LORT News

[p]LORTers,[/p][p][/p][p]Our roadmap said to expect the first update in Q2 2026. Psyche! It's out today! Get a first look in the trailer below and then jump into the highlights + patch notes.[/p][p][/p][p]Welcome to The Stabbening.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]Croaks Malone and Blinkblades[/h2][p][/p][p]It's time to get froggy. Meet Croaks Malone, the Veilbound Assassin of LORT. An Agility fiend, Croaks slips in and out of shadows, getting the drop on his enemies for a critical strike. Equipped with his trusty Blinkblades, he uses the ancient art of Blink-Jutsu to teleport to his thrown dagger and own the battlefield. Blessed (and cursed) by the Gift of Demon Jeff, this frog starts with an extra Dodge charge as well as 15% Parry. Find Croaks in Funkwood Hollow to unlock him and the Blinkblades to start stabbing around in the dark. [/p][p][/p][h2]Public Lobbies[/h2][p][/p][p]By popular request, you can now search and join public lobbies from inside LORT. When starting a run, you are prompted to choose whether it is Private or Public. Along with this new system are updated Host controls like the ability to Ban players. [/p][p][/p][p]As a reminder, we intended LORT to be played solo or with friends. With this new system, you are opting in to play with the internet's finest folk. Please, be kind to one another. Help each other. And help us create a friendly LORT community for both new and veteran players.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Profiles + Account Save System[/h2][p][/p][p]You now have 3 account progression profiles for LORT - allowing you to have separate progress for unlocks, Rune Juice, Adventurers and more. Along with this, we have revamped our account save system to make it more robust and reliable. This should fix any of the rare account save issues facing some players (really sorry about that).[/p][p][/p][h3]Highlights[/h3]

• [p]Added Public Lobbies by popular demand![/p]
  • [p]Includes new options for creating a lobby (Private or Public) and new Host controls like Banning players.[/p]
  • [p]Public lobbies are only joinable at the start of a run.[/p]
• [p]Added Croaks Malone, the Veilbound Assassin, as the newest playable Adventurer![/p]
  • [p]Unlocked via challenge. Go find the frog in Funkwood Hollow![/p]
  • [p]Unlockable skins.[/p]
• [p]New Weapon - Blinkblades![/p]
  • [p]Unlocked by finding Croaks in Funkwood Hollow.[/p]
• [p]5 new powerups - some are locked behind challenges and Rune Juice upgrades.[/p]
  • [p]Drowsy Dose Dropper[/p]
  • [p]Runner's Inhaler[/p]
  • [p]Fishy Fuse[/p]
  • [p]Peeper's Popper[/p]
  • [p]Papal Proximity Mines[/p]
• [p]Safes now appear in levels. Test your lock picking skills![/p]
• [p]Existing Rune Juice upgrade offerings have been expanded by 40 additional upgrades.[/p]
• [p]Damage numbers now display power-up icons, letting you see what caused the damage and how much it dealt.[/p]
• [p]Revamped the Account Save system and added Profiles.[/p]
  • [p]Added a lot of error checking and logging to the save system.[/p]
  • [p]Fix for rare bug that would wipe account progression save files (really sorry about this existing in the first place).[/p]
  • [p]If you encounter any issues with saves, please reach out via the Bug Reporting channel in discord.gg/lort[/p]
• [p]Signed the LORT executable for Windows to stop Windows 11 Smart App Control errors from occurring.[/p]

[h3]Adventurers[/h3]

• [p]Astrid[/p]
  • [p]Increased base parry rating 5 -> 50.[/p]
  • [p]Increased base armor 121 -> 125.[/p]
• [p]Bernie[/p]
  • [p]Ignition ability - Added a lot of poise damage so enemies get staggered more often.[/p]
• [p]You can now move your character while on Attribute and Powerup choice screens. This should feel better for player flow and also fix issues where forward movement would be buggy after interacting with these screens.[/p]
• [p]Weapons are now hidden during player taunts.[/p]

[h3]Weapons[/h3]

• [p]Mace - Increased hitbox length to make landing hits feel better.[/p]

• [p]Strongbow[/p]
  • [p]Added the ability for weapons to be able to dual-scale (Pistols can tri-scale). Strongbows now dual scale off whichever is higher between Strength or Agility. [/p]
    • [p]Expect more dual/tri scale weapons in the future![/p]
• [p]Wand - Made alt fire damage ticks scale with attack speed.[/p]

[h3]Powerups[/h3]

• [p]Updated several powerups to ignore weapon proc coefficients when the powerups communicate that they should trigger under a specific condition (On Crits, On Kill, Enemy Types, Health % Conditions, Nearby, On Hurt, Behind Enemy, During Day / Night, and Damage Type).[/p]
• [p]Idol of Sick Moves: Increased ability damage bonus from 25% -> 35%.[/p]
• [p]Powerup Chest of Healing Things[/p]
  • [p]Adjusted powerup quality drop rates to increase odds of rarer powerups dropping.[/p]
  • [p]Increased cost slightly to offset quality increase.[/p]
• [p]Adjusted powerup shop trading UI - now you can still see all of your powerups but the ones that can be traded are more visible.[/p]

[h3]Enemies[/h3]

• [p]Funkwood Hollow Slimes[/p]
  • [p]Increased cooldown for their Knockback attack.[/p]
  • [p]Changed VFX colors from orange to green.[/p]
• [p]Funkwood Hollow Spirit Balaclavas - Increased hitbox to make them easier to hit.[/p]
• [p]Reduced Funkwood Hollow Night 2 scaling (was incorrectly outsized in difficulty).[/p]
• [p]Final Boss Fight - Increased Rune Juice reward.[/p]
• [p]Increased difficulty slightly on Trollhole Summit Nights.[/p]
• [p]Wraiths got new outfits.[/p]

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• [p]Game now automatically pauses when you hit Esc in a solo run.[/p]
• [p]Added dark overlay to the stats/inventory screen (Tab) so its more clear when you have toggled it on.[/p]
• [p]Added numpad glyphs to key bindings in settings.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Tab and R keys not being re-bindable. [/p]
• [p]Updated cursed skull color on Wizard tower so you can tell them apart.[/p]
• [p]Stats - Renamed Powerups Sold to Powerups Traded.[/p]
• [p]Removed cap on how many markers can show up on the compass.[/p]
• [p]Updated a few powerup descriptions for clarity.[/p]
• [p]Updated styling of challenges that are locked in the unlocks menu.[/p]
• [p]Improved visibility of Healing Shrines.[/p]
• [p]Updated VFX indicators - Red is for Enemies, White is for Players.[/p]
• [p]Now if you exit a run while on a level, your progress is not deleted and you will be able to continue from the previous camp.[/p]
  • [p]Note: Players have been asking for a way to rejoin after disconnecting from a co-op run. While we do not currently support re-joining while on a level, you can re-join at any of the camps. So if you disconnect, your team can either beat the level and you re-join at the next camp, or they can quit and restart at the previous camp.[/p]

[h3]Quests[/h3]

• [p]Updated Camporama quest to require 4 Camps and 2 Trials to help players understand the importance of attributes.[/p]
• [p]Library, Gym, and Skatepark POI's now count towards the Camporama quest requirement.[/p]

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• [p]Updated Enemy Arrows, Firethrowing Goblin jumps, Slimes & Slime Kings audio.[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues with Big Chill Billy's snowball throw, Final Boss' lightning attack & Final Boss' attenuation.[/p]
• [p]Mixed up ambience, enemy spawns, player status effects & players taking damage.[/p]
• [p]Updated prioritization for Boss SFX and VO lines, as well as crucial player weapon actions.[/p]
• [p]Added sound for firing pistol when out of ammo.[/p]
• [p]Adding missing gore impacts to magic sword.[/p]
• [p]Normalized music source volume.[/p]
• [p]Music now always restarts when returning to camp.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Attribute pick-ups not having consistent volume.[/p]
• [p]Fixed character select audio not playing when using controller/Steam Deck.[/p]
• [p]Fixed healing audio bugs when under high latency.[/p]
• [p]Fixed main menu music sometimes double playing.[/p]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed bugs with boss arena spawn points on Funkwood Hollow.[/p]
• [p]Fixed player nameplates disappearing when a tutorial ping occurs.[/p]
• [p]Fixed problems with Final Boss weapons appearing incorrectly on lower end hardware. [/p]
• [p]Fix ground VFX around opened powerup chests not matching the rarity color of the spawned powerup.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Lumber Lieutenants wandering too far.[/p]
• [p]Fixed enemies getting stuck in trees.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rare bug causing broken powerup tooltips when the player enters the van.[/p]
• [p]Fixed menu button highlight issue when using controller/ Steam Deck.[/p]
• [p]Fixed night enemies sometimes appearing after daybreak.[/p]
• [p]Fixed bow animation when falling so they don't flip in your hand.[/p]
• [p]Fixes for multiple crashes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed being able to start the Final Boss fight without having a quest selected.[/p]
• [p]Improved wave spawning so that enemies should not fail to spawn at boss fights, Trials, and other spawners. [/p]
• [p]Potential fix for steam crash at shutdown. [/p]
• [p]Potential fix for attribute shards taking a while to show up in 8 player games.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Thanks for your support and patience as we worked on this first major update. We'll be keeping an eye out for any issues that may arise after this update and work to fix them quickly. After that, we go back to working on the next update focusing on Difficulty. [/p][p][/p][p]When in Rome, LORT![/p]

[p]We gonna get real froggy with it. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Start your day, everyday, by LORTing yourself.[/p]

[p]Fam. We did it. 250,000 copies of our LORTy game LORT have been sold after launching on January 21.[/p][p][/p][p]It really feels surreal to be writing this post. We are super grateful. And we are super excited. This sales achievement means we have the fuel needed to continue supporting and updating LORT.[/p][p][/p][p]We hope you're looking forward to our February Public Co-Op Lobbies update. And then after that, we will be tackling difficulty. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]ba da ba ba baaa I'm LORTin it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]LORTers,[/p][p][/p][p]We said we would listen to your feedback and incorporate it into future updates. One clear piece of feedback has been around public co-op lobbies. We didn't think people would want to group up and play with randoms as much as we have seen and heard. Thanks for bringing this to our attention and we're happy to announce we have quickly pivoted and are working on a solution that will come in February.[/p][p][/p][p]Below is a screenshot of how you will be able to browse and join public co-op lobbies.[/p][p][/p][p]Some answers to questions you may have:[/p]

• [p]When starting your own run, you will be prompted on whether you want that to be Private (friends and lobby codes only) or Public (appearing on the lobby browser for anyone to join).[/p]
• [p]Host controls that currently exist in-game (reach these via Esc menu) will also work for Public lobbies which allows you to limit how many people can join, if the lobby is locked or unlocked, and be able to kick players. There is also two new settings in Host controls that allows you to switch a lobby between Private and Public and also ban players. [/p]
• [p]This will introduce some new problems that you should be aware of:[/p]
  • [p]Matches are scaled based on how many players are in when you leave the camps via the van. If someone leaves mid-level, the scaling remains based on how many players started the level.[/p]
    • [p]We would like to make this scaling adjust more dynamically in the future. We had originally planned for people to play solo or with friends, so this was not anticipated as something we would need initially. [/p]
  • [p]Currently, you can have players join while you are mid-run at each camp and will be able to with Public lobbies as well. When people do this, they are very behind in attributes/powerups/weapons/gold. In the future, we would like to find a way to allow late joiners to catch up mid-run. No promises, but we will try our best. [/p]
  • [p]We know people do be snatching other player's powerups without their permission from chests and bosses - very rude behavior. We will monitor issues like this to see how impactful they may become. Our original intent was you would be goofing around with friends who you know well, but random players online will obviously behave a bit differently...[/p]

[p]Many PvE games we have played have been able to foster quite a helpful and polite community, not just on Discord but also in Public lobbies. We would like that to be the same for LORT. Please, help your fellow LORTers out, be kind, and just have a good time.[/p][p][/p][p]Oh, and the Rogue + Daggers update that was planned for Q2 2026 will come in the same update as the Public lobbies in February. We told you, we cookin over here.[/p][p][/p][h3]Next Update after February[/h3][p]We are and will continue to listen to your feedback to find out what you want most for LORT while we continue to keep making new content for the game. After the February update, our sights are set on difficulty and what our options are to solve that for you as quickly as possible.[/p][p][/p][p]LORT me once, shame on you. LORT me twice, you're my new best friend. [/p]

[p]LORTers,[/p][p][/p][p]Smaller update for you today to address some issue's we've had with progression loss. Details below.[/p][p][/p][p]v0.5.3[/p]

• [p]Improved the reliability of our account progression saving system to prevent losing all unlock progress under rare circumstances[/p]
• [p]Known Issue[/p]
  • [p]There is a known issue that Alt + F4 can cause mid-session runs and account progression to not save. Please, only shut down the game by hitting Exit to Desktop from the Esc or Main Menu. We're working on a fix for this in a future update.[/p]

[p][/p][p]It is an honor to bring you more LORT. We'll keep doing it.[/p][p][/p][p]Live LORT and Prosper![/p]