Hello everyone, here is a new patch that adds corrupted items into the game. In addition, this patch also brings several improvements and a pass to the overall game balance. Corrupted items We have created more than 300 corrupted items. These are much more powerful versions of the items you already know and will give you a pleasant surprise when you find them in a reward.
These items will appear in Adventure mode, from the Madness 1 difficulty level, and in the Obelisk/Weekly challenge. Corrupted items can appear anywhere (with the exception of the town shops in the adventure mode). The probability of obtaining a corrupted item is very low, but increases slightly with each difficulty level, and these items may appear more frequently in corrupted shops(those that are being offered as a corruption reward). Combat Thermometer We have changed how the combat bonus information is displayed in the thermometer and increased the reward on all levels below "excellent". As for scoring, everything is the same as before. 5 points for excellent, 3 great, 2 good, 1 satisfactory, 0 poor and underwhelming. As for the rewards, we have taken the "internal" value of gold bonus and experience that gave the excellent and we have normalized them, starting from the +50% bonus and going down. This means that finishing a combat in excellent is the same as before, but finishing a combat in great(+40%) or good (+30%) gives much more gold and experience bonus than before, even finishing a combat in poor(+10%) does not mean any loss. Thanks to these changes all players will notice an increase in gold and experience at the end of each combat. We still believe that the thermometer system is a good measure to score performance, and risk vs reward for players who want to compete for score, but with these changes we hope that no one will feel pressured/forced to make decks that have to kill excessively fast. Balance changes With the following changes we intend to improve many of the cards that have gradually become a little obsolete, and also lower the performance of some cards and heroes that due to the changes were a bit above the rest. In particular, we want "Powerful" to become important again, and for that reason we have decided to change the yellow version of cards like "Warpaint/Unstable Power/Inner Fire". These cards were practically auto-include in any deck (since they have 0 cost and draw), trivializing the "Powerful" aura since it is applied practically for free. Reginald and "Bless": we want the "Bless" aura to be used to buff more than one specific hero. Although it has been suggested to us to remove the damage bonus from the "Bless", we still like the way it increases the damage. Still, we believe that "Bless" should be gained more by using healing cards, or cards that give "Bless" to others: "Benediction, Divine Power, etc." so without removing the damage bonus, we have increased the cost or reduced the charges to some holy spells that give "Bless" to the caster. Cornelius and self-immolation: over time with the inclusion of enchantments, new cards and new items, it has become easier and easier to gain resistance to fire or absorption methods, not to mention the fact that now "Burn" only reduces resistance by 0.5%. When we created certain cards with self-immolation in mind, we thought of them as risk vs reward, thinking that having certain "Burn" charges meant a real danger for the hero. In the current state of the game that is no longer the case, unless those charges are in the hundreds, so we have decided to lower the damage based "Burn" charges that these cards do, not to mention that many of them are low rarity... and that in the case of "Inner Combustion", Cornelius already starts with 2 in his deck. The community calls this type of cards "detonators" or "finishers", but the truth is that they don't detonate anything since the charges remained in the enemy, so a card doing x2 or x3 damage based on charges, without any counter game, was not very logical. Besides, there was a big difference of values between several cards of this type in different classes. So, we could do 2 things; turn them into true detonators and have them remove the charges when used, or simply lower the % damage a bit. Due to the existence of the "Restricted power" corruptor, we have decided that lowering the % damage was a better option, and we have normalized its values (so that they are similar in all classes). Finally we have revisited the Overcharge [OC] mechanic and now many of the cards that had that mechanic have been improved (not only with more damage but with the possibility to add extra curse charges for each energy spent). Hero Changes - Evelyn: Elemental Proliferation, changed the order of the curses so spark applies before burn. - Cornelius: Fiery Shield, changed the % based on burn charges to 40% on all versions, and reduced a bit the default numbers. - Heiner: Shield expert talent changed to Iron Furnace. - Iron Furnace: When you play an attack, gain 8 block and +1 to fire damage. (5 times/turn) - Unbreakable: increased block granted to 10(from 8). - Steel Forge (yellow): tweaked the charges and charge bonus, (yellow) has 8 uses (from 7) - Reactive lasers: reduced damage and burn applied, Now transform your damage to fire and has uses(instead of 1 turn). - Fusion laser: reduced damage a bit. all versions are 3 uses. Card Changes - Added the secondary tag "Book" to Battle Plan, Music Sheet and Prescription. - Holy Fire: (yellow) increased charges and base damage, reduced damage multiplier to x1.5(from 2). - Neurotoxin: (yellow) increased charges, reduced damage multiplier to x1.5(from 2) corrupted(purple)increased base damage, damage multiplier is now x2(from 2.5). - Noxious Eruption: tweaked(buffed) all versions to be more like Neurotxin and Holy Fire. Note: Neuratoxin, Noxious Eruption and Holy Fire now have similar values and functionalities. - Bloodbath & Combustion: Changed all versions, cost 3, blue damage is x1(bleed/burn charges) and has no vanish, (yellow) is x1.5 with vanish, (purple) is x2. - Inner Fire, Unstable power & Warpaint: normalized, now yellow version cost 1 has draw and vanish. - Curse of Elements: changed the order of the curses so spark applies before burn. - Curse of Madness: increaseed mind damage and insane charges. - Curse of Weakness: increased damage by 4-10. - Elemental Bolt: changed to be always a base Lightning spell, lightning and spark will go first, increased damage and added charges. Now it's Rare. - Emberstorm: added vanish to the base card. - Dark Pact: reduced damage suffered in normal and yellow versions. - Disintegrate: increased damage a bit. (yellow), changed damage order, now lightning and spark comes first. - Inner Combustion: increased damage a bit, reduced burn applied to x0.5(from 1), (yellow) damage based on burns reduced to x0.5(from 1). - Meteorite & Ice Comet: increased damage. - Ray of Frost: increased damage and chill charges. - Searing nova: base damage increased to 8(from 5) and % of burns applied reduced to x0.5(from 1). (blue & yellow) % of burns applied reduced to 0.6(from 1). - Scroll of intellect: (blue) added innate and vanish. - Siphon Life: improved, more damage, applies dark, more repeats. - Transmission: (yellow) removed inspire. - Winter orb: upgrades are now epic,(blue) chill +1, (yellow) increaed damage to x0.3(from 0.2). - Winter is Coming: added extra chill to upgrades. . Benediction: (Yellow & blue) increased healing by 1. - Binding Heal: increased healing by 1 in all versions. - Death's Reach: damage increased. - Divine Ire: reworked, now uses overcharge mechanic. - Enervate: increased damage by 4-10. - Holy Aegis: (yellow & purple: removed courage, added bless. - Holy Smite (yellow & purple) reduced bless to 1(from 2). increased damage. - Holy Storm: (yellow) increased cost to 5(from 4), increased damage. - Holy Blast: (yellow) increased cost to 3(from 2) corrupted (purple) increased cost to 2 (from 1). - Fanaticism: added suffer dark charges. - Foresight: (blue) added +1 sight. (yellow) changed, now cost 0(from 1) does a bit of mind damage and applies sight. - Greater Heal: Added overcharge mechanic, upgrades are now epic. - Mind Twist: changed to have a small damage bonus based on insane, upgrades are now rare. - Mind Visions: damage based on sight reduced to x1 (from 1.5),(yellow) cost reduced to 2, damage based on sight is x3 but added dispel sight to make it a true detonator. - Pain suppresion: icreased cost, numbers tweaked and added mitigation. - Ray of Hope: added dispel insane in all versions. - Renew: +1 regeneration to all version. (blue) added overcharge mechanic and vanish. - Sacred Ceremony & Heavenly Blessing: Increased cost by 1, and increased healing. - Sanctuary: (Blue & Yellow) reduced bless/vitality by 1. - Shadow mend: upgrades are now uncommon, (Yellow) added dispel sanctify and increased heal, (blue) apply 1 dark (from 2). - Terrorize: increased damage. - Yin yang bolt: increased damage. - Acrobatic Strike: Added gain block and "Defense" tag. - Ballad of conquest: (yellow & blue) reduced bless by 1. - Corrupted blade: increased damage and poison changes. - Energizing Serenade: added direct healing in all versions. (Yellow) changed to cost 4(from 2) + all stats increased. - Far shot: increased damage, added bleed and increased mark charges. - Feint: reduced cost to 0 and added discard 1. - Find Weakness: +1 sight. - Healing Serenade: reduced heal by 3-5 hp. - Ice shot & Burning shot: reworked to have an interaction with sharp. - Last Requiem: Removed ignore block, now deals additional damage based on insane charges. - Ode of War: added 2 regeneration. - Parry: increased fortify. - Rapid fire: base card is now random(instead of front) + increased damage by 1. - Ricochet: (blue & purple) added bleed. - Sarcastic Sonet: increased damage. - Shrapnel Shot: improved to do more bleed or crack. - Stoneskin: +1 reinforce. - Sweet Melody: reduced heal by 2-4 hp, added 2-3 regeneration. - Vitalizing Serenade: (blue) added 1 regeneration (yellow) cost 3, vitality is now 3(from 2) and added 3 regeneration with vanish. - Guard: (blue) added reinforce. - Colossal blow: added gain powerful in all versions. - Demolishing blow: increased damage and added gain vitality. - Entrench: made upgrades purple,(blue) added reinforce. - Exploit Openings: base card is now rare (from uncommon). - Leap Slam: increased damage a bit and added +1 crack. - Mortal Strike: increased damage, +1 decay, added 1 vulnerable to yellow & corrupted. - Push forward: changed to epic, now always gives fast and block to all heroes. - Shield Wall: added mitigate to all versions, increased block and fortify in the upgrades,(yellow) increased cost to 6(from 5) and increased stats. - Shield Throw: increased damage to 0.6(from 0.5). - Skull splitter: added mark and removed slow from the upgrades. Monster changes The Twins: - Reduced their speed by 1 in all versions. Dusk won't use Shield Slam until round 2, to make one-shots to the frontline in the first round to be much less frequent. Archon Nhir: - Martyrdom: the curse "Doom" is now the first curse added and "Sanctify" curse has been removed to make the purpose of the card clearer. The (yellow) versions of Marthyrdom have "slow" increased to 3 (from 2). Ignidoh: - Ignidoh is a little bigger and looks fiercer. - Ash Storm: (normal & madness) ash is placed in the discard pile instead of the draw pile. Ash Storm (despair) will add the ash to your draw pile. - Ash Storm: (madness) reduced the ash cards added to 2 (from 3). - Ash: reduced the burn to 4(from 6) in blue the version and to 5(from 7) in the yellow version. - Heat assimilation: now stops after turn 5-6 (depending of the game mode/dificulty). - Ignidoh got new enchants and the Despair version is now active. Elder Dryad: - Reduced the regeneration of "Lifebloom" in madness / Obelisk challenge. Affects all dryads - The dryad summoned by the elder dryad has weaker versions of tranquility and lifebloom (this afects the Despair version and Obelisk 10 version). Graham (champion): in despair, shadowbind will be cast at round 2 instead of random. Ylmer(Depair): Wild roots will trigger on the hero that activated it, intead of random hero, to give players more control about who gets shackle. Item changes - New item: Amulet of Speed, Epic version of lapis necklace. - New item: Vile Ring, for every dark charge you apply, apply 1 poison. - Ignidoh's Core: changed the +1 burn charges for +10% fire resist. Heat assimilation card changed to only dispel burn fron heroes and heal x2(from x1) the burn. - Bloodguard: no longuer make you gain fury, now it applies bleed when damaged. - Lightbringer: added bless +1. - Fixed a few missing tooltips on some items. Other Changes & QoL - Removed the -6 damage taken from critical failing to rest in the boss event rolls (Ylmer/Tulah/Ignidoh/Hydras). - Changed the order of the hydras to be Reinforce, Insulate, Courage and added a small description to help to discern the buffs. - Restricted power(Corruptor): Increased the cap of Bless, Mark, Regeneration, Sanctify, Sharp, Stealth, Vitality and Wet to 50 (from 40). - New card pack for scouts in obelisk mode: Plague - Switched a few cards in other card packs. - The reroll cost reduction bonus in Town Upgrades has been increased to 50%. - The price of doing a shop reroll in multiplayer is now based on the number of characters you control and what town/act you are in. - On madness 4 and onwards, re-rolls on shop are capped at 1 per player/town. - Now you can exit the game while in combat! the game will be saved at the start of the fight. - As a reminder, in previous hotfixes, we added an avaible button to the crafting window that only shows you the cards you can afford to buy. - Also we added clarity on the map adding a bit of information beneath the pop-ups High Madness levels - Removed the -1 -2 Hero speed penalty from all madness levels. We know that all these changes can affect balance and meta decks of high madness levels. We especially we know that madness 16 is a beast in itself. Right now we are focused on creating the ice biome and reworking the perks. That's why we prefer to wait for the new perks system and see how it affects the game balance, before we start making more balance changes to the madness levels. So, we ask you to be a bit patient if there are some bosses (like Ylmer) that are a bit cumbersome depending on what combination of heroes you bring. Bug Fixes - Fixed some enchantments (f.e. Vaccine) that were not being activated by secondary damages (f.e. 7 blunt + X blunt). - Fixed a problem with "repeat" cards that were delaying the activation of some enchantments until the end of the cast (f.e. Moon Guard). - Fixed some interactions between the item "Mana Loop" and some enchantments that were not giving back energy (f.e. Spell Echo). - Fixed the activation of items and enchantments based on "damage taken" for characters affected by "damage side". - Fixed the "Elemental Weaver" trait being activated more times than expected. - Fixed a game stuck problem when one of your characters was killed while drawing an Injury card (during the draw phase) and resurrected with a Scroll of Resurrect item. Next, we will like to implement a deck sharing system with a code and also start working with the controller support. That's all for now. Remember to leave a review on steam, if you like the game, it helps us a lot. As always, thanks to all of you for your support, feedback and understanding.