Project: Gorgon News

Welcome to our first update of 2024! Today we say farewell to the Ri Shin celebration, and hello to a host of improvements, changes, fixes... and a new high level dungeon.


First, about the original Gauntlet: at the end of 2022 we released "Boss Gauntlet '22", which was intended to be a temporary super-hard encounter that would be removed later on. Then we remembered how we hate throwing good content away. So now it's permanent! (Yes, you predicted this back in '22. Shush.) The 20 original bosses of Boss Gauntlet '22 are now called "Boss Gauntlet 1". These bosses have had their level raised to the new maximum of 95, and some of the encounters have been beefed up a little based on feedback.

We're excited to introduce Boss Gauntlet 2, with even more bosses and even crazier scenarios for your group to deal with. You can enter Boss Gauntlet 2 by completing the first one -- a door will open and let you in. Alternatively, there's a portal machine in the beginning of Boss Gauntlet 1. Using this machine will let you jump directly to the new gauntlet. It costs Hubris to activate the portal.

Completing Boss Gauntlet 2 for the first time will net you 25 Live Event Credits, same as the first Gauntlet.

(A note for those who ran the original Gauntlet '22: there used to be five hidden bosses; these have been taken from their hidden rooms and added to Gauntlet 2.)

Most of our group-play content is intended to be enjoyable with pick-up groups, where you join up with whoever you happen to meet in the dungeon. But Boss Gauntlets are intended for a dedicated group, typically a guild, who want a very difficult challenge to overcome.

If our usual group content is more your style, there's good news: we're hard at work on the final portion of Errruka's Cave, which will be a level 95 group experience. Coming soon!


Elite and Boss monsters now have a bit more health and armor. The amount varies by monster tier and level, but to give some generalizations:

• A typical level 80 Elite now has 12% more Max Health and Max Armor.
  
• A typical level 80 boss now has 20% more Max Health and Max Armor.
  
• The hardest tier of bosses now have 25% more Max Health and Max Armor.
  

We've also buffed the "tough solo" monsters. These are typically named monsters that are intended to be soloable, such as Salmpo, the Mauler, or the named creatures in desert War Caches. These creatures gained about 12% more Max Health and Max Armor by level 80.

In addition, we revised monster self-buff reaction abilities:

• These abilities previously stunned the monster that used them for 5 seconds and then applied a buff.
  
• Now, the monster stands still (but not stunned!) for 5 seconds, then uses the ability.
  
• If the monster is killed, stunned, mesmerized, feared, or knocked back during those 5 seconds, the buff is aborted.
  
• Important Bugfix: Monsters no longer consider dead allies when calculating whether they have enough friends to perform a self-buff.
  

[h2]Other Monster Changes[/h2]

• Tornados have faster cooldown on their lightning bolt attack.
  
• "Turret Crystals" -- those crystal enemies that shoot beams at you -- have faster attack speed.
  
• Gazluk Healing-Suit Tester is weaker (receives less healing from nearby crystals).
  
• Orcs' Electricity Sigils are a bit more potent.
  
• Ranalon Guardians of all levels have a bit more Max Health.
  
• Tornado Spiders can fly (although they still prefer walking).
  
• Mantis Teachers in Mope's dungeon are a bit tougher.
  

• The "Aktaari Queen" event now starts at the same time each game day, at 9am (game time), rather than starting at whatever game-time the first player showed up. This should help players plan better.
  
• Elite Aktaari (guardians and bosses) are now a bit tougher, and are marked as "no-lock", meaning that their loot is available to all players that help kill it (instead of just the first hunting group that attacked it, as before).
  
• Moved a teleport destination in Aktaari caves to an earlier point in the cave -- after the giant blocks but before the acid pit rather than after the acid pit.
  
• Fixed "air tube" type apparatus in several dungeons, including Aktaari caves. They were using testing values that caused the air to refill in 10 seconds instead of the intended reset of 2-3 minutes (depending on the dungeon).
  

In this update, we've made some changes to the way glamouring works. Glamours allow you to change the look of your equipment. (Other games often call this transmogrification.) Previously, you used items -- Glamour Gourds or Glamour Berries -- to do this.

Now when you use a Glamour Berry or Glamour Gourd, you receive 1 "Glamour", which is a new pseudo-currency stored in your character. (If you have any, you can see it in the Persona window, under Currencies and Pseudo-Currencies). The Glamour recipe now costs 1 Glamour to use, instead of directly using berries or gourds. This has two benefits: first, you don't have to store unwieldy gourds anymore! Just consume the items to get the Glamours out, and then spend the Glamours whenever you want. Second, this makes it easier for us to give VIP players free Glamours every month, without saddling them with a ton of gourds.


We've added "cargo suits" explicitly for mule characters. The crafting recipes can be found on the usual tailoring trainers. These garments give you lots of extra inventory similar to having a perfect set of "pocket gear". Crafting them costs the same amount of resources as full pocket gear. The big benefit is that these suits have no equip requirements, and never will, so they can be worn by any character.

In a future update we'll be adding Endurance requirements to high level gear that doesn't have any other requirements. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of info and warning about this change in the future -- we'll be making this transition as painless as possible. We wanted to release these now to help you prepare. Long story short: if you're planning to make a "mule" character, we recommend using these garments rather than crafting "no reqs" max-pocket gear.



[h2]Combaty Stuff[/h2]

• Hammer: new treasure effect: (Head, Off Hand): "Hammer attacks that kill an enemy via direct damage restore 46 Power to you."
  
• Hammer: new treasure effect: (Ring): "Direct Electricity Damage, Direct Fire Damage, and Direct Cold Damage +20% while Hammer skill active"
  
• Knockdowns are now separate from Stuns for purposes of diminishing returns. This means you can Stun, then Knockdown an enemy, and have full duration from both.
  
• Weak slow effects no longer affect diminishing returns for subsequent strong slows/roots.
  
• Bugfix: Some sources of indirect damage did not reduce monster regeneration as intended.
  
• Bugfix: Unarmed treasure effects that absorb damage and redirect it into your attacks were bugged: they stopped working when you logged out or switched areas, and wouldn't work again until you re-equipped the item.
  
• Bugfix: "Raise Skeletal Ratkin Mage 7" raised the same level of pet as "Raise Skeletal Ratkin Mage 6".
  

[h2]Other Stuff[/h2]

• Emoting (such as watering plants or waving) should no longer interrupt music playing.
  
• Stephie Blackhammer in Povus no longer offers barters; instead she has daily crafting quests
  
• When each phase of the Povus nightly event is completed, any leftover monsters from that phase de-spawn much more quickly
  
• An augment's associated skill could clash with the skills of the mods already on the item, causing the transmutation system to think no mods were available due to skill incompatibility. This will no longer occur.
  
• Crafting Electric Cyan Dye now requires real ingredients instead of just Masterwork Metal Slabs.
  
• Crafting Caravan: Added level 90 tasks to all applicable Caravan NPCs.
  
• Crafting Caravan: Changed the required items on two tasks to bring them in-line with their level range.
  
• Fixed a bug causing hard-core broken gear to not display properly when horse-equipped gear also breaks.
  
• When selecting a title in the GUI list, tooltips explain how that title was earned.
  
• Fixed tooltip display issue with damage from Bun-Fu Kick's delayed damage.
  
• Using some Fireworks and Confetti Bombs now triggers an appropriate emote. (Except for Small Confetti Bombs; those are just too quick to look right.)
  
• Restored some info to various sources JSONs.
  
• VIPs: Don't forget to check your redemptions! (It's the little gift box icon at the bottom of the Persona panel, which you can find on the right-hand sidebar - third button from the bottom. Or just type /redeem in chat.)
  

A quick update to fix some bugs:

• Revised both versions of the "Healing Suit Tester" encounter in various ways (but making them easier overall).
  
• Fixed an exploitable bug with a Finishing Blow treasure effect that incorrectly boosted indirect damage. This is fixed on the server, but tooltips can still be wrong in-game until the next client update.
  

This is a quick bug-fix update.

• Battle Chemistry Fix: "Bomb attacks deal +50 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +60 Health over 30 seconds" => this was actually boosting healing 6x more than intended. Corrected to match description.
  
• Battle Chemistry Fix: "Bomb attacks deal +61 damage and cause your next Healing Mist to restore +50 Armor over 15 seconds" => this was actually boosting healing 5x more than intended. Corrected to match description.
  
• Summon Deer 6 now requires Summon Deer 5 instead of 4.
  
• Fixed: When analyzing the genetics of a corpse, XP earned was based on the level of the player rather than the level of the corpse being analyzed.
  
• Survival Instincts: Lend Grace 5 is now grouped with its other Lend Grace buddies.
  
• Three-Nostriled Barrier now remains open appropriately.
  
• Swollen Hands curse no longer prevents you from wearing a helmet.
  
• Glamour Berries from Riston are now usable (and more generally, attuned ingredients can be used in crafting).
  
• Tomato plants grow much slower.
  
• Renamed some "Amazing" hat recipe-teaching items to "Astounding".
  
• Human-Style Pizza with Tofu is now correctly labeled as a meal.
  
• Added a comma to food-related crafting recipes, to separate the recipe level from the type of food it creates (meal, snack etc.).
  
• Evu Fruit is now affected by foraging bonuses.
  
• Bug fix: Added missing titles for some long-term animal form behavior badges (e.g. while you have the Eternal Fox behavior badge, you also now have the Eternal Fox player title).
  
• Fixed typos for Snowleaf & Irkima.
  
• Fixed a spot in the Serbule Hills Goblin Logging Camp that was easy to get stuck in.
  
• Fixed selection colliders & face cams for Osslars and Gricklings.
  
• Fixed some wands that were appearing as big white cubes.
  
• Bug fix: Festive Holiday Maggot is more festive.
  
• This is the 400th published build of Project: Gorgon! As a thank you for reading the patch notes, use the command /400 in chat to receive a dumb title
  

Happy holidays from Project: Gorgon! Today we celebrate the turning of the season, from bountiful autumn harvest to gift-giving extravaganza. In other words, we're finally done with Halloween - it's time for presents! If you've become Friends with any townsfolk in the game, they will have gifts for you the next time you speak with them. (Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active when you talk to them, in case their gift is a randomly-generated treasure item!)

The Ri-Shin event is also underway -- look for townsfolk wearing red santa hats (err Ri Shin Hats) for more information. There's one in each town or settlement.

In addition, we have a bunch of improvements, tweaks, bug fixes, etc.

• Transforming into an animal no longer changes your active skills if one of them is already the appropriate animal skill. For example, changing into Deer while Bard and Priest are active will change one to Deer; changing into Deer while Bard and Deer are active won't change either.
  
• High-level deer-summoning mods now summon the appropriate level deer.
  
• Chemistry Staves now support Druid mods.
  
• Fixed the mod "Finishing Blow causes your next attack to deal +X damage if it deals direct Psychic, Trauma, or Poison damage"; it now actually affects Trauma and Poison damage, and the Psychic damage is reduced to what it should be.
  
• Fixed the mod "If Finishing Blow or Decapitate kills its target, you gain +X% direct damage for 15 seconds".
  
• Fixed a bug causing lower-level enchantments to be transmuted for Weather Witching and Druid.
  
• Increased healing amount of Healing Mist 10 (110->120).
  
• Changed James Eltibule's Sword damage boost from 0.1 back to 17.
  
• Nissim no longer teaches Debilitating Blow 4 - it was only getting in the way of his Psychology lessons, after all.
  
• We're still not sure what could cause players to not retain the repeating aktaari quest, but added a backup system that will reapply the quest whenever players are in the Aktaari lobby area.
  
• Revised a certain boss encounter a bit. Should be a piece of cake now :) :) :)
  

• You can now view item levels and rarities overlaid on the item icons in your inventory. Toggle this view by clicking the "Show item rarities & levels" button in the inventory window, next to the "Show Equipped Items" button.
  
• Important monster buffs, such as Damage Reflection, now show up first in the list of Active Effects on the target.
  
• The Damage Reflection buff on monsters now has a unique icon.
  
• Fixed icons for Fire Magic unlocks at Sand Seer & Bendith.
  
• Added "(or better)" to the arrow requirements of some Archery abilities.
  
• Dropping an item onto another in inventory or storage now always puts that item in the dropped slot, never the slot before it.
  
• Acid Sigil icon is now green.
  
• Your current equipment now has a yellow border in the compare-item view, to make it more obvious.
  

• Fixed a bunch of level 90 crafting recipes that had placeholder material ingredients.
  
• You can now raise Textile Creation to level 70 via trainer spheres beneath Povus.
  
• Some corrected item-creation recipes now require Enhanced Yarn; you can learn the recipe from the same trainer sphere in Povus.
  
• Fixed some items that would let you learn their recipe but not their ability, thereafter breaking the item for the original learner. (We're still working on a way to fix those characters already affected by the issue and will have something in the next update.)
  
• Cosmetic pets now stay alive when you switch areas or log off (so you don't need to resummon them).
  
• When you have a cosmetic pet active and summon a different pet, the first pet is automatically dispelled (rather than making you dispel it manually first).
  
• Updated directions for getting to the Sacred Grotto.
  
• Removed an extraneous warning sign from Serbule Hills.
  
• New JSON file is available on the cdn (at https://cdn.projectgorgon.com/), called tsysprofiles.json. See the updated index page for more information.
  
• Updated JSON file: tsysclientinfo.json now includes the internal names of each tsys power, so they can be mapped with the new profile JSON file.
  

This is a pretty little update chock full of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. Let's see what we've got!

• (Hands) "Decapitate Reuse Timer -12" => "Decapitate deals +250 damage and reuse timer is -12 seconds"
  
• (Head, Necklace) "Decapitate deals +525 damage to non-Elite targets" => +1200 to non-Elite targets
  
• (Legs) "Decapitate deals +255 damage and terrifies the target for 7 seconds" => "Decapitate deals +300 damage and the next attack you use stuns its target"
  
• (Feet, Ring) "Finishing Blow and Decapitate damage +190" => +264
  
• (Chest, OffHand) Finishing Blow deals 530 Psychic damage after a 4-second delay" => "Finishing Blow causes your next attack to deal +380 damage if it deals direct Psychic, Trauma, or Poison damage"
  
• (Legs) "Wind Strike causes your next attack to deal +142 damage" => "Wind Strike deals +142 damage and causes your next attack to deal +142 damage". In addition, this is now available on both Legs and Feet slots
  
• (Main Hand) "Wind Strike gives you +50% projectile evasion for 5 seconds" => for 10 seconds
  
• Wind Strike ability: increased amount of bonus damage added to the next attack
  
• New treasure effect: (Head, Necklace) "Indirect Poison Damage, Indirect Trauma Damage, and Indirect Psychic Damage +50% while Sword skill active"
  
• New treasure effect: (Off-Hand, Ring) "Parry and Riposte boost your Indirect Trauma Damage +24/tick for 30 seconds"
  
• New treasure effect: (Hands) "If Finishing Blow or Decapitate kills its target, you gain +63% direct damage for 15 seconds (this effect does not stack with itself)"
  
• New treasure effect: (MainHand) "Decapitate deals +165 damage. If the target is killed, Decapitate can be used again immediately."
  

To help you adjust to these changes, transmutation costs for Sword will be reduced through December.



We've increased the bonus XP you earn for being in a group up to 100% for each participating group member. This means that if you're in a group of players that kill a monster, the monster is now worth 100% of its total XP to every group member!

This is an experiment. The intent is to remove barriers to grouping -- now, it's inarguably mathematically better to group up than to compete for kills. Are there major down sides to this? We dunno -- guess we'll find out!

This does not otherwise change how XP is calculated (in terms of XP dropoff, skill level discrepancies, personal XP bonuses, etc).

• All high-level skill unlocks now require that you also have already unlocked the previous tier. In other words, in order to unlock 'Skill 81-90', you must have already unlocked 'Skill 71-80' (in addition to your current skill being 80+). If you run into a skill that looks like it will let you unlock skill caps out of order, please let us know through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.)
  
• Jewelry Crafting: Astounding Arisetsu Medallion actually taught the recipe for Astounding Enchanted Necklace. The recipe is right - only the name of the recipe book was wrong. The new name is: Jewelry Crafting: Astounding Enchanted Necklace.
  
• Orcish Plate Gauntlets erroneously said in their description: "(Must be near a forge consecrated to Umrad.)" They now correctly say "(Must be near a forge consecrated to Tast.)"
  
• Fixed a bug causing your last-used emote to play again when you change gear.
  
• NPCs are now listed in their correct, precise area in the Quest Log & Item Info windows. This fixes some bugs that resulted from separate areas being located in the same zone technically, e.g. Carpal Tunnels being reported as Khyrulek's Crypt, or Winter Nexus reported as Kur Caves. If any NPCs are still wrong, please let us know ASAP through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.)
  
• Unfetter 3 now lasts for 20 seconds.
  
• Galdyr's Tasty Energy Flask will now come with Battle Chemistry mods.
  
• The recipes Reliable Flask and Reliable Flask (Repair) now have a chance to consume their hammer ingredient.
  
• Updated the text displayed when you first learn Necromancy, to match how raising skeletons works now (via Necromancy Dust).
  
• "Mock and Ridicule deal +X% damage and taunt +Y" now properly affects Mock.
  
• Icons for Acid Bomb 10 & Mycotoxin Formula 10 now have the correct number.
  
• Fixed Triage 9, which was broken.
  
• Changed verbiage of whether Wanted Posters are usable or not, and hooked up verbiage properly.
  
• Update leveled requirements of new tailoring scrolls to match their associated recipes.
  
• Greta is no longer considered an arthropod.
  
• Added a basic dance animation to eagles.
  
• Fixed some quests that were giving out high-level items with low-level enchantments; most notably, several brand-new quests and Fae Realm Beehive quests.
  
• Fixed Mudbath 6 healing amount.
  
• Basilisk and Lamia slow abilities are now affected by Slow & Root immunity.
  
• Enchantments that can't be obtained via transmuting are no longer shown in the Transmutation window.
  
• Fixed a typo in soybean sprout item description.
  
• Bug fix: "Rotskin deals 354 Trauma damage to health over 12 seconds": the ability tooltip listed this as 8 seconds, the treasure listed it as 12, and the actual DoT lasted 15 seconds. The correct duration is 12, and other values have been changed to match.
  
• Animal Handling pets may now earn XP past level 80.
  
• Fixed a typo in Ruxandra's Bite item.
  
• Small Fireworks now stack to 99 instead of 20. Recipe for Small Fireworks makes 99 instead of 20.
  
• You can now unlock Gardening 81-90, and Cooking 81-90 at a mysterious entity deep beneath Povus.
  
• Fixed recipe ingredients for Awesome Werewolf gear.
  
• Fixed intermittent issue with mount anxiety bar not showing.
  
• Ruxandra's Bite is now augmentable.
  
• Recipes with no crafting time can now be used while sitting; this allows calligraphy benches to be used while being sat upon.
  
• If you can't craft a recipe, hovering over the button now tells you why.
  
• Altered Flaming swords' text (such as Flaming Gazluk Sword) to clarify the DoT damage they do.
  
• Removed references to Master Flopsy from Master Boop's text.
  
• Fixed a typo in Meat Candy (tonue -> tongue).
  
• Fixed stats on crafted belt buckles that got messed up in an earlier November update. (And buffed many of them!)
  
• Fixed many treasure effects that didn't correctly scale past level 80. At this time we believe ALL treasure effects should correctly scale to level 100. If you come across one that doesn't, please report it through the in-game bug report. (That's the '!' on the top of the right-hand sidebar.) Please report this even if you've reported it in the past.
  
• Fix to Rabbit treasure: (OffHand, Necklace) "Thump causes the target to take +20% damage from Cold attacks for 10 seconds": this effect did not stack if you had it on both slots.
  
• Fix to Rabbit treasure: (Head, OffHand) "Bun-Fu Kick causes the target to take +18% damage from Trauma attacks for 20 seconds": this effect did not stack if you had it on both slots.
  
• Change to Knife treasure effect: (Hands, Ring) "Fending Blade restores 22 Power" => 44
  
• All (non-Demo) players should check their redemptions to see what special gifts they may have available this month! You can do that by typing /redeem in chat, or by checking the "View Redemptions" button on the bottom of the Persona panel, accessible from the right-hand sidebar. VIPs, you've got two!
  

This is a small update that fixes a number of bugs, as well as tweaking and extending the new content from our last update.

Warning -- these patch notes contain spoilers. If you haven't started the new dungeon in Errruka the Benefactor's cave, just skip this section.

• The acid slime in Errruka's Cave now displays in the correct location. It was displaying too low, leaving players thinking they were high and dry when they actually weren't.
  
• Previously, the animal combat-skill trainer challenge required you to be an animal for at least 7 days of real-world time and 12 hours of gameplay time. The former requirement of real-world time was not communicated, leaving some animals unsure why they couldn't open the door. For simplicity we've dropped the real-world time requirement.
  
• Added a few special respawning eggs to the Aktaari event. These "egg events" are a prototype way to add replayability to the Aktaari event. In the future we may implement a large number of these sorts of "events", and randomly choose which are active during each Aktaari run.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Aktaari Princess's door from activating.
  
• Completing the mummy puzzle reopens doors leading to the puzzle (if they happen to have closed).
  
• The exit to the Lady room remains unlocked for several minutes after leaving (in case players return immediately).
  
• Rixie's Floating rings respawn more quickly.
  
• Evu Fruit requires Foraging 85, down from 95.
  
• The Elite version of Mangler Scorpions have been replaced with much larger Mutilator Scorpions (to make it easier to differentiate them from the non-Elite scorpions).
  
• You can now unlock Hammer 81-90, Battle Chemistry 81-90, and Butchering 81-90 at the appropriate trainers.
  
• You can no longer unlock Fishing 81-90 until you've unlocked Fishing 71-80.
  
• Fixed a bug where giving Support Local Fauna Initiative flier to Hazy Mirror yielded no item.
  
• Fixed typo in Serendipity Cheddar's dialog.
  
• Added an additional boss encounter (although there's still at least one boss that has yet to be discovered)
  

• Fixed a whole bunch of typos in skill hints.
  
• The ability Summon Doomstorm no longer refers to "frangments" instead of "fragments".
  
• Awesome Spring Fairy Shoes, the recipe, and the recipe scroll, are all now properly Awesome instead of just Amazing.
  
• Changed labels of armor- and power-restore after death-avoidance attribute, so they no longer just say "Healing".
  
• Fixed display of triple digit levels on your hotbar.
  
• The recipe for Astounding Skinning Knife was erroneously called Awesome.
  
• Coffee beans and soybeans are worth more Foraging XP.
  
• Fixed: Stun Trap 5 had same stats as Stun Trap 6.
  
• Orcish Wheat now grows in visible stages.
  
• Fixed the broken locked-NPC UI icon.
  
• Performance Appreciation info effect should now disappear when you're not appreciating any performances.
  
• Fixed some bugs causing instrument playing animations to get out of sync.
  
• "Square" map indicators have been renamed "Pointed Square", and a new Square (which is the old square) has been added in its place.
  
• Updated player nameplate colors in real-time as a response to entering or exiting PvP mode.
  
• When your targeted player is in PvP mode, an icon will indicate as much (replacing an old bugged-out icon showing their level as 0).
  
• Animal forms that are in skeleton illusion can now mount properly.
  
• Updated Brambleskin 10's damage.
  
• Changed level at which the third cheesemaking cask is unlocked to 40 (previously 41).
  
• Fixed mount form for skeletons when their underlying form is spider.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause unlisted vendor items to list for 0 councils.
  
• Updated Bounding Escape 6 numbers (7 speed for 12 seconds -> 9 speed for 17 seconds)
  
• System Shock abilities dealt 1 point of Damage-over-Time even when no DoT treasure effects were in use.
  
• Warden (Necklace): "While Privacy Field is active, melee attacks that damage you have a 75% chance to restore 34 Power to you" => this treasure effect did not work correctly
  
• Icesnake can now occur with Ice Magic treasure effects.
  
• Head Candle will now persist through zoning & changing gear.
  
• Deep Wasps now count for the "Bats Eat Bugs" quest.
  

We'll be back with more fixes and updates soon!