Major Update: Twisted Forest Rework

Important Notice

Due to internal structural changes, previous save files are no longer compatible with this update.

Please start a new save after updating.

Hello everyone,

Originally, we planned to release a single large update after all rework efforts had been completed. However, we realized that this approach would significantly extend the development timeline.

As a result, we have decided to release updates incrementally as each area reaches a playable state.

This update focuses on the reworked Twisted Forest, along with new enemies, boss improvements, gameplay system updates, optimization work, and a large number of bug fixes.

Twisted Forest Rework

The centerpiece of this update is the complete rework of the Twisted Forest region.

The overall structure of the area has been redesigned from the ground up, including major changes to the mine sections and several surrounding zones.

To improve exploration flow, save points, portals, NPC placements, and item placements have also been adjusted.

Parts of the tutorial area and the Rift have also been updated to match the new progression structure.

Details

• Redesigned the overall Twisted Forest layout

• Reworked mine areas

• Added new traps

• Added hidden walls

• Repositioned save points

• Adjusted portal locations

• Updated NPC and item placements

• Reworked portions of the tutorial area

• Updated the Rift's visual design

• Improved Rift portal structure

• Reworked PCG-based environmental placement

• Replaced various environmental objects

New Enemies & AI Improvements

Several new enemies have been added, while existing creatures have received new assets, animations, and behavior updates.

Ore Parasite

A new enemy found throughout the Twisted Forest.

These creatures tend to inhabit dark areas near glowing ore deposits and are capable of interacting with one another during combat.

Rumors suggest that certain variants are far more aggressive than others.

Bear

The previous bear has been replaced with a new asset set.

New animations and combat behaviors have been implemented.

Stag

A new stag now roams the larger open areas of the reworked Twisted Forest.

Details

General Improvements

• Updated movement-related systems

• Improved status effect handling

• Expanded Motion Warping usage

• Fixed various AI-related issues

New AI

• Ore Parasite

• Ore Parasite Variant

• Bear

• Stag

Removed AI

• Fox

• Wolf

• Ancient Golem

• Anubis

• Reaper

• Tervark

Some removed enemies, including Wolves, are planned to return in future regions with updated designs and gameplay roles.

Boss Improvements

The combat flow and encounter design of existing bosses have been significantly improved.

Several bosses have received new mechanics and attack patterns, while existing attacks have been adjusted for better readability, balance, and overall gameplay quality.

Updated Bosses

• Troll Chieftain

• Forest Elder

• Goblin Battle Mage

• Kraken

Details

• Improved combat behavior logic

• Added new attack patterns

• Adjusted attack hitboxes and timings

• Improved visual effects and audio

• Refined combat pacing

• Balance adjustments

• Fixed numerous boss-related issues

System Improvements

Several gameplay and progression systems have been added or improved.

Fury

A new combat system, Fury, has been added.

When the Fury Gauge is full, using a Heavy Attack after Focus will activate Fury Mode.

While Fury is active, special effects are applied and players can adopt a much more aggressive combat style.

Successful attacks during Fury restore HP.

Fury Mode ends once the Fury Gauge is depleted.

White Tiger Spirit– Guard

The White Tiger Spirit, the player's starting weapon, now features a Guard mechanic.

Guarding reduces incoming damage by consuming Stamina when attacked from the front.

New Guard-related attributes have also been added.

Some attacks cannot be blocked.

Ladders

Climbable ladders have been added.

Crystal Enhancement & Redistribution

To ease early progression, Un-baek now offers limited Crystal Enhancement and Crystal Redistribution services.

Rift

Region progression has been redesigned.

Defeating certain bosses now grants key items that unlock access to new regions.

Unlocked regions can then be accessed through the Rift.

Currently, this system only applies to the Desert region, but future regions will adopt the same progression structure.

Details

Fury

• Added Fury Mode

• New animations and visual effects

• HP recovery on successful attacks

• New combo extensions

Rift & Portals

• Added region unlock system

• Improved portal framework

• Data Layer-based management system

New Consumable Items

Three new consumable items have been added.

Endurance Pill

• Temporarily increases damage reduction.

Strength Pill

• Temporarily increases physical damage.

Clarity Pill

• Temporarily increases magic damage.

Optimization & Stability Improvements

This update also includes a large number of optimization and stability improvements.

Our primary focus was reducing rendering costs, improving AI performance, and making the overall gameplay experience more stable.

Special attention was given to world streaming, AI processing, and rendering performance.

Rendering

• Reduced Nanite triangle counts across most assets

• Optimized Nanite Skeletal Meshes

• Rebuilt HLOD structures

• Improved distant landscape rendering

World & Streaming

• Improved RVT architecture

• Added RVT override functionality

• Improved Data Layer structure

• Improved portal streaming systems

AI & Gameplay

• Implemented Animation Budgeting

• Optimized AI processing

• Reduced projectile-related performance costs

• Reduced Soul Remnant processing overhead

• Optimized several Niagara effects

Miscellaneous

• Refactored save systems

• Removed duplicate processing

• Improved internal data structures

Bug Fixes & Gameplay Improvements

This update includes a large number of bug fixes and stability improvements.

The primary areas affected are:

• Combat & Abilities

• AI & Bosses

• Save & Load Systems

• UI & Tooltips

• Audio

• Portals & Level Progression

• Performance & Crash Fixes

The detailed changelog can be found below.

Combat & Abilities

• Fixed an issue where dodge follow-up attacks would sometimes fail to trigger

• Fixed unintended dodge chaining immediately after jumping

• Fixed certain projectiles that could not be guarded

• Fixed certain charge attacks that could not be guarded

• Fixed an issue preventing special skills from being used while certain buffs were active

• Fixed various errors related to status effect traits

• Fixed traits that were being applied incorrectly

• Fixed legacy traits using deprecated functions

• Fixed Fury Mode occasionally failing to end properly

• Fixed Fury Mode being unintentionally canceled when knocked down

• Fixed various Fury-related animation and state transition issues

• Fixed Burn being removable through dodging

• Fixed manually applied traits not being removable

• Fixed damage multiplier corruption when multiple AI using the same Ability Tag applied modifiers simultaneously

• Fixed damage multipliers not being properly cleared after ability completion

• Fixed issues retrieving multiplier values from the updated multiplier system

• Fixed input interruptions caused by repeatedly pressing the dodge key

• Removed unnecessary duplicate checks during ability activation

• Improved ability initialization order and stability

• Fixed ability costs not being consumed correctly in packaged builds

• Improved attribute restoration logic to reduce unintended stat modifier loss

• Fixed stun values not accumulating properly from weapon attacks

• Fixed thrown damage items incorrectly benefiting from player attributes

• Adjusted kick attack hitboxes

AI & Bosses

• Fixed Behavior Trees occasionally stopping under specific conditions

• Fixed AI becoming stuck while moving along splines

• Fixed abnormal AI behavior while circling the player

• Fixed unnecessary ground checks continuing after AI had unloaded

• Fixed AI stopping completely when initial ground validation failed

• Fixed severe performance issues affecting certain AI after engine updates

• Improved AI target loss behavior when the player leaves sight

• Fixed Frozen status effects not being removed when an AI died

• AI now clears Frozen status before death processing

• Fixed AI perception not reacting properly to weapon-based damage

• Fixed several boss patterns failing to execute correctly

• Fixed the Troll Chieftain occasionally failing to appear

• Fixed poison pools remaining after Troll encounter resets

• Fixed post-process effects remaining active after Troll resets

• Fixed errors caused by invalid function calls during boss death events

• Fixed issues occurring while removing boss health bars

• Fixed boss health bars occasionally remaining after death

• Fixed the Forest Elder's Impale attack floating above the ground

• Fixed the Forest Elder's area-wide Impale attack failing to follow terrain properly

• Fixed missing damage on part of the Goblin Battle Mage's rear attack pattern

• Increased detection range for tracking crystals

• Fixed tracking crystal hit effects spawning in incorrect location

Projectiles & Effects

• Fixed projectiles occasionally remaining after collision

• Fixed projectiles tracking unintended targets

• Fixed tracking crystals incorrectly targeting the player

• Fixed tracking crystals remaining suspended after impact

• Fixed visual effects occasionally failing to terminate properly

• Fixed Soul Remnant retrieval effects remaining active

• Fixed Soul Remnant retrieval effects continuously accumulating background tasks

Save & Load

• Fixed Data Layer states not restoring correctly

• Fixed playtime being incorrectly accumulated

• Fixed save point reference issues

• Fixed save point caching problems

• Fixed AI state corruption during save restoration

• Removed duplicate save processing

• Improved save data recovery stability

Portals & Levels

• Fixed players becoming stuck after portal transitions

• Fixed fatal falls occurring in transition zones

• Fixed deaths caused by Data Layer unloading near portals

• Fixed various gaps and holes in level geometry

• Improved visibility in overly dark sections of the tutorial area

UI & Quality of Life

• Improved tooltip systems and internal tooltip logic

• Fixed tooltips consuming scroll input intended for other UI elements

• Fixed tooltips covering other interactive UI elements

• Fixed missing item tooltip descriptions

• Updated ability tooltip generation logic

• Fixed Divine Power Crystal tooltips displaying incorrectly

• Fixed HP/MP recovery values displaying incorrectly

• Fixed experience gain notifications displaying incorrect values

• Updated cursor visuals

• Fixed duplicate item acquisition by repeatedly pressing the interaction key

Audio

• Added additional FMOD integration

• Fixed boss music continuing after boss death

• Fixed boss music failing to play under certain conditions

• Fixed FMOD volume adjustments not updating immediately

• Fixed various missing sound effects

Crash & Stability Fixes

• Fixed crashes related to input processing

• Fixed crashes occurring after ability owners died

• Fixed crashes caused by invalid references

• Fixed cache-related crashes

• Fixed errors within quest components

• Fixed issues occurring during data loading

• Fixed various null-reference and exception-related errors

Notes

Sound Effects & Visual Effects

Some sound effects and visual effects are not yet final.

While they function correctly, they may be replaced, improved, or expanded in future updates.

In certain situations, temporary effects, temporary sounds, or no effects at all may still be present.

Desert Region

The Desert region, which follows the Twisted Forest, has been left accessible for players who wish to explore it.

However, this area is currently under active development and undergoing significant level design and story revisions.

As a result, it does not yet provide the intended gameplay experience, and we do not currently recommend playing through it.

Please also note that content within this region has not yet been fully translated.

Bug Reports & Balance Feedback

Although extensive testing has been conducted prior to release, the scope of this update is substantial, and some issues may have gone unnoticed.

If you encounter bugs, balance issues, or anything that seems out of place during gameplay, we would greatly appreciate your feedback.

Your reports and suggestions will help shape future updates and improvements.

Future Plans

Work on reworking additional regions, including Jirisan and the Desert, will continue.

We also plan to further refine the progression system surrounding Divine Power Fragments and Accessories.

Going forward:

• Divine Power Fragments will focus primarily on modifying and altering the behavior of abilities.

• Accessories will gradually become the primary source of passive effects and character customization.

Our goal is to create clearer distinctions between progression systems while expanding build variety and player choice.

Join the SpiritPaw Team

We are currently looking for passionate people to help develop SpiritPaw.

Open Positions

• Programmer

• Level Designer

• Animator

• 3D Modeler

• Other Related Roles

Korean Language Requirement

Communication within the project is conducted primarily in Korean.

As the project lead is not fluent in English, applicants should be able to communicate in Korean.

If you are interested in contributing to the project, please apply using the form below.

APPLICATION FORM LINK

Thank you for your support, feedback, and patience throughout development.

We hope you enjoy exploring the reworked Twisted Forest, and we look forward to sharing more updates in the future.