I got a sizable update for you with 33 new passives to explore. A brand new engraving, large reworks and changes to Oak, Glutton, and Crit as a whole. And a whole bunch of extra tweaks to make your build making experience as interesting as possible!
BELL ENGRAVINGS
Let’s start with a bang, or should I say a ring? Let me introduce to you the brand new Bell Engraving
Moves engraved with The Bell will build a bell on top of the enemy, which rings every 3 times that enemy is hit, dealing its damage as an Engraving Hit.
ENGRAVING HITS
Now what is an Engraving Hit? Well, it refers to the yellow damage done by engravings like Royal, Oak, Tinkerer, Stone, and now Bell. Some of you might remember a few passives in the previous version of the game that did things off of “Non-Status Engraving Procs” This is the same thing. Renamed and expanded a lot.
And by expanded I mean that in the old Burning Branch there are two dominant ways to scale your build damage. Status Effects, and Move damage. The goal in this patch was to make Engraving Hits the third main category of damage scaling.
You might notice that a great deal of Engraving hit passives are characterized by chance. For example, a new passive “Clapper of the Bell” causes Engraving hits to have a 33% chance to deal 50% increased damage. This dovetails nicely into another way Engraving hits are scaled.
CRIT CHANGES
That’s right, In keeping with the chance based scaling of Engraving Hits, Engraving Hits are now able to Crit. Engraving Hits, and Moves will have different Crit Chances. And passives will specify if they scale one, the other, or both. While Crit Chance buffs will always scale both.
The Hunter Engraving will continue to only increase the Crit Chance of the Move it’s engraved on. However, the Hunter Engravings Crit Damage has been changed to affect the damage of all crits. This is both in an effort to help support our new Engraving Hit builds, but also to give pure Crit builds a more interesting build path. Now instead of leveling a hunter engraving for an admittedly underwhelming 8% crit chance, they can fill empty engraving slots for a stacking 50% Crit Damage.
A new stat is available on a couple of passives. Crit Likeliness. This is a multiplier to crit chance similar to the cooldown multiplier on the Plan Of The Tinkerer. One of these passives might be familiar.
The “Cloak of the Hunter” removes all crit damage in exchange for healing you for a (reduced) 1 health on Crit. Now it also makes crits 50% more likely, to make up for the reduced healing.
ENGRAVING CHANGING PASSIVES
What are Engraving Changing Passives? Well the Cloak of the Hunter is definitely one. I define it as a passive that can only really scale with a single engraving, but completely changes how you end up playing with it.
An Important thing for me in this patch is to make sure every single Constellation in the game has one of these. Here are a few just for a taste.
Rumbling of the Stone:
The Stone Engraving proc has a 50% chance to activate even if four seconds have not passed.
Decree of the Royal:
Royal engraving pulses 50% faster for each unique status effect present when it was applied.
Greed of the Glutton:
Replacing a Glutton mark instead consumes it, dealing 5 damage as an Engraving Hit. Gives a 5% crit chance buff after anything is Consumed.
GLUTTON CHANGES:
Glutton is a hard Constellation to use. You need both a consistent source of consumes, and a relevant on consume effect to actually scale your build with. Not to mention that Consuming the wrong thing might completely ruin your build. It’s really important to me to keep this Constellation’s fragile early game in line with how explosive it can be.
That being said, you should now be able to get “something” out of glutton passives now without breaking the bank rerolling for the perfect one. Every single Glutton passive now contains both a Consume source, and a Consume effect. Even pre existing passives. For example;
Spawn of the Glutton now gives 8% status damage buff after anything is consumed. On top of giving you extra Consumes whenever you electrocute.
Also the Glutton Engraving’s damage bonus is being increased vastly from 40% to 60% (Since this is purely a support. Engraving something with Glutton always needs to be judged against the 25% damage boost leveling Engravings have. On top of the extra inconvenience of having to hit with a different move. These numbers should help that trade be more worthwhile)
OAK REWORK:
Speaking of underutilized engravings, the Oak Engraving has received a rework. The way Oak worked in the past, it really wouldn’t have received the same kind of life the Royal Engraving does from the new Engraving hit scaling.
Oak no longer deals a small amount of damage on hit. (Which admittedly was just a bandaid I put on it when I saw how underpowered it was) That effect being worked into Bell instead. Now, each time the Oak Engraving is hit, it gains 15% damage towards its final explosion, up to a max of 300% increased damage.
Oak was in a weird place. The way I see it, Burning Branch has two main build archetypes most but not all builds fall into. The Big Hit, and the On Hit. Oak was technically supposed to be a Big Hit type of Engraving, but there was no way to scale its damage, unlike the more successful Tinkerer Engraving. Now Oak is both archetypes. It takes a long while to set up, shortened by how fast you can On Hit. Then explodes for some of the highest single damage hits in the game.
It’s worth noting that the “being hit” part of both the Bell and Oak Engravings refers to both Move Hits and Engravings Hits, making them scale well with things like the Royal Engraving, or any source of extra Engraving Hits.
“being hit”, however, does not refer to Consuming health. A sorta new mechanic that does not hit (and therefore can’t crit either)
I know what some of you might be thinking. Consuming Health, Engraving Hits, Moves, Status Effects, Crits, and so much more. These are a lot of keywords to both figure out, and keep in your head. Well, let me proudly introduce you to the second part of this patch.
But before we completely jump into the Atlas. I need to say there were just too many build changes to talk about in this section, but a full list of changes will be at the bottom of this post. Including new healing and health scaling. And weapon upgrade changes (Including a replacement).
THE ATLAS
It can be hard to learn every single term a game throws at you. That’s why this latest patch includes an in-game Atlas which lets you instantly look up the Passives, Engravings, and Weapons Upgrades you find on your run. As well as the linked descriptions of every keyword they might be using.
The core of the atlas is the Current tab. Which auto generates with links to every current Passive, Weapon Upgrade, and Engraving you have mid run. No fumbling through menus in order to find out more details about a Passive you just picked up.
After clicking one of these links, you’ll be brought to its description page, and you might notice that included is a list of keywords that are relevant to that specific upgrade. These keywords link to the keyword definition pages, which contain definitions for things like; Move, Crit, Status Effects, Engraving Hits, and so much more!
Finally, the Atlas contains descriptions for some of the additional systems in Burning Branch. To help clear up any confusion around things like the Contract, the Keepsakes, and any new system that might be added in the future.
Now as promised, I will go over the full list of changes. Though if you’re curious about what the next update will be like. Scroll down to the very bottom of this post. Spoiler, it’s even bigger than this update!
Full Change List
Weapon Changes
-Flowing rush will now do the stun of a normal uncharged charge attack, and its wording has been adjusted to better clue players onto its unique scaling vector. (Flowing Rush was one of the best upgrades the moment you get it, Then it’s unique scaling vector lets you make some of the best builds in the game. I wanted to bring down its early game, while keeping its late game potential intac.t)
-Eruptive Rush dash followups now hit twice. (Eruptive rush acted a lot like Flowing rush when you got it. But fell behind due to not scaling well. The multi hit allows you to scale on hit builds with charge, a previously missing build type.)
-Ghost Blade (Replacing Lethal Tempo) Basic Attacks deal 35% of damage as an additional Engraving hit. (Lethal Tempo’s 15% attack speed was good, but ended up serving the same ‘on hit’ function Sanguine Wave’s projectile did. Now we have a move damage multiplier that also feeds into the new Engraving Hits system.
Engravings
-Bell (New Engraving) builds a Bell on the target, which rings dealing 8 damage every three times it is hit. This damage is an Engraving hit. Cannot be replaced or stacked.
-Oak (Rework) places a Ward that explodes for 30 damage after being hit by a Basic, Skill, and Charge Attack. The Ward gains 15% damage when hit, up to 300% damage. This is an Engraving hit. Ward cannot be replaced, or stacked.
Existing Passive Changes
Healing
A few ‘on heal’ passives have been added, and to synergize with this, heal passives either heal less health and proc more often. Or heal more health if they aren’t suited for ‘on heal’ builds.
- Acorn of the Oak heals for 5 health on stun. (from 4)
-Goblet of the royal heals for 8 health after winning. (from 5)
-Keepsake Locket heal after combat is being increased to 4/8/12 healing. (from 3/6/9)
-Cloak of the Hunter now only heals for 1 (from 2), but also make crits 50% more likely.
-Skin of the Glutton heals for 3 health every 3 consumes (from 5 heal every 10 consumes), and Consumes 2 of your health every time you heal.
Crit Changes
Brought down crit chance across the board to accommodate new build paths, and it’s increased versatility.
-Hunter Engraving’s 50% crit damage multiplier is now global.
-Bow of the Hunter only increases move crit chance by 13%. (from 15%)
-Quiver of the Hunter gives a 7% (from 10%) crit chance buff on Combo enders.
-Arrow of the Hunter is the same, but its 30% crit chance only affects moves, while it -30% crit damage is global.
-Trap of the Hunter increases all crit, and procs off Engraving Hits for 3% crit chance. (from 5%)
-Cloak of the Hunter now only heals for 1, but also makes crits 50% more likely.
-Knife of the Hunter deals 2 poison (from 3 poison) on crit.
Glutton changes
A consumer and on consume effect is now present on every Glutton passive.
-Spawn of the Glutton now increases status damage by 8% on consume, on top of making electrocute consume 3 times.
-Skin of the Glutton now Consumes 2 of your health every time you heal. On top of healing for 3 every 3 consumes.
-Meal of the Glutton gives a 8% skill damage buff on consume, on top of letting you bypass skill cooldowns.
-Tongue of the Glutton gives a 8% Increased Stun buff on consume, it now takes 300 stun (from 200) to trigger its +25 base damage effect.
-Maw of the Glutton move damage buff value is changed to 8%. (from 10%)
-Belly damage reduction buff value is increased to 8%. (from 5%)
-Glutton curse damage scaling has increased vastly from 40% to 60%.
Engraving Hit Changes
-Death of the Royal, now has a 33% chance on Engraving hit to apply 2 poison. (From 10% chance to apply 10 poison)
-Bark of the Oak now has a 33% chance to deal 5 damage as an engraving hit (From 10% chance to deal 35 damage). Bark of the Oak cannot trigger itself.
New Passives:
-Yoke of the Bell: Engraving hits have a 13% chance to crit.
-Spark of the Tinkerer: Skill cooldown is 50% longer, but deals 80% increased damage.
-Fat of the Salamander: Gain 10% damage to All Moves for every 10 max health you have past 100.
-Sight of the Hunter: All hits have a 10% chance to crit.
-Meal of the Royal: Gain +1 damage on All Moves for every 10 max health you have past 100.
-Crown of the Bell: Combo enders deal an additional 3 damage as an Engraving hit.
-Torch of the Tinkerer: Skills deal extra damage based on the length of their cooldown on hit. 1 damage per second of cooldown as an additional Engraving hit.
-Decree of the Royal: Royal engraving pulses 50% faster for each unique status effect present when it was applied.
-Smoke of the Salamander: When Replacing a burn, Instead Consume it, dealing damage equal to 100% burn value as an engraving hit, Burning no longer deals damage.
-Spikes of the Hunter: Crits don’t deal extra damage, crits are 50% more likely. Crits consume 7 health from the enemy.
-Inspiration of the Tinkerer: While the Tinkerer clock is above, enemies take 1% more damage for every point of damage stored in the clock.
-Rumbling of the Stone: The Stone Engraving proc has a 50% chance to activate even if four seconds have not passed.
-Greed of the Glutton: Replacing a Glutton mark instead consumes it, dealing 5 damage as an engraving hit. gives a 5% crit chance buff on consume.
-Teeth of the Eel: Deal +1 damage on All Moves for every 2 shocks on a target.
-Eyes of the Oak: Each lit eye on the Oak Mask increases all crit chance by 14%.
-Bomb of the Hunter: Crits burn for 20% of hit damage per second.
-Reach of the Stone: Attacks charged for a second count as a basic, charge, and skill attack.
-Egg of the Eel: Heal 1 health after electrocuting.
-Venom of the Viper: Poison lasts 10 seconds and causes enemies to take 2% more damage per stack. Poison no longer deals any damage itself.
-Prey of the Viper: Heal for 5% of your max health at the start of combat.
-Ring of the Bell: Healing gives a 15% engraving damage buff.
-Spark of the Eel: Healing gives you a +1 Shock on Moves Buff.
-Sapling of the Oak: Healing gives a +1 Move Damage buff.
-Spring of the Bell: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to give a 7% crit chance buff.
-Lip of the Bell: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to give a 10% status damage buff.
-Clapper of the Bell: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to deal 50% more damage.
-Cord of the Bell: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to give a 10% engraving damage buff.
-Ball of the Bell: Instead of flat damage, bell ringing damage is equal to 66% of planting hit damage.
-Song of the Bell: Bell ringing applies 1 shock.
-Fruit of the Oak: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to heal 1 health.
-Tail of the Stone: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to give a +2 damage reduction buff.
-Stomach of the Glutton: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to consume 5 health from the enemy, Gain a 8% Engraving damage buff on Consume.
-Shine of the Eel: Engraving hits have a 33% chance to apply 1 shock.
Misc changes
Mosquitoes wing beat is less active, making it easier to invincible roll.
Fixed the pause menu always displaying ”PACT STRENGTH 5:” instead of your actual pact strength.
Fixed an issue updating save files to newer versions. Thankfully nobody on Steam had to experience this since there’s only ever been one save version on Steam.
Added a buff indicator for when you used your death protection. (Being left at one HP after what would be a fatal hit)
What’s Next
With two nice content updates under my belt, I feel that the game is in a pretty good state for its point in Early Access. So next I’ll be hunkering down and working on the first major update to Burning Branch, the addition of Act 2. This will mainly consist of a new area after the Burning Bridge complete with its own boss fights and act boss. But also include more story and character interactions, as well as a brand new system for you to spend your hard earned coins on. I don’t have a guess as to exactly when I think this act will be finished. But I’m positive it’ll take more than a month. So you’ll be able to hear from me in a month with an Act 2 Dev Log where I’ll be able to say much more.
Thanks as always for reading and playing!
