Hello, adventurers! Today's patch brings with it a couple of new things that we think greatly improve the smoothness of the gameplay and make boss encounters more rewarding. Of course, there's also a handful of other polish and bug fixes included, as well. Read on for more details!

Rings!

Arguably the least satisfying element of the game so far, in our opinion, has been that defeating bosses only unlocked progression without giving you a proper reward for your heroism. Rings are how we remedy that. Now, bosses not only guard the path you're on, but also precious gems! When combined with a ring band, these gems can be used to create rings that grant passive buffs when worn.

Each gem has a particular facet of the game that it can augment. One gem might affect how stealth works, another what your luck is like when mining or opening chests, while another might determine how your arrows behave and so on. Depending on whether you combine the gem with a gold or iron ring band (both of which can be purchased from the shop), the ring will grant you a different buff related to that facet of the game. So basically, these rings give you another option in how you want to play the game by allowing you to choose an upgrade that suits your playstyle best.

You can wear up to 4 rings at a time--2 per hand. By the end of the game you'll have more than you can wear at once, so you'll be able to either sell the ones you find least useful, or swap them out on the fly where beneficial.

Quick Slot Belt!

Something we've been meaning to get added to the game for quite a while is a quick slot belt. While consumables such as potions don't really play a major role in the game at the moment, nor are they intended to, we still feel like it's necessary to allow you access to a couple of things without having to pull out your backpack each time. We imagine most people will use the new belt, which provides you with 2 storage slots that are always accessible, to store their pickaxes, but you can keep whatever you like in there. Additionally, the belt has a status medallion on it so your health/mana is never more than a quick glance away.

To see these new additions in action, you can check out our latest devlog below!

Full Patch Notes

Additions and Improvements

• Added rings to the game--a new type of craftable equipment that provides a buff when equipped.
  
• Added a quick slot belt for easy access to pickaxes and consumables.
  
• Changed the lighting in the Spider Queen fight to create a more menacing atmosphere.
  
• Cleaned up some of the navigation in the Spider Queen boss arena.
  
• Added some gold ore around those Shrines of the Eternal Flame that require backtracking to provide a greater reward for your time.
  
• Added a haptic effect when activating Shrines of the Eternal Flame.
  
• Tweaked the haptics when interacting with your inventory to be a bit cleaner/more predictable.
  
• Better optimized the Serafin Palace area.
  
• Better optimized the final boss arena of chapter 1.
  
• Increased the time window for casting Kinetic Thrust/Sanctuary slightly to give you just a little more time to release the trigger.
  
• You can no longer "quick store" swords/scepters while in combat as too many people were doing it by mistake midswing, and there's really never going to be a time where you would conceivably want to do that in the middle of a fight.
  
  

  Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause tiles placed in the main gate guarding the Serafin Palace to disappear if you backtracked to the swamp without first saving your progress. Additionally, if this already happened to you, the game will now correct itself when you load into the scene by placing those missing tiles in your backpack.
  
• Updated the Spider Queen so that she can't be made to remain perched on her platform.
  
• Fixed a bug that would load you in at the entrance of the Stormy Swamp when returning from the Serafin Castle, rather than at the exit as expected.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could force your way into the Shrine of the Eternal Flame in the maze in the depths without having first learned flame wave, effectively trapping yourself there.
  
• Corrected the sizing of the particle effect that would spawn on the Reaper of Souls when an enemy is slain.
  
• Removed an unintended behavior from the Seraf fight that would allow you to bypass a section of the encounter much more safely than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue in the tutorial map that would allow you to teleport through an invisible wall into an area of the map meant to be off limits.
  

That's all for today, everyone! As always, we invite and encourage you to join the game's discord to share your feedback on the game and help us shape development going forward. We appreciate all the community feedback we've received so far as it's really made a difference in how the game plays and feels. You guys are awesome!

Until the next one--happy adventuring, everyone!