Hi everyone,

We released Backpack Battles exactly 4 weeks ago, and we can say that it's been a massive success! The game means a lot to us, and we will continue to make it the best game we can Today we have some more experimental changes for you! This patch adds badges, which are unique items that can be found at any point during a run, but have an especially high chance in the first round (25%!). They are designed to add variety and give you runs that otherwise would be impossible. We add 6 badges, and all of them alter which class items you have access to. Lets all test this out, and see how we like it. It is to be expected that we adjust the frequency, and if we all decide we like the feature, we will probably add more badges as well.
Also, we are having a poll on Discord and in our Chinese community. So far, there are 3 main takeaways for us:

• You guys want a high variance class - so the Adventurer will be made to cover this!
• You want more Uniques - so we will keep adding those!
• And you want more items in the base pool - which we already started designing!

Balance-wise, Ranger, Reaper and Berserker seem even. Pyromancers still perform very well, but the gap isnt large, so we will adjust very carefully. The goal of this patch is to lift up the subclasses and items that dont see a lot of play yet. We will continue with weekly patches until we feel like every subclass is viable in some situation! - Dorothea and Mario

New Content

• ADDED 6 UNIQUE BADGES - They can appear in every round, with an increased chance of 25% in round 1. You cannot obtain a Leaf Badge as a Ranger etc.

• Leaf Badge
• Skull Badge
• Flame Badge
• Wolf Badge
• Rainbow Badge
• Stone Badge

Balancing

• Base Unique chance is increased to 3% (old Uniques can still only appear from round 4 onwards)
• Balance relevant fix: Shields did not remove stamina when the opponent had less than the amount that should be removed, missing chances to remove stamina. Reduced Block chance to 30% to compensate (keep in mind this is hard to predict and might require more adjustments in the future)

Neutral

• Burning Torch: Damage 2-4 -> 2-3, Heat required for bonus scaling 8 -> 12
• Eggscalibur: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.6s
• Steel Goobert: Block 16 -> 14
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Buffed stamina usage 3 -> 2.5, buffed cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.4s, stamina cost 1.0 -> 0.8
• Fanfare: Cooldown 4.5s -> 4.0s
• Health Potion: Heal 11 -> 12
• Strong Health Potion: Heal 18 -> 20
• Vampiric Potion: Life steal 10 -> 12
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique chance 10% -> 15%
• Heart Container: Health bonus 80 -> 90
• Heart of Darkness: Health bonus 80 -> 90
• Gloves of Power: Block 4 -> 5
• Stone: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.2s, Block removal 3 -> 4
• Protective Purse: Block 7 -> 8
• Pineapple: Heal 3 -> 4
• Thorn Whip: Cooldown 2.4s -> 2.2s, stamina cost 2.4 -> 2.2
• Bloodthorne: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.6s, stamina cost 1.8 -> 1.6
• Hungry Blade: Cooldown 1.7 -> 1.6, damage +1
• Pandamonium: Damage +2
• Hero Longsword: Damage +1
• Falcon Blade: Damage +1
• Lightsaber: Damage +1
• Magic Staff: Damage +1

Pyromancer

• Burning Sword: Damage -1
• Draconic Orb: Cooldown 3.0s -> 3.5s
• Sun Armor: Heal 17 -> 15
• Obsidian Dragon: Heat required for bonus attack 22 -> 26
• Dark Lantern: Debuffs per Dark item 6 -> 7
• Molten Dagger: Damage +2
• Molten Spear: Block removal 4 -> 5, bonus damage 3 -> 5
• Flame Whip: Heat 3 -> 4, cooldown 1.7s -> 2.0s
• Staff of Fire: Damage +2

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.0s -> 2.1s
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.1s, Stamina Cost 2.3 -> 2.1
• Deerwood Guardian: Battle rage bonus duration 0.5s -> 0.6s
• Wolf Emblem: Empower requirement 5 -> 3
• Elephant Rune / Badger Rune / Hawk Rune: Cost 5g -> 4g
• Dragonskin Boots: Block 8 -> 12, Cold resistance 25% - 20%
• Busted Blade: Bonus damage per Empower 4 -> 5
• Forging Hammer: Cost 6g -> 3g. If you sell your Forging Hammer or have a Wolf Badge or Rainbow Badge, you can now find it again in the shop.

Ranger

• Big Bowl of Treats: Trigger twice chance 25% -> 20%, Food speed bonus 5% -> 10%
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 8 -> 10
• Piercing Arrow: Block removal 5 -> 8
• Fortunas Hope: Luck chance 60% -> 70%, accuracy 85% -> 100%
• Belladonnas Shade: Inflict chance 70% -> 60%, Poison 1 -> 2
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage required to generate Poison 9 -> 8
• Tusk Piercer: Start of Battle Spikes 2 -> 3
• Carrot Goobert: Empower Duration 4s -> 5s

Reaper

• Snake: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.6s
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.8s
• Cauldron: Now heals 12, gains 4 Mana or 3 Heat, has Magic type
• The Fool: Cost 5g -> 4g
• Jimbo: Cost 6g -> 5g
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal +1
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Reworked Nocturnal Lock Lifter: No longer lifesteals through Poison, increases weapon lifesteal based on Vampiric items now
• Mrs. Struggles: Now triggers 10% faster for each * Dark item, cooldown: 3s -> 3.5s
• Strong Demonic Flask: Now also triggers when you fall below 25% health

Other Changes

• Improvements to item trigger order, nothing should work based on buy order now, identical trigger conditions either have a static priority (Dark Lantern triggers before other reincarnates) or are randomized
• Djinn Lamp now shows the used buffs as used in the log
• The game now supports rich presence, so you can see what your Steam friends are doing in the game