To Bleed or Not to Bleed.
Howdie folks! It’s patch day again so here I am, dropping some sweet details. Today, we take a look at the new Bleed starter kit, some enemy changes, and some general bugs, fixes and QoL stuff (including the new Void Stone track). Read on, weary traveller!
Bleed Starting Kit
So - a very healthy discussion sparked up at the Discord this week. To be honest, there were mutterings about it for a little while now, and once brought up, there was definitely a lot of agreement from a number of players.
Basically - Vault is a bit weird. Okay sure - it’s wordy weird. But one thing that stands out a lot to newer players at first is “Hey - these starter cards for each Spec actually... aren’t bad? I kinda want to keep a few around?”.
That’s actually by design. Slash’s interesting decision points with it’s Opener, Stabilities Ghost play to double tap into Zen - even the Daughters excellent Discard target in Grasp; they all are interesting - in a synergistic way.
Except Bleed. Poor old Draw Blood. Infact, that whole starting kit was just bad. Well - it was good in one way - it was super straightforward; it was a great stepping stone before drowning new players in a sea of endless keywor- OMG WHAT DOES ALL THIS EVEN MEAN? Ahem.
It also lacked the power to compete - on high Imp+ modes, you would either die Floor 1, or survive long enough to hit that power spike, and work through it. The goal was to address some synergies, make it more interesting, but also work on its early defense and scaling game.
So - Hidden Bleed has a brand new kit! Heres a screenshot of the new cards.
What’s interesting here? From Shadow is now a decent card, for starters. It allows a big chunky Block, but also lets you setup into a Rebound of some sort. Maybe it's a Rebound Evade to get you through a damage spike, - or a Rebound FTT to stack some heavy Bleeding. There's actually a lot of options with it.
Also - you may notice Parry has been replaced for Evade. A unique Block card that powers up with Bleeding enemies.
But how will I Bleed so many enemies you say? Draw Blood is... very different. So firstly - it’s lost Swift - which may seem like a downside, but it isn’t. It does it’s damage, then spawns a Silent Shiv into your hand. From there, you can use that for small ticks of Bleed across the board, or focus down one target. Because Draw Blood doesn’t eat your Combo, you can totally float some Combo, run on a bunch of Draw Bloods before throwing out all your Silent Shivs, taking advantage of Balanced. Huzzah!
Also, the starting spell got a rework!
Blood Rush: Apply Weak 2. If at Combo 0, Combo 1.
There is one slight concern of course. Whilst all these cards will probably make the VotV Veteran drool with possibilities, there is a flip side where now, there is a touch more overload to the new player. I’m weary of this, but I do think this starter kit feels much closer to what Vault is about, and has a lot more playability moving forward. It’s a decision I had to make - it’s never easy. Vault always cops a bit of flack for being pretty front loaded. But once you push through that - the gooey center awaits!
Bleed on, players. Bleed on.
Enemy Rework
So - as you may have noticed, there's a few enemies floating around who are resistent to Bleed. That was pretty spec-prejudice, seeing no other spec really got maimed that hard. Most of it was flavour stuff to be honest (Bleed resistant on Lost Spirt, the Obsidian Golem etc).
All of this has been removed! Bleed the Totems. Bleed the Ghost! Bleed the RUNE STONE!
Bleed on, players. Bleed on.
The Void Stone Track
So here's something that feels particularly Vaultish, that I’m a little embarrassed it wasn’t included earlier. Now, when you mouse over your Void Stone bar, you’ll see the upcoming Void Stones! More open information, more planning, more fun, and much more Vaultish.
Bleed on, players. Blee- actually never mind this part has nothing to do with Bleed.
Introduction Changes
So I’ve made a few quick changes to Introduction mode. Firstly, you don’t get a Booster Pack anymore (trying to reduce the front loading!). I’ve also hidden the Spell Book and Map Reward buttons, and disabled the Deck Manager until you’ve actually done a fight.
After your first fight, you’ll then be guided to open the Deck Manager and ... er... Manage?
I’ve tested this for about an hour, trying to break things wherever I could. I’m paranoid about tinkering with the Introduction - so please - if you’re new and something WACKS OUT, please just leave a message here, on the Forums or over at the Discord and I’ll get it fixed right away!
Class Trainer
Just a quick one here - the Class Trainer will now give you a FREE VOID STONE when you transform a card.
Alright, that's enough rambling from me. I’ll leave you all to game Bleed on!
As always - thank you so much for all the great reviews! If you haven’t left a review yet - it would mean the world to me if you could - helps me really grow the game and get it out to more people! Appreciate you all!
Also, we’ll (hopefully) reach the 500 review mark in the distant(ish) future. I want to do another special something, just like the 250 special Deck Back. I’ve got a few ideas, but please feel free to leave any ideas you have of what could be cool!
All for now!
- Josh
Full(ish) Patch Notes
- New Bleed starter cards and Spell! Sorry if you were part way through a Bleed run pre-patch...that's going to be a bit confussing logging back on!
- Space Bar is now the shortcut for End Turn. It's been removed from the Purge ability for now - I'll be remapping that once I gather a bit more feedback.
- Some monsters have changed how they interact with Bleed. Namely; Swamp Mistress Totems, Lost Spirit, Obsidian Golem and the Runic Pillar. Bruce will no longer heal from Bleed.
- Merchant prices have been lowered a touch
- New Void Stone bar QoL option- mouse over and see what's coming up next!
- Class Trainer has been updated. You'll get a FREE VOID STONE with every purchase!
- Jade Mantis will now be accounted for when it comes to damage preview
- Remove the socket symbol from Voids when dragging Void Stones in the Deck Manager
- Fixed Tooltips showing on the Spell Child through the mini-map
- Blood Library Tooltip fixed on mini-map
- Various spelling changes
- New Introduction mode changes