After 10 months of development and iteration, Dark Hunters has finally reached its 1.0 official release!
During these 10 months of Early Access, I've received an abundance of feedback and suggestions from hunters. Every piece of input has been immensely valuable in refining and updating game.
Below is a brief overview of major updates from Early Access to the current version. If you purchased the game during EA, this will give you a clear way to know the changes implemented:
The following version numbers correspond to EA releases:
- v1.0 - Added game pause, expanded settings options, released RoadMap for future updates
- v1.0.3 - Added quick repeat challenges for bosses
- v1.0.6 - Added cloud saves and auto-craft
- v1.0.7 - Added build presets; all build components can be saved separately for easy switching
- v1.1 - Added new gear craft method: Remnants; initial adjustments to Chaos Craft
- v1.2 - Added new Skills, Relics, Slates, and Cores
- v1.2.2 - Reworked Ignite mechanics and introduced the Aggravation mechanic for damage over time
- v1.3 - Added the Cognition System, removed level caps, and introduced new skills, relics, slates, and Abyss Eye affixes
- v1.3.2 - Initial performance optimization
- v1.3.5 - Added Abyss Path and Resonance Crystals, granting rewards based on highest scores in the Infinite Abyss. And Resonance Crystals allow copying other hunters' items. Adjusted Abyss mechanics.
- v1.3.6 - Unified damage reduction mechanics
- v1.4.0 - Overhauled drop and crafting systems; introduced Chaos-tier drops and Exclusive-Drop affixes; added item filters; removed item SP; redesigned Chaos Craft to Deeply Chaos; revamped Remnants effects. Reworked merchant system; removed VIP system, replacing its functions with unlock-free or difficulty-based access; significantly adjusted the Order system.
- v1.4.1 - Remastered some skills, enabled auto-release for charged skill, corrected English translations.
- v1.4.2 - Added new skills and relics.
- v1.4.3 - Completed controller support, optimized gameplay smoothness
The full release will additionally include the following:
Expert Mode and Cruel Difficulty
Expert Mode allows only one death; upon dying, you will be forced to switch to Standard Mode.
Cruel Difficulty offers an even greater challenge, with monsters' life and damage significantly increased.
New Pathway - The Guardian
Features 3 base skills, 5 skill variants, and a corresponding Guardian talent tree with 8 core talents.
Appearance Customization
New character appearance changes and little guy appearance changes
Character appearances unlock upon meeting specific conditions, while little guy appearances can be unlocked via secret codes or by spending 1 Resonance Crystal.
Here are 2 codes: 233, Hastur
Steam Achievements
Added 14 new Steam achievements. Most unlock based on existing game progress, while a few require re-completing achievements even if already met before this update.
Text Localization
Corrected text across languages where possible.
Added Polish language support.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the people involved in the translation !
New Relics
Earthshatter (Unlocked at White Skeleton 5 difficulty)
- Unique: Hammer become Earthshatter
- +n% Fury effect
Spirit Hammer (Unlocked at Green Skeleton 3 difficulty)
- Unique: Hammer's form changes to Spiral Hammer
- +n% duration of Spiral Hammer
Holy Mark (Unlocked at Green Skeleton Level 2)
- Unique: Holy Judgement's form changes to Enchantment
- Restores n mana per second
Cross of Thorns (Unlocked at Green Skeleton Level 5)
- Unique: Holy Judgement's form changes to into Guilt
- +n% Endurance effect
Holy Hauberk (Unlocked at Green Skeleton Level 4)
- Unique: Defense's form changes to Holy Blessing
- +n% all resistances
Twin (Unlocked at White Skeleton difficulty 4)
- Unique: Number of projectiles and melee attacks equals the highest of the two.
- +n% projectile damage
- +n% melee damage
Heavy Rock (Unlocked at Purple Skeleton 2 difficulty)
- Unique: +n Maximum Endurance
- n% less damage
Straw Coat (Unlocked at Purple Skeleton 3 difficulty)
- Unique: +30% Maximum Dodge Chance
- Unique: Dodging no longer prevents hits, but instead reduces damage taken by 60%
- +n% Dodge Chance
Ring of Anger (Unlocked at Green Skeleton 5 difficulty)
- Unique: 【Endurance】 no longer provides Damage Reduction, but instead provides 5% chance to deal double damage
- +n% Endurance Effect
Ape Wine (Unlocked at Purple Skeleton 5 difficulty)
- Unique: Gain Drunk on dodge
- +n% Dodge Chance
Bloodlust (Unlocked at Purple Skeleton 4 difficulty)
- Unique: Gain additional Maximum Fury, equal to double Maximum Endurance
- Unique: Endurance has no effect
- +n% Fury effect
New Slates
Explosive Projectile (Unlocked at Green Skeleton 1 difficulty)
- Projectiles fired by supported skill explode after 0.5 seconds or at the end of their flight The explosion deals Physical Damage equal to n% of Skill Power
New Exclusive Drop Suffixes:
- +n% All Resistance
- +1 Maximum Endurance
Balance Adjustment:
- Slate - Multiple Attacks's Additional attack chance increased to 30%/45%/60%/80%/100% (previously 30%/35%/40%/50%/60%)
- Relic - Shadow of Conspiracy: Additional attack chance increased to 40%/70%/100%/150%/200% (previously 20%/40%/60%/100%/140%)
- Relic - Shadow of Conspiracy: Effect changed to be Unique
- Shot - Normal: Skill power bonus increased to 20 (was 15)
- Stab - Normal skill power bonus increased to 25 (was 20)
- Stab - Spear skill power bonus increased to 20 (was 15)
- Mana Ball - Meteorite skill power bonus increased to 50 (was 30)
- Flash - Descent skill power bonus increased to 80 (was 20)
- Stab - Broken Blade new trait: Projectile count greater than 6 will be converted into more damage based on the excess count.
- Slate - Mechanical turret changes: “n% less skill power” number changed to 70%/68%/66%/63%/60% (previously 50%/47%/44%/40%/35%) Base attack gap increased to 1 second (previously 0.75 seconds)
- Slate - Energy Crystal changes: “n% less skill power” number changed to 70%/68%/66%/63%/60% (previously 60%/58%/56%/53%/50%) +1 cast per 200 mana cost (previously +1 cast per 30 mana cost) There can be a maximum of 3 Energy Crystal (previously 5) Base duration reduced to 5 seconds (previously 10 seconds)
- Slate - Armor Break Changes: Armor Break stacks applied on hit increased to 2/4/6/8/10 (previously 1/2/3/4/5)
- Weak effect adjusted from “Deal 15% less damage” to “Deal 25% less damage”
- Fragile effect adjusted from “+35% chance to be Critically Hit” to “+60% chance to be Critically Hit”
- Accurate effect adjusted from “+40% Critial Chance” to “+100% Critial Chance”
- The life restored upon kill by Relic - Bloodthirsty Fangs has been increased to 5%/6%/7%/8.5%/10% (previously 2%/2.5%/3%/4%/5%).
- Total duration increase provided by Relic-Pattern of Continuation reduced to 30%/35%/40%/50%/60% (previously 50%/60%/70%/85%/100%)
- Relic - Persecution: “Deal n% more damage per Elemental Ailment on the target” increased to 8%/10%/12%/15%/18% (previously 5%/7%/9%/12%/15%)
- Relic - Sundering Blade's Armor Break effect increased to 30%/40%/50%/65%/80% (previously 20%/25%/35%/40%/50%)
- Critical Damage provided by Relic - Extreme Balance increased to 120%/150%/180%/220%/260% (previously 100%/120%/140%/170%/200%)
- Relic - Eternal Guardian now reduces Barrier effect by 60%/55%/50%/45%/40% (previously 80%/75%/70%/65%/60%)
- Abyssal Eye - Necromancer now more summoned minion damage by 25% (previously 20%)
- Abyssal Eye - Dark Tree Guard's maximum spirit bonus increased to 25 (was 20)
- Abyssal Eye - Dark Tree Guard's Dark Power effect increased to 20%/60% (was 10%/40%)
Other Adjustments:
- Reduced the Breath cost of hunting bosses before reaching Purple Skeleton difficulty.
- Fixed an issue where the difficulty increase for high-quality hunting missions wasn't working properly.
- Fixed an issue where missions could be refreshed without unlocking Cognition - Shepherd.
- Fixed an issue where some monster special effects weren't displaying properly.
- Fixed an issue where monsters would sometimes continue moving after pausing.
- Fixed an issue where Shot - Flying Blade wouldn't disappear properly after returning.
- Increased the base movement speed of some monsters.
- Increased the base movement speed of all elite monsters.
- Increased the attack frequency of some monsters.
- Reduced the Chaos Avatar's resistance at lower difficulties.
- Reduced experience gain in the early game (will gradually return to its previous rate as the difficulty increases, and will be the same after Purple difficulty).
- Reduced the amount of experience rewarded by hunting missions.
- Improved the accuracy of projectile detection when the number of projectiles is low.
- Improved the lag issue caused by excessive projectiles in the late game.
- Switching to another interface in the Craftsman and then back again no longer requires reselecting an item.
- Adjusted the difficulty of unlocking some relics.
- Now displays a notification indicating that the current maximum difficulty has been reached.
- Guardian - Wraith, Stab - Spirit Blade, and Assassination - Shadow Clone summons now ignore terrain.
- Dash - Clash now charges in the specified direction instead of the current direction.
- Slash - Dash now moves in the target direction instead of the target point.
- Added a feature in the search box that forces a search to occur within quotation marks (e.g., "% Skill Strength").
- Added a tooltip to the search box that explains the use of special characters to assist in searching.
- The character interface now displays the values for "Endurance Effect" and "Infusion Effect"
- Adjusted the display format for Void Breath in the inventory.
- And many more adjustments not mentioned in this update.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where projectile velocity was abnormal on some PCs, causing projectile range to be shorter than expected.
- Fixed an issue where the Abyss Herald's arrival notification incorrectly appeared on Orange Skull 1 difficulty.
- Fixed an issue where reopening the Abyss did not consume Abyss Stars properly.
- Fixed an issue where the Abyss Eye stripping did not consume Abyss Stars properly.
- Fixed an issue where the difficulty unlocking Relic and Deeply Chaos at the Craftsman was incorrect.
- Fixed a bug where the skill bonuses of some skills were calculated twice when equipped with a Sprite Warrior, Energy Crystal, or Mechanical Turret. Currently known skills affected by this bug are: Nova - Normal, Sword Qi - Blood Blade.
- Fixed a bug causing skills released with Energy Crystals to have a larger area of effect than intended.
- Fixed a bug causing some skills to receive double bonuses from certain affixes on their Slates when equipped with Sprite Warriors, Energy Crystal, and Mechanical Turret.
- Fixed an issue where Sniper 3's "All Focus will be consumed when releasing a Charged skill You deal 5% more damage for each layer consumed" was not working properly.
- Fixed a bug where the "n% of elemental damage received is treated as normal damage" and "n% of normal damage received is converted to random elemental damage" setting were not working correctly. When both settings are enabled, "n% of normal damage received is converted to random elemental damage" is calculated first, followed by "n% of elemental damage received is treated as normal damage."
- And many more bugs not mentioned in this update.
We have successfully completed most of the promises made in the Roadmap, and Dark Hunting Grounds has reached a relatively complete point, ready for a full release.
A huge thank you to all the hunters who supported Dark Hunting! And to everyone who shared valuable feedback!
With your help, we've made this game even better and more complete!
Thank you so much!
In addition, there are currently 2 bundles of the game on sale, which include outstanding works from two other independent game teams. If you are interested in looting games, you may want to take a look!