Armor Up For the Hordes (v0.15)

This week we've focused on combat and balance. We've increased spawn rates and given many enemies armor (which reduces your damage done to them, unless your build includes armor piercing affixes...), which should result in bigger crowds and more interesting movement through them. Because we've amped up the spawn rates, this means you'll also be getting a lot more XP and leveling up faster, so the whole game should feel a little more fast-paced, though still strategic.

We've also added a bunch of ways to beef up your survivability, instead of strictly relying on crafting armor (though that's still the best way to survive for long periods of time!).

But there's a lot more to this update than just balance changes; you can read the full changes below:

Gameplay Changes

• You can now reroll your level-up upgrade choices by spending gold. (First reroll per level up costs 1 gold, then 2, then 3, etc).

• Doubled the spawn rate of all enemies in all levels.

• Added a small amount of armor to many enemies.

• Fallen Survivors, Fellow Survivors, and Treasure Goblins will no longer appear as primary enemies in Daily Challenges.

• Rescaled how quickly new workstations are discovered, which should stagger them out a little more smoothly across more levels instead of discovering them all in early levels. (Once you've discovered a workstation in any level, it starts appearing in all levels.)

  • RemovedCemeteryRemoved Blood Infuser, Crystal Resonator, Bloody Chest, Jeweler's Bench, and Storage Chest from discoverable workstations.
  • RemovedAlchemariaRemoved Ash Mortar, Crucible, Condenser, Jeweler's Bench, and Merchant Stall from discoverable workstations.
  • RemovedThreedRemoved Bloody Chest and Bounty Board from discoverable workstations.
  • RemovedBrood DenRemoved Storage Chest and Furnace from discoverable workstations.

New Character Abilities

• Ant - Simple Solutions: Your attacks completely ignore enemy armor.

• David - Pungent: Nearby enemies are slowed.

• Buck - Finish The Hunt: Enemies below 50% health in the area are significantly slowed.

• Vael - Blood Contract: Attack speed scales up as HP drops (up to 50% faster near death).

• Harold - Ancient Knowledge: Bonus damage from exploiting elemental weaknesses is doubled.

• Shrap - Explosives Expert: All explosion damage is doubled.

• Crystal - Permafrost: Your weapons deal double damage to frozen enemies.

• Yuki - Zephyr: Gaining movement speed also increases projectile speed.

• Noo - Sturdy: Damage taken while above 25% health can't reduce your health below 1.

New Characters

• Magnus, Headmaster of the Apothecarium (unlock: discover 100 crafting recipes)

• Ras, the Lion of Zion (unlock: survive 20 minutes in Dread Sea)

• Grimer, Cosmic Custodian (unlock: destroy 50 Trash Cans in any level)

New Crafting Workstations

• Tempering Trough - Empower your equipment with extra armor or recovery stats. Discoverable in the Quarry.

• Warding Lens - Attune your equipment, adding stackable resistance to a specific element. Discoverable in Frostfall.

• Sigil Press - Transform any item into an equippable Sigil accessory. Discoverable in Mournhollow.

New Shrines

Added two new shrines that can appear in all levels:

• Shrine of the Bulwark - Permanently grants a little bit of base armor (1-5) on use.

• Shrine of the Aegis - Temporarily gain invincibility (10 seconds) on use.

Merchant Changes

• The existing Blacksmith merchant (a great source of armor if you're not crafting!) will now spawn more often in all levels.

• The Blacksmith's starting inventory has been increased from 5 items to 10 items to give a wider variety of items for sale, and now also includes all items you've previously crafted at any Anvil.

• Added 4 new merchants:

  • Armorer - Sells just a random selection of equipment that has ever previously been crafted at an Anvil.

  • Quartermaster - Sells a large selection of starter armor at a 40% discount.

  • Enchanter - Sells enchanted equipment at a 40% premium.

  • Battlefield Looter - Sells equipment lost by previous survivors... that may also be cursed.

• Updated sprites for several existing merchants.

• Increased the spawn rate of many of the rarest merchants.

• Vastly expanded the item pools of most merchants, prioritizing more weapons and equipment for sale (including many weapons that were previously only discoverable by unlocking new characters).

Level Changes

• Bioluminescent Vents in the Deep Abyss now grant oxygen in 50% reduced radius (and now have a bubble animation to make them easier to find).

• Increased the frequency and variety of crafting workstations appearing in The Lab.

UI Changes

• Added a per-second countdown beneath buffs and debuffs in the HUD so you can see how many seconds remain on each effect.

• Shrines now show their buff and duration in the HUD, like other temporary effects do.

• Redesigned the character equipment panel to show off your character better and make room for more slots later.

Settings Changes

• Volume faders now run through a perceptual (logarithmic) gain curve instead of linear, so slider travel matches perceived loudness.

• Changes to game difficulty (enemy spawn rate, XP gained, etc) are now properly ignored in the Daily Challenge.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where boss names were redundantly announced twice on screen when they spawned.

• Fixed a bug where Eye of Cthonono and several other enemies would sometimes freeze up and stop moving.

• Fixed a bug preventing some merchants from spawning in any level.

• Fixed a bug where dying to your own consumables wouldn't always show that consumable icon in the death screen.

• Fixed a bug where weapons dropped by Fallen Survivors and Fellow Survivors had extra-large icons.

• Fixed a bug where Steam Cloud wasn't always syncing crafted weapons across devices properly