v1.0.0 is finally out! That means we're out of Early Access, and the game has all planned features from the roadmap. On the latest major update we got the final dungeon, and with this one we have the final pieces of the game: The Arena. This is a long since planned feature, that while secondary to the dungeons, might be interesting to some players who want to push their builds to the limit (and maybe farm Soul Shards in a way that doesn't involve card battles). We're also adding some new things, that while small, might improve player experience or offer a good challenge for those longing for it. With all that out of the way, let's take a look of the new stuff:
We finally have the long awaited Arena that was teasing players for a while with that locked, 'Work in Progress' button. It features a series of combat-only gauntlets, with three difficulty tiers and a fourth "Endless Mode".
All fighters have their name, stats, appearance and equipment randomly generated, and by defeating them you can earn some valuable loot.
All Arena fighters are guaranteed to drop a few Soul Shards, so if you want to quickly earn more of them, that's probably your best option. They also have a small chance of dropping any equipment they're wearing, so if you're lucky you can even get some pretty decent, rare gear earlier than usual, and lastly, they drop these new items shown in the above image, the Battle Essences.
These many-colored Essences are used in the new additional upgrade system, tied to the arena:
Each essence can be used to permanently raise a specific base stat of your character by a bit with each level, so if you want a little help in clearing the main dungeons, or just want to elevate your character to even higher numbers, that's a new way to do it.
Now for the other new features...
A few players gave feedback regarding the Inn, on how the system felt a bit useless since its only purpose was to heal your HP and MP back to full, and a cheaper alternative to that was simply dying to a strong enemy in a dungeon, so I came up with some changes to how the system works:
Now, when resting at the Inn, you will always get one of the three boons:
The Boon of Fortune: increases your gold rewards from dungeons;
The Boon of Wisdom: increases your experience rewards from dungeons;
The Boon of Protection: retains a percentage of your experience and gold rewards on death.
All boons last for exactly ONE run at either the Dungeon or the Arena. They start at level one, and can be improved by resting at the Inn enough times, up to level three (don't worry, they all improve together at once).
But of course, not all good things are that simple...
As a way to counterbalance how boons give you an advantage, now exploring too many times without resting will give you a curse. Curses are small debuffs that serve as a way to hinder your exploration as you get exhausted. They can stack, and after enough time you can even get all curses simultaneously.
But worry not, getting rid of curses is very simple: you just need to rest at the Inn! See how everything is tied together?
Now, for the last feature of this update, this wasn't initially a planned feature, but after a player suggested it, I thought it would be fun for the few interested:
The Ironman difficulty mode is an alternate difficulty setting tied to your character, that can be enabled on character creation. The catch with this mode is simple, really: You're locked on the 'Hardcore' difficulty setting, and permadeath is enabled, so if your character dies, it's gone for good.
Ironman mode, once enabled, cannot be disabled for the character, and as said previously, the difficulty setting also can't be changed.
The good news is that this feature is entirely optional, and doesn't have any achievements associated with it, so you can safely ignore it if that's not your cup of tea.
And that's all the new features in this update. A HUGE THANK YOU to all players who supported the game during the Early Access period, either by purchasing the game, giving feedback, or even playing the Demo and talking about it with friends. It's thanks to you all that we've been able to get the full release out two months ahead of the planned schedule.
Of course, the game will probably end up needing a few more minor patches eventually, since we have a very limited number of testers and some bugs tend to get past us, but with your continued support we hope to keep providing a good and fun game to all of you.
And now, after all that talk, here's the proper changelog for this version:
Added the "Counterfeit Coin" accessory to the shop;
Added the Boon and Curse features:
- Boons can be selected when you rest at the Inn, giving you a bonus for a single run at the Dungeon or Arena;
- Exhaustion now acumulates when you exit a Dungeon or die. Accumulating exhaustion past a certain threshold gives you a curse;
- Upon resting at the Inn, all exhaustion and curses are removed;
Added the Arena:
- You can now battle enemies and get Soul Shards, equipment drops, and essences from defeating gladiators in the Arena;
Added the Augments system:
- Essences obtained from defeated enemies can be exchanged for permanent incremental upgrades to some of your attributes;
Added the optional Ironman Mode:
- When creating a new character you can now select the Ironman Mode as a setting;
- Difficulty can't be changed on Ironman characters;
- Ironman characters will have their saves permanently deleted on death;
Added a new drop from the last dungeon's boss: "Eternal Soul Fragment";
"Eternal Soul Fragment" is now required in for the item exchange quests;
Changed the eyes on the sprite of the female elf;
Adjusted some stats of the following enemies:
- Void Elemental;
- Eternal Dragon;
- Awakened Dragonlord;
Reduced the requirements for the "Monster Bane" achievement;
Fixed a bug causing enemy Spell Damage to increase on certain conditions;
Fixed the quest "Scaleless Companion" having wrong item requirements;
Fixed certain bosses not displaying their "Boss Skull" icon during combat;
Fixed a bug that caused legacy saves to not have the "Pet Shop" questline;