CARDS AND SCROLLS REWRITTEN. The text of every card and every scroll was reviewed to say exactly what it does, in short and direct sentences, with the cost apart from the gain. Each card preview shows the current value and the new one ("damage: ×1 → ×1.09"), Upgrade the table tells which cards go up, and the card of a weapon you already have shows the level with the arrow.
CLEARER ITEM NAMES. Each item name now shows its rarity apart and its grade in full, as in "Pants · Rare · Grade 1 · Mail", and the item type is translated. In the Forge, the Market, the collection and the upgrade shop, texts are shorter and clearer. In the shop, selling a level shows what you lose.
A LEANER TALENT TREE. Each skill in the tree now costs 5 points: the skill, both upgrades, the signature and the 5th point, which maxes the skill out and can only be bought last. You earn 1 point every 2 levels (the first at level 2 and 25 at level 50), and the next gates open at 5, 15 and 20 points invested. Skills open more slowly than before, but at level 50 all five are maxed out.
A FREE TREE RESET. With this change, every hero's talent tree was reset once, at no cost: your points come back for you to build again, and saved builds are emptied. Purchased skills, chosen upgrades, key bindings and the equipped passive are removed. Level, experience, copper, equipment, Goddess's Tears and the build slots you bought stay as they were.
LEVELS MAKE YOUR HERO STRONGER. Each hero level above the first gives 2% more damage and 2% more health, multiplying everything you already have, plus a little regeneration (+0.01 per second). At level 10 that is 18% more, and at 50 almost double. The sheet (TAB) shows your level bonus.
READY TO RESUME. In a group, the pause now ends when everyone is ready: each player presses "Ready" on the pause panel (whoever paused becomes ready by closing the menu), the panel shows who is still missing, and the game resumes after a 3-second countdown. The leader can force the resume, and the pause limit also goes through the countdown. Solo, closing the menu still resumes right away.
GAIN AND COST ON THE CARD. On every card, what it gives shows in green with an up arrow, and what it costs in red with a down arrow.
DISCONNECTING NO LONGER LOCKS THE TABLE. If you drop and come back while another table is open (the chest or the next level), you get the card from the table you dropped on and join the current one, and the timer restarts for whoever is still choosing. If that table was already showing the picks, you get a random card from it right away, which respects Fool's Wager. Before, the chest table could lock the group.
THE LEGENDARY EFFECT ON THE CARD. When a card comes Legendary, its extra effect shows on the card itself, highlighted in the rarity color, without holding ALT.
THE PORTAL SHOWS HOW MUCH STRONGER THE ENEMIES GET. When choosing the difficulty, the health of common enemies and the health and speed of elites and the boss show as before and after, with the arrow and color of an easier or harder fight. The warning for gear above the match shows enemy health, damage and speed the same way.
SCROLLS WITH BEFORE AND AFTER. Every chest scroll now shows what changes on your hero, with your own numbers: the radius and health of Weight of the Blade, the dodge of Wraith's Pact, the regeneration Ember Heart takes, the damage and speed of Iron Forge with your block, the attack speed of Blood for Haste, and how many cards Nimble Hand and Fool's Wager leave in each pick.
CLEARER TEXTS. The tutorial, chat messages, portal, hero sheet and options were rewritten in plain words, with copper as the currency and rarity by name. The sheet's Gear section now shows the effect of each attribute, such as Damage +30%.
MENU ON GROUP PORTRAITS. Right-clicking a group member's portrait opens the same menu as clicking the character in the city: inspect, whisper, add friend and block. Your own portrait has "Leave group". If you are the leader, the others' portraits also have "Transfer leadership" and "Kick from group". In a run, only leave, whisper and inspect remain.
ARROW TO THE EVENT ON THE MINIMAP. On the Endless Plain, when the event or the chest is too far to show on the minimap, an arrow on the edge of the minimap shows which way to go.
BOSS FURY. Boss fights now have a time limit: after 6 minutes the boss goes into a fury, becomes much faster, attacks at triple the pace and every blow kills anyone who is not immune. A red circle on the boss bar shows the time left and, in the last minute, the countdown.
POINTS REMINDER ON THE PORTRAIT. In the city, when your hero has skill points to spend, their portrait swaps health, XP and skills for the notice "You still have skill points to spend". During a match the portrait stays the same.
TOWER MAP IN THE CENTER. When the talent tree map is narrower than the screen, it now shows up in the middle instead of stuck to the left, with the header always in view. Zoom still stays on the point under the cursor, and zooming out with the view at the end of the map no longer throws the screen off.
KING'S CHALLENGE AFTER THE KING. The King's Challenge only opens after you face the Skeleton King in the Plain: just reaching the fight is enough, even if you lose. Until then, the station tells you so. In a group, everyone must have faced him. It applies to everyone from this version on, including those who had already beaten the King.
Balance
STRONGER LUCK IN THE SHOP. Each level of Luck in the upgrade shop now gives +1 luck, the same as a common Luck card. It used to give +0.1.
PARALYZING CURRENT PARALYZES. The Chain Shock talent now stuns each enemy hit for 1 second, instead of only slowing it. Bosses are not stunned.
LIGHT SHARDS AND VIGOROUS WATERS. The slow from Safeguard's Light Shards goes up to 50%, the same limit as every slow in the game, and the Tower shows that value. Vigorous Waters on the Well of Light round healing up, so they heal more even with the minimum healing per pulse.
PAUSE LIMIT ONLY WHEN THE REALM IS FULL. Pausing a match now only has the 2-minute limit when 3 or more matches are running in the realm at the same time, solo or in a group; with a quieter realm, it waits as long as needed. If the realm fills up while paused, the game resumes as soon as the limit has passed.
THE WALL IS CLOSED. The goats in the wall march closer together: now only the gap lets you through unharmed, and finding the hole before the wall arrives matters again.
ORACLE'S SIGHT COSTS LUCK. The scroll still guarantees a legendary card in the next 2 level-ups, but its price is now halving the luck you have when you take it, instead of banning legendaries and favoring commons. The card shows your current luck and what it will become.
CRITS AND FIRE RATE ON EVERY WEAPON. Every weapon can now land critical hits: Deadly Eye, Cruel Blade, gear crit and your hero's crit apply to the Aura, Aegis, Orbit, Beam, Mines, Parasite, fan and boomerang, rolled for each enemy hit. Every weapon also speeds up with Quick Trigger, Blind Haste and Blood for Haste: the Aura pulses, Mines drop and the Beam burns faster, the Orbit hits the same enemy more often, and the Orbit and the Parasite gain Blood for Haste too. The explosion of the Legendary Deadly Eye works on the fireball, the Comet, the fan and the boomerang.
WEAPON AND CODEX TEXTS REVISED. The nine weapons now describe what they really do: Solar Lance doesn't pierce (heat just doesn't reset when switching targets), Battering Ram stuns whoever the strike hits, and distances show as percentages, not pixels. In the Codex, each card rarity shows the before and after in its color. Two weapons are renamed: Piercing Beam is now Solar Beam, and Shard Orbit is now Stone Orbit.
BASTION CALLS THE HORDE. While the Bulwark is a stone golem, nearby monsters, bosses included, go after him, no talent needed. Stone Challenge now makes that call reach much farther while he is stone, instead of taunting only on leaving.
SKELETON KING CRYSTALS BY HEALTH. The Skeleton King's crystals now hurt by your maximum health, like his blows: the impact takes 15% and the beams between crystals take 2% per second. Armor, shields and immunity still apply, and the damage does not change with the tier.
REVIVING TAKES LONGER EACH TIME. Whoever falls gets back up on their own more slowly each time in the same match: 3 s on the first fall, then 6, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 and, from then on, 60 s. Allies standing over you still speed it up, except for the last wait, which only runs on the clock. The Oracle's Revival still brings anyone back instantly at any wait. Solo play uses the same ladder, with Second Chance.
UP TO 10 HERO LEVELS PER RUN. In a run, your hero gains at most 10 talent tree levels, counted from the level they entered with. XP beyond that does not become levels. It applies to every run that gives hero XP, training and the Challenge included. Nobody loses a level they already have.
Fixes
FOOL'S WAGER ON EVERY PICK. With Fool's Wager, no card comes common: not on the pick where Oracle's Sight gives the legendary, not the card that replaces a banned one, and not the kept card that comes back.
NEW HAND KEEPS THE SIGHT. Changing your hand on the pick where Oracle's Sight gave the legendary no longer spends the guarantee: the new hand brings the legendary again.
CARDS NEVER TAKE AWAY WHAT YOU HAVE. Elusive Shadow, Amplitude, Potency, Arcane breath and Reflexes only add up to their limit and take nothing from someone already past it from another source (dodge from gear, the area from Weight of the Blade). At the limit, Elusive Shadow, Amplitude, Arcane breath and Reflexes stop showing up, and Potency and Armor only show up as Legendary.
POTENCY AND ARMOR AT THE LIMIT. With Potency maxed out, it can still show up, but only as Legendary, for its legendary effect; the same goes for Armor with the damage you take at its minimum. If you already have that effect, they stop showing up.
WRAITH'S PACT IN THE CHEST. With dodge at the card cap, Wraith's Pact no longer shows up in the chest: it would cost health and give no dodge.
NEW HAND KEEPS THE KEPT CARD. Changing your hand on the pick where your kept card came back no longer throws it away: it comes back in the new hand, with the same rarity.
BANNING KEEPS THE SIGHT'S LEGENDARY. Banning the card Oracle's Sight made legendary passes the legendary to the card that takes its place. If that card has no rarity, the legendary waits for the next pick.
ARMOR PREVIEW AT THE FLOOR. The Armor preview now stops at the lowest possible damage taken, which is what counts on the hit.
BANNING THE KEPT CARD REFUNDS KEEP CARD. Keeping a card and then banning it refunds your Keep card, and the card does not come back.
THE SIGHT IS NOT WASTED. If a card on the table is already Legendary, Oracle's Sight gives its legendary to another card.
THE KEPT CARD ONLY COMES BACK IF IT STILL HELPS. A kept card that would no longer change anything (at its limit, maxed out, or costing what you do not have) does not come back, and Keep card is refunded with a chat message. Potency and Armor at the limit only come back if they were already Legendary.
NEW HAND DOES NOT SPEND KEEP CARD. Changing your hand on the same pick where you kept a card does not spend it: it comes back on the next pick.
REFUSALS IN YOUR LANGUAGE. When something can't be done at the Forge, the Market, the upgrade shop, when buying a hero, at the Mail Chest, when equipping a piece, on the Missions board, at crafting stations, in the Tower, on equipment keys or when sending a piece to another split-screen player, the message now shows in the game's language with the actual reason, and copper is written as currency.
THE GUIDE NO LONGER ASKS FOR YOUR HERO AGAIN. If you had already picked your hero on the three-choice screen, the guide still told you to pick one. Now that step comes already done.
TOWER GUIDE ON YOUR FIRST LEVEL. When you leveled up with talent points to spend, the guide didn't show the way to the Arcane Tower. Now it shows up when you return to the city.
MONSTERS ABOVE THE STAIN. The purple goo of the Purple Stain event covered the monsters and the hero standing on it. Now it stays on the ground, beneath everyone, and the event bar is still shown above everything.
Kronon Era 0.203.0 · Kronon Era Playtest patch notes · SteamPeaks