Cross of Auria News

[p]Later today, the next pre-finale patch will go live. This one focuses heavily on increasing the benefits gained by skill Mastery Effects, which is that experience bar you see under most skills. Using a skill multiple times usually just increases the damage or healing it does, sometimes reducing the TP/MP cost as well or even the number of turns for the cooldown. Today, the damage benefits of Mastery Effects has been greatly increased across the board. The patch notes do not document specifically what is different, because no baseline has ever been posted. What matters for you the player is: leveling up skills that may not have felt worthwhile in the past should be revisited moving forward.[/p][p]If I'm not mistake, like Weapons and Armor, Mastery Effects are baked into your save file. Once earned, they cannot be altered. This means that if you already fully maxed out a skill, you will not see any changes to its damage output or other benefits on that save file. I am honestly still unclear if this is how it works, but this has been my experience so far.[/p][p]Also, the Physical as a skill overriding damage type has been removed. There's a huge technical blurb down below about what specifically this means, but the tldr is that this was a longstanding mistake that needed to be corrected. [/p][p]Clearing up another mistake, about 20% of the weapons coded into the game did not have Physical as an elemental typing. The lore I created for this world doesn't really permit for that yet, so unless otherwise stated in the tooltip via the keyword Elemental, all newly acquired weapons will have at least the physical element. If a weapon has additional elements, they will be notated in the tooltip as they have been in the past. Bigger technical blurb down below.[/p][p]It has come to my attention that Learn Skills cost too much gold-wise. Rather than re-do the entire gold economy across the board, the cost of Learn Skills has been reduced by up to 1/10th of what it was. This is most notable on the elemental and Warp skills. (Locking myself in Obscurite and not having access to what I needed to progress really did fuel everything you're reading here today)[/p][p]And finally, part of Obscurite is now open with Captain Reynolds sending Ruby in. I intended to have the end game block be completely closed but playtesting it myself for several days has revealed that you can make progression-blocking decisions which effectively ruin your save file if I don't keep the exit clear. So, I spent some time today undoing the exit blockers and now free roam is possible into and out of Obscurite. The final location, Dusk Manor, is still currently off limits until 7.0. Due to certain interactions within the castle, it will not always be possible to exit that location once it is available. Orcs found in Obscurite, the Dusk Kingdom have the greatest drop rates for Dusk Armor Parts. The reward for eliminating the Oros Orcs is not available until 7.0, but your progress is being recorded. Once you hit the threshold of Oros Orcs killed, they will disappear from the entire game map.[/p][p]This patch is launching ahead of 7.0 due to the fixes to end of turn forced action game crashes. As much as I want to deliver one huge update all at once, I really can't let a full crash stay programmed in and I'll keep tackling them as I find them.[/p][p]PS: 7.0 won't be ready this week. The entanglement of the failed scripted event is proving extremely difficult to test, hence some of this patch's updates. [/p][p][/p][p]6.10.1.0 \[Build #201, Release Date: December 4, 2025][/p][p]Fixes:
- Fixed a broken transfer involving the Rabbit's Foot and both instances of Auria.
- Fixed some potential end of turn forceaction crashes brought on by Ruby, Alex, and Ares.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Changed some end of turn effects to occur during the turn to prevent a forceaction crash.
- The Physical elemental type has been removed from all skills as an overriding element. In essence, this means that it is not possible to deal non-physical element damage from any ability with the 'Normal Attack' element or the Attack command itself. Skills with overriding elements say so in the tooltip. All abilities that make weapon to target contact are still considered Physical the type, as opposed to physical the element. This change will most notably effect elemental weapons that did not have Physical as part of its multi-typing, such as Frostsparka which was purely Ice/Electric. Now, using any 'normal attack' or the attack command with a pure elemental weapon equipped will inherit those elements instead of being overridden by the Physical element. Most weapons in the game have Physical as an additional type, even if the tooltip does not mention it.
-- Out of 150 weapons programmed in, only about 20% of them did not have Physical as a typing at all. Specifically, these were: Frostsparka, An'ura Plague Blade, Sharp Branch, Frostbrood Saber, Frostbrood Dagger, Blazerblade, Anemo Plague set, Bolt Cutter, Blazing Hatchet, Icespike Hatchet, Liquefier+, Penetrator, Rending Wand, Fairytooth, Mindcleaver, True Rod, Energy Bow, Depleted Rod, Dreamsword, Pupil's Wand, Yoggoth's set, Mantis Sickle, Cursed Axe, Slime-Crusted set, Flamelash, Liquefier, Basilisk Fang (both), and Slime-eye.
-- With this update, all new weapons acquired from that above list will have Physical as a primary typing. If physical is ommitted as a type, the weapon will have the keyword Elemental.
-- The default multi-element rule has always been the addative sum of all rates, aside from certain skills which use multiplicative or highest.
- Adjusted some tooltips to reflect Elemental on new weapon pickup.
- Adjusted Slime-Crusted set tooltip to not imply they don't have physical (which they do).
- Swordsman class now magnifies Physical damage by 250%, up from 200%. [/p][p]Skill & Mastery Effects:
- Stun effect is no longer removed by damage.
- Poison applies at 1-3 turns and multiple applications extend the duration by 1-3 turns.
- Burn now reduces the chance to be burned again by 50% while the debuff is active.
- Basic Bleed now reduces the chance for Bleed again by 66%, but extends the duration by 5 turns if the application is successful. Other stronger bleeds will still outright remove Basic Bleed.
- Thunderstorm's lingering DoT now benefits from Electric Power.
- Thunderstorm and Arcstorm lingering DoTs now add turns when reapplied.
- Increased the Poison DoT benefit from Luck by a factor of 32.
- Doubled the damage of the Arcstorm, Burn and Basic Bleed DoTs.
- Sparkstrike now benefits from Electric Power by 33%, up from 25%.
- Lightningstrike now benefits from Electric Power by 50%, up from 33%.
- Bolt Cutter now benefits from Electric Power by 100%, up from 50%.
- Crossbolt now bypasses the damage cap.
- Most skills usable by the team have had their mastery effects expanded, the details of which are too great to document in a single patch notes. If ever an official skill guide is created for this game, all skill effects, formulas, and mastery bonuses would be documented there. Patch tldr; if you can use it and it can level up, it is now significantly stronger.
- Reduced Learn Skill costs across the board by up to 1/10th the original Gold price. Reagent requirements have not changed.[/p][p]Notes, Known Issues & Other:
- End of turn force action effects can cause game crashes if all enemies are dead when the action would take place. Please report specific locations and enemies encountered alongside any crash you experience. [/p][p][/p]

[p]While developing and playtesting a scripted event from 7.0, I came upon the discovery that out-of-party forced after turn actions can cause full game crashes under certain circumstances. I can't get to all of them right away, but I will be removing all of these types of interactions from the game code rather than try to repair them. This situation is most common with the discoverable character Ares, but also occurs in some instances with others. A standalone fix cannot be deployed at this time, and this will be addressed with 7.0. In the meantime, to avoid this crash, its best to let Ares either deliver the final blow, or deliver the final blow with anyone except the character who would attack last or end of turn damage over time effects. Ex: In a party of 4 characters, the fastest 3 attackers are safe, while the final attacker and the DoT proc are both unsafe.[/p][p][/p][p]This also caused a considerable hiccup in developing one of the major scripted events in Obscurite which now needs to be completely rewritten. We'll talk about in the postmortem in January what exactly was there before it was removed, as opposed to what will actually launch with 7.0.[/p][p][/p][p]How You Can Help
- If you discover any full game crashes with yellow code appearing on the side, please let me know where exactly in the game world this happened so I can lock down which troop it is. The game might seem small, but there are over 2000 Troop pages and ~10% of them have multiple pages. It would take a considerable amount of time (that I don't have) to comb through every one preventatively. I have already marked two specific Ares battles, plus two after-turn Alex and Ruby battles for permanent change.
- This also applies to any game crash, not just battles. Please report them ASAP so I can address them all together this month. [/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for your time on this matter[/p][p]//hardytier[/p]

[p]Today, I came across several gamebreakers that necessitated immediate fixes. Since all the work I've already done can't be held back individually, here is everything that's different moving forward. Please keep in mind that this was all supposed to roll out alongside 7.0, but could not be helped. Two full crashes and a soft lock are fixed in this update.[/p][p]For those of you lingering at the pre-end game state, Obliterate and Bolt Cutter now break the damage limit and a watcher in the Awoken Veil sells an accessory that does the same for the equipped character.[/p][p]This build contains an inaccessible version of the endgame events, a roadblock which will be removed in 7.0.0.0. [/p][p]Due to a large amount of issues in the Snowdrift Village area, the entire location is locked from the worldmap pending either finalization or official scrapping after 7.0 rolls out.[/p][p]I will likely roll out additional emergency fixes before 7.0, notated by the A.B.C.D format where only D changes. This update, huge as it is, pushed B forward.[/p][p]Update is available immediately by restarting Steam.[/p][p][/p][p]6.10.0.0 \[Build #200, Release Date: November 30, 2025][/p][p]New: [/p][p]- A new essence beast is available in the awoken veil! This enemy functions similar to the previous Essence of Essences event, but also drops a new item - Corrupted Essence - which can be exchanged with the nearby Watcher for essences of any type. This boss is available in level 10, 25, and 50 forms. Unlike other Veilspawn, this new boss provides normal boss level EXP and Gold. The level 25 version has triple the drop rate of the level 10, and the level 50 has triple the drop rate of the level 25. The step counter in these locations has been increased from 15 to 50.[/p][p]- With Forge Notes: Dusk in hand, a forge will become available in the Awoken Veil.[/p][p]- From the final page of the Essence Box withdraw function, maximum withdraw can be performed without manual inputs.[/p][p]Fixes: [/p][p]- Fixed an issue where exiting the 5th Veil Trial would change your Challenge Level from 50 to 40. This did not impact achievement acquisition - only a display bug.[/p][p]- Fixed the reward from the 5th Veil Trial. You do not need to complete it a second time - the Crafting tab will update automatically.[/p][p]- Fixed the tooltips for Wind, Shadow, Electric, and Dark flasks.[/p][p]- Added a new pylon to Nexus Waterway for jumping over the furthest obstacles for if it was missed in the instanced version of Auria.[/p][p]- Fixed exit tiles that would bring Ruby back to the instanced version of Auria after the fires were put out.[/p][p]- Fixed Mia's interaction for if Alex already knows both Resurrection and Return Spirit.[/p][p]- Fixed Mia's house terrain.[/p][p]Updates & Changes: [/p][p]- The terrain of the Awoken Veil has been changed. All previous rifts and telepads still exist but have been moved. For current players, upon entering the Veil, you will be put in front of the red telepad back to Ruby's house one time.[/p][p]- The Candy Bag can now open Small and Large Candy Pouches and inject their contents directly into the Candy Bag without having to open each individual one into the inventory, then deposit them to the bag. There is a printout both before and after the function runs to show the difference in items. There is no prohibitive check for if you are not holding any candy pouches, the ending printout will simply be the same as the starting.[/p][p]- Additional items added to the Cultist and Sagittarius loot tables.[/p][p]- Sterling Hilt now sells for 30G.[/p][p]- Toxic Rift Shard, An'ura Rift Shard, Rift Weapon Parts, Rift Armor Parts, and Time Shard now sell for 10G.[/p][p]- Sour Candy now sells for 4G.[/p][p]- An NPC in the Veil now sells Arrowheads, Short Sticks, Blank Tomes, Empty Flasks, and both weapon and armor patterns.[/p][p]- Bolt Cutter, Reave, and Obliterate can now bypass the damage cap.[/p][p]- Changed the display when depositing all essences into the box at once.[/p][p]- Fixed the layering of gold pickups in Veil Trials.[/p][p]- Relocated the entrance to Mia's house, available in Auria world state 2 after fires are out.[/p][p]Skill & Mastery Effects:[/p][p]- In addition to having reduced casting costs relative to their counterparts, II elemental skills now have half piercing and III skills have full piercing. This does not apply to Shocks. [/p][p]Updates & Changes (DLC):[/p][p]- The entire Snowdrift area is blocked off pending finalization of Eyes in the Frost. Too many dialogue pieces are broken to leave it partially accessible.[/p][p]Notes:[/p][p]- Much of the endgame scenario is currently coded in, but the bugs discovered required this patch to go out ahead of the content drop.[/p][p][/p]

[p]I've been working nonstop this week on the end of the main story campaign and I really hope you all are going to like it... or even be able to complete it. Oros orcs are currently set in the level 20-30 range, and Dusk orcs found in the final area scale all the way to level 50. A new team pattern for the Dusk Orcs in the final area is -10kHP +10kBarrier, so packing Barrier Penetration and Bypass Barrier skills and gear isn't a bad way to go![/p][p][/p][p]I'm about to start my first playtest on the final areas. Here's what I can tell you without spoiling anything.[/p]

• [p]Once you engage with the point of no return, it will not be possible to escape Obscurite. A clear warning will inform players that this is it - there's no going back.[/p]
• [p]Once the game is completed, Ruby will be returned to the outer part of Obscurite, but it won't be possible to play the end-game events a second time. There's already too many intertwined events using too many variables, switches, and self switches for me to make it viable to run multiple times. However, since content is still planned over the next month in locations throughout the world and in the Veil, Ruby will be able to return to the places that were accessible just before heading into Obscurite. [/p]
• [p]There is one missable achievement in Obscurite. However, if missed, I have plans to stick a redemption round somewhere else in 7.0.1.0 if not rolled out with 7.0.0.0, probably in the open in Obscurite/CityLimits.[/p]
• [p]While Oros and Dusk orcs are the primary enemies found in the final areas, they are not the only enemies. Ruby should continue to have a wide range of elemental attacks upon entering Obscurite.[/p]
• [p]7.0.0.0 will release without additional updates to Brandywine Forest or Snowdrift Village when it is ready to go. I have legitimately put 100% of dev efforts into this one questline moving through the final area and I'm not done yet. I expect to be completely ready to ship by the end of next week. [/p]
• [p]If development becomes more difficult toward the end, nothing has changed relative to what I said about 2026 being the end. If I can't launch 7.0.0.0 until Dec 31st, then all other plans for Snowdrift and Brandywine will be scrapped altogether. I hope this won't be the case and I don't expect it to be, but the crashes have been at their very worst this week. When you enter the final area, you'll see why. On the player side, you shouldn't see any crashes. But in the engine, there's so many events that its struggling to keep up.[/p]
• [p]If I can drop 7.0.0.0 next week, the remainder of December will go to patching up Snowdrift and Brandywine.[/p]
• [p]The 7.0.0.0 update already includes - New location, higher level enemies, new craftable gear, scripted events, progression on long since forgotten storylines, new temporary character, new learnable skills, and setups for where the story goes next as per the pre-alpha drafting (we'll talk about this one in the postmortem in January for the real worldbuilding nerds out there).[/p]

[p]Realistically, all that's left for me to do is playtest what I have, correct any screw ups, then put in the very ending with the return to before the point of no return. The only problem is that I can never estimate how long playtesting will take. I have pre-nerf Aries gems on every character and a 50 hour play file with level 30+ characters. If anything, I might have to make the whole ending campaign easier.[/p][p][/p][p]Okay that's enough yappin' for today. There's no new game version this weekend, but I'm hoping to drop 7.0 mid to late next week, barring any huge problems with what I made this week. See you soon![/p][p][/p][p]//hardytier[/p][p]PS: And just to be absolutely clear, after the new year, there will be no content updated to CoA moving forward. Only bug fixes to address newly reported issues. Full development focus will go toward CoA2 and this project will be considered finalized, with all outstanding projects considered scrapped.[/p]

[p]Normally when I introduce an update like this, I give you a vague idea of what to expect as to prevent spoilers. However, since this one is such a post-game high level event, I'm going to outright tell you what you have to look forward to... in just a moment! First let's talk about development.[/p][p]I've reiterated recently that development on CoA is difficult because of the engine itself. It's getting worse. I'm honestly 50-50 on scrapping the concept of the Horseman Pass, Snowdrift Village, and Shadowfrost Citadel and just pushing out the 'end of game' scenario. I did a huge few hour segment last night that ended up not getting saved at all, all of which I have to rebuild in smaller pieces today. Realistically, I'm optimistic about a second game moreso than I am about the continuation of this one. So keep that in mind as we go forward toward the new year.[/p][p]2026 is our end development target. Regardless of what extra pieces I'm able to develop before then, I plan to neatly wrap everything up in a bow and have it in it's 100% final state by New Year's Day 2026. [/p][p]Final note before we get into the Veil trial rewards, the Sparkwraith and Electrogenic classes have had their requirements significantly reduced. Unlike Black Mage, White Mage, Swordsman, etc, Electrogenic is a prestige class on Stormchaser, requiring level 50 before unlocking for Ruby, and Sparkwraith is a prestige class on Electrogenic, requiring level 45 before unlocking for Ruby. With not enough time left in development, all other prestige classes are scrapped and their unique level up skills are instead being considered as Recipe Book / Guides / Drops instead. Since Ruby gains access to Dark, Holy, and Arcane abilities through the prestige classes, only hers are retained moving forward. However, actually achieving level 50 as a Stormchaser will be an achievement (not literally) in and of itself, as the most EXP awarded by any single fight exists in the Zodiac Overwatch with the final boss yielding 5,000 and the other nearby units occasionally dropping EXP tokens. While I am optimistic to finish the main story in a way that I'm proud of before the end of the year, developing Frostslayer, Sparkwraith, etc has shown me that the time it takes to draft, test, and launch a whole series of new skills is beyond the scope with the remaining time we have left for development. By the way, if you haven't discovered Frostslayer yet, it's time to do the story in Snowdrift Village via the free DLC Eyes in the Frost. This launched on April 17, 2022. Frostslayer gives access to the unique Ice-Killer skill Hailstorm and by default has Ice-Killer added to Normal Attacks. [/p][p]Okay, let's talk about this update.
- The 5th and final Veil Trial with an accompanying achievement is now available.
- The final boss has multiple chances to drop Daylight Essences, a previously unobtainable by normal means item. Also, one of each Light Flask are on the table plus lesser and greater tomes of Holy weapon.
- Guaranteed with each kill is the new Zodiac Bow and Zodiac Quiver. The bow has 5 upgrade slots, 66 attack, +25% hit rate, +7% critical rate, +1% MP/TP regeneration, a 20% chance for additional actions, 2 additional Normal Attack hits, and +33% to the equipped character's overall Attack stat. If you have not yet found the character who uses bows and quivers, I'll just leave that secret for now. The quiver reduces the chance to be afflicted by Saboteur debuffs by 15%, as well as Soak/Burn/Bleed/Bleed1 by 15%, and WarpI-V by 5%. It has 3 upgrade slots and a huge spread of additional stats.
- After the final boss, there's a final prize chest that can be collected once per save file. This chest grants the legendary Recipe Book: Exceptional Skill Guides. With it in hand via the crafting menu, Ruby will be able to create:
-- Dispel Guide (Dispel removes all Augments, plus a 50% chance each to remove all Synergist buffs)
-- Crystallize Guide (Earth magic which can stun for 2 turns and diminish def & mdf. Damage increases by 33% for up to 10 mastery levels)
-- Arcstorm Guide (End of turn lingering arcane damage skill. Gains +250 damage per mastery level up to 10)
-- Electric Web Guide (Teaches all of Ruby's pets Sparkstrike, Lightningstrike, Bolt Cutter, and Spark. This item was planned to be helpful for the pets released alongside Horseman Hunter Pass, but the DLC may get scrapped. It will still function for the Warchest Imp and the tameable Bat.)
-- Guide to Basic, Moderate, & Advanced Fire, Ice, and Poison. (These will still drop from their relevant Veil Trial bosses)
-- Guide to Basic Ghost (Will still drop from relevant Veil Trial bosses)
-- Exquisite Gem (Can not be bought anywhere and doesn't drop from any enemies)
While most of these guides require elemental essences or Essence of Magick, the Exquisite Gem is the one I want to focus on for a moment. We will end the game development with this being the most powerful socketable gem in the game coming in with +5 to all stats. To synthesize, Ruby must use 3 Essence of Magick, 25 Essence of Life, 10k gold, and 1 Hunter Token. With access to Lvell and Auria no longer restricted in the Orc War aftermath, Hunter Tokens are available from the hunter lodge repeatable quests.
- This Veil Trial goes up to level 50 and awards Challenge Level 50. However, there are more than 50 enemies present in this location.
- Unless I end up with time enough to develop Shadowfrost Citadel before the new year, this Veil Trial will be the most difficult challenge in the game. I was able to knock out the level 120 Horseman without too many problems, but even his stats are dwarfed by Sagittarius due to the Character Sheet 2.0 update a few years ago. As a DLC, the Horseman at levels 50, 75, 100, and 120 were never updated/changed.[/p][p][/p][p]6.9.2.0 \[Build #199, Release Date: November 24, 2025]
New:
- A new trial is available is in the Veil! This final trial rewards the final Veil Trial achievement. It extends to level 50.[/p][p]Updates & Changes:
- Aries Gemstone now has its action times reduced to 25% from 100% and attack times reduced to 2 from 3. This change only affects newly acquired items. The previously held ones will function as originally designed.
- Electrogenic now requires level 50 Stormchaser.
- Sparkwraith now requires level 45 Electrogenic.[/p][p]Notes, Known Issues & Other:
- The Aries Gemstone is one of the first items in the game to be released and be immediately nerfed. From my own 50 hour save file, I can definitively say that having a guaranteed extra action on an Accessory is too strong, especially with pets being able to equip up to 8 accessories. [/p][p][/p][p]Final Notes[/p]

• [p]This update will be launched later today, not alongside this post. By tomorrow morning, it will be live.[/p]
• [p]Once the game increments to 7.0 with the release of the final main story campaign quests, active development mode will conclude leaving us in repair mode.[/p]
• [p]I am actively monitoring for all bugs across the entire game and will continue to fix them as they are brought to my attention. The best way to contact me is via discord. My name there is "Hardytier", same as here. You may also post the bug here on the Steam forum, but I am less likely to see these in a timely manner especially after development is concluded. [/p]
• [p]There won't be any new patch notes over the holiday weekend. You can tell if the game has received a patch by checking the final number from the main screen Info tab. 6.9.2.0 is the base version rolling out today, 6.9.2.1 will be a fix/patch, etc moving up one number on the final digit. [/p]
• [p]The next major version release will be 7.0. It will either contain full data for Horseman Hunter Pass, or whatever content is finished there will become free and public. I won't know until we get into next month to see how much time is left for development. I plan to have a point of no return coded into the Frost Forest area which will be where Ruby gets ported to after the end-game sequence is completed, allowing that 'post-game' file the ability to roam the world in its finalized Orc War state. Completing the end-game sequence will yield the game's final achievement. There are no achievements planned for the paid DLC Horseman Hunter Pass if it does release.[/p]