Brace yourselves for Duels! The long-awaited indie sensation, NeoDuel: Backpack Monsters, has stormed onto Steam. This unique blend of inventory management, auto-battling, and monster-taming game is launching at $11.99 with a 20% launch discount for a limited time (prices are regionally adjusted, check your local store for exact pricing below). https://store.steampowered.com/app/2693940/NEODUEL_Backpack_Monsters/ This launch introduces a range of exciting new features, including the Codex, Elemental Fusion, new Cosmions and Upgrades, and plenty of quality-of-life updates including arena announcer voice acting, promising to elevate the experience and add even more strategic depth to every duel. We're going to break down everything in this blog post, but in the meantime, check out our brand new Launch Accolades Trailer featuring quotes from people like Ganyonz, Pawkt and Strategy Informer. [previewyoutube=bUuKG_YSd_o;full][/previewyoutube]

NEW FEATURES:

The Codex

Internally named Cosmodex, we've decided to go with a simpler word of Codex. This feature can be accessed from the main menu, as well as the pause menu while playing and contains all information about the game in detail. Want to see the full list of all 175+ Cosmions and Elemental essences? Or learn in advance what each buff and debuff do? Or maybe plan your run based on a hopeful drop of a specific Upgrade?.

In-Game Tutorial

While we revealed that we were going to update the tutorial, it's being removed as a standalone feature now. Our new tutorial now gives you information and interactive guides as you progress during your first run in bits instead of having to read some complex manual. For those of you that want a refresher, you'll be able to see it all in the the new codex tab, and learn at your own pace game mechanics, list of buffs and debuffs, augments and more.

Newly added VFX, art, soundtrack and arena announcer voice over talent

The game is more lively now! We have new animations for different in-game interactions, new music soundtracks composed by Turkish based Boray Berke, a couple new sound effects and the arena announcers! The later were announced earlier this month, and are voice over talents in two languages, mainly Turkish and English: Nick Atlas (which you can hear in the Accolades Launch trailer above) and Zeynep nen. Finally for you competitive Duelists, the Elo emblems will now showcase a small roman numeral showcasing your full grade, ranging from IV to I.

Achievements added!

Some of our team members are big achievement hunters, so we couldn't resist adding this to the game. With over 34 achievements to unlock, ranging from simple actions like winning your first tournament medal all the way to winning a perfect run of 15 winds and no loss, this should make the game extra challenging for all of you Duelists... And of course, for Achievement Hunters, you'll be able to proudly display those in your Steam profiles.

NEW CONTENT FOR THE GAME:

Frostbite damage: arrival of the Ice Cosmions

This launch of NeoDuel will featured the first of our four major and free content update revolving around the new gameplay mechanic addition known as Elemental fusion. The first to go live is Ice, an elemental power from the fusion of Air and Water which brings a new keyword to the game known as Frostbite. With most of these Ice Cosmions and Essences being the result of fusion, we figured we'd list all their "fusion recipes" especially for you players that haven't played since the demo went offline weeks ago:

• Ice Essence: only two kind exist (Rare and Epic) withe the Rare one being the resuts of a fusion between Rare Water and Air Essences. Fuse two of those to obtain an Epic Ice Essence.
• Ice QB: The fusion of a Domi Cosmion and one Rare Air Essence
• Bling Chling: Fuse two of these Ice QB, and you get a Bling Chling.
• Cryo Sugeko: As you would expect, it's the fusion of a Sugeko with one Rare Air Essence.
• Ice Slimi: The results of a fusion of Ice and Air Slimi.
• Baozi: The Ice dragon is the result of Bradragon with a Rare Air Essence.
• Icatis: Like the other elemental fusion of Abatis, just fuse it with any rarity Ice Essence.
• Hail Klood: Fuse an Air Klood with a Rare Water Essence.
• Suat: The results of fusing a Cemil with a Rare Air Essence.
• Nikola Zero: Nikola 7 paired with one Epic Air Essence.
• Notorius I.C.E: Two Bling Chling make up this rhyme-powered Cosmion.
• Fubuki: Fanfox fused with a Rare Water Essence.
• Isvasal: Fuse Galewing with Aqualith.
• Chateleine: The only exception to the rule. The super-unique Cosmion frost sorceress can only be obtained through a shop Upgrade as a reward.

A typical Ice build requires Duelists to really focus on the Frostbite debuff, where upon stacking 10 values, it will trigger a 50 HP damage wave of chilling power. Throughout the coming year, 3 more Elemental fusions will launch with free major updates including Lava, Swamp and Storm.

A lot of new Upgrades... Like a lot!

With almost 20+ added Upgrades, that makes a total of 80+ to choose from between the 3rd, 6th and 9th run. Because of the larger pool of Upgrades now, we've decided to tweak the reroll upgrade to now give you the ability to change each of the three offered individually, instead of the whole set. We'll let you discover them in the game (as it's part of the excitement), but remember that at any moment, you can check the full list from the Codex.

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

[olist]

Hotkey change: Not much of a big change, but could be for those that were devoted Duelist during the demo era. While you used to be able to instantly see all links in your backpack with the ALT button, our community recommend we switch with the Left CTRL instead.

Flavor text for Cosmions: The start of our first foundational work into sharing the lore of the game, adding short description about each Cosmion such as their origin, moods, or even food preferences. [/olist]

WHAT'S NEXT FOR NEODUEL: BACKPACK MONSTERS

Ah the lovely and burning question the community usually ask when we launch a game! Our commitement to NeoDuel goes beyond today's launch date, and if you remember the previous blog posts, we're planning numerous to release plenty of free content drops, but also new features and quality of life improvements currently cooking in our dev ovens. Please note that everything listed here is subject to change at any moment, so stay tuned to future announcements on our social media channels, Discord channel and of course Steam community articles: [olist]

More fusion elements: As of today, you're discovering the first of our free content drops which is the fusionable Ice element, its matching Cosmions and abilities. In the next drops, we'll introduce Lava (Fire+Nature), then Swamp (Water+Nature) and finally Storm (Air+Electric). Each major update will introduce over 10 new Upgrades as well as Cosmions and Essences.

Unlucky no more! In NeoDuel, the early game is where player agency is at its lowest. We noticed that many Duelist were pushed away by the game when losing early battles due to luck. To accommodate for those with poor RNG, we are planning to introduce a system giving Duelists 1 more heart in their 5-loss streak once they reach round 3 (as long as they lost one).

Fusion lock: While the entire strategy of a build revolves around fusing and evolving Cosmions and Essences, we know that some of you have been asking for a way to prevent that from happening automatically. While we won't introduce something like a "forever stone", we're working on a feature to lock Cosmions and Essences in the backpack, so they never evolve.

Codex enhanced: We believe the codex is pretty neat at the moment, but there's always ways for improvements. One of them we can reveal is that we're planning to add in the near future the full list of Fusionable Cosmions, explaining how to obtain them with a neat list of all "recipes" to make sure you don't rely on trial and errors. [/olist]

COSMION & ESSENCE BALANCING AND CHANGES

Would it be a true launch with some balancing tweaks? While lots of it was decided from the combined data of the Demo, we also had a team of devoted playtester try out the release build in advance to check the performance after adding the Ice element and its matching Cosmions, Upgrades and more. You'll notice that most of the balance changes are shop cost reductions especially for Legendary and higher rarity Cosmions, and then plenty of buffs to see more of these critters in use. Since the largest majority of players didn't get the chance to try out Ice Cosmions, we didn't bother with adding their balance changes, but our internal tests shows that they are pretty set in... ice? AIR BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Galewing: On hit Clarity removed and upped damage range from 16-20 to 20-22
• Valkyrie: Price in shop reduced from 12 to 11
• Ageccus: Price in shop reduced from 13 to 12. Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6.5

ELECTRIC BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Zapp: Cooldown upped from 2.5 to 3.
• Hype: Cost upped from 4 to 6
• Voltrex: Upped damage range from 40-60 to 45-65 and Accuracy boost from 90 to 100.

FIRE BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Porgur: Fog effect upped from 1 to 2
• Blazeroll: Link effect boosted, with now each link increases activation chance by 10% instead of 5%.
• Houshan: Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3.5
• Ifry: Price in shop reduced from 8 to 7
• Firefirst: Added a critical damage chance of 10%. Reduced stamina cost from 3 to 2
• Molten Punch: Added a critical damage chance of 20%
• Harmonion: Price in shop reduced from 6 to 5. Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4
• Igni and Manu: Price in shop reduced from 5 to 4. Upped its shield generation from 30 to 40.
• Yogan: Price in shop reduced from 14 to 12. Added a critical damage chance of 10%
• Dorangutan: Price in shop reduced from 15 to 12. Cooldown reduced from 4.5 to 4

NATURE BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Bumcid: Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3
• Ansham: Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4
• Sapprion: Added a critical damage chance of 10%. Reduced stamina cost from 3 to 2.5
• Verdantclaw: Added a critical damage chance of 10%.
• Maestoad: Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2.5. Reduced stamina cost from 2.75 to 2.5
• Eclipse: Price in shop reduced from 15 to 12

NEUTRAL BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Revlana: Upped damage range from 10-14 to 12-16. Added a critical damage chance of 10%
• Hawkista: Added 2 additional links to the Cosmion
• Ishu: Price in shop upped from 4 to 6
• O.U.R: Price in shop reduced 4 to 3
• Hurdo: Link effect damage increase from 3 to 4
• Hit Dicest: Price in shop reduced from 10 to 9. Cooldown reduced from 2 to 1.5
• Demoncore and Omnicore: Price in shop reduced from 12 to 11

WATER BASED COSMION & ESSENCE

• Strutwahl: Added 2 additional links to the Cosmion
• Dumocto: Energy cost reduced from 3 to 2
• Aqualith: Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4.5
• Grimjaws: Upped damage range from 30-35 to 35-45
• Arthur: Price in shop reduced from 8 to 7
• Serenius: Price in shop reduced from 15 to 12

KNOWN ISSUES

• Codex missing flavor texts: You'll notice that the flavor text for Cosmions are missing in certain languages, but we plan to have all translations implemented this very week (expected by Wednesday, 2nd of October).
• Visual shop bug: In some instances where you have 0 coins, you might see that one 3 value Cosmions is visually showing as available to purchase. We're working on getting fixed very soon.

BUGFIXES

TOO MANY TO LIST! No really, if we were to list down all bug fixes, we'll end up having a thesis-size patch note at this point. Thats it for now Duelists, we've taken enough of your time, go and climb the ranks! Well be constantly monitoring this week stability of the builds, meta and other live aspect of the game, to make sure the game is perfect. From our small but dedicated dev team, our publisher and other partners, we would like to thank you all for supporting us in this launch! Until then, for the most recent news, join the NeoDuel community by following us on Twitter or hopping into the T4W Discord server. Please contact our support channel on the T4W Discord server if you need assistance with typical technical issues or if you are unable to resolve your problem.