[ GAMEPLAY -- ENEMIES ]
A majority of non-boss enemies have changed how they behave, sometimes drastically
This experiment is to test whether the game is more fun with more "active" and "reactive" enemies. As you can see, they now use "Trigger Tags" more often.
I might try to post a little more in future patch notes about it, but let me see if players enjoy it or not.
Several even have the same title ("Persistent", "Mirroring", "Greedy", and "Mysterious") but have changed effects.
Old Persistent: "Revive at one 1 health after getting defeated"
New Persistent: "Unlock Chest: Heals to full health"
Old Mirroring: "Hit with Rock, increase attack by 1."
New Mirroring: "Pop Rock: Drop Rock in crate."
Old Greedy: "End Turn: Removes a gold coin from crate"
New Greedy: "Forge Gold Coin: Attacks, removes gold coin, and drops gold nugget."
Old Mysterious: "Hides one of the drops needed to unlock"
New Mysterious: "Unlock Chest: Drops common gacha in crate." (Still hides one of the drops needed to unlock.)
As enemies are more reactive, health has been reduced 15%, except for Flighty. Flighty has had health increased drastically, approximately 900%. I know this sounds ridiculous, but if you unlock his chest, he flies away! Flighty's attack was also reduced 25%.
"Reflective" Mid-Run Boss has also been altered. He now only gives 3 tar, and only increases the tar / attack when you forge a gem, rather than anytime a rock is popped. Thus, you can potentially kill him entirely by forging coins if you play around his reactions and tar.
"Furious" Battle Modifier only impacts non-boss enemies. Getting hit by 40+ damage in the first turn purely as a result of the battle modifier was a bit too rough. (However, if you show up to the boss with a crate filled to the brim, it will still hit hard!). Also, I need to debug this modifier more, I think it's still running into issues, which is odd as it used to work fine.
[ GAMEPLAY -- HEALTH ]
Health potions in Chests increased, approximately doubled
Health Spots on map now give 25 health instead of 20. (This may be changed in the future.) This means the "Bed" Shovel gives 50 instead of 40 at those spots.
[ GAMEPLAY -- SHOVELS + HANDLES ]
Gold Rush slight nerf -- Used to decrease 2 for each gold coin forged, now decreases 3 (will never go below 0). The Upgrade was slightly altered too -- used to increase 3, now increases 2.
Gold Rush Handle changed, but will need to be changed again so don't get too used to it.
Coal Brawn upgrade (Level 2) now gives 1 Coal to coffer instead of 2. Leaning toward making this item "Ultra Rare".
I think I'm forgetting a few, I'm sorry but need to sleep.
[ FEEDBACK ]
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and feedback! I selected some of the anonymous feedback below and wanted to share my reflections.
"Too easy and enemy variety are two parts of the same thing. I did not feel like I had to see what enemies did in order to do well, so there was not a meaningful difference between types except bosses. Graphics picked because pulling off a combo doesn't quite have the rush or excitement it deserves. Could do with some sounds or extra flare to the graphics."
I've tried revising the non-boss enemies in response to your comment (which other players also shared). Enemies are now more reactive and I recommend reading what they do, though I need to improve how this is communicated to players.
I also feel like I could do more to express the joy of getting a series of combo forges with sound effects. That and the Bomb explosion in particular could really use some improvement, in my estimation. I'm sorry I hope to get to them soon-ish, but I want to iterate on the gameplay a bit more first.
"The fonts look a little silly in the shop. The difficulty felt like it ramped up too quickly."
Fonts are definitely one of my weak spots. I'm hoping to implement something that lets players opt in for a different font, but it's on the to do list. I tried smoothing out the difficulty in this patch, which I think generally feels a little easier in some ways (healing, enemy health), but a little harder in others (enemies matter a little more). Still, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
"Merchant is kind of crazy overpowered"
I'm slightly glad you feel this way! His power took a lot of iterations and was kind of underwhelming for a little while. But rest assured, by the time it's depth 10, I think he's more "in line" with other characters at depth 10 (the demo goes up to depth 3). In general, I find Merchant to also rely on the shop RNG quite a bit (he is a merchant, after all). So runs can be a LITTLE more swingy.
However, that being said, I haven't played Merchant much since the new shop was redone. It's possible that his Debt Letter(s) are not really that formidable given the empty slots. I will have to playtest some more.
(PS: Merchant is also kind of nice for unlocking Gold Crate, at least on paper)