Hello Crafters!
How is everyone doing?
New patch is here, bringing new content to the game!
The latest character, the Jeweller, is joining the roster today, with a new gameplay style, a completely different set of skills and more challenges. This patch is completing the rest of the Cavern area, with all the missing Stages, new bosses to conquer and a lot more to unlock.
The new row of Talent Skills on the Smithing and Weaving Systems can now be unlocked, bringing a total of 102 new talents to the game! Players will be able to further customize each character and their playstyle. We also increased the amount of Talent Points available with this upgrade, and Agriana is getting an adjustment to her Smithing System, doubling the amount of points she has available in comparison to all other characters (and we are reducing the requirements for her levels to facilitate her upgrades), which should allow players to focus on more than 1 weapon on her system and increase her versatility.
As I mentioned on the previous Daily Newton, we are also making some adjustments to the Difficulty Modes, specially Malignous mode which a lot of players seem to enjoy it but think it takes too long. This is the first change to the mode, reducing the overall Health Buff the enemies get, which will definitely make runs a lot shorter (but will also make the runs easier). So for those who enjoy the mode, let us know if this adjustment made the Malignous Mode better or less fun.
Another important thing about the Malignous Mode. I have noticed some players mentioning on the comments of the Daily Newton post about having to play on the highest difficulty to farm materials as it was necessary to upgrade the Village or it would be too much grind. Before Patch 0.5.3.0, the requirements to upgrade the Village was really high and we have adjusted it following the feedback of the community. I just want to clarify that each area has been adjusted on that Patch to drastically reduce the grind of materials and make it possible to fully upgrade the Village when completing each area (up to the latest area) on Normal Mode with some surplus of material (by completing the area I mean getting the achievement) aside from the 3 boss Material (which was taken into consideration when building the progression of materials - but has been removed on this patch, so read notes below), without taking into consideration the Gathering Systems, possible materials bought from the Merchant and the buff from the Fisherman's Hut. I just want players to be aware that under no circumstances Malignous Mode was taken into consideration for farming materials at any time.
Let's dive into the Patch Notes:
Patch Notes - v0.8.0
New Character
Jewellia, the Jeweller
A new character is ready to join the Roster! The Jeweller is here to shine and bring light to the battlefield.
Jewellia is a ranged attacker, utilizing her Loupe to fire laser beams that pierce through groups of enemies to deal damage. A great variety of skills can interact with her basic attack to cover wider areas, reflect the attack itself or even cause new effects. She is a character with a good focus on basic attacks.
The Jeweller also brings the power of her Special Command, Opulent Jewel, to aid her in the battlefield. A random Jewel is selected at the beginning of the stage that can be carved utilizing the various skills at Jewellia's disposal, with each skill having different thresholds of carving, until it is broken or perfected. If a Jewel is broken, a new random Jewel will be chosen to restart the process. If a Jewel is perfected, skills won't be able to break it until it is used, by activating the Special Command, which will bring forth the effect of the Jewel and bring a new random Jewel to continue the process. There are 5 different outcomes for this skill! So keep an eye on your Jewels!
Jewellia is also the first character with access to a dual stage dodge. After acquiring a specific passive, players can dodge and leave an illusion of Jewellia at the original spot, being able to return to that position in a short period of time. This dual stage dodge has its own perks and can open up different ways of tackling a challenge!
Jewellia is here, and ready to make the arena sparkle!
Village
New Levels for the Buildings
With the update, new materials have been added to the game, so the buildings in the Village can go even further and bring more power to the Survivors.
Weaving and Smithing System, 102 new Talents
With the new materials available, players will be able to further customize each character. A total of 102 new unique Talents have been added to the game, 50 for the Smithing System and 52 for the Weaving System.
Secret's Dealer and Reword Secrets on Mailbox
Players will now be able to unlock the Secret's Dealer, who is going to sell the information of the secrets in-game, related to Secret Exits and Lost Mails in the world of Crafty Survivors. For this, we have reworked the entire Secrets section on the Mailbox, making them more straightforward. We hope this will help players complete the secrets with more ease.
Exit Signpost
All Exits in the Stages received a special asset that will appear when players have unlocked the Stage these Exits lead to. Their function is to show the player if they have either taken the Exit already or tell them that they already found the Stage this exit leads to through another path. We hope this helps players decide on the Exit to take without the need to remember how the Map of the Area looks like.
Area
Cavern
- More Stages to explore, until the end of the Cavern;
- New field events to fight for more materials;
- New challenges added, with their own bosses.
General
- New mail to receive and find;
- New Recipes;
- New Statues;
- New Elixirs.
Adjustments
Smithing System - Agriana, the Farmer
- Doubled the amount of Talent Points upgrades that Agriana can have compared to others, since she has a lot more options than other characters. This should allow players to broaden their buffs into more Weapon choices instead of being limited.
Village
- Removed the requirement of Boss Materials from a few buildings, so players won't be forced to replay the Boss Stage or to play in Malignous Mode to upgrade the Village. However, the Achievement still requires players to beat the Boss with 3 different characters.
Easy Mode
- Reduced the Movement Speed of all enemies by 25% on this Mode;
- Increased the amount of materials gained at the end of the Stage to match the same as Normal Mode, so players won't need to farm too much materials on Easy;
- Decrease the chance of Aggressive Field Events spawning;
- Increase the chance of Healing Field Events spawning by 50%.
Hard Mode
- Reduced the Health Buff of enemies from 200% to 150%.
Malignous Mode Mode
- Reduced the Health Buff of enemies from 300% to 200%.
Colosseum - All Arenas
- Increased the Spawn Speed of enemies after the 1st cycle to the max speed.
General
- Added additional checks in the Village Screen to guarantee that players receive the achievements for unlocking systems;
- Characters now become invulnerable as soon as the last boss of a stage is defeated, avoiding situations where some leftover minions or other colliders could kill players;
- Small adjustments to skill descriptions and other texts.
Fixes
- Fixed an issue with Viala’s Basic Attack, as it was not stacking damage properly when hitting some of her skills;
- Fixed an issue with Viala’s Vampiric Solution as it was not healing the player if its conditions were met;
- Fixed a bug as Mini Bosses were affected by Fear and Taunt when they should not be, creating weird behaviours like leaving the stage and never returning. Bosses and Mini Bosses are immune to these types of debuffs;
- Fixed a bug with Thermal Fissure and Azure Claws as their damage was not being registered to show on the Stats Screen at the end of the stage;
- Fixed an issue with the Stage Living Peak as its stage UI was not scaled properly when using 3440x1440 resolutions;
- Fixed a bug with Inner Battery Skill as it was dealing 0 damage;
- Fixed a bug with the Broccammer as it would not give its last use buff when the number of uses left were 1 before using the double smash attack while equipping the Pumpkin Aegis;
- Fixed a bug that allowed Hanvilton to use Heroic Technique in the moment before his weapon breaks, which would cause him to freeze if the weapon was a Claymore;
- Fixed an issue as Werewolves were staying active after their duration was over in certain situations;
- Adjustments to several Art Assets to reduce the overall size of the game and improve performance;
- Small adjustments to Gamepad to improve performance;
- Other small bug fixes.
Next Steps
This was a huge wall of text, with new content, adjustments, fixes and all the stuff! It has also been one of the longest updates of the game, specially because of the Talents for all the characters, which took surprisingly longer than anticipated. The next batch of Talents will not be released with a new character for sure, as it just makes things take waaaayyyy longer.
So let's dive a bit on the next portion of the content. We are already working on the 12th character and the new area of the game! As previously mentioned on another announcement (Daily Newton #6) we are capping the amount of Stages of the next areas to a certain maximum number, since too many Stages can also be a hindrance. We had to do some pruning on the next area's map, but nothing big.
I thought about doing a sneak peek of the 12th character on this update, but I think it might be good to wait till the next Daily Newton since it would also spoil the next area of the game. I'd rather wait for players to finish the Cavern and see it for themselves before spoiling it. So let's wait a little bit. And keep an eye on it in-game! You might discover the profession of the character in this update!
We are also working on expanding the Haunted Grounds and bringing more of the area as well. We are planning the challenge and enemies, levels of the Graveyard and the progression of the Halloween area to continue it. So lots of stuff to come!
Now who is ready for some dazzling combat? Time to fight with elegance! We hope everyone has a good time with the update.