Hi Packmates!\n\nA few changes have been packed into this update. The main goal here is to address some of the feedback we have received by improving the feeling of melee while also reducing the sudden spike in difficulty later on for both melee and ranged characters.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that made the Severed Shortbow unable to be unlocked

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• Fixed a bug that stopped Charms from being unequipped

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• Fixed a crash on Intel Iris Plus Graphics and other rendering hardware that does not support SM6

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Gameplay Changes

• Adjusted artifact merchant item weights to add more diversity to offered items

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• Curses now have a red background to make them stand out against relics

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• Added a UI tracker for obtained Hero Gems during an adventure

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• Added a sound and effect that plays when the Forest Tear charm triggers

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• Added unlock challenges for Paladin and Archer classes to add class progression rather than having all classes available from the start.

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Collision Changes

• Adjusted layout of Swamp and Fire maps to give more room for movement and clearer collision

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• Reduced Hero collision size to make navigation around and between objects easier

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Balance Changes

• Reduced the amount of cooldown reduction the Shattered Hourglass curse applies to enemies

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• Reduced the size of Elite Ice and Fire Golem Area of Effect abilities

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• Increased range of all melee weapons

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• Reduced the number of enemies that spawn in Act 1

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• Reduced the max health of basic enemies

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• Herb Pouch trinket no longer applies to Summons

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• Sharpening stone physical damage increase has been increased from 20% to 30%

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• Bottled Lightning trinket chain limit has been increased from 1 to 2

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• Titanic Greatbow cooldown has been reduced to make it a more reliable weapon

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New Items

• Added Bodkin Arrow trinket that increases physical damage and adds sunder to projectile weapons

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• Added Food Bowl trinket that grants health and health regeneration to Summons

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\nThanks for playing and providing feedback! It has been incredibly helpful for improving the game as release gets ever closer!

Good luck in your Adventures,\n~Aureliq

Hello Packmates!

A small update has gone live that includes fixes for a few issues from the previous update as well as some balance adjustments for enemy abilities, including bosses.

\nAs an added bonus, this update also includes a new Gemstone Node map objective you can smash open for Hero Gems!\n

New

• Added new projectile sprites for Static Lance and Forcebolt Wand

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• Added new Gemstone Node map objective that grants Hero Gems when destroyed

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• Added a new Adventure Overview screen at the end of a run which displays some statistics as well as builds of all players in the party

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Changes

• Adjusted abilities of some enemies to be more in line with new movement speeds

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• Adjusted Slime Queen fight timings

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• Some new Golem abilities in the Golem Twins fight have been added. These changes give melee characters more windows of opportunity to deal damage to Frost as well as adding more interaction with Ignis.

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Fixes

• Fixed a bug causing save data to duplicate and create very large files

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• Potential fix for enemies appearing in camp

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Happy Gem farming!

~ Aureliq

Hey Packmates!

First of all, a huge thank you to those of you who played the Packmates Demo through Steam NextFest and an extra thank you to those of you who posted feedback in Steam Discussions, Reviews, and our Discord server. This is a quick update to keep you guys in the loop as to what the goals are for the next patch as well as a brief overview as to what will be included.

Patch Goals

There are two main goals for this patch, the first goal is improving progression by building out the passive trees and adding more than just stat increases to make them feel more meaningful.

The second goal is to adjust balance to make the game feel faster, more difficult, and engaging. As part of this, balancing the game such that progression actually matters. Later acts will feel a lot harder but that is where the new Hero Trees will come in.

Upcoming Changes

This is a list of some of the changes coming to the patch, this is not a complete list as the patch is still being worked on.

• Based on feedback, movement speeds have been greatly increased

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• The first Forest Map that included only Slimes has been removed so you can jump right in to the action sooner

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• The Overgrown Treant boss has been removed

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• Enemy spawn rates have been increased as well as a complete re-balance of their stats

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• Map objective areas are much larger and take longer to capture. While capturing these objectives, waves of enemies will spawn to make them much more engaging

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• Enemies, objectives, and breakables no longer despawn at the end of the map. Instead, when the portal spawns, a circle of corruption will also spawn that starts closing in on the portal as enemies will continue to spawn. You will have a bit of extra time to grab things and get more gold but don\'t get too greedy or you will be overwhelmed as you try to portal out!

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• Charms are now part of the progression system, they are unlocked in Hero Trees and are equipped in Hero Select. Now when you select your class you can equip some charms with item synergies and different builds in mind!\n(As it doesn\'t make sense for the Tailor to sell Charms anymore, they have been removed from her shop)

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Looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new changes once they are implemented!

If you have not done so yet, you can join our Discord server Here , hope to see you there!\n\n~ Aureliq

A small hotfix to address the following:

• Fixed a bug where creatures spawned from Summon items would spawn as invisible and unresponsive.

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• Language dropdown in Game settings now also displays language names in the current language.

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Today we have another update. This update includes a new main menu upgrade, a new map objective, some other UI visual improvements, and some fixes for reported issues.

Main Menu

• New and improved 2.5D main menu that showcases your party around the campfire, prepared and ready to go

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• Added the ability to show / hide Lobby IDs (Mainly for streamers who do not want their Lobby IDs out in the wild)

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Barrier Pylon Map Objective

• Starting From Act 2 there is the possibility of a Barrier Pylon spawning as a map objective.

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• Spawning enemies will gain half of their health as extra Barrier for each Barrier Pylon on the map.

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• Once a Barrier Pylon is destroyed all enemies that were granted a barrier by it will lose that barrier.

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• Barrier Pylons drop 40 gold when destroyed

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Item Changes

• The Hand Mirror item now grants +100% Quantity instead of +1 Quantity and damage reduction has been increased to 20% to compensate

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• The Reflect attribute has been replaced with Thorns; Thorns deals magic damage as a percentage of total defense instead of being a flat amount which allows it to scale better later on.

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Other Changes

• Added the ability to see Hero Health, Health Regen, and Defenses when holding the bound key (Tab by default)

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• Added Hero Health and Barrier values to the Health Bar

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• Random Map Objectives have had their markers and colors changed so they match the Map Progress bar

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• Updated Coin sprite

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• Updated Reroll sprite (Changed to dice rather than cards)

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• Improved the appearance of the status effect gained and lost messages

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Fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause lobby invites to no longer work after clicking the Join lobby button

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• Fixed an invisible hole that players were able to fall into on Cavern map in Act 2

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There are more fixes and improvements based on feedback currently being worked on that will be coming soon! A huge thanks to those of you who have reported issues in the Steam Discussions forum and the Discord , your feedback is super valuable!

~ Aureliq

The Packmates Demo is now available to play, and will be part of the upcoming Steam Next Fest! Recruit your friends to join your pack and and see how you fare as a team with the online co-op mode included in the demo.

If you want to chat with us, other players, or provide any feedback, please join us on the Steam Forums or chat in our Discord server ! We hope you enjoy the demo, and best of luck protecting the forest!

~ Aureliq

Packmates Playtest has been updated to include Act 2! After beating the boss in Act 1, you can keep playing longer and push your build deeper in Act 2 which features 2 more maps followed by the Act 2 boss.

This update also adds three new items to shake up your runs:

• Barbed Wire (trinket) - Adds Bleed to adjacent Weapon items

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• Oak Quarterstaff (weapon) - Blunt twin headed weapon with knockback ... Bonk!

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• Frozen Twinblade (weapon) - Sharp twin headed weapon that chills on hit

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Steam Playtest: How To Join

New or wishlisted only? Go to the https://store.steampowered.com/app/3171540/Packmates/"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">Packmates store page and click Request Access in the 'Join the Packmates Playtest' (below the Trailer/Screenshots). Playtest access is currently being sent out daily in waves. Once accepted look for and install Packmates Playtest in your Steam Library to play!

Have Any Feedback?

Feel free to drop all feedback and bug reports in the Steam Community Discussions for Packmates, or join us in the Packmates Discord !

Thank you all so much for helping us test and improve Packmates, and we hope you enjoy playing Act 2!

Changelog:

• Hero Unlocks: all unlocks in hero trees have reduced gem costs, this change should make it more likely that you will have enough gems to unlock something after your first adventure

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• This is a retroactive change, so expect to have some of your hard earned gems back; ready to spend on unlocking new things to try!

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Fixes:

• Fixed Throwing Knives not having their bleed attribute

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• Fixed Gotato missing an unlock sprite

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• Fixed Rogue's Companion weapon missing the Bleed tag

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• Potential fix for item tooltips going off the screen on some setups

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• Fixed input issues on Steam Deck

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• Fixed the "Not available in the Demo version" message not being localized

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The first wave of Packmates Playtest invites has been sent out! If you requested access on the store page make sure to check your Steam library for 'Packmates Playtest'. More invites will be sent out in waves over the next few days.

Since we're looking for co-op feedback as well, we've made it even easier to squad up with every invited player receiving an additional two invites to share with friends. You can invite friends to join the test from the invite widget shown after selecting 'Packmates Playtest' in your Steam Library.

After playtesting the game, we'd love if you could share any of your feedback and bug reports in the Steam Community Discussions for Packmates . Your playtesting and feedback will help us make Packmates the best it can be, so thank you for being part of the journey!