Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Denizens of the Dark!

On these rapidly cooling days, we bring to you a delightful deluge of changes, fixes, and developments, in the form of our first Major Update!!!

One of the standouts in this one is the new ability system we mentioned in the last devlog. With this new system, you will be able to equip any ability while using any weapon. We look forward to hearing what synergies work best from you, and watching your triumph over the Tribulations set before you. We have reworked every ability to work with this new system, and are always looking for feedback on each one and their playstyle with different Vessels.

We have added some new challenges to go with our Bosses, featuring a unique pool of curses for each one, that will be assigned to you upon their defeat on the field of glorious combat. These curses range from buffing the general stats of your foes, to adding unique tweaks to their capabilities based on the boss that was killed.

Fear not, we didn’t just grant the enemy new and terrifying powers to destroy you with! With the new Ichor system, we have added another way to build your power and adapt to the threats you will face. You will collect Ichor Flasks that will combine into a new artifact, forged from the vibrant blood of an Elder God. We will leave it to you to discover what these new artifacts are capable of. >:)

Along with Ichor are Runes! While we mentioned these in our last devlog as being an involved process to acquire, we wanted to get them into your hands for testing before bringing on a more complicated system. For now, they are rare drops from enemies that you have to take to a victory and they can grant you unique effects in your future runs, such as soul magnetism, damage taken to damage dealt exchanges, and more.

And last on our highlights list, a full rebalance of all Unspeakables. We have been taking your feedback into account and are working to make these powerful artifacts more interesting and exciting when they come up in your deck.Thank you again to our players and contributors, and keep the suggestions coming.

As always, the full patch notes are below for your consumption!

Additions

• Added a new ability system and the ability to select any ability on any weapon
• Reworked every single ability
• Added Converter Artifact Tag
• Bosses now give a Curse when they are killed, each boss has a unique pool 3 curses
• Added 2 Unspeakables (Soul Scorch, Aetheric Leap)
• Added 4 Converter Artifacts (Volatile Penetrator, Unstable Coating, Galvanized Dart, Rebounding Rounds)
• Added 3 Curses (Malefic Surge, Unholy Deceleration, Cryptic Deviation)
• Added 2 Curse Artifacts (Sacrificial Rite, Dark Reprieve)
• Added 2 Debuff Artifacts (Hamstring, Love Taps)
• Added 2 Enemy Boons (Soft Hides, Fragile Peace)
• Added 1 Ability Boon (Smooth Action)
• Added 1 Ability Artifact (Writhing Hatred)
• Added Level-up SFX
• Added new drop Ichor Flask
• Added new Artifact Type Ichor
• Added a damage number color for Dot Damage
• Added runes

Gun Balance

• Adiras Wrath: Fire Rate 72 -> 92 RPM

Soul Balance

• Soul of Cathilan Damage 60% -> 20%
• Soul of Cathilan Max Damage 4 -> 6

Artifact Balance

• Glitter Bomb Type Harmony -> Defensive
• Glitter Bomb: Shield Regen Speed 0% -> 20%
• Glitter Bomb: Rarity Mundane -> Eerie
• Furious Frenzy Type Harmony -> Utility
• Furious Frenzy: Rarity Mundane -> Eerie
• Colossus of the Abyss: Damage 0% -> 25%
• Colossus of the Abyss: Speed 25% -> 20%
• Colossus of the Abyss: Dash Speed 25% -> 20%
• Thorny Breach: Damage 75% -> 90%
• Thorny Breach: No longer locks dashes to 1
• Sacrificial Tithe: +1 Damage Per Max Health -> +1 Damage Per Missing Health
• Sacrificial Tithe: -50% Max Health -> -120% Health Regen Speed while above 50% health
• Violent Delights: Conversion Ratio 50% -> 30%
• Hellish Quartet: Dash Cooldown: 0% -> 25%
• Unearthly Luck: Critical Chance: 20% -> 30%
• Vicious Rebuke: Buff Time 2 -> 6 seconds
• Vicious Rebuke: Health Regen Speed 1% -> 2%
• Lithe Practitioner: Dash Cooldown +2 -> 0 seconds
• Lithe Practitioner: Health Regen 5% -> 7%
• Second Wind: 30% Chance to get 50% dashes when running out -> 30% chance to refund a dash charge
• Removed Blood Token
• Splintering Cascade: Damage 75% -> 100%
• Trick Shot: Damage Per Bounce 1 -> 2
• Abyssal Horde: 15% Enemy Spawn Rate -> 10% Enemy Health
• Cacophonous Scourge: Rarity Eerie -> Eldritch
• Cacophonous Scourge completely reworked the curse
• Turtle: Damage 25% -> 20%
• Turtle: Max Health 40% -> 30%
• Ordinal Fury: Damage 30% -> 20%
• Dark Amplification: 10% Damage -> On Projectile Pierce +1 damage to projectile
• Dark Amplification: Now requires some degree of Piercing

Enemy Balance

• Slime: Health 14 -> 16
• Mudder: Health 14 -> 24
• Boomer: Health 64 -> 96
• Boomer: Blast Animation Speed: 0.3 -> 0.25
• Charger: Health 72 -> 108
• Charger no longer has health regen
• Greeble: Health 72 -> 108
• Greeble no longer has health regen
• Fire Sprite: Health 42 -> 64
• Gelatinous Blob: Health 48 -> 72
• Gelatinous Blob: Health 24 -> 20
• Porcupine: Health 48 -> 72
• Small Blob: Health 12 -> 18
• Ghost: Health 42 -> 64
• Ghost: Speed 32 -> 30
• Hammer Slime: Health 36 -> 54
• Hammer Slime now has Grit
• Slime King: Health 1400 -> 2100
• Ghost Cyclops: Health 3495 -> 4200
• Ghost Cyclops Boss: Knockback Resistance: 60% -> 80%
• Slime King Boss: Knockback Resistance: 50% -> 80%
• Slime Quintet Boss: Knockback Resistance: 75% -> 80%
• Mimic Health 5825 -> 6300
• Mimic: Speed 90 -> 80
• Slime Quintet Health 5785 -> 7200
• Slime Quintet: Blob Spawn Threshold 23 -> 30
• Slime Quintet no longer has health regen
• Mud: Duration 30 -> 60 seconds

Gameplay Balance

• Buff Stack Fall Off Decay time: 0.75 -> 0.5 seconds
• Decreased Soul Gain by 12% before level 10
• Speed Scaling: 2.4% -> 2%
• Increased enemy spawn rate by 16%
• Bomb Map Objective Enemy Weight Requirement 200 -> 180
• Tribulations: No longer affect Player Speed
• Tribulations: No longer affect Player Dash Cooldown
• Tribulations: Boss Health Per Level 8% -> 10%
• Tribulations: Enemy Health Per Level 20% -> 60%
• Tribulations: Enemy Speed Per Level 3% -> 4%
• Max enemy spawn request size 50% -> 34%

Changes

• Changed the default Font to a way more readable font
• Removed Ability Cooldown Rune
• Removed Hysteric Torrent Harmony
• Knockback no longer triggers on some abilities and blast damage
• Changed the color of the DoT tag
• Blast Radius now scales with Projectile Size
• Reworked the calculations of Burst Delay
• The UI now factors in Burst Delay and Burst Amount into the Fire Rate Calculations
• Removed Camera Shake when Shooting to reduce wobbly feeling
• Added a VFX for bombs
• Improved Controller Aiming
• Reduced the Deadzone on the Controller’s sticks

Fixes

• Fixed Enigmatic Delay showing it affected Ability Cooldown when it didn’t
• Fixed Ardent Light not affecting Shield Regen Speed
• Fixed Graphical Artifacting with Blast Damage
• Fixed closing strafe enemies not getting close enough to the player
• Fixed Septic Scourge giving 1 DoT Damage instead of 3 DoT Damage
• Fixed Selecting an artifact before the animation finishes playing
• Fixed Soul of the Trinket Master giving more than intended Trinket Quality
• Fixed Dash Charge Curse not decreasing the current dash charges
• Fixed DoT Damage resetting when DoT Stacks were being re-applied
• Fixed Over Crit having the wrong color for damage numbers
• Fixed the controller having un-intended behavior on the end round screen
• Fixed not all buffs showing in the UI
• Fixed when rerolling, an artifact that is in the 3rd slot could roll in the other slots
• Fixed Blast causing the projectile to always pierce