Into the Protochasm - Early Access Patch v0.3.000

This update brings performance improvements, reworks, balance changes, and new content focused around the Protochasm. Below is a full breakdown of everything included.

Ability System Stability

A major issue causing crashes during ability use has been addressed. This substantially improves stability and we are confident that we can now add new abilities at an increased pace.

All known ability-related crashes have been fixed. This may cause minor hitching during certain ability executions, and we will continue to monitor how this performs in live play.

Protochasm & Proc Dungeon Overhaul

A substantial rework of the procedural dungeon, its encounters, rooms, and flow.

New & Updated Rooms

• Multiple new rooms added with a full decoration pass using new wall and stair tools.

• Added miniboss blocking progression past floor 2.

• Amphitheatre-style Protochasm loot area with terraces for each extract tier.

• Updated extract rooms to properly route players to their correct terrace.

Loot & Economy

• Reward chests now require osseous shards to open.

• Shards are now only lost upon death or group wipe.

• Dungeon loot tables rebalanced, with several green items moved off Tier 3.

Room & Navigation Fixes

• Major pathfinding updates.

• Crypt doors and doorframes are now fully navigable by enemies.

• Fixed navigation issues caused by delayed navmesh generation. (Still observing problems with this sometimes).

Dungeon Entrance Rework

• Removed the confusing puzzle to enter the Protochasm.

• Main door now requires a mix of damage types to open.

Visual & Level Polish

• Numerous sconce material fixes and lighting adjustments.

• Smoothed voxel terrain in several locations.

• Protochasm music added to level.

Golem Boss Update

The golem encounter has undergone substantial iteration and is still in active development.

Combat & Mechanics

• New stagger system and new attacks.

• Adjusted shielded area collision and defensive behavior.

• Rolling attack damage tick rate reduced.

• Blast wave adjusted to prevent double hits and now launches players into the air.

• Added additional leg target points.

Balancing & Fixes

• Fixed stun behavior that caused the golem to “teabag.”

• Increased baseline poise, hp, and damage.

• Floor 3 now forces full-party teleport into the golem arena.

Audio

• New sounds for various attacks and abilities.

• Updated music for the encounter.

New Weapons & Combat Features

Most new items are rewards from the Protochasm, some may also be found as drops from enemies in the overworld.

Instant Strike (New Ability & Passive)

• Immediately triggers a heavy attack with +50% physical damage for a short duration.

• Works with all weapons that have heavy attacks.

• Costs 1 charge, 15s cooldown.

Beast’s Tongue & Beast’s Tooth

A pair of hybrid lifesteal blades.

• Beast’s Tongue: 2H variant with heavy-attack-driven healing.

• Beast’s Tooth: 1H variant.

• Lifesteal perk:

  • Hits apply stacking buffs (max 5).

  • When the buff expires, the player is healed once per stack.

Spirit Staff (Two-Handed)

A re-imagining of the classic 2H spirit staff moveset.

• Heavy attack uses a windup and fires multiple delayed projectiles.

• Block can be held; deflect triggers ground-pound empowerment field.

• Passing spirit projectiles through empowerment fields upgrades them.

• Empowerment well now uses an updated relic bloom effect.

Rotting Cane (New Staff)

• Secondary attack creates a slowing, marking zone.

• Zone grants life power to self and allies.

• Regenerates spirit charge while unsheathed.

Poison Arrows

• New ammo type for bows.

• Applies a short damage over time dealing caustic damage.

• Updated icons and added caustic damage classification.

Other New Items

• Three new green items:

  • Chipped Broadsword (1H hybrid)

  • Ancient Sidesword (1H thrusting)

  • Blade Necklace (4 slash power, 2 armor)

• New bracelet: Restorative Band

  • Adds 1 charge

  • Grants passive charge regen (stacks with Rotting Cane)

Rebalancing

• Parrydaggers adjusted:

  • Regenerative Deflect has no cooldown but restores only 1 minor charge.

  • Damage removed from deflect.

  • Block stats now displayed.

• Jaja Pots:

  • Healing increased (30 → 24).

• Healing consumables no longer scale from life power.

Spirit Charge System Reworked

• Charges now standardized to partial display (0–3).

• HUD updated with unique shapes for partial charge amounts.

AI, Enemies, and Encounters

Wisps

• Wisps are larger and easier to hit.

• Wisps will now search for zombies to empower via exploding.

• Improved movement and targeting behavior.

• Wisps no longer remain active after death.

Zombies

• Zombies can now run and perform new combo attacks.

• HTN fixes enabling proper attack behavior.

• Fixed pathing issues when enemies were nearby but not directly ahead.

• Removed pink tint from empowered state caused by player spirit damage.

• Added new arm meshes for doom zombies.

• Fixed multiple old model/material bugs.

General AI

• Added wander behavior to protochasm enemies.

• Added “call for help” behavior to protochasm enemies.

Consumable & Ammo Quick Swap

A full swapping system has been implemented.

• Swap consumables or ammo directly between all items of the same type.

• Default inputs:

  • Mouse and keyboard: 3 (consumables), 4 (ammo)

  • Controller: Hold R2 + Left D-Pad (consumables) / Hold R2 + Right D-Pad (ammo)

• Added chorded input system for controllers to enable a second abstraction layer.

• Controller abilities now use this second layer and default to face buttons.

• Reworked key remapping screen to fully support chorded inputs and display proper prompts.

General Fixes & Improvements

• Enemies can now navigate through crypt doorframes properly.

• Fixed “items within reach” widget not functioning on controller.

• Fixed controller scrolling in character selection screen.

• Arrows rotated so fletching faces the correct direction.

• Disc trails no longer disappear on bounce.

• Improved pathfinding precision and navmesh generation settings.

• Fixed various proc dungeon door issues (clipping, client desync).

• Updated spinning blade occlusion behavior.

• Fixed golem extract not spawning loot.

• Fixed duplicated blast wave damage.

• Implemented multiple sound and animation fixes across enemies and encounters.

• Added safety blackout volume to prevent bad spawn visibility at origin.

• Added “restore stats to full” on player post-initialize to aid testing.

Performance Improvements

• Up to a 30% performance improvement has been observed in shipping builds.

• Particle system budgeting updated for more consistent performance.

• Combined and optimized various meshes (scrap spikes, null rocks, etc.).

• Reduced material complexity in multiple rooms.

Steam Cloud Saving (Part 1)

The first stage of Steam Cloud support is now live.

• The game now attempts to download your cloud save on launch.

• If no cloud save exists, a local file is created and used.

• Saves automatically upload when creating a character or performing a save.

• Tracks world, player, inventory, and character slots.

• Does not yet sync settings.

• Dev Build Note: Dev build saves are stored in the game directory, not AppData.

Closing Notes

This update touches nearly every part of the game and lays groundwork for upcoming systems, weapons, and content development. We will continue to update the game as we improve and fix issues.

Thank you for playing and thanks to those who tested this update on the dev branch. - Jon, David, and Graham.