We went bigger than what we expected for this update, the Update is adding a various range of new elements mainly focused on extending runs variety!
Full Patch-Notes of 0.47 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/3690190742433248908
The Telluric Telescope
Sier Bapy has a surprise, he repaired a precious telescope that can absorb cosmic energy.
Everyday you can select 1 bonus among 3 different ones so each run feels even more unique! It can also help you decide which build you will try to do during your run and make you experiment with builds you are not used to!
There is more than 50 different bonuses to choose from :
First spell you equip is duplicated and replaces all your spells <*> First Aura you find in Yalee Kingdom is Astral <*> Increase Damage on full life enemies by 100% <*> When starting an escape, gains 5 Critical Stones <*> Summoning an Echo gives you a random buff <*> Reduces by 30 the life cost of Pavo sacrifices <*> etc.
Once equiped, your bonus will be displayed on your portrait -
Echoes Extension
We have improved Echoes and extended their number, from 15 Echoes to 31! We have also reworked their preview visuals to better represation of what they are about and to better distinguish each one.
In order to keep finding the Echoes you like more frequently we have increased the options pool from 3 to 4!
Preview of some of the new Echoes -
Elemental Summons
All Zodiac Summons are now linked to an effect, same for Echoes. Together Zodiacs and Echoes summons cover all existing effects in the game.
Taurus will now give 4 Spirit Swords
Pisces now spawn Ice Swords on hit
Capricorn summon will also create Meteors during its summon.
We have also improved interface visuals of Zodiacs summon chests -
New Void boss - Hydra
Hydra is joining Pegasus, Lupus & Draco as Void Bosses, 2 new ones will come for Final Release. Hydra manipulates the elements and is a dangerous foe, be careful!
Andromeda's Trials
We have reworked some existing Trials that were too easy, we think it is fine for Trials to be a bit hard because you have no punishment for failing them. We have also created many new Trials, from 8 to 17. Here are some new ones -
Oops we did it again... 84 new auras!
So... yes we have added 84 new Auras to the game with a lot of new Astral ones. To better enjoy them we have also increased the drop chances of Astral Auras because we think they were too rare and that it's fun to be able to build around them from early game.
We tried to create fun Astral Auras, we re-used some effects from Common Spells for a few Astral Auras making you build chain-reaction builds with impressive visuals!
These new Auras greatly increase build potentials and most of them require you to create builds around them and do not work by themselves which works perfectly with the increased drop chances.
We are also making a lot of progress on Final Release and we are going super big for it, we cannot wait to show you all surprises we are working on!
As always we hope you enjoy this update, if you do don't hesitate to leave us a Steam review, we are getting very close of the 1000 reviews which was our objective before Final Release! β¨
Have a great day and upcoming week-end,
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - August 2023 - 0.47
βChanges inspired by our community!
Major Features
Telluric Telescope: You can choose 1 bonus among 3 bonuses (from 50+ ) everyday
Last month we released the Path of Destinies Update which received such a great reception, so many of you kept playing the game much more than any previous updates!
About previous Update, community member Andreiyutzzzz already beat Destiny Level 45 which we thought would take much longer to happen. We are sure DL 54 will fall at some point!
Next Update will be coming late August and it will be about Summons and other things.
But First --
Ayla Figure & Backer Statues
We received our first Ayla Figure figures from Limited Run Games and they are absolutely splendid! It was a real challenge with Key Art by Boell Oyino, sculpting by Graphigaut and manufacturing by Limited Run Games. We are really happy about how it turned out!
Here are pictures, a 360 video and a video showing the box that you will receive!
We will soon close our Backerkit Store where you can pre-order the figure so hurry up if you want one!
Backers statues are going to disappear even sooner from the Backerkit Store, so if you want your portrait in the Pantheon, this is last call!
Next Update Preview
One of the main elements of next Update is the summons. We are going to add effects to summons so they can be part of your builds -
Taurus - Spirit Swords
Pisces - Ice Swords
Kiran - Embers
Calie - Plasma Portals
etc.
We are also going to add many new Echoes, from 15 to 31 and most of them are super fun to use!
We have also changed the preview of Echoes so you can identify them faster in the Echo Isles and went from a choice among 3 Echoes to a choice among 4 Echoes so you are more likely to find what you are looking for.
We have more things planned for this incoming Update, including adding the system linked to the Telescop you may have noticed in the Garden.
On the other hand we are working on the final release version and it is going to be worth the wait! We really went as big as possible for the final boss!
Narration is also a very big topic for us for the final release, we want to find nice endings for each stories and we have changed some elements, added variations, created new types of conversations (for example heroes now have discussions with other heroes but there is many other new things).
Finally we have also started reworking game introduction and creating a new tutorial for the game.
These elements should only be available for final release but at least you know a bit more what is going on behind the scene.
Oh and we received Steamdeck compatible verification!
Thanks again for your continuous support!
Have a great day and see you next month for the Update!
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - June 2023 - 0.46
βChanges inspired by our community!
Small Features
community inspired β Pavo's Feathers from Void Catalyst improvement are now further in Intro Rooms so you don't miss them
community inspired β Andromeda's Challenges now give drink for both players in co-op
Life Crusher - Does not decrease player max life when taking damage on Pavo's ruins anymore.
We added back the Sun pieces multiplier triggered by increasing Destiny Level in NG+ runs.
World 2 Magma Golem Destiny Level explosion attack would keep hitting after a long time preventing player to go back hitting the golem
Balancing
Curse of the Blacksmith - Negative Gambits on spells went from -50% to -30% damage and from 50% chances per tier to 25% chances per tier
Used Pockets - from -10 quartz per tier to -5
Inflation : from +25% per tier of Itinerant Peddler items prices to +15% per tier
Shield Foes - Enemies now have 50% chances to have Armor instead of 100% and Spawned monsters by Wooden Guardian and Giant Snake can never have armor points
Wooden Guardian laser shoots delay is slightly more important in Destiny Level 1+
Harassing Foes - From 30% chances per tier to 8% chances per tier and duration from 8 secs to 6 secs
Vampiric Foes - from 20% per tier for regular enemies to 10%
Thorny Foes - From 10% per tier to 2% and timer between Thorns on enemies from 3 secs to 6 secs
Vengeful Foes - From 10% per tier to 2% and timer between Dark Missiles on enemies from 3 secs to 6 secs
Increase all heroes basic attacks base damage and fall attack base damage for better scaling
Spirit friends - Added one more stack to enable 1 additional Echo on start of a run and balanced prices. This ability should also assign different echo for players during co-op.
community inspired β It's possible to salvage loots from Yalee Kingdom now
Random Echos in Void Catalyst from 1 tier at 30 to 2 tiers at 10 and 20
First Strike from Void Catalyst from +200% dmg to full life enemies to +300%
community inspired β Added a bit more time for Sagittarius to attack after her DL 6 attack
community inspired β Leo DL6 Spin Attack jump jump height has been reduced and now requires players to be further than before
Sixth Sense - from +50% to +100% to Critical Damage
Shadow Clones - This malice should not cause spawn of clones too on early in runs or worlds.
Level Design
Removed 2 jumping crystals from an Exploration room that were conflicting with fights
Removed a spawn area that conflicted with jump crystals
Interface
Changed ""Activate"" to ""Beat"" in Path of Destinies interface for locked elements for less confusion
Smoothed some Void Catalyst text descriptions
Barbecue UI description would become invisible if you move to right while on most right element (same for all directions)
There is now a input to completely reset all currencies committed in the Void Catalyst.
Bug Fixes
community inspired β Oloon Shield had a typo
community inspired β Removed FX from Void Catalyst that could be causing FPS drop for some players
community inspired β Being hit while being invincible (shield for example) during a Zodiac fight will consider you did not perfect the boss and deny the achievement
This new Update is a game changer for late game experience and we are super excited to finally make it available for everyone to play!
Full Patch-Notes of 0.45 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/3681178469567255745
This Update adds more than 150h to the game for those wanting more challenges and it keeps the progression you made in previous Early Access version! There is a lot to share and won't be able to cover everything in this News post but here are the main things you may want to know -
Path of Destinies
We released Astral Ascent in Early Access back in April 2022 (feels like forever ago...) with a system named the Path of Destinies allowing you to keep playing the game with an increasing difficulty. Everytime you would defeat a Zodiac in a difficulty you didn't defeat them in yet, you would receive a Destiny Fragment, an unique currency that would not allow you to buy anything and the maximum Destiny Level was 12, at each level you would need to select from 1 to 3 maluses and keep going as much as you could.
Basically only a few very talented players succeed to beat Destiny Level 12 with only motivation to overcome a very hard difficulty (and to get a bit more Sun Pieces to spend in Zim-Zim shop). Path of Destinies rework main objectives were :
Interesting - each element has to have an interesting effect
Easy to understand
Accessible start
Hard end
You now have 54 Destiny Levels instead of 12, you need to success (beat Libra or Aquarius for now) the 6 first Destiny Level to progress to next one. The 6 first ones being :
Destiny Level 1 -
Destiny Level 2 -
Destiny Level 3 -
Destiny Level 4 -
Destiny Level 5 -
Destiny Level 6 -
Once you suceed to beat Destiny Level 6, you can freely increase the Destiny Level as much as you want up to Level 54 (Do not worry, you can lower your Destiny Level anytime!) with many elements to choose from -
This is how Destiny Fragments loot works, each Zodiac owns 1 Destiny Fragment per Destiny Level, Master of the prison owns 3 per Destiny Level (available on final release).
With the 54 Destiny Levels it means you can find 810 Destiny Fragments(12*54 + 3*54) and we offer an additional 10 when you success a run for the first time so, on final version you could get a total of 820 Destiny Fragments, maximum 486 on current version. The way it works is that if you beat a Zodiac at a Destiny Level, you will unlock their Destiny Fragment of the the lowest Destiny Level available.
For example, you are Destiny Level 10 and you already have collected 4 Taurus Destiny Fragments - you could beat Taurus 6 times at Destiny Level 10 and still get new Destiny Fragments but then it would stop. Also, if you have Zodiacs that have no Destiny Fragments available for you, game in Destiny Levels will always prioritize making you face Zodiacs you can get Destiny Fragments from.
We would still recommend to increase slowly Destiny Level so you can collect Destiny Fragments and improve your Void Catalyst (explained lower). Additionally, in the top part of the Path of Destinies, you can see this -
Each Destiny Level increase the Damage, Max HP of Enemies and Zodiacs. At NG+6 they reach +30%, including the +20% of NG+4. From then it will keep increasing faster, at NG+54 you will have:
Enemies +150% Damage
Enemies +200% Max Life
Zodiacs +300% Damage
Zodiacs +300% Max Life
It looks really hard (even more with all additional maluses) and you may not really be sure of the point of putting yourself in such a bad situation but do not worry, both of these questions get answers in a brand new major system you can see below!
Void Catalyst
This system is completely new and it will allow you to use the Destiny Fragments you collect during your Destiny Levels runs. This system is mainly linked to Final Boss - the Master of the Prison but for now we made it spoiler-free and you only need to defeat Libra or Aquarius once to trigger a quest to activate it.
The way we see it is really : Path of Destinies starts the Chapter 2 of the game, everything will be more intense, you will unlock many things and narrative true endings will also happen during higher Destiny Levels through the Master of the Prison final confrontations.
Once activated you can open the Void Catalyst interface, you start with 10 Destiny Fragments and you will need the 820 fragments to have everything maxed out and these upgrades are going to make you so much more powerful and make you change your playstyle too - you can even have different playstyle registered as presets!
In final version the Master of the Prison will give you 3 Destiny Fragment per level so a succesful run will give you 7 fragments while you will only get 4 for now, it may feel like the Void Catalyst progression to be a bit slower in this version for now.
When you start only one row is available and the more you progress in Destiny Levels the more rows you unlock and you can freely reset your points and attribute them again.
You have a lot of elements you can improve and you can check all of your improvements from Void Catalyst anytime in a new menu from from pause menu, it also displays the Destiny Levels and elements you selected from Path of Destinies -
You can choose from 24 different bonuses to upgrade in the Void Catalyst, we cannot show all of them here so let us show you a few interesting ones -
One goal we had in mind for the Void Catalyst was giving you some elements to fluidity/smooth your runs, that is the case for extra damage on full life enemies but also the possibility to reset Itinerant Merchant choises, increase the number of use of the Aura Upgrader or even get keys by defeating Zodiacs for example.
Zim-Zim rework
Last but not least, Zim-Zim has been reworked too. She now has more upgrades and a few old ones were removed.
Let's focus on a few of the new elements -
Other Elements
We have also improved a lot of things all around like UI elements in the Prowess Tree.
We have also re-activated the Spell Altar by popular request.
Created new Altar for Gambits.
That's it for this update, whole team has so much fun playing this update and we hope you will also have fun doing so and we are genuinely curious of how high you will be able to go in the Destiny Levels! We are sure there is balancing left to do so we would be very happy to have your feedback about it too.
Next Update should be mid August and it should add more content to the game and polish many systems that are still requiring our attention.
As always, thanks so much for following us and do not hesitate to share the game if you like it!
Have a great day and upcoming week-end,
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - June 2023 - 0.45
βChanges inspired by our community!
Major Features
New Botanist abilities: Reworked and added new abilities for The botanist: - Magical gift: Increase spell choices by the intro room and telluric ruins by +1 per tier. - Expert breaker: Increase Quartz gained by salvaging a spell or gambit by +10% per tier. - Star breaker: Increase Stars gained by salvaging an aura by +1 per tier. - Feather leftovers: When Salvaging a spell, you have 5% chances per tier to make a pavo's feather appear. you also gain an additional +5% to proc this effect for each gambit applied to the salvaged spell. - Gambit Rarity up: Increase chances to transform common gambit into rare gambits by +5% per tier. - Aura Rarity up: increase chances to transform common aura into rare aura by +5% per tier.
The Void Catalyst: We added a new system linked to Path of Destinies that will enable players to unlock new abilities at exchange of destiny fragments.
Path of Destinies: Reworked the Path of Destinies system, starting by revamping the UI for better user experience. We added new game modifiers and removed some old ones. The game has now 54 extra levels of difficulty and defeating Zodiacs on high Destiny Level will reward the players with Destiny Fragments, which can be used in the Void Catalyst to unlock new abilities.
here are the first 6 new challenges you'll have to face in Destiny Level: - Enemies all gain new or improved attack patterns (Except for Zodiacs). - Increase the minimum difficulty of rooms by +2 stars. - New Shadow Clones enemies will start appearing during your journey. - All enemies and Zodiacs gain +20% Health and damages. - Increase Elite enemies spawning chances by 100%. - Zodiacs release their full potential, gaining improved and new attacks patterns, the challenge begins here.
Added a new option in the pause menu that can be accessed after unlocking Path of Destinies which has info about active Path of Destinies modifiers (current destiny level and difficulty modifiers) and active abilities from Void Catalyst.
Armor Points: They are now absorbing 3% damage per stone up to 70% maximum (instead of reducing damage received by 1 per stone)
Small Features
Polished the spawn of destiny fragments after defeating Zodiacs, they do not prevent Zodiac Chests to spawn and they will follow you faster
community inspired β Spell and Gambit altars: We re-enabled spell altars and added a new gambit altar. These should make finding spell and spell modifiers more common during runs.
community inspired β Adjusted zoom level on sun/moon room to make loot description better to read.
Changed some rooms progress/unlock condition
Kiran basic attack range and visual improvement
Increased spawn speed of Zodiac chests
Changed color order of Spells loot, highest rarity is now pink as it is for Gambits and Auras (Astral)
""Absorbed"" was sometimes wrongly display, for example when being killed after Libra/Aquarius
Octave drone shoots faster its first missiles
World 4 shielded enemy is not invincible anymore during its attack
World 4 flying enemy projectile does not follow player anymore while not in Destiny Level
Many small changes of Zodiacs patterns
Balancing
Spells speed cast improvement: Increased Spell cast of following spells
Kiran - Ultra Loaded Knuckles - Energy Projectiles - Windturner Up Slash - Void Punch
Calie - Stone of the Ancients - Prismatic Beam - Azurite Falchion
Octave - Sol - Sagitta - Fax
Balanced Elite Aspects number per world
Buffed Aquarius summon damage
Level Design
Playing the game on Path of Destinies adds subtle visual changes in the game levels.
Removed some jump crystals conflicting with fight areas
Music & SFX
Added Sound for Destiny Fragment
Added Sound for Taurus summon slash
Interface
Darker Pause menu background
Talent tree UI visuals improvement
Improved Achievement message UI
Improved Sier Bapy and Papa Yalee UI clarity
Improved display of damage from level and affinity on spells
Added bilinear on some UI icons
Sier Bapy completed achievement have a different background now
Prevented pausing the game during Menus,Talent tree and similar situations
Pavo's Feathers mentioned Gambits when equipping them
Spell affinity to Neutral for Elemental Gambits description improvement
Updated Dev Message
Visuals
Improved rarity icon and added on common rarity
Improvement of many text fonts for clarity, mainly for numbers
Improved most loots UI display, changing colors for different loots, increase spaces etc
Added Echoes icon when interface picking them up
Uniformized many titles and text displays
Reduced many flash intensity, for example when picking a Memory Fragment
Improved font readability and size of damage to enemies and received
Narrative Design
Oloon shield description was using wrong term
community inspired β Octave text would mention {oloon}
Yalee Madness description was not mentioning amount of Yalees spawned
Bug Fixes
community inspired β Aquarius could catch player while being revived by Ikki
Critic icon next to critic hit text now always stays, it used to disappear very fast
community inspired β Poison chain from Astral Aura could focus invincible ghosts
Elite lifebar would remain visible after failing a Zodiac challenge fight
Caedes spell of Octave was hitting only 1 time instead of 3
Clones spawned by Elite Aspect would have aggro and could, for Wild Grass for example, teleport on you from the start of a room
community inspired β Capricorn's books could spawn Thorns from Path of Destinies while being destroyed
Next Update Preview - Smell what we are cooking π§βπ³
Hello everyone!
We released Colors & Elite Update on May 1st and next Major Update will be released at the end of June and today we want to share with you what this Update is going to be about.
Path of Destinies Rework
As you probably already know, we like to re-work things and this time it is turn for the Path of Destinies(New Game + System).
CURRENT SYSTEM
Current System required you to collect Destiny Fragments by defeating Zodiacs and you needed a certain amount of Destiny Fragment to get to next Destiny Level.
You could only take one Malus per row then you would automatically to next row so it was always picking among few Maluses, there was a total of 12 Destiny levels and no purpose to collect Destiny Fragments except making the game more difficult if you want challenges.
New System is a simplified version of existing system, base is the same - defeat Zodiacs to collect Destiny Fragments (you will still have Destiny Fragments you collected before the Update) but now the Destiny Levels are fix from 1 to 6, you do not have to choose your Maluses until Destiny Level 7 because the 6 first Destiny Levels will be enabling a renewed game experience, a phase 2 of the game.
Enemies will have new or improved attacks
Bosses will have new or improved attacks
And other things...
These elements will mainly increase and change experience of the 2 first worlds that you know just too well at this point but all worlds/zodiacs will be affected. We want Path of Destinies experience to make first worlds as interesting as last ones.
Before Destiny Level 7 you will need to unlock Destiny Levels one by one by finishing the game but from Destiny Level 7 or more you can pick as many Maluses as you want in any order and some Maluses will have several levels for a total of more than 50 Destiny Levels. It will be up to you to decide in which order and how many maluses you want, we would recommend optimizing the Destiny Fragments gain and here is why -
Void Catalyst
A new piece of the story named the Void Catalyst will now be in the Garden, it will only be accessible once you defeat Libra (for now).
When using it you will access the system below -
mockup, still in progress
From there you will really be entering phase 2 of the game as your new goal will to collect as many Destiny Fragments as possible by defeating Zodiacs in higher and higher Destiny Levels to get really big power boosts, there is 24 power-ups to discover with from 1 to 5 levels each and you unlock them with more Destiny Fragments collected!
Some elements from Void Catalyst -
Start runs with Ikki Summon
First Andromeda's drink is free
Increase your Healing Shards power
Start with base Armor
etc.
So, even if you feel stuck at one Destiny Level you will keep collecting Destiny Fragments on Zodiacs and keep getting stronger. This is made to encourage you going into harder difficulties, in particular Destiny Level 6 because that's when you will reach True End once we reach 1.0 release.
The Void Catalyst also comes with Presets so you can create several builds that are saved and you can reset it at any time for free.
All of these systems are already implemented but it will take a lot of time to playtest and balance. We do not want things to be too complicated too quickly or to feel discouraging.
At the same time we are making progress on Final Boss encounter and it is going to be by far our biggest work in the game, we want to the Master of the Prison to be a memorable game boss.
We hope you are as excited as we are for this upcoming Update that will be completely renewing end-game experience.
Have a great day and upcoming week-end,
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Colors & Elites Update is live!
New Update available!
So... last time we announced this Update to be ready by May 15 but we are actually ahead of our plannings so the Update is live... now for you to play! Including -
We have reworked all existing elite modifiers and added many new ones for a total of 13 Elite modifiers now including passive elements like Armor and Regeneration too.
Among the reworked elements we improved the rotating lasers as we knew many of you had issues with them and we completely removed the modifiers making nearby enemies invincible.
There are even 2 modifiers happening on Death of enemies so be careful about icons! (Do not worry we made sure these elements could not happen in Eclipse Room so you can enjoy you Eclipse Room victories peacefully!) The spawn rates and amount of modifiers has changed a little and we hope you will enjoy these new encounters!
New room type - Eclipse Room
Talking about Elites, we created a new room dedicated to them : the Eclipse Room, this room gives you more Keys & more Stars than any Fight Room but it is also a much harder battle.
These rooms have 3 waves and at least 3 Elites in them, they also have traps. It can be very dangerous but you can also take advantage of it by exposing enemies to the traps!
As Eclipse Room is for experienced players, you will need to defeat a world 4 boss (Libra or Aquarius) before being able to get them in your runs.
Oloon extended
As you saw, Oloon is the face of this new update and we made quite a lot of changes there! It used to be very complicated to have style with old colors, they were too flashy, complicated to match and there was not enough of them. That's why we added many new colors AND a new category of colors.
Ayla pants
Kiran shoes & belt
Octave boots & belt
Calie pants
New colors are way more natural and allow for much more variations. Oloon is pleased of your style and we hope you will be too! It will now require 144 Yalee tickets to get all colors!
Sun Room Rework
Another major rework from this update is about Sun Room. When you arrive you will be asked to choose among all elemental affinities we have in the game.
Then one gambit for each sub category of the elemental affinity will be spawned. These gambits are special, we have created a new type of gambit named Elemental Gambit that allows you to change a spell affinity to the affinity of this gambit.
To sum up how things work : when you go to the Sun room you are guaranteed to have any sub-category Gambit you could want as Myhic quality. If you want to build Sapling you can get a Mythic Sapling gambit there and this gambit will also change your spell affinity to Poison. What it means is that you can find nice Fire gambits and start equiping them on a spell that is not of Fire affinity and then later change the affinity of this spell to Fire in the Sun room.
Regarding the elemental affinities we have also made a change, Neutrals affinity used to work with any types of gambits but they are now only working with gambits that are not from the 4 main elements. The bonus damage for having 4 of the same gambits in the right affinity spell has also changed from +100% to +50%.
Many new Perks for heroes
With all the new effects we introduced in last update we did not have time to add perks related to all of them (Ice Swords, Meteors etc).
By adding these new perks we have also reworked and added some other perks for this update. For example, Octave can now summon several Bellators at once but they will be on self-destruction mode.
Heroes Signature Spells should now be a more reliable way to trigger synergies by equipping perks.
Debug and QoL changes
We have also addressed many bugs reports and added some quality of life changes that you requested such as being able to preview Auras upgrade anytime from loots and from inventory.
What is coming with next update?
This update is smaller than Auras update but it is also smaller than next update that will be about Zim-Zim and NG+! We are going to fully rework the NG+ system, adding way more elements and a different progression system making Destiny Levels a part of global runs experience and giving real incentives to collect Destiny Fragments from Zodiacs.
Everything is designed but there is a lot to do, you can expect this Update to release in second part of June!
As always, thanks a lot for supporting us through this journey and let us know if you enjoy this update or if you want to share the best Oloon color changes outfit you made!
Have a great week,
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - May 2023 - 0.44
βChanges inspired by our community!
Major Features
New room type - Eclipse Room: We added a brand new room type that should make runs more challenging. Eclipse Rooms are a harder version of fight rooms with extra obstacles, but it'll offer big rewards for the risk taken
Reworked room - The Sun: The Sun room content has been reworked. It now offers a pick for a new loot added in game, Elemental Gambits. This is a rare room that should show as a option alongside other bonus rooms
New loot - Elemental Gambits: New type of Gambit that can be equipped into spells to change their elemental affinity. You should be able to find this new loot in the reworked Sun room
Rework spell Neutral element: Spells with neutral element type should get a damage boost from equipping only neutral gambits. It should make neutral spells work in the same way as other elemental spells, instead of receiving a smaller damage boost for any gambit
community inspired β Added/Reworked elite enemy modifiers: We reworked the enemy elite modifiers system polishing old modifiers, removing some of them and adding new ones. You should be able to look into the reworked effects accessing the in-game glossary
Added/Rework perks for heroes: We reworked and added some perks for each playable character to follow up the recent updates that added new auras and effects in the game. The heroes Signature Move should now be a more reliable way to trigger synergies by equipping perks into it
community inspired β Kiran's Signature Move balance and fixes: β’ Reduced cooldown β’ Increased range of the hit area to trigger the counter β’ Fixed a bug that could cause the counter not to trigger after defending a attack
Oloon new category & new colors: One new color type at Oloon's and many new colors, update Bapy's achievement accordingly
Small Features
Players are briefly invulnerable right after finishing a fight room
Camera changes for better lisibility in Yalee Kingdom, Sun & Moon rooms
Common spells are now linked to their affinity (example, fireball will always have fire affinity), on the opposite all hero spells can now have any affinity so they can all work with your target builds
Balancing
Balanced the spell damage boost gained from elemental affinity of equipped gambits
Re-balanced several Auras
Complete re-balance of all spells depending of their mana cost and number of hits
Calie base attack speed has been slightly increased
Interface
Added a option to preview upgraded versions of auras. This should be possible to do either in player's inventory and on Aura's altar
Reworked all Perks, Gambits and most Auras descriptions to be clearer
Visuals
Sylvanian thorn attack feedbacks are now behind players
Improved feedback of NG+ missile
Bug Fixes
community inspired β Triggering an action that could heal player while it was dead could cause gameover not to trigger, resulting in a softlock
community inspired β It was possible to kill the dummy in Leo's challenge if you dealt enough damage
community inspired β It was possible to exploit unfinish refresh of itinerant merchant altars on andromeda's bar by entering and leaving the bar's inside
community inspired β It was possible to spawn multiple of the same aura in Yalee's kingdom room
Fixed a small glitch that could happen with camera when finishing a fight room while too close to camera limit borders
The text from equipped stats stones could display with the wrong color
Enemies could prevent you from climbing small walls by pushing out while you climb
Ice spell 38 was sometimes dealing twice its damage
Octave base spell could hit NG+ phantom enemies
Some enemies attack were not reduced by Pacification
Time flies! That's right, we released Astral Ascent exactly 365 days ago! So, as Kiran says, it's our One Year Anniversary! π
Yes, Kiran & Ayla will have an introduction cinematic as we did for Octave & Calie!
First thing first, I would really like to fully appreciate how much the game changed since April 12 2022, the amount of changes is really big including -
2 new worlds
2 new playable heroes
Many new rooms
Major reworks like Auras' one
Countless iterations and polish all around
All these changes contributed making the game much better than it used to be and, honestly, much better than what we imagined! We hope it's better thanks to all the great feedback we receive daily but also because everyone in the team is having so much fun playing Astral Ascent.
All the updates we made improved the game and even if we initially announced a final release to be Q3-Q4 2023, we think we should aim a Q1 2024 final release in order to have enough time to properly polish every elements.
We hope you will understand this change of plans but be sure that this is for the best of the game. Whole team is working their absolutely best to deliver the best possible game but we are a small team and we do not want to compromise game's quality or push ourselves too hard to release later this year.
This is actually great news because it will allow us to improve everything you are waiting for and even more. So, what is next?
Next month - May 15 - we will be releasing an update including -
Rework of Sun Room - you will be able to change your spells affinity there now
Re-balancing of spells and new Perks
Bug Fixing
Elite modifiers polish
Red Fight Rooms - a new type of challenges during runs
Oloon will have one more category and many new colors for better customisation
Then the next month - end of June - we will be releasing a major Update, this one will be focused on NG+ and Zim-Zim experience.
We do not want to spoil too much but Zim-Zim should have a second version where you will be able to pay new upgrades with Destiny Fragments so farming NG+ will now have a purpose and you will also become stronger by farming NG+.
Each level of NG+ will now be unlocked by completing the previous one instead of having to collect enough Destiny fragments and we will change NG+ structure, levels and elements.
We have many more things planned but we prefer not giving a too precise roadmap and being able to adjust things if needed but you will have an update every 1.5 months approximatively. And we also have really exciting plans for post 1.0 Updates!
Thanks again for supporting us in this amazing journey and have a great day!
