Interlude Patch: Duels & Demise

Today, we're releasing our first Interlude Patch: Duels & Demise! Check out our Roadmap for more!

We're fresh off launch and are continually surprised and energized by the feedback and reception of Vellum. The palpable joy in the reviews, streams, comments, and more have been incredibly heartening.

Feedback continues to fuel our process - sharing details about how your experiences in the game met/didn't meet your expectations will always be useful to us. Thank you!

Duels & Demise includes three core items: Foil, Death Recap, Pages & Balance

[h2]Foil: Mightier Than The Pen?[/h2]
Foil is a Generator Spell with up to three hits; summon an inky blade to slice twice, then lunge forward to damage many foes at once. Each swing restores some Barrier when hitting foes (but will not overflow).

[h2]Quality of Death Feature: Death Recap[/h2]

As the ever-evolving mission for more clarity and feedback in Vellum continues - we landed on the Death Recap as a useful addition.

You'll now be able to see the name, ability used, and damage dealt from the Torn who defeated you.

[h2]New Pages & Balance[/h2]
Overall, this Interlude Patch introduces 12 New Pages of Power: a selection of 5 Foil-specific and 7 Signature Ink-specific pages.

We won't spoil them here, but some of these new pages play into the balance changes we're making with this patch - specifically looking at defensive options and potency available for different Signature Inks. We're keeping an eye out for over-performers and adjusting/redistributing strength in specific areas.

We're still collecting data and feedback from the first few weeks of launch - so we're not making a huge number of balance changes in this patch, but a more surgical selection. The introduction of Foil as a brand new combat area will surely add some new pressure and unlock new combinatoric strengths, so we'll be spending keen attention on balance and feedback.

[h2]Full Interlude Patch Notes: Duels & Demise[/h2]
0.31.0
[h3]New Content & Balance[/h3]
- New Spell: Foil - A melee Generator Spell, summoning a sword to deal a three-hit combo
- New Quality of Life Feature: Death Recap - Will show the specific Torn who dealt a killing blow (along with ability and damage value)
- 5 New Pages of Power - Foil
- 7 New Pages of Power - 1+ per Signature Ink
- Page of Power: Wards Wards Wards can now only activate once per ability, now generating 20 Barrier (was 30). (Dev Note: We pulled power from this overperformer and have added another Page to the pool that still incentivizes Yellow's 'defense via offense' feel)
- Page of Power: Phoenix now hatches new Swoops much faster
- Page of Power: Spread the Word now also heals
- Page of Power: New Author now takes 45s to deal 1,000,000 damage (was 60s for 10,000)
- Blot damage now starts at a higher base value, but scales more predictably and linearly on the same target as stacks increase (Dev Note: This is a slight buff to the lower stack counts, and a nerf to higher stack counts)
- Signature Spells can no longer have cooldowns reduced lower than 4s
- Binding: Toxic now reduces Torn damage by 75% (was 90%). (Dev Note: Toxic should be an intriguing trade off of danger profiles, but shouldn't be as strong a boon as it is currently)
- Torn Page: Warped now has an internal cooldown
- Torn Page: Blood in the Air now has a lower difficulty rating
- Torn Page: 5 Second Rule now heals Bosses for 10% (was 15%), lasts 15s (was 20), and has an adjusted hitbox
- Tome: Quarry should no longer buff multiple Torn - there can only be one!
- Tangent Boss: Tserak will now be stunned when Scribes destroy all crystals

[h3]General & Fixes[/h3]
- Controller and Keyboard & Mouse switching improvements and fixes
- PlayStation Controller glyphs will now appear
- FPS is now uncapped when vsync is off
- Added Texture Quality setting
- Improved Resolution Setting options (1440p)
- Binding Selection UI now has some improved elements
- Binding Book (at the Obelisk) has additional info on Attunement
- Attunement is now actually capped at 20
- Yellow's passive has a new visual indicating progress toward the next Flourish
- Inklings' basic spell is now more visually striking
- Inklings should no longer multiply without permission
- Signature Spell: Blue projectiles can no longer be intercepted
- Scribes should now auto-revive if they are dead during inappropriate times
- Scribes should maintain the correct number of Rewrites when reconnecting
- The Ink Research button has some improved interactions
- Knockback effects will no longer interact poorly with slows on Scribes
- Raving: Lizard should know how to land after leaping (perhaps it was falling and missing the ground)
- Adjusted the visibility of some Torn effects (Rat, Zombie, Minor Tangent projectiles)
- Fixed duplicate Page of Power choices after some Font interactions
- Fixed specific bonus objective spawns in Snowy/Desert maps
- Improved performance when saving the game (e.g. Boss kill)
- Various UI fixes specifically related to Torn Page selection in multiplayer rooms
- Various UI navigation fixes