Hello fellow Tiny Rogues!

It was a calm December night. RubyDev sat at his desk, the world around him quiet and still. The kind of night where the air feels heavy with possibility, like something unexpected is about to happen. He was deep in thought, plotting out the perfect Gemling Legionnaire Archmage Path of Exile 2 build. The glow of his monitor lit the room as his mind buzzed with strategies and numbers.

Out of habit, his hand drifted to the mouse, clicking on YouTube without a second thought. The homepage loaded, and there it was—a video in the recommendations. Tiny Rogues? Santa Claus? By whom? Old man Olexa. He clicked it. The video started, and sure enough, it showed Santa in Tiny Rogues. Wait—what? Santa Claus? Could it be? RubyDev leaned back, the cogs in his brain turning.

He hit pause. His gaze wandered. “Man,” he thought, “so many people are playing Tiny Rogues regularly. And here I am, just leaving them hanging. Who am I? The dev who skips Christmas? The dev who doesn’t celebrate with the best community on Earth?” The thought lingered, heavy and uncomfortable. He couldn’t shake it. It was like a tiny snowball rolling down a mountain, growing bigger and bigger until it couldn’t be ignored.

The clock struck 5 AM. Most would call it a night—or maybe an early morning. But not RubyDev. Determined to make things right, he took a deep breath and muttered, "One more try."
GIT CLONE. CHECKOUT BRANCH. OPEN UNITY.
(Okay, maybe ChatGPT got involved somewhere in there—it wasn’t all magic. GIT is weird.)

The hours flew by in a blur of keystrokes and coffee refills. Morning turned to day, and day faded into night. But something was happening. Slowly but surely, the pieces began to fall into place. A little miracle was unfolding, pixel by pixel, line by line.

And then, as if the universe itself approved of his determination, it happened. It worked.

The Tavern sparkled with holiday cheer. NPCs came to life, brimming with Christmas spirit. A new class appeared, bringing gifts and chaos in equal measure. The Christmas Edition 0.2.8 update was real, and it was glorious.

RubyDev leaned back in his chair, exhausted but triumphant. He glanced out the window at the first hints of dawn. “For the best community in the world,” he thought with a smile. And with that, he hit publish.

(I swear I wrote 80% of this myself. ChatGPT only did touch-ups. Listen. I am on a strict schedule.)

Ok, enough of this Christmas story! A man can only write so much of himself in third person before it feels really cringey, and I think I already went overboard.

You are here for the patch notes? Oh, no? You're here because you are sitting in a 2-million-player-queue waiting to log into Path of Exile 2? Well that's fine too.

Here. We. Go.

0.2.8 Patch Notes

Highlights

• The Tavern is Christmas themed once more. Playing Jingle Bells and this year, there is even a Christmas tree.
  
• Added 3 NEW Christmas themed NPCs. (AUSTRIAN EDITION, ... to balance the American-Christmas themed additions like Santa.) You can meet Krampus, Saint Nicholas and the Christkind itself in the tavern.
  
• Some enemies dressed up for Christmas and are wearing Santa Hats. This includes old favorites and newcomers.
  
• ADDED A NEW CLASS: Santa (I have no idea if or how this guy will stay and in which roster. I just added him for fun. There are 3 new achievements related to Santa, so he probably will stay somehow.) Santa is automatically unlocked for this event. After this event, there might be an unlock condition added.
  
• Santa starts with a NEW companion, the Reindeer.
  
• Santa starts with a NEW smuggler-pouch-esque item that always grants a random rare weapon.
  
• Added 3 NEW achievements related to making you play Santa.
  

Gameplay Changes

• Stamina Recovery has been halved but when the stamina recovery bar fills, you now regenerate all stamina points.
  
• When you drain stamina, your stamina recovery progress resets now.
  
• Mana Recovery now fills up all mana points. Mana recovery rates have been adjusted accordingly. (See below.) I also added a new particle effect and sound when your mana refills.
  
• Base aura radius has been increased from 6.5 tiles to 7 tiles.
  
• Arcade: The slot machine now gains +5% chance to break every time it's used after being used 3 times. Previously it would gain +10% every time after being used 10 times. It also only drops 3 dice now when exploded, previously 5. (I think this is the only nerf in this entire patch.)
  

Minor Changes

• The character panel now shows companion damage percentage in the offense tab.
  
• Added 6 new splash texts.
  

Meta Perk Changes

• Odyssey: (lower right) Now makes legendary items x1.20 more common while you are not using any, up from x1.10.
  
• All In: (upper left) Now grants 50% chance of attribute pickup rewards matching your highest attribute, previously 30%.
  
• Explosive Delivery: (center right) Now grants 3 bombs but only after floor 5.
  
• Rainy Day Fund: (center right) Now grants 10 gold but only after floor 5.
  
• The Key to Success: (center right) Now grants 2 keys but only after floor 5.
  
• Playtime: (center, slightly down and right) Now makes event rooms with minigames in them x3.00 more common, up from x2.00.
  
• Smuggler Nook: (bottom very-left) Now adds +25% chance for taverns to have a black market, previously +15%.
  
• Suit Up: (center, slightly up and right) Now adds +20% chance for treasure chests to contain an additional reward, previously +15%.
  
• Weave the Arcane: (very bottom left): Now grants 30% chance for enchanting weapons to result in a legendary modifier, previously 25%.
  

Gift Changes

• Scroll of Escape: The hero hideout now always spawns a random (locked) treasure chest inside it.
  
• Golden Spatula: Now adds a +15% chance to upgrade food rewards, up from +10%.
  
• Replenishing Repair Powder: Now replenishes 11%-16% every room, up from 7%-14%.
  
• Mana Elixir: Now grants +25% mana recovery, previously +20%.
  

Enemy Enchantment Changes

• Totem Enchanted: Nerfed health and armor of totems by roughly 30%. They also spawn 50% less frequently.
  
• Possessed Weapon Enchanted: Nerfed health and armor of weapons by roughly 50%. They also spawn about 20% less frequently. The maximum number of weapons has also been reduced.
  
• Resistance Enchantments: All resistance enchantments now only reduce damage taken by x0.75, previously x0.70.
  
• Super Health and Super Armor Enchanted: Both enchantments have been nerfed by roughly 20%-25%.
  
• Shielding Enchanted: Is now up for 4 seconds and then down for 4 seconds. Previously was up for 4 seconds and then down for 2 seconds.
  
• Airstrike Enchanted: Reduced explosion radius by 0.5 tiles and increased delay between airplanes by 1 second.
  
• Arcane Enchanted: Now spawns an indicator before spawning. Additionally the length of arcane beams has been reduced by 1 tile.
  
• Black Hole Enchanted: The indicator for the black hole now appears earlier and is bigger. Added a particle effect and sound when the Black Hole spawns. Increased the gravitational force a little bit.
  

Cinder Changes

• Centurion Hunters: Now spawn every 8 to 20 rooms, previously every 6 to 14 rooms. The final sound and screen-shake before the robot spawns are now played at the start of the room it will appear.
  
• Reaper spawn chance and spawn rate has been slightly lowered, both for the base-line Cinder value and for the natural value from Curse.
  
• Defensive Measures: Now a 20% chance to add a defensive enchantment, down from 25%.
  
• Twice Enchanted: Now a 50% chance to add an additional enchantment, down from 75%.
  

Class Changes

• NEW class: Santa
  
• Deprived, Thief, Wanderer, Barbarian, Demon Hunter and Pirate now only start with 1 mana container.
  
• Skill descriptions now state mana recovery in this way "recovers every X rooms" instead of "x.x per room". This lets you identify breakpoints in mana recovery. While holding for details, you can also see the mana recovery like before.
  
• Almost all skills had their mana recovery rate halved.
  
• The exceptions are:
  
• Flame Wall from Pyromancer: Now 0.1 mana recovery per enemy, previously 0.1 per second.
  
• Frost Nova from Sorcerer: Now 0.1 mana recovery per enemy, previously 0.1 per second.
  
• Parry from Mystic: Now 0.25 mana recovery per room, previously 0.125 per enemy.
  
• Jump from Dragoon: Now 0.2 mana recovery per enemy, down from 0.5.
  
• High Noon from Gunslinger: Now 0.25 mana recovery per room, previously 0.2 per enemy.
  
• Cyborg NEW passive ability. Eventually I'd like to revisit Cyborg's unique traits. I was not happy with the last iteration of them and there was no way of buffing them in a way of feeling satisfying. So I just slapped a new ability on the class for now.
  
• Cyborg's drone companion now grants +20% companion damage per full weapon upgrade level you have.
  
• A lot of Esper's traits have been buffed. Overall I feel like, because Esper sacrifices a trait, the unique traits should be very strong.
  
• Papa's Stuff: Assault Rifle companions now grant +100% critical hit damage, previously +75%. They also now deal 135-255 damage, previously 110-210.
  
• Lightning Force: Now deals 165-485 damage, previously 135-405.
  
• Psionic Blasts: Now triggers 5 blasts, previously only 3.
  
• Spontaneous Combustion: Now has a 25% chance to trigger, up from 15%. Now deals about 25% less damage.
  
• Mama's Stuff: Orbitals now deal 255-435 damage, up from 185-315.
  
• Disintegration Aura: Increased base damage by 25%.
  
• Druid's Bear Form: Now grants +100% stamina recovery speed, up from +50%. Now deals 280-380 damage, previously 235-315.
  
• Druid's Monkey Form: Now grants +0.25 seconds of invincibility after dash, previously +0.1. Now deals 180-240 damage, previously 150-200.
  
• Druid's Owl Form: Now grants +30% movement speed, previously +20%. Now deals 175-260 damage, previously 145-215.
  
• Pirate: Bounty thresholds have been lowered by roughly 1000.
  

Item Changes

• Items that internally were classified as "Insanely Heavy", "Giga Heavy" and "Impossibly Heavy" had their equip load values reduced. This affects e.g.: items like Balrog Heart, making it weigh 80 equip load, previously 100.
  
• Balrog Heart: Now grants +25% burn damage per heart container, previously +20%.
  
• Meteor Helmet: Now weighs 20 equip load, previously 25.
  
• Meteor Armor: Now weighs 50 equip load, previously 60.
  

Strength Trait Changes

• Titan Grip: Now works with all two-handed weapons, not just melee weapons.
  
• Battle Rush: Breakpoints of movement speed are now 10%, 20% and 30%, previously 25%, 50% and 100%. Now only grants up to 75 Power, previously up to 100.
  
• Brawn Over Brain: Now grants +25% mana recovery per strength trait you have, previously +20%.
  
• Fire and Blood: Now only reduces burn and bleed damage by x0.25, previously x0.20.
  
• Momentum: Now grants +50% stamina recovery speed, previously 30%.
  
• Pushing Through: Now grants +0.5% stamina recovery speed, movement speed and damage per point of equip load on you, previously +0.25% for all 3 values.
  
• Steady Strikes: Now makes modifiers to attack speed also apply to damage dealt at 200%, up from 150%.
  
• Testudo: Now grants x1.20 melee damage per block you have, previously x1.10.
  
• Berserk: Reduced duration from 10 to 8 seconds. Reduced attack and movement speed bonus from x1.30 to x1.25.
  
• Burning Passion: The buff now grants 45-95 fire damage, previously 35-85.
  
• Arrogance: Now grants x1.40 damage with non-crits, previously x1.30.
  

Dexterity Trait Changes

• Pet the Dog: The puppy is back to granting +50% buff effect, previously +35%.
  
• Blood Infection: Now makes every bleed tick apply 5 stacks of poison, previously 3.
  
• Dynamo: Now makes modifiers to movement speed apply to stamina recovery and mana recovery at 200% of value, previously 100%.
  
• Spellblade: Now affects all weapons, not just melee.
  
• Step of the Wind: Tailwind has been nerfed to not be multiplicative. Instead it's bonuses are now additive but it can stack to 5, up from 4.
  
• Influence: Now grants +30% attack speed to you and your companions per aura you have, up from +20%.
  
• Chill Aura: Doubled the base damage.
  
• Opportunistic: Fatigue now increases damage taken by x1.25, previously x1.20.
  

Intelligence Trait Changes

• Anatomical Knowledge: Now grants +200% critical hit damage against bleeding enemies, previously +150%.
  
• Astromancy: Now powers up the multiplier of lucky hits to x4.00, previously x3.00.
  
• Vision Quest: Tally threshold is now 30 attacks, previously 50.
  
• Burn Aura: Increased base damage by 50%.
  
• Shock Aura: Increased base damage by 50%.
  
• Elemental Focus: Now also makes auras inflict these ailments, not just only skills.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where if you clicked dice bag and then quickly closed inventory, the dice bag could not be opened again by clicking until the end of the run.
  
• Fixed that when a character started with no weapon, the HUD element in the bottom right showed the Zweihander icon. Now shows fist icon.
  

Afterword

So, obviously a bunch of changes that I've shown in my recent YouTube videos have not made it into this patch. Those changes will come at some other point.
As you might have noticed, this is a giga power-creep fun-loaded mega patch with like only 1 or 2 nerfs in the entire thing.
I figured I want everybody to enjoy this update and join in on the fun. Adding difficulty to games is usually a more nuanced topic that can't be solved within a 1 day session of coding. I have many plans and trust me, not every future patch will be sunshine and rainbows like this one. I hope I didn't overdo it, though I have an odd feeling that Santa class is really overpowered.
I don't even know how many of these changes will be kept in the next patch, a lot of traits that I have buffed this patch have been fundamentally altered in the other patch. (that is in the works) I figured to make these traits less bad, I'm just gonna numerically buff them now.

Oh, and as always: I am aware not everybody celebrates Christmas. Which is totally fine, I am personally a fan of Christmas and I'd like to celebrate it in my game, I hope that is fine with you. Oh, and yeah I am aware it's not Christmas yet, but I felt like starting the Christmas event now is better than like on the 24th. The event will probably stay up well into late January. I will see how to proceed from there.

I am so glad I got to release a Christmas update after all. I felt bad all week for abandoning the idea of doing one. I'd like to thank Olexa, Elouyn, BaerTaffy and ItsKB who one after another popped up with playing Tiny Rogues, be it in my Twitch or YouTube feed. Olexa makes way too many Tiny Rogues videos for how dead the game felt lately. Elouyn streams Tiny Rogues religiously on Twitch. ItsKB makes videos religiously on YouTube. And even somebody like BaerTaffy has Tiny Rogues in his roguelike-roulette, so it pops up every now and then. I sometimes forget that people really love to play my game. There is so much buzz in the industry, awards here, game of the year there, new game here, d4 bad, drama there. I literally haven't released anything for months now. But people still pop up and make a video, buy the game, join the discord, play the game. I am thankful for that and I wanted to show that. That's why I stayed up and made this patch. I hope it still feels like it was made with love and not too rushed.

Enough yapping. Enjoy other awesome games that are coming out like Caves of Qud or Path of Exile 2. I for one have been waiting for Path of Exile 2 for 5 years by now, so I am very hyped to finally play it (a lot).
In case I don't release another blog post before 2024 ends: I wish everybody happy holidays in advance and I hope you have a great start to the new year.

Thank you for playing. Keep supporting indie games. You are the best.

PS: I have gotten a sample of the Death plushie. Superb quality. It will launch in late January so don't spend all your Christmas bonus immediately.