Greetings Talented Gamers!
The time has finally come to release Talented into the wild in its full 1.0 glory. We're extremely thankful to everyone who followed the game through its development over the years from a weekend game jam to a game we're confident provides hours and hours of fun!
The Compendium
All of Talented's major features can now be looked up in the Compendium.
Final Fight
New Boss fights, New Legendary Talents, New Skins and more with our final 12 new Challenges!
Completionist
A handful of new Achievements are here to complete our full set of 160! Complete all of the challenges, defeat Mastery 25 on all Classes and unlock the full compendium to earn yourself the title of Talented Master.
Balance
General
- Feared now always slows enemy movement speed by 50%
- Confused now has 33% lower duration each time it is applied to the same enemy
- Metallic Portal now only makes you immune to damage for the first 30 seconds of the Night (down from the entire Night)
- Talent Packages can now appear 15% lower on the Talent Tree
- Added a cap to the additional Talent Tree vision distance provided by Talents and Portals of 100%. Farseer Portal will now grant 25% bonus experience if you can no longer gain vision distance
Wizard
As promised, this update contains large passes for the remaining 4 classes. When approaching Wizard we were generally happy with the number of viable strategies Wizard had, so we focussed on bringing up the power of those lagging behind and reducing that of the outliers. We also added some new twists to the lesser selected Packages (e.g. Cold As Ice) that should make them more appealing in a variety of late game buids.
- Ability Power Up Core Talent reduced to 40% (down from 50%)
- Deep Learning's Rare/Epic/Ability/Legendary Bonus Chance is increased to 35% (up from 10%)
- Cosmic Lance damage increased to 3 (up from 1)
- Arcane Wand has been added to the base package - Your Basic Attacks have an 10% chance to fire an additional Magic Bolt that applies deals an additional 3 x Ability Power Damage
- Arcane Orbs has been reworked to [Power Orb] - Create an Orb that permanently orbits you. Your Orbs deal 2 additional damage
- Rousing Knowledge has replaced Untamed Knowledge in the base package
- Full House has been reworked - Learn a random unlearnt Ability, If you've learnt 4 abilities your the first time you cast each Ability each Night it is cast an additional time
- Untamed Knowledge has been moved to the Power Hungry Package as an epic with a 50% Activation Chance (up from 15%)
- Insight has been moved to the Outrageous Package and bonus experience increased to 20% (up from 15%)
- Power Creep has been reworked into an Epic in the Outrageous Package - Whenever you Critically Strike you gain 5% Ability Power until the end of the Night (up to 250%)
- Refractive Missile Activation Chance reduced to 35% (down from 50%)
- Gemmed Glove Activation Chance reduced to 10% (down from 12%)
- Surprise Factor reworked - The duration of Shocked and Wounded is increased by 10%
- Eureka! is now an epic Talent with a 35% Activation Chance (up from 10%)
- Intuition is now a rare Talent and affects your next 3 Rares (down from 5)
- Arcane Knowledge has been removed from the Power Hungry Package
- Flawless Execution has been changes to a Rare and now increases Ability Power by 40% (down from 100%)
- Crystal Orb has been renamed to Crystal Ball and no longer gives an Orb but the Bonus Experience is increased to 25% (up from 20%)
- If you have the maximum number of Orbs, Atomize will still duplicate a Special Orb (replacing a normal one with it)
- Orbular Knowledge has been replaced by Toxic Orb - Gain a Toxic Orb that applies decay to enemies it hits
- Orb Speed has been reduced by 25%
- Special Orbs (e.g. Glacial Orbs) now apply their special effect 50% of the time
- Super Effective's damage has been reduced to 2x Ability Power (down from 3x)
- Simple Interest now requires 2 unspent Talent Points (up from 1)
- Slightly randomized the drop location of meteors
- Meteor now has a cap of 10 active meteors at one time
- A new Talent, Expert Knowledge has replaced Thesis - Whenever you level up you have a 10% chance to Level Up an additional time
- A new Talent, Elemental Research has replaced Dissertation - Whenever you activate a Rare Talent you have a 50% chance to create an Elemental Sprite in a random lane (1 second cooldown)
- Royal Flush bonus experience reduced to 5% per Abilities (down from 10%)
- A new Ability, Conjure Weapon has replaced Studious in the Grind Em Up package - Create an enchanted staff in target direction that Attacks with 50% + (10% of Bonus Ability Power) of your Attack Speed for 10 seconds
- Ice Missiles has been reworked - Fire 4 Ice Missiles into random lanes that create a small explosion that deals 1 damage and applies Frostbite (Gain an additional Missile for every 10 Maximum Magic Points you have)
- Shatter has been reworked - Enemies that are Frostbitten have an additional 10% chance to be critically struck by Abilities (dealing 2x damage)
- Winter's Chill has been reworked - Frostbite slows by an additional 5% for every 20 Maximum Magic Points you have
- Wand Talents now have a 10% Chance to Activate (down from 12%)
Warrior
When approaching Warrior we came to realise there was quite a lot of work to do. Many of the Talent Packages felt subpar, attempting to create win conditions that would never really pay off. A lot of these packages just got in the way of the viable and fun ways to play Warrior, so we've doubled down on support for Throwing Weapons, defensive builds and size adding a ton more synergies. We've also added a few new tools to the Warrior toolbox.
- Tranquil Combo Health Regeneration rate reduced to 12% (down from 25%)
- Resistant Combo replaces Precise Combo in the Base Package
- Killstreak Hunter replaces Victory Pose in the base Package
- Harsh Lesson is now an Epic that provides 100% Experience Points on Hit Taken/Parry (up from 25%), this replaces Grindstone
- Blood Pact is now in the Base Package (replacing Intimidating Strike)
- Blood Pact's Health Cost is reduced to 10 (down from 15)
- Blood Pact's Cooldown is reduced to 5 seconds (down from 8s)
- Thrown Around has been reworked into an epic that applies Confused to enemies knocked back further than 0.75 distance (instead of deal 1 damage)
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the Back and Forth Package [Hammers!] - Every 3 seconds you throw a Hammer in a random direction that deals 25 x Knockback Distance
- Relentless is now an Epic granting twice as many hits on Strike Abilities (up from +1)
- Victory Pose has been moved to the Strike Out Package
- Pure Brilliance now grants 5 random Common Talents (down from one of each Common Talent)
- Precise Combo has been moved to the Combo Package
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the Deflection Package [Ruthlessness] - Once per Night, if you reach Maximum Rage your Parry Chance is increased by 2% for every 10 Rage until the end of the Night
- Reflectium is now a Rare and deals 1 x Attack Damage to parried enemies (down from 2x)
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the Get Back Up Package [Rejuvinate] - When you Regenerate Health Points you gain 5 kills on the Combo Meter
- A new Ability has been added to the Get Back Up Package [Flesh Pact] - Sacrifice 10 Health Points to gain 10% Size until the end of the Night (This effect will not break your current Combo)
- Defiant Stance has been changed to an Epic replacing Nature Unleashed in the Get Back Up Package. Health Requirement is reduced to 25% (down from 30%), Parry Chance is increased to 30% (up from 10%)
- Most Throwing Weapons now Activate every 4 seconds (up from 3s)
- Daggers! now have a 50% chance to Critically Strike (down from 100%)
- Spears! is now an Epic Talent that and throws 2 Spears (up from 1)
- Armoury bonus Throwing Weapon damage reduced to 10% (down from 25%)
- A new Ability has been added to the Throwing Weapons Package [Forge] - Throw a random Throwing Weapon in each direction, if you have at least 10 Throwing Weapon Talents/Abilities you throw another 2
- Megalophobia is now an Epic and gives a base 10% chance to fear approaching enemies (up from 4%)
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the In Charge Package [Onslaught] - Killing an enemy at least 3.5 range from you grants 2% Attack Speed until the end of the Night (up to 16%)
- Intimidating Strike replaces War Cry in the Horror Package
- A new Epic replaces Despair in the Horror Package [Cull the Weak] - Feared enemies give five kills on the Combo Meter
- On Point Attack Damage per stack increased to 2 (up from 1), Maximum Attack Damage increased to 6 (up from 5)
- Unbound Power now gives 5 additional Maximum Rage
- Earthquake's Knockback Distance has been reduced by 25%
- Well Aged has been reworked to - You gain 5% Bonus Experience for every 10 Maximum Health you have
- Mountain's Health Regeneration Rate Increase has been reduced to 25% (down from 30%)
Bandit
Generally speaking we're happy with where Bandit fell after the most recent changes to the Shop system. Instead of fixing what isn't broken, we've stuck to moving a few gameplay elements around and introduced some new support for Ability win conditions to help bring those in line with other, more prevalent strategies.
- The Activation Chance of all rounds Talents has been reduced to 15% (down from 25%)
- Initial Reload Time increased to 1.9 seconds (up from 1.75s)
- Critical Timing is replaced by a new Epic in the Core Talents [Liquid Assets] - The Ability in your first slot has its cooldown reduced by 35%
- Big Blind has been moved to the Base Package and replaces Top Dollar
- Savage Spree has been moved to the Base Package, replacing Hole in One
- Hole in One has been moved to the Agile Investment Package
- Lethal Spree has been moved to the Agile Investment Package
- Haggle has been moved to the Investment Package
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the Investment Package [Sniping Spree] - Whenever you enter a Shop you gain 0.15 Range until the end of the next Night
- Spending Spree has been moved to the Serial Spender Package
- A new Ability has been added to the Serial Spender Package [Deposit] - Fire 2 Treasures in random directions that deal 10 damage (Entering a Shop increases the number of Treasures fired up to 50)
- Club Card has been reworked - Gain 25 Gold. Learn a random Cash Out Talent somewhere on the Talent Tree
- Eyes on the Prize now grants a 5th Ability Slot if you do not have one already
- Top Dollar has been moved to the Refurbish Package
- Work For Hire now grants 10% Bonus Luck per Combo Level (up from 5%)
- New Hotness is now an Epic Talent and give 25% chance to activate Spree Talents on shop reroll (up from 10%)
- A new Rare Talent has been added to the Bluff Package [Enkindled Weapon] - Reload Speed is increased by 25% for 4 seconds whenever you use an ability
Alchemist
This was the most experimental class in Talented... I'll be doing a deeper dive into what we're happy and unhappy with in a future post, but needless to say Alchemist has been devisive. We're aware of the mixed feelings about limited resources and how Forage/Cultivate can feel like useless Talents in the late game but we've opted to stick with our original vision for the class and learn from it. We're still confident in the crafting mechanic and we're much happier with Runes after the rework last update so we still think there's a lot worth coming back to the class for.
Having said that we're still quite a bit we want to iterate on before releasing him into the wild. Many of the Potion Abilities felt weak and lots of the 3rd/4th ingredient options felt overly complex. We also didn't feel Throwing Weapons had enough support to be a viable win condition.
- Ice Nova gives 20% range (Instead of dealing additional damage to Frostbitten enemies)
- Arcane Nova Cooldown Reduction on kill increased to 1s (up from 0.5s)
- Sanguine Nova damage increased to 3 (up from 2)
- Vampiric Bolt to 100% Heal Chance (up from 40%)
- Flame Bolt now pierces Burning enemies (instead of dealing double damage to them)
- Volcanic Wave damage increased to 15 base (up from 10)
- Volcanic Wave damage reduction per hit increased to 3 (up from 2)
- Astral Wave now deals 2 damage when moving out and 5 on return (instead of 3 each way)
- Crimson Wave damage increased to 10 (up from 8)
- Crimson Wave now restores 5 HP if it kills at least 2 enemies
- Volatile (gained from a 3rd Cinderoot) now grants - This Ability has a 50% Critical Strike chance
- Rushing (gained from a 3rd Bubblebloom) now grants - This Ability applies a random Status Effect
- Impaling (gained from a 3rd Bloodthistle has been reworked to - [Rending] When this Ability kills an enemy they grant 50% additional experience
- of Potency (gained from a 4th Cinderoot) now increases Ability damage by 50% (instead of a flat 4 damage)
- of Demise (gained from a 4th Bloodthistle) no longer applies Wounded when Decay is already applied
- All Runes now detonate 2 times (down from 3)
- Potions! Ability Power scaling reduced to 2x (down from 3x)
- Refine's Experience Bonus reduced to 2% per activation (down from 5%)
- Refine now has a cap on Experience Bonus of 20%
- Revitalise Bonus Ability Power reduced to 8% per activation (down from 10%)
- Revitalise now has a cap on Ability Power of 80%
- Abundance additional Potion Charges increased to 5 (from 4)
- Four of a Kind has been replaced by [Cauldrons!] - Every 5 seconds you throw a Flask in a random direction that deals 3x Ability Power Damage, if it kills the enemy they turn into a random Loot Item
- Artisan Ability Power per Potion Craft reduced to 20% (down from 25%)
- Replenish Activation chance reduced to 20% (down from 25%)
- Deep Roots additional damage increased to 2 per second (up from 1 per second)
- Deep Roots maximum damage increased to 10 (up from 5)
- Communication Skills has been reworked to - Whenever you detonate a rune you gain 5% Ability Power until the end of the Night 250%
- Communication Skills replaces Archaeologist in the base package
- Archaeologist has been moved to the Rock and Stone package
- Curiosity is now a Rare Talent and grants - Whenever you detonate a Rune you gain 2% Experience Bonus until the end of the Night (up to 20%)
- Books! is now an Epic Talent and grants - Every 10 seconds you throw a Book in a random direction that deals damage equal to your Level, kills with Books grant double Experience Points
- Farmer Talents now give a random ingredient other than the one that Activates them (instead of an additiona ingredient you already have)
- The Activation Chance of all Farmer Talents is increased to 12% (up from 10%)
- Thistle Whistle now also gives Scarlet Lance an additional 30% range
- Retrace has been replaced by a new Talent [Chakrams!] - Every 5 seconds you throw a Gem in a random direction that deals 3 + (1 x Abilities used this Night)
- Scavange has been replaced by a new Talent [Scepters!] - Every 5 seconds you throw a Gem in a random direction that deals 3 + (1 x Items Looted this Night) damage
- Rousing Knowledge now grants 10% Ability Power on Level Up (up from 5%)
- Rousing Knowledge now has a 100% Ability Power Cap
- Pitcher time between Throwing Weapons reduction reduced to 8% (down from 10%)
- Ace now has a 25% chance to throw an additional Throwing Weapon (down from 100%)
Challenges
- The Arms Race Challenge now unlocks at Mastery 20 (up from Mastery 15)
- The Archer's Zombies! Challenge now unlocks at Mastery 25 (up from Mastery 20)
- Sharp Shooter reward changed to a new Robot Skin
- Investor Reward Changed to Diamond Rounds Legendary Talent
- Enemy Speed reduced by 20% in Threat: Smushroom
- Enemy Spawn Rate reduced by 25% in Threat: Smushroom
- Removed Chefs Hat and Abundance from Black Market Challenge
- You now begin with the Fireball Ability in the Wisdom is Power Challenge
- Wisdom is Power now has a 125% Bonus Experience (up from 100%)
- Abilities now spawn lower in the Talent Tree in the Wisdom is Power Challenge
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where enemies could still burrow when affected by Cyclone
- Fixed an issue where the Plug and Play Achievement could be unlocked on Alchemist
- Character Size can no longer be reduced below 100%
- Fixed an issue where Character Size could be reduced more than it was added by Bloodlust and Megalophobia
- Added the correct icon to the Round Robin Talent
- Self Inflicted/Mastery Damage no longer removed the affect of Mega Mush
- Fixed an issue where shots per basic attack could be reduced below the default amount in some cases
- Fixed an issue causing unbound power to not increase the duration of unleashed Abilities
- Fixed an issue where electric hook would throw a hook over all enemies when the player had a lot of character size increase
- Electric Hook's pull to distance now increases based on enemy size and character size
- The Disable Gamepad Input setting now works correctly
- Fixed an issue causing the Light Reading Achievement to not unlock correctly
- Fixed an issue causing Secret Sigil to be unlocked
- Pew Pew can no longer be unlocked with Abilities other than Magic Missiles
- Curiosity now correctly activates when the Rune is hit by an ability (instead of after it finishes exploding)
- Pausing and Unpausing on Gamepad will no longer cause Resolution to change when attacking left or right
- The Futurist Achievement can no longer be unlocked by learning only the Vortech Shrink Ray Ability
- Fixed various typos and out of date descriptions
Performance
We've made tremendous progress with performance just in time for our full release. To help us benchmark we added a new development tool that adds every single Talent (including every Talent Package at Bonus Package level!) and a random set of Abilities to the player character. Then we also added every single enemy bonus. During internal tests we were unable to crash the game and saw framerate improvements of 5-10x after our changes.
- Added a maximum cap to how many Attacks can be on screen (this is extremely large and will only come into effect when framerate drops very low)
- Elemental Sprites now correctly respect the Attack Per Frame Cap
- Added a cap to how many Game Events can resolve in a frame (the rest will happen in the next, hopefully shorter, frame)
- Added a minimum time between screenshake events
- Added a minimum time between enemy hit glows
- Magic Missiles, Icicles and Roll the Bones can now only be used again once the ability has completed
- Added 0.1s Cast Times to non-projectile Abilities. Increased the Cast Times of Projectile Abilities to 0.25s (with the exception of Axe Toss)
- Added a cap to how many on-hit events can execute in a single frame
Note: Although some of these changes do have an affect on gameplay, you will only see those come into effect in extremely cases. For example in our experience only Wizard and Alchemist can ever hit the cap on On Hit Events (usually due to the same Status Effect attempting to be applied multiple times).
Having said that we will be on the lookout for bugs!
Quality of Life
- Added a minimum Bonus Experience of 100 (effectively 10 days survived) to Challenges no matter how short they are
- Metallic Portals now have a visual Shield that is removed when the effect is removed
- Added a description for the affect of bonus talent packages
Of course we don't expect the game to be perfect, we'll be keeping a close eye on the feedback as usual and will be releasing minor patches as we go. We've done our absolute best to fix all of the major issues we knew about, but roguelikes always come with surprises! As always...
Stay Talented