Evil Pumpkins:
      • All enemies spawn as Evil Pumpkins.
      • (Locked until surviving the Halloween map.)

  • All maps now also offer some individual stat tracking such as times won, best time in Endless mode, fastest time to level 20, etc.
  • Level cap has been lifted, so you can progress beyond level 20 for even more loot!
  • Added a Seasonal Waypoint which will feature seasonal maps such as Halloween.
  • Added the Halloween Map with its own special game mode & rules.


[h3]QOL & Requests:[/h3]
  • You now manually select what you want from Legendary chests.
  • You can now also Banish in Legendary chests.
  • Spawn rates of enemies are now much smoother rather than bursty and sudden.


[h3]SCRYER:[/h3]
  • Added 6 more Banish Tokens.
  • Added 3 item nodes.


[h3]ACHIEVEMENTS:[/h3]
  • Added one achievement for each unlockable weapon/item that isn't purchaseable from the Scryer or available from the get-go.
  • Also added a bunch of new achievements for the new game modes and map mods.


[h3]WEAPONS & ITEMS:[/h3]
  • Knockback has been changed:

    • Enemies have less knockback cooldown/resistance, so they can get knocked more frequently.
    • Knockback on weapons have been rebalanced, and weapons which have knockback will now specify this in their descriptions.
    • This makes knockback more of an active choice rather than having it on most weapons and having longer cooldowns/immunities on enemies.
    • Weapons with knockback removed:
      • Saw Blades
      • Dancing Blade
      • Gun Bot
      • Sentry Turret
      • Frost Blitz
      • Frost Beast
      • Maiden Chakram
      • Stormcaller Lightning
      • Rocket Punch (forwards)
      • Nomad Sword

    • Weapons with knockback added:
      • Throwing Axe
      • Quake
      • Storm Rod
      • Hydra



  • Also: Character base weapons with knockback effects are now affected by the Knockback Strength stat. (used to be set values)
  • Added lights to some explosion effects that didn't have any.
  • Death Dashers can now hit enemies multiple times rather than just once per blob.
  • Maiden Chakram now has a projectile count upgrade (up to 3 Chakrams), and does less hits per Chakram (max 4 hits, down from 8).
  • Ghost Touch now has slightly lower range and damage (it's more meant as utililty because of the slowing effect).
  • Splinter Fist now shoots in the movement direction while moving, and randomly while still.
  • Saw Blades have one less ranks in Projectile Count, and attack slower.



[h3]NEW PASSIVE ITEMS:[/h3]

    Unlocked mid game:

    • Grace

    Unlocked late/end game:

    • Power Ring
    • Warden Boots
    • Health Injector
    • Overclock

    Unlocked via Scyer:

    • Predator Tooth



[h3]NEW WEAPONS:[/h3]

    Unlocked from the start:

    • Embers
    • Frost Mine
    • Seed Bomb
    • Plague
    • Vortex Strike

    Unlocked early:

    • Rolling Thunder

    Unlocked mid game:

    • Zap
    • Burning Light
    • Shooting Star

    Unlocked late/end game:

    • Hammerstorm
    • Frigid Star
    • Tesla
    • Marruu's Rose

    Unlocked via Scryer:

    • Bone Scythe
    • Lightning Wyrms




[h3]INTERFACE:[/h3]
  • Added element tags to weapons (something related to the next big update!).
  • Added a map selection interface, rather than going to different portals.
  • Updated loadscreen to display game mode in addition to map name.
  • On screen notices (such as "Boss Appeared!") now stack rather than replace.
  • Updated the progress bar for the new Endless Mode.
  • When facing 3 or more bosses, their Healthbars will now squish together a bit.
  • Removed shake on "Evade!" texts.


[h3]MISC:[/h3]
  • Made random drop chests from regular enemies slightly more rare again.


[h3]FIXES:[/h3]
  • Fixed Untouchable (no damage for 5 minutes) Achievement not always triggering.
  • Fixed Mercenaries with the Mastery unlocked crashing when looting Money Bag.
  • Fixed Money Bag showing ranks (it doesn't have ranks).
  • Fixed crash that could occur when timed events started at the same time as for example opening a chest.
  • Fixed issue where some weapons would appear after advancing to the next Anomaly level even when you didn't have those weapons.
  • Fixed the lines on Scryer nodes connecting off center on lower resolutions.

Update 1.023 is live!

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the reports, and an extra thanks to everyone who helped me out by running the test builds and checking things out! There has been a few small fix updates going up the past couple days, and finally the chest opening bug should be squashed!

Now I can finally shift my attention to more content :)

Thanks all!


==== 1.023 ====

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]
*Fixed the chests refusing to open issue. (for real this time)
*Fixed the achievement for collecting every single item not popping.

==== 1.022 ====

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]
*Fixed healthbar rounding max health down.
*Fixed the War Maiden Slay Queen achievement.
*Removed the debug circle of Hatecrown range (oops).

==== 1.021 ====

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]
*Fixed crash when selecting Spanish language.
*Fixed (maybe?) chests stop opening after a while.