January Update 2025 - Hero Dungeons & Steam Achievements

It’s been a while but I’m very happy to release this long awaited update - the Hero Dungeons!

But there’s much more…

This update is actually packed with new stuff in addition to the new zones - including Steam achievements, a complete skill rework for most skills, changes to itemization and drop rates, new item prefixes, combat updates, new armors and weapons, updated artwork, very basic character customization, enemy rebalancing, and more I probably forgot to even write down.

Hero Dungeons
The entrances to these randomly generated zones can be found hidden throughout the world. There is one in each act and there is often more than one way to enter. But be careful! These places are dangerous and will not be easy to complete. Often your way will be blocked by some obstruction and the enemies are numerous. Completing these gauntlets alone is ill advised, but possible for a true Hero.

While these zones have the most difficult enemies you’ll face in the game, there is the potential for the best possible loot. (Mob Level Normal Mode 25, Hero Mode 45)

Skill Rework
Many of the skills were pretty weak and I’ve wanted to make them feel much more useful for a while now. This update completely overhauls Smithing and Enchanting with new abilities, as well as rebalances the Naturalism, Religion, and Thieving skill trees.

Items
I’ve been struggling with using my assets for armor and weapons for a while because they really aren’t perfect - but I finally have come to the realization that the assets I have are still pretty cool… so I went ahead and added lots of new armors and some weapons to the game for all archetypes. This was a much needed change for a very long time that adds a lot of diversity to the gameplay and makes the characters look sooo much cooler.

In addition to all of the new 3d assets - I’ve updated all of the item artwork!

Items had a lot of changes in this patch in terms of rebalancing as well. Stat requirements have been changed for all items. There’s also been new prefixes added for new random stats on items. Item bases also roll additional stats that they previously didn’t have. All of these changes should help to make more archetypes viable.

Last but not least - loot has been standardized and bosses no longer always drop 2 items from their item pool. Instead, all mobs have a similar formula for dropping loot while boss mobs have a much higher chance to drop uniques through item pooling. I’ve found this gameplay to be much more exciting.

This gets a little into the details so if you don’t care, scroll on down past this explanation.

How loot works:
Mobs, barrels, and chests have a mob level associated with them. Items have a base item level associated with them. Mobs can only drop items that have an item level less than or equal to their mob level.

Items also have a pool chance. Whenever a mob dies - entries from the list of all items are filtered out by mob level and by their pool chance. The entries that make it through the filter create the pool of possible items (including uniques) the mob can drop. Unique items have an additional 75% chance to be cut from the pool, significantly reducing their chances of dropping. If the mob slain was a boss, all possible unique items will be added to the pool. This greatly increases your chance of finding unique items from boss mobs, but they are no longer guaranteed.

Item level also determines the maximum stats that can roll on items.

Combat Updates
Melee combat is receiving a change to its damage formula to now take into account affinity bonuses - meaning some melee weapons now deal damage other than physical! This creates some interesting build opportunities - though there aren’t many melee weapons that do this.

Some additional changes:

• dexterity now affects damage dealt with daggers
• melee abilities can now miss, be dodged, and critically hit

While there are still some critical items I want to address before officially releasing - I think Dungeoneer is mostly content complete at this point. I will likely focus on accessibility and UX type things in upcoming patches as well as continued improvements, bug fixes, etc.

Patch Notes

• Steam Achievements are now live
• Hero Dungeons have been added along with new quests for each
• All skills have been significantly reworked or rebalanced
• Item drop formula has been reworked
• Many new armors and weapons added
• New item prefixes added as well as general item stats rework
• All new artwork for items
• Combat damage formula updates
• World and campaign changes
• General improvements to movement and character navigation
• General UI updates
• Basic character customization

Thank you again for all of your support. I can’t express how grateful I am for those who have played and helped me improve this game over the years.

Enjoy
LonelyLamb