Hello, survivors!
We've got a bunch of small tweaks this week to particularly-troublesome enemies, as well as some quality-of-life updates, performance improvements, and a ton of bugfixes.
But the big update this week is full Linux support! This also includes a native build for the Steam Deck (instead of using the Windows build with Proton). We'll have more details on our Steam Deck compatibility soon; we're still stress-testing all the performance improvements on the Deck and tuning the default Deck configuration to feel great, even at infinitely-long runs.
So lets get into what's new!
Native Linux Support
The game is now natively supported on Linux!
This includes a native Linux build for Steam Deck, where we've been loving playing the game from.
Daily Challenge Changes
The results of each day's leaderboard are now automatically reported on the Chroma Golem Discord when a new challenge starts. You're invited! Come say hi to the developers, rant about how hard the daily is, share feedback, or just hang out. :)
The daily challenge boss now spawns 20 minutes into the challenge, rather than 30 minutes in.
You can now select "Daily Challenge" as a level (at the top of the list) in the co-op lobby screen to jump into the daily challenge with your friends.
Balance Changes
The amount of XP required per level up has been increased by 10%.
The amount of XP required per level up in party play (where XP is shared across all players) has been increased from +25% per player to +75% per player.
Actual impact: co-op parties need +54% more XP per level at 2 players, +83% at 3, and +104% at 4 people.
Enemy Changes
Bosses now spawn in the area ~30% closer to the player (but still off-screen).
Jade Dragon (boss)'s phase 2 mechanics now start at 80% health rather than 70% health.
Reduced projectile speed of Sky Sages by 75% (8->2).
Reduced projectile speed of Hairball Hurlers by 55% (4.5->2).
Reduced projectile size of Sphinx Stalker by 75%, and reduced projectile speed by 50% (6->3).
Reduced projectile size of Coil Sentry by 75%, and reduced projectile speed by 50% (8->4).
Reduced projectile size of Bamboo Recluse by 75%.
Increased the size of Doxocology Chair enemies by 100%.
UI Changes
The pause menu minimap now shows tooltips for each interactable object in the world, and a distance tracker of how far you are to them.
Redesigned the open slots in the co-op lobby to make it clearer that you can click open slots to join opposing teams.
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug that prevented properly defaulting to Simplified Chinese language settings when playing on a Mac in China.
Fixed a bug that made bots in Genesis Rift level up approximately twice as fast as the player.
Fixed several places where text in the UI was wrapping incorrectly, especially on larger screens.
Fixed more than a dozen small bugs that directly resulted in performance slowdowns, especially on longer runs.