New Update!
So…this update ended up being nothing like what I originally planned! °∀°
I've always felt that Emberward has one big issue that's really hard to solve: whether you play Roguelite Mode or Endless Mode, a full run takes a loooong time to finish. But TD games are naturally time-consuming, and when you add maze-building on top of that, the thinking time makes the game even longer. It's kind of a built-in limitation of the genre, so it's very difficult to find a fix for it.
But a few days after the last update, Youtube randomly showed me a video about chess endgame puzzles (…I don't even play chess, no idea why it showed up but it was interesting). And it made me think: Is there a way to create a faster game mode using a puzzle-like structure?
So I spent some time messing around with the idea, and it ended up being pretty fun and felt like it had a lot of potential! That's why I decided to add this totally unplanned new mode.
Basically, unlike the other modes where you gradually scale up your power, this one gives you a limited set of towers, blocks and resources right away. (More like a puzzle instead of a roguelite) Your only goal is to squeeze out the absolute best defence you can from that fixed set and survive as long as possible in each wave. Since every player gets the exact same setup, the leaderboard becomes a much clearer reflection of actual skill. It's great for players who love optimizing and pushing limits, or people who don't have much time to play.
Anyway, just go try it out and let me know what you think! I'll be checking everyone's feedback to see if I should spend more time expanding this mode or not.
- Refi
New Features
Game Mode
New Game Mode: Enigma Sanctum!
A sacred domain built within the academy. Conducting endless simulations for the one flawless strategy.
This mode includes Daily Challenge, Weekly Challenge and Random Challenge.
In Daily and Weekly Challenges, all players face the same stages and are given the same towers and cards.
Each game consists of three rounds. At the start of every round you receive a new set of towers and cards and must maximize the defence using this loadout.
Once battle begins, monsters spawn continuously until one of them reaches the Fire Source, then the battle stops and the next round begins.
Killing monsters awards points, and the leaderboard is ranked by your total score.
Since the rules are very different here, only Feri, Chunk and Tana are available in this mode.
Talents
Added the final talent: Royal Emblem
At the start of each adventure, you can pick the cards you want from the Royal Library!
To keep the rules simple, the Academy's unlimited reroll mechanic has been removed.(Edit: It's back)
Game Adjustments
Elemental Effects
Arcane element rework
Arcane towers now apply Fragile to hit monsters, increasing their chance of taking critical hits.
Different towers apply different amounts of Fragile. (Bigger, slower or close‑range towers apply more per hit.)
Fragile gradually decays over time.
The Arcane Missile Tower keeps its original effect (always critically hit against enemies with more than 80 % HP)
Relic Forbidden Grimoire reworked: applying Fragile to monsters below 40 % HP has double effect, and Fragile decays at half speed on monsters below 20 % HP.
Leaderboard
You can now see screenshots of other players' final configurations on the leaderboard.
Because data from old versions and pirated games were affecting the leaderboards, leaderboards are no longer shared across versions.
(Which means all leaderboards will reset with each update.)
Tower Adjustments
Laser Tower: Charging speed reduced and energy decays faster, but decay only begins after it has not attacked for one second.
The Laser Tower is currently too powerful. It's intended to be a 1×1 tower with higher damage but has a clear weakness. So rather than changing its damage values, I want to first try to make its weak points more obvious.
Portal Tower: Now displays how many monsters it has teleported in the tooltip.
Thunder Tower: The red upgrade now instantly applies 100 % Fragile, divided evenly among all hit monsters.
Magic Arrow Tower: Damage increased from 12 to 15.
Axe Tower: Damage increased from 12 to 14.
Froststorm Tower: Range reduced from 11 to 7.5.
Flamethrower Tower: Damage tick rate changed from 2.5 to 2.
Scythe Tower: Damage increased from 15 to 18.
Hammer Tower: Damage increased from 60 to 65.
Slime Tower: Damage increased from 5 to 6.
Torch Tower: Bounce chance increased from 30 % to 40 %.
Cauldron Tower: Range increased from 7 to 8.
Chainball Tower: Red upgrade damage bonus increased from +20 to +30.
Dart Tower: Attack speed increased from 1 to 1.25.
Other changes
Added a new option in the settings to automatically build towers continuously without holding Shift key.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where leaving the game at the moment of defeat would cause the game to freeze.
Fixed an issue in Endless Mode where opening a chest and receiving a new reward at the same time would cause the game to freeze.
Fixed an issue with Tana where upgrade card effects copied by Echo Crystal were temporary.
Fixed an issue where the Smithing Mask increased the attack speed of the Black Hole Tower.
Post-Patch Updates
Fixed an issue where in certain situations, Chain Ball Tower's attacks could pass through other towers.
(Experimental change) Enigma Sanctum now gives player an additional rune-less 1x4 block card and 2x2 block card each wave.
I checked the leaderboard yesterday and looked through a lot of screenshots. It seems that having a few more block cards could make strategies more flexible. We'll see how it works!
In the Royal Library, players can now choose relics with tower-type restrictions if they have chosen the towers needed in the first step. (For example, if you have chosen Dice Tower, you can choose get the Elemental Dice relic.)
Fixed a bug where the Spawn Camping achievement could be completed in Enigma Sanctum.