The heady scents of gunpowder, blood and... piss? Yup, that's right - Entropy is crashing back into your Steam feed with its first Early Access content update, and this one is weird.
Probably the biggest new feature is: drugs. Are we allowed to call them that? I'm not sure. But your mercenaries can now snort, sniff and imbibe a variety of substances through their orifice of choice.
Draenog 32, Scoundrel's Snuff, Killer's Courage and Soul Infusions are four new useable items that balance powerful short-term buffs with subsequent withdrawal effects:
Soul Infusions - rare and valuable items, these will guarantee that your next action has a 100% success rate. Save them for when it's life-or-death.
Draenog 32 - a potent alcoholic vintage that boosts Courage to the absolute maximum, but lowers it once the buzz wears off.
Scoundrel's Snuff - a stimulant commonly used by cutpurses and rogues. Greatly raises Critical rate for a while, before it crashes to zero.
Killer's Courage - Increases normal damage, and increases Critical damage even more.
Of course, the canny among you may realise that these effects could very easily stack together for some insanely powerful attacks - though this would, of course, be going against the sage advice that you should never mix your drinks.
Oh, and did I mention you can get addicted to all of these? Drink responsibly!
To introduce you to these new items, there's a brand new questline to complete. You can now bump into a scantily-clad new character in the Cuvas Bathhouse, whose subsequent request will lead you to an encampment of cutthroat brigands: Nihil's Gang.
These ruffians are under the command of a mysterious figure who, due to being kicked in the head by a horse, is only able to offer orders through grunts and snarls.
Whether you choose to help or hinder them is up to you - but should you get into a scrap, you'll notice that they're stocked up with an assortment of nefarious narcotics, so be prepared for some rather energised opponents.
Finally, this update adds a number of prosthetic items which can only be used by characters with missing limbs:
Prosthetic Shiv - pathetic damage output, but strapping a blade to what remains of your arm is better than nothing.
Prosthetic Shell - a giant snail shell which improves your defence in battle.
Prosthetic Flintgun - much slower to use than a regular flintgun (just how are you managing to reload that thing?), but still packs just as much punch.
Plus, this update comes with a bucketload of polish and bugfixes. Of particular note is how the item system has been refined - the item info panel has been split into two pages of information that can be toggled, and items are now sorted in a much more comprehensible manner in the inventory, among other quality of life improvements.
As for what's on the horizon? Well, we can safely say this is the last content update that will focus on the Gloaming Isles. The next update is gonna be much bigger - a solid chunk of the Continent will be exploreable, and we promise it's gonna be a very different vibe from the swampy climes of the Isles.
Until then, entropyers!
Wait no, that's awful, I can't call you that. Entro-pals? Entropeeps?
Okay I'm just gonna leave.
-Lovely Hellplace
Read the full Patch Notes Below!
Give your party the edge in combat with powerful new Skobs found around the Gloaming Isles!
Deal massive critical damage, guarantee your next action succeeds, or boost courage to unfathomable levels.
One must be wary when using performance-enhancing substances, however –
Withdrawal will follow, temporarily reducing a stat’s effectiveness during battle.
Addiction has a chance to be applied alongside Withdrawal, permanently decreasing a stat. Can be healed by a doctor.
Enemies can also use skobs to boost their stats, but they too risk withdrawal and addiction debuffs.
Soul Infusion –
A rare tincture infused with an otherworld soul, granting preternatural cognition.
Applies Soul Infused – next action has 100% Hit Chance.
Applies Soul Withdrawal – once Soul Infused is worn off, Hit Chance of all actions is temporarily diminished.
Chance to apply Soul Addiction – permanently diminished Hit Chance of all actions.
Killer’s Courage –
An herbal stimulant commonly used by assassins.
Applies Damage Buzz – base damage and critical damage increased temporarily.
Applies Stimulant Withdrawal – when Damage Buzz is worn off, Damage is temporarily diminished.
Chance to apply Stimulant Addiction – permanently diminishes Damage.
Scoundrel’s Snuff –
A stimulant commonly used by cutpurses and rogues.
Applies Critical Buzz – chance for Critical hits greatly increased temporarily.
Applies Stimulant Withdrawal – when Critical Buzz is worn off, Critical Chance is temporarily diminished.
Chance to apply Stimulant Addiction – permanently diminishes Critical Chance.
Draenog 32 –
A rare alcoholic skob; a premium vintage.
Applies Exquisitely Drunk – Courage is boosted to unfathomable levels temporarily.
Applies Alcohol Withdrawal – when Exquisitely Drunk is worn off, lowers Courage temporarily.
Chance to apply Alcohol Addiction – permanently lowers Courage.
Equip new Prosthetic weapons to party members with severed arms!
Prosthetic Flintgun – attach a gun to perform ranged attacks and weapon skills. Slower to use on account of the difficulties of reloading one-handed. Useful against armored enemies.
Prosthetic Shell – attach a snail shell to gain passively boost defense. Useful for front-row characters (and for looking stylish).
Prosthetic Shiv – attach a crude spike for damage against armor. Useful for dual-wielding.
While not as powerful as other weapons, Prosthetics will still prove beneficial to your party after they’ve seen some tough times.
The update also brings two new side quests to the Cuvas region, connected to a mysterious faction.
New Quest - “The Great and Terrible”
Rumors of a growing outlaw faction led by a fearsome warlord are spreading throughout Cuvas. Investigate their connections to other groups and discover their operations.
New Quest - “Calamitous Beginnings”
An adventurous woman seeks to rejoin her twin in the lands beyond the sea - but Cuvas’s quarantine prevents her from obtaining the required Passage Humours.
In addition, 2 new Choose-Your-Own-Adventure vignettes have been added to the Gloaming Isles!
Overworld combat encounter rate slightly increased
Decreased cost of hiring mercenaries.
Critical Hit damage values for both party members and enemies have been reduced for balance.
Shop menus will now show numbers of items in stock when buying or selling.
Item details now have two pages to toggle between ‘Item Stats’ and ‘Item Info’.
Some shops now have some skobs available for purchase
Updated and tweaked many item descriptions.
Scoundrel’s Snuff & Killer’s Courage skob items can be dropped or stolen from Bandits in overworld encounters.
Tutorials added for Withdrawal & Addiction, appearing when first applied to a party member.
Changed the Item panel to be slightly wider, show effect info before descriptions, and adjusted colors.
Changed the Mercenary Board panel to show descriptions of a character's experience, icons of equipment, and red text for injuries.
Mercenary Armour has been renamed Clade Armour.
Soldier's Armour has been renamed Cavalier Armour.
Tier 2 weapons have been renamed from 'Solider' to 'Clade', e.g. 'Soldier's Sword' -> 'Clade Sword'.
Watery Skob changed to Atterlothe Skob; will now cure poison instead of minor healing.
Corrosive Oil and the Corrosive ability now increase Pierce damage as well as Break damage.
Wanderer's Pipe accessory now increases Critical rate, instead of granting Courage.
The world map location of Old Gloam Facilty has been moved.
'Heart' stat now directly affects how much courage you start battle with; not just how easily courage is gained or lost.
Added a new courage tier: 'maximum courage' is now reached if you have 120 courage or more, and grants even higher hit rate and evasion buffs [when using items].
A text warning displays in the Equipment menu if you are equipping an item to a character who has lost a limb.
Fixed an issue where quickly opening/closing Inventory causing game to freeze, including after defeating Vartano in the Black Mountain Fortress.
Fixed Peacekeeper rewarding Coin if your poem did not rhyme.
Fixed an issue where party members with severed arms could use two-handed weapons.
Fixed an issue where quests were able to be advanced before they had been officially 'started'.
Fixed Coin quest reward notification not showing.
Fixed mercenary boards to not have more than one character with missing limbs.
Fixed camera issues when approaching the Reform Statue in Cuvas entrance.
Fixed an issue where it was possible for Healing Moss to not be usable on The Player in combat after a party member was KO’d.
Fixed an issue where item rewards in post-battle reports would display a quantity of zero
Fixed floating NPC in Cuvas
Fixed inventory sprite for Hunter’s Cuirass item.
Fixed camera angles when speaking to the Technomycologist.
Fixed various collision issues.
Fixed various dialogue and text issues.