This patch has a playable first section of the tower, but with no loot. This release of the tower is highly experimental and doesn't have some of the instructions in it, so I recommend waiting 1-2 more patches before venturing into the tower dungeon, but it is there to try for the truly brave. There is a miniboss in the final room which you can see a preview of here:
A core mechanic of the tower dungeons is that you have a timer counting down while in the tower dungeon. As you do things like kill monsters or other players, find chests and blessings, etc. you gain time. You lose time when you die. If you run out of time you are booted from the dungeon and you keep your essence but don't keep your loot. If you make it to an exit portal your essence is tripled and you keep your loot. The time right now is a bit tight as the "soul cultivation" tree which is disabled currently has ways for you to get more time. The decoration isn't done so some of the rooms are quite bare.
This patch also has an EU server though right now it is not running the tower, just the "train" multiplayer maps. Below are the detailed patch notes:
- Added a playable first section of the tower.
- Added 2 new types of npcs, Othari and Forgotten Knights. Set things up to make adding more NPC types in the future much faster
- NPC AIs now use kiai and dodge more intelligently
- NPC AI movement is now more natural and generally stronger
- Tweaked a bunch of small things in the first chunk of the tutorial after noting that of the 12.5% or so of people who don't get through it, most of them fail on the door or the 4th orb.
- Made the required objectives in your "Home" include successfully kicking the attack trainer 3 times
- You no longer need to beat the trial of initiation to play multiplayer in the "train" menu, its only required for the tower. Note I still intend to make the 3rd stage of that trial easier, more changes to the tutorial and the trial of initiation will come next patch.
- Improved a bunch of the sound effects and added reverb to all maps
- Lots of small things the tower needs, bindable spawn points, chests, limited use fountains, and more. The next section should be much quicker, though I may add the loot system in first.