Preyers,
before we get to the actual list of changes, here are some words from Adrian, out Creative Director:
We've counted. You wrote one thousand comments about the World Corruption feature in the latest update corrupting your experience. The comments were of all kinds: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll take that any day of the week over indifference. I’m happy people feel strong enough about the game to sacrifice their time to give feedback. But also, you’re simply right. World Corruption was not just imbalanced. It made the game switch genres. The gameplay philosophy of Witchfire is escalation, but only due to player mistakes. In other words, the player dictates the pacing as long as they’re in control. Inevitably, mistakes happen, and then chaos ensues. Think of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. As long as Indy controlled the situation, pointing out and disabling traps, things were fine. One mistake swapping the idol for sand, and then all hell broke loose. World Corruption changed that dynamic. No matter your skill, no matter how smart you played - sooner or later the game interfered with your actions. You were unable to control the pacing. That works for some really great games, but that’s not Witchfire. How did we miss it? Well, things obvious now weren’t that obvious yesterday. Also, Witchfire is still an Early Access game. There is no better time to experiment than now. There is something really cool about World Corruption, so we will keep the feature… but in a new form. You can see the new approach in today’s patch. Until you pick up a Latent Orb, World Corruption is more of a spice than a dish. Just like patrols or minibosses before - something to mess with your plans just a bit. The true hell unleashes only if you pick up the Latent Orb (which no longer slows you down). And Latent Orbs are optional; you do not need them to finish the game, even if they do offer some of the coolest rewards. But now - that is your choice. This is a quick patch to remedy the most painful elements of World Corruption. We hope to have the final version of the feature later this week. Thanks again for the feedback, and never stop being honest with us. It is the only way to make the game we all want to play. Adrian
And now the all important change list:
PATCH 0.8.1 (67992)
(2025.12.15)
Changes to World Corruption:
- Rifts are now much bigger, have lowered trigger range.
- Rifts' idle sound is louder and can be heard from further away.
- Disabled Corruption fog as it was causing visibility issues in many places.
- World Corruption now builds up slower with lower Gnosis and faster with higher.
- World Corruption now caps at a lower intensity depending on your Gnosis level.
- Witchfire Whirlwinds should now stay out of enclosed spaces and dissipate if they somehow make it into one.
- Reduced the amount of Madness Orbs.
- Latent Orb no longer slows the player down, but its pickup ramps up both World Corruption and its cap to the maximum possible value.
- World Corruption now affects Hunt intensity at a lower rate.
- Hunt now properly caps its spawns. Increasing World Corruption increases the number of waves, with a very significant increase at the highest possible World Corruption level.
- Removed Latent Orb slowdown effect.
- Added Latent Orb tutorial.
Additional information: the patrols on World Corruption Tier 5 are now kind of infinite, but they are spaced differently - it's no longer a crazy bomb rush, but if you want to explore every bit of a map during a single run while still having someone to shoot, it is very much possible.
Changes to weapons and gear:
Tribunal:
- Increased base damage by 25%.
- Decreased base ammo reserves by 20%.
- Increased M1 lightning power by 20%.
- Increased M3 explosion power from 25 to 50.
Designer note: damage increase helps Tribunal reach many breakpoints, which substantially improves its performance, but also ammo efficiency, which was already pretty good.
Martyr:
- Lowered nail snap chance while punching into the environment by 50%.
- Fixed nails affecting friendly characters.
- Reduced nail snap chance on the first two re-applies.
- Changed the maximum number of nails existing at the same time from 30 to 15.
Designer note: nail breaking is meant to keep nail damage from piling up in prolonged fights, but its current version punished too heavily for missing the magnetized nail.
Katar:
- Improved damage by 25%.
- Improved charged hit range by 20%.
- Improved lunge range by 20%.
- Charged attack animation sped up by 30%.
- Lunge landing animation sped up by 30%.
Witchfire Crystal Bead
- Greatly increased the amount of spell charge gained on crystallised Witchfire pickup across the board.
Dash Immunity Bead
- Halved the stamina cost increase (from +50% to +25%).
- Reduced the immunity period duration from 0.5 sec to 0.3 sec.
Blessed Fire Bead
- Increased the power of the Burn effect applied by the Blessed Fire bead.
Stamina Sigil Bead:
- Increased stamina gained on sigil break from 25 to 50.
Acute Ailment Bead
- Further decreased ailment duration, from -50% to -70%.
Brawler Bead
- Decreased uncharged melee damage bonus from 400% to 300%.
- Fixed Brawler bead only working with fists melee.
Summoning grounds:
- Summoning Grounds: fixed Blunderbusser not unlocking.
- Summoning Grounds: Shieldbearer is now a Faithful (not Familiar).
- Summoning Grounds: Stone Golem is now a Major enemy (not Familiar).
- Fixed Witchfire Basin not regenerating all ammo.
Miscellaneous fixes:
- Lowered the amount of Madness inflicted by the statues in the Island of the Damned Vault.
- Inspect screen now displays correct values for new weapons.
- Fixed 'Unveil Mysterium' button being too wide.
- Fixed Irongate Castle Vault completion blocker.
- Fallen Preyer Sefer: improved trap detection.
- Updated the 'Calamities' page in the Handbook: it now reflects recent changes and correctly shows 'Madness' instead of 'Sanity'.
- Adjusted chest spawns to be better placed in the environment.
- Witch-corrupted turrets should now be easily identifiable from player-charged ones.
- Fixed an issue that could cause stutters during World Corruption events.
- Changed idle sounds for Ammo Shrines in the Witch Mountain.
- Fixed disappearing Preyer Mask Shards in Outskirts.
- Fixed disappearing Gold pickups in Outskirts.
Give the new patch a try and keep the feedback coming.
Cheers!