Version 0.54 - New Co-op Map, Core Balance Changes

A new month, a new version! Included in this patch is a new Co-op Map, numerous Balance Changes, new Achievements, new Cosmetics, and a bunch more Fixes & Improvements!

Features

• New Co-op Map added: Atlantis! Visuals are prototype for now.
• 16 New Achievements added!
  • 3 based on Eliminations in FFA
  • 4 based on being the first one to clear the wave in FFA
  • 2 based on clearing Co-op Mode
  • 4 based on clearing Atlantis on a particular difficulty
  • 3 based on getting a high score in Atlantis

• 7 New Cosmetics added!
  • New Builder: Fire Spirit
  • New Builder: Lich
  • New Hat: Stack of Hats
  • New Hat: Stack of Sandwiches
  • New Trail: Spiral
  • New Wings: Energy Shield
  • New Wings: Jetpack

• Added a Join Discord button on the Main Menu.
  

Improvements

• Replays now log all errors that occur in a match.
• More server stability improvements, you should see less Synchronizes.
• Minor visual tweaks on creeps.
• Minor optimizations applied.
• Sounds added for Ping, Player Eliminated, and Player Disconnected.
• Cleaned up some of the tooltips, as well as fixed consistency.
• You can no longer pause the game while it's synchronizing.
• The in-game menu will now close itself when someone unpauses.
• 90% Sell Values in Pick are now accurate.
• Bounty gold pop-up now lists "+X Gold" instead of just "+X".
• Interest gold pop-up now lists "+X Interest" instead of just "+X".
• Pressing F9 to hide the UI will now also hide player nametags.
• Leaderboard Duration is now based on the "Time Cleared" up through Wave 55, instead of the full length of the game.
• Several level requirements for various Cosmetics have been shuffled around.
• Duel Mode settings have been trimmed a bit:
  • Difficulty is now locked into Very Hard.
  • Same Random removed, all it did was remove the counterplay.
  • Extreme removed, which replaced the counterplay entirely in favor of pure survival.

Bug Fixes

• Yet even more attempts at fixing desync shenanigans.
• Fixed an interaction error between Trickery and Fire, Earth, Ethereal, & Wisp Towers, such that the clone wouldn't include self-buff benefits as a result of the tower's own effect.
• Fixed a bug where, if the game's host left the lobby, anyone else had the ability to kick other players.
• Fixed a bug where too many entries in the chat log could scramble all the text on-screen.
• Fixed a bug where clearing Grand City on Normal wouldn't display the next difficulty Achievement.
• Fixed "Victory!" and "Game Over" labels getting switched.
• Fixed "You have won the game!" pop-up showing in Teams & Co-op.
• Fixed nametags showing up in the Builder Preview.
• Fixed Pings only showing up for Player 1.
• Fixed Pings not showing up on Winter.
• Fixed rounding errors between top-right HUD and Scoreboard.
• Fixed path indicators not turning properly when going diagonal.
• Co-op: Fixed a bug where Ethereal Towers wouldn't go up in damage if you weren't Player 1.
• Co-op: Fixed healthbars being grey for everyone except Player 1.

General Balance

• Interest Upgrades replaced with Income Upgrades:
  • At the end of each wave, you gain extra gold equal to 15% of the Wave Bounty.
  • Just like before, you can get a maximum of 2 Income Upgrades.
  • To be clear, this does not replace Interest, just the Interest Upgrades.

• Essence Upgrade now requires you kill an Essence Boss before receiving the upgrade.
  • And when you do kill it, you gain 2 Essences instead of 1.

• Interest now stops when you clear Wave 55, not when Wave 56 starts.
  
• You now gain Bounty from kills during the Boss Waves.
  • The above Income Upgrade also works off this.
  • The total amount of gold you get each wave is equal to Wave 55, and it does not increase.

• Perfection Bonus Score Multiplier increased from x1.1 to x1.2
  
• Creeps:
  • Cursed creeps now remove Well & Blacksmith Buffs from affected towers and instantly kill Trickery Clones.
  • Cursed debuff AoE reduced from 350 to 250 (instead of a 5x5 area, it only affects a 3x3 area now)
  • Bulky HP multiplier increased from x2 to x2.25
  • Undead now removes all debuffs upon its first death, meaning Napalm will no longer trigger twice for it.

• Modes:
  • In Random, the earliest a Level 2 Boss can spawn has been moved from Wave 10 to Wave 15.
  • In Random, you can now get x2 Income Upgrades on all difficulties (previously, it was restricted to Very Hard & Insane only).
  • 2 Path increased wave time reduced from +4 to +3 Seconds
  • Extreme increased wave time increased from +0 to +3 Seconds
  • Teams Mode HP Multiplier reduced from x1.7 to x1.6
  • Teams Mode Team-only HP Scaling reduced from 17% to 16.5%
  • Co-op Mode Base Speed Score Multiplier increased from 5.5 to 6.5

Tower Balance

• Arrow & Cannon now sell for 74 Gold instead of 75 Gold
  • This only affects Pick. In Random, all towers still sell for 100% Gold.

• Tower Costs adjusted:
  • Tier 2 Single cost reduced from 750 to 725
  • Tier 3 Single cost reduced from 3000 to 2700
  • Tier 2 Dual cost increased from 1250 to 1300
  • Tier 3 Dual cost increased from 3150 to 3300

• Geyser ability changed:
  • Old: For each creep in the attack's AoE, deal additional damage.
  • New: On every 5th attack, do a 300 AoE attack that launches creeps hit up into the air (this is purely visual, it's not a stun).
  • Damage increased from 300 / 1200 / 4800 to 1300 / 5200 / 20800
  • Attack Speed reduced from 1 to 0.66
  • AoE reduced from 200 to 0

• Solar damage increased from 100 / 400 / 1600 to 105 / 420 / 1680
  • Damage-per-second increased from 100 / 400 / 1600 to 105 / 420 / 1680

• Mushroom damage reduced from 85 / 340 / 1360 to 80 / 320 / 1280
  
• Vapor damage reduced from 180 / 720 / 2880 to 175 / 700 / 2800
  
• Trickery clone damage reduced from 65% / 130% / 400% to 60% / 120% / 360%
  
• Quake AoE reduced from 100 to 0
  • Damage reduced from 1500 / 6000 to 1400 / 5600
  • Shockwave damage reduced from 3000 / 12000 to 2800 / 11200

• Flamethrower damage increased from 280 / 1120 to 300 / 1200
  • Napalm damage reduced from 140 / 560 to 125 / 500

• Golem damage increased from 2400 / 9600 to 2500 / 10000
  
• Ethereal damage reduced from 950 / 3800 to 900 / 3600
  
• Money bounty bonus reduced from 35% / 50% to 25% / 35%
  
• Astral damage reduced from 1600 to 1500
  • Ability cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds

• Incantation damage reduced from 550 / 2200 to 500 / 2000
  
• Windstorm damage-per-second increased from 450 / 1800 to 500 / 2500
  • AoE increased from 550 to 600

• Periodic damage increased from 32000 to 35000
  

Challenges

Due to the changes required to get the upcoming Campaign working, Challenges have been removed from the game. At best, they served as a tutorial, though even then, it was extremely limited in scope. In general, they weren't particularly well designed and fell below the standards of the rest of the game.

For those of you that played and enjoyed these, we apologize, but fret not: expect these to be replaced in full by the end of the month!

Leaderboard Reset

As usual, due to numerous balance changes, Leaderboards have been reset. With this update, the general meta should shift from "hardcore interest abuse" to a wider variety of strategies. Interest abuse is still doable, it's just no longer strictly superior to everything else. We hope you enjoy these new changes, and if you'd like to give us feedback, holler at us on our Discord!
Join our Discord

Also, we've finally updated our Balance Spreadsheets, which is what we use to help balance the game. These are now publicly viewable for anyone to read:
DPS/Gold Values Spreadsheets