Hi everyone!

Since Day of the Shell came out in July, we’ve received a lot of feedback about the game’s content, balancing, and overall gameplay. We’ve listened closely, and for the past month we’ve been hard at work on a game update. 

So here we are, back with three new weapons, elite enemies, extra levels, achievements - and let’s not forget a complete rework of gamepad & keyboard controls, as well as some balancing, bugfixes, and QoL features.

We really hope you enjoy playing this update as much as we enjoyed making it!

Here’s the full list of changes:

Game update v1.1 - New weapons & elite enemies

New Weapons

Three new weapons can now be unlocked by defeating bosses : the throwing knife, the hunting rifle, and the sword. Each one adds a unique feature to the game, and requires you to dramatically change your playstyle.

Throwing Knife

• 1 damage

• +5 damage per injured enemy on screen

• Unlocked by defeating the Crowlf Admiral (world 1 boss)

Hunting Rifle

• 9 damage

• Cannot attack two turns in a row

• Unlocked by defeating the High Cultist & Cronk (world 2 bosses)

Sword

• 7 damage

• +2 movement

• Can only attack enemies in melee range

• Unlocked by defeating the Mad King (world 3 boss)
  

New feature : Weapon-specific run exceptions

To balance these new gameplays, we have added specific rules to the power drops & enemy behaviors when playing with some of the weapons:

• Sword

  • Removed powers that rely on gaining precision, having a precision bonus, missing, attacking from cover, destroying cover, or attacking from afar (total : 12 powers were removed)

  • Melee enemies (small crowlfs, yetis, Cronk, and the Mad King) play 1 turn slower

• Hunting Rifle

  • Removed two powers : Lucky Shot (+20% crit chance for 1 turn after each attack) and Endless Perseverance (+3dmg for 1 turn after a miss)

Levels & enemies

From extra maps and elite enemies to boss balancing and run structure, here are all the changes we’ve made to the game’s levels.

New content

• Added 10 additional maps to the pool of random levels (three in world 1, three in world 2, and five in world 3)

• Added elite versions of (almost) every enemy in special level variants. These levels start appearing after the first few runs, and become more frequent in calamity mode

Run Structure

• Changed the list of levels encountered during each run

  • Removed an altar level in world 1, a merchant in world 2, and an altar in world 3

  • Tweaked the order of the other levels in the run to match these changes

  • Tweaked some end of level rewards to match these changes

We’re altering the rhythm of the run, in order to slightly reduce how many powers you have at once. This will make power choices more impactful, and help each run feel meaningfully different from the last.

Level design

• Maps now spawn less frequently if they appeared in the previous run 

• Outfit “Greenhill’s Musicians” now appears correctly (in one of the new world 3 maps)

• Tweaked small details on various maps (level geometry, enemy behavior, trigger zones, difficulty, etc.)

Enemy Balancing

The first boss fight turned out to be more difficult than we expected for most people, so we’re making it a smudge easier. The High Cultist and Cronk, on the other hand, have been reworked to be harder to beat, but more rewarding if you manage your positioning just right.

• Crowlf Admiral (World 1 boss)

  • Health 100 -> 80

  • Base precision (rifle) 100% -> 95%

• High Cultist (World 2 boss)

  • Health 45 -> 75

  • Now has a secondary attack

• Cronk (World 2 boss)

  • Health 120 -> 150

  • Damage to allies 5 -> 10

  • Range 3 -> 2

  • Now plays every turn

• Mad King (World 3 boss)

  • Phase 2 health 125 -> 100

  • Base precision 100% -> 90%

• Other enemies

  • World 2 bombers: health 18 -> 23

  • World 2 throwers: health 30 -> 32

  • World 3 tank skeletons: health 55 -> 65
    

Gold Economy

We’re reducing the randomness in how many coins are awarded (and can be spent), to prevent situations where you either can’t buy anything in a shop, or you’re able to clear it easily

To this end, we made the RNG of enemy drops and power rarities more predictable: they’re still random, but their repartition is now much closer to the expected value. Gold rewards are also smaller but more frequent, and smuggler items’ prices are more consistent.

• Added a system of mixed bag to enemy death drops : a 30% drop rate for coins will now result in exactly 3 out of every 10 levels containing a coin drop, with only the order being random

• Added a system of mixed bag to the rarity of powers (both level rewards, and in the smuggler’s shop)

• Enemy gold drops

  • Value: 50 coins (small pile) / 100 (medium) / 250 (big) -> 20/50/100

  • Base drop rate: 30% per level -> 50% per level

  • Rune of Treasure Hunting (+10% coin drop rate): 2x+10% -> 2x+25%

• Smuggler’s shop

  • Random price variation: +/-20 coins -> +/-10 coins

  • Rune of Negotiation (-5% smuggler prices): fixed incorrect data in some ranks of the rune, that caused the final discount to be -40% instead of -30%

  • Rune of Choice (+1 item offered in the smuggler’s shop): removed the +50%/+100%/+150% hidden tax on additional item slots

Balancing & power changes

Play-again feathers

Play-again feathers definitely needed some love, so we’ve decided to go big and give them a whole extra turn!

• Play-again feathers now give 2 extra turns (instead of an extra turn and +2dmg)

• Helm of the Thunder Bird (30% drop rate of play-again feather on defeating any enemy)

  • 30% -> 20%

  • Upgrade: +20% -> +10%
    

Lightning bolts

Lightning bolts are one of the most popular playstyles in the game, but unfortunately they’re also slightly too weak. These changes will help them scale better in higher levels and calamity mode.

• Lightning bolt damage: 3 -> 4

• Thunder Tiara (+1 lightning bolt damage)

  • +1 -> +2

• Necklace of Storms (35% chance of chain lightning)

  • 35% -> 40%

• Lightning Storm (after attacking an exposed enemy, a lightning bolt hits a different exposed enemy)

  • Lightning bolt target no longer needs to be exposed
    

Upgrades

Some effects (like precision and crit chance) had unwanted consequences when their value was too high, so we’re unifying their upgraded values to a common, lower, bonus. (This also affects their rare and epic versions)

• Slow Breathing (waiting gives your next attack +30% precision)

  • +30% -> +35%

  • Upgrade +10% -> +5%

• Cold Blood (+50% precision while in mud)

  • Can now be upgraded (+5% precision)

• Lucky Shot (+20% crit chance for 1 turn after each attack)

  • Upgrade: +10% -> +5%

• Coup de Grâce (+20% crit chance VS injured enemies)

  • Upgrade: +10% -> +5%
    

Other buffs

• Shotgun (4dmg, deals critical hits at point-blank range)

  • Now gives the tag “crit” when selected, to allow powers that build on critical hits to appear from the beginning of the expedition (such as Burning Effigy and Explosive Bullets)

• Gunslinger (+1 cumulative damage for each successive attack)

  • +1 -> +2

Other nerfs

Even after being nerfed, high focus and jackpot were both still too easy to use for the value they provided. And the mobility allowed by strider boots and lightning fast was also a little bit too high to our taste.

• High Focus (+20% precision vs enemies 4+ tiles away)

  • +20% -> +15%

  • Upgrade: +10% -> +5%

• Jackpot (+5 coins after defeating an enemy from cover)

  • Now rare by default

• Strider Boots (+3 movement for 1 turn after picking up a collectible)

  • +3 movement -> +2 movement

• Lightning Fast (+2 movement for 1 turn after damaging an exposed enemy)

  • +2 movement -> +1 movement

Reworks

Ring of rampage has been kind of a headache to balance since the game’s release, so we’ve decided to go hard on it and cut its effect in 4. This allowed us to revert all of the previous nerfs we applied to it, such as making it rare by default, or not triggering on bone piles. Hopefully this will allow it to find a more balanced place among the other powers.

Inner fire also received a little twist that should make it more exciting to play, by rewarding careful (or not so careful) risk management. It’s now also able to get some extra value out of the revolver’s additional health.

• Ring of Rampage (play again after defeating an enemy)

  • New effect : 25% chance to play again after defeating an enemy

  • Minimum rarity : rare -> common

  • Can now be upgraded (+15% chance)

  • Can now trigger on summoned and revived enemies

• Inner Fire (+4 damage if you have less than 3 health left)

  • New effect : +1 damage for each health you’re missing

Powers RNG

• Powers that give a % chance of something happening are no longer offered when that chance is already maxed out (crits, lightning bolts, freeze, etc.)

• Powers that build on a prerequisite (like chain lightning) now spawn slightly less frequently

• Powers that require picking up a collectible are now only offered if you already have a power that increases chances of item drops (only play-again feathers at the moment)

Fixes

• Stone of Greed (+10% chance of freeze per 100 coins)

  • Freeze % now displays correctly in the HUD

• Pendant of Mayhem (during the first 5 turns of each level, your attacks explode)

  • Explosions now happen on the correct tile (target unit if attack hits, blocking cover if it misses)

• Fixed a bug that caused some powers’ duration to be one turn too long or too short
  

Achievements

We felt that the game didn’t have enough achievements, and a lot of people were asking for more. So we’re adding a bunch of them.

New achievements

• Sharp Shooter: deal 10 damage in one hit

• Onslaught: deal 20 damage in one hit

• Unstoppable: deal 50 damage in one hit

• Implosion: deal 100 damage in one hit
  

• Adept: beat the game in calamity 2

• Guard: beat the game in calamity 3

• Veteran: beat the game in calamity 4

• Legend: beat the game in calamity 5
  

• Enduring: take 50 damage in a single expedition

• Never Back Down: take 100 damage in a single expedition

• Bang Bang: beat the game with the revolver

• Tactician: beat the game with the crossbow

• Come Closer: beat the game with the shotgun

• Rogue: beat the game with the throwing knife

• Slay: beat the game with the sword

• Survivalist: beat the game with the hunting rifle
  

• Under the Sea: fall into the sea

• Man’s Best Friend: pet the turtle on 10 different days

• Mistress of Disguise: find every outfit

Fixes

• Tenacious (restart an expedition after dying) 

  • Now unlocks correctly at the beginning of the second expedition

Keyboard/Gamepad Controls

We’re aware that gamepad controls have been a major pain point for most console and steamdeck players until now. That’s why we’ve decided to invest some time and effort into improving Day of the Shell’s input management, and provide the best experience on all platforms.

Controls rework

• Full rework of keyboard / gamepad movement system (how the game interprets input from the left stick, the dpad, and keyboard arrows)

• “Previous/Next Enemy” controls (triggers on gamepad / tab on keyboard) : now cycle through enemies from left to right, based off of their on-screen position

• Added control “View Build” : pressing View on a controller (the middle left button) will now open the Pause menu and display current powers

  • Until now, it was possible to hover stats and powers from the Pause menu, but many people didn’t realize it, so we’re adding a dedicated button

• Added a setting to toggle what happens when holding down a direction (either move the cursor continuously, or only once)

  • Known bug : “move only once” behavior is currently not applied in menus, we’re working on it!

Fixes

• When selecting an off-screen UI element, the window now properly scrolls to that element

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused aiming at enemies to not display the attack’s precision

• Pressing escape (B on a controller) now correctly closes confirmation pop-ups and drop-downs, instead of the menu underneath

• Improved transitions between different input schemes (mouse / keyboard / gamepad)

Other Changes

Save exploits

Turns out a bunch of save exploits could be used to cheat at the game, but we’ve fixed them all now. Probably.

• Reloading a fight can no longer offer a different enemy layout

• Reloading a fight after dying (but before the end of the loading screen) will now make the huntress respawn in the hub, instead of the beginning of the fight

• Reloading an altar level or a fight (after winning) will no longer refresh offered powers or rerolls

• Reloading an altar or merchant level will no longer refresh the mango tree

• Reloading a merchant level will no longer refresh purchased items

Movement

• The huntress can no longer move into the fog (even if she has a ton of movement points)

• In free move, the huntress can now move to any visible tile, instead of having 8 movement points (allowing her to walk around obstacles more easily)

• After winning a level, controls no longer lock for a short instant every time the tiles sink

• The huntress will now walk to the correct tile if clicking when the camera is panning, but the mouse cursor hasn’t moved (we see you, long bridge at the end of the first boss fight)

Combat

• Cleaned up the order in which enemies play: 

  • Turn order is now decided solely by units’ type (in general, bomb-y enemies will always play after shoot-y enemies)

  • If several enemies of the same type play in a given turn, the one that’s closest to the huntress plays first

  • Enemies that prepare an action or wait always play last

• Calamity mode: decreased enemy health & reward bonus 

  • +25% / rank -> +20%

• Collision damage now breaks shields instead of bypassing them

Visuals & SFX

• Camera can now be rotated 360° around the huntress, and snaps less aggressively

• Units now run faster when they have a movement bonus (visuals only)

• Added a SFX when the huntress falls into the sea

• Fixed turn preview information sometimes appearing incorrectly on enemy infoboxes

• Tweaked the colliders of some enemies to prevent occasional misclicks

• Rune of Wealth (+20 gold at the start of each expedition) now works immediately after being purchased, instead of the next expedition

• Added & tweaked various SFX throughout the game

User Interface

• Settings: “erase all data” button now works as intended

• Boss intro text now stays on screen a little bit longer

• Changed calamity slider’s default value :

  • Highest available calamity level, if it was unlocked last run

  • Last selected level otherwise

• Calamity slider’s visuals were also tweaked to make it clearer that its value could be changed

• Confirmation pop-ups: when relevant, added a reminder that the game is saved at the beginning of each level

• When an upgraded weapon has a different name, its description will now mention its original name

Text

• Fixed typos and grammar mistakes in English and French

• Tweaked the description of some skins and weapon upgrades for clarity and consistency
  

Thank you once again for your support, and congrats on reading this far. Feel free to give the update a try, and have fun!

-Duper Games