(R)evolution
Let's start with the main attraction. The fan favourite evolution gamemode has received some epic changes and updates! Let's go over them one by one.
[h3]Difficulty[/h3]
The players who actually got far enough into the game to play Evolution, really enjoyed it. However, most players don't get to Gladiator difficulty. That's why the starting difficulty for Evolution has been lowered by quite a bit. You'll now be able to play Evolution once you've beaten the level on Novice.
On top of that, the difficulty in the earlier waves has also been reduced to account for lower-level players joining in:
- Enemy strength: Gladiator level -> Brawler level
- Affixes: 3 -> 1 (+1 every 4th wave)
- Exp and gold rewards: 100% + 10% per wave -> 70% + 6% per wave
- Enemies now get stronger more quickly as the waves progress. The break even point compared to previously is around wave 25, but keep in mind there will be more affixes at that point as well.
[h3]Evolutions[/h3]
Lots of new evolutions have been added! In total, 20 new evolutions have been added, along with another 11 that will only appear in the streamer mode, as they are ...not exactly "upgrades"!
In total, this means the total amount of evolutions has [b]almost tripled.
Runes
Runes are a great way to add additional stats to your character, customizing the way you want to play them. However, up until now, they have always been "just stats". That's why a total of eight new rune effects have been added, all of which actually enhance your character in cool ways, more that just stats.
You'll be able to receive these new rune stats just like before, so I won't spoil all of them here in this post.
Affixes
Two new Affixes have been added to the pool:
- Hellspawn: Whenever an enemy dies, a 1-health hellbat spawns and moves towards you, dying on impact if you don't kill it.
- Reanimation: When an enemy dies, it reanimates a skeleton that lives on with a portion of that enemy's stats.
As always, a few gadgets have been added to help with these new Affxes.
Balance
[h3]Novice Difficulty[/h3]
Some playtests and feedback rounds have pointed out that the game starts off with a learning curve that's too steep. That's why the Novice difficulty will now serve more as an entry-level difficulty.
- Competence Score Drain Speed: 75% -> 70%
- Enemy Damage Multiplier: 60% -> 50%
- Enemy Health Multiplier: 80% -> 70%
- Enemy Movement Speed Multiplier: 85% -> 80%
- You are now required to beat this difficulty before attempting any other difficulties
[h3]The Training Grounds[/h3]
Along with the changes mentioned above, The Training Grounds also becomes more of a ...training ground, rather than a pit for new players to die in.
- New unit on the Training Grounds: Recruit, a weaker version of the swordsman
- As a result, experience gained on these first levels has also been reduced by 10%
- Archer damage: 6 -> 5
- Archer health: 30 -> 20
- Swordsman/Warrior damage: 10 -> 8
- Cannon damage: 20 -> 15
- Cannon projectile speed: 7 -> 6
- The Training Master Auto attack damage: 30 -> 25
- The Training Master Movement Speed: 1.2 -> 1.1
- The Training Master Health: 1200 -> 1000
[h3]The Tinker District[/h3]
- Eugene Sterling's Focus Fire Projectile speed has been reduced at higher difficulties.
[h3]Gamemode: Endurance[/h3]
- Maximum idle time before coward penalty: 12 seconds -> 15 seconds
[h3]Gold rewards[/h3]
- Increased gold rewards when victorious by ~50%. This was actually already intended to be the case, but didn't happen due to a bug, which is now fixed.
[h3]Nerve Agent[/h3]
- Now requires 4 kills without getting hit again to cleanse, instead of standing still
Other stuff
- An indicator now appears, pointing towards the boss, if it is not currently on-screen.
- Evolution now displays the picked choice, right after picking it.
- The Evolution display now fades in to avoid missclicks when it pops up during a fight.
- The Evolution streaming mode voting time has been increased from 30 to 50 seconds
- The Evolution screen now shows a counter to see how far you've progressed.
- New gadgets for Nerve Agent and Soul Transfer. They now have 2 gadgets just like the rest of the Affixes.
- Changed the way enemy levels are calculated to more closely match the relevant player level.
- Changed some early game spawns to have fewer archers at once.
- Added recommended gladiator levels to the map, to guide players in where to train or progress their characters..
- When you gain an upgrade, you will now automatically be navigated to the upgrades screen.
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