Chrono Gear 1.1 Coming Soon!

Version 1.1 is our biggest update yet, combining true support for higher framerates, a plethora of performance optimizations, and a new Overclocked difficulty setting for experienced Wardens.

We are currently testing this update on the beta branch, and we could use your help to make sure everything still works correctly!

If you're interested, you can switch to the Beta branch by right clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and clicking the Game Versions & Betas tab.

Here's a breakdown of what's new!

Physics Interpolation

We have continued working hard on various bugfixes, tweaks, and performance optimizations, including proper physics interpolation. Our biggest thanks goes to tryptech for the extensive refactoring of numerous script files to get this working smoothly.

This change ended up being a lot more involved than we thought, but we think the results are worth it for those playing Chrono Gear above 60fps!

Check out the bottom of this post for a comprehensive breakdown of our changes and fixes!

Overclocked Difficulty

One of our core level designers Will has also cooked up an insane new difficulty setting above Proud. At first it was built as a joke difficulty, but we ultimately balanced it to be a very intense but deliberately balanced game mode for players who have grown deeply accustomed to Kronii's moveset.

In Overclocked, almost every enemy moves and attacks significantly faster, deals more damage, and has less slowdown while affected by Stasis. Kronii's time powers also drain faster, requiring more strategic timing to use them to their full potential. To make up for this, her attacks deal additional damage.

This results in faster and more intense combat encounters where frequently alternating between Haste and Stasis are necessary for survival.

There are no rewards attached to this difficulty setting, so feel free to switch in and out of it at your leisure while playing. Just be warned that it gets super intense in levels with a lot of enemies! (I died more times to the first Armored Rangoon on Overclocked than I did to Alter Laplus on Proud...)

To unlock Overclocked, complete the game at least once or enter the Konami code on the title screen.

Full Changelog

General:

• There is now a preload screen at launch while particles and effects are cached.

• Added retro render scale options in the Display Settings to adjust shader performance impact.

• Kronie Wheels can be destroyed with attacks.

• The Records data now tracks boosts (BDHCs).

• Added high framerate support with physics interpolation.

• Camera behavior adjusted globally to be smoother.

• When notes are magneted to the player, they will collect instantly when offscreen.

• Bow platforms, rails, and Time Horse have the camera look ahead.

• Collecting a Golden Gear now destroys nearby enemies.

• Reflected projectiles that split into smaller projects now inherit the player as their parent.

• Collectibles already collected in a mission now despawn on reload or respawn to checkpoint, preventing note duplication.

• Haste / Stasis superlative counts corrected.

• Fixed stage timer persisting while cutscene flag is set.

• Scaling and Rotating gimmicks optimized.

• Removed pause delay for consecutive cutscenes.

• Hub collectibles no longer drop notes, and a similar particle effect is used in their place.

• Fast input no longer skips screen transitions.

• Other performance improvements and optimizations.

UI:

• When skipping a cutscene, its full dialog is now added to the Log menu.

• In the shop menu, song titles now scroll if they're too long.

• Added missing Japanese translation for the Grave Gunner codex entry.

• HUD Messages always render above other UI.

• Midstage dialog could persist when changing stages.

• Stabilized search radar in The Maze, Autumn Harvest, and The Final Ascent.

• HUD no longer flashes for one frame on scene load.

• Log menu now always opens to the newest line.

• Enemy healthbar drain animation cleaned up.

• Fixed a typo in Sana's codex entry in Japanese.

• Settings menu accepts mouse input again.

• Fixed Jukebox gear mouse interaction.

• The option to use suspend saves is hidden in Speedrun mode.

• The codes menu is hidden while in hub areas.

• Added dialog speed option in the display settings.

• You can now hold the Dash button to speed up dialog text.

• Input labels can now show multiple binds.

• Rebind controls menu option is styled more clearly as a selectable option.

• Fixed clickable checkboxes in the cheats menu.

• Fixed mouse interaction on reset stage menu.

• Fixed pause menu defaulting to first option.

Custom Difficulty:

• Reworked Custom Difficulty menu.

• Difficulty Menu correctly shows the difficulty option after changing custom difficulty settings.

• Added a new parameter for the Chrono Gear.

• Added file slot indicators for Custom Difficulty and Overclocked.

• Added live-updating visual indicators on custom difficulty menu options (e.g. Chrono Gear clock diagram).

Audio:

• Music speed/pitch scale resets when gameplay changes tracks.

• Adjusted loop points for the following music tracks:

• Magic Resort

• Starship ID

• The Maze

• Her Time is Now

• Baelz's Theme

• IRyS's Theme

• Ahoy?

• Castle Siege

• Galaxy Gourmet

• World Map

• The World Tree (Summer)

• The World Tree (Winter)

• Amelia’s Theme

Kronii:

• When the Chrono Gear is active, there is now a visual pulse when Future Strike's cooldown ends.

• Dive can new be used to dismount from ziplines.

• Dash and Teleport work when grinding on rails.

• Simultaneous grounded jump and dive input prioritizes jump.

• Dive cancelling behavior made more consistent.

• IRyS should warp to Kronii's position properly when she changes locations (such as entering doors).

• Added crouch cancelling.

• IRyS doesn't waste heals when rewinding to a checkpoint.

Enemies:

• All slime enemies' jump speed and windup speed will now scale with behavior difficulty.

• Bell Slime aggro radius is significantly increased at high difficulty.

• LFO moves significantly faster and has a faster windup at high difficulty.

• Ticky Ricky's punch no longer whiffs.

• Phantom Flame projectiles are consistantly rotated in the right direction.

• Geode Golem attack rate will now scale with behavior difficulty.

• Armored Rangoon attack rotation speed now scales with difficulty. It also has a more fitting sound effect when launching its lightning ball.

• Weird Takodachi poison buildup speed slightly reduced. It will now stop dealing poison damage immediately upon defeat, rather than when it disappears.

• Swamp Ghoul projectiles are consistantly rotated in the right direction.

• Chesseracts no longer spawn tiles directly on the player.

Stages:

To ensure that a Song Power score of at least 100 and a total score of 300 is reasonably possible in every level, note thresholds have been adjusted as follows:

• Storming the Sanctum: 80 -> 65

• The Top of Bell Tower: 120 -> 110

• The Great Space Bake: 150 -> 100

• Luknight of Darkness: 100 -> 85

• Ganmo's Grand Finale: 50 -> 35

• The Road to Civilization: 120 -> 110

• Roboco Strikes Back: 50 -> 40

• A Head Start: 120 -> 80

• Caravan of Darkness: 100 -> 70

• Song of Light and Darkness: 150 -> 130

• The KFP Games: 120 -> 110

• Defending the Sanctum: 100 -> 60

• Solitude: 100 -> 80

• Despair: 100 -> 65

Doorway to Nowhere:

• Enemy layout in this level will now scale with difficulty.

• Adjusted drop-chain platform behavior.

Bell Town:

• Enemy layout in this level will now scale with difficulty.

• Gear Platforms can now be dropped through consistently.

Carnival Railway:

• Additional enemies will appear in this stage at high difficulty.

• Trapeze swings no longer cause an instant double-jump when dismounted at high frame rates.

Sands of Time:

• Snake ladder no longer reverses climb animation sometimes.

• Kronii no longer clips through some background tiles.

The World Tree:

• Removed minor background flicker in each season.

The World Tree (Autumn Harvest):

• Additional enemies will now spawn at high difficulty.

• Made some minor adjustments to prevent snow SSRBs from falling through snow blocks.

Magic Resort:

• Fishing inputs are now aligned with user control settings.

Sky Tops:

• Ziplines no longer hide time power effects.

• Fixed gong platforms deactivating while the player is standing on a different one nearby.

Tidal Camp:

• Removed minor background flicker.

Depths of Atlantis:

• Removed minor background flicker.

Starship ID:

• Petting the Takodachi no longer causes odd wall interactions.

vs. Alter Laplus:

• Laplus can no longer get stuck with repel behavior enabled.

• It should no longer be possible for Laplus to be invincible when player wins the energy ball volley.

Castle Road:

• Removed pit out-of-bounds clip.

• Mumei gliders can no longer clip players into bridges.

Town Square:

• Kronii no longer disappears for a frame when exiting power washing.

Ducky God Arcade:

• Space zones reset 10% faster.

• Players can no longer get stuck in or be pushed into walls by air hockey platforms.

Symphonic Gallery:

• Slightly adjusted terrain in some areas to improve flow.

• Tubular bells no longer hide time power effects.

KFP Stadium (Another Time Traveler):

• Mirrored the close-up camera shot in the intro cutscene to match Kronii's position.

Solitude:

• Kroneye should gain aggro properly regardless of player position.

The Bunker:

• Adjusted indoor cutscene camera timing.

Entropy:

• The ending cutscene uses the newer water shader.

The Ancient Ones:

• The boss can no longer teleport the player while in their KO state.

Despair:

• Platform launchers no longer teleport the player if the platform was relaunched mid-ride.

Hope:

• The boss should now change direction towards the player more tightly, so it feels less like they're wandering aimlessly.

• The boss's respawn position is no longer directly over a geyser.

Dark Nest:

• Launch Pad behavior is now consistent across different frame rates.

Steel on Steel:

• Updated the mirror floor shader.

Zero Seconds to Midnight:

• The time warps near the end of the fight are no longer blocked by entering star portals or being in the ledge climbing animation.