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)