Update 0.8 - Stay hydrated

Howdy good people,
The time has finally come! I'm excited to reveal to you the NEW update 0.8 - the biggest one yet. We have rebuilt the whole UI, completely reimagined adventure mode, wrote the new AI from scratch (it kicks butts and chew bubble gum), moved backend to our own server and generally built the foundation for the future updates. We also thought that this is a great time to experiment a bit and test out some new ideas. Let's jump right into it, shall we?

Brand new Adventure mode

• Adventure mode was rebuild from scratch, turning into story-driven campaign. It can still be played both solo and in co-op and the progression is now separated.
• In this update we reveal the first chapter of Adventure, featuring 3 new, unique arenas and the first boss. More to come in the future updates.
• The adventure is now presented on a hand-drawn world map, adding the sense of place to the story. And the story is presented by comics between fights. Enemies during the fights has also more things to say.
• Updated tutorial mission: it's more readable and easier to grasp. And also features a new characters: Shmashrul - the tribe elder (teacher) and a Dummy (Training Dummy).

New menu and match UI

• It was a lot of work, but we think it was totally worth it. The new menu is bigger, less cluttered, easier to read, navigate through and... prettier. And importantly for us, it's expandable.
• Improved beast customization: we added real-time preview of the move effects, improved clouds setup (simply click on cloud you want to edit), separated beasts from their skins and added detailed view for the beasts.
• Added more stats to Player screen: separate win ratio for 1v1 and 2v2, added "favourite beast" stat (showing the most played beast and their stats), adventure progression and best ever ranking score.
• Added details section to ranking, explaining the scoring for different leagues.
• Match UI was also redesigned. It now takes less space on the screen, even though all the elements are bigger (magic). We put the timer back in the middle and added info about stars requirements (to easily keep track during the match). Characters' records also display their names now.
• Pre-match and post-match screens have also been redesigned. Many of you complained about their readability. Now you can clearly see, who is in which team, you can also see the adventure enemies in pre-match, as well as in the post-match after lost battle.
• We separated Spoils screen and rewards, and also added option to "play again" so you don't have to go back to menu between matches.
• New section in Options: "News". You can find a roadmap for upcoming updates there.

New AI and... Bots

• Yes, bots. Before you roll your eyes, let me explain. We added bots for two reasons: firstly, because we want to improve the AI as much as possible and what better way to do it other than letting you play with them. Secondly, to give players a chance to experience the game even when there is nobody around to play with. Please note: we don't want bots to mimic humans and trick players into thinking that they play against another player. You can recognize a bot by his name, which is simply the name of the character. In matchmaking, after 40s, if the match will not be found, bots will fill out all the empty seats and the game will begin. So again, if you don't want to play with bots, stop searching before 40s.
• There are various AI behaviours; a Darkling in Adventure mode will play a bit different that the bot replacing disconnected player.
• There are also different AI levels for each league, so event the ranked match against bots should feel appropriately challenging.
• Bots are aware of their skills and the situation on the arena. They may perform combos, hit enemies outside of their line of sight and even activate and take advantage of arenas' mechanics.
• We will further improve and balance the AI. Your feedback is most appreciated.

New rewards system

• We decided to replace the custom DLC by adding second currency: Fireflies. This way all the upgrades will be available in-game for in-game currency. So for instance, the "unlock of victory screen customizations" is now available as an in-game purchase. We discovered that this approach is more transparent to the players and gives us more creative freedom. Transactions will be still handled by Steam.
• Players who bought a DLC, will keep their unique Show-off, and will also receive Fireflies in quantity equivalent of a 9,99$ bundle. They will however lose the XP bonus.
• Players can unlock everything without spending real money. Imagine Fireflies being a rare currency, where Grubs (called Demibugs before) would be a common one. It is possible to acquire both of them for in-game activities (like doing daily quests) however the Fireflies will drop in smaller quantities.
• New Chest in Shoppe: (requested by players) "Chest of Unearthly Creatures", guaranteeing a new Beast as a reward.
• Added descriptions to chests, showing drop chances of certain rarity types.
• We plan to add more purchase options to the Shoppe with future updates.

More New Stuff:

• New event, featuring first Legendary animated skin for Pearbear.
• Playable character Darkling replaced by Bluzard. His stats and skills were rebalanced and his final ability changed to Thunderstorm, which upgrades his other skills. Thanks for pointing out his weaknesses.
• New matchmaking: it searches for the players of similar Fame, and prioritize the ones who wait the longest. Also features fancy searching animation and pro tips ;)
• New cards to acquire: 3 texts, skin for Mummean.
• Notifications now have numbers, showing the amount of new items.

Changes / balance:

• We switched the backend from cloud servers to our own server. It helps us greatly with data control and analysis, potential bug finding/fixing, and it's a necessary step on the path towards our future plans. The only thing you'll notice right now is that players ranking scores will not be shown until they launch the game after this update.
• We removed option to play casual games. All now counts towards the player stats and affect fame. The only exception is "sparring 1v1" against your teammate; it doesn't affect fame and stats, but also will not progress any quests or events.
• Quests and events now takes slightly more time to complete, but offer better rewards.
• Daily quests refresh every 23h (instead of 24h).
• Changed quest about playing with friend into playing 2vs2.
• Level cap increased to 35.
• Beasts doesn't deal damage to teammates, never (before they did during the opposing team turn).
• All playable beasts have +1 Health.
• Fuzz-ball explosion damage increased to 3 (from 2).
• Shi gets her first skill at 1 Fury (instead of 2).
• Mummean gets his second skill at 5 Fury (instead of 4), but it steals more life.
• You can open "My Beast" menu by clicking on the beast in main menu (requested by players).

Bugfixes:

• Skull curse on skull arena sometimes activated wrongly after a skull death - Fixed.
• Collision of destroyed barriers and chests would sometimes stay until the end of turn - Fixed.
• Sometimes displayed move trajectory after hitting the rooted Babowacky was wrong - Fixed.
• Bluzard's (old Darkling) Thunderclap skill area did not dissapear after his death - Fixed.
• Wolfling's Bite skill effect sometimes not appearing - Fixed.
• When player had 6+ skills, they were very small and sticked out of the character card - Fixed.

Known issues:

• Part of translations is missing in Czech, French, Italian and Russian languages. Missing texts are replaced by English. We are working on updating those translations.
• We have rebuilt a solid chunk of the game, and while getting rid of some bugs along the way, we probably created some new ones (sorry). Please, keep your eyes opened and report every single one you find so we can squash them all.

That's it for now,
Here I usually tease a thing or two of what will come in the next update, but now we have a roadmap, and it's in the game ("News" section in Options), so go and check it out! We will keep it updated so you always know what's coming.
See you one the arena!