Final Charge: 0.7

February 24th, 2021

New Features - Highlights!

The Final Charge is upon us! Update 0.7 is the biggest update we’ve had with a host of new features and an abundance of changes to all areas including visual, AI, gameplay, items, refuge, interface, networking, and general changes.

Leading the charge is a new hero: Commander Clegg! Heading into battle with his legion of Phalanxes.

A new evil has spawned with a new rarest tier of loot to be gathered if this evil can be defeated. Blightrifts. These are challenge rooms that have a chance of spawning in higher level dungeons, defeat these challenge rooms and unlock the rarest Blighted Items!

The Rift of Separation: Defeat waves of enemies while the Mage is trapped in a magical dome!
The Rift of Gathering: Prismix the Blood Mage has a hunger for Mana orbs, satisfy that hunger and escape with your lives!
The Rift of Bowling: A foe has become a friend? Kill enemies by hitting the Writhing Orb towards them!
Rift of Running: Don’t waste your head start, stay clear and ahead of the giant Amalgamation while solving puzzles and dodging traps!

If you are downed in a challenge room, not to worry, you will be teleported back to the dungeon where you entered the Blightrift and no progress will be lost in your run.

We have introduced 5 new Legendary items, including a community submission!

Vortex Blade: A community item from the item contest. Equip the Vortex Blade on a Warrior, gain rage, and pull your enemies close for devastating blows!
Manaburst Brooch: Equip this on your favourite hero and create an explosion every time you pick up a mana orb.
Mechanical Wheel: Need to be more nimble, get an extra dodge with this new item!
Shining Prism: Big of character resources? Shining Prism has you covered.
Umbra Cloak: Extra sneaky? Extra damage!

For players who prefer to grind with bots, we've thoroughly improved the AI for when you need to rely on your 2 bot teammates, who will appear in less than 5 seconds once you enter matchmaking!

Here are some other highlights coming to Update 0.7: Final Charge!

The Tutorial level has been updated! Gameplay mechanics are now explained more clearly, and encounters have been adjusted to give new players more time and room to learn certain game mechanics.
General optimisation, bug fixes, player experience improvements, crash preventions, and many more overall improvements and fixes.
All lore and narrative texts have now also been translated into all supported languages (previously only functional texts were translated).

The full list of new features, changes, fixes, and improvements are listed below. If you have any feedback, the most direct ways to reach us are Steam Forums and Discord.

Check out the trailer here!

General

Optimised the tutorial experience.
Scarlet is no longer unlocked after the tutorial.
Multiple heroes can now be selected for the stat point and item tutorials.
Region select and party buttons are now locked during the stat point tutorial.
Improved clarity of stat point tutorial.
Duplicate player names are now indicated with [A] and [B].
Implemented a feature that limits the rate at which players are able to send messages.
Hero passive abilities are now also visible in the Skill Help Screen (F1).
Players are no longer defeated if the game is paused while the player is downed in the tutorial.
General improvements to environmental collisions and map boundaries.
Added voice lines for Sinful Totemist and Elusive Wretch.
Added controller rumble in rhythm with screen shake.
Added an option to scroll up in the credits.
Fixed an issue where the player was able to start a game using a controller while a menu panel was still open.
Fixed an issue where the post-dungeon screen would be unresponsive if one of the players disconnected.
Fixed an issue where potions would sometimes increase the unintended stat.
Fixed an issue where pressing LT or RT on controller would soft lock the game.
Fixed an issue where players would be teleported back into a dungeon after seeing the end screen.
Fixed an issue where Scarlet would get extra stat points for playing the tutorial.
Fixed an issue where a Random Encounter did not spawn correctly in Western Walkway in Underhold Depths.
Fixed an issue where Answering the Call's minimap would sometimes display erroneous quest markers.
Fixed an issue where the Assassin's secondary skill gave double the amount of intended Ultimate Charge when hitting an enemy.
Fixed an issue where a repeating animation would trigger when returning from the credits screen.
Fixed an issue where story objectives would sometimes not advance.
Fixed an issue where the displayed difficulty during map select was different from the actual difficulty.

Visual

Made general graphical and animation tweaks and improvements.
The urn that is tied to Scarlet’s personal story has been tweaked to make it visually distinct to other urns.
Wolf Claw and Tamed Wolf now both have icons that correspond correctly to their in-game visuals.
Heroes who have been selected for a level have been given a clearer highlight so they are more easily differentiated from the unselected heroes.
Hit flashes now only appear when damage or heal is dealt by or to local players.
Enemy spawning animations are now correctly displayed when enemies come into view of the player.
Improved the visual feedback when interacting with the stat increase button with a controller.
Improved the visual feedback when selecting and trying to increase an unavailable (maxed out) stat.
Added a new spawn animation for the sinful totemist.
Added an option for enabling/disabling screen shake.
Added a visual timer in the background of the Ravaged Storehouse in Darkness' Embrace.
Added a flair animation for when players would pick up Aetheri Sparks and Class Currencies.
Added an image background to the credits screen.
Added visual feedback for when players use stat potions.
Fixed a minor visual issue where the amount of health restored on characters with damage reduction active was displayed with a shield icon, falsely indicating they blocked some of the heal.
Fixed an issue where the in-game HUD was partially offscreen in non-16:9 resolutions.
Fixed a rare visual issue where Mages would sometimes not materialise into a Frost Skull correctly when using their Frost Skull skill.
Fixed a minor visual issue in Seirinne's and Bu's story animations, where the level visuals related to their story were unintentionally flattened.
Fixed a minor visual issue where the Reversal Shield bubble VFX would sometimes disappear when the shielded player was stunned.
Fixed a minor visual issue with the Warriors' Awaken Ancient skill, where the overridden Siurd skin would be removed when the skill was used just before a boss introduction.
Fixed an issue where Haaken’s Waistcloth would duplicate during his boss introduction animation.
Fixed an issue where Blood Mage T’Kaat’s name would be incorrectly displayed.
Fixed an issue where the UI would flicker when selecting an item in the Merchant sell tab when using a controller.
Fixed an issue where the wrong visuals would appear when interacting with story beats.

Gameplay

Improvements to AI

Improved overall AI pathfinding.
Improved overall AI awareness and logic.
Improved overall AI behaviour. This now also scales according to level difficulty.
Bots are now better at evading enemy base attacks.
Bots are now better at letting go of pressure plates once they have been activated.
Bots no longer stop revival attempts upon taking damage.
Bots can now better determine if they are in combat or not.
Bots now teleport to the player if the game detects that the bot is no longer walking on the ground. This is implemented as a periodic check.
AI controlled mages now prioritise healing more.
AI controlled mages no longer attempt to heal players they cannot reach.
AI controlled heroes no longer target invincible enemies.
AI controlled heroes now stick closer to human players when spikes are nearby.
When a player is in a party with one or two bots, the puzzles in Bloodlust Cavern at the end of The Hemomancer level are removed. This change is aimed at improving player experience as we have received feedback where players have been frustrated by bots not being cooperative or responsive when puzzle-solving on this specific level.
Fixed an issue where AI controlled Assassins would try but fail to use Fan of Knives, then locking themselves out of their base attack.
Fixed an issue where AI controlled Warriors would no longer attack because they are stuck trying to summon Phalanxes.
Fixed two specific instances where bots are most likely to be stuck.

Other Gameplay Changes

General boundary and collision optimisation.
The maiden's guards can no longer be spawned individually.
Decreased the range at which tentacle traps will capture a player character, making it a little easier to evade and dodge around the trap.
Tentacle traps are no longer able to capture players when they are invincible.
The "We are Blightbound" achievement can no longer be acquired by players by skipping the Tutorial.
The configuration of which doors are open and which are closed in Underhold Depths is now randomly determined at the start of the level sequence. This is to increase gameplay variety for groups who would play this dungeon multiple times who would previously always get the same door configuration.
Dokalt now disappears more naturally in Desert Mouse's story parts.
The behaviour of Elusive Wretches has been slightly adjusted. They now try to roll around a bit more, but are unable to roll/become invulnerable while under the effect of a movement-disabling crowd control effect, such as roots or freezes. All in all, they are a little easier to kill when a team coordinates well, so their health pool has been slightly increased as well (by about 10%).
The Sinful Totemist has been adjusted (mostly nerfed). The changes are as follows:
- Their totems now have three health, and can be dismantled by hitting them three times (similar to tentacle traps).
- The wind-up of the blast attack is a little longer, to give players a little more time to react to the incoming attack. Also made the hitbox of the attack a little more reliable.
- The blast attack's cooldown is not reduced by monster level anymore: when the blast attack is on cooldown, Totemists will try to run away from players until the cooldown comes back up.
- The damage the blast attack deals has been decreased by 20%.
Assassins are now invincible during Lightning Strikes. Fixed an issue where they would be susceptible to certain damage during the ultimate. Also added 1 second of invincibility after the ultimate has ended, so players have ample time to react and reposition if necessary.
The lever in Answering the Call now remains pulled when players make their way back to Rockface Refuge.
The hitboxes for the Assassins’ Primary and Secondary skills have been made identical, and slightly bigger. The purpose of this change is to make the assassin’s Primary and Secondary skills feel more like melee attacks.
Iron Pursuers no longer stun themselves after players interrupt their charge attack with movement-disabling crowd control effects, such as roots or freezes.
Removed the screen fades that occur when players rescue a survivor in Answering the Call. The survivors in this level now play a disappear animation when they have been rescued.
Slightly adjusted the gameplay in Ominous Cave in Answering the Call. Some first-time players seem to miss one of the NPCs in the room who needs to be revived. The adjustments have made the NPC more easily noticeable.
Mages are now able to spawn Mana Orbs with all Spirit Shot projectiles, instead of just the third one. It is now easier for players to spawn more Mana Orbs at all difficulty levels. To accommodate for this change, Mana Orb drop chance has been slightly decreased, but overall healing potential has been greatly increased.
The description of Korrus’ passive ability has been adjusted. The base Mana Orb drop rate of Korrus’s passive ability has also increased from 20% to 50%. This is to adjust for the overall decrease in Mana Orb drop chance. These changes still result in Korrus’ overall healing potential being greatly increased.
The healing done by Mages' Heal Beam now scales based off of base health, instead of maximum health. As a result, the amount of healing is a little bit lower, but this is alleviated by the overall increase in Mana drop rate.
Increased the gameplay variety in the final room of Answering the Call.
Improved the communication wheel to make movement commands more responsive.
Added 1 second of invincibility at the end of the Warriors' Lawbringer skill, so players have ample time to react and reposition if necessary after landing.
Added custom impact heights for most of the enemies, ensuring that the impacts are at a more reasonable distance from the player.
Fixed an issue where the name Maggot Hatchery Shellrot would not remove its area of effect invincibility when defeated.
Fixed an issue where characters would escape the level bounds when going too fast, for example when using the Bull Charge ability.
Fixed an issue where the bomb projectile shot by Amalgamations would stick to walls, deploying an area of effect explosion in mid-air in some cases.
Fixed a rare issue where Elusive Wretches were able to become permanently frozen and invulnerable to all damage.
Fixed a minor issue in Northern Hull (B2F) in The Creeping Blight, where the player was able to get out of the cell with the key prematurely when timed correctly.
Fixed an issue in Northern Hull (B3F) in The Descent, where the eastern wall would fade away when a player was present in the cells in the back of the level, allowing players to go out of bounds.
Fixed an issue where the boss’ health bar would become glitchy if the player stayed in the level after defeating the boss.
Fixed an issue where some three-hit objects/enemies, such as Tentacle Traps or Vesper Bones, would require a fourth hit before they are destroyed.
Fixed an issue where one of the players could become locked out of the final encounter at the end of Answering the Call.
Fixed an issue where the NPCs at the end of Answering the Call would sometimes not follow the player when they were not in combat.
Fixed an issue where using the Mage ultimate before reviving Malborys in the tutorial would result in unresponsive flying books.

Items

The meaning of the stats Exploit damage and Nemesis damage is now explained more clearly on weapons and items which grant those stats.
Slightly changed Touch of Duron's flavour text.
Updated the items dropped from enemies, acquired as region rewards, and bought from the merchant. This has increased the amount of variety in the items players find and acquire in dungeons.
Updated some item effect/passive descriptions, to increase clarity and consistency.
Updated Bonecut's item effect: making an enemy Exposed snares them for 3 seconds and unleashes an explosion that deals 100% weapon power as damage to surrounding enemies.
Updated Skullpiercer's item effect description (it still mentioned interrupting enemies, which is something we removed a couple of patches ago).
Added Blighted Items.
Added tooltip text to all items in the options menu.
Fixed an issue where usable consumable items would sometimes be greyed out.
Fixed issues with the item Lightning Charm. Lightnings caused by this item can no longer trigger additional lightnings, and fixed an issue where one attack would sometimes cause two lightnings to trigger at the same time.
Fixed an issue where items would twitch when selecting them using their tooltip in the equipment tab.
Reorganised the stats items give, so that they are in the same order as in the hero Stats tab (first Survival stats, followed by Offense stats, followed by Utility stats).

Refuge

Refuge level only increases past 1 after the stat and item tutorials are completed.
Background heroes are now more active in The Refuge. Some of the heroes also sometimes display their unique idle animation when passive/selected.
Updated the bounty system. All bounties have been updated with more achievable numbers. Bounties now also give different rewards based on completion difficulty/length: 'Easy' difficulty bounties grant 2 Aetheri Crystals, 'Medium' difficulty bounties grant 4, and 'Hard' difficulty bounties grant 6.
The refuge UI is now hidden when quest dialogues take place.
Improved controller navigation in the forge.
Added an opening tutorial popup when players enter The Refuge for the first time.
Adjusted scroll speed in hero equipment tab.
Adjusted scroll speed in Elder Prosperity menu.
Adjusted Korrus' personal goal text, to make it clearer that a total of 4 Mages are required to complete his goal.
Fixed an issue where players would gain progress for Nilbous' personal goal when completing a dungeon with Nilbous in the party.
Fixed an issue where weapons in The Refuge would sometimes flicker when heroes are in certain idle poses.
Fixed a minor issue where the first Humongore players encountered (Gruegant) in Khuliath, the Mountain Giant did not increase the "Defeat Humongores" bounty.
Fixed an issue where intro lines in journal entries could (in theory) use the wrong character.
Fixed an issue where Nemesis damage was not displayed correctly in the stats panel of a selected character (it was always displayed as 0%, even when a character had an item equipped that grants Nemesis damage).
Fixed an issue where the forgeable items list would not be updated after forging an item.
Fixed an issue where an item would be attached to the cursor after being clicked on in the Merchant panel.
Fixed an issue where the player is able to sell items that are not permitted to be sold.
Fixed an issue where the text in the Mentor log would be bugged if the player exited a dungeon run.
Fixed an issue where players were able to progress Roland’s lifegoal before unlocking him. This was done by crafting a legendary trinket before Roland was present in the Refuge.
Fixed a bug where the post-game screen would incorrectly indicate that progress in a hero’s story was made.

Interface

Made general menu and user interface improvements in regards to clarity, organisation, and visual distinction.
The ‘Favorite’ button is now a separate button.
Unspent stat points are now visually more prominent.
Hints no longer overlap quest info.
There is now an arrow pointing off-screen if a player is opening a door that leads to a different area.
The interact visual of levers will now only show up when players can actually interact with the lever from their current position.
There is now a tooltip in The Refuge menus for changing sorting types when playing with a controller.
Numbers in the end-of-game screen that pop up after the completion of a dungeon are now properly aligned.
The mini-map has been enlarged and is now also slightly zoomed out compared to before.
Party button labels are now always semi-visible.
The “Quit to desktop” button has now been replaced with “Return to refuge” in the in-dungeon menu.
Improved overall controller and keyboard & mouse navigation, ease of access, and optimisation.
Improved overall D-pad navigation.
Improved overall controller navigation in the Hero Select interface.
Improved layout and functionality for the party panel.
Improved dropdown menu navigation.
Added an option to change font size.
Added tutorial popup for the party menu.
Added button prompts to help navigate the Party window.
Fixed an issue where tooltips would sometimes go off screen when using text scaling.
Fixed an issue where controller users could not properly navigate to the buyback list in the merchant sell tab.
Fixed an issue where controller users would be able to navigate to an invisible item in the merchant tab.
Fixed an issue where changing language did not update the current quest text.
Fixed an issue where the ‘Leave Party’ button was not always accessible with a controller.
Fixed an issue where rapidly clicking the regions button twice in a row could cause an infinitely twitchy and unusable regions menu.
Fixed an issue where the sidebar indicator could sometimes fall behind the sidebar itself.
Fixed an issue where longer usernames in the party menu could overlap or be partially hidden.
Fixed an issue where the ‘Quit game’ button would sometimes appear twice.
Fixed an issue where the stats panel title would appear in front of the hero panel even when folded in.
Fixed an issue where in-game callouts of some languages were not displayed in the correct format next to the mini-map.
Fixed an issue where a player with a controller would not be able to “Unready” for matchmaking when a menu panel was open.
Fixed an issue where changing the game language would cause sorting dropdown menus to be unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where two tutorial popups would appear when pressing F1 if the Main Menu panel were open.
Fixed an issue where the Party window could not be closed with the back/cancel button.
Fixed an issue where the map select roulette would not show the correct information corresponding to the currently highlighted map.

Networking

Fixed an issue where non-host players would not be able to open doors to advance to a new area.
Fixed an issue to reduce stutter upon entering/exiting levels.
Fixed an issue where the ‘Join by party ID’ function would not work.
Fixed an issue where the host removing a local player would sometimes cause a disconnect.
Fixed an issue where players are stuck in matchmaking and not able to navigate other menus if someone leaves the party as soon as everyone is ready.
Potentially resolved an issue that put players in an infinite loading screen if the host disconnected at a specific moment.
Potentially resolved an issue where only 2 heroes would enter a level if the host disconnected at a specific moment.