Cards
The focus on the Cards in this patch was mostly to make the melee cards stronger and better to use. As the gameplay was heavily dependent on the player's ability to kite the enemies, melee cards were not strong enough to compensate for not utilizing ranged cards.
Hack n' Slash
- Size increased: 15%
- Base Damage increased: 34% (115 -> 155)
- Casting Time decreased: 30% (0.1s -> 0.07s)
- Recovery Time decreased: 30% (0.1s -> 0.07s)
Titan Punch
- First and Second Punch Casting Time decreased: 20% (0.1s -> 0.08s)
- First and Second Punch Recovery Time decreased: 20% (0.1s -> 0.08s)
- First and Second Punch dash force decreased: 30%
- Third Punch Casting Time decreased: 37.5% (0.2s -> 0.125s)
- Third Punch dash force decreased: 40%
- All Punches Push strength decreased: 40%
Spark Tornado
- Base Damage increased: 12.5% (200 -> 225)
- Secondary Damage increased: 33% (37.5 -> 50)
Five of a Kind
- Cooldown Decreased: 25% (0.8s -> 0.6s)
- Collider Increased: 87.5%
Flurry of Blows
- Base Damage increased: 12.5% (400 -> 450)
Starburst
- Base Damage increased: 28.5% (175 -> 225)
Packet Trick
- Collider Increased: 50%
- New Functionality: The explosive cards will also explode when the duration ends now. Before they only exploded if they made contact with an enemy.
Dashes
Another big topic within the community was around our dash cards. We focused on improving the dashes usability and game feel, but we didn't add I-frames, as some players suggested (you can find a more detailed explanation on why we made this decision here).
The overall change was increasing how fast the dashes are, to make it more instantaneous, but also decreasing its distance. The distance is an important factor because the dashes were always covering a long distance, players would constantly take damage when dashing or they would have to pay more attention to farther parts of the map to dash safely.
The result of the change was a fast, almost instantaneous dash, with a more controlled distance. Allowing the players to be even more reactive without being too exposed during combat.
- Increased Dash Speed: 60%
- Decreased Dash Distance: 30%
- Cooldown decreased: 15% (0.8s -> 0.7s)
Starter Blue Card
Overall, new players gave us the feedback that they were finding blinks easier to use than dashes. Based on that, we decided to swap the starter blue card from a dash to a blink, with the objective to give a more friendlier experience to new players.
- Starter Blue Card swap: Dashing Dash -> Time Warp
Trinkets
In this patch we focused on strengthening some of the offensive trinkets. Players were not using these upgrades as much as we had hoped, since they didn’t feel quite as powerful as some of the other options.
- Cloak of the Virtuoso damage increased: 74%
- Payback Knuckles damage decreased: 20%
- Pepperina Infuser damage increased: 90%
Dandy Ace Movement
Another point of consistent feedback was that Dandy Ace's walk animation was a little bit "floaty" and that he was always moving too slowly. One of the biggest updates we made were to the walk animation, improving the gameplay feel. Now it feels like Dandy Ace is running in the palace and it feels much better!
- Dandy Ace walk animation speed increased: 30%
- Dandy Ace walk speed increased: 6%
- Camera smoothness follow up decreased: 50%
Shards and Grinding
One of the most frequent feedback was that to unlock Nnif's cards improvements were too expensive, forcing some players to grind it. For that, we decided to increase the bosses' shards reward. The idea is to allow the players to have access to more shards but only after defeating a boss.
- Axolangelo and Scissorella shards drop increased: 50% (60 -> 90)
- Severino shards drop increased: 50% (100 -> 150)
- Lele shards drop increased: 50% (200 -> 300)
Maps and Enemy Balancing
One of the biggest issues we saw within the early days of the game launch was that a lot of players were finding the Entrance Hall too difficult. Because of it, we decided to nerf some of the basic enemies, as well as targeting the Entrance Hall difficulty. The objective is to make the initial experience of the game more accessible and enjoyable.
Entrance Hall
- Enemy Encounters: Overall, we decreased the amount of enemies the player will face in each combat encounter in this stage. Less enemies, more time for the player to learn the game. As for experienced players, playing through the Entrance Hall will be faster. It's a win-win change.
Bunny Butler
As the Bunny Butler is the most basic enemy in the game, his attack was too strong. It was either too hard for the player to dodge or it was always putting the bunny in a position after the attack where new players weren't able to punish the enemy.
- Charge Casting Time increased: 50% (0.4s -> 0.6s)
- Charge distance decreased: 33%
- Charge attack distance decreased: 20% (Now bunny butlers need to be 20% closer to the player to start the attack)
- Walk speed increased: 15%
Bunny Jester
- Tumble Cooldown increased: 50%
Other Enemies
- Improved several enemies' preview skills visibility
- Draculords now uses their attack, Blood Drinker, 40% closer to the player
General Changes
Card Tier Assist
One of the most important concepts of our card system is the Card's tier. Basically, the higher the Card tier is, the more damage it deals. As a consequence of this, as the player progresses through the palace, the enemies are also higher tier. This means that if a player doesn't change their cards to higher tier cards or upgrade them with the Niftar unlock, the damage output will start to get too low, making it very difficult to beat the game.
However, one of the hardest part for new players is to understand the importance of the tiers amidst of all the cards, upgrades, and enemies. To aid the players, we added a visual cue system that will help players to understand the relative power of their cards compared to the map they are in.
- Green Number: card is very strong
- White Number and Green Up-arrow: card is strong
- White Number: card is average
- White Number and Red Down-arrow: card is weak
- Red Number: card is extremely weak
Entrance Hall First Gate
Now to be able to leave the first area of the Entrance Hall the player must collect the 3 initial starting cards.
Steam Trading Cards
Players will now be able to earn Dandy Ace Steam Trading Cards and craft game badges!
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