Monster Sanctuary News

Announcement: Monster Sanctuary Free DLC & a new Community Monster Contest!

Hello, Monster Keepers!

Today, we have several exciting announcements to share with everyone.

Monster Sanctuary Free DLC coming 2022

We are very happy to announce that a free DLC for Monster Sanctuary is in the works! It will add a new area to the game, as well as new Monsters and more. Be the first Monster Keeper in history to uncover the Forgotten World and its secrets! Catch a variety of ancient Monsters that were long thought to be extinct.

The free Forgotten World DLC is coming to all platforms in 2022, between Q2 and Q3.

Public Community Monster Contest

We are starting a new Community Monster Contest today! We were so happy with how the previous Monsters Contests went, that we decided it only made sense to launch a sixth contest for our free DLC (for a list of all previous Community Contest winners, check out this older post on our Kickstarter page: Community Contest Winners).

This contest will be open to all of our fans! So anyone can submit their Monster designs as well as vote on them. The contest will be held on our Discord server, just as the previous contests - so you will have to join our server if you'd like to participate.

Once you've joined, please check out the #contest-rules channel! Everything you need to know about the rules of the contest is written there, like how your Monster submission should look like. The submission period is open from today until Monday, October 4th at 9:00am PDT. You are also able to register as a voter during this time, so please don't forget to do that as well.

As with the previous contests, there will be three winners. Two of them will be the two Monsters with the most votes. The third winner will be directly selected by us, the developers of the game.

The winning Monsters will be part of the free Forgotten World DLC. Depending on the individual designs, they will be either added to the new area, or they will be added to older, existing areas of the game. This means that we encourage you to make your design fitting to the "Forgotten World" area (looking ancient, prehistoric or otherwise fitting for this area) - but it is not a requirement of the contest! We will expect there to be a good mix of both regular designs as well as designs that follow the theme of the new area.

This is your chance to create something and make it a part of Monster Sanctuary! We can't wait to see all the amazing Monster designs!

Monster Sanctuary Update 1.3

We'd also like to announce that the next update for Monster Sanctuary (update 1.3) is in the works as well. This will be a smaller update, focussing mainly on bug fixes and balancing changes, while we are working on the Forgotten World DLC. It will also start a new PvP season. Expect this update to come out on all platforms later this year.

PvP Tournament

We'd also like to let you know that the next community-organized PvP tournament is in the sign-up phase right now as well (until September 12th). You can find out more about it and register for it on their Discord server:

Monster Sanctuary Tournament Circuit

Sersch, the creator of moi rai, will be participating in this tournament as well! Join for a chance to face off against the person who created Monster Sanctuary.

Monster Sanctuary Hotfix!

Hey Monster Keepers!

We have just gone live with a new hotfix (1.2.1) addressing some of the bugs that you guys have reported! Here are the notes on what we tackled!

Patch Notes:

The game freezes when skipping through the last end credits screen quickly
The game freezes when a player has the Buff Info menu open in PvP while their opponent disconnects
Combining Poison Eater skill with Power Healing passive for the spectral toad, makes the skill not selectable in combat
When switching the active monsters in Combat with L/R while having the confirm popup open if you want to retreat from Combat using a Smoke Bomb would leave the popup open while also setting the Combat Menu active for the switched monster.
'Energize' and 'Shock Charging' auras now no longer work if the Monster having the Aura is dead.
It was possible to stack multiple 'Shock Charging' auras despite it being marked as 'Unique Aura'

If you encounter any more issues and bugs please be sure to report them to us here!

Sadly, given the longer update turnover times on consoles, we're not quite able to release this hotfix patch as easily there. We will bundle the bugfixes with the next bigger update (1.3) on those platforms.

To stay up to date on Monster Sanctuary follow us on our social pages below!

Follow Moi Rai Games on Twitter
Like Monster Sanctuary on Facebook
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The Legendary Keeper Update is out for monster taming metroidvania Monster Sanctuary

Monster Sanctuary from Moi Rai Games and Team17 grows again, with the 1.2 Legendary Keeper Update out now.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/08/the-legendary-keeper-update-is-out-for-monster-taming-metroidvania-monster-sanctuary

Monster Sanctuary - Legendary Keeper Update (1.2)

Dear Monster Keepers,

Today we're launching the second major post-launch update for Monster Sanctuary! It's releasing today on all platforms - PC and consoles. We're calling this one the "Legendary Keeper Update", but it also includes player costumes, a couple of different speedrun features, and more! Check out the trailer here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Legendary Keeper Challenge

We added a new end-game / post-game challenge to the game! Deep within the Magma Chamber, you will find the hall of Legendary Keepers. Each statue is dedicated to one of our most generous Kickstarter backers, who helped make the production of Monster Sanctuary possible.

We asked each of those backers if they could contribute to our Legendary Keeper challenge with a team of Monsters of their own choosing. This resulted in a series of fourteen unique Keeper fights, which are some of the most challenging fights in the game! Each fight will reward you with some high-tier goodies once you've beaten it. Those who manage to beat every single fight will be awarded with a new unique accessory for their Monsters to equip!

Player Costumes

The big, flashy new feature of this update: player customization! You may now find different costumes on your travels through the Sanctuary. Six new costumes have been added to the game with this update, and we will add more with future updates. Also, there are now different color palettes for all of the player costumes, including the default player costume.

Some of the costumes can be found in new treasure chests that have been added to different areas of the game, while others are awarded for epic accomplishments in the game - like the "Keeper Master" outfit that is only granted to those who defeat all of the Champion Monsters in the game.

Once you've unlocked a costume, it carries over to NewGame+. You can change your costume in a new room inside the Keepers' Stronghold. There's also the option to change your character's gender and name there.

Speedrun Features

We also added a combination of different features to the game that should add quite some quality of life for those who'd like to speedrun Monster Sanctuary. Many thanks to those in our speedrunning community who helped us with their feedback, like Dixnine, PurpleThiccmin, vstevenv22, Odyssey18, ShneekeyTheLost, and KungFuSandshrew among others!

We added a timer that can be turned on as you start a new game. The timer keeps running while you're in game menus. The timer pauses during loading screens. The timer stops once you reduce the final boss's health points to 0 (but the timer will still run after the credits, in case you wish to continue your speedrun afterwards).
We added cutscene skipping to all larger cutscenes and NPC interactions in the game.
We added a new 3x combat speed option for even faster combat animations.

The current record (pre-update) for any% is held by DixNine at around 2 hours and 6 minutes. We are excited to see everyone's attempts to break the game in record time!

Direct PvP Challenges

With update 1.2, you will also be able to directly challenge your friends to a PvP match. It's very simple to use: One player has to "host" the game, which will give them a four-digit code. The other player joins their match by using this four-digit code. Private matches also allow you to adjust two PvP settings: who goes first and whether duplicate Monsters are allowed or not.

Please take note that PvP still only works if both players are playing on the same platform. Also, we unfortunately had to disable the PvP direct challenge feature on Xbox because of technical limitations.

Other changes

The Legendary Keeper Update (also called Update 1.2) also includes several highly requested changes that should increase the game's quality of life:

You can now automatically sort Monsters and your inventory based on different criteria.
The buff overview screen in combat is greatly improved, allowing you to see all the different active buff and debuff stacks at once.
Whether you’re new to the game or just need some additional guidance on your journey, when talking to your Spectral Familiar, they can now help you with some useful, general gameplay tips to get accustomed to the game’s mechanics.
For those up for more challenging encounters while backtracking old areas, there is now an NPC at the Monster Farm that lets you increase the minimum level for all wild Monsters depending on your Keeper Rank. This setting can be turned on and off.
The Health Bar now previews shield amounts for shielding actions. Also, we were able to finally fix the bug with the red bar not disappearing properly.
We start a new season for the PvP Leaderboards (Season 3).
Even on Casual mode, some of the Keeper battles were still too tough for some of our players. With this update, we specifically decreased the difficulty of Keeper battles on Casual mode by lowering all of the enemy Keeper Monsters' attributes.

Hardcover Monster Journals

As a small sidenote, we wanted to inform you that we printed a new batch of hardcover Monster Journals - which are available on our page:
https://monster-sanctuary.com

These new Monster Journals are the "second edition" print - meaning that the skill trees inside are based on the current skill trees from the new Legendary Keeper update.

Balancing Changes

Monster skill tree changes:

Qilin: Gains 'Charged Anomaly', 'Shock Charging', 'Buff Charging', 'Charged Healing', 'Attack Plus', 'Mana Plus' and 'Initial Shock', Loses 'Blessed Strikes', 'Dragon skin' and 'Armor Shred'
Magmamoth: Gains 'Charged Destruction'. Some passives on its left most skill tree got rearanged.
Goblin Pilot: Gains 'Charged Hazard', loses 'Armor Shred'
Glowfly: Gains 'Charged Hazard', 'Multishock' is now available at level 10+
Glowdra: Loses one instance of 'Mana Proc'
Skorch: Gains 'Charged Destruction'
Crackle Knight: Gains 'Multi Shock', Loses 'Wind Affinity'
Goblin Miner: Gains 'Charged Banner', 'Charge Amplifier', 'Load Up' and an additional 'Mana Plus' node, loses 'Buff Charging'
Salahammer: Gains 'Charged Banner'
Koi: Gains 'Critical Healing' and 'Charged Reflexes'
Vaero: Gains 'Charged Reflexes'
Sycophantom: Gains 'Charged Chant', 'Load Up' and 'Healing Shield', loses 'Magic Powered Shield' and one 'Magic Plus' node
Blade Widow: Gains +1 Base Defense, both shifts gain +1 Base Attack
Beetloid: Light shift got -1 Base Defense
Targoat: Gains 'Load Up'
Dracozul: Gains 'Shared Barrier', loses one 'Health Plus' node
Darnation: Gains 'Antitoxins'
Aurumtail: 'Glimmer' was moved up in the skill tree
Kame: Gains +2 Base Attack, 'Multi Might', 'Charged Reflexes', 'Load Up', loses -1 Base Health, 'Meditate', one 'Attack Plus' and one 'Static'

Skill changes:

Meditation now grants 6 Charge stacks (instead of 5)
Charging Sphere now grants 3 Charge stacks on highest upgrade level (instead of 2)
'Backstab' damage bonus increased to 25% (from 20%)
All mass shielding actions got their shield amounts increased
'Force of Nature', 'Carnage' and 'Polar Winds' heal amount increased
'Power Focus' now grants a damage multiplier based on how many monsters acted the turn, meaning to get the most out of it you'll need the monster now to use it last in turn.
'Solar Blaze' mana cost increased to 250 (from 240)
'Solar Burst' level 3 mana cost increased to 230 (from 220)
'Gale' level 3 mana cost increased to 230 (from 220)
'Critical Socery' crit chance reduced to 5% (from 6%)
'Enlighten' trigger chance got reduced to 55% (from 60%)
'Martial Prowess' chance got reduced to 70% (from 75%)
'Channeling Balance' damage multipier + damage reduction value reduced to 6% (from 7.5%)
'Extra Channel' chance reduced to 12% (from 15%)
'Shield Burst' now expends 90% of the whole shield but the damage is lower (200% for Shield Burst level 2)
'Healing Wave' level 3 base heal amount reduced to 200 (from 225)
'Life Wave' heal amount increased for all levels
'Avalanche' crit damage bonus increased for level 2 + 3
'Dragon Mastery', 'Steam Punk', 'Tranquility' and 'Phoenix Heritage' applied debuffs now trigger proliferate, Flash Freeze and similar passives
'Holy Presence' now also triggers on healing and shielding actions
'Intelligent Swarm' now has 100% chance to apply a charge stack again (instead of 75%)
'Thorn Tendril' increases critical damage now (instead of critical chance) and the bleed damage is based on critical damage now (500% at highest upgrade level)
'Abyssal Sword' Buff/Debuff apply chance increased (60% at highest upgrade level)
'Center of Mass' damage increased to 30% (from 25%)
'Electric Field', 'Icy Skin', 'Poison Glands' + 'Spiky Defense' now have 50% chance to trigger (instead of 40%)
'Spark' now has 50% chance to trigger on highest upgrade level (instead of 40%)

Additional Quality of Life changes

A new setting in the options menu: you can switch to the older Snowy Peaks and Keepers' Stronghold themes
Performance improvements (which should especially help the performance on the consoles) - the issue of a memory leak due to the player jumping was fixed
When the player is buying items, the quantity of already owned items of that type are displayed now
The player now gets warned when they are about to donate a Champion Monster
Ancestral Medal can now be found in Level 5 Reward Boxes, replacing Omni Ring; Omni Ring has been moved to Level 4 Reward Boxes, where it replaces +5 Belt

Here are the winners of our fanart contest

We want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in our contest! After long discussions and voting sessions, here are the winners. Congratulations!

GhoKoji's entry on Twitter about the story of the first Catzerker

Schiraki and her Manticorb Tiger - submitted on Instagram

Straussdraws atmospheric image of the Spectral Wolf - submitted on Twitter

Believe us, it was extremely hard to decide for only three winners since all of them deserved to win! This is why, we decided for a surprise 4th winner ;)

The namelessmonsterkeeper cross-stitched the goodest boy Spectral Wolf and will receive a nice Monster Sanctuary sticker set sponsored by our plushie-genius Chrissi!

This concludes our fanart contest! We hope you had as much fun as we did and even if you didn't win you can contact Chrissi for handmade customized plushies here on Twitter, Reddit or Instagram.