Patch 022

Early Access Patch 022: The HIGH SPEED Update - June 11, 2019

Our fifth Major Update is here, so get ready to pick up the pace in a big way! As always, we'll be monitoring feedback and making follow-up changes for several days before switching focus to our next big update -- which will introduce the next biome after Elysium! Check our Roadmap for details.

Highlights

 * Hermes: the god of swiftness arrives to give you a serious boost!
 * New Foes: beware the Soul Catcher and the Flame Wheels up in Elysium!
 * New Chambers: step inside dangerous, new Elysium environments!
 * New & Updated Boons: look for new powers from the god of war, plus many balance changes!
 * Updated 'Trial of the Gods': spurning any of the Olympians is a bigger deal!
 * New Music: fight your heart out to Thanatos' theme, 'Last Words'!

General Gameplay

 * Updated input buffering on basic moves (should result in a smoother feel, with fewer dropped inputs)
 * Enhanced Poms of Power found in Erebus now increase Boon level *2 (rather than changing rarity)
 * Power Shot damage bonuses now additive instead of multiplicative
 * Damage Reduction effects such as Different League (Aphrodite) now additive instead of multiplicative
 * Lava in Asphodel deals less damage to foes

Weapons & Powers

 * Cast: shots now bounce off when blocked by shield-bearing foes, so ammo can be retrieved
 * Stygian Blade: chop attack now can more reliably hit enemy projectiles; Nova special's blast speed lined up with visual effect (rather than hitting instantly)
 * Heart-Seeking Bow: Volley special can stagger foes
 * Adamant Rail: reduced scatter while firing

Boons & Blessings

 * Added Hermes, God of Swiftness, with a variety of his unique Boons
 * Re-balanced Attack, Special, and Cast damage bonuses for each Olympian
 * Reduced effect of Boons that help build up Wrath Gauge
 * Artemis no longer offers Exit Wounds and Quick Reload if your Cast is not compatible
 * Static Discharge (Zeus): increased Jolted effect damage
 * Thunder-God's Fury (Zeus): increased damage
 * Tidal Dash (Poseidon): increased damage radius; now can briefly stagger foes
 * Typhoon's Fury (Poseidon): increased damage
 * Breaking Wave (Poseidon): increased damage
 * Razor Shoals (Poseidon): increased damage
 * Ocean's Bounty (Poseidon): re-scaled bonuses from higher rarity levels
 * Sea Storm (Poseidon + Zeus): increased damage
 * Last Stand (Athena): reduced healing effect
 * Divine Protection (Athena): shield effect no longer consumed when successfully blocking attacks
 * Wave of Despair (Aphrodite): reduced area of effect
 * Shatter Shot (Aphrodite): reworked; increased range, now deals a single instance of damage per foe
 * True Shot (Artemis): can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
 * Burst Shot (Artemis): now affects Cast Boons from other Olympians
 * Quick Reload (Artemis): reduced effect
 * Barbs of the Master Huntress (Artemis): can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
 * Black Metal (Ares): reduced area-of-effect bonus
 * War-God's Thirst (Ares): reduced damage
 * Curse of Eternity (Ares): cut from game
 * Battle Rage (Ares): newly added!
 * Vicious Cycle (Ares): newly added!
 * Curse of Longing (Ares * Aphrodite): restored this previously-cut Boon; reduced successive damage
 * Merciful End (Ares * Athena): newly added!
 * Bad Influence (Dionysus): increased damage
 * Black Out (Dionysus): increased damage
 * After Party (Dionysus): healing effect now scales with life total; no longer upgradeable using Poms
 * Wine-God's Stupor (Dionysus): increased damage
 * Stabbing (Chaos): reduced self-damage
 * Atrophic (Chaos): now reduces health as well as life total
 * Enshrouded (Chaos): now counts down in each Chamber (not just each Encounter)

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

 * Piercing effects can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
 * Piercing Fire (Rail) and Explosive Fire (Rail) now mutually exclusive
 * Instant Nova (Blade): replaced with Double Nova
 * Explosive Shot (Bow): reduced charge-time penalty
 * Sudden Rush (Shield): now also removes Bull Rush knock-away effect
 * Explosive Return (Shield): reduced damage

Foes & Encounters

 * Added a new mini-boss encounter variant in Elysium
 * Trial of the Gods: enhanced foes blessed by spurned gods; the spurned god's Boon has reduced rarity
 * Wretched Thug: increased Elite armor
 * Wretched Witch: increased Elite armor
 * Wretched Lout: increased Elite armor
 * Skull-Crusher: attack can no longer be blocked
 * Exalted Strongbow: removed duration variance from pre-attack
 * Exalted Longspear: slightly reduced leap attack damage radius
 * Exalted Greatshield: reduced health
 * The Minotaur: starts fighting sooner once the encounter begins
 * Theseus: adjusted his Poseidon Wrath variant; increased spin attack recovery time; Chariot reinforcements reduced to one at a time; other minor timing changes

Keepsakes & Items

 * Lambent Plume: newly added!
 * Skull Earring: reduced active threshold
 * Kiss of Styx (Well): increased shop cost
 * Ranking up a Keepsake now refreshes its on-equip effect if it has one
 * Minor rearrangements to the ordering of Keepsakes in the Display Case

Pact of Punishment

 * Vicious Torment: now also increases damage from inferno-bombs from Caustic (Chaos) effects

Level Design & Environments

 * Added two new Elysium chambers
 * Adjusted spawn points and object positions in Asphodel 'river crossing' encounter
 * Other minor fixes and improvements to various chambers

Art & Visual FX

 * Updated visual effects for weapon upgrades with an explosive property
 * Updated attack animations for Heart-Seeking Bow; updated visual effects for its Power Shot
 * Updated some Bone Hydra effects and animations
 * Updated some Exalted visual effects and animations
 * Updated artwork for Theseus' thrown spear
 * Updated visual effects for Ares' Doom hitting foes
 * Updated visual effects for Invigorating Blast (Daedalus - Rail)
 * Updated main menu based on new Major Update
 * Updated animation for ambient butterflies in Elysium
 * Updated aspects of Hypnos portrait
 * Other minor changes, additions, and improvements

Menus & UI

 * Updated text for various Boons; clarified some Status Curse tooltips
 * Added more color variety to damage numbers (based on each god)
 * Reduced duration of region text presentation when warping to new regions
 * Improved controller D-pad navigation in some menus
 * Other minor changes and improvements

Music & SFX

 * 'Last Words': added new music track to Thanatos encounters
 * Added distinct sound when Infernal Troves unlock after encounters
 * Added distinct sound when Wells of Charon unlock after encounters
 * Updated sound for Wretched Pest mine-fling attack
 * Updated sound for Ares' Doom hitting foes
 * Updated sound from taking lava damage
 * Improved timing on audio chime as Wrath effects are expiring
 * Reduced how often hurt vocalizations play from boss foes
 * Other minor changes, fixes, and mix improvements

Voice & Narrative

 * Added narrative events with several characters
 * Added more Zagreus voice lines for various gameplay contexts
 * Added Codex entries for Hermes, Soul Catcher, and Flame Wheels
 * Updated requirements for some narrative events
 * Fixes and tuning to some contextual voice events

Miscellaneous

 * Updated Development Roadmap to reflect our plans for our next Major Update, and beyond
 * Reduced the delay before the Chamber Reward appears after the Minotaur mini-boss fight
 * Improved feedback when manually picking the Eternal Spear after the Throw special
 * Improved feedback when catching the Shield of Chaos after the Throw special
 * Renamed Titan Toppler (Athena) to Divine Dash (it no longer reduces your mobility like it used to)
 * Renamed Sick Status Curse to Poison
 * Wrath effects and other effects on Zagreus should stop more reliably after defeating bosses
 * Credits: Hermes added to Voice Cast

Bug Fixes

 * Fixes to some rare crashes
 * Fixed a rare progression blocker in the Prince's Bedchambers when the Pact is first revealed
 * Fixed a rare progression blocker with the Fallen Warrior
 * Fixed an issue where True Shot (Artemis) could not deal backstab damage
 * Fixed issues with some weapons not applying knock-away effects consistently
 * Fixed an issue where you could reload the Adamant Rail while using Ares' or Poseidon's Wrath
 * Fixed an issue where life total could be higher than expected after unequipping Old Spiked Collar
 * Fixed an issue where Bone Hourglass could apply to some effects unexpectedly
 * Fixed issues where some sound effects could loop indefinitely after encounters
 * Fixed an issue that could cause music not to resume in some chambers
 * Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch
"Thanks to Hermes the guide, who gives all work

of our hands the grace and fame that it deserves,

no one alive can match me at household chores"

- The Odyssey (Homer; R. Fagles translation)

Note: You should see v0.18276 in-game once you have the update.