Hello adventurers! This week's patch is chock full of fixes, balance tweaks, highly-requested QOL improvements, and some new features. Maxed-out corral pets are being toned down while summoned pets are getting a little tougher; Item Dreams are getting more monster variety. Several new visual options have been added, along with new keybindings. The Fast Travel dialog is better than ever.
All of the above, and more! Full notes are below. But we also want to announce that we're putting the finishing touches on the internal tech needed to support localization of the game to virtually any language. This was a big project but it will be absolutely worth it, as about 99.9% of the game's text is now sourced from a single file. We're in talks now to begin the actual localization work and hopefully release in other languages beginning sometime in Q2.
On to the notes!
CORRAL PET BALANCE
We’ve observed that the maximum potential for corral pets is extremely high. A maxed-out pet is nigh-unstoppable, dealing thousands of damage per hit and taking almost none. We think your pet should not be massively stronger than the hero, but at the same time, we don’t want to make lower-level, non-bred pets useless. The following changes are meant to tone down the upper limit of pet power, but also make it a bit easier to get to that limit.
BALANCE
- Paladin’s Radiant Aura now costs 12 Energy per block (up from 9), Skill Orb version costs 14 Energy (up from 10)
- Seraph’s Tear’s heal on block effect now only triggers if you are under 50% Health
- Sword Dancer’s Qi Mastery now restores 3-5 Energy on crit (down from 3-6).
- Reduced the Token cost of Casino items by about 50%. They should be much more accessible now.
- Many monster abilities that dealt fixed damage regardless of level now scale with monster level. This should help if, for example, you get a Salamander or Alchemist and breed it with stronger monsters.
- The “Familiars” magic mod now grants summoned pets +10% Health and +5% defense (instead of +15% Health)
- All summoned pets now gain an extra 1% defense per player level
- Deadly Riposte (3rd sword mastery) now grants +50% counter damage, down from +100%.
- Abilities like Hail of Arrows and Relentless Current with a ‘windup’ now use the power of the weapon equipped when first casting the power. Previously, they used the power of the weapon equipped when the power finally executed.
- Slightly reduced JP scaling from monsters higher than you in level
- Reduced award JP scaling of higher level rumors
- Reworked the Floraconda’s “Bed of Thorns” skill (from Floramancer tier2 passive). This is now a fixed-position ability that the Floraconda uses if there are enemies in melee range. It does not follow the Floraconda around. The damage is also lower now, but it does stack with YOUR Bed of Thorns, and it can be recast more often.
- Modified spawn tables in Fungal Caves. Floracondas will now start appearing on 8F (instead of 7F), and River Spirits on 10F (instead of 9F).
- Blood Frenzy (Airacudas passive) no longer lasts forever once triggered
BUGS
- Fixed Casino text referencing winning gold instead of tokens.
- Fixed bug where Spellshaper’s Kinetic Magic would not activate until you dropped below 50% Stamina - it should activate *at* 50% Stamina
- Fixed Sneak Attack triggering bug
- Using Shield Slam multiple times should correctly stack the effect AND refresh duration
- Fixed bug where summoned pets were not getting the +25% Health bonus in New Game+ as intended
- Shadowstep should now cause bleeding to targets around the tile YOU land on, not the tile you *clicked* on
- When extracting a mod from an equipped or hotbarred item, the item should now be completely unequipped and removed from your hotbar
- Fixed bug with spawn rates on floors with Fungal Columns. Previously, killing columns would increase the overall spawn rate permanently.
- Fixed sprite clipping bug when moving from the southeast and southwest
- Item Dream monster healing crystals no longer affect friendly monsters
- Fixed bug where Overdrawing quiver mod was not working correctly when firing ranged weapons with the mouse
- Fixed bug where Ramirel’s Dismantler was not using a lower proc rate vs. hostile enemies
- Fixed bug with Wild Child’s “Foraging” passive where Health herbs never spawned (health herbs restore about 8% max health, modified by Spirit)
- It should no longer be possible to push or pull the final boss (phase 1)
- Fixed bug where ace-high Straight was not recognized by Gambler’s Wild Cards (yes, I know this bug is ridiculously obscure)
- Fixed bug with water, mud, and electric visuals that could occur sometimes on load
- Fixed bug with pull effects where the player could sometimes end up on top of friendly pets (or vice versa)
- Friendly Airacudas will now reliably use Fish Rush
- Fixed bug with Watery Heal and several other monster powers
- Fixed bug with Radiant Aura that was causing it to heal 2x as much as intended
- Fixed bug (again) where items with 5 mods could not handle a free additional Skill orb as intended
- Fixed bug where pressing anything on the keyboard would hide comparison info in shops the after using the mouse
- Spinebro / Quillkin corral pets should no longer become immobile on game load
- The Skill Orb version of Verse of the Elements will no longer hit allied creatures
CONTENT/GAMEPLAY
- Items inserted into the Dreamcaster may now have affinities related to specific monster families, such as Frogs, Magic, Insects, Jellies, etc. These Item Dreams have (as you might guess) more of these monsters than other types. Monsters of this type will be level-scaled to match the rest of the monsters in the dream. For example, a high-level item may have a Moss Jelly scaled up, while a low-level item could have a Mottled Sandjaw scaled down. More variety and fun!
- Added a simple new option for players who want an even bigger challenge in New Game+. When starting your NG+ playthrough and you opened any Pandora’s Chests in your previous playthrough, you will be asked whether you want to maintain the current “Opened Chest” count. This does nothing but make your NG+ playthrough even harder, and give you bragging rights if you can beat it anyway!
- Added new “Tenacious” mod for NG+ champions
QUALITY OF LIFE
- The combat log top/bottom padding have been reduced slightly, allowing for more visible text
- A new “Smaller Combat Log Text” option has been added. This allows for yet more text to be shown at once in the log, and may be desirable depending on your monitor, viewing distance, and resolution
- A new “Battle Text Size” option has been added. This controls the size of popup text during combat, such as damage/healing numbers, “STUNNED!”, “ROOTED!”, etc
- Captured Thunder Spirits (and their progeny) should no longer use Static Charge constantly
- Thorns summoned by your Floraconda are now dimmer, to reduce map clutter
- When entering items with affinities using the Dreamcaster (i.e. Challenge/Rewards greater or less than 0), the affinities will now contribute to the difficulty text (i.e. “Easy”, “Tricky”, “Impossible”). In other words, the difficulty text should be a little more accurate now.
- The info bar at the top of the screen will now show ability costs for whatever ability you are using
- The fast travel dialog at the cave to Tangledeep now shows the closest main floor / path to each side area
- The fast travel dialog now also shows if a side area has a shopkeeper with new goods
- Rumors to side areas now show the nearest main path floor as well
- Added assignable keybindings to use Knight’s Shovels and Monster Mallets from your inventory with just a single key (or button) press. These will be default bound to V (for shoVel) or T (for malleT)
- The “Compare Alternate” keybind can be used while in shops to compare any listed accessory to your Accessory slot 2
- Any kind of fast travel back to town (such as from a side area’s portal menu) will now take you to the cave entrance to Tangledeep, instead of the south part of town
WRITING
- Added flavor text for the Emerald set
- Slingshots renamed to Slings, to match the art
- Onigiri renamed to Nigiri, also to match the art