Hello, this is Wonho Son, PD of ANVIL.
The main content of the Jan. update is the addition of different galaxy difficulty levels. We want to explain our intentions as well as give details.
Galaxy difficulty diversification
We added Czerny practice mode so newcomers can play the game in a more friendly environment. We greatly decreased the difficulty level and gave starting gold to allow players to create builds more easily. However, to avoid difficulty in matchmaking due to having separate matchmaking pools, we will only make Czerny practice mode available as single player mode.
The current Campanella galaxy difficulty level will be set as the highest (Extreme), and two less difficult modes, normal and hard will be added. As clearing Campanella normal opens the fourth relic spot, we expect people can take advantage of this to clear Campanella Hard and Extreme more easily.
Specifically regarding Campanella Extreme, players will start out with 500 gold, allowing players to buy tier-3 weapons or with multiple relics. We hope players don’t see this mode as just a difficult mode but get a sense of “extreme” feeling and have fun. In addition, the number of planets will be increased to 9 and will have random bosses besides the two fixed ones, making a different play experience than the current Campanella structure.
The thing we were most concerned about for making many difficulties available was that with matching spots diversified, the time for matchmaking can become longer. To solve this issue, we decided this difficulty addition can be a mid-way solution and will constantly improve based on user feedback and stats.
Also, we deleted base status effect resistance of bosses so players can make use of status effects more and made diverse changes to controls and battle visual effects so that players do not experience unexpected deaths. Furthermore, we made fixing bug and crash issues an utmost priority and was able to fix many of them.
We thank you for all your interest and support. We will strive to repay everyone by becoming a better game. Thank you.
January update details
Diversification of galaxy difficulty
Czerny Practice (Single player)
- Game description and guide added
- No alert level monsters appear
- Difficulty level decrease by 25% overall
- 150 starting gold added
- Clearing the practice mode will not open Symphonia or the 2nd relic slot
- Relic replication percentage is the same, but only 50% of VP earned compared to Czerny normal mode.
Campanella Normal (3 people)
- Difficulty level decrease by 25% overall compared to previous Campanella
- Clearing Campanella Normal unlocks the 4th relic slot
Campanella Hard (3 people)
- Difficulty level decrease by 10% overall compared to previous Campanella
- Relic replication percentage is the same, but VP earned increased by 25% compared to Campanella Normal.
Campanella Extreme (3 people)
- Consists of 9 planets
- Random boss monster spawn besides fixed boss monsters stages
- Players start with 500 gold
- While other stats are equal to the previous Campanella mode, monsters have 30% faster attack speed and movement speed
- Relic replication percentage is the same, but VP earned increased by 50% compared to Campanella Normal.
Battle improvements
- Players can now cancel Breaker skill using dash, shield, teleport etc.
- Players can use survival skills (dash, shield, teleport etc.) when silenced
- Fighter type Breakers no longer have cooldown for shields - Players can now use shield immediately
- Improvements and changes to counterattack - Invulnerability after counterattack increased by 0.5 seconds - Range of enemy projectile destruction after counterattack doubled - Guillotine and Toast’s counterattack damage doubled - Counterattack now has an internal cooldown (excluding Toast)
- Screen shake increase depending on damage has been added
- Knockback on weapon fire that was added for hit effect has been removed - Effect only remains for Assault Handgun that had it as default effect
- Decrease to alert level effect that increased attack and defense - Attack increase by 50% / Defense by 100% -> Attack 30% / Defense 50% - The silver shining shading effect has been removed as it was the same effect as Polychopper reflect. An appropriate shader will be added in the future
Status effect improvements
- Status effect (freeze, burn etc.) on bosses now shown under boss health bar - Status effect icon images change for more visibility - Status effects blink for 3 seconds prior to removal
- Boss base resistance changed from 50% to 0% - Ex) Previously, freeze lasted 5 sec on normal monsters and 2.5 sec on boss monsters - After change, boss monsters are also frozen for 5 sec
- Shock duration changed form 15 sec to 7 sec - Fixed error where shock / bleed effect was not among boss resistance system
- Fixed error when all bosses were not immune to stun - Fixed issue where battle pattern overlapped, allowing for clearer response to battle patterns
- Visual effects of status effects such as shock, burn etc. improved to be more noticeable.
Emoticon added
- Use of emoticon in matching lobby and in-game through the cross key on Game pad (1,2,3 on keyboard) added - Smile, tears, cold face - This update only provides basic features and will be enforced later with more diverse emoticons that can be edited
- Button added after clearing galaxy instead of immediately going to stats page - Use the new emotes to complement each other!
Additional improvements
- Improved alert level so that visual effect does not hinder battle visibility
- Thai, Italian, and Vietnamese language added
- Added screen shake control in settings
- Changed “damage increase” and “damage decrease” on HUD to “+” and “–“ due to character length
- Physical attack effect added to all monsters
- Visual improvements to Root Guardian cannon barrage projectile skill so it can be seen more clearly
- Crasher shotgun’s passive effect “Increase critical chance on use” added to description
- Some gauntlet, gatling gun, etc. weapon animation effect added
- Bonus relic stack effect from 3rd relic onward added in green letters
Major bug fixes
- Fixed issue where players were locked out of boss lairs
- Fixed where some skill effects remained when moving on to the next planet (Elsa ultra beam, etc.)
- Fixed numerical value not appearing in upgrades for Chinese traditional / simplified
- Fixed issue where Season Pass Rank would go up abnormally
- Fixed issue of camera going off center when spectating allies after death
- Fixed issue where 4 players could enter 3 people galaxies
- Fixed major crash issues
- Fixed certain relics not appearing in the Vaulty’s shop
- Fixed where system asks to enter a coupon code on Game pad after entering a coupon
- Fixed where monsters summoned by the Root Guardian remained after boss is defeated
- Fixed issue where Sandman’s skill upgrade “decrease defense of enemies hit by 100%” was not applied correctly
- Fixed issue where Sandman’s skill upgrade “increase weapon power when grenade lands” was not applied correctly
- Fixed instance on Game pad where cannons fired toward the last aimed direction
- Fixed issue where passive skill of gatling gun remained even after changing weapons
Other issues
- Rankings will reset on both Xbox and Steam with the Jan. update
- Uzi and Bronte skins that show their face have been added (Uzi: 300 Crons, Bronte: 200 Crons)
Known bugs
- We are currently fixing an issue where Guillotine's Charge Skill does not deal damage to stationary boss monsters
- Some lasers not being shown when Boss Destroyer and Machine Magician uses a star shaped laser pattern. The damage is dealt up to the star's apexes so players need to move far away or go to the center. We are currently fixing this issue as soon as possible.
- The shining effect when Shuri is recharging cannon is excessive. We are fixing the issue.