This patch adds Daily and Weekly Challenges to Endless Mode!
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about what the "final form" of Emberward should look like. I've played a ton of fun tower defense games in the past. They were super fun, but once I finished them, I often didn't feel like going back. I always wished there was something that kept pulling me back in with new challenges. That's the idea behind the new Daily and Weekly Challenges in this update!
These challenges use maps from the regular roguelite mode, but with added twists and modifiers. Sometimes you'll get a ton of relics to play with, sometimes the elements are limited, or you might be handed a specific tower/relic combo and have to figure out how to make it work. The goal is to give you something new and interesting every time you launch the game! I'll keep tweaking this mode based on your feedback (maybe even a version with Inferno Shards?), so let me know what you think after giving it a try!
For the next update, I'm planning to focus on the Achievement System (finally!). It's going to be a pretty big feature, not just coding-wise, but also building the UI, making tons of icons, and doing a lot of testing. I'm guessing it'll probably take over a month to finish, so if there's no update by late August or early September, don't worry! I'll release it as soon as it's ready.
That's it for now. Hope you enjoy the new endless modes!
- Refi
12 new maps have been added to the game!
Academy:
The Academy now has a reroll system.
Limited Rerolls Initially: Before you have cleared all four regions (on any difficulty), you need to spend points to reroll.
Clearing each level restores 1 reroll point, and clearing a boss level restores 5 points. You can store up to 20 reroll points.
Unlimited After Full Clear: Once you've cleared all four regions on any difficulty, rerolls become unlimited.
This issue…to be honest, it's been bothering me for a long time. For most players (especially new players) I think it's better to encourage trying new combinations. But at higher difficulties, having to constantly restart the game to find a suitable combo gets really annoying. After testing a few versions, I feel this solution is the most balanced approach. It fixes the reroll problem in high difficulty without making new players feel like they must always roll the perfect set before they can start playing.
Added Daily and Weekly Challenges to Endless Mode. These challenges have different special conditions and anomaly effects to mix up the gameplay.
Starting Block Selection: You can now choose the blocks for your deck at the start of Endless Mode.
Added a Quick Restart option in the pause menu for faster retries.
Unlock Requirement Change: Because the new mode uses maps from all four regions, the unlock requirement for Endless Mode has been changed. you now unlock Endless Mode after clearing all four regions on any difficulty.
Failing a level in Casual difficulty will no longer end your run.
Normal & Heroic stays the same.
I noticed from recent feedback that for some players, even Casual mode felt stressful in the later regions. So...since it's called Casual mode, I think it's fine if it doesn't strictly follow the roguelite rules. This way, players who just want a relaxing, low-pressure experience can enjoy the game, and those still learning won't be so afraid of failure that they stop trying new tactics.
Mute In Background Option: Added an option to mute audio when the game is running in the background.
Progress Reset: Added a function to reset your game progress (use with caution!).
Stealth Mode: Added a Stealth Mode option to help you play sneakily at work with a lower chance of being noticed. (It looks like THIS)
Treasure chests now have a very low chance to contain a Gambler's Token.
Added category tabs on the Tower page. You can now filter towers by their element or by tower size.
Chunk
Unlock requirement changed from building 2x2 towers to building any tower larger than 1x1.
The quest "Keep enemies at least X tiles away from the Fire Source" now uses a square area for its range check (instead of a circular radius).
Impact Dispersion System: Effect changed to "When a tower receives a malfunction effect from monsters, the effect is halved. If the remaining malfunction duration exceeds 2 seconds, it is evenly distributed to other functioning towers within 3 tiles."
Adjusted the modifiers for daily/weekly missions.
Fixed an issue where the dice tower could not be rerolled.
Made adjustments/fixes to some maps.