The patch v0.10.0 has been released in the Testing branch. This patch includes Part II story events, a new Lair Area, 7 new enemies, 1 area boss, 5 story bosses, new items, balance changes and fixes! This update is currently in the "Testing" beta branch on Steam, and not available on the main branch. You can join the testing and give suggestions to help get it ready for the v1.0 release. More information below!

Part II Story Events

The remaining events of the story, along with the story endings, are now available. If you have already completed Part I, which was the part of the story available during Early Access, you can now pick up where you left off. The new events take place in the Factory and the Lair areas, where you will be able to reach one of three endings, depending on the path you take in these events. Note that any story-related element in the testing branch may change.

New Flowchart

The "flowchart" section in the game serves as a guide for players to navigate the story and get clues on how to progress forward. However, there were some issues with the previous flowchart. The layout was not user-friendly and it was difficult to get an overall view of the chart. With the newly designed flowchart, all the nodes are presented in a more concise manner, even with the addition of nodes for Part II. In the new flowchart, more "clue" images have been added to make it easier to get a hint on what to do next. It is also possible to zoom in and out freely to see the overarching story.
Additionally, you can use the "Reset Part II" functionality in the flowchart to start again in the second part of the story. This allows you to alter your decisions and reach another ending without replaying Part I.

New Area: The Lair

The newest area added to DoD is The Lair. This area is the biggest area in the game and, unlike other areas, consists of two sections: the cave and the lab. When you first enter the Lair, you will start exploring the medieval-themed cave section and notice that the inner laboratories are locked up. There are a few ways to gain access to the labs: you can use the required items and pass skill requirements to break open the access panel, or you can find clues and solve the procedurally generated pattern lock puzzle. Be aware that the corridors of both the cave and the lab are filled with distinct and dangerous enemies.

New Enemies for The Residence and The Lair

Five brand new enemies are added to the game, showing up in the new Lair area: Custodian: Towering in their mighty armors, these enemies look like lifeless statues at first glance. As time passes, custodians will grow stronger with each layer of condition affecting them. Advisor: These robed dark figures prowl in the shadows of the caves and inflict powerful buffs and debuffs. If you don't burn away the Darkness infesting their bodies, you will be afflicted with a deadly "curse." Butcher: Blood-hungry butchers will build up Brace and devastate you with powerful physical and acid attacks if you are not careful. Zombie Assistant: The lab assistants are reanimated, and their bodies have given in to the virus. They will throw any chemicals they can get their hands on at you, inflicting heavy acid damage. Lurker: Bodies heavily infected with the Darkness were once used as secret weapons due to their ferocious offensive nature. They stay dormant until provoked but become bloodthirsty killers once disturbed. Apart from the Lair area enemies, two new wasp variants are added to the Residence. The new area boss, "Queen Wasp," also guards the exit gate of the Lair.

New Story Bosses

Five new story bosses have been added, including two mid-story fights and three ending bosses. During the design process, we placed great importance on avoiding "gimmicks" as much as possible, especially for the ending bosses. These bosses currently only appear during story events, but they have also been structured in a way that allows them to be used as regular area bosses in a future Custom Run Mode. To avoid spoilers, I won't go into detail about the new bosses. You can expect a challenge from the ending bosses, as we believe they will need some adjustments to achieve the right level of difficulty. Please feel free to give us your feedback either through our Discord server, Steam forums, or in-game reporting tool.

Balance Changes and Fixes

Many adjustments have been made to the content in general. Weaker trophy items have been buffed or reworked to make the choice between them more meaningful. Some of the less popular and difficult to use cards have been changed to make them easier to include in decks. To make balancing enemy attributes easier, a tier-based system has been introduced. This means that all attributes are classified into tiers, such as "Low", "Medium", or "High". Enemies with the same HP tier will have the same health value and progression per level, which should help keep them in a similar difficulty level. Alongside various bugfixes, some of the text in the game also went through proofreading to fix typos and language errors. It's in the plan to do proofreading for the rest of the content before v1.0.

Testing Branch

The v0.10.0 patch is now available on a separate branch on Steam called "Testing." To access the update, go to the "Properties" menu for Draft of Darkness, navigate to "BETAS," and switch to this branch using the dropdown box. This branch will get more regular updates and fixes which may cause run wipes and save wipes (main branch save file won't be affected).

One reason for using a separate branch is to thoroughly test the new content without spoiling it or breaking save files for players who don't want to join testing. So far, we have done an excellent job of maintaining overall progress and have not needed to wipe saves throughout the Alpha and Early Access phases. To continue this trend, new content will only be available in the Testing branch before the full release. Accessing the Testing branch will automatically clone your save file, and all progress in this branch will be omitted when you switch back to the main branch. That said, I'm planning to add a way to import back the testing branch save to the main branch. My original plan was to release Part II directly into the main branch. Regrettably, the game's size and the fact that it was being developed solo with a small internal testing team led to a period without updates due to the long development time required. With this approach, you will be able to access the content earlier, and in turn, help Draft of Darkness come out in a better state at the time of full release. Note: Fixes, balance changes and improvement changes from this patch will also be applied to the main branch next week.

Future Plans

As we approach v1.0, DoD still requires some testing and polishing. There will be yet another content patch that adds the promised two new weapons, new hero, and companions. The new weapons that will be added are determined as "Crossbow" (original idea by @Ammako) and "Shield". The cards for these weapons are currently in development. There are several other planned additions for Draft of Darkness, such as missing enemies in newer areas, more scenery and non-story events, rotation bosses in the Lair area, improved controller support etc. These updates will be made available earlier on the Testing branch and will be added to the main branch upon full release. I plan to complete the development of all remaining content within the next months and allocate enough time for marketing and polishing. While I wasn't able to stick to the initial plan during Early Access, I am doing my best to bring Draft of Darkness to a satisfactory state and taking the necessary time to do so. Hopefully, we will reach that goal by the second-year mark of DoD's Early Access. Thanks for your patience and support!

> Updated Roadmap

Update Notes for Patch v0.10.0 (Testing)

Improvement

* New Flowchart: The new flowchart represents the story events in a more compact and clear manner. * Added animations to exploration phase health bars. * Changed character sprites for Mona and Cian. * Added custom event icons for events Mona and Cian. * Many technical improvements. * Mona and Cian events can now be used to fast travel to. * Added a card play counter to the encounter screen to make it easier to keep track of Combo mechanics. * Implemented save cloning for testing on a separate branch. * Re-enabled in-game player reports. * Added "Difficulty" into the run ending screen.

Content

* Lair Area added. * Part II Story Events are added. * New Enemies added: Zombie Assistant, Butcher, Custodian, Advisor, Lurker, Acid Wasp, Blood Wasp. * New Area Boss added: Queen Wasp. * New Story Bosses added: Cian, Mona, Daemon, Factory Chief, Organization Boss * Removed Part I End message. * (Item/Consumable) Behavioral Adjustment Pill: Change target's perk to another random perk they could have. [Credits: Twidge#8731] * (Item/Trophy) Adaptive Cushion: After the possessor is struck with an attack, they temporarily gain 40 defense for that damage type, but their defenses for other damage types are reduced by 10. [Credits: Twidge#8731] * (Item/Trophy) Red Eyeball: Critical strikes will reduce enemy defenses for other damage types by 100% for the next attack they receive. * (Item/Trophy) Vertigo Emitter Mk1: Once per encounter, select a target and swap all conditions to a random condition of opposite type. [Credits: Strikeing#1158] Changes * All enemy Health, Power and Defence values are adjusted and structured into a tier-based system for better and easier balance. Instead of being independent for each enemy, these attributes are now designated by common "Low", "Medium", "High" etc. tiers. * (Enemy) Puppet / Twitching Puppet: "Mince" Base Damage 1->0.5. * (Enemy) Daemon: "Retaliate" Base Damage 1->0.6. * (Enemy) Brain Artifact: No longer has Bleeding Immunity. * (Enemy) Shield: No longer has Bleeding Immunity. * (Enemy) Great Shield: No longer has Bleeding Immunity. * (Enemy) Incubator: Has Melee Resistance instead of Ranged Resistance. * (Item) Radi-Bye: Also gives Cytotoxic Immunity 1. * (Item) Ceramic Parrot: Increases damage by 30% instead of base damage by 0.25. * (Item) Old Backpack: The requirements for Hand Size increases are reduced (+2 Hand Size 24->20, +3 Hand Size 30->24). * (Item) Banana Peel: Crit. Chance increase 25%->30%. * (Item) Broken Syringe: Bleeding applied 2->4. * (Item) Cross of Faith: Hand Size increase 1->2. * (Item) Fake Cinnamon Roll: Crit. Chance increase 25%->30%. * (Item) Filthy Needle: Poisoned max. effect increase 50%->40%. * (Item) Focusing Lens: Photophobia chance 50%->100%. * (Item) Kaleidoscope: More inclined to reduce the energy cost. * (Item) Kunai: Triggers every 3rd damage instead of 5th. Damage caused by Kunai won't count towards itself. * (Item) Metal Vice: Changed to increase all direct damage by 30% instead of affecting power multiplier. * (Item) Nazar Bead: The chance to trigger is increased when an ally is critically low on HP. * (Item) Old Coupon: Discount count 3->5. * (Item) Clay Figure: First turn Hand Size increase 2->4. * (Item) Razor Blade: Damage increase 25%->40%. * (Item) Magnifying Glass: Intelligence increase 3->4. * (Item) Reverse Card: Stacks transferred 2->4. * (Item) Spiked Collar: Speed increase 5%->10%. * (Item) Suppressor: Damage reduction 30%->10%. * (Item) Tape Recorder: Changed to give status Retainer 3 allowing to retain cards between turns. * (Item) Sphygmomanometer: Adrenaline effect increase 10%->20%. * (Card/Pistol) Self Assured: Now does not consume Courage. * (Card/Flashlight) Betrayal: Battery Charge Cost 1->0. * (Card/Flashlight) Flash Step: Now reduces the energy cost of drawn moves by 1. * (Card/Flashlight) Maul: Base Phys. Damage 1->1.25. The repetition effect triggers when target has any disability instead of only Blinded. * (Card/Flashlight) Ricocheting Beam: Base Burn Damage 1->1.2. * (Card/Flashlight) Snap Out Of It: Battery Charge Cost 1->0. * (Card/Flashlight) Sunburn: Now deals 0.2x damage per condition layer instead of per condition. * (Card/Flashlight) 30,000 Lumens: Energy Cost 10->6; Battery Charge Cost 10->5. * (Card/Knife) Out for Blood: Energy Cost 3->0. * (Card/Syringe) Blinding Needle: Additionally applies Sickly 2. * (Card/Axe) Vicious Assault: Now applies Bleeding equal to sum of Riposte on yourself and target. Riposte of the owner won't be removed. * (Card/Spray Gun) Potent Additive: Now affects only resource-costing moves. * (Card/Robot) Wormhole: Energy Cost 1->2. Battery Charge Cost 3->1. * (Card/Robot) Dynamo: Reworked to "Select and shuffle up to 5 move(s) from your discard pile to draw pile, gain 1 temporary resource for each move. If the move requires no resource, restore 1 energy." * (Card/Unarmed) Load Bag: Removed the requirement for being unarmed. * (Card/Unarmed) Accumulate: Discard Count 2->3. Physical Dmg Increase 2->100%. * (Card/Unarmed) Buildup: No longer a "One Shot" move. * (Weak Card/Spray Gun) Weak Spray: Changed to Melee Damage. * (Status/Perk) Doctor: Reworked to "Whenever you use a move with a mend effect, remove 1 layer of disability from the target." * (Status/Perk) Maimer: Reworked to "Whenever you use a move with a mend effect, remove 1 layer of ability from an enemy." * (Decision Event) Levers: Added a new choice allowing to receive 1x"Behavioral Adjustment Pill".

Fixes

* Fixed environmental effects (Radiation) not properly being applied to party members. * Fixed Rusted Kettle and some of the perks not affecting damage values and cards with a base damage below 0.5x. * Fixed infusions triggering with non-physical damage moves. * Fixed "Repeating Shot" not triggering critical strikes. * Fixed "Unicorn Mask" affecting moves with no physical and burn damage. * Fixed "Ceramic Parrot" affecting moves with nullified damage. * Carve card is properly classified as Weak. * Fixed "Sick Stranger" event blocking paths. * Fixed a typo in "Acid Knife" card. * Fixed missing tooltip for "Dark Wave" card. * Fixed various typos. * Notes and some of the events went through proofreading. * Fixed an issue with Weak cards and base value view in the details window. * Fixed "Flame Thrower" move erroneously classified as a run card. * Fixed "Flammable Substance", "Inaccurate Eruption" and "Melt Iron" erroneously classified as common. * Fixed damage types not correctly being marked as ranged or melee damage in certain cases. * Fixed "Lube Up" card effect not clearing. * Fixed Dodge condition not triggering for Corrosion applying attacks. * Fixed "Prod" card affecting only physical and burn damage. * Fixed moving encounter icons on the map getting stuck. * Fixed filtering and sorting in the Archive window. * Fixed scroll view automatically scrolling to the top when an item is bought.