Halls of Torment update for 7 September 2023

Hello Adventurers!

This is the second smaller patch in the series of patches after the Frozen Depths update. While addressing further issues that have been pointed out to us, we’ve followed the discourse in the forums closely and of course played the game a lot ourselves. It was to be expected that for some players the difficulty reduction would render the game too easy. Others welcomed the change and of course we understand that we won’t be able to satisfy every single one of you just by tweaking the difficulty back and forth.

However, we have to point out that we always need to balance the progression as a whole. If you have everything unlocked (particularly the new class marks) naturally the game will be much easier for you even in the currently final stage. Keep in mind at which point Frozen Depths get unlocked. You can enter the stage after defeating the second boss of the Forgotten Viaduct. Each time we add a new stage, we move the goalpost in a way that doesn’t feel challenging for players who already have 100% of the content unlocked. But we need to make sure that players who follow a natural progression (i.e. when the game leaves Early Access) don’t hit a brick wall.

Frozen Depths is not the final stage. We have more content planned, and we also have a concept for the late game, which should allow challenge-driven players to ramp up the difficulty to their liking, while it doesn’t make other players feel like they have to take on those challenges. But this is an entire feature for a later bigger update. For now we will stick to improving the game where it still feels rough until we’re ready to add new content.

That being said, here is the list of changes for this patch. It’s focussed on improving the game feel of the Beast Huntress and her hound. There also have been some other minor tweaks, like small balancing adjustments in the Frozen Depths based on our own playthroughs and improvements in visibility.

Change Log | 2023-09-07

• Summons in general

  • fixed floaty movement behaviour by adjusting mass/movement speed ratio

• Beast Huntress

  • improved game feel
    increased attack speed
    proportionately lowered damage and frost chance
    improved projectile visuals

  • Hound

    • increased attack speed
    • reduced damage proportionately
    • Hound will choose targets that are closest to the Beast Huntress instead of its own position
    • increased aggro range and movement speed
    • changed attack to a circular emitter in front of the Hound
    • added a better visual effect and sounds for the attack

• Norseman

  • added missing description of Frost Nova ability

• Visibility

  • Player's Frost Avalanche ability effects have been moved below characters sprites and enemy projectiles.
  • Enemies' frost avalanche effects have a higher contrast and stand out more against the frozen depth background.
  • Ability opacity setting now also affects Shadow Cloak, Arcane Rift areas, Arcane Rift Splinters, and Ringblades.

• Ember Grounds tweaks

  • minor adjustments in XP distribution during early waves
  • slightly increased pickups in stage
  • slightly increased health values of some enemies

• Bugfixes

  • Spirit Warrior falsely reacted to "+Spawn" modifiers, which was unintended.

What's Next?

Don’t worry, we’ll get back to the Spirit Warrior ability soon. The list of planned changes is the same as it was in the previous announcement. We’ll keep you posted.

Godspeed! 🥕

• Chasing Carrots