• Reduced the force used to move carried objects against obstructions in some cases that were causing the player to be pushed in the opposite direction (for example, you might have been lifted off the ground while stacking crates).
  
• Some wooden platforms that were floating are once again grounded.
  
• Improved reliability of dragging mechanics for dead bodies.
  
• Helmeted enemies no longer have floating helmets upon death.
  
• Various lights, bottles and torches no longer disappear based on player distance.
  
• Various controller fixes related to switching focus during menu navigation and tooltips not appearing for armor slots.
  
• Fixed issue where the button guide bar did not show up for the Rune Wheel when using a controller.
  
• Fixed issue where the sound effects for the Dash skill would continuously play.
  
• Fixed an issue causing a lever in Underswamp to be inaccessible.
  Additional bug fixes.
  

What's New:

• This update is about 1.1GB in size.
  
  
• Added friendly NPC interactions with a number of new characters, many of whom are locked away behind insidious challenges that can only be accessed by powering a Materia Modus to lower the local water level.
  
  
• New main quest to find and free the Outcast Fane, who will provide a hunting guide for the Eidolon and Animus. (He then sets up as a vendor in the Saurian camp, as added in Update 3.)
  
  
• New Faction quest to find and free The Shambler Meridian, who will open The Bazaar of The Arcane in Marcaul and offer high level magic items for sale.
  
  
• New Faction quest to find and free the Outcast Dahlia, who will teach the player several Rune Formulas.
  
  
• New Faction quest to find and free the Deep Elf Severn, who will provide a map location for a hidden area.
  
  
• New Faction quest to find and free the Expedition dwarf Quater, who will provide a map location for a hidden area.
  
  
• Series’ mainstay Rawstag the Troll -- who really has a lot to say -- has taken up residence in The Bazaar of The Arcane
  
  
• Several new enemies added:
  
  
• The Bellum, a blind “headless” charger w/ tongue ranged attack
  
  
• The deadly Poison Bellum
  
  
• The stealthy Shadow Beast
  

Updated Fixes:

• Combat tuned to be more strategic, with the addition of a shove attack (which can interrupt some enemy attacks or push them off ledges) and fan-requested combat music, which reinforces when enemies are aggroed on you.
  
  
• Updated in-world loot pass, added new weapons, armor, and gear items to increase the variety of loot and further reward exploration.
  
  
• Added Rune formulas and increased the Runes found in-world to encourage deeper exploration of magic. New Fehu (Beast) Rune added, increasing the number of spells players can craft, such as Create Beast (which spawns a Deep Slug with a flammable trail), Create Bellum, and Harm Beast.
  
  
• Improved tutorial sequence and smart hint system to teach elements that players were missing (such as advanced combat attacks and bow zoom) or unclear about (status effects like hunger and exhaustion).
  
  
• Updated UI/UX elements, such as:
  
  ○ Improved map icons and readability.
  
  ○ More prominent notifications when you unlock a new Rune or enter a new region.
  
  ○ The Rune Wheel now has additional commentary regarding target and use of the currently-crafted spell, along with UI styling to make it clearer that you can click on spell names in the Spellbook to ready them.
  
  ○ The tooltip for the Rune Bag now includes the Spellbook name (if available) of the currently-readied spell.
  
  ○ The Doom Counter now properly shows itself on the HUD when its value changed.
  
  ○ Tooltips in the Trade screen now show the resale value of items in your inventory, not just those in the “Your Offer” area.
  
  ○ Improved readability of inventory annotations for stack counts and Rune Formulas.

Many other improvements, fixes, and additions, such as:

Performance Improvements and New or Updated Features

• Major improvements to frame rate and load times.
  
• Lighting pass across the game to help players see deeper into the darkest corners of the Abyss.
  
• Added Saurian Mage allies that have been captured by Typhon’s minions. Once you free these allies, they will aid you in battle against nearby undead.
  
• Added the Outcast character Fane, an ally who, once freed, becomes a vendor selling adventuring provisions wherever Hapurkala sets up camp.
  
• Added Talking Skulls (Bart and Bertha) to the Midnight Forum in Marcaul.
  
• Increased the equipment that drops in the earliest part of the game and added several new types of gear.
  
• Loot from chests is now placed more intelligently in the chest’s interior, to reduce unintended collisions.
  
• Added a new, more appropriately-sized model representing smaller equipment items like helmets and boots.
  
• Added confirmation text when Quick-Saving, including a notification if the player is in a situation where saving is not permitted.
  
• You can now start climbing ropes and chains from swimming contact, not just jumping. Also, contact with water won’t break you out a rope climb.
  
• Blast arrows no longer detonate without being fired (like, for example, when they’re sitting in a chest).
  
• Rune formulas branded on wands with the Focus Mastery skill are now preserved around player respawn.
  
• Added Goggles of Night-vision as a new item of headgear.
  
• Added variation of scale colors to Saurians (rather than all defaulting to green).
  
• Updated Aelita's vendor tables to offer a greater selection of gear usable with the Ceremonial Garb skill.
  
• Updated the sfx that plays upon completing a quest.
  
• Improved performance when things are on fire.
  

Polish and Bug Fixes

• The confirmation screen when quick-loading (pressing F9) a saved game is no longer blank.
  
• Fixed an issue where players would be unable to complete a quest if they save after completing the objective but before turning it in.
  
• The frame rate no longer hitches when the Tab button is pressed.
  
• Fixed a number of crash bugs.
  
• Fixed issues related to using a controller to play the game.
  
• Fixed issue where a dying NPC could send the playing flying upon its death.
  
• Fixed issue where the player was unable to complete the “Typhon Summons a Lich!” quest if they left Titan’s Reach and came back.
  
• Fixed various Inventory issues related to stacks and arrows.
  
• Fixed issue where the player’s quest could break if they saved after completing the quest objective but before turning it in.
  
• The Sword of Regret now restores the intended amount of health to the player.
  
• The Blade of Bewilderment now gives a small bonus to Adroit damage in addition to its main Confusion ability.
  
• Fixed an error that prevented unlocking the Vitality II skill. Note: It unlocks after the character performs a quest with the Quick Recovery skill.
  
• Magically-bound creatures are no longer frictionless when trying to move.
  
• Improved the consistency damaged received from a fall, depending on the height of the fall.
  
• The player is no longer immune to falling damage during their melee attacks.
  
• Eidolons will now raise skeletons as their original type, rather than always as Spectral Knights.
  
• Fixed a few bugs with combat animations that were moving a player involuntarily.
  
• Fixed not being able to skip the intro if you hit the 'no' button.
  
• Fixed the Deep Slug not being baited by dropped Ripper Pomes.
  
• Deleted the obsolete warning that the player needs a bow when scrolling over arrows.
  
• Fixed a minor exploit where players could load an arrow, drop their arrows, fire the equipped arrow, and pick the bundle of arrows back up with no decrease in quantity held.
  
• Fixed an issue where lights reflected on water were disappearing at certain camera angles.
  
• Fixed an issue where a player could hold a dead NPC’s body close and use it to climb up into the sky.
  
• Fixed some localization issues.
  
• Fixed an issue where some Tutorial and Quest Popups have no text.
  
• Fixed clarity of Side Bounty Completion / Failure on Mission Complete Screen that gave the impression that the quest had failed versus the side bounty not being completed
  
• Fixed issue where player was able to access Inventory and Pause menu during ending credits.
  
• Fixed issue where Tempus Modus/Doom Counter was located off the Map in Marcaul.
  
• Fixed a few memora logs that did not have titles.
  
• Removed mentions of Influence from all quest rewards.
  
• Fixed issue where the item spawned by the Create Wood wand would not stay in the Player’s grasp.
  
• Fixed issues where player receives a significant amount of damage by swinging corpse of an enemy around.
  
• Fixed several visual holes found throughout the game.
  
• Fixed several issues that caused corpses of enemies to spin
  

Known Issues

• Rune formulas branded on wands with Focus Mastery will not be saved.
  
• Some crystal lamps in Marcaul move from their position depending on where the user stands.
  
• When jumping next to an object, like a crate, a player will sometimes move forward involuntarily.
  
• Fire bottles make an excessive amount of light when they explode.
  
• There is no text notification upon freeing Fane.
  
• Highlight outline for Fane is slightly displaced.
  
• Wood chunk from Create Plant spell does not have fire VFX when lit.
  
• Very rarely, a skeleton’s body can stretch after death.
  
• With the Interaction prompt, some captions and the sneaking UI can overlap over certain menus.
  
• Pendulum trap can show erratic behavior.
  
• Hunger continues even when the game is paused.
  
• UI does not clearly indicate that some skills are locked because insufficient time has passed to unlock them.
  
• End game subtitles appear as large blocks of text.
  
• Damage can be unintentionally taken in unusual circumstances (i.e running into doors, opening doors).
  
• When exiting options menu, screen resolution can be reset to smaller default with no warning.
  
• Player automatically swings melee weapons when switched to in hotbar.
  
• Some floating geodes and stones can be found in certain areas.
  

• Crash fixes
  
• Fixed issue where the quest “Repel Typhon’s Army” sometimes didn’t spawn enough enemies to complete the quest.
  
• Fixed issue where the day would advance every time the player returned to Marcaul.
  
• Fix for loading screen sometimes saying “Input:Interact Next Tip”
  
• The doors on Hap’s cart now work properly on low quality mode
  

Underworld Ascendant
Update 2 Build Notes

The Stygian Abyss renovated

• The world is now a series of interconnected levels, accessible through The Grand Staircase. Updated quest flow now focuses on important narrative quests that highlight both new and refined story and content, while allowing the player to freely explore the environment and optional side-quests.
  
• As a result of this major change, we highly recommend that you start a new game to experience it. That said, if you want to start from where you left off, your old save games will still work and you will start at a roughly similar place in the new story progression.
  

Player experience improvements highlights

• Updated enemy patrol paths and lighting pass in all levels to enhance tactical stealth gameplay, and enemy population overhaul/refinements on all main quests.
  
• New and streamlined story elements along main critical path, with supplemental story elements moved to explorable space.
  
• The Vault of Nyx, the final level encounter, gameplay and clarity improvements.
  

Meta Game updates

• The Doom Counter has been refined to better ramp the type and difficulty of creatures that appear, and now allows players to complete the game without having to set it back more than once in an average playthrough.
  
• Players no longer need to gain Faction Favor or Influence to trigger the final encounter of the game, though Faction Favor still provides benefits in trade.
  
• New games can now choose a difficulty level. All old save games will be treated as “Normal” difficulty.
  

Save Game System

• Players can now use F5 to quick save and F9 to quick load said quick save.
  
• Players are now asked for confirmation if they are about to overwrite an existing save.
  
• Clarity pass on the text in the Save menu to improve usability.
  
• Also a load game panel clarity pass. It will also now show difficulty of each save game.
  

AI

• Updated enemy patrol paths and AI behavior models to improve their reaction to player actions
  
• Enemies will no longer do more than one in-combat emote in a row, which makes them much more aggressive.
  
• Enemies will flee less often than before.
  
• Animuses now alert all nearby undead when they are being attacked.
  
• Lizardmen casters will no longer cast while on the ground or getting up.
  
• Lizardmen will now be more aggressive.
  
• Better wandering for deep slugs and rats.
  
• Skeletons will no longer attack torches that damage them. Also reduced torch damage radius for when creatures walk by them.
  
• Enemies now have more personality in their idle time.
  

Loot and Items

• Standard trunks are now smaller to reflect that they don’t hold treasure on the level of the mighty Typhon chests. Removed the sparkly “treasure” effect when you open a trunk. Celebrations are for actual treasure chests.
  
• Trunks that are too low-level to hold much loot will now (rather than being so empty) have more filler items such as pots, which will sometimes contain coins.
  
• Clarity pass on item descriptions to make it easier to understand what they do.
  
• Magical items now have a different color name so they stand out more in your inventory.
  
• Player’s speed percentage is now listed in the inventory screen so you can tell if items you have equipped are slowing you down (or speeding you up).
  
• Item tooltips for equipment that improves the wearer’s armor percentage now include a notation about that.
  
• Updated Aelita’s trade menu to make it easier to understand how much silver you will get for a trade, and how much silver Aelita has available to trade.
  
• When you mouse over an item, it will be compared to the same type of item you have equipped, if any.
  
• Right clicking on items in your inventory behaves the same as double clicking. This also applies to trade where it will move it to/from the offer table.
  
• When moving a stack of items within their inventory, the player is no longer prompted to pick how many they like to move. To see that pop up, hold down shift and click on the stack of items.
  

Gameplay Including Movement, Combat, Stealth, Magic and More

• Additional refinements to combat feel and responsiveness, including removing an animation step so that players aren’t moving forward after an attack ends, which tended to interrupt combat flow.
  
• Creatures may be knocked down during combat and get back up to continue the fight. Make sure to finish your foes!
  
• Several creature types now have small weaknesses to extended melee combat. This will make encounters a bit more eventful in cases where the player’s attacks are underpowered for their foe.
  
• Chains and ropes will be much easier to swing on.
  
• Fixed issue where you would get stuck on chains in certain situations.
  
• Removed some lights that didn’t have an extinguishable source and were making stealth difficult in spots.
  
• Further refinement of player movement
  
• If the player walks into a heavy object (like a table) it no longer knocks over. Instead the player will step on top of it. This also applies to crates! Running into stuff will still knock it over, of course.
  
• There are more mana motes in the world. Use the Mana Sight skill to spot them and keep your supply full!
  
• Player’s maximum mana is increased.
  
• Fixed the Blink spell getting stuck on light obstructions (e.g. crates), and made it more reliable in general. Adjusted it to Level 3 instead of Level 2.
  
• Fixed the Magic Fist spell’s collision with physics objects to apply forces as intended.
  
• Fixed Outcasts’ fleeing behavior so they don’t smoke bomb away from the player if they are allies (as with summoned or charmed Outcasts).
  
• Fixed long-press of the interact button on doors (as if you were trying to pick the door up), to lock or unlock them.
  
• Friendly lizardmen now show up on the map. You will also get a warning saying “Saurians are your allies!” if you accidentally hit one.
  
• General pass on tooltips to ensure they appear where expected and make sense.
  

Levels and Quests

• Players will be able to reach the lower depths of the Abyss more quickly in the game’s overall progression, if they choose to do so.
  
• Removed the intro sequence with Cabirus so players can get to the action faster.
  
• Implemented subtitles for the ending cinematics.
  
• A lighting pass across the entire game to better support gameplay.
  
• More improvements to the main quest line to make sure there are no dry spots.
  
• Narrative and clarity pass on the Vault of Nyx so players can better understand what needs to be done to complete the final mission in the game.
  
• Players who miss the “Cautious First Steps” feat in Pluto’s Gate can still qualify for it by running any subsequent quest undetected.
  
• Removed the “Weaponless” Side Bounty from the rotation as it’s not applicable to the new Quest flow.
  
• New challenges and rewards to discover in all levels!
  
• Lots more holes filled!
  

Skills

• Fixed the Haste skill so only characters with the skill get its benefit.
  
• Some special attacks now knock the targeted enemy back.
  
• Skill Points are now called Skill Points on the Skills screen, (not Memora).
  
• Clarity pass on skill descriptions to make it easier to understand what each skill does and how to use them.
  ○ Known issue: the Mighty Blow, Cleave, and Fists of Iron skill chain descriptions sometimes leave out that they apply to axes & maces, swords, and unarmed attacks respectively.
  
• Added a reminder on the Skills screen that the player needs to perform Feats (found in the Compendium) to earn skill points.
  
• Fixed the Unseen Dash and Dash Farther skills’ handling of rough terrain. Unseen Dash should skim over terrain, while Dash Farther will hop over gaps entirely.
  
• Increased the bonus to mantel height granted by the Athletic Ascent skill.
  
• Improved clarity for skill descriptions and skill panel.
  

Misc

• General performance improvements to improve load times, increase FPS and reduce hitching.
  
• Players can now cycle through hints on loading screens by hitting the E button.
  
• Brightness bar on character creation extended so you can make the game even brighter.
  
• A Compendium now appears in the Tab menu. The Hints and Secrets tabs have been folded into the Compendium. In addition, one section lists all the available Feats in the game and tracks which feats have been completed. Another section will track all of the foods the player has eaten and their effects.
  
• New VFX on Memora.
  
• New VFX on Animus Hearts.
  
• Players will no longer sound like they are plunging deep beneath the water when they splash through a puddle.
  
• Fix for “Bark & Bite” achievement not firing right (the Ripper was getting the achievement instead).
  
• (Trade) Fix for splitting stacks during trade destroying stacks.
  

• Making the Abyss one cohesive dungeon
  
  
• Streamlining the first level of the game to include runic spell-casting and adding more narrative context to Marcaul
  
  
• Continued improvements to AI
  
  
• Improved main quest system
  
  
• Improved Doom Counter and faction favor system
  
  
• Adding in quicksave key bindings