• Lunar Calendar

  Shadowcrawl now tracks the real lunar phase and will run events on nights of high Lunar Activity (full, half, new moons etc).
  
  

• Lunar Rituals

  There is a lot of stuff going on during the Lunar events, to the point that it can actually be dangerous to play the game during them:
  
  
  
  
  • The New Moon - On the night of the New Moon, the Butcher gains the ability to complete his "Undeath Mode" ritual. Upon reaching floor 9 or higher, the player's save data will be altered to activate the dreaded "Undeath Mode." You must then find and kill the Butcher on Floor 10 before the New Moon is over to return your world to normal.
    
    WARNING
    Should you fail to stop the Butcher before the night is over then the only way to deactivate "Undeath Mode" will be by performing a Dark Ritual at a Fountain of Anima.
    
    
  • The Full Moon - On the night of the Full Moon the corruption level will be high forcing Glitch enemies to run rampant. This does not affect the player save data though.
    
    However should you kill Hastur then the Glitches will stop and give way to much more terrifying occurences. One of several rituals will be selected based on certain player information, each requiring an immediate quest or pilgrimage to prevent.
    
    
  • Avatar of Lunacy - Besides the Glitch enemies there will also be Werewolves running rampant during the full moon.
    
    The Elder Beasts however seek to invoke a cosmic deity mired in Lunar Energy to create a seemingly "Permanent Full Moon" leaving the NEXUS overrun by Lunatics and open to any number of Dark Rituals.
    
    
  • THE END - Upon reaching the Final boss floor "THE END" shall become active, purifying your world and plunging the corruption level. Should you dramatically increase the corruption level you can reverse this ritual. Worshiping Glitches can help.
    
    THE END unleashes the Nightmare creatures of the Void into the world. Leaving the assassin guild legion's of the Walker free to wander between realms.
    
  
  
  

• NEW UNLOCKABLE ITEMS

  
  I have programmed a large number of interesting new weapons to the game that can be permanently added to your level generator by completing side-quests and missions. I also rearranged a few weapons and armor for balance's sake.
  
  
  
  
  • Moved Elvira's Breastplate from the default item pool to unlockable
    
  • Moved Pulse Tower Shield from the default item pool to unlockable
    
  • Added Twisted Thornwood Shield
    
  • Added Burst Buckler
    
  • Added Cowl of Hollowing
    
  • Added Plasma Bubble
    
  • Added Phoenix Fists
    
  • Added Slip Cloak
    
  • Added Blight Bug
    
  • Added Hallowed Circlet
    
    All of these items can be unlocked by completing quests and then going out to find them in Gold Chests within the dungeon
    
    
  
  
  

• Quest Updates

  
  I've also been adding new quests and improving upon existing ones.
  
  
  
  
  • Added Floor 5 "Renegade Knight" Quest
    
  • Added "Yog Mystery" to Floor 5 which drops a severed head
    
  • Guaranteed Sacrificial Altar Spawn during Floor 5 Quest
    
  • Added Raz to the Floor 5 Quest at the Spawn Point
    
  • Added Floor 15 "Michael" Quest
    
  • Made Michael Semi-Invincible once freed until completing his quest
    
  • Added Raz to Floor 15 Michael Quest
    
  • Added Tlacelel as an ally during Walker Boss Battle
    
  • Added secret Ally to the Hastur Boss Battle if the player has the Blade of Psyche in their inventory.
    
    Many of these changes render the Guide here on Steam slightly obsolete so I will be updating and finishing it soon with the new content.
    
  
  
  

• New Endgame Content

  
  Much hidden content in Shadowcrawl is buried in the Endgame and I'm excited to say I have been adding even more, especially with the focus of "Second Plays":
  
  
  
  
  • Traveling to all of the 5 main shrines with a character will cause that character to start out in the the “Cult of the Holy Pilgrims” on future runs.
    
  • New Cult "Abjurers of the Throne" added to all save files after completing the final boss battle with any character.
    
  • Eventually I’ll split this Cult into 3 versions based on what your most recent ending was.
    
  • Floors 25-30 are now a special new biome with unique enemies and a secret boss on floor 30.
    
  • I’ve almost finished implementing 3 new endings that can be triggered if you beat the game with a second character.
    
  
  
  

• Lives System

  
  A new system is in place that rewards skillful play by awarding the player “Lives.” Lives let you keep your gear upon death and can be accumulated up to a certain amount. ONLY EQUIPPED ITEMS will be passed on to the next character and nothing else.
  
  Also per the staggering demand for it, a “Hardcore” Perma-Death mode is on its way.
  
  

• Minor Updates

  
  Penultimately I’ve been fixing little things and making small improvements all over the place, here are some of them:
  
  
  
  
  • I guess it’s not so minor but I have basically rebalanced everything in the game and how many of the stats work including armor.
    
  • I’ve also made it so having a weapon equipped that has the same ability as your default skill will enhance your default skill. For example flames will reach 3 tiles if an engineer equips a Fire Tome.
    
  • I’ve added pop-up text that notifies the player when they unlock secret items, bosses, or allies.
    
  • Dramatically improved the look of the portals. I tried to make them look distinct in a way that indicated to the player that the portal may have some effect on the challenge level of their destination.
    
  • For Example the Red Portals are now very scary looking to signify they will dramatically increase the difficulty level of the game (the dungeon “intensity” level to be specific).
    
  • Made it so isolated wall tiles becomes columns/pillars
    
  • General restructuring to level generation
    
  • Implemented “Patterns” to level generation which help tell caverns to have large areas and spires to have long hallways.
    
    
  
  
  And I want to end this update with information about the Dream cause it’s a pretty unusual mechanic.
  
  

• Enlightenment & The Dream

  
  Another effect that results from visiting all 5 main shrines is the player becomes “Enlightened.” Enlightenment offers several benefits but mostly it interacts heavily with The Dream System I have implemented.
  
  At any moment you may be several layers deep in a dream, occasionally the outside world will “END” and a certain in-game character forces everyone a layer deeper into the dream.
  
  While in a dream, Enlightenment causes players to become aware of the Dream Wardens who will be immediately hostile once detected. Mostly there is no way to tell if you are in a dream and how deep. Worshipping a specific God affects the Dream Level by placing you deeper but unenlightened characters would be entirely without a means to determine this.
  
  I’m also not sure what happens if you break out of the dream or the specific conditions that trigger it or allow you to escape. This is all stuff I hooked up to the many in-game calendars years ago but never fully implemented until recently, so the whole thing is largely automated.
  
  

• Fixed a bug where stun potions didn't work without a weapon equipped.
  
• Added a system for selecting ally skills during combat, allowing users with a party to effectively attack twice in one turn.
  
• Added the character "Roz" to the Butcher stage.
  
• Made the butcher stage act differently while undeath mode is active.
  
• Made the nature of "Meat Worship" change while undeath mode is active.
  
• Added Rsi to the Shogoth level if you've completed her escort quest.
  
• Added Miya to Shub Nug's stage if you've completed her escort quest
  
• Fixed a bug where the Demon Michael was invincible and would one-shot players
  
• Adjusted the text-boxes to a more user friendly location on screen
  
• Added general updates to the functionality of the Samhain event
  

Shadowcrawl Post Launch Updates