It's been a little while.
The plan was always for this to be a quiet month, with slow but steady work on the next update for Haste.
Well, someone should have told the dev team!
Major item overhaul!
Rumble!
Disaster in Endless!
First of all this update brings a much-requested new feature for controller players - RUMBLE!
For a game like Haste it makes a lot of sense to feel as connected to the action as possible, and a little vibration in your controller goes a long way.
The most notable addition is probably the Running Rumble, a constant stream of intense little footsteps. It sounds like a joke, but give it a try!
There's of course settings to adjust the strength of the various different types of rumble in the game, and many different kinds of controllers, so experiment to find which style you prefer.
There's also a special setup for controllers that use "haptics", so if you're using one of those (SteamDeck and PS5 DualSense) you can look forward to some extra precise vibrations.
Then there are two more little things before we get to the big one:
Once you've unlocked a Disaster Mode, you can choose to equip it in your Endless run as well. You will get the effects and obstacle spawns caused by the Disaster Crowns, but the difficulty of the levels will still be decided by the Endless difficulty setting you use.
I'm not sure how many of you want to play Peaceful with Disaster Level 4, but the option now exists!
The slider for the Obstacle difficulty setting has been adjusted so it now goes up to 500%, even without mods! The actual difficulty presets remain at their old values, but this is a fun way to increase the challenge beyond the game's normal limits.
And finally we get to what is probably the most important change - the long-awaited item overhaul!
Here's a prepared statement the team has asked me to include:
"We have long been aware that the item economy has been very lopsided, with little rhyme or reason to item frequency or power. Some of the best items in the game were in the 'Common' rarity category, which under certain circumstances would be just as rare as 'Legendary' items, the highest rarity category. Our goal with this update is to adjust the rarity categories so the lower rarities are more useful, while the highest rarities feel exciting and powerful to come across. While thios change is going to make some extreme builds less common, it will hopefully create a much broader range of viable builds during runs, leading to much greater variety. The way we have gone about all this is by-"
Wow, this goes on for a while. Let me just skim it...
Okay, so veeery long story short, low-rarity items are now more frequent, high rarity less so, but a bunch of items have been given new (lower) rarities, and many items have been given improved effects.
Big changes like this are always scary, but it really makes the game more interesting and fun!
There's also a promise in here that this will not be the last set of item balance changes, so if you have feedback about the new system or about specific items, please let the team know, preferably through the Discord.
Oh before we get to the very long patch notes here's a video of INK creating the Hungry Weeboh!
Have a look at the full balance changes below.
Exciting times, huh?
Features:
RUMBLE! (Including a bunch of settings)
Disaster Mode is now playable in the Endless Shard
Increased maximum Obstacle difficulty setting
"Chance Items" with a percentage chance for something to happen now show the final Luck-modified value instead of just the base value (along with a tooltip with a breakdown of the calculation)
You now start with full Energy in the Hub World
New difficulty setting for Item Rarity, which multiplies the chance of getting higher-rarity items. (Defaults to 100% on all difficulty levels)
The post-run stat screen now shows your item loadout
Fixes:
Abilities can no longer be triggered while not running, which fixes a number of edge cases (mostly related to spending all your Energy while Zoe is off-screen)
Improved the way Boost Rings spawn from Items
Item effects that stack every time they are triggered (like Well Earned Confidence) now carry over between Fragments
Stacking triggered item effects now correctly get removed if you remove the item
You can no longer exploit the Reroll button in Endless multiplayer to get near infinite items (sorry!)
The UI for equipping skins now correctly opens with your currently equipped skins selected
Eliminated a momentary freeze when closing the Shard Setting menu
The Fragment Disruption tooltip for Research Outpost discounts is now correct
A number of Luck items were incorrectly multiplying each others effects
Added a message about why you cannot send items to another player if you are in an empty multiplayer session
Item Tooltips now shift to the left side of the Item description if there's no more space to the right on the screen
Balance:
Hard and Very Hard Endless now start at slightly higher difficulty
Items granting +% of Max Health no longer multiply themselves (this is a much more intuitive behaviour in addition to being easier to balance)
ITEM OVERHAUL:
Lower-rarity items are now more common, higher-rarity items less common
Shard difficulty and progress now has a bigger impact on the rarity of items you find, so higher-rarity items become more frequent the further you get in a Shard
Lots of items have had their Rarity adjusted
Some items now have an Item Cost Multiplier for their own price. This has been sparingly used and is not surfaced in-game, but is another lever for balance in the long run.
Golden Necklace:
10% Boost -> 8% Boost
Overclocked Medical Drone:
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Growth Potential
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Big Spark Magnet
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Steady Investment
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Bitter Herbs
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Recyclable Rocket
Rarity: Rare -> Common
35s Cooldown -> 20s Cooldown
+50 Speed -> +40 Speed
No longer removes Speed after duration ends
Reheated Soup
Rarity: Rare -> Common
400-leaf Clover
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Heart Shaped Mirror
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Interest
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Performance Based Health Insurance
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Protective Medallion
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Spark Plug
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Vitamins
10% more expensive than items of the same Rarity
Spark Powered Propeller
Rarity: Rare -> Common
10% more expensive than items of the same Rarity
Grunt's Helmet
Rarity: Rare -> Common
1s Invulnerability -> 0.5s Invulnerability
Clown Shoes
Rarity: Rare -> Common
30% Chance to save a non-perfect Landing -> 25% Chance to save a non-perfect Landing
Mysterious Spring
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Delayed Emergency Device
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Velocity Powered Syringe
Rarity: Rare -> Common
Big Pumpkin
Rarity: Rare -> Common
+60 Max Health -> +50 Max Health
Personal Gravity Enhancer
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
35s Cooldown -> 15s Cooldown
35% Boost -> 50% Boost
5s Duration -> 6s Duration
Quick Taco
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Instant Compensation Machine
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
25 Sparks on taking damage -> 40 Sparks on taking damage
1s Cooldown -> 6s Cooldown
Boost Remote
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Energy Lash
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
40s Cooldown -> 20s Cooldown
Low Grade Timeline Swapper
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Brittle Breastplate
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
1s Cooldown -> 6s Cooldown
Karma
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
2% Luck per missing Health -> 5% Luck per missing Health
Leadership Pipe
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Time Dilation Thing
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Risk and Reward
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
Timeline Shifter
Rarity: Epic -> Rare
40s Cooldown -> 20s Cooldown
N-Dimensional Leaf Clover
25% Luck -> 100% Luck
Emergency Shoes
35s Cooldown -> 25s Cooldown
<80m/s to trigger -> <85m/s to trigger
Jackpot
100 Sparks -> 250 Sparks
Big Squash
+50% Health -> +60% Health
Perpetual Motion Machine
Rarity: Common -> Epic
Well-Earned Confidence
Rarity: Rare -> Epic
5% Boost per Perfect Landing -> 3% Boost per Perfect Landing
Atomic Timepiece
1s Cooldown Reduction -> 2s Cooldown Reduction
Tight Schedule
0.25s Cooldown Reduction -> 0.5s Cooldown Reduction
Plutonium Coin
Rarity: Rare -> Epic
Painful Coil
0.3% Boost per missing Health -> 0.6% Boost per missing Health
Timeline Attractor
Rarity: Epic -> Legendary
General Relativity
Rarity: Epic -> Legendary
Portable Harvester
45s Cooldown -> 30s Cooldown
Now also gives 60 Sparks
Otherworldly Contact
35s Cooldown -> 30s Cooldown
Now also gives 50 Health
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Okay, seems like that was everything! I'm exhausted.
If you have any feedback, be sure to let the team know on the Discord.