Hello! 30XX Patch 0.53 overhauls Nina's Power Fusion system in a big way. We've updated every single Fusion, buffed most of them, and ~15 of them have entirely new effects!
Alongside that, we're experimenting with a new system where being able to fuse Nina's Powers together is a special, permanent condition, rather than something that's always guaranteed. Some Powers found in a run will be Fusible - you'll know it when you see it - and when you find one, you'll be able to Fuse it with an existing Power you already have, or just take the base Power being offered. In exchange for two precious Powers, every Fusion has been buffed substantially - we want the decision to take a Fusion be a choice you make as a player during your run, based on your preferences and build.
We know this change might be controversial, and we're excited to hear your feedback. We want Nina's Fusions to be powerful tools in her kit that aren't all available to her every run - we hope this'll add even more diversity to the way your runs play out while giving Nina lots of new tools at her disposal.
TL;DR - 0.53's new Fused Powers are much stronger than they were previously, but the decision to Fuse Powers together has to be made in the post-Boss room. You can experiment with the various potential Fusions there in the boss room before moving on. Tell us what you think!
We've also updated several of Nina's base Powers, made her shot limit a little less restrictive, and fixed a handful of other issues.
Thanks for playing!
GAME CHANGES & FIXES:
- Updated Nina's Power Fusion system! Fused Powers now have new unique names and descriptions as Fusions.
- EXPERIMENTAL: Picking up a Fusion during a run is now a permanent decision for that run. Powers will sometimes drop as Fusible from bosses - when you find a Fusible Power, acquiring the Power will bring up a new menu where you can choose between acquiring the Power on its own, or Fusing it with an existing Power, along with the names and descriptions of the potential Fusions. This decision can be reversed or made differently as long as you remain in the post-boss room before moving onto the next stage, giving you the chance to play around with the fused power before deciding whether or not to commit to it. We've also added a target-dummy style enemy in each post-boss room to try your shiny new toys on.
- Our design goal here is that fusing a power should feel more like a strategic decision you make when you acquire a Power based on the choices available to you - to compensate for making a permanent decision, we've updated the effects of almost every Fusion, and adjusted damage numbers and NRG costs to account for the fact that you're sacrificing having the two Powers separately when you Fuse them.
- The blocks below this one are in SPOILER tags. We're including them here for completeness if you want to see details on the updated Fusions, but if you'd rather discover the effects in game, don't mouse over these!
- Zen Mortar + Rending Whirl = Zen Vortex: The base projectile now travels forward in an arc instead of straight up, making it easier to aim the portal Echo. Base mini-mortar damage increased to 40 (from 10). Mini-mortars now obey shotgun rules. Base duration reduced to 1 second (from 2 seconds).
- Zen Mortar + Aiming Gear = Aiming Mortar: Visuals improved and clutter reduced. NRG cost reduced to 10 (from 20). Mortars fired horizontally or downward are no longer affected by gravity, so they're a little easier to aim.
- Zen Mortar + Crystal Wave: = Splintercrystal: NRG cost reduced to 10 (from 15). Crystal shatter now applies light shotgun rules (50% per additional projectile instead of the standard 12.5%). Base Crystal damage increased to 50 (from 40). Now also ignores shields (inheriting this property from Zen Mortar).
- Zen Mortar + Negation Pulse = Zen Protector: Descend speed increased to 55 (from 35). Statue now stops directly in front of you when cast (instead of landing wherever it can land), guaranteeing protection where you expect it. On-death fireballs now align to a cardinal direction instead of directly aligning away from you. Fireball base damage increased to 40 (from 20). Shield lifetime down to 2 seconds (from 3). Fireballs now also fire when the statue expires naturally, and pierce shields.
- Zen Mortar + Crushing Void = Crushing Twin: Hitbox size increased. Base damage up to 70 (from 50). Triggering the Echo now also sends two additional projectiles straight up and down.
- Zen Mortar + Jagged Bolt = Seeking Striker: NRG cost down to 5 (from 6). Projectiles now align properly when spawned (which also makes them take off slightly faster).
- Zen Mortar + Autodrone = Zen Heretic: Summon a Disciple of your own that uppercuts, then divekicks down when you press the Power button again. Base damage is 50 during the uppercut, and 70 during the divekick. Explodes into cardinal fireballs upon contact with a wall or an enemy it can't kill (shotgun rules apply). Costs 12 NRG.
- Zen Mortar general note: All Zen Mortar fusion projectiles now also pierce shields, inheriting this property from the base Power.
- Rending Whirl + Aiming Gear = Aiming Whirl: NRG cost reduced to 12 (from 20). No other changes.
- Rending Whirl + Crystal Wave = Crystal Torrent: Redesigned. Now fires a rapid set of Crystals above and below the player, dealing damage and freezing enemies. Crystals go through walls. Cost down to 10 NRG (from 15). Standard shotgun rules apply.
- Rending Whirl + Negation Pulse = Negation Barrier: Projectiles absorbed by this effect grant a stacking buff, empowering your next attack by up to 50%. No other changes (other than the change below, making this effect correctly consider Nina's Power Efficiency).
- Rending Whirl + Crushing Void = Eviscerating Whirl: Base damage increased to 25 per tick (from 10). Base duration reduced to 1.5 sec (from 3 sec). Overall, this is a 25% damage buff per use, and it happens twice as fast. The super-long duration on the previous version of this ability was funny, but not super practical. The NRG cost on this one remains high (40).
- Rending Whirl + Jagged Bolt = Tagging Bolt: Mostly the same. Base damage up to 25 (from 20). NRG cost down to 10 (from 12). Still marks enemies with a Tag, causing primary attacks to home in on the victim.
- Rending Whirl + Autodrone = Hoot Cheerleader: Summons a L'il Hoot that increases attack rate for you and nearby allies (including other players and repros). Increases Nina's shot limit during the duration. Costs 10 NRG, and lasts 4 seconds.
- Aiming Gear + Crystal Wave = Aiming Crystal: Base damage increased to 20 (from 1). Crystal still creates blocks when making contact with walls. Improved wall/block placement.
- Aiming Gear + Negation Pulse = Negation Gears: Unchanged.
- Aiming Gear + Crushing Void = Crushing Slam: Base damage of the dash attack increased to 40 (from 30). If this ability kills an enemy, it can be immediately recast for free (even in midair). Making enemy contact with this ability grants the player brief touch-damage iframes, similar to connecting with an enemy with Zen Ascent.
- Aiming Gear + Jagged Bolt = Divine Gear: Unchanged.
- Aiming Gear + Autodrone = Twin Fangs: Fire two Gear Rollies that that split and fly orthogonally from the cast direction. Rolls along walls instead of disappearing. Aimable like the standard Aiming Gear. Costs 8 NRG, and each Gear deals 25 base damage.
- Crystal Wave + Negation Pulse = Crystal Pulse: NRG cost to 12 (from 15).
- Crystal Wave + Crushing Void = Crystal Burst: Unchanged.
- Crystal Wave + Jagged Bolt = Crystal Seeker: Projectile speed increased by 25%. Reduced cost to 8 NRG (from 10). Fixed an issue causing weird curving if the Seeker's target is off to the left of the attacker.
- Crystal Wave + Autodrone = Crystal Guide: Now fires a ride-able crystal block that'll also freeze enemies it makes contact with. Costs 12 NRG.
- Crushing Void + Negation Pulse = Obliteration Pulse: Unchanged.
- Crushing Void + Jagged Bolt = Electric Abyss: Now fires one salvo of eight Jagged Bolts in all directions. (Was super overpowered in its previous state.) Increased size of fired Bolts, slightly increased damage. Effect no longer sucks in nearby enemies (duration is too short to be useful).
- Crushing Void + Autodrone = Void Within: Still projects a void from you. Damage radius increased. Damage per tick up to 30 (from 23). Effect no longer sucks in nearby enemies (since this usually just got you hurt).
- Jagged Bolt + Negation Pulse = Pulse Bubble: Improved reaction time and speed of bubbles when negating enemy projectiles. Pulse Bubbles now do 10 damage each before activation (up from none), so they're still usable against non-projectile-shooting enemies (just not as effective).
- Jagged Bolt + Autodrone = Voltage Vampire: Launches a small drone that latches onto nearby enemies, dealing 40 damage per second (and costing 10 NRG per second). Enemies that die after being drained by the Vampire restore 2 health to Nina. The Vampire will deactivate on its own if it can't find anything to Vamp on, or Nina can activate the Power again to turn it off.
- Negation Pulse + Autodrone = Kindness Vector: Fires a friendly face forward that frequently casts small Negation Pulses (base 20 damage). Shooting the friendly face causes it to erupt into a major Pulse (base 50 damage). Costs 15 NRG.
- It's likely the case that not all Power Augs have effects for every Fusion yet, but that's the goal.
- Extra note: As of game version 0.53.0, some Fusions look a little wonky in netplay, but they should all work/not crash your game. We're anticipating a 0.53.1 to get in a few more updates before 0.54 - so if you see version 0.53.1 or later, these are probably fixed.
Other Nina updates:
- Nina's base attacks stop preventing other attacks after 0.75 seconds (down from 1 second). This means missing is still penalizing, but not as much so.
- Crushing Void (Base Power): Bullet lifetime reduced to 2 seconds (from 8 seconds). 8 seconds was *wildly* too long, and resulted in the projectile floating along several screens. Base damage reduced slightly (to 70, from 75).
- Rending Whirl (Base Power): Tornado base lifetime reduced to 0.6 sec (from 1 sec) - this will make it hit a stationary target up to 5 times, down from 7. Rending Whirl is still the most damaging base Power against stationary targets, but a base damage of 105 was a bit excessive.
- Jagged Bolt (Base Power): Improved homing detection - the Bolt will no longer curve when there's a closer valid target on its current path. This will prevent the situation where you fire Jagged Bolt aiming at a target along the default trajectory, then it curves to hit something much further away.
- Autodrone (Base Power): Base movement (how quickly it sticks to its desired position) doubled, so it'll do a much better job of being where it belongs. Float range (how far it floats up and down) reduced by 50%.
- Added bad luck protection to Contemplation Room spawns. If a Contemplation Room hasn't spawned within 3 stages, it's now guaranteed on the fourth. This also increases CR overall spawn rate by about 25%. (This also guarantees at least two CRs per run, which I'm a little iffy on.)
- Ace now gains very brief invuln frames when close to his target with Dolomite Link. While Dolomite Link doesn't prevent projectile damage without the Shield Link upgrade, it still feels a bit bad to see an enemy attack the frame you reach it.
- Rerolling the Trader's offer now costs 2 Scrapbits (up from 1). Resonators from the Trader now cost 4 Scrapbits (up from 3). The Trader's offers are a little too powerful right now - it's a little too easy to guarantee getting a bunch of amazing stuff by stockpiling Scrapbits - this should get us over the line here.
- Improved performance in Echocave Digzones.
- Fixed an issue where a few newer Augs (Doppelgel, The One And Only, Armor Integrator, Grey Goo) would re-apply when loading a save.
- Corrected an error where Exploding Barrels wouldn't harm the player.
- Player homing effects no longer sometimes target enemies that haven't spawned yet (for example, in Contemplation Rooms).
- Player Powers that drain NRG over time now properly account for the player's Power Efficiency.
- Added an "ignited" state that alters behaviors of enemies in Burning Temple. (This is technically a fix!)
- Thorned Revenger now obeys the same shotgunning rules as Tiny Flamespewer (so subsequent hits from the same burst deal reduced damage, instead of bumping into a boss and dealing 200+ damage that ignores iframes).
- Loot Omega no longer has increased health with Faithmetal Flock (entropy condition) active.
- Fallspikes (Echocave) no longer respawn with Spectres active.
- Froggos spawned by Watergrav's Beeg Frog miniboss no longer respawn with Spectres active.
- Fixed an issue causing Delta's attacks to sometimes hit for very low damage (1-ish).
- Fixed an issue preventing appropriate Powers from destroying Absolution's Voids.
- Corrected some Boots Guardian hitboxes.