Greetings Brave Souls!

We are ready to deploy a new build on the beta branch. This will be the base for the first big Halls of Torment update. Please be aware that this update is still under development. Most features are not yet finished, require further tuning or may change entirely. Well give a short overview of the most important points. Generally while you will see wonky graphics or missing content, everything that has been included should be working. If you are finding any bugs or have any feedback, please visit either the Steam Forums or our official Discord. More information & how to join: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2218750/view/3649655808283204317

Frozen Depths

The new Stage can be unlocked by beating the Frost Knight on the Forgotten Viaduct. Youve done that already? Great! You can jump right into action. The Frozen Depths are a system of caves that can be tricky to navigate through and are the core of the new update. New enemies and challenges will await you with many new unlocks once they are ready. While the stage is fully functional, aside from some monsters using dirty recolored sprites, the unlockable content is still to be done. This includes Blessings, new Traits, one of the new characters etc.

Norseman

Can be unlocked through the Frozen Depths, a character focussing on quick melee attacks. The basic work is done and all Traits and attacks are as they should be. Missing are his quests, including all coming unlocks, especially new items that will be there for Synergies between his base play style. Also the Ability that will accompany him is still to be done.

Character #9

She will be coming in the next few weeks. She will be a huntress with a loyal beast on her side and ranged Ice attacks.

Flame Strike & Frost Avalanche

We added two new base abilities that will be unlocked, once you can finish the quest to survive 8 minutes in the Ember Grounds. Both abilities are fully functional and we await feedback about them! Frost Avalanche is the base Ice Ability, starting with a diagonal attack pattern while the Flame Strike is a close range, single target, high damage skill. Both abilities will get visual upgrades further down the line.

Agony

Agony is but the first step in making the game more challenging. It will start out just as the normal game and scales up based on your performance. When Agony mode is active following things will happen:

• Randomized Champions will spawn and drop additional loot
• Health and Enemy amount are increasing based on performance
• Increased Gold rewards

The agony mode will also get new unlocks once we work out the kinks. For now your main focus will probably be on the drops of champions, as they will enable you more customization in the dungeon itself. You can find uncommon equipment, which are improved versions of regular equipment that cant be retrieved. But not only that, champions can also drop bottles, ability scrolls and if you are lucky a bucket?!

Frost Effect

Adding frost will do at first no damage. But once the enemy dies, the Frost effect will deal damage based on the stacks on the enemy. The base damage is currently 100 per stacks. The range of the blast will depend on the strongest hit that has been dealt to the enemy. Stronger hits = bigger area! Frost effects not only trigger when an enemy dies, but also when you would apply the 21st stacks. Frost stacks will dissipate when the enemy survives for 10 seconds without getting another Frost effect stack.

Other Additions and Changes

• Gold rewards when dying/winning now depend on the stage.
• All lords now work by getting stronger over time and having reduced Health pools.
• Reroll potions for abilities and items have been added.
• Characters now get automatically some stats every level (defensive) / 10 levels (offensive).
• Characters have more traits now that benefit specific play styles.
• General balancing work on abilities and characters.
• Piercing and Duration have been replaced by Force, which also boosts Knockback of melee attacks.
• Item Balancing - Most items have seen a boost in strength.
• All damage effects are now limited to 20 stacks. They trigger damage when trying to apply once again.
• Fixing several smaller and bigger bugs.

This will be all for now. Please note that well do many smaller updates during the test, but not all patches will get their own announcement on the steam page. So its worth looking into the Beta Forums or the Discord Server!

Stay Cool - Chasing Carrots