Monster Crown News

Hey everyone!

As the second content update dropped last week, we're starting up the old Weekly Challenges again! First of all, congratulations to Ashes-One#2606 on Discord for winning the last breeding challenge with their monster: Smoke!



Congratulations! Onto this week's challenge.

Gene Lab Challenge #1
Make the most creative chromosome preset with the most creative name in the Gene Lab and let us know the story behind this preset! Post a screenshot of your saved chromosomes in the #monster-crown channel of the SOEDESCO Discord server (https://discord.gg/soedesco) and use #GeneLabChallenge1 by Monday October 5th 3PM CEST and win the Monster Crown player of the week title + this special Monster Crown care package of in-game items including a BRILLIANT LAZ! :O

- Monster reward: Brilliant Laz
- 3000 Gold
- 15 Normal Pacts
- 10 Aloe Leafs
- 10 Gualchops
- 15 Campfire Logs
- 3 Move Orbs (Enrich)
- 3 Move Orbs (Inferno)

For more info about Content Update #2, check out this post: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/830370/view/2810766522594118564

Entries are limited to 1 per user, please only post 1 screenshot. Winners will be picked in consultation between @devotedtoneurosis and SOEDESCO. Good luck everyone! If you have any questions, feel free to ask :D

Good luck everyone!

-Marten

Hey guys,

Usually updates launch on Friday or rarely, Saturday, at the end of the week, however, we're launching this one a day early, and it's not just a regular update, it's a content pack!



This content pack has three new great features that I think you're all gonna love!

Hi Temperature (Hot) Breeding!

Turning up the dial on the heat in the breeding lab, Embryos grow so rapidly and so energetically they leave the egg immediately, allowing you to check if they're Brilliant, their base stats, etc. This mode is for the real competitive breeders that do a lot of experimenting and want to see the results of their efforts immediately.

The trade-off? Getting that monster instantly is great, but if it gets hurt, it dies! For good! You'll have to level up your level 0 hatchling without letting it get hurt in order for it to grow to its true form.

Gene Lab

Waaayyyy over in Hewston, the far-right island on the map, is an advanced Gene Lab that lets you build your own custom chromosomes for breeding. While that part of the island isn't open yet, the eastern-most Hooper sister can sneak you in!

Once inside you'll find a series of machines that have special symbols on them. Depending on which switch is flipped, the monsters you breed will inherit different attributes from their parents. The true meaning of each symbol is a mystery, so feel free to experiment, or work with other players (or think really hard :) ) to uncover the exact formula for your perfect crossbreeds.

Once you save a custom Chromosome, they can be set in the breeding menu before doing any hatching. These chromosomes will work for normal breeding, hi temperature breeding, even net egg, so have fun with a whole new world of possibilities. I know this feature has been greatly anticipated by many of you!

Apo

Ah the elusive Apo!

As many of you know Apo are small, weak animals that reside in the Windy Province. They can be attacked by an evil fungus that kills the host and reanimates it as the unstable Laz. Apo is pretty weak and not really fit for battle, that's why it's a harmless monster you can't add to your team.

HOWEVER, rumor has it there is a location called the "Apo Plateau" where a unique item, "Apo's Light" can be obtained. This item can be used to remove the fungus and restore a Laz to its original state. Later in the game you'll be able to find an Antifungal that does the same thing, but this one specifically is a gift from a very powerful Apo! In the final game you'll only get one "Apo's Light", however, just for this weekend you can keep asking Apo for more of the item when you first meet it so you can make as many Apo as you want as celebration of the Apo love I see across our discord and twitter and steam forums! Next patch though it'll be down to one :)

It's a lot of work to turn Laz back into the quite weak Apo, but if you work this hard, who am I to stop you? Also, while Monster Crown monsters are quite fierce overall I think this amount of effort to get a cute monster should be rewarded, I think you're really gonna enjoy Apo's crossbreeds, and the future holds an upgrade for each. Unfortunately I can't share any more details just yet :D

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With the features out of the way, here are some additional notes:

EA v1.472
----------------------
+Pact success formula improved, an oversight caused lower than normal rates from reduced HP (in other words, HP has a bigger impact on pact success now)
+If the amount of EXP granted is less than 1 it becomes one, this solves the issue where it appeared you stop getting EXP at some point when defeating monsters much weaker or while using party exp.

With Content Pack #2 out in the wild work continues on Content Pack #3 which will be our largest expansion yet and will include many new areas and monsters to enjoy. It'll be a lot of work but I know it'll be worth it once I see you all let loose on more of Crown Island.

Thank you so much for playing Monster Crown!

Hello Crew,

Another week's work of patches while I work on wrapping up Content Pack#2

Making significant work on Content Pack #2 and #3 so expect more information on them real soon.

In the meantime this patch addresses some bugs, some prominent ones that are directly related to player feedback are: improvements to font rendering (easier to read and more clearly laid out in text boxes!), data-side improvements to play time and egg hatch time calculation, and types visible on the party screen.

Additionally, I know there are people out there still struggling with Brutus. I know there are large amounts of players coming from a mainly Pokemon background that face Brutus, see his level and difficulty in chipping away at his HP and decide the path forward is to grind as that is a strategy they've learned in the past.

I'm against nerfing him because those of you out there that make skilled use of infection, synergy disruption, your own synergy strategies, locating high magical attack monsters, etc. can make quick work of him.

So to compromise I'm adding a simple alternative strategy, the move orb Equalize (not presently learned by any monster naturally) is available for purchase at the Crossroads Shop. This move clears the field of all buffs and debuffs and provides an additional strategy for players. While the above strategies are all effective you have to start the battle with a strategy in mind, once Brutus has fully buffed himself you can be in a position where you can't win, Equalize offers a way you can still make it out alive if you don't realize what he's up to until it's too late. I consider it an easier "mode" to that and future synergy manipulation battles as there is a very tough one coming up in Content Pack #3. I think those of you that have already mastered these systems can safely ignore Equalize if you like a challenge, but feel free to find something that works for you - I'm all about options!

Also the Brutus Tamer now rewards you properly with $500, but this works right now if you return to him. I added a manual "refresh" of NPCs at the end of battles that made it all automatic but it caused an early game issue when I did a test playthrough this morning so I've backed out that change until I can get to the root of that one. Regardless if you haven't received your $500 and are post-Brutus you can safely return for your hard earned dough!

Have a great weekend!

EA v1.469
----------------------
+Pact no longer still offered after monster death
+Run speed tweaked
+Improvements to font display
+See types on the party/select screen
+Small polishing tweaks to Beth meeting cutscene
+Crossroads town shop now offers Equalize Move orb, a new orb that reduces all buffs/debuffs to offer another method to combat Brutus
+Playtime counter calculation adjusted
+slight reduction in Gualop HP
+Enemy defending now has proper battle message
+Rain timing improvements

#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for one week before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.

Hey guys!

Hope you had a radical week and are having an even radicall-er weekend so far.

Here's today's patch, the most prominent changes are fixes to the move learner, improvements to the rain transition/weather and of course skipping the storklift animations! Just jam accept/z to fast forward to the good stuff :)

I'm also really happy with our new loading screens, Ahab did a great job! I hope you enjoy them :)

Work on Content Pack #2 is going really well, we actually squeezed in something extra to spice it up a bit, expect more on that real soon.

EA v1.466
----------------------
+Player's shadow no longer lost after using storklift
+Added text box shadow backdrop
+Menu sound effect tweaks
+Improved wallet display at menu screen
+Menu graphical tweaks
+New Hareohearts sprite
+Adjusted Hareohearts palette
+Animation speed of wild monsters walking increased
+Can skip storklift animation for flight and box access
+Adjustment to how the move learner treats moveset/learnset data
+New loading screens by Captain Ahab
+Updated into-battle transition
+Improved rain transitions/timing

#Please note that we want to keep the primary EA build stable so new builds will be uploaded to the EA-BETA branch for one week before being moved to the main stream. Anyone can access this branch, just right-click Monster Crown in Steam, go to properties and select the EA-BETA branch to have the up to the minute, bleeding edge updates.

Hey all!

The week has begun, and so has another weekly challenge! We're at challenge #5 and you know what, we're doing another NET Egg challenge!

Thank you all for entering in last week's challenge in our Discord server! Last week's winner is... Hoshi no Lavenby#0239 with their monster 'Coil'.



Congratulations! Please check your DMs on Discord! Now on to this week's challenge ;)

Breeding Challenge #4
Breed the most unique and awesome monster using a NET Egg! Need a refresher on how to use NET Eggs? Check out this post: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/830370/view/2885073380242123874. Post a screenshot in the #monster-crown channel of the SOEDESCO Discord server (https://discord.gg/soedesco) and use #BreedingChallenge4 by Monday September 14th 3PM CEST and win the Monster Crown player of the week title + this special Monster Crown care package of in-game items!

- 3000 Gold
- 15 Normal Pacts
- 10 Aloe Leafs
- 10 Gualchops
- 15 Campfire Logs
- 3 Move Orbs (Enrich)
- 3 Move Orbs (Inferno)

Entries are limited to 1 per user, please only post 1 screenshot. Winners will be picked in consultation between @devotedtoneurosis and SOEDESCO. Good luck everyone! If you have any questions, feel free to ask :D

-Marten