📢Major Update - Parry Difficulty Reduced, Altars Added and More

Solateria has already reached its fourth day since launch.

Since release, many Pyron warriors have played Solateria and shared their valuable feedback.

We would like to once again thank everyone who left their thoughts on Discord, the Steam Discussions, and reviews!

Throughout last weekend, our development team read through all of your feedback and gave a great deal of thought to how we could preserve the combat experience we want to deliver while also helping more players enjoy our game in a fun and satisfying way.

As a result, we have rolled out the following major update.

In addition to the main update details, we have also written down our thoughts in detail in the 'Developer Notes,' so if you were curious about our intentions, we hope you'll take a look.

Now, let us walk you through the changes included in v.1.0.23.

※ Machine translation is used in the update notes. We ask for your understanding if any part of the wording feels a little unnatural.

[Major Update Details]

1. Reduced parry difficulty for 'Warrior’s Path' and 'Adventurer’s Path'

• We have eased the parry timing for 'Warrior’s Path,' the normal difficulty.

• We have eased the parry timing for 'Adventurer’s Path,' the easy difficulty, even more than before.

※ What has not changed

• The parry timing for 'Legendary Flame,' the hardest difficulty, remains the same as before.

  • Players who want a more challenging gameplay experience can continue to play with the same difficulty on 'Legendary Flame.'

• 'Traveler’s Path,' the easiest difficulty, still allows you to parry simply by guarding, just as before.

2. Removed the system that requires directional parrying from the other three difficulties, excluding 'Legendary Flame'

• We have removed the system that requires you to match direction when parrying in 'Warrior’s Path,' 'Adventurer’s Path,' and 'Traveler’s Path,' while keeping it only in 'Legendary Flame.'

• 'Legendary Flame' still requires directional parrying.

  • However, we have made an adjustment so that within a certain range behind the boss, a parry can still succeed no matter which direction you are facing.

3. Improved the difficulty selection panel UI and added more detailed explanations for each difficulty

• We have updated the difficulty selection panel UI to improve readability.

• We have also expanded the explanation for each difficulty, which was previously only described in a single short line, with much more detail than before.

• Even if you have already started the game, you can check this information in the in-game difficulty change panel.

4. Added Altars to certain regions

• We have added Altars to Water Mirror Basin, Ashen Hills, and Abandoned Tunnels.

  • 1 Altar has been added to Water Mirror Basin, 2 Altars to Ashen Hills, and 1 Altar to Abandoned Tunnels.

5. Added a new function to 'Fast Return' that lets you go to the last Altar

• There was already a feature that allowed you to use 'Fast Return' to go back to the Library at any time. We have now added a function that also lets you return to the last Altar you interacted with.

• Now, if you want to head straight to the last Altar you interacted with without stopping by the Library, you can go there right away.

Developer Notes

We have received a great deal of feedback regarding parry timing.

This is the first time we have adjusted parry timing since launch, and we would like to share our development team’s thoughts with you.

Our development team believed that the original parry timing in Solateria was something players could fully enjoy once they adapted to its rhythm. Even if a boss seemed overwhelmingly powerful at first, we wanted to deliver a challenging experience where players would retry, learn the patterns, build a sense of timing, and eventually overcome the boss after many attempts.

'Adventurer’s Path' already included parry frame adjustments, and 'Traveler’s Path,' the easiest difficulty, was designed so that players could parry simply by guarding.

However, 'Warrior’s Path,' the second difficulty and the mode we generally recommended, used the same parry timing frames as 'Legendary Flame,' the hardest difficulty. There were two reasons for this. First, we believed that this parry timing was appropriate for the experience we wanted to create. Second, we wanted players to learn the feel of parrying in our game through 'Warrior’s Path,' and then, once they became familiar with it, move on to 'Legendary Flame' for a more demanding combat experience.

However, after reading so much of your feedback, we came to realize that this experience was instead becoming one of the main reasons why players who first approached our game through 'Warrior’s Path' were quitting because of the difficulty of parrying. Our development team wants players to enjoy parrying, and we do not want anyone to stop playing because of it.

All attacks currently include telegraphs, and we believed they were readable enough for players who had learned the rhythm and timing. However, it seems there were still shortcomings. Our intention is for players to learn the rhythm, parry with proper timing, and succeed in combat. While we have been improving telegraphs through updates, there were limitations in revising the telegraphs for every creature.

However, parrying itself seemed adjustable. After a great deal of deliberation, we decided to make the parry timing on 'Warrior’s Path' much more generous, and to apply an even larger parry timing adjustment on 'Adventurer’s Path.'

The parry timing of 'Legendary Flame,' our hardest mode, remains the same as in previous versions, so players who want the original level of challenge can still enjoy the same parry feel by playing 'Legendary Flame.'

In addition, Solateria originally used a system where players had to read the direction of a boss’s attack and parry in the matching direction, and in some boss fights this directional element played a very important role in the pattern design.

However, we recognized that this system could feel quite difficult before players had fully mastered the combat, so we decided to keep it only in 'Legendary Flame.'

As for the Altars, in certain areas, for example, we wanted to create an experience where you would fall through constantly collapsing platforms and sink deeper and deeper, almost like being caught in an anthill where the harder you tried to escape, the deeper you fell. (That feeling suited the atmosphere of the area very well.) The only way out was to return to the Library through 'Fast Return.'

However, after reviewing player feedback, our development team came to understand that this could feel like a 'softlock,' and that even if players knew they could return to the Library, it could still feel extremely hopeless while exploring.

Because of this, we added Altars to those areas, and we also added several more Altars in other places where the gameplay experience was feeling different from what we originally intended.

-Thank you for reading the long developer note!

[Other Updates]

• Increased invincibility duration of the Heat Core skill 'Last Ember'

• Reduced time required to use Warmhorn

  • Allows faster recovery

• Balance adjustments to Warmhorn-related Parts

• Grants invincibility for a short time after falling into water

• Increased scroll speed when reading collectible records

• Fixed an issue where certain terrain in the Water Mirror Basin did not match the map

• Fixed an error in NPC job titles

• Fixed an issue where the choices related to Relics and the Five Warriors could still be selected even after crafting Enhanced Bracers

• Fixed an image error for the 'Gaia's Blessing' Part

• Swapped the locations of the 'Breakfall' Core Stone and the 'DMG Reduction' Core Stone

  • With the 'Breakfall' Core Stone, you can quickly get back up after being knocked down by enemy attacks.

  • Originally this Core Stone could be purchased from Cardamine of Earthford, but we found many players missing it and struggling late in the game without the 'Breakfall' Core Stone.

  • The 'Breakfall' Core Stone has been swapped with the 'DMG Reduction' Core Stone that was previously rewarded for defeating the boss 'Charon'.

  • Save data prior to the update has been automatically adjusted to accommodate this change.

    • If you obtained the 'DMG Reduction' Core Stone before the update, the invested Inflare will remain preserved, and the 'DMG Reduction' Core Stone can now be purchased from Cardamine of Earthford.

    • If you purchased the 'Breakfall' Core Stone from Cardamine before the update, both 'DMG Reduction' and 'Breakfall' will remain.

• The skill required to obtain the 'Cave Pass' has been changed from 'Downward Attack' to 'Reignite'.

  • Previously the 'Downward Attack' skill was required to obtain the Cave Pass, but after this update you can obtain it by crossing the wall with 'Reignite'.

  • The map image has also been updated accordingly.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a progression-blocking bug under certain conditions in the Solin Research Facility

  • Fixed an issue where restarting after encountering the progression bug could cause a softlock

• Fixed an issue where defense was not applied to the training dummy

[Upcoming Updates]

• Additional hints planned regarding the ally in the Baran boss battle

  • From the planning stage, Baran’s stats were designed assuming a specific NPC assistance event. However, due to insufficient hints in-game, we found players repeatedly challenging Baran without the ally. Without the ally, Baran may feel significantly harder than intended.

  • While some players may have intentionally chosen this challenge, we plan to provide more hints indicating that there is 'a way to bring an ally'.

• Food tutorial planned

  • Food effects activate when consumed from the inventory, but we found this is not being clearly communicated despite the tutorial. We plan to reinforce this tutorial.

• Additional hints planned for obtaining the 'Double Jump'

  • Many players reached the Library Main Gate but were confused about how to obtain 'Double Jump'. We plan to add more hints regarding this.

• Planned fix for an issue where the achievement 'Full Donation Box' does not unlock in certain situations

To the Pyron Warriors,

Thank you always for your valuable feedback!