We are happy to bring you the first major post-launch update for Monster Sanctuary! This update is launching today for Steam. For consoles, we’re still in the submission process and the Release is delayed until April 20th for those Platforms. We are very sorry for that and we hope to be able to deliver future updates on consoles without delay.
New Game Plus
The first of the two big new features coming to Monster Sanctuary: New Game Plus mode! This mode is unlocked once you have completed the main story content of the game at least once. When you choose NewGame+ from the starting menu, you have to select any of your existing save games - this will determine the extra Monsters and items available to you at the start. You can then start your new save file on the same save slot or on any other save slot.
Here are the full details of New Game Plus:
All Monsters and many items from the chosen save file will be transferred to your new save file.
Monsters are reset to Level 1, but keep their Shift.
Equipment upgrades are removed.
Items that are not carried over: Crystal Shards, Craft Materials, Food, Key/Story Items, Level 40 Badges, Craft & Reward Boxes, Battle Items. These items are converted to gold on the new save file.
Inactive Monsters level up with your active ones until they reach their level from the previous save file.
Explore abilities can't be used until you encounter Monsters which can use them.
Similarly, you can only donate Monsters and eggs to the army which you have already encountered.
Some tutorial texts are skipped.
Casual & Master difficulty modes
We are adding two new difficulty modes to Monster Sanctuary (with the current difficulty of the game taking the role of the "Normal" difficulty that is chosen by default). They are called "Casual" and "Master" mode.
Here are the details of how these two new modes work:
On Casual, wild Monsters have less health & do less damage. In Keeper Encounters, enemy Monster equipment upgrade level is reduced by 1.
On Master, wild Monsters have more health, do more damage, and have many additional skills. In Keeper Encounters, enemy Monster equipment upgrade level is increased by 1.
The difficulty can be changed at any time by going to the options menu. It can be changed mid-game.
The new Casual mode aims to alleviate the difficulty curve of our game. However, it's only a slight decrease in difficulty, which means that players will still need to engage with our skill systems and think about their strategy in order to succeed.
The new Master mode was primarily designed with New Game Plus in mind. It is balanced towards providing veteran players, who have loads of additional options available to them thanks to NG+, a new, harder challenge. While it is technically possible to beat the game on Master mode with a regular save file, we highly recommend using this mode in conjunction with New Game Plus (preferably using an optimized team of six Shifted Monsters).
New PVP Matchmaking
This update also comes with a variety of changes aimed towards making the PVP mode more enjoyable! For one, it comes with a new PVP Matchmaking system. Here are the nitty-gritty details of how the new matchmaking works:
The matchmaking takes the level of your 3 highest Monsters in the party into consideration (to prevent the potential abuse of having a low level backline).
It also takes into consideration the average equipment upgrade level of those Monsters.
Outside of a certain level range (based on Monster level + equipment level), players are not able to match.
The matchmaking also takes your PVP rating into account.
Initially, the matchmaking will only let players within a certain rating range match against each other. After a certain time in queue, you are put into "extended search", allowing you to match against others who are also in "extended search".
Players who have a rating of 1300 or above start in "extended search" by default (to prevent higher ranks of the ladder of not finding opponents).
You're also able to manually configure when your game goes into "extended search" (instantly/30sec/1min/2min/3min/5min/never).
New PVP Season
With this first update patch, we’ll also start a new PVP Season in Monster Sanctuary. This means that all players are starting in Bronze league again, which will allow you to once again get rewards for ascending to the higher PVP leagues.
This update features many balancing changes of Monsters, skill trees, and skills - almost all of which were made explicitly with the PVP meta in mind. We hope that these changes will shake up the current team compositions and open up new competitive options.
Balancing Changes
Monster changes
Steam Golem: gains Multi Burn + Fire Shield, loses double impact
Sutsune: Dark Shift gets -1 base Defense
Spectral Toad: gains 'Attack Plus', loses 'Combo Buffing', Light Shift gets -1 base Health
'Katana' has slightly increased attack and crit chance values now (end values: 200 attack, 15% crit chance, 20% crit damage)
'Hook' and 'Harp' now grant full heal / heal bonus when equipped in the off hand (this makes all weapons provide full secondary effect when equipped in the offhand now)
'Large Shield' now provides full defense value when equipped in the off hand
'Curse Chain' debuff spread chance reduced to 35% (from 40%)
'Blood Magic' values reduced slightly to 35%/35% (instead of 40%/40%)
'Bleed' damage against wild monsters now increases the execution score (by half the amount normal damage does)
'Combat Guard' damage reduction value increased to 7.5% (from 5%)
'Magnetize' redirect chance reduced to 25% (from 35%) but the chance increases when the attacker has multiple shocks (by 12.5% for every additional shock)
'Electrolytes' buff remove chance increased to 75% (from 50%)
'Polluted Water' debuff bonus increased to 10% (from 8%)
'Assault Shield' shield value increased to 30% (from 25%)
'Shadow Proc' damage increased to 75% (from 60%)
'Enlighten' shift passive, 'Shared Sorcery' and other share buff passives now share the buff even when the sharing monster is already capped out on that buff.
'Hexed Touch' debuff chance increased to 40% (from 35%)
'Optimal Performance' damage reduction and debuff resistance reduced to 10% (from 15%)
Oculus 'Intelligent Swarm' reverted back to have 75% chance to apply a charge stack (instead of 100%)
Update on the state of 1.1 + Monster Journals
Hello Monster Keepers!
Here is a small update on the state of things
State of 1.1 update
First and foremost: The 1.1 update is further delayed to April 2021 and we’re sorry for that. While we’re ‘done’ with the content of the update for quite some time, we heavily underestimated how long the whole process of getting the changes ported to consoles, having QA properly test everything on all platforms and having the update pass the submission process of Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft takes. This is mostly based on the lack of experience as this is our first game. Right now we have an unconfirmed target date of April 9th if there are no issues with the submission process.
What have we been up to ourselves meanwhile? Partly we’re already working on further updates we’ll release in the future for Monster sanctuary. Also we started prototyping our next project, which will be a Monster Taming game again, but with a slightly different direction this time (no Monster Sanctuary 2 for now - but we would not exclude the possibility in the future. A full fledged DLC for MS1 is also a possibility).
Hardcover Monster Journal
The Hardcover Monster Journal was a reward for certain backres who supported our Kickstarter campaign way back. We’ve received the hardcover Monster Journals and sent them out by now. Due to the pandemic, the shipping outside Europe may take some extended times in certain cases. We do have tracking IDs for the Monster Journals, so if yours didn’t arrive yet - feel free to PM us here and we will provide those.
As this was requested a lot: we did print quite some additional ones (about 150) to put online for sale, we’re currently in the process of setting everything up - we’ll do a separate announcement once they are available. Also we’ll do a giveaway for a couple ones in the near future on our twitter: https://twitter.com/moi_rai_
Thats it for now, hope you're not too upset and can wait a little more for the 1.1 update
Monster Sanctuary Preview of Update 1.1
Hello, Monster Keepers!
We have a lot of news to share with you since our last update.
Post-Launch Update 1.1.
The release of our first planned post-launch update is sadly delayed until March. We apologize for this delay - but we are still aiming to release this update on all platforms at once.
Apart from bug fixes (many of which for both the console versions as well as the PC version) and many balancing changes aimed to bring you a better PVP experience, this update will also include a few new features. On the topic of PVP, this update will also add better matchmaking that will attempt to match you against players of a similar Monster level and PVP rating. You are also able to configure this setting for yourself inside the game.
New Game Plus
The first of the two big new features coming to Monster Sanctuary: New Game Plus mode! This mode is unlocked once you have completed the main story content of the game at least once. When you choose NewGame+ from the starting menu, you have to select any of your existing save games - this will determine the extra Monsters and items available to you at start. You can then start your new save file on the same save slot or on any other save slot.
All Monsters and many items from the chosen save file will be transferred to your new save file. The restrictions are as follows:
- Monsters are reset to Level 1, but keep their Shift.
- Equipment upgrades are removed.
- You keep all items except Crystal Shards, Craft Materials, Food, Key/Story Items, Level 40 Badges, Craft & Reward Boxes.
- Explore abilities can't be used until you encounter Monsters which can use them.
We will unveil the full details of this game mode on the release of the new patch!
Casual & Master difficulty modes
We are adding two new difficulty modes to Monster Sanctuary (with the current difficulty of the game taking the role of the "Normal" difficulty that is chosen by default).
For the regular difficulty of the game, we aimed to design the difficulty so that players are required to choose the Monsters on their team and their skills very carefully. Finding good Monster and team builds requires a lot of deliberation, experimentation, and time (most of which is spent on the Monster skill tree menus). We realized that a portion of our player base does not enjoy this type of experience and instead expected something more in line with a traditional Monster catching RPG. The new Casual mode aims to alleviate the difficulty curve of our game. However, it's only a slight decrease in difficulty, which means that players will still need to engage with our skill systems and think about their strategy in order to succeed.
On the other hand, we quickly realized that the game was much too easy when played on New Game+. Having the ability to start with just about any six Monsters, with Shifts unlocked, a large selection of gear ready to optimally equip each Monster to from the beginning - all these factors made especially the early game a walk in the park. So for one, we decided to slightly increase the difficulty level on New Game+ by default - but beyond that, we also decided to add a new Master mode which is meant to provide a new, harder challenge for veteran players. While it is technically possible to beat the game on Master mode with a regular save file, we highly recommend using this mode in conjunction with New Game+ (preferably using an optimized team of six Shifted Monsters from the game).
Hardcover Monster Journal
We have a quick progress update on the status of the hardcover Monster Journals: We are expecting their arrival very soon! As we receive them, we will be shipping them out over time. They should be arriving in your hands by the end of February or early March.
Also, for those who missed out on them, we will put up a certain number of the hardcover Journals for sale online.
Physical Switch Version
We are excited to announce that we will be releasing a physical version of the game for the Nintendo Switch! It will be released by Limited Run Games. There will be a regular version and a Collector's Edition, the content of which we will reveal at a later point. These physical versions will be available later this year, but we cannot specify the exact date yet.
Monster Sanctuary Roadmap
Hello, Monster Keepers!
The game had quite a successful launch, and we received a lot of positive feedback, which we are really happy about. Of course we also received a lot of suggestions for possible improvements and criticism, which we are aware of. Today we wanted to share with you a very rough roadmap we have planned for Monster Sanctuary (which we are currently looking to confirm with our publisher).
Update 1.1
We had a bit of rest during the holidays, but not too much: We are already working on the next update for the game. Ideally we will be able to release it at some point in February.
Difficulty Settings: We plan to add two additional difficulty settings: ‘Casual’ and ‘Master’. You can swap between all three difficulties freely during a playthrough.
Casual: We received quite a lot of feedback with some players struggling, especially with Keeper Duels or the dreaded Abandoned Tower. We aimed the game to be challenging, but we still want to not completely exclude a certain player base from enjoying the game. The casual mode will slightly reduce the difficulty for wild encounters and Keeper Battles, but will not make those a walk in the park in any way.
Master: This difficulty is mainly intended for New Game+. It will make the game still quite challenging despite having the tools/advantages of playing on New Game+.
New Game+: You’ll be able to start a ‘New Game+’ using an existing save game, keeping all your Monsters, equipment, and most of the items. The monsters will be rolled back to level 1, will keep their shifts, but will not be able to use their explore abilities until you meet a Monster in the game that possesses that ability, to prevent sequence breaks. All equipment upgrades will be removed.
Matchmaking Improvements: We’re happy about the increased popularity of PvP and plan to add improved matchmaking - you will be matched against opponents that are in a certain average Monster level range to yours. Additionally, it will also look for both players to be in a certain ranking range. If it can’t find an opponent of similar ranking in a certain time, it will extend that criteria. We also plan to have the ability to challenge your friends from the Steam Friend list, but are not sure if we’ll be able to have it for this update already.
Fixing Disconnect -> Loss issue: On consoles, when a player disconnects in multiplayer, both players receive a loss. We are working on a fix for this issue.
Fixing Achievements issues: On XBox and Game Pass, some players encounter an issue that some of their achievements did not unlock. We are working on a fix for this issue.
Version Parity: We plan to have this update out on all platforms at the same time.
Future Updates
This is a list of features we plan to add in future updates.
Player Customization: A feature we promised in the Kickstarter, but could not quite have in the game in time for the full release: The player will be able to choose between a certain amount of different player sprites and different color schemes for each of those. We’ll add some more secret chests here and there in Monster Sanctuary where you’ll find those outfits.
Legendary Keeper Monuments: Certain Backers of our Kickstarter will receive Legendary Keeper monuments found in the game.
Minimap Improvements: Add the ability to put markers on the minimap and also have it display some additional information by itself.
Speedrun Options: Add a Timer, add even faster combat animation speed options, add possibility to skip cut scenes (Those will be available for normal gameplay as well).
Quality of Life features: We received a lot of suggestions for quality of life improvements and we will look into adding some of those into the game over the course of the next updates. Here is a list of the top priority ones:
Be able to inspect all Monsters, not just the enemies. Additionally, inspecting will display all buffs/debuffs a Monster currently has.
Sorting Monsters
Possibility to take back assigned skill points while still in the skill menu
Improved Monster donation (warning when donating Champion Monsters, be able to donate multiple Monsters at a time)
Display the number of items already possessed when buying additional ones
Option to increase all wild encounter levels
That's all for now
That would be all that's on our radar for the time being. However, we also really wanted to use this opportunity to wish all Monster Keepers happy holidays!
Monster Sanctuary is now available with new launch content!
Monster Keepers and Monster Keepers of the future, the big day is here! Monster Sanctuary has officially launched and is now available on Steam!
As the latest heir in a long line of Monster Keepers, players must explore and traverse a rich variety of environments and stop the growing and mysterious threat to the harmonious peace between monsters and humanity itself. Featuring deep and strategic gameplay including 3 vs 3 turn-based combat, players can battle wild monsters, NPC keepers, and even online opponents in PvP battles, using a variety of elemental attacks and tactics to succeed.
During its time in Steam Early Access, moi rai games and Team17 have introduced several updates that expand the engaging world available to players, so that Monster Sanctuary launches with over 100 monsters (including 16 community designed creatures) to discover and tame across 13 areas. New areas, such as The Magma Chamber and Underworld, are just some of the mysterious environments added over the past year, and even include content created by the community.
Today’s launch introduces further content for players to experience as they embark on their epic Monster Sanctuary adventure, including the Abandoned Tower, and an additional (secret) area. 14 new monsters also join the roster, alongside optional endgame Champions; Ultimate abilities for monsters above level 40; unique equipment; and further balancing changes. One of the new monsters is the Changeling, a versatile monster with the ability to copy moves from allies and enemies alike. Here's everything you need to know about Monster Sanctuary's additional launch content:
Abandoned Tower
Nobody in centuries has set foot in this derelict tower. It houses the most dangerous Monsters of the Sanctuary. There are four new Monsters to collect, many of which Occult-type and capable of dishing out deadly attacks. You will also meet again some of the Champion Monsters that you've fought in the past. This is also where the story of Monster Sanctuary comes to its conclusion. Don't worry - you can still continue your save file after finishing the main story. You'll only be able to enter the Abandoned Tower after finishing every other area's story arc (except for the new secret area).
New Secret Area
There's another new area that was added to the Monster Sanctuary in this update! We don't want to give too much away at this point, since it's a super-secret optional area - meaning you can complete the game without setting foot here (unlike every other area in the game). It does contain four new Monsters, however, which can't be found anywhere else. We'll only give you this hint: go to the bottom left room in the Magma Chamber, which is very close to the entrance to the Stronghold Dungeon.
Post-Game Content
We made sure to have some decent post-game content ready for you as well! This is what awaits you after finishing the story of the game: The quest to become the Keeper Master: To get the highest rank in the order of Monster Keepers, you will have to find and defeat every single Champion Monster in the game! Some of them are only available after finishing the story. After the end credits, there will be a new topic in the Talk-menu to guide you. There are five optional late-game Champion Monsters to fight, some of which can already be encountered before finishing the main story. They are hidden throughout the Monster Sanctuary. They are designed to be much more challenging than other Champion Monsters in the game, always being at the maximum level of 40 and using three actions in a turn instead of two. Once you are Keeper Master, you gain access to Eternity's End: a very special area at the top of the tower in Keepers' Stronghold. A set of four challenging fights await you here, each one giving you a unique reward!
New Rooms to explore
With the last batch of Monsters, a couple of new exploration abilities were also added to the game. So we added new rooms and treasures throughout the game that can only be discovered with these late-game exploration abilities! Some can also be discovered with abilities that you can gain in the Underworld and the Mystical Workshop.
Patch Notes
Infinity Arena monsters start to appear shifted (one from level 70+ on, two from level 130+ on, all three from level 160+ on)
Infinity Arena monsters start to use Ultimates from level 100+ on Infinity Arena monsters are less resistant to poison on lower level now, but become more resistant to it as well as burn and congeal with higher levels
Revived monsters in Infinity Arena now regain the current infinity stack count
Enemies Health now scale less in Infinity Arena past level 40 (level 200 enemies have about half the Max Health now)
Potion heal values increased, but they are no longer affected by heal specific passives like 'Heal Mastery' or 'Combo Healing'
Imitate/Counterfeit now displays what the last action a monster used when selecting the target
Heal/Shield/damage numbers on monsters no longer overlap when triggered at the same time
During the monster target selection, if the mouse overlaps two monsters, it now selects the one nearer to the mouse position
Balancing changes
Rocky got 'Primal Rage' instead of 'Variety' now, a 'Defense Plus' and 'Health Plus' node instead of 'Magic Plus' and 'Mana Plus'. Also it got 'Weaken' now
Magmapillar got 'Burn Down' now
Yowie got 'Fatal Upkeep' now
Catzerker's 'Full Offense' got replaced with 'Heroic Party'
Tengu got 'Buff Catalyst' now
Grummy has a new skill 'Age of Purification'
Frosty got 'Ice Shield' now
Minitaur's 'Health Focus' got replaced with 'Crit Damage Focus'
Manticorb got 'Mana Buffer', 'Exploit Party' and two instances of 'Copy Shield', lost 'Mana Shielding' and 'Mana Upkeep'. Also it got +1 base Magic and its light shift got +1 base Health
Crackle Knight got 'Shocking Slash' instead of 'Thunder Strike' now
Beetloid got 'Critical Sorcery' now
Nightwing got now an additional instance of 'Bleed' instead of one 'Critical Damage Plus' nodes
Magmamoth got 'Death Blow' now
Druid Oak has 'Multi Weakness', 'Demotivate' and 'Warlock Healing' now
Goblin Hood's 'Sub Zero' got replaced with 'Multi Chill' - also it got 'Multi Burn' as well.
Goblin Brute has an additional instance of 'Combo Shielding' and 'Protected Offense' now
Goblin King both shifts got +1 base attack and +1 base magic
Ice Blob's 'Shield' got replaced with 'Restoring Shield' and 'Ice Shield'
Crystal Snail got 'Tackle' again instead of 'Beating'
Caraglow's dark shift got +1 base attack, +1 base defense and +1 base mana.
Megataur has 'Shield Crush', 'Mana Bolster' and 'Critical Sorcery' now (instead of 'Crit Chance Plus', 'Improved Mana Regeneration' and 'Mana Plus')
Blade Widow's Base defense of both shifts got increased by 1
Kame 'Neutral Affinity' got replaced by 'Attack Mastery'
Ninki Nanka has 'Fiery Shots' instead of 'Fireball' now
Vasuki got 'Death Blow' now
Tanuki has 'Might' and 'Power' buff skills now, bust has one less 'Magic Plus' node. Dark Shift has +1 base attack and base magic.
Wild Tanukis drop 10 times the gold of normal monsters now
Ucan has 'Protected Offense' now
Brawlish got another instance of 'First Impact' and both shifts got +1 base attack
Nautilid has 'Trickster Buffing' and 'Age of Purification' now
Kongamato has a new skill 'Prehistoric Screech'
Elderjel's 'Bleed' got replaced with 'Blood Magic', 'Crit Chance Plus' with 'Critical Defense', 'Critical Exploit' with 'Mana Buffer' and 'Ignite' with 'Fireball'. Also it got 'Bolster' now
Salahammer's dark shift got +1 base Attack and Magic
Mimic's dark shift got -1 base mana and light shift +1 base health
Ornithopter's 'Buffing Restore' got replaced with 'Crit Chance Plus'
Stolby has the 'Occult' monster type now
Argiope got Multi-Channel, got 'Warlock Healing' instead of 'Toxin' and 'Extra Channel' instead of 'Emergency Channel'
Moccus got 'Curse of Weakness' now
Megarock got 'Primal Rage' instead of 'Variety' now
Skorch got 'Critical Buffs' now
Troll has 'Death Blow' now
Brutus explore ability is 'Summon Big Rock' now
'Sheltered Nature' shield value increased to 25% (from 20%)
'Nature's wrath' damage value increased to 15% (from 13%)
'Aquatic Predator' critical damage value increased to 15% (from 10%)
'Insect Charge' charge stacks count increased to 8 (from 6) and the skill got transferred to Glowfly. Blade Widow has 'Charged Start' instead now
'Charged Start' charge stacks count increased to 7 (from 6)
'Magic Barrier' shield value increased to 150% (from 100%)
'Rampage' crit chance value increased to 10% (from 7%)
'Potion Mastery' value increased to 25% (from 20%)
'Aerial Maneuvers' dodge chance increased to 8% (from 6%)
'Carapace' shield/healing value increased to 20% (from 15%)
'Fish Scales' chance value increased to 35% (from 30%)
'Acid Spit' now also lets Reptile monster stack Poison and Burn an additional time.
'Broken Immunity' chance increased to 25% (from 20%)
'Corrosion' value increased to 20% (from 15%)
'Demotivate' value increased to 20% (from 15%)
'Disoriented' value increased to 7.5% (from 5%)
'Sensitivity' value increased to 10% (from 7.5%)
'Sub Zero' value increased to 10% (from 7.5%)
'Fatal Upkeep' damage increased to 20% (from 15%)
'Severe Upkeep' trigger chance increased to 50% (from 40%)
'Flash Freeze' damage increased to 100% (from 75%)
'Exploit' now also shields the monster by 5% of its Max Health when exploiting an enemy's weakness
'Exploit Party' now has a 100% chance to apply a buff and shields the monster by 3% of that monster's Max Health when exploiting an enemy's weakness
'Brawler' now also shields the monster by 50% of that monsters Attack value when exploiting an enemy's weakness
'Sorcerer' now also shields the monster by 50% of that monsters Magic value when exploiting an enemy's weakness
'Buffing Restore' debuff remove chance reverted back to 50% (form 75%)
'Ring Focus' value increased to 80% (from 75%)
Purify now removes 4 negative stacks from a single target and 2 for AoE healing (instead of 3/1)
Deep Wounds value reduced to 40% (from 50%)
'Sticky Impact' now has a 15% chance to apply 'Tether' on every hit
'Mana Donor' mana value increased to 25% (from 20%)
'Auto Restore' now removes two debuffs instead of one
All mana cost effects are multiplicative with each other now
Shock damage is now allways of element Wind, damage increased to 50% (from 40%)
Blind miss Chance reduced to 40% (from 50%)
Poison, Burn and Congeal damage increased in keeper battles by ~20%
Shield Burst shield consume amount is now capped at 50%
'Shield' Equipment renamed to 'Large Shield' and Defense values increased slightly
Mass Antidote' item now removes 2 debuffs (instead of 1)
Shield tier 5 now triggers 3 shields on all allies (shield amount is still similar as before)
Higher tiers of 'Sticky Web' and 'Sticky Threads' apply more 'Tether' stacks now
'Long Slash' level 3 and damage increased slightly
'Shred' level 2 + 3 have slightly increased critical damage now
Damage of Soul Beam/Charge Beam/Heat Shimmer/Snow Veil got increased slightly
That just about covers everything! We hope you have a fantastic time exploring the depths of what Monster Sanctuary has to offer! Stay tuned for more updates, the show goes on!
Team17
Monster Sanctuary Launch Day Livestreams!
To celebrate the launch of Monster Sanctuary, we've invited a bunch of our content creator friends to play the game live right here on Steam!
We have a launch time when Monster Sanctuary will leave Early Access and release into full version:
Steam version is going to launch at 9am PST / 12 pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET on December 8th
For our Kickstarter Backers we have some additional information Here.
November Progress Update! Release Date Approaching!
Dear Monster Keepers,
we're now less than two weeks away from the full release of Monster Sanctuary. As such, this month we worked mostly on polishing the existing content, fixing bugs, and creating the Monster Journal that we will be sending out in digital as well as physical form (more on that below).
We hope you're looking forward to enter the Abandoned Tower!
Full Release: Promised vs. Delivered
First, here's an overview of all the content that will be available at full release (compared to what we promised in the Kickstarter campaign):
As you can see, thanks to your continued support, we could add even more content to the game than originally planned. Also, many more people will be able to play Monster Sanctuary since it's releasing on more platforms.
We regret to inform you, however, that we were not able to have some of the promised Backer rewards and Stretch goals in time for the full version - we plan to release these missing features with post launch updates:
New Game+
Backer Keeper Monuments
Player Customization
Speedrun mode
Monster Journal
We've finished the digital version (PDF) of the Monster Journal! The digital version is ready to be sent out to 35€+ backers on full release. Come take a look:
As you can see, each Monster has two pages dedicated to it. These pages include their drawn digital artworks, in-game sprite artworks, lore texts (as they may also be found in the game), weaknesses and resistances, types, skill trees (including Ultimate skills and Shifted skills), attributes (including Shifted attributes), and the in-game locations where they may be found. For Champion Monsters, there's also a small "Tips" section included (below their lore texts) on how to beat them.
In addition to all the Monster pages, the Monster Journal includes five pages with general gameplay hints and tips, eleven pages with additional lore texts, and a glossary of important combat terms that should make skill descriptions easier to understand.
Unfortunately, it will still take some time to print the hardcover Monster Journals and to send them, especially given the current situation with the pandemic. They should arrive some weeks after the full release.
Please make sure you filled the survey with your address for us to be able to ship the Monster Journal. If your address changed recently, just write us a private message with the updated one.
Contributions
We would also like to use this opportunity to give credits to all the people that worked with us to get the game to where it is now. Since the original Kickstarter campaign, we had some additional Freelance contributors join to help finish the game in time and exceed some of the initial goals:
Adam Kling: Worked on all the sprites for Monsters after #50, also updated the Player / NPC sprites.
Path of Pixels: Drew all the digital Monster artworks that will be seen in the printed/PDF Monster Journal. Also created a lot of Monster designs, like Nautilid and Thornish.
Daniel Reis: Did the sprite artworks for the in-game Monster Journal (which will also be in the digital and printed Monster Journals).
Steven Melin: Did a majority of the Soundtrack, with some help of Peter Jones.
Conan the Librarian: Conan was a very active community member who joined us recently as our official Community Manager.
Team17: Team17 joined us as a Publisher and helped in a lot of ways, among others: QA, Marketing, exhibiting the game at conventions.
DO Games: DO Games worked together with Team17 to port the game to all the different platforms.
New Monster Revealed: Changeling
"For a long time, it was believed that Changelings were simply born from the earth itself - but there is evidence that Changelings originated from the stars. All Changelings were once part of a single being, called the Proto-Changeling. It traveled through the empty void like a half-sentient, slumbering comet for many years. Thousands of years ago, it landed on our world, creating a substantial crater. Being a fluid, amorphous mass, it then slowly seeped underground, becoming part of the very lands and oceans of our world. Over the millennia, it absorbed the fallen remains of countless Monsters, gaining access to their traits in the process. Eventually, small parts of the Proto-Changeling gained sentience and dug their way through the earth to the world above, emerging as Changelings. Unconscious parts of the Proto-Changeling can still be found underground in some parts of the world."
Changelings are versatile all-rounder Monsters that can focus on many different skills. They have two unique traits: For one, they are always all Monster types at once, meaning that they will benefit from any Monster-type aura. Secondly, they may learn both Imitate and Counterfeit, allowing them to copy any move that was used by an ally or an enemy.
That's all for now
We hope we got you all excited for the release of Monster Sanctuary on December 8th! We are thrilled for the release dates ourselves, as this will be the first game released by moi rai games - hopefully, the first of many! In fact, in our free time we are already brainstorming and collecting ideas for possible games in the future. But for now, enjoy this gif of a fancy Inferno Ultimate.
Monster Sanctuary October Progress Update! Halloween Monsters!
October Progress Update! Halloween Monsters!
Dear Monster Keepers,
we wish everyone a Happy Halloween! Just in time for the spooky season, we want to share a special progress update with you featuring some of the spooky Monsters you will be able to find on the full release of the game! (Which is happening on December 8th, just in case you missed our last update: Monster Sanctuary is exiting Steam Early Access and will launch on PC Dec 8th)
If you have followed our Community Monster contests, you will likely recognize all of these Monsters, as all of them are contest winners!
Plague Egg
"Plague Eggs are usually reclusive and only rarely appear to attempt to cure illnesses and injuries on unattended patients. However, interrupting their 'operations' or attempting to capture them will provoke them to attack with magic, which curses and interrupts the biological functions of living creatures. Their cures sometimes resemble ominous experiments - for instance, they might save a human's life, but at the price of their legs. Conversely, sometimes they add enhancements to their patient's bodies, such as additional limbs or wings, but neglect to treat their illnesses."
Plague Eggs are the mad scientists of the Monster Sanctuary, with a very heavy focus on debuff skills, but also a good selection of support skills. They're very rare Monsters, but you might just get one from a certain Alchemist...
Thanatos
"Hundreds of years ago, there lived a king with his royal court in a majestic castle. One by one, the people living in that castle started dying under mysterious circumstances. At first, only servants and knights fell victim to this phenomenon. When it happened to close relatives of the king, panic took hold of the court. Many great warriors were summoned, patrolling the castle at all times. However, each of them lost their lives. After many weeks, an old priest came to the castle, feeble and barely able to walk. Thanks to divine magic, she hunted down the Thanatos that was responsible and banished it from our world, returning all of its victims to life."
Thanatoi can be quite deadly damage dealers, but they can also learn several very useful utility skills, including three different Multi-Buff auras. You will find Thanatoi as one of the new Monsters in the final area of the game, the Abandoned Tower.
Aazerach
"According to the Blind Starseer's own writing, she was visited by an Aazerach when she was very young. The demon took her eyesight, but granted her the same supernatural sense that Aazerachs possess. Over time, it allowed her to gain the demonic knowledge that led to the creation of the Ahrimaaya, the tome of demons. According to her later writings, she spent many years trying to escape other Aazerachs that were hunting her. Supposedly, Aazerachs watch over our world and step in whenever humans come too close to finding out about the worlds around us."
Aazerachs are dangerous damage dealers as well, but what makes them truly deadly is their ability to quickly apply many stacks of "Blind" on their enemies and some skills to profit off of those stacks. Aazerach will be a special Champion Monster that you will only be able to fight after completing the main story of the game - as such, defeating it will be no easy task.
New feature revealed: Ultimates
You may have spotted something new in the previous screenshots of those new Monsters' skill trees: a new row of three skills opens up after reaching Level 40! These are unlike any of the other skills a Monster can learn so far. They are Ultimates, special skills that can be used in combat and are quite stronger than other skills. Because of that, you are limited to using only one Ultimate per turn, and each Ultimate has a cooldown of three turns. They can be devastating single-target attacks, powerful multi-target attacks with different effects, strong support skills, or a mix between all of these.
A Monster may choose an Ultimate after reaching Level 40, and it does not require a skill point to be spent. A Monster can also always switch its Ultimate without having to use a Skill Resetter item.
That's all for this month's Progress Update! We hope you're looking forward to finding these new Monsters and teaching those Ultimate skills to your Monsters.
