Cross of Auria News

Quick reminder: the Halloween event in the Colosseum is leaving on November 15th! If you have not completed the event in the Rift, you will not be able to enter it starting at some point after 9pm Eastern US time this Sunday, so plan accordingly. Keep in mind that players with save files inside the rift will be able to continue the adventure, but re-entry will not be possible.

Originally, I wanted to keep what I'm about to reveal a secret, but in the interest of driving your interest back to the game from time to time, I've decided to be transparent instead.

As the Halloween event leaves, 4.1.4.3 will come bringing a new face to Revan - Amaya, the Wind Warrior. Amaya is a glass cannon dual-wielding melee assaulter boasting the ability to wield two short swords or katanas at once. Graceful as the wind itself, she has been spotted in the Black Forest setting up Wind Weak debilitations on her opponents and finishing the job with brutal wind strikes. Unlike the main party who are base 1100 point characters, Amaya has an astounding 1300 point spread with 400 of those points being in ATK at level 99.

Side by Side comparison: (Level 1, 99 Values Shown)
Ruby (Warrior) Amaya (Wind-Warrior)
HP: 200, 2000 HP: 150, 3000
MP: 50, 200 MP: 38, 938
-------------------------------------------
ATK: 5, 200 ATK: 5, 400
DEF: 5, 200 DEF: 5, 100
MAT: 5, 200 MAT: 5, 125
MDF: 5, 200 MDF: 5, 125
AGI: 5, 200 AGI: 5, 250
LUK: 1, 100 LUK: 5, 300
Total Level 1: 26 Total Level 1: 30
Total Level 99: 1100 Total Level 99: 1300

Amaya's Other Attributes:
Hit Rate: 97%
Evasion Rate: 2%
Critical Rate: 6%
TP Regeneration: 5%/turn
TP Charge Rate: 125%
Experience Rate: 105%
State Resistance: TP Degeneration (25%)
State Immunity: Air Current, Wind Weak
Attack State: Air Current (5%)
Can Equip: Sword, Katana, Leather Armor, Mail Armor
Can Use: Skills, Magic
Has Equipped: Aethersoul (Katana, Wind, 2 Upgrade Slots)

Amaya can be found in the newly expanded Black Forest area starting after Orcs appear on the world map.

Keep in mind this patch won't go live until November 15th and changes may still be made, but these are the things that are finished as of this post. Before we get to that, just a quick note of what else is in progress:
- Opening the outskirts areas of other cities.
- Filling the Colosseum Basement with other challenges.
- Expanding Hunter Lodge questlines.
- World Map tile-based random encounters.
- Orc War main story: target release December 15th.
- Complete removal of previous State system (poison, burn, etc) and the permanent replacement of the new variable dot system. Currently, both exist together which leads to some enemies not being resistant to states they would logically be immune to.

4.1.4.3 [Build #94, Release Date: November 15, 2020] New:
- The Black Forest has been expanded.
- “The Black Forest” quest may now be completed after the secret is uncovered.
- The Hunter’s Journal now tracks the amount of completed repeatable tasks.
- The Rabbit’s Foot (second version) in Auria now has a method for exchanging sellable items for Hunter Tokens.

Fixes:
- Quest step for pass the guards to go upstairs now marks as complete appropriately. Previously, if this quest was progressed with Miles & Riley in the party, it would continue down a branch of code that led to this quest’s previous position in the log.
- Ewynn in Auria should now accept the Hephaes book at the appropriate time. In case it still does not work correctly, the debug has been left in for the time being until a comprehensive test can be completed.

Minor Changes:
- Saving is now disabled in the Colosseum Basement. This zone may see multiple expansions as time goes on and the best way to prevent broken save files is to outright prevent saving in a space which will be differently accessible later.
- The location of the Scorpio and Wretch portals have moved. The functionality remains the same.
- Minor change to the Colosseum Basement layout.
- HP now displays in segments of 1000 instead of 100. This is largely due to the addition of new higher-level enemies whose health bars cannot be seen at all when the gauge is set so low.
- Field Orc units on the world map have been moved to prevent forced interactions between Frost Forest and Agartha.
- Field units in Alpha Ruins have been moved further from the entrance.
- Additional field spawns have been added to Alpha ruins.
- Blazerblade now applies the variable burn instead of ascending turn burns.
- Damage value and prices for flasks have been decided and are as follows:
-- Tier I flasks deal 100 damage and sell for 33 gold.
-- Tier II flasks deal 250 damage and sell for 77 gold.
-- Tier III flasks deal 750 damage and sell for 100 gold.
-- Tier IV flasks deal 1500 damage and sell for 133 gold.
-- Tier V flasks deal 3000 damage and sell for 175 gold.
- Poison Flasks now apply the new character based variable poison. Damage scales based on user magic and luck.
- Fire Flasks now apply the new character based variable burn and no longer use the custom -20% ATK state. Damage scales based on user magic. The character based variable burn also reduces the affected user’s ATK value by 33%.
- Frost Flasks now have a 5% chance to apply Freeze.
- Water flasks now apply Soak. Soak has the following effects: Reduces evasion rate (3%), arcane, wind and electric resistances (30% each). Increases poison resistance (30%), and fire resistance (50%).
- Wind Flasks now apply Air Current (10%) and Wind-Weak (10%).
- Earth Flasks now reduce target defense by 20%.
- Shadow Flasks now have a 30% chance to cause Fear. Fear prevents actions from being taken, reduces evasion by 100% for up to 3 turns, and has a 100% chance of being removed by damage.
- Electric Flasks now have a 30% chance to cause Paralysis. Paralysis prevents actions from being taken, reduces evasion by 100% for up to 3 turns, and has a 50% chance of being removed by damage.
- Dark Flasks now apply a Max MP, Defense, Magic Defense, and Luck debuff for 3 turns.
- Light Flasks now apply a Max HP, Attack, Magic, and Agility debuff for 3 turns.

Changes which occurred between 4.1.4.2 and 4.1.4.3:
- (4.1.4.2B) Fixed a missing audio file issue in the Lighthouse.
- (4.1.4.2A) Added a fix for Ewynn where if you took the Rabbit’s Foot quest for Hephaes before finishing the original Grand Library exploration, Ewynn would not react to the party having the book. This quest should progress as normal now.

I originally planned to release the Headless Horseman ticket DLC which enables the level 50, 75, 100 & 120 fights on Nov 17th, but we're moving that up to right now! Or, you know, a few minutes from right now. Either way, it should be ready by the time you are reading this.

Short version - I plan to use my steam payouts between now and christmas for presents for my two kids. Covid sucks and is the ruiner of lives.

Anyway, I know a lot of people are going to be unhappy with so many small DLCs being released so close to one another, so I'd like to elaborate a tiny bit on the current plan.

- Make low level (relative to current available main story) extras free.
- Make higher level (effectively challenge content) extras paid DLC.
- There will of course continue to be free to play events that happen in the game, which the base price of the game absolutely covers. You will never be asked to pay more for main story content. That being said, there are plans to release longer side stories which add characters permanently to the team as paid DLC as well, the details of which are not completely ironed out yet.

You might be wondering what's going on in the Colosseum basement, and you are right to. This will be where many of the DLCs will be contained moving forward. Plans may change, but the current idea is the following:

- Top Row: Single event bosses in a small boss room.
- Top Row DLC: Expands boss to at least level 120.
- Middle Row: Small/medium sized story-less dungeons, similar to the main lobby of the Colosseum as it is right now. Each higher level of the dungeon adds an extra boss and/or wing of the dungeon. Includes up to level 50.
- Middle Row DLC: Expands the dungeons with level 75, 100, & 125 additions.
- Bottom Row: Single bosses in a small boss room. Includes up to level 50.
- Bottom Row DLC: Expands these bosses to at least level 100.

Every higher level challenge adds to the current loot pool and enhances the current loot pools drop chances.
For example;
Headless Lv 20 may have 5 separate 20% chances to drop Midnight Essences, but the level 50 version has 5 separate 40% chances to drop Midnight Essences in addition to several additional 10% chances.
Headless Lv 20 may have a 1% chance to drop a Challenger's Band. Level 50 Headless may have a 2% chance to drop a Challenger's Band and now has an additional 1% chance to drop the Challenger's Signet.
(Above item names used for demonstration purposes only.)

I think that's all we need to go over for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! I've been checking the notifications here daily just in case. I'm on the prowl for pesky bugs.

Anyway, good luck fighting Headless at the higher levels. Don't feel too defeated if you can't beat him yet - his rift in the Colosseum basement is permanent. Eventually both versions of the pit will extend to level 120, other characters and classes will be added, and the challenge won't feel so insurmountable. Even my team took a beating by the level 50, but we ended up with the win!

//hardytier

The redeemed quest added by Fuzzystingray is complete and now in game! Seek out the beginning in Hell's Gate. This quest is the first in a long time to be added to the game with Quest Log functionality - so if there are any bugs or crashes, please reach out ASAP.

Speaking of reaching out, the new Discord invite link is https://discord.gg/bMS9ktw. Please use the CoA section to report bugs.

If you want to add something in the game, have a look at https://www.streamloots.com/hardytier/collection/5f6cad28cd5571003489b0fe. We can talk more about this on Discord or when I'm living doing CoA dev work. Keep in mind that some of the cards are fragmented, meaning they require multiple copies to redeem. That being said, there are some conditions which would earn you free packs, the rest of which we will definitely discuss on Discord instead of here.

Anyway...

Following the example set by the release of the Horseman's rift in the Colosseum Basement, I have added an additional two bosses to this area with level 25 & 50 variants. The higher level version naturally has higher drop rates for items on the loot table, with a small handful of extra loot chances. Don't be turned away by their level - that's just what I use on the back end to determine stats. With the right setups and strategy, you may find yourself able to tackle the higher level fights!

Please note that all bosses in the Colosseum Basement require the completion of a Rift on the main Colosseum floor to respawn. So if you never complete the event rifts there, these bosses won't ever respawn.

Here's what you can expect on the loot table for the two battles added: Scorpio's Pupil (Lv. 25): Pit Coins, Weak Restorative Items, Water Flasks, Aqueous Essences, Essences of Life & Magick, Tome of Water Weapon, Challenger's Band & Ring.
Scorpio's Pupil (Lv. 50): Same as above, plus Challenger's Boots for all characters plus Buckler. Mid-tier Restorative Items, greater drop rates for Tomes, Essences, Flasks, and Pit Coins.

Eldritch Wretch (Lv. 25): Challenger's Cloak, Buckler, & Shield. Tier 1 & 2 Restorative Items, Midnight Essences, Pit Coins, Poison Flasks, Essences of Life & Magick, & conditional essence drops for other elements.
Eldritch Wretch (Lv. 50): Challenger's Helmets for all characters & greater drop rates for other items.

4.1.4.2 [Build #93, Release Date: October 29, 2020] New:
- A mysterious girl has appeared in Hell’s Gate with a challenge for the worthy.
- Two boss rifts have opened in the Colosseum Basement. Bosses in this area require a completion of one of the active main lobby rifts to respawn.

Changes:
- Elemental magic attacks now give 7 TP per tier 1, 10 per tier 2, and 12 per tier 3 skill. [This was released during the 4.1.4.1 emergency fix for Ruby’s starting location but went unnoted due to the nature of the patch.]
- Tome of Poison Weapon now applies V-PSN.
- Tome of Fire Weapon now applies V-Burn.
- Details added for Tome of Water Weapon.

The last update was accidentally launched without putting Ruby as invisible in the Pantheon (which is how the event functions as it does).

New games will now begin with the correct series of event.

The basement of the Colosseum is now fully functional with its first permanent resident - the Headless Horseman! Go downstairs to try your hand at the level 20 version of this battle.

Over the last few days, I extended the "paladin" enemy class stat sheet from level 20 up to 120 and then used that data to create a level 50, 75, 100, and 125 variant of the Headless Horseman. This will be available via DLC starting on November 17th, 2020! The fight runs pretty much the same but with super increased stats on his part. Each higher difficulty also increases the likelihood that certain Hallows themed weapons and accessories will drop. For full details, please see the Challenge of the Headless DLC store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1459600/Cross_of_Auria__Challenge_of_the_Headless/

Please note: The level 20 variant is a permanent addition to the game without the DLC. The DLC specifically adds the ability to change which difficulty of this boss to fight.

Short version of the patch notes: Completing any level of the An'ura Rift will reset the Headless Horseman's spawn in the basement in addition to its current function which is resetting all vents. Additionally, defeating the Horseman at any level will reset all vents. The only respawn method for the Horseman, regardless of DLC ownership, it to complete a rift in the main lobby of the Colosseum. This is likely to change in the future depending on feedback or the addition of other activities.


4.1.4.1 [Build #92, Release Date: October 27, 2020] New:
- Background data has been added for the Challenge of the Headless DLC. See the Cross of Auria Steam Store for more information!

Changes:
- The trigger to reset all vents and basement bosses has been added to the initial exit of the first rift inside the Colosseum.
- Defeating bosses in the Colosseum basement now triggers the reset of all vents.
- Defeating any level of the An’ura rifts in the Colosseum now triggers the reset of all vents and basement bosses.