Greetings, Skul Squad! This Dev Blog will be about the content were working on for our next update thats planned for early June (Release 1.5). SouthPAWs top priority for this year is definitely the Hard Mode update. We dont want to just make the game difficult and say its a Hard Mode, but actually want to design content that is both challenging and entertaining. To do so, the existing main content needed some improvements. The first step for this was the Skul Balance Adjustment. And now it is time for us to improve the items and inscription system along with the status effects that received a lot of feedback.

1. Items Reformation

Intention: To allow various combinations of items by making some changes in the items that were somewhat useless. There are many reasons why the players try to avoid or discard specific items. It may be the low spec or the fact that it requires too much effort to use it.
Cretan Bull, for instance, is a rare item that can be acquired from the Grave Robber in the Black Market. Its effect is activated by summoning an image of a bull with an enhanced dash when a Power Skull dashes. For the Power Skulls with this item, its as if the players have an additional charge skill since the enhanced dash increases the distance of the dash and gives physical damage to the enemies. We wanted this item to have a dramatic effect for fun and because of its powerful effect, it needed to have a long cooldown. This, however, turned out to be not the best decision we had made.
[quote=author]What the?!?[/quote] There were occasions where the effect of Cretan Bull would be activated in the wrong timing. Cretan Bull has a long cooldown and the only way to check this was to look at the status icon below which is not the easiest way when one is in the middle of the chaotic combat. Many players were also frustrated by this since the effect was suddenly activated by a dash resulting in an unexpected movement during the battle. Thus, despite its rarity, Cretan Bull became one of the unwanted items.
So we decided to change the condition of activating Cretan Bulls effect to dashing after using a skill. By this, we expect the players to activate the enhanced dash when they actually want. This is one example of how we are planning to change the unused items. And through this update, you will experience the improved items along with the new ones.

2. Inscription Reformation

Intention: To make gathering inscriptions less stressful. This is what were planning.
Unlike now, players will be able to feel the effects whenever 2~3 inscriptions are gathered and the overall number of inscriptions required to have the maximum effect will be reduced. In the case of Courage inscription, players needed to gather 8 inscriptions to have the maximum effect. And because the effect was increased by every inscription collected, the more it was gathered, it quickly became overvalued. This was quite a stressful process at one point, since the players had to focus on finding the same type of the inscription.
[quote=author]Choices, choices...[/quote] Such situations like giving up the legendary item for common ones to maintain the inscription are frequently seen. We expect this update will give some flexibility for players by reducing the required inscriptions.
Also, like the other contents, we will improve the inscriptions that werent very useful. As a result, some inscriptions are changed, gone, or added. Hopefully, inscriptions like Courage, Tactics, and the others will now be considered as a top on the player's list.

3. Status Effect Reformation

Intention: Making the status effect useful in every way. Initially, we designed the status effect as a device to show the concept rather than as the means of attack. The status effect had no relation to actual attack stats and wasnt really practical when it comes to fighting against the boss. In the Hard Mode contents, every moment will be challenging and we want to give as many options as possible to the players. Wed love to see the players strategizing the attack with our new status effect system.
Players will be able to inflict the status effect on most enemies including the boss and strategically use it to clear the stage. But of course some enemies will always find their way to avoid this effect and wont be frozen or stunned.
New status effects will have unique characteristics based on their type. In the case of Burn, enemies in the surrounding area will take even more damage than the burned character. For this reason, this can be a very powerful status effect to have when in big group battles. Other status effects will also have their own unique traits. Now damage inflicted by status effects will affect the stats of Physical and Magic Attacks.Youll get more powerful just like the enemies, and the status effects are no exception. Like detailed above, the reformation should have a tangible effect on some skulls, items and Quintessence that use status effects.

4. New Items and Status UI Added

New items will be added to support the updated inscription and status effect system. We will also have Status UI for players to check their power in specific numbers when using these items.

Thats all for today!

Just like the Skul Balancing Adjustment and the upcoming Hard Mode, this reformation is just a part of the process. It goes without saying that your feedback will have a big impact on Hard Modes development and will help us to make it as fun as possible. Please look forward to future updates and well keep doing the best we can! Thanks as always for the support!