Welcome to 0.5.1, a surprise content update containing some exciting new features! Challenge the Ultimate Arena, find new Ultimate Uniques, craft in ways you've never imagined, and conquer new content!
The Ultimate Arena
When playing on high Nightmare levels at significant depth, you may encounter the Ultimate Arena when selecting a new area. This arena pits you against 3 random bosses back-to-back in an escalating deathmatch. Clear them all and you'll be pitted against the Paragon itself. He takes the form of various Don't Die, Collect Loot community members and supporters, choosing from random sets of themed attacks.
Survive the Paragon and you'll be rewarded with a special system for crafting Ultimate uniques, along with the ability to select from a pool of rewards. These crafting recipes allow you to infinitely upgrade your Ultimate Uniques, assuming you're willing to pay the price!
Note from Dan: Because this content is in the "deep" Don't Die, Collect Loot endgame, it may not be fully balanced for all builds. This is why DDCL is in early access! If the fights are too easy or too hard, let me know on Discord or via an ingame bug report! I'm always keeping an eye on community feedback
Area Modifiers
I've been pretty unhappy with the state of generic area modifiers for a while now. While I'm not done yet (hint: something wacky is coming...), I've added a slew of new modifiers this patch. Check out a few below:
There are some fun surprises too, so keep an eye out!
Loot Crystals
Loot Crystals were in a really bad spot. 0.5.1 adds a full Explorer tree for them, changing how they work! For example, you might find yourself with a lucky Resonance Cascade effect, causing the special rewards from one Loot Crystal you destroy to be added to every other Loot Crystal in the area!
In general, these new effects really enforce the "loot slot machine" fantasy when specializing in Loot Crystals. Prepare for some really high highs as you crawl through these lost memories.
Whirlwind
I've reworked the Whirlwind skill tree in order to be more interesting. The tree focuses heavily on AoE scaling and Lightning damage, along with making points invested in Storm Avatar actually worthwhile
New Uniques
The following new Uniques have been added to the game:
Ki'Eth's Divine Flame
The Axes of Evil
Thundergod's Blade
Spiritual Amalgam
Dennis' Magnum Opus
Bloodstorm Shield
Other Changes
The Nightmare Forge now has some new Coherence-based crafts designed to allow you to infinitely boost your Nightmare items
Added a new attack telegraph system and ported some old content to that system
Bl'ooh Bo'or hungers for your soul
The Explorer has new ingame upgrades which allow you to influence biome behavior
Added one new secret level
The Goddess of Fate now activates when you approach her, no more clicking!
Added underlying support for a new endgame area modification system
Improved Crafting UI for the Nightmare and Ultimate crafters
Fixed a few bugs with the item icons when crafting
Bugfixes
Bees summoned by Raging Swarm will no longer hunt offscreen enemies. Their AI has also been improved in general
Fixed a few issues with the Forest Warden's attacks dealing no damage
Fixed a few bugs where sources of increased damage taken would stack incorrectly
Fixed a bug where the Crafter could sometimes remain as "???" when unlocked until the game was restarted
Fixed a bug where changing gear could cause the stats panels to display incorrect stats
Fixed a bug where the fire particle effects were not rendering in The Nexus
The Ship Friend powerup now looks directly at enemies instead of at your mouse
Blade Amalgam no longer triggers cooldowns for some Blade skills
Blade Amalgam no longer glitches out and leaves permanently in certain scenarios