Hello miners,
The Astrologer Update is now available!
The 13th hero is here and I hope you'll enjoy experimenting with its powers. With a major focus on Shock synergy, the Astrologer also opens new combo with the Curse and should be a really good companion to the Cursed Apostle, a character that has been a bit left behind since the release.
This patch doesn't contain a lot of new content but includes major changes to the scoring system to make it easier to understand and also a big change to the Mithril Shards required to unlock new Perks points. The maximum level has also been increased from 15 to 20. For comparison, you can check some examples below:
Case Examples | Before the Update | After the Update |
|---|---|---|
Level 14 to 15 | 103 Mithril Shards | 32 Mithril Shards |
From level 0 to max level | 608 Mithril Shards (level 15) | 420 Mithril Shards (level 20) |
As said before, the Perk System is here to customize your experience with the game and I think those extra points will provide more flexibility and opportunities to customize your experience.
A lot of other changes has been made, including the ability to speed up the camera, a better highligh of important values in tooltip among other changes.
Patch Highlights
New hero: the Astrologer
Scoring System & Run Recap Rework
Maximum level of Perks increased from 15 to 20
Mithril Shards grind reduction
Quality of Life changes and Bug Fixes
Steam Reviews: Your Feedback Matters
If you like the game, please consider leaving a review at it is a major way to help Hold The Mine. I've been reading through all your Steam reviews, and I appreciate the feedback we've been receiving. Your support is important!
Patch Notes - Early Access Version 0.7.5
The Leaderboard has been reset to take into account all of the changes!
Addition
Added the 13th hero into the game: the Astrologer, a very unique character with an infinite scaling summon and a big focus on the Shock synergy.
Added an extra setting allowing players to adjust the camera movement speed from x1 to x2 (with adjustments possible in increments of 0.1).
Increases the amount of points to unlock for the perks from 15 to 20 max.
Balancing (+)
Reduced Flying Skull enemy base health from 70 to 40 and base speed from 40 to 38.
Mithril Shards requirement for Perks has been adjusted to make the progression feel much less grindy.
Sparks (Wizard Power) damage percentage has been increased from 30 to 60%.
Knight base damage has been increased from 8 to 9.
Other Changes
Values in descriptions (such as hero’s powers) are now colored to facilitate text reading.
Boss effects at night now only happen every 10 days. Their day effects stay active every 5 days like before.
Depth reached in the mine, resources collected, types of monster killed and the rarity of buildings no longer grant score points.
All enemies now grant the same amount of score points.
The recap at the end of the run has been reworked. It now properly shows the information that matters for the score calculation and performs the calculation step by step. The Mithril Shards are now filling the perk experience bar right after the score calculation, to provide a better understanding of the perk system and increase the rewarding feeling.
Quests completed during a run have an unlock reminder in the end recap to better highlight hero/building/block/relic unlocked for future runs.
The difficulty selection menu is now visible from the very first run (only the first difficulty can be selected, you still need to win a run in a certain difficulty to unlock the next difficulty).
The difficulty multiplier has been changed to avoid rounded values. There are now x1, x2 and x3 depending on difficulty.
Endless Mode is now accessible from the very first run.
The Quests Panel in the Main Menu now clearly states that the element shown in the image is unlocked, as it wasn’t very clear each quest unlocked a new content for future runs.
Magic Mirror Building’s visual has been updated so it can fit better with the background of the mine, no matter what the biome is.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where in case of defeat, the game could be locked into an infinite black screen if it occurs on a night with the Meteor Shower event.
Fixed an issue where going back to the main menu at the end of a run could lock the game.
Fixed an issue with Savings Perk where it was granting 7 coins on day 15 instead of the intended 15 coins on day 7.
Fixed an issue where Critical Damage displayed value in different texts was incorrect.
Fixed an issue in the Ice biome where the mine background would switch to the regular biome one in the deepest part.
Fixed an issue preventing Hunter Pin relics from dropping during any run.
Fixed an issue preventing all relics to be displayed on the leaderboard panel if you collected a certain amount.
Fixed an issue where the shop button at the top of the screen when mining is over would show up even if the demolition service was gone.
What's Next?
Next update will be released next month (in august). As I continue to improve the game and existing aspects thanks to your feedback, I plan to make several changes and additions to the current run structure to make every run feel more unique and each choice made matter even more.
The default run duration is only 10 days, after what you either exit the run victorious or continue to push your build into endless mode. This means a lot of people could miss the pleasure to develop and specialize further their custom build and all the joy to see waves of enemies crushed by their heroes in the chaos of endless mode. I'd like to extend this base duration to 20 days. Endless will still be accessible after this.
A new type of event will be added to the game, offering decisive choice and helping you customize the run further. Mid run saving will be possible once this last addition is made, or shortly after depending on how fast I can implement all of those.
To give you more perspective, here are a non exhaustive list of upcoming content and changes:
New buildings, relics and gems
New type of blueprints and relic chests in the mine, with guaranteed rare drops
New type of events and additional weather events
A compendium incl. all information about heroes, enemies, buildings,...
Base run length extension from 10 to 20 days
Mid run saving
Hero damage ranking
Custom dfficulty mode
New perks and quests
And many other things...
But what about Conquest Mode?!
Conquest Mode is currently in active development! As it still requires a lot of work, it is unlikely the first chunk of content of this mode will be available before september. But it is coming, rest assure this new game mode is not abandoned at all.
Here is a small teaser for it....
That's all for today. Thank your for your support, don't forget to leave a review if you haven't done it already.
Paci
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