Patch 028

Early Access Patch 028

The SUPERSTAR Update - October 8, 2019

Welcome to our seventh Major Update, which we think is our most game-changing one yet! Due to the number of new systems and features here, we're expecting to follow up on this initial launch with several smaller patches. We'll be watching your feedback closely as we go. Hope you enjoy it!

Highlights

 * Weapon Aspects: unlock specially-enchanted alternate forms for each of your different weapons
 * Pact of Punishment, 2nd Edition: an overhauled Pact is central to a newly revised endgame
 * Eurydice: the muse of Orpheus is out there, somewhere; can you find her?
 * New Resources: look for Gemstones, Diamonds, & Chthonic Keys as you make your escape
 * House Contractor: unlock a variety of new cosmetic items for the House of Hades, such as the...
 * Music Stand: unlock music pieces heard throughout the game, & change the music in the House
 * Underworld Renovations: look for new & improved visuals in the House of Hades & all of Asphodel
 * New Song: listen for the melodious voice of our longtime musical collaborator, Ashley Barrett!

General Gameplay

 * Added Weapon Aspects, revised Pact of Punishment, and House Contractor systems
 * Heat: removed as a collectible resource (part of the Pact rework; you will get 5 Darkness for each Heat lost)
 * Gemstones and Diamonds: newly added resource used with House Contractor and Wretched Broker
 * Chthonic Keys: newly added resource used with Weapon Aspects and some other interactions
 * Your first boss clear with each weapon earns you a Bounty, i.e. a Chthonic Key or Diamond
 * Your Death Defiance effects remove any poison effects

Weapons & Powers

 * Each weapon can now be permanently upgraded in the Courtyard, once you reach a certain point
 * Stygian Blade: reworked Nova special; updated Dash Attack (new timing and animation)
 * Shield of Chaos: updated Dash attack (new animation); improvements to input buffering
 * Eternal Spear: adjusted Attack combo timing and damage; updated Dash attack (new timing and animation); Throw special now staggers foes

Boons & Blessings

 * Zeus' Aid: reduced damage
 * Athena's Aid: increased duration; Greater Call duration multiplier reduced to compensate
 * True Shot (Artemis): added a chance to deal Critical damage


 * Hunter's Mark (Artemis): dealing Critical damage to foes with the 'Marked' Status Curse clears the effect
 * Exit Wounds (Artemis): reduced power scaling from improved rarity
 * Fully Loaded (Artemis): rarity set to Legendary
 * Support Fire (Artemis): no longer Legendary; effect now scales with rarity
 * Lightning Phalanx (Zeus x Athena): reduced max. number of bounces and bounce range
 * Shatter Shot (Aphrodite): reduced power scaling from improved rarity
 * Life Affirmation (Aphrodite): slightly reduced power level
 * Rapid Cast (Hermes): now also increases Cast homing effects to compensate for the speed boost
 * Stabbing (Chaos): cut from game (Master Chaos has decided not to punish you simply for dashing)
 * Boons with 'Revenge' effects now trigger when your Death Defiance effects activate

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

 * The following upgrades are no longer offered: Empowering Nova (Blade), Mirage Flight (Shield), Heavy Slug (Rail), and Invigorating Blast (Rail); their spirits live on in some of the new Weapon Aspects
 * Piercing Wave (Blade): newly added! A long-range wave with every slash
 * Charged Shot (Shield): newly added! Your Bull Rush fires a projectile instead
 * Multi Skewer (Spear): now pierces through the last foe it hits
 * Rocket Bomb (Rail): newly added! Fire a rocket instead of bombarding
 * Inescapable Blast (Rail): newly added! Foes are slowed while targeted for bombardment

Foes & Encounters

 * You can no longer run into multiple mini-boss encounters in a region in a single run
 * Increased the size of Elysium by one chamber
 * Trial of the Gods encounters can now take place in Elysium
 * Reduced max. types of Elite foes that can appear in Thanatos encounters
 * Erebus challenge chambers now contain Champion foes (tougher than Elite foes)
 * Champion foes no longer drop money
 * Megaera and the Furies: learned some new tricks via the Pact...
 * Bone Hydra: slightly reduced health; updated ranged flurry attack; learned some new tricks via the Pact...
 * Exalted Longspear: now leap off impassable terrain
 * Flame Wheels: groups spawn in quicker succession
 * Soul Catcher: reduced appearance rate in Elysium; reduced Elite health; no longer completely immobile and now susceptible to knock-away effects
 * The Minotaur: updated some animations and attack timings
 * Theseus: updated some animations and attack timings
 * Gigantic Vermin: poison puddles expire faster
 * Final Boss: reduced damage; reduced health; reduced tracking of homing attack; reduced health of some Champion summons; summoned urns now invulnerable while spawning; overall, still a pain

Keepsakes & Items

 * Wells of Charon no longer offer Bedroom Decor items; the House Contractor has a monopoly on them
 * Evergreen Acorn (Eurydice): newly added! Take no damage from boss attacks for some number of hits
 * Old Spiked Collar (Cerberus): slightly reduced power level
 * Black Shawl (Nyx): increased power level
 * Lucky Tooth (Skelly): increased power level
 * Lambent Plume (Hermes): tuned fast-clear durations for some encounter types
 * Charon now offers one of the two new rare resources for sale in the Temple of Styx

Pact of Punishment

 * Overhauled the system; now linked to Bounties (look for more details when you first get to it)
 * Rescaled Heat as a measure of difficulty (1 unit now is equivalent to about 5 units before)
 * Reworked and renamed the various Conditions
 * Middle Management: newly added! Raises number of Elite foes in mini-boss encounters
 * Tight Deadline: newly added! Gives you a limited amount of time to clear each region
 * Heightened Security: newly added! Boosts damage from traps
 * Underworld Customs: newly added! Forces you to purge a Boon as you leave each region
 * Extreme Measures: newly added! Influences the final battle in Tartarus
 * Snake Oil: newly added! Influences the final battle in Asphodel

Level Design & Environments

 * Added two new chambers in Asphodel
 * Added a Pool of Purging to the final chamber in each region
 * Added several new Erebus challenge chamber variants
 * Made some renovations to the House of Hades (others are ongoing)
 * Other minor fixes and improvements to various chambers

Art & Visual FX

 * Updated visuals all throughout Asphodel
 * Updated visuals in the House of Hades
 * Updated portrait for Orpheus
 * Updated visuals for the Wretched Broker
 * Updated visuals for wretched shades and spirits in various environments
 * Updated visuals in first chamber of Elysium
 * Added unique Zagreus run animations with the Blade, Spear, and Bow, and other weapon details
 * Added some animations for Megaera and the Furies to accompany their aforementioned new tricks
 * Updated textures for Alecto and Tisiphone
 * Updated some of the visuals for the Bone Hydra
 * Updated some animations for Theseus and The Minotaur
 * Updated various visual FX in Final Boss encounter, including the Status Curse effect
 * Improvements to the look of the Exalted once separated from their weapons
 * Updated UI and visuals for Death Defiance effects
 * Increased transparency of Dionysus' Festive Fog effects
 * Improved feedback for the deactivated state of the Mandragora Cure Pools in the Temple of Styx
 * Removed slight animation from Dionysus and Ares portraits (due to various issues; they still blink, though)
 * Unified the look of Elite foes' armor outline
 * Updated main menu based on new Major Update (including our studio logo, for our 10th anniversary!)
 * Other minor visual changes, fixes, and improvements

Menus & UI

 * Updated Health Bar UI for foes
 * Updated visual FX for Boon selection
 * Underworld Map presentation when traveling between regions now shows earned Bounties
 * Added new Death Defiance UI indicators based on the source of the effect
 * The backing for interact prompts now scales with the prompt
 * Added alternate dialogue prompt for key early-game character conversations that unlock new systems (specifically, the Codex from Achilles and Mirror respeccing from Nyx)
 * The Fallen Warrior's HydraLite Gold premium good now shows your life total in the tooltip
 * The warning pop-up for deleting save data defaults to Cancel instead of OK
 * Text clarifications to some Boons and upgrades
 * Other minor fixes, changes, and improvements

Music & SFX

 * 'Good Riddance': added new music track, featuring the voice of Ashley Barrett!
 * Added various new sound effects for the new resources, systems, and other contexts
 * Adamant Rail now has a distinct fire sound while low on ammo
 * Battle emotes from Zagreus and others now affected by SFX Volume rather than Voice Volume
 * Minor fixes and mix improvements

Voice & Narrative

 * Added many narrative events with characters (including Eurydice, Orpheus, Hades, and Achilles)
 * Added many new Zagreus voice events for various gameplay contexts
 * Added Codex entries for Eurydice, Gemstones, Diamonds, and Chthonic Keys
 * Added to Codex entries for each of the Infernal Arms
 * Added specific captions for ambient voice lines from the Fallen Warrior
 * 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
 * The Wretched Broker now offers additional resource trades, and has fixed all his prices...
 * Some later Mirror of Night upgrades now require Chthonic Keys
 * Skelly: increased health (stationary jumping can be an effective form of cardiovascular exercise)
 * Rescaled Heat requirements to earn Skelly's unlockables
 * Credits: Eurydice added to voice cast; other updates, including new Community Contributors!

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed issues with some Zeus lightning effects not taking upgrades correctly
 * Fixed an issue causing Vicious Cycle (Ares) to ramp up damage more than expected
 * Fixed Positive Outlook (Dionysus) not gaining benefits from more than one Pom of Power
 * Fixed Spent Spirit (Athena x Aphrodite) not affecting accelerating projectiles
 * Fixed Heart Rend (Artemis x Aphrodite) unintentionally applying additional chance for Critical damage
 * Fixed an issue sometimes causing Chaos Gates  and Infernal Gates to be invisible
 * Fixed an issue sometimes causing parts of the Health UI to not show correctly
 * Fixed Skull-Crushers being susceptible to Backstab damage from the front
 * Fixed issues related to vanquishing Theseus and the Minotaur in close succession
 * Fixed an issue causing Gigantic Vermin poison puddles to not always clear after encounters
 * Fixed an issue where you could build up your God Gauge by hitting pillars while fighting the Final Boss
 * Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch
"There remained but little more to climb till they would touch earth's surface, when in fear he might again lose her, and anxious for another look at her, he turned his eyes so he could gaze upon her."

- Metamorphoses, Book 10: Orpheus & Eurydice (Ovid; B. Moore translation)

Note: You should see v0.21731 in-game once you have the update.