Oh, the places you'll go! (v0.17)

This week's update is a doozy. There's a ton of new stuff mixed with a ton of changes, particularly around game balance. We've heard that the game is very hard and unforgiving for a while now and we've previously tried to tackle that difficulty through more systems to engage in and power yourself up through: crafting, shrines, consumables, equipment, etc. This really raised the ceiling for how strong you can get in the late game, but it hasn't really made the early/mid game any easier for new players or players still finding their footing.

This update rebalances the difficulty across the whole game with some sweeping changes. Time will tell if we swung too far in the opposite direction (please tell us on Discord!), but I think low-star levels are feeling like a great place to experiment and figure out the game in, and high-star levels are giving the masochistic difficulty I love so... we've got a nice difficulty curve going that should let you more smoothly progress though the different difficulties, and hopefully hit less of a wall in the middle.

Speaking of hitting a wall: we've also focused this update on adding a lot of early- and mid-game content to unlock, from characters to locations, to keep things interesting as you transition from a fledgling survivor to a master of alchemy. In addition to 6 new levels, 8 new characters, and 21 new survivor abilities, we've also rebalanced the unlock conditions for many characters and levels to make them easier to unlock (yet still hard to master).

Read the full patch notes for 0.17 below:

New Level: Mirrormere Lake

• Dive into this dangerous lake by discovering a Deep Lake in the Plains level, permanently unlocking the level after you've entered it once

• Manage your oxygen level and swim through the level with unique movement mechanics, dodging aquatic enemies as you loot from 4 new underwater treasure containers

• Take on the new boss, Auric the Wishing Koi, by surviving for 20 minutes

New Level: Potter's Field

• Dying in this level is temporary; every bodily death to enemies spawns an invulnerable Shade that forever chases you. Only deaths to Shades are permanent

• Take on Death himself by surviving 25 minutes.

• Unlocked by dying 100 times in any level

New Level: Gearworks

• Explore a magnet-themed factory level full of robots and automation

• Defeat the Assembler boss (spawns 10 minutes in) to receive a legendary Polarity Core accessory that, when equipped, repeatedly emits a weak magnetic pulse which pulls all XP orbs in the level closer to you

• Unlocked by surviving 10 minutes in The Lab

New Level: Hecatomb

• This eerily empty arena is littered with Demon Altars that let you summon dangerous bosses.. when you're ready.

• Each defeated boss drops an extra 50 gold coins to feed the next altar's summoning cost

• Every boss in the game is available to summon in this level; just find their altar and pay the price

• Unlocked by defeating any 5 bosses across any other levels

New Level: Deep Mines

• Hope you're not claustrophobic! These mines are solid rock; you'll need to use your weapons to carve your own path

• Fight the Quarry's Foreman and Gemheart Colossus bosses in a new environment

• Unlocked by surviving 10 minutes in The Quarry

New Level: Powderkeg Mine

• Explosions, explosions, explosions! What more needs said?

• Face off against Belphagor, a demonic boss spawning at minute 14

• Unlocked by surviving 10 minutes in Deep Mines

Level Changes

• You can now filter levels by biome when selecting which level to play.

• Restyled the minimap for each level (see it in the pause menu while playing) to show a view of the actual level (and a path of where you've been, plus fog of war for what you've discovered).

• Rescaled the difficulty stars on many levels to more accurately portray how difficult that level should feel.

New Characters

• Clara, a cleric that smites foes with a Holy Bolt spell.

  • Ability: Righteous Descent - Your weapons' projectiles rain down from the heavens.

  • Unlocked by defeating 500 Skeletons in any level.

• Dr. B'back, a neurosurgeon with a Gamma Knife

  • Ability: Mind Over Matter - 60% of incoming damage is instead taken continuously over the next 6 seconds.

  • Unlocked by combining 3 items at the Condenser.

• Heather, a cheerleader with cursed Pom-Poms

  • Ability: Go! Fight! Win! - Every 12 seconds, hypes up the ally who has killed the most enemies recently for a boost to Might and move speed.

  • Unlocked by surviving 5 minutes in Threed

• Narcissus, a complex man with a fascination for beauty yet a hatred for flowers

  • Ability: Vanity Mirror - Being hit by an enemy projectile head-on instead reflects it back at the enemy that fired it.

  • Unlocked by surviving 10 minutes in Blooming Gardens.

• Patch, a young doctor with a bouncy Medicine Ball

  • Ability: Emergency Sprint - Gain +30% move speed when any ally (or you) are below 30% health.

  • Unlocked by consuming 250 Health Potions

• Regina, a queen with the new Regicide weapon that fires beams in 8 directions

  • Ability: Threatened Squares - Enemies standing on your rank, file, or diagonals are slowed and take 30% extra damage.

  • Unlocked by defeating the new Black Queen boss that spawns after surviving 25 minutes in Chessland

• Rosa, a white mage with the new Rosary Beads weapon.

  • Ability: Blessed - Every 30 seconds, a beam from the heavens heals the lowest-health ally (or just her if she's solo) for 10% of their max health.

  • Unlocked by reviving a teammate once in co-op.

• Scruff, a good boy with a bone to pick (and a Fetch Stick to throw)

  • Ability: Bite Back - Upon taking any damage, deal 5x that damage back to the enemy that dealt it.

  • Unlocked by recruiting any companion on any character.

New Character Abilities

• Aaran: Treasure Hunter - Treasure Goblins spawn 6x as often, and lootables you open contain a bonus item.

• Casey: Bring It On - Minibosses and elite enemies spawn twice as often.

• Cinder: Fire Conversion - Your weapons always deal Fire-element damage.

• Elfynn: Quick Study - Leveling up requires 15% less XP.

• Epoch: Luminary - Each time you level up, discharge a powerful burst of light that gets bigger and more powerful with each level.

• Father: Lingering Blessings - Shrine effects last twice as long.

• Finch: Sucker Stab - Attacks against enemies at full health deal 2x damage.

• Grog: Slow Metabolism - Consumable effects last twice as long.

• Guile: Forgotten Memories - Recover powerful, sealed memories when leveling up.

• Mauz: Zoomies - Gain +50% movement speed for 3 seconds each time you take damage.

• Mei-Lin: Draconic Debt - A hungry dragon is always chasing Mei-Lin, devouring everything in its way.

• Naked Guy: Traveling Light - Gain 1 XP for every 10 meters traveled.

• Orin: Ancient Defense - Gain +1 Armor every minute.

• Pyke: Pay Dirt - Destroying environmental objects has a 20% chance to drop an additional item.

• R. Rick: See Red - Kills grant +1% move speed for 3 seconds, stacking up to +50%.

• Sarge: Strafe - Moving up and down doesn't change Sarge's angle of fire.

• Tara: Trance - Leveling up activates an astral form that grants double damage and half damage taken for 18 seconds.

• Tyrael: Condemned - Enemies that hit Tyrael are Condemned, receiving +50% damage from all sources for 5 seconds.

• Titan: Booming Voice - Merchants appear in the area 2x as frequently.

• Volta: Capacitor - Your weapons gain +5% damage for every second charged between firing.

• Vorth: Dark Conversion - Your weapons always deal Dark-element damage.

Ability Changes

• Zafta: Safe Passage ability now grants invulnerability for 5 seconds (up from 2 seconds) every 30 seconds.

• AdjustedVohlIncreased the starting health of all of Vohl's summoned minons (skeletons, skeleton archers, and skeleton mages), from 40 to 160.

• Nono: Mimic now activates every 30 seconds rather than every 60 seconds.

New Shrines

• Shrine of Magnetism - Magnetizes all XP orbs and nearby items for easy pickup nearby

• Shrine of Prospects - Encase yourself in a wall of valuable ores

• Shrine of Equilibrium - Dissolve half of all nearby enemies into dust

New Boss: Black Queen

• Spawns after surviving 25 minutes in Chessland

• Fires deadly beam attacks in eight directions

• Defeat her to play as the new Regina survivor

Balance Changes

• Rescaled the difficulty scaling in each run to increase more gradually over time. Roughly, the base difficulty that was experienced 5 minutes in now happens around minute ~12, and the previous 10-minute difficulty can be expected at minute ~20.

  • Runs passively increase in difficulty at a 50% slower rate.

  • Run difficulty spikes now happen every 7.5 minutes (instead of every 5 minutes), and each spike increases difficulty by 60% less.

  • The difficulty increase from killing enemies has been reduced by 10%.

• All characters now start with twice as much health.

• All characters now start with twice as much gold.

• All characters now start with twice as much essence.

• Health Potions now auto-drink from your inventory inventory when you get below 20% HP (and now restore 25 HP instead of 20 HP).

• Ghostly enemies can now phase through walls and other obstacles when in their ethereal form.

• Expanded the drop tables of many enemies to include more equipment and accessory drops.

Progression/Unlock Changes

Characters

• Char: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in Plains (instead of 1,000 Slime kills)

• Jekyll: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in The Lab (down from 10)

• Saffi: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in Witchwater (down from 15)

• Vael: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in Pandemonium (down from 15)

• Aaran: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in Char Wastes (down from 20)

• Ras: unlocks by surviving 5 minutes in Dread Sea (down from 20)

• Firebat: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Char Wastes (down from 20)

• Tyrael: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Tristram (down from 30)

• Mire: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Witchwater (down from 30)

• Cassiel: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Empyrean Spires (down from 20)

• Sariel: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Empyrean Spires as Cassiel (down from 20)

• Mei-Lin: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Jade Court (down from 20)

• Asha: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Sundarbans (down from 20)

• Eira: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Frostfall (down from 30)

• Oculus: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Tristram (instead of 30 minutes in Char Wastes)

• Grimer: unlocks by killing 5,000 Slimes (instead of 50 Trash Cans)

Levels

• Sundarbans: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Witchwater (down from 20)

• Tempest Reach: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Dread Sea (down from 15)

• Empyrean Spires: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Tempest Reach (instead of 15 minutes in Jade Court)

• Spawning Pit: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Pandemonium (down from 15)

• Hunting Grounds: unlocks by surviving 10 minutes in Black Market (instead of Bovine Pastures)

• Mournhollow: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Cemetery (instead of Black Market)

• Empyrean Spires: unlocks by surviving 15 minutes in Jade Court (down from 20)

• Trading Post: unlocks after surviving 20 minutes in any level (down from 30)

• Shahaz Desert: unlocks by surviving 20 minutes in the Plains (down from 30)

• Pandemonium: unlocks after reaching 50,000 total lifetime kills (rather than surviving 30 minutes in Tristram)

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug with Demon Altars rendering boss previews way bigger than expected.

• Fixed Firebat's missing Stim Pack ability, and Harle's missing Luna's Blessing ability.

• Fixed a bug where weapons with on-hit effects would describe that on-hit effect twice in the tooltip.

• Adjusted the character select screen layout to prevent stats text from overflowing in some resolutions.