Daemonium receives its first major Early Access update, introducing exorcisms—high-risk, high-reward rituals performed in the demon realm.

Players are highly rewarded for completing an exorcism.
Mistakes reset the exorcism and trigger an immediate hunt.
The demon can hunt during the exorcism, forcing players to survive while performing the ritual.

New Main Objective: Exorcism

Upon entering the demon's home players can now perform an exorcism to banish the demon completely.
Follow the instructions in the guidebook if needed or complete the newly updated and fully voice-acted tutorial from the main menu.

How to complete an Exorcism:

Completing an exorcism will make it impossible to retrieve the possessed item.
For maximum money and XP, collect the possessed item in the demon home before completing an exorcism.

There is a new tool chest at the back of the van that will open when the demon home opens.
This chest contains the Thurible and Exorcism Book, both are new tools used in exorcisms.

The exorcism/ritual site will always be located near the possessed item.
Players can use the sound gun to detect demon a heartbeat or find normal evidence to locate the general area of the exorcism site.
Players must spread incense with the Thurible for 2 seconds in the vicinity of the site to reveal it.

Next, a candle needs to be lit in/near the site to start the exorcism.
This will destroy the demon's heart and raise the Symbol Stone.
The symbol players need to draw on the stone is revealed in the Exorcism book, as well as appearing above the flames of the Altar when correct evidence is submitted.
Interact with the stone, draw, and submit the symbol.

If the correct symbol is drawn it will appear on the stone.
The stone will then destroy and pull the demon itself into the exorcism site.

Players then need to read the correct exorcism prayer from the Exorcism Book that corresponds to the Exorcism Symbol, of which there are five.
Reading the correct prayer will kill the demon.

No more evidence or possessed items can be collected once the demon is banished.
There will also be no more paranormal activity or events.

Making a mistake at any stage during an exorcism like entering the wrong symbol or saying the wrong prayer will reset the exorcism to the start and trigger a hunt immediately.
Players will need to relight the candle to start again after the hunt.

The demon can also initiate hunts as normal while exorcisms are taking place. This will also reset the exorcism.

Additional minor changes/bug fixes are listed below

Minor:

1) Fixed demon and enemy vision bug when detecting players.
2) Changed some UI sounds and added some.
3) Added more ghost event sound effects.
4) Fixed a visual bug where the van's registration plate was being rendered after objects in front of it.
5) Added new possessed item models.
6) Fixed interaction inconsistency bug with Altar.
7) Fixed a bug with shoulder lamps not syncing position before clients approach a portal.
8) Fixed a bug preventing mimics from speaking on clients.
9) Added slight pitch variance to repeated sound effects.
10) Renamed use equipment keybind so it's clearer that it's used for the camera and lighter activation.
11) Fixed guidebook texture quality for exorcism pages
12) New default and interact reticles.
13) Changed how item levitation looks.
14) There are now 3 randomly chosen personal objectives per round instead of the same 5 every round.
15) Fixed a bug with loadout configurations after adding the Thurible.
16) Fixed visual bug with exorcisms that made the demon visible before the demon phase.
17) Added new tutorial voice acting for the exorcisms.
18) Added the symbol players draw to both sides of the ritual stone instead of just one.
19) Fixed the exorcism book bug where it was rendered after anything else.
20) Fixed shoulder lamp position bug that had a chance to displace the shoulder lamp of other players.
21) Fixed visual bug with exorcisms that made the demon visible before the demon phase.
22) Replaced temporary tutorial voice lines with voice-acted lines.
23) Added the symbol players draw to both sides of the ritual stone instead of just one.
24) Fixed Exorcism book symbol and text textures showing through players.
25) Fixed shoulder lamp being missing from other players sometimes.
26) Fixed shoulder lights for portals sync bug.
27) Fixed player body position sync bug on startup.
28) Made circus spotlights invisible.
29) Removed some floating leaves from Starved Forest.
30) Fixed the van engine sound when leaving a match.

Balancing:

1) Made hunts less likely overall.
2) Added a Backpack and SoundGun to the tutorial's equipment.
3) Increased levitation event from 8 seconds to 30 seconds.
4) Increased chance of any event happening and decreased chance of demon anger increase from events.
5) Reduced the time it takes the Thurible to activate the ritual site by 1 second.
6) Increased the change of the levitation and demon visible ghost events by 300% because they are events associated with personal objectives.
This gives players a much better chance of being able to do them.
7) Increased demon visible event duration to 6 seconds from 3.
8) Increased levitation event from 8 seconds to 30 seconds.
9) Increased chance of event happening but decreased chance of demon anger increase from events.
10) Reduced the time it takes the Thurible to activate the ritual site by 1 second
11) Increased the chance of the levitation and demon visible ghost events by 300% because they are events associated with personal objectives. This gives players a much better chance of being able to do them.
12) Increased demon visible event duration to 6 seconds from 3 seconds.

Got ideas, suggestions, constructive criticisms, or thoughts on this update or the game in general? Join Daemonium's Discord and let me know! Many of the changes in this update—including the new exorcism mechanics—came directly from community feedback. Your input helps shape the future of Daemonium, so don’t be shy!