Patch v0.520 - Primaris, HP steal rebalance and major fixes

Hello Templars!

Another major patch for Arms of God is now live.

I’ve been tweaking and improving things pretty much every day, based on your feedback, to keep refining the game step by step.

Here’s what you can expect in this update:

CHANGES

• Changed the position of the Select and Start Crusade buttons

• Added 5 new Codex building tips

• Added 5 new Codex weapon tips

• Unlock Codex TIPS entries when unlocking weapons in Gunsmith

• Localization update

• Updated unique hero descriptions

• Added descriptions to Element Cores

• Reordered weapons in the selection menu

• UI optimization and refactoring (potential fix for black screen and being AFK on minimized game)

• Updated the Shrine description in the Codex for ES, KO, ZH-TW, TH, JA, and ZH-CN

BALANCE

• Prices are reduced to 75% for Mercy Act I, and each Act increases them by 5%
  -----
  Patch v.0521
  This has been changed to 75% for entire Mercy difficulty and each Act after Mercy increases the prices by 3%.

• Rarity Find no longer affects the chance of finding the weapon you carry

• Tier II and Tier III Prayers are now ~15% more expensive per tier

• Primaris is limited to 36 weapon upgrades and 10 Blessing types
  ----
  Patch v.0521
  Primaris is limited to 36 weapon upgrades and 12 Blessing types

• Explosive damage HP Steal is divided by the number of enemies hit

• HP Steal * 3 / current Crusade, capped at 20 HP per hit on a single enemy
  ----
  Patch v.0521
  HP Steal * 4 / current Crusade, capped at 20 HP per hit on a single enemy

• Bone Spire can no longer be healed

• Once all Revelations from Sermon of Revelation have been revealed, it will grant 1 Vow instead of 1 Edict

FIXES

• Fixed an issue where refunding the passive Crux Invocation upgrade could block buildings

• Fixed controller navigation when changing difficulty in the Select Act window

• Fixed/increased the chance of finding the weapon you already carry for Primaris

• Fixed Primaris showing only weapons after Wave 1

• Fixed forbidden characters in Order names: < > : " / \\ | ? * - this issue could prevent new Orders from being saved properly

• Fixed an issue with HUD building focus

• Fixed issue with tutorial popup on rebuilding structures in HUB

• Fixed moving between buildings in the HUB on gamepad

• Fixed the Crux Invocation achievement when loading progress from the beta demo

• Fixed Revival blocking shooting

• Fixed regeneration not working when reaching 0 HP

• Fixed negative HP Steal values

• Fixed interacting with events after the wave ends

• Fixed the achievement for unlocking all passive upgrades being completed too early

• Fixed a delay when unlocking Prayer achievements in the HUB

• Potential fix for immortal enemies (I'm not sure if this fixed all the cases)

• Fixed converting Flamethrower to Laser

• Fixed getting stuck crouching after interaction

• Fixed main lava movement and activation in the Malatch boss fight

• Fixed Power Relay insert prompt range

• Fixed critical hits with negative critical damage (capped at 100%)

Fatal error issue: Someone from the community mentioned that turning off HAGS - Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling - solved their Fatal Error issue. I’m sharing this in case anyone else is experiencing similar crashes. I also know that, in some cases, especially on older graphics cards, adding "-dx11" to Steam Launch Options can help.

Primaris is not receiving a huge nerf - he is still strong. However, because he previously had a very large number of upgrade and blessing slots, playing him often lacked meaningful decision-making.

With the new limits, Primaris can still become very powerful, but only if you make good choices. Once all Blessing slots are filled, the shop will only roll Blessings you already have, which can actually work in the character’s favor if they are chosen well. I will continue to keep an eye on this character.

HP Steal has been nerfed in a way that should still make taking Life Steal upgrades in the early levels feel meaningful. However, since HP Steal scales with damage, and damage increases from wave to wave, it is now divided by the current wave. I will continue to monitor HP Steal - this is not its final version, but I feel this change is a step in the right direction.

I realize that this update does not include some of the fixes that part of the community is waiting for. I think the game build is becoming more and more stable. There are still a few important fixes left, but in the next updates I also want to focus more on controller support and navigation.

Even though two more people have joined the project, they are not able to fully jump in immediately, because the project is quite complex under the hood. For now, I am still handling most of the changes myself. So I kindly ask you for a bit more patience.

In the background, we are already working on more concrete ideas for the future development of the game’s design and new features. I hope we will be able to prepare a roadmap next week.

Thank you very much for all the feedback. I read all your comments and discussions. Thank you as well for reporting bugs - it really helps a lot.

-Dominik