A new version of Magic Research, v1.12.1, is now available on Steam! This new version is a medium-sized update which tries to mitigate some of the most severe annoyances with the game, making the journey throughout the game more enjoyable. It contains changes that should improve the crafting experience, the Monstium grind, some annoying boss mechanics, and much more. It also includes 1 new Storyline, 1 new Item and 8 new Upgrades, all related to the theme of the update.

The full list of changes is below, but be warned - there are a lot of spoilers.

Full release notes

New features and changes:

- 1 new late-game Storyline (current total: 97)
- 8 new Upgrades, mostly around the Elemental Dungeons stage
- 1 new Item: Potion of Augmentation
- Help messages in the in-game Help screen now persist through retirement when unlocked
- Add a notification badge to Help in the menu when a new message in the in-game help is unlocked
- Add a warning at the top of Campus if all buildings are maxed out but caps can be raised via Upgrades
- Add a warning when retiring if the player appears to be stuck on a boss (if the last dungeon floor that was cleared is the same between the current and the previous retirement)
- Add hint / text on Upgrades screen when all upgrades have been bought
- In late game, after Divine Storyline becomes visible, display divinable Storylines differently from those which cannot yet be divined
- Increase severity of the warning message on the element selection screen if you choose Darkness
- Loading save data now grants offline progress (i.e. Time Pieces) from the time the data was saved
- Casting the spell "Getaway", either manually or via Apprentices, now leaves a message in the Exploration Log
- Large screens only: When clearing the game, close all other multi-columns when showing the ending
- Accessibility: Add hidden headings every 10 positions in a list of items in the Inventory or Crafting screens for ease of navigation

Bug fixes:

- Attempt to fix being able to use items even when they cannot be used when the UI is laggy
- Potential fix for occasional bug where unassigning researchers from all schools sometimes did not unassign them from a specific school
- Fix bug on New Game + where old values of the maximum school levels would be carried over, causing items to be visible before meeting their requirements

Balance changes:

Because of the number of balance changes, they are arranged by the problem they attempt to solve.

Crafting is tedious:

- Rebalance Alchemy:
- Changed most Alchemy potion recipes to no longer require Mana to craft. However, in return, resources (especially Water) and items required have been increased.
- Increased level requirements for some materials so that they are only feasible to craft before their assumed area if Alchemy is the primary school
- Little Devil now also drops 2 Bat Wings at a 100% chance, and Basement Bat's Bat Wing drop rate has been increased slightly (25% -> 30%)
- Raise drop rates of Mushroom (25% -> 70% for 2) and Death Mushroom (15% -> 25% for 1) from Mushfamily
- Item now requires different materials to craft: Magic Wool (Instead of 1 Wool and 4800 Mana, it now requires 1 Wool and 1 Silver Bar)
- Lowered cost but raised level requirement of item Fine Dust (2500 Mana and 60K Stone -> 25K Stone only, Lv28 -> Lv29 Alchemy required)
- Rebalanced enemy Enchanted Sheep (Max HP 1600 -> 1200, Attack 73 -> 70, Attack Delay 1.5 sec -> 2.0 sec)

Hunting for random Storylines is tedious:

- Increase trigger rate / chance of certain random Storylines by 33~50%: "The Magic Library", "A Purple Chamber"

The game is too slow / feels like a grind:

- Rebalance Monstium drop rates:
- Increase Monstium drops from every enemy in the game by roughly 33%
- Decrease effect of Storyline "A Purple Chamber" (2x Monstium -> 1.5x Monstium). As a result, Monstium gains for players who have this Storyline will not change, but players who do not have this Storyline will see a 33% gain.
- Rebalance Storyline "Fairy Circle": now no longer random and requires defeating 250 Fairies across all runs; effect rebalanced (+20% -> +15% Mana regen)
- Swapped level requirements for spells "Time Contraction" and "Flawless Appearance" (Time Contraction now requires Lv21 Illusion; Flawless Appearance now requires Lv23 Illusion)
- Rebalance Storylines "Statue (Researcher)" (+50% -> +25% Research), "Statue (Apprentice)" (+2 -> +4 Apprentices) and "Statue (Headmaster)" (+2 -> +5 Mana / sec, +200 -> +500 Max Mana)
- Reduction to "Statue (Researcher)" is offseted by new upgrade "Advanced Researcher Focus" which provides an extra multiplicative +20%

Running out of upgrades:

- Rebalance upgrades, especially between 3rd and 4th dungeons:

- Reduce cost of upgrades: ||Affordable Dorms (4000 -> 2500 Monstium), Wool Farm Expansion (17.5K -> 12.5K Monstium), Platinum Currency Storage (18K -> 16K Monstium), Economical Warehouses (16.5K -> 9K)||
- Increase cost and change requirements of upgrade ||Reinforced Monstruariums (9.6K -> 15K; lock it behind Elemental Dungeons unlocked)||
- Change cost and requirements of upgrades: ||Hot Generation (25K -> 20K; no longer requires Reinforced Monstruariums), Stage of Wonder (20K -> 16K; no longer requires Reinforced Monstruariums, but now requires Reinforced Vaults), Shared Occupancy Dorms (now requires Reinforced Monstruariums), Dimensional Backpack (now requires Reinforced Monstruariums)||
- Increase cost of upgrade ||Massive Warehouses (19K -> 59K)||
- Increase bonus of upgrade ||Physical Training (20 -> 40 HP, 2 -> 4 Attack and Defense)||

- With the new upgrades introduced, reduce bonuses obtained from 4th dungeon boss victories (so that the upgrade + the boss clear results in roughly the same stat)

Using the Darkness element locks out the ending:

- Increase penalty of building Mana Cascades (+10% -> +15% Monstium consumption increase per building turned on) to make extremely high amounts of Mana regen harder to achieve, making Darkness spells more valuable
- Reduce cooldown of spells Dark Wave, Dark Blast, Soul Slicer, and Extinguish Life (2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5 to 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 sec respectively), to increase Darkness spell potential DPS and make the game easier

Annoying boss mechanics:

- Remove running away as an enemy mechanic for the following enemies:
- One of the bosses of the 4th dungeons, Air Dragon (however, its Attack increased 85 -> 95 and base Dodge increased 40% -> 50%)
- Storyline boss Master of Illusion, both fights (Fight 1: also increased Attack 100 -> 115 and can now instead cast Slow; Fight 2: also increase Attack 300 -> 350, reduced Attack Delay 1.8 sec -> 1.6 sec, casts Dazzle more often, and can now instead cast Mass Blur)
- Adjust fight against 3rd boss of 5th dungeon:

- Adjust cast time of ability ||"I will not be defeated!" used by the Evil Headmaster (attack delay doubled) to allow for multiple stuns for this attack and an easier battle||
- The ||Evil Headmaster no longer uses Dispel, and instead uses a new attack "Devil's Venom" (very strong poison)||

- Enemy Champion no longer uses "Selective Silence (Protection)" and instead uses "Selective Silence (Dispel)"

Waiting for Researcher Inspiration is annoying:

- Rebalance effect of random event "Your researchers are inspired!" (effect: +100% Research -> +25% Research, duration: 5 min -> 15 min)
- To compensate for the extra difficulty in obtaining research if exploiting using this mechanic coupled with "Use Time Pieces (Research)", add a new +20% Research speed upgrade around the Elemental Dungeons stage

Other:

- Adjust New Game + boons (Research +7.5% -> +12%, Production 2% -> 3%, Storage 15% -> 12%; all per boon level)
- Adjust New Game + difficulty (Enemy Accuracy +3.5% -> +2% per difficulty level)