Changes stir within the void, and the world shifts.

This update was heavily focused on improving the infrastructure of the game. We did not get much time to work on new content because we were focused on ensuring everything that was already there was held together by something stronger than spit and duct-tape. Your save files should still work, but please reach out to us if you encounter any issues. Since some of the content has changed, and the game doesn't take that long to beat (yet) we do recommend deleting your save anyway to experience it fresh. Or perhaps take on one of the new challenges? You do you!

Despite our focus on infrastructural improvements, we did manage to sneak in some new content and improvements to core gameplay as well. We really hope everyone continues to share their candid feedback and thoughts so we can make this game as great as it can be!

Our next update should be more content-focused with new enemy types, new locations to explore, and new gear. Expect at least one patch between now and the next update to potentially fix bugs found in Update #1.

New Features / Content

• Nox Trials: We wanted to add a challenge mode that feels like a "New Game Plus" without doing the same stuff as other games that just increases enemy health/density slowly. Introducing: Nox Trials. Right now we have 3 levels: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Each level adds a new stacking challenging modifier, making the game harder with each completion. Please let us know what you think of the existing modifiers and what future levels of difficulty should include!
• Boss Stance Meter Overhaul: previously the meter would decrease very very slowly over time until you filled the meter. Now the stance meter stays still for about 2 seconds, and if you don't damage the boss again before the 2 seconds are up, the meter will start to deplete rapidly. Our hope is this will encourage more aggressive combat against the boss and make it harder to stun the boss with overly-cautious gameplay. The UI has also been updated to better communicate how long the boss will remain stunned for.
• Kindling Updated: Kindling no longer automatically heals you to full health. Using Kindling heals you for a base value of 100 health (which is about what your starting health is). At the start of the game it will feel like it heals you fully, but as you increase your max health you will start to notice it doesn't fully top you off.
• Speed Stat Updated: The speed stat controlled a little bit too much all at once so we simplified it. Now speed only affects max stamina and movement speed. Stats that speed previously influenced are now locked to static values. The delay before stamina recharges is locked at 0.5 seconds, and stamina recharges at a consistent rate of 150/sec. In the future we will probably add gear that affects these rates. Please let us know what you think of the stamina economy!
• Prison Expanded: The prison is a little larger than before, with some new threats lurking in the dark. Tread carefully.
• Player Color: The color of the player triangle is now tied to your stats. This uses additive rules, so increasing VIT and SPD (red and green) will make your character yellow.
• Controls Rebinding: You can now access the "Controls" menu from the main menu or the pause menu to rebind all controls. We had to redo a lot of how our input worked so please bear with us if there are any input bugs related to this change. The "Reset" button on this menu should enable you to safely clear any issues related to rebinding.
• Overhauled Loading System: We've added a system that lets us design much larger levels without a big hit on performance. Level content is loaded in iteratively instead of all at once to reduce load times and improve general performance, and certain areas are only loaded/unloaded as you explore. This was a SIGNIFICANT overhaul to how the game functions at its core, so we anticipate needing to fix some bugs in the immediate future.
• Equipment UI Improved: To reduce the "block of text" issue with the equipment UI, it is now a little clearer how damage scaling on weapons work and how different gear affects your stats.
• Ranged Enemy Improved: ranged enemies now also have a close range attack if you get too close to them. No more bullying them into corners for free
• Localization Backend: You shouldn't be able to notice this change, but its a significant new feature that took a lot of work. We should be better prepared to translate the game into other languages if we get enough interest! This needed to happen sooner than later to avoid much larger amount of work in the future.
• Removed Free-aim: This game is not meant to be played as a twin-stick shooter. If you're playing on a controller, the right stick should only be used to change which enemy you're locked onto. Very eager to hear what players think about this, if there are any strong opinions!
• Steel Feather Improvement: We're noticing this item is underutilized, so we've added a buff. Every time you backstep through an attack you refill stamina, but you also get a 2-second 150% damage buff. Use this window of time to smash your opponent with your hammer or unleash a barrage of daggers. This damage buff only applies to your Primary weapon.
• Shield Parry Rework: Thanks (partially) to feedback from a review by "Raccoon Doggo" we wanted to make the shield parry be higher risk, and higher reward. As such the amount of stance damage it does to parrying the boss was MASSIVELY increased and the amount of time it stuns regular enemies has been doubled. However, we also changed how the parry works, requiring a greater knowledge of attack timing and anticipation. Previously, you could hold the secondary equipment button to charge up the shield and then release at any time to instantly parry an incoming attack. Now, you can only parry if you release at the exact moment that the shield is fully charged. This means that you need to start charging the shield exactly 0.25 seconds prior to being hit so that you can parry it correctly. There is approximately 0.1 seconds of grace given here, its not frame perfect by any means, but it is a lot harder. Hopefully the reward for successful parries will make up for that. Please let us know what you think of this change!

Bug Fixes / Improvements

• Added a settings menu popup for the first time launch so users can adjust their settings if needed before seeing anything else. Everyone will see this the next time they launch, but it should be cached that you've seen it on subsequent launches. Let us know if there are settings you need or would like to see!
• Added a patch notes button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen that should bring you to the latest patch notes on Steam when pressed
• Fixed pathnode placements to reduce enemies getting stuck or wandering off (they may still do it in some places, we're hoping to further improve this in the future)
• Many enemy placements have been adjusted
• Fixed a bug that caused lock-on targeting to oscillate rapidly between targets
• Updated tutorial text in some places for clarity
• Enemy healthbars have a minimum value now (this is purely visual, to prevent healthbars from appearing "empty" when they have 1hp)
• Fixed MANY issues tied to the boss intro cutscene (sorry, no more early damage on the boss)
• Many fixes to our Steam build pipeline
• Fixed an issue related to leveling up to a high level in some challenge runs that triggered a lot of cascading issues
• Many optimizations to the lighting system
• Hiding system mouse cursor by default to prevent weird cursor issues
• Fixed a minor visual bug in the Guard Room
• Fixed a bug where the boss music wouldn't end if you defeated them too quickly
• Generally made audio starting/stopping a bit more reliable
• Improved enemies pausing to prevent player from being hit during pause/tutorial
• Possibly fixed issue with warden weapons becoming extremely small instead of disappearing at the end of attacks. To be honest, this is surprisingly hard to reproduce outside of very specific machines so it has been a little slow to figure out. Please let us know if you still see this issue.
• Slight tweak to how the player moves with controller to align with the rebinding feature. Shouldn't be noticeable, but worth noting in case anyone notices anything weird with player movement.
• Updated all button face icons to be much clearer, and added a lot of UI to work with new rebinding feature
• Updated some text in settings to align with new rebinding feature
• Fixed deadzone slider in settings not showing correct input preview
• Fixed an exploit allowing you to start boss fight with enemies aggro'd, causing the boss to move very slowly
• Made enemy projectiles behave more consistently, and preventing them from being blocked by Light Sparks
• Significantly improved enemy pathfinding, reducing the times when two enemies push against each other and get stuck, as well as enemies getting stuck in narrow corridors.
• Fixed potential bug when player kills boss without killing enemies in the boss room
• Fixed red dash visual getting stuck behind player in some cases
• Hiding damage numbers when enemies are insta-killed by defeating the Warden
• Fixed damage number text wrapping
• Fixed game never unpausing when exiting to main menu during "Warden Obliterated"
• Improved how camera follows player to reduce jitter at low framerates
• Improved UI on ultra-wide monitors. Still not perfect, hoping to improve further in the future
• Fixed an issue where some display settings would get ignored like distortion and bloom
• Constraining mouse cursor to the game window at startup, should prevent accidental clicks outside of the game window
• Updated delete icon to a trash symbol
• Torches that automatically light up in boss hallway have proper particles now
• Added a text popup near your Sols (xp) to indicate when you can level up
• Added a button prompt next to your Kindling when you're low on health
• Delaying the Kindling tutorial for a little breathing room

Gameplay Balance Changes

• Reduced Great Hammer Stance Damage: 80 -> 45
• Reduced Great Hammer damage: 12 -> 10
• Increased Shield Parry Stance Damage: 20 -> 100
• Increased Shield Parry Enemy Stun Time: 1 second -> 2 seconds
• Reduced Shield Charge Up Time: 0.33 seconds -> 0.25 seconds
• Increased Sword DEX Scaling: 0.5x -> 1x
• Increased Sword STR Scaling: 0.5x -> 1x

Known Issues

• Both of our item pickups for Artifacts were previously sharing the same internal ID, so technically if you had picked up one and not the other, you could never get the other one. We have fixed this issue, but to do so means we changed both IDs, and while these Artifacts will still be unlocked in your save file, the pickups will not be recognized as being collected. Re-collecting these items or not will have no adverse affect on your save file.

Let us know your thoughts, and happy gaming.

PS. Can you believe Iron Pineapple played this?? That's awesome.