Patch 018

Early Access Patch 018: The BEEFY Update - May 7, 2019

Our fourth Major Update has arrived, letting you rise higher into the Underworld than ever before! This one is packed, so _ A) _we hope you enjoy it! and _B) _we'll be monitoring feedback and making follow-up changes for a number of days before switching focus to our next big update.

Highlights

 * Elysium: rise up to an all-new biome of the Underworld, rife with new perils and mysteries
 * Theseus & the Minotaur: they await you in the afterlife of heroes... who else will you find up there?
 * Redesigned Dash: outmaneuver your foes like never before with this newly revised core ability
 * Improved UI: all-new Boon Info display lets you track an even greater number of power-ups
 * New Foes: confront the Exalted and the Nemean Chariot, among other Elysian foes
 * New Boons: look for new God Boons, including all-new 'Exchange' choices
 * New Story Events: including ~1,000 new voice lines! The most added in an update since launch

General Gameplay

 * Added the third main biome after Asphodel (good luck up there)
 * Boons and other power-up rewards now show up relatively more often as Chamber Reward options
 * You can now find and use more than one Daedalus Hammer per escape attempt
 * Reworked damage scaling from multiple Boons; effects are generally additive rather than multiplicative
 * Olympians will sometimes offer an Exchange of Boons; Exchanges always have a higher power level
 * Added Heroic rarity level for Boons, greater than Epic (note: used with 'Exchange' Boons)
 * Poms of Power now yield diminishing returns when repeatedly applied to the same Boons
 * Infernal Troves requiring Skeleton Keys are rarer but yield greater rewards
 * Infernal Gates appear slightly more often

Weapons & Powers

 * Dash: redesigned for a more fluid feel
 * Wrath: reduced meter gain from dealing and receiving damage; meter no longer gained from pillars
 * Stygian Blade: slightly reduced recovery time of Nova special
 * Heart-Seeking Bow: standard shot now staggers foes on-hit; increased stagger duration of Power Shot; reduced recovery time of Volley special
 * Shield of Chaos: increased attack damage; increased knockback for Bull Rush; you are now invulnerable while using Bull Rush
 * Eternal Spear: reduced damage of Throw special; removed recovery time if you retrieve a thrown Spear by moving to it; slightly increased range of Spin Attack to match the visual
 * Adamant Rail: increased speed and reduced recovery of Bombard special; attack projectile hit box slightly increased (making it more effective against foes' projectile attacks)

Olympian Boons

 * Boons affecting your Dash are all updated based on the new properties
 * Status Curses: each Olympian now has their own status effect; some descriptions have been updated
 * Static Discharge (Zeus): newly added!
 * Thunder-God's Fury (Zeus): slightly increased damage and range
 * Freak Accident (Zeus x Artemis): newly added!
 * Sea-God's Rage (Poseidon): increased damage, duration, and maneuverability
 * Razor Shoals (Poseidon): slightly reduced damage
 * Blinding Flash (Athena): newly added!
 * Titan Toppler (Athena): no longer freezes you in place for a moment
 * Sure Footing (Athena): increased damage resistance
 * Deadly Reversal (Athena x Artemis): reduced chance of Critical damage
 * Hunter's Mark (Artemis): newly added!
 * Exit Wounds (Artemis): increased damage
 * Barbs of the Master Huntress (Artemis): shots pierce obstacles; increased long-range damage
 * Deadly Reversal (Artemis x Athena): reduced duration of guaranteed-Critical buff
 * Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite): increased duration of Weak effect on this and her other Boons
 * Dying Lament (Aphrodite): increased radius of effect
 * War-God's Thirst (Ares): increased damage and added immunity to knockback effects
 * Positive Outlook (Dionysus): reduced damage resistance

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

 * Empowering Nova (Blade): slightly reduced duration of Critical buff
 * Sudden Sunder (Blade): redesigned as Instant Nova; much faster but no longer blinks forward
 * Piercing Barrage (Bow): reduced armor damage (to compensate for increased rate of fire)
 * Explosive Shot (Bow): increased damage; increased duration of charge-up (making it slightly slower)
 * Defensive Aura (Shield): removed from game
 * Dark Barrier (Shield): removed from game
 * Assault Flight (Shield): removed from game
 * Minotaur Rush (Shield): redesigned; now gives your Bull Rush a Power Shot opportunity
 * Pulverizing Blow (Shield): redesigned; now hits twice
 * Dashing Wallop (Shield): newly added!
 * Explosive Return (Shield): newly added!
 * Armor Shredder (Shield): newly added!
 * Mirage Flight (Shield): returns to you faster; updated visuals
 * Sudden Rush (Shield): increased duration of charge-up
 * Vicious Skewer (Spear): reduced chance of Critical damage
 * Exploding Launcher (Spear): increased attack speed
 * Triple Bomb (Rail): reduced recovery time
 * Explosive Fire (Rail): newly added!
 * Heavy Slug (Rail): newly added!
 * Invigorating Blast (Rail): newly added!

Foes & Encounters

 * Beware of a variety of all-new foes and traps in Elysium
 * Removed Survival encounters from Asphodel
 * Reduced how many types of elite foes can appear in Thanatos encounters
 * Removed Elite Voidstones from Asphodel (look for them later on...)
 * Reduced enemy counts in Asphodel 'river crossing' encounter
 * Pest: mines thrown onto impassable terrain now harmlessly defuse instead of exploding
 * Burn-Flinger: death weapon should be slightly easier to avoid
 * Wave-Maker: slightly reduced projectile acceleration
 * Megagorgon: removed short-range area attack
 * Bone Hydra: further adjustment and improvements to attack telegraphing
 * Alecto: reduced attack speed while enraged

Mirror of Night

 * Greater Reflex (Mirror): max rank reduced (as part of the Dash redesign; invested Darkness will be refunded)
 * Privileged Status: newly added! deal greater damage by chaining godlike powers
 * Shadow Presence: reduced max rank

Keepsakes & Items

 * Keepsakes can now rank up during escape attempts (not just in between)
 * Broken Spearpoint: newly added!
 * Tinge of Erebus (Well): reduced shop cost

Pact of Punishment

 * Updated Skeleton Key cost and ordering of options once the system is unlocked (as a result, the Pact should be able to more quickly and meaningfully enhance challenge)_
 * Shared Misery makes foes spawn faster as well as in greater numbers
 * Tenebrous Veil now locks random choices

Level Design & Environments

 * Added Elysium chambers
 * Updated newer Tartarus mini-boss chamber with more walkable space
 * Chaos Gates now can spawn in the first chamber of Asphodel
 * Other minor fixes and improvements to various chambers

Art & Visual FX

 * Added new Elysium environment set
 * Updated main menu based on new Major Update
 * Updated animations for Alecto
 * Updated animations for Tisiphone
 * Updated colors of Asphodel Witches to be distinct from those in Tartarus
 * Updated colors of wave-shooting Bone Hydra head to be more distinct from the others
 * Updated visual effects when interacting with Primordial Chaos
 * Added visuals effects for new Status Curses and other new Boons
 * Added visual effect for Second Wave (Poseidon)

Menus & UI

 * Updated and reset default Boon Info command; now toggles the screen on/off instead of requiring a press-and-hold (note: you may need to update your control mappings)
 * Updated Victory Screen after successfully completing an escape attempt
 * Improved low-health feedback on the life gauge
 * Added feedback when Keepsakes rank up after encounters
 * Added feedback when Pierced Butterfly (Thanatos) upgrades in power
 * Added new feedback for when you are being targeted by certain ranged attacks
 * Death Defiance charges granted by Athena have a special indicator
 * Updated Boon icon backings to show rarity color more clearly
 * Improved 'active Heat' feedback when using the Pact of Punishment
 * Improved feedback for Boons affected by Tenebrous Veil (Pact)
 * Improved feedback for recently ranked-up Keepsakes in the selection screen
 * Improvements to Well of Charon formatting
 * Improvements to boss life gauges
 * Improvements to feedback on charmed foes
 * Damage numbers from damage-over-time effects have distinct formatting
 * Updated text for various Boons and interactions
 * Other minor changes and improvements

Music & SFX

 * 'The King and the Bull': added new music track to Elysium
 * Added many new sound effects
 * Minor fixes and mix improvements

Voice & Narrative

 * Added narrative events with various characters
 * Added Zagreus voice events for various gameplay contexts
 * Added 'Remembrance' and Victory event variants
 * Added Wrath voice events for when Olympians are displeased in 'Trial of the Gods' encounters
 * Added Codex entries for new foes and characters
 * Updated requirements from some narrative events
 * Fixes and tuning to some contextual voice events

Miscellaneous

 * Updated Development Roadmap to reflect our plans for our next Major Update
 * Improvements to Aim Assist tuning using controllers
 * Gameplay timer now pauses while entering Chaos Gates and Infernal Gates
 * Skelly's unlockables now become available after clearing Elysium (if you haven't revealed them yet)
 * The Pact of Punishment is now unlocked after clearing Asphodel (if you haven't unlocked it yet)
 * Gameplay performance optimizations for some system configurations
 * Added lightning effects for Scintillating Feast (Zeus x Dionysus)
 * The catch animation for the Shield's Throw special now plays more reliably
 * Reduced frequency of the hint to use Wrath
 * Improved D-pad scrolling in Mirror screen
 * Updated some non-English language strings in menus
 * Updated Voice Cast in Credits

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed various issues with Charm effects from Aphrodite
 * Fixed issues with Last Stand and Deathless Stand (Athena) not applying to all Death Defiance effects
 * Fixed an issue causing the Adamant Rail to have too much knockback from Tempest Strike (Poseidon)
 * Fixed an issue where Sea-God's Rage (Poseidon) could be earned before a specific event
 * Fixed an issue where Ocean's Bounty (Poseidon) did not affect rewards in Erebus
 * Fixed incorrect prerequisite Boons for earning Second Wave (Poseidon)
 * Fixed lingering visual FX issues with Razor Shoals (Poseidon)
 * Fixed Engulfing Vortex (Ares) not upgrading his War-God's Thirst
 * Fixed an issue where you could exit chambers while charging up the Shield's Bull Rush
 * Fixed an issue where upgrades affecting Rail ammo supply did not update the UI right away
 * Fixed issues where reduced healing from Grim Inevitability (Pact) did not always preview correctly
 * Fixed issues with the Wrath Gauge sometimes not showing correct feedback when full
 * Fixed issues with controller vibration occurring unintentionally in some contexts
 * Fixed lava damage causing a physical impact sound
 * Fixed a rare issue where the Codex update notification would not display when intended
 * Fixed an issue with Tisiphone's AI when standing in the corner during the last phase of the fight
 * Fixed an issue where opening the Codex near Thanatos did not always turn to the correct page
 * Fixed an issue where Dusa could be gifted after flying off
 * Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch
"...now Theseus encouraged his father and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotaur, so that he gave the pilot another sail, a white one, ordering him, if he returned with Theseus safe, to hoist the white sail, but otherwise to sail with the black one, and so indicate the affliction."

- Life of Theseus (Plutarch; B. Perrin translation)