Cross of Auria News

[p]Last night, another bigger patch rolled out which focused mainly on pushing for finalization as it relates to the Crafting tab. Right now, there are more crafting patterns programmed into the database than there are recipe books available, so a 100% complete file couldn't even have all of crafting finished. I'll be working over the next few patches to reconcile this difference.[/p][p]Please keep in mind that some are intentionally unreleased as part of the Yeul's Castle questline and that it's still currently not possible to reach X/X for all three categories.[/p][p]Also added were some new weapons and accessories spread throughout the world via enemy drops and one-time chests.[/p][p]I've been doing well updating the in-game version display... except for this one. This build has been live for over 12 hours but the in-game printout still reads 7.1.0.4. If you've restarted Steam since last night, you're on the most recent version.[/p][p][/p][p]Fun facts...
I didn't intend to add these standalone items, but my wife had to take her mother to the hospital for lingering complications of a less than 1% chance surgery complication so I didn't have enough free time to really lock in on a bigger project, but enough time to knock out little things here and there. Hence the 710X series.
Also, there was already a Gold Dagger programmed in, but I forgot. So until 7106, the mentioned loot tables may give the wrong one. The previous Gold Dagger was renamed Golden Dagger moving forward.
And finally, I may not actually be able to reconcile the total number of listed available crafting recipes in the world with the actual number programmed in today. I'm not sure yet, but it might be one of those "decided upon new game start" hard coded things that can only go up but never down. I won't know until my 70hour save file comes across all the Recipe Books that I remember.[/p][p]7.1.0.5 \[Build #204-E, Release Date: December 12, 2025][/p][p]New:
- Added a new accessory drop from fire elementals.
- Added a new accessory drop from wind elementals.
- Added 7 one-time chests to Scarlet Cavern which randomize loot from the new low-level Bronze weapons set. These weapons have half the attack stats of the Silver set, but with no defensive or auxillary stats & effects.
- Added 9 one-time chests to Sha'ri Desert which randomize loot from the new medium level Gold weapons set. These weapons have double the attack and support stats of the Silver set, but no defensive or auxillary stats, reduce MP cost by 20%, but also reduce TP charge rate by 20%. [/p][p]Fixes:
- Connected the back end of Scarlet Cavern to the final randomized chest of the dungeon.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- When the Orc War is triggered as complete, the world map no longer changes to rainy with the OW music. Other zones that play the OW weather and music are not affected by this change.
- Assault Unit Alpha now has a small chance to drop each of the new Bronze weapons.
- Each of the other Hell's Gate mechs have a small chance to drop some of the new Bronze weapons.
- Top level Veilspawn challenge bosses have the full range of Bronze, Silver, and Gold weapons added to their loot pools.
- The path leading to the Terra Anatis area is open, but access to the city itself remains blocked.[/p][p]Crafting:
- Vaporstrike+ effects commented out. This skill was removed from use upon expansion of Mastery Effects.
- Emberstrike+ effects commented out. This skill was removed from use upon expansion of Mastery Effects.
- Rod of Thorns mask name changed.
- An'ura Blade mask name changed.
- An'ura Poker mask name changed.
- An'ura Axe mask name changed.
- Green Insect Sword mask name changed.
- Green Insect Dagger mask name changed.
- Green Insect Axe mask name changed.
- An'ura Wand mask name changed.
- Green Insect Wand mask name changed.
- Raider's Rapier mask name changed.
- Hookbow mask name changed.
- Fused Hatchets mask name changed.
- Mindbender's Crook mask name changed.
- Duskfall Katana mask name changed.
- Duskfall Dagger mask name changed.
- Mask name for entire Yuleslayer set changed.
- Green Insect Breastplate mask name changed.
- An'ura Carapace mask name changed.
- Oros-Bane Sandals, Footpads, Sabatons, Greaves mask name changed.
- Duskfall Buckler, Shirt, Tunic, Cuirass, Chestguard mask name changed.
- Mutant Esca, Carapace, Claws, Chelipeds, Exoskeleton mask name changed.
- Anemo Plague set mask names changed.
- Mask names given to some items which previously had none.
- The Recipe Book for Faithless items can be found near Terra Anatis after the Orc War begins.
- The Recipe Book for creating 24 kinds of elemental tomes can be purchased from a Watcher in the Veil for 24 Pit Coins. Pit Coins can be earned by defeating Veilspawn bosses. Elemental Tomes change a character's Normal Attack element to include the applied type, which would become multi-elemental in cases of overriding class or weapon elements. These enchantments do not supercede elemental skills, which have a specific element and do not contain the Normal Attack element which would have inherited from enchantments and equipment.[/p][p][/p]

[p]Based on feedback received, I've made some quick changes to the early game experience. The global save restriction has been lifted in most major dungeons and two new early game gearsets have been added to rival the DLC sets. This gear cannot be purchased and has been added directly to the loot pool of dozens of early game enemies - mostly neutral, Scarlet, and HG. [/p][p]These new sets can be disassembled for at least 1 reagent and sell based on a 20 point set.[/p][p]Merc Set includes one of each armor type for each slot, 3 rings & 2 shields - 22 total. 1 slot except shields which have 2.
Adventurer's Set includes one of each armor slot as General Armor, 4 rings & 2 shields - 11 total, 1 of which is Uncommon (green) and 1 Rare (blue) quality. 2 slots except shields which have 4.[/p][p][/p][p]Fun facts...
1 - The Merc set was originally designed for the now defunct Battlefront area, meant for the recruited allies of those zones. Their data has been in the game since before Zodiac data was added.
2 - The Adventurer's set was created today based on the Merc Set, where each point in a stat was converted into 10 HP instead, creating CoA's first pure HP/MP no-defense/no-offense set.
3 - The release of these sets is due to how overpowering and one dimensional the Gift Pack DLC sets are. While the Ignis and Hardy's sets still offer better stats, the Adventurer's set offers a choice not previously available in CoA (bulk HP) and the Merc set offers an easily obtainable set for people who may not have yet found their way to the Veil, the first interaction having only been forced right before the end of the Orc War campaign.
4 - While both the Merc and Adventurer's sets appear on the loot tables of more enemies, they exist at the lowest possible drop rate of 1% each, whereas sets like Tattered and Tattered Gray exist at 2-10%.
5 - The only vendor for Merc gear appears in the currently inaccessible Snowdrift Area location, where either Leather Scraps or Metal Chips are required in addition to the gold cost. Players with save files still in this location from before its removal can access this vendor.
6 - The highest level enemy in Revan to drop either of these sets is the Crocodile Rogue. Once you pass this point, these items no longer appear on stronger enemies moving forward.[/p][p]7.1.0.4 \[Build #204-D, Release Date: December 12, 2025][/p][p]New:
- Added new custom General Armor set to the low level enemy loot pool - Adventurer's. This set is based on the 20-point merc set, converting each point into 10HP plus 12% HP for body, chest, and feet, plus 7% for back, plus 5-8% for fingers, and 20% for shields for a total of up to 91% additional HP for Shield users. Elemental bubbles have a chance to drop a ring worth 30% HP on its own.[/p][p]7.1.0.3 \[Build #204-C, Release Date: December 12, 2025][/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Added Merc set armor to various battles throughout the world and Veil.
- Lifted save restriction in Scarlet Cavern.
- Added a save restriction locally to Frost Fortress.
- Added a save restriction locally to Encampment/Underground, formerly "Floor 2".
- Lifted save restriction in Nexus Waterway.
- Lifted save restriction in Alpha Ruins.
- Lifted save restriction in Hell's Gate.[/p][p]7.1.0.2 \[Build #204-B, Release Date: December 12, 2025][/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Added conditional drops to the An'ura/Encampment enemies based on the legendary scythe discovery questline.
- Lifted the save restriction in Den An'ura due to an ever building 'desire to crash', as documented in previous patches.[/p][p]7.1.0.1 \[Build #204-A, Release Date: December 12, 2025][/p][p]Fixes:
- Fixed the pylon display in Auria/Market Town.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Added detail for Merc set, a previously unused 20 point early game set.[/p][p][/p]

[p]Shout out to Fuzzy and Sam for helping me put this together nearly four years ago and shout out to my five year old for making it SUPER difficult to actually publish it in a finalized state! (Totally worth it, don't even worry!)[/p][p][/p][p]This update didn't take as long as expected because most of it was fleshed out in previous updates - it just needed some fine tuning to meet the standards of the modern game. Snowdrift Village is once again available via the world map immediately with download of the free DLC "Cross of Auria - Eyes in the Frost" downloadable from the link below.[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Key notes about this location: [/p]

• [p]Enemies currently display their levels. This will be removed on the next patch.[/p]
• [p]Quest "A Daring Raid" is designed to lead into the planned premium DLC Cross of Auria - Yeul's Castle. Given that we're already half way through December, I'm either going to knock it out of the park or scrap it altogether. I am unsure which way the pendulum will swing at this moment.[/p]
• [p]All other local quests should function amongst themselves, including a reputation style system where new gear is available in each shop with each status boost in rep. [/p]
• [p]The Frostslayer class, purchasable with max rep from the Item Shop, introduces the first skill of the Ice-Killer element: Hailstorm. The default attack element of this class for Normal Attacks is also Ice-Killer, but Hailstorm can be used by any class that can cast magic.[/p]
• [p]Frostslayers have increased MP regeneration, critical rate, and evasion rate. They can equip Scythe, Axe, Katana, and General Armor. This may come as a drastic change when used on a character that does not normally utilize offensive gear.[/p]
• [p]Frostslayers, in addition to learning a mix of ice-based physical and magic abilities, learn the unique skills Freeze and Shatter at early levels. They do pretty much exactly what you think they do, and most enemies have no resistance to the Freeze state as it has been isolated to Snowdrift Village since its inception. The Deep Freeze state further increases damage dealt to a target by Ice-Killer attacks, but is removed on the same turn it is applied. Utilize your team working together to make the most of it![/p]
• [p]While the enemies of this area were designed using character sheets between level 30 to 60, the gear and skills obtainable within this zone make dealing with the enemies significantly easier. [/p]
• [p]Anti Barrier - This location was the origination of the concept of Warp in Cross of Auria and is the home of the Recipe Book which will allow you to create more guides for Warp and the Warpstrike line. Higher tier warpstrike skills strike additional times. All Warp-based skills have the chance to apply the debuff state by the same name at tiers 1-5, which reduce enemy barrier per turn by 10, 100, 500, 1000, 2500 at rates of 66%, 50%, 33%, 10%, and 3% per hit respectively. The Warpstrike line also removes 200 of the target's barrier before damage is calculated, regardless of how much damage would be done - including if that value would be 0. You should think about visiting this location if Obscurite enemies are proving too difficult! [/p]
• [p]Frostslayers are the 83rd Class entry in the database and will appear last for every character except Ruby, who has Sparkwraith in the 84th slot. Frostslayers learn: Froststrike, Frostbolt, Freeze, Shatter, Hailstorm, Double-Strike, Wicked Strike, Icestrike, Ice Spike, Blizzard, Avalanche, Triple-Strike, Ice Barrage, and Icefall. In spite of being in the 83rd class slot, its learnable abilities were set before Black Mage was created and before II and III skills had armor penetration. In spite of those things, given the other characteristics of this class, I still feel it's worthwhile to use in its current state - especially when grinding in the local region. If you feel it's too weak or too strong or just missing a little extra something - let me know! At this point in development, it's about making a game that's both fun and rewarding to play without as much mystery as there may have been in the past. [/p]

[p][/p][p]7.1.0.0 \[Build #204, Release Date: December 11, 2025][/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Many enemies from the Snowdrift Village area have had their attack patterns and loot pools changed. This affects Veil Trials 4 & 5 in addition to Snowdrift Village. [/p][p]Updates, Changes, & Fixes (DLC):
- Snowdrift Village is now accessible again. Visit this location north of Lvell. Requires DLC: Cross of Auria - Eyes in the Frost, formerly known as "Yuelslain's Village".
- Elementals and Risen now spawn at the beginning of the quest acceptance rather than sequentially.
- The Frost-Locked Box and Snow-Covered Supplies can now be picked up before the quests are obtained.
- Snowdrift quests now utilize the quest log.
- Changed some quest rewards.
- Compressed Veilstone field items now correctly add the item to the inventory. Previously picked up events that did not give the item are considered missed, but every enemy in the zone has a chance to drop the item and it can be purchased from the Item Shop with local currency.
- Compressed Veilstone can now be disassembled.
- Art, screenshots, and the description for this DLC have been updated on the Steam Store.[/p][p]Notes & Fun Facts:[/p][p]- The field enemies during the Snowdrift quests are based on my earlier design choices and utilize self switches and fixed encounters, therefore they never respawn and all players will experience the same events in the same places. [/p][p]- The 'duckbeard' mask was originally created for Terra Anatis fanatics, but this location ultimately had to be scrapped. A brief dialogue piece references the fanatics in a far away land. This would have been the almost-accessible city southwest of Auria.[/p][p]- The item name "Compressed Veilstone" was chosen due to Snowdrift Village's original access point, which was through the Veil. There used to be a Watcher who gave the original questline to help. In the most recent world map update, Snowdrift Village was connected through the old Battlefront location long after the event itself had been sunset.[/p][p]- Another location named Snowdrift Area exists in the game files and was briefly accessible with very low level normal and ice enemies. Due to the change in development this year, access was quickly removed. On the world map, Snowdrift Village begins out of player sight, but the Snowdrift Area accounted for the rest of the unused forest pathing between Lvell and Snowdrift.[/p][p]- Of all the locations in the game, enemies in Snowdrift Village have seen the most radical changes the most amount of times, going from a low level instantly accessible Veil area, to an extremely insurmountably high level area, back down to a 30s-50s challenge.[/p][p]- Both the duckbeard mask and Risen armor sets were created by CoA's special artist Samuel Escobar, who has since gone on to become a chef.[/p][p]- Cross of Auria sources art from free to use and free to use with credit designers through the RPG Maker Web forum. Samuel Escobar and FuzzyStingray were our only in-house artists throughout the entire development process. Most notable entries by Escobar are the Headless Horseman and other Halloween decorations and enemies, while the most notable entry by Fuzzy is Eurus - a completely custom made character and outfit whose parts do not exist in the engine. They focused primarily on creating engine generator assets rather than fixed images, but when we weren't making engine parts, Fuzzy was making sprite sheets (Eurus, Search for the Strongest characters) and Escobar was making static enemies (Horseman, Ryban, Wretch).[/p][p]- Snowdrift Village is the longest standing location in the game to be created, mostly finished, and then pulled, finalized, and re-released. When other locations were fixed or re-imagined, a new version of them was made and the current was converted into Timelost with save disabled and exits all going straight to the world map. However, it was not the first content DLC planned or created! Battle Series I-V and Battle Series X were already created in the Steam back-end before Yuelslain's Village was ever a thought. Now, Eyes in the Frost exists as Cross of Auria's second full scale DLC area behind BSX which later became Zodiac Overwatch. [/p][p]- Eyes in the Frost feeds directly into The Frost Queen. [/p][p]- Even though other areas may be considered a tougher challenge, Snowdrift Village offers some of the strongest gear in the game.[/p][p]- Access to Yeul's Castle is locked behind The Frost Queen DLC, which is not yet available. Following the questline "A Daring Raid" north will lead to a dead end. Stay tuned for future updates if I end up with enough time to release the content before the year is over. [/p][p][/p]

[p]Finally, we have arrived at the end! The tale of the Orc War in Revan is complete and chapter 1 of the story I started writing over a decade ago comes to a close. Obscurite, the Dusk Kingdom is now open to close out Cross of Auria! Let's go over some bullet points rather than yap too much this time.[/p]

• [p]A brief 'point of no return' dialogue pops up before accepting the quest. [/p]
• [p]It is only possible to embark on this campaign and visit this location once. [/p]
• [p]After the credits roll, Ruby & company are brought back to just before the quest pickup. The questgiver NPC does not mention the events and the world state has not progressed from when the team should have entered Obscurite.[/p]
• [p]As of update 6.9.0.0, it is possible to return to Lvell and then to Auria. This allows access to the Rabbit's Foot questline and achievements. [/p]
• [p]After embarking on the final quest, the alternate outfit Halloween event in the Veil is disabled. It does not enable again for any reason. All other rifts and telepads function again upon the quest's completion. This rift stays dead.[/p]
• [p]Skipping through events causes images and pathfinding to become unstable. This isn't something I can even fix, but it's most noticeable in the final dungeon with all the scripted events.[/p]
• [p]Embarking on the final quest before your team is ready can lead to a dead save file. Progress within the final dungeon triggers a lock against the outside world. If your party is strong enough to complete the first event, it should be strong enough to do what needs to be done to finish the game. If you can not complete the first scripted event, you should leave and come back later. If you complete the first event but can't complete the second, you should reload a save from before you started the first one.[/p]
• [p]Development moving forward will adjust some minor skill issues, fix any reported bugs, and wrap up other non-main loose ends.[/p]
• [p]This update does not contain changes to Eyes in the Frost or Horseman Hunter Pass. My attention has been 100% on writing and testing the scripted events for about a month now and there was no time in doing so to edit these other things. I'll be using the remainder of my time, until Christmas day, to further develop and re-release Eyes in the Frost. If there's any time remaining, I'll circle back to Horseman Hunter Pass. [/p]
• [p]Come January, I will begin a new project and this one will no longer receive content updates. This game is finished! Thank you everyone for being here for this journey. I'm sorry it took so long, but when I started this I didn't have two kids and I had all the free time in the world. As a project I effectively made

[p][/p][p]7.0.0.0 \[Build #203, Release Date: December 9, 2025][/p][p]New:
- Cross of Auria can now be completed with its final main story achievement now obtainable!
- New tooltip keyword "Assembled" for items which have other uses but can also be disassembled.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Removed level display from most enemies.
- Horseman DLC trials renamed: Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Pro, Expert
- Poisoned Apple, Yule Spirit, Warped Wood, Living Dough now have sell prices.
- The Boss state now reduces affliction chance of Blind, Silence, Confu, Sleep, and Disable by 67%, up from 33%, reduces Poison, Burn, and Bleed by 50%, up from 10%, [/p][p]Skill & Mastery Effects:
- Remedy, First Aid, and Stitch can now be used from the menu.
- Mend, Cure I, Healing Wind, and Regeneration I are now Certain Hit
- Synergist and Magick boosts animation changed.
- Dispel animation changed.
- Reduced the cooldown of Blizzard from 7 to 5.
- Removed the warmup of Thunderstorm and Arcstorm.[/p][p]Notes, Comments, Known Issues & Other:
- One of the lodge quests leaves the Save screen reading 1 active even when completed.
- With the change in development moving forward, the concept of spell hit rate on allies is being left behind.
- Unlike other Veilspawn, the Headless Horseman is based on the first generation character sheets from 2017. Because it's a paid DLC, I'm hesitant to upgrade its difficult to be consistent with where the game has gone since then. Because of this, I've removed their display levels and the text to choose which fight references generic difficult labels rather than explicit levels. In my 60 hour file, I was able to one turn kill the level 120 variant. It doesn't seem right to let it be called level 120 moving forward.
- Level display was a relic left over from earlier iterations of the game where every enemy displayed it. Because Troop display became crowded with longer names and multiple units, I decided to cut it in most places, but left it on enemies from the Pit and in the Veil. Once the Pit itself was cut, those enemies were repurposed for new zones, but the (Lv. XY) wasn't removed yet. I also wanted to remove instances of duplicate enemies at different levels, but wasn't able to untangle all their interactions in a safe way without dedicating dozens of hours to the concept. If anyone ever creates a full guide, I would be cooperative with release stat sheets and enemy levels. Unfortunately, because the sheets can be rerolled by pressing any button, its not possible to provide a fixed sheet of all 11 enemy classes with their stats per level. This is one of the changes coming to CoA2. As of this update, no enemy should display (Lv. XY) in any part of the game, but there may be a handful left over.[/p][p][/p][p]I have to do one final playtest of the very last battle, then this build will be set public. ETA: 1hr from this post.[/p]

[p]6.10.2.0 \[Build #202, Release Date: December 6, 2025][/p][p]New: - New drops added to most orcs and every enemy in the Zodiac Overwatch: Broken Weapon and Shattered Armor. These low sell value items serve as a great source of Metal Chips and Leather Scraps when disassembled. These items start being encountered as early as the Frost Forest mission with the lowest level orc scouts and continue as a recurring drop throughout all Orc encounters. This item also appears on the loot tables of misc Veilspawn.
- A new early game loot bag has been added to the first ~120 enemies in the database - Adventurer's Bag. This item can be opened to reveal helpful early game items from the global loot pool, including 50G tokens, Small EXP tokens, +1 stat gems, weak potions, and other reagents. The Adventurer's Bag stops dropping on higher level enemies and does not appear on the loot table of Veilspawn or Zodiac enemies. There are 15 different items in the bag's loot pool.[/p][p]Fixes:
- Fixed Guide: Remedy which previously taught Mindstrike instead of Remedy. Removed its synthesis gold cost.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Remove Gold cost for Synthesis of all restorative items.
- Reduced or removed Gold cost for many other Synthesis items.
- The Zodiac Tool Kit is now single use, increases disassemble chance by 30%, and drops off various enemies in the Zodiac Overwatch including guaranteed drops from each of the bosses.
- Doubled the sell price of newly acquired Gift Pack armor.[/p][p]Notes, Known Issues & Other:
- After nearly 4000 hours developing this game on the RMMV engine, I learned that I didn't understand how Sell Price was automatically factored at the shop when I went to sell of my Gold Tokens. I am the epitome of 'you learn something new every day'. This effectively means that all armor and weapons in particular have their prices listed at 1/2 of what they should be, and I never noticed because I never compared what actually happened at the shop with what the engine itself said. As of right now, I don't have any plans to fix this on items already programmed in, but it will be at the forefront of my mind for any new armor sets created before we're done with development. The gold economy as it relates to early game shops and early game items was already carefully curated based on hundreds of hours of playtests. Even though Items are also technically listed at half the price they should be, the in-game shops already reflect this lower-than-planned price even though I didn't notice and it wasn't at all intentional. 202 builds. I'm learning this 202 builds, 8 years, and 4000 hours later.[/p][p][/p]