This is the Shell Heroes 2.0 update. All nine characters have been completely redrawn, and we've added Shell Hide, which lets you hide in your shell and strike back, five hidden areas, and the Little Expedition, where a child you rescued walks alongside you.
New Content
- New designs for all nine characters — All nine characters have been redrawn with brand-new designs. New animations, from idling, walking, jumping and landing to dashing, the 3-Hit Combo, Shell Boomerang, Burrow, Awakening and getting knocked down, now flow in sync with the actual gameplay timing. Dialogue portraits, HUD faces, full-body art wearing shells and the prologue art have all been updated as well, and Indo now has separate left- and right-facing art to show off his two differently sized claws.
- Shell Hide & parry — Hold S to hide in your shell and block attacks with shell durability instead of HP. Hide just before an attack lands to parry! Nearby enemies are briefly stunned, and your first attack right after a parry is a guaranteed critical hit. Ranged attacks are sent back to whoever fired them, damaging and stunning them. Hide in midair to slam down with a Shell Pound. But be careful: if you stay hidden under a boss's attacks for too long, your shell will start to tremble, then lose a big chunk of durability and pop you out.
- Five hidden areas — Nacre Grotto, First Forest of Life, Spine Cave, Last Voyage and Shell of Stillness. Their entrances are hidden throughout the main chapters, and each area has its own story, puzzles, rewards and dedicated music. Some even have a powerful boss lying in wait. Return to an area you've completed and the story and rewards continue in a way that fits your return, and you can relive each area's memories in the Codex. New achievements have been added too.
- Little Expedition — Choose one of the five children you rescued in the hidden areas to adventure with you. Your companion follows you through Sora Village, the chapters and even the hidden areas, crossing platforms and dashing on their own, and chatting about the things they see along the way. The more you travel together, the more your Friendship grows, and you can craft shells for your companion to wear at Branto's Little Shell Workshop. The shell they wear also grants a companion effect.
- New Hidden shells — Added the First Breath Conch, whose attack and defense shift with the rhythm of its breath, and the Lullaby Conch, which lulls enemies to sleep. Together with the Echo Conch, these two shells make up the new "Hidden" grade, and their names are shown in pink.
- Screenshot mode — Select "Screenshot" from the pause menu to hide the HUD and name tags and freeze time. Your character takes turns idling, striking their Signature Pose and dozing off.
- New character select screen — Character select on the title screen now takes place on a harbor stage. Preview your chosen character's 3-Hit Combo, Shell Boomerang and Signature Pose, and hear a line that's true to who they are.
- Echo Channel rework — Reworked the scene where the black wave crashes in at the Tide Pool, the sequence where you dodge a giant wave, and what happens when you guess wrong during hide-and-seek with Nobody. Wave warning signals now stay on until the wave has passed, and the music has been replaced with a new track.
Combat
- Boss overhaul — Bosses have been redrawn with new art and animations. Attacks now hit only where the drawn attack actually reaches, and contact damage is based on the drawn body, so you can dodge and strike exactly as you see.
- Bosses that read openings — Bosses pick their next move by watching for openings, such as a missed swing, a landing or the moment you come out of your shell, as well as your dodging habits. They never peek at your button inputs and react half a beat late, just like a person would. A glint of light around a boss's eyes is the sign that it's going for an opening.
- Perfect dodge — More boss attacks now have a perfect dodge window. Pull one off and "PERFECT DODGE" appears above your head, leaving a teal afterimage behind. The Shell Hide and Dash action cards grow brighter as the timing approaches. The counterattack cue on bosses and the boss attack names in the center of the screen have been removed.
- The extra damage bosses gain in their enrage phases is now applied after defense is calculated, so later phases stay threatening even with high defense.
- Breaking the hard plates on the Chapter 3 boss now triggers a part-break effect with fragments flying off.
- Regular monsters now chase you when attacked, and give up after a while if you get far enough away.
- Rebalanced monster difficulty for each chapter. Monsters and elites in Chapters 2 and 3 now have the higher HP originally intended, and the spit attack that hurt the most in Chapter 1 has been weakened. Some attacks in Chapters 4 and 5 and the Echo Channel that dealt only 1 damage against high defense now deal a consistent amount of damage.
- The basic attack animation is now about 1.5× slower. The effect of the Atk Speed stat is unchanged.
- The Shell Boomerang's flight speed and the Dash cooldown now follow the Speed stat: higher Speed makes them faster, and lower Speed makes them a little slower. Dash distance and jumps are unchanged.
- The Shell Boomerang now leaves your character's claw at the exact moment of the throw.
- Awakening animations now play at their proper speed, and the effect fires at the moment the character actually unleashes it.
- Shell Skills can no longer be used while burrowed.
Shell Workshop
- Crafting & enhancement presentation overhaul — Check a shell's stats and Shell Skill right on the reveal screen where the materials come together and the shell takes shape, and the finished shell flies into its slot in the Shell Bag. When you enhance a shell, light from the new star flies into the Enhance Points slot. Some shells, like the Scaly-foot Snail with its deep-sea heat and Triton's Trumpet with its spreading sound waves, now have their own backgrounds and sounds.
- Lower ★4 and ★5 enhancement costs — The Essence required has been reduced from 6 to 4 for ★4 and from 15 to 8 for ★5. The crafting materials needed alongside it have also been reduced from 2× to 1.25× for ★4 and from 3× to 1.5× (rounded up) for ★5.
- Echo Conch material change — The Echo Conch now needs Echo Shards for every enhancement starting from ★1 (6 → 8 in total through ★5, including crafting). "Hollow Shell Fragment" has been renamed "Echo Shard."
- Existing shell art has been refined in line, shading and texture to match the new characters while keeping its shapes, and every shell has newly drawn damage-stage art. A shell whose durability hits 0 now stays on your back, completely worn down.
Visuals & Effects
- Redrew monster hit and defeat effects, boss attack warning lines and enrage emblems, and ring-shaped area indicators to better suit each situation.
- Flowing light streams — Places where light connects, such as puzzle light paths, lanterns and light seeping through cracks, now use new light streams that flow down like silk. In the ancient gear puzzle of Chapter 6, light flowing along the pipes makes it easy to see the waterway connecting.
- Reduced flashing — So that light-sensitive players and children can play comfortably, we removed effects that flashed the whole screen white, and the light from shell crafting and enhancement now spreads softly from the shell itself. We re-measured flash frequency and brightness changes against photosensitivity safety guidelines and fixed the effects that exceeded them.
- Chapter terrain now has natural slopes and cliff cross-sections, and platforms that were floating in midair are now supported by trees, roots, coral and wreckage. Panoramic backgrounds have been extended to more chapters.
- Chapter decorations now react to attacks. Breakable decorations drop small rewards, and you can also stand on them.
- You can now dive into the sea from the dock on the left side of Sora Village, and characters submerged in the Tide Pool or the sea show clearly through the shimmer of the water.
- In the Chapter 5 cargo hold, you now enter and exit at the doors, and light slipping through gaps in the walls lights up the next platform.
- Pador has been redrawn with the face of an old fisherman to match his lines, and Sora Village residents now have idle, talking and unique animations.
- New art for receiving story items in your claws, the opening scene where you wake up in Sora Village, and the soul wings that rise when you fall.
- Save point pedestals now look different in each chapter, and the minimap shows the scenery of each area.
- Entering buildings and areas now plays an entry sound unique to each place, and buying something in a shop plays a payment sound.
Display & Controls
- Camera zoom — Choose a camera zoom between 1.00× and 1.50× in Settings, with a preview of Sora Village and the beach to help you decide. The screen also shakes less when you jump or land while zoomed in.
- Mute / Unmute — Press M to mute or unmute both music and sound effects at once. You can rebind it in Controls.
- When you first start, a tutorial guides you along a yellow "!" and explains what the quest markers mean.
- The HUD is now smaller and cleaner, and action cards have icons. Buff text above your head and small text are larger, and the Growth Burrow screen has been redesigned with large text.
- The dialogue window now switches sides depending on who is speaking and shows page numbers. It also sits at the very bottom of the screen, so you can see more of the scene.
- The island map now shows art for monsters, materials, shells and bosses and links to the Codex (anything you haven't encountered yet shows "?"). Hovering the mouse over Sora Village buildings shows a description.
- Calcium and material counts now use thousands separators, and the save notification appears next to the bag before tucking into it.
- Loading screens now show a tip for that chapter.
Story & Localization
- Reworked the lines of all nine characters to bring out their personalities, and tidied up the flow and clue locations of the character story quests.
- When another character's name comes up in dialogue, the name you've set for them is used.
- In each language, character names now follow the name commonly used in that language, or the scientific name when there isn't one.
- Adjusted line breaks in every language so dialogue no longer breaks in the middle of a word.
- Dialogue and menus for the new areas and the Little Expedition are available in all 12 languages.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the first letter of chapter titles being hidden behind the HUD.
- Fixed long action names (such as "Shell Boomerang" in English) being cut off by the edge of the name box.
- Fixed enemy name tags overlapping the buff slots above your head when an enemy was right next to you.
- Fixed seawater used while the Shell Boomerang was in flight disappearing when the shell came back — seawater is no longer used while the shell is thrown.
- Fixed the on/off setting and usage percentage for Auto-use Fresh Water and Auto-use Seawater getting out of sync (default 30%).