Hello Heroes!

We've seen your messages: you were eagerly waiting for this Major Update and FINALLY it is here!

With this update comes the Meta Rework, the Omens but also the Wipe we announced and explained last month: we hope you will appreciate the new progression of the game! We are very interested in your feedback so feel free to share it here, on Discord or on your favourite platform.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1105670/announcements/detail/3282583269800175535
All of the content of this Major Update has been tested in Open Beta. This blogpost is mainly the same as the previous one for the Beta.

Tomorrow, join us live on our Twitch channel at 16:00 CEST to talk about the update!

SUMMARY:

• Progression Wipe
  
• New Mechanic: Omens
  
• Meta progression Rework
  
• Temple and Mana Well Rework
  
• New Mechanic: Corpses
  
• Seer Rework
  
• Night Save
  
• QoL Update
  
• Sound Design Rework
  
• Balancing
  

PROGRESSION WIPE

The progress of all the players have now been wiped. Your first new run will make you start on Swampfurt, the tutorial map which can be skipped if you open the Menu.

Beta players, your Save can carry through from Beta to Default: just change the branch on which you are playing and you will be good to go!

NEW MECHANIC: OMENS

Let’s introduce the Omens! Omens can be selected at the start of each run. Each Omen gives a specific bonus while selected, ranging from simple attribute bonuses to very unique effects. Omens are meant to replace some of the strong permanent upgrades that players used to get, coupled with brand new effects. This allow us to have better control over the intended power level and difficulty for each map, while also introducing strategic choices at the beginning of each run.

Here are some examples of Omens you will be able unlock:





To be entirely clear: Omens are not meant to erase all permanent upgrades. They still exist and we even added new ones, but Omens are a way for us to introduce more upgrades and more interesting effects, while keeping the balance of the game interesting.

Starting a run with omens

Before starting a run, you will be able to select Omens for this map. Obviously, you won’t be able to select all of your Omens for every run: each city has a set number of slots, and every Omen takes up one, two or three slots, depending on its strength. The harder the map is, the more Omens you will be able to use.





This means that the hardest maps also allow for the most interesting starting strategies and combos: will you focus your Omen choices on making your heroes stronger? On boosting your defenses? On setting up your economy? Or maybe a balance between all of these things?

Unlocking Omens

After completing the tutorial, players will only be able to choose between a few starting Omens with simple effects. However, additional Omens can be unlocked in the Oraculum. Currently, there are around 70 Omens to unlock.

A new Boundless Mode

We also took the opportunity to merge the old “Easy Mode” into the Omen system. Now renamed to Boundless Mode (because let’s be honest, the game never goes “Easy” on you), it can be activated in the Omen selection screen.

Activating Boundless Mode allows you to exceed the slot limit on Omens by however much you want, but also unlocks Boundless Mode-specific Omens which have the same effects as the old Easy Mode modifiers.



Use this new Boundless Mode to play the game at your own pace, or test some overpowered combos!

META PROGRESSION REWORK

Oraculum unlocks

All Oraculum unlocks have been redesigned: some have been removed, some have been added, and pretty much all existing ones have had their unlock conditions and prices changed. This is one of the main reasons why we had to wipe the saves, and the goal is to make the meta progression way smoother than before.

A lot of the important unlocks now come earlier than before, like the Inn building or some weapon unlocks. We also added new conditions in the Freude side of the Oraculum, in order to make the challenges a bit more varied.

Trophies

End of night trophies have been rebalanced and some new ones have been added. The most important addition is a “You won the night” trophy, that gives a hefty chunk of essence if you manage to beat a night.

Soul gains for lost nights

This feature has been requested for a long time now, but it is finally here: now you will also gain Tainted Essence for lost nights! However, even if the situation looks desperat, we encourage you to always try and win your Nights. Who knows, maybe you will get this juicy "Won the night" trophy after all...

Apocalypse Multipliers

Playing on Apocalypse mode will now grant you a boost on the number of Essence you get each night. The higher the Apocalypse, the higher the boost!

TEMPLE AND MANA WELL REWORK

While the Temple and the Mana Well had a use until now, we weren’t satisfied with their dynamic: building one often felt like a punishment more than an investment, compared to other buildings.

This is why we decided to rework both buildings a bit, in order to make these buildings relevant economy-wise. In addition to their health or mana restorating actions, the Temple and Mana Well are now able to grant permanent attribute increase to your heroes, which can be pretty strong!

Temple

Gold cost: 55 -> 70
Build limit: 1

New passive production effect: Permanently grants +8 Max Health to all current heroes.

Production rate: 1x per day

Changed all Actions. New list:

Action: Offering
Base action
Cost: 0 Workers
Max uses: 1
Effect: Restore 40 Health to one hero.

Action: Heal
Base action
Cost: 1 Worker
Max uses: 1
Effect: Restore 40 Health to all heroes.

Action: Blessing
Base action
Cost: 2 Workers
Effect: Permanently grants +24 Max Health to one hero

All upgrades have also changed to match these new actions.

Mana well

Gold cost: 55 -> 35
Build limit: 2

New passive production effect: Permanently grants +1 Max Mana to all current heroes.

Production rate: 1x per day

Changed all actions. New list:

Action: Benediction
Base action
Cost: 0 Workers
Max uses: 1
Effect: Restores 6 Mana to one hero.

Action: Restore Mana
Base action
Cost: 1 Worker
Max uses: 1
Effect: Restore 8 Mana to all heroes.

Action: Gift
Base action
Cost: 1 Worker
Effect: Permanently grants +3 Max Mana to one hero

All upgrades have also changed to match these new actions.

NEW MECHANIC: CORPSES

We're introducing a new mechanic to spice up the combat and economy of the game: Corpses.



Corpses may appear at the end of each night, and can be scavenged during the day, just like ruins. Piles of Corpses can appear in multiple sizes: the bigger the pile, the greater the reward.

But how do you make them appear? Corpses and their bigger variants have higher chances of appearing when:

• Enemies are killed close to the Haven
  
• Many enemies are killed on the same tile

This means that some of the most dire situations may now lead to greater rewards...

Scavenging Corpses

Corpses can be scavenged in different ways, depending on their size, and grant you Gold, Materials, Tainted Essence and Items. These scavenge actions have a fixed cost of 1 Worker: this makes the bigger variants very interesting economy wise!





However, Corpses can also act as obstacles, so you may even decide to let them be and use them as defenses, although they will rot away with time. However, if they are a hindrance to your strategy, you can also choose to destroy them during the day.

SEER REWORK

Up until now, we only gave very limited information on incoming waves, which made it difficult for us to design interesting nights, especially early on, when players haven’t placed the Seer building yet. To let players make more strategic decisions and to make the overall enemy wave design more interesting, we decided to rework the Seer a bit.

Banners

Prior this change, you could use the “Guess Where” skill of the Seer to know the proportion of incoming waves. Now, this information will ALWAYS be given to you, even if you haven’t placed down the Seer yet. Additionally, banners now indicate a very vague quantity of enemies, instead of just a proportion: a single side with a 4-Skull banner will have more enemies than a single side with a 2-Skull banner.

Precise Arrows

Since its previous effect is now always given to the player, the “Guess Where” skill of the Seer is getting a new effect. When using the Guess Where skill, you will be able to see a very precise breakdown of where enemies will come from and in what proportions, thanks to arrows of varying sizes:

Additional changes

• Seer Repel skill now costs 2 workers when the fog is at its closest position, 4 workers when it is at its furthest position and 3 workers in other cases
  
• Seer Guess Who action has been removed : buying the upgrade now grants enemy list and quantities passively
  
• Seer Guess Who first upgrade cost: 25 -> 60 gold
  
• Seer Guess Who second upgrade has been removed
  
• Seer Guess Again worker cost: 2 -> 1
  
• Seer Guess Again max uses per night: 1 -> 2
  

NIGHT SAVE

You asked for it and here it is! Now you can quit a night without the fear of restarting it from the beginning: your progress will be saved, and you will be able to resume from where you quit.

We’ve been wanting to implement this for quite some time, as we know that nights can become quite long. We hope that players with less time on their hands will enjoy this feature, allowing them to complete nights in multiple gaming sessions.

QOL UPDATE

We have developed a certain number of features which increase the global quality of life of the game!

Oraculum

The favors are now ordered in a more coherent manner, and this order should remain more consistent.

In addition to that, we’ve also added some tabs to allow for some filtering, which should help navigate the Oraculum and its countless favors.



Depending on its effect(s), a given favor can possibly be found in several tabs: we’d rather have duplicates but allow for a favor to be found easily when looking for it than the opposite. (e.g. a favor unlocking an Omen increasing Heroes’ attributes can be found in “Omens” as well as “Heroes”.)

Victory panel and Defeat panel

Now when you finish a night, the first thing to appear on the panel is the animation of your number of souls gained with all the trophies acquired during the night. You can also skip the animation to present your heroes on the panel and go to the profile page by clicking on your heroes.

Item categories

Some categories were implemented in game to classify protections so you can search and make some differentiation between heavy armors and light ones.

Enemies life gauge

We changed the way big enemy health bars are displayed: you should now be able to clearly see how much health remain on a boss or an Elite.

SOUND DESIGN REWORK

For this update, we introduce the first steps of our rework for the sound design, which will continue with the upcoming updates.

Introduction scene

All the sound design of the introduction has been reworked so go enjoy it! You can watch it directly when you are on the main menu.

BALANCING

Shared production building limit

Production buildings now share a building limit of 5, meaning you can build a maximum of 5 production buildings but whichever ones you want. For example, you can place down 3 Bowyers and 2 Trinket makers in your haven.

Elderlicht Soul Vessels

The Soul Vessels in Elderlicht will now become ignited after 2 turns: on the first turn of a night, they will warn the player that something is coming, and on the second turn of the night a Soulbound unit will spawn.

Traits

All traits have been reworked & rebalanced to be more focused: on average, they will affect less different attributes, but give stronger bonuses.

Wounds

Some time ago, we modified the wound system to make wounds unique for each enemy, because we wanted to allow for more tactical possibilities around this mechanic. However, they became too unique, making them bothersome to play around.

Wounds are now more harmonized: notably, enemies will all lose Move Points when wounded, but in proportion to their total Move Points.



A similar logic has also been applied to the Heroes.

Enemy attributes

The defensive attributes of all enemies have been rebalanced to make them more focused. As an example, compared to before, less enemies will gain Block or Dodge over the course of the run, but enemies that gain some will gain more noticeable amounts.

We also wanted to reinforce the difference in strength between the different Tiers of enemies: common enemies will globally stay as weak as before but stronger enemies will become even stronger, meaning they can be more impactful without the need of spawning them in quantities as high as before.

Enemy waves

Since the power level of the player has greatly changed with this update, enemy quantities in all cities have been rebalanced.

Other

Additional and precise balancing involving stats can be read in our older changelogs for the Beta, with the changelog 0.99.0.15 and the last update we did on the Beta branch:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1105670/announcements/detail/3314110913458634581
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1105670/announcements/detail/6188534200203596445



Thank you for reading! We will look at your comments and feedback with extreme interest.

Join us on Discord, Twitter & Instagram to discuss with the team and other players!