Major Update #1 - v0.103.2

It's time, Slayers. All of the content, changes, and fixes from the beta branch over the past month are finally coming to the main branch of the game.

Thanks to the feedback and metrics from our dedicated beta testers (instructions for joining the experimental beta branch can be found here, we feel that the beta version has been shaped into a stable enough position for main branch players to try out the changes. This is still an Early Access game, so just because something made it from beta to main does not mean it's set in stone. We continue to rely on the experiences of players across both branches to eventually get the game into its final, ideal state, just like we did with StS1. Trust the process! And don't forget to press F2!

These "patch notes" will be a little different: this patch encapsulates all of the changes from v0.100.0 to v0.103.1, so if you've been keeping up with the beta patches this post will basically act as a recap. If you haven't been keeping up and you're interested in seeing more detailed, chronological notes for each of these changes, please take a look through the previous beta patch notes. Manually listing out every single difference between the previous and current main versions of the game after so much beta content has gone through reworks, balance changes, and reverts has proven very time-intensive and inefficient. Therefore, we thought we'd give you more of a high-level overview of the biggest changes since the last main patch was released. The beta patches will continue to contain our usual lists of specific patch notes. Let us know if this method of patch note delivery works for you all!

CONTENT & BALANCE

Be sure to pay close attention when embarking on your next few runs: many things that you've grown used to have been re-balanced, reworked, or even removed (in a couple rare cases). However, quite a few new pieces of content have also been added for you to dig into. While we don't get into the nitty gritty of every change, we've listed the biggest relevant highlights.

In terms of general changes, here are a few big things to note:

• Ascension 6 has been reworked from Gloom - "Less rest sites." -> Inflation - "Removing cards from your deck at the Merchant is more expensive."
• All shop relics now cost 25 gold less and gold-generating relics can no longer appear in the shop
• Map generation has been improved and made to be more consistent
• If you return to a run after updating with a newly deprecated card in your deck, it is now replaced with a placeholder Status card - "Draw 1 card. Remove this from your Deck. Exhaust."

The Ironclad has received a new card, Not Yet: "Rare - Skill - Cost 2 | Heal 10(13) HP. Exhaust." Some other cards of his--Dominate, Expect a Fight, Spite, and Stoke--have received reworks, while Grapple has been deprecated. Numerous cards have seen buffs, nerfs, and rarity changes. Many of these changes have come with the aim of giving him better survivability and Exhaust synergies.

The Silent's Blade of Ink card has been reworked to generate Shivs enchanted with Inky - "This card deals 2 additional damage and applies 1 Weak." Her classic Acrobatics card has been changed from Common to Uncommon, bringing it more in line with the other cards in its family: Skim, Parse, Glimmer, and Burning Pact. She's also seen a few other buffs and nerfs. Our goal is to make Sly builds less overly dominant while making sure they still feel satisfying.

The Regent's Arsenal card has been reworked from giving Strength based on Colorless cards played to any cards created. In a similar vein, his Regalite relic now grants Block for any card created, not just Colorless cards. Notably, his card pool has seen more buffs than any other character with just a couple of nerfs, which should address concerns about him feeling weaker than the other characters.

The Necrobinder has received a rework for Borrowed Time: "Uncommon - Cost 0 - Skill | Apply 3 Doom to yourself. Gain 1(2) Energy." -> "Uncommon - Cost 1 - Skill | Gain 4(6) energy. Cards cost an additional energy this turn." This new version should go particularly well with high cost cards like Reap and Bury and help to flesh out other ways to play Necrobinder. Aside from that, she's received a handful of buffs and nerfs.

The Defect has seen the least amount of changes of any of the characters, receiving just a couple of buffs and nerfs.

Some Colorless cards, relics, and potions have seen buffs, nerfs, changes, and pool/rarity shifts, with the Hidden Gem card and Pendulum relic receiving reworks. Various events have had their options or spawn conditions tweaked.

There have been a few balance changes to some Ancient offerings, but most notably Neow will now offer 5 new relics:

• Hefty Tablet: "Choose 1 of 3 Rare cards to add to your Deck. Add 1 Injury to your Deck."
• Neow's Talisman: "Upgrade 1 of your Strikes and 1 of your Defends."
• Neow's Bones: "Upon pickup, gain 2 random Neow Relics. Add 1 random Curse to your Deck."
• Phial Holster: "Upon pickup, gain 1 potion slot and procure 2 random potions."
• Winged Boots: "You may ignore paths when choosing the next rooms to travel to 3 times."

Last but certainly not least, it's time to talk about enemies. While certain enemies have seen some buffs and nerfs, like the Skulking Colony, the Doormaker has seen the most drastic reworks.

ART

Our artists have been hard at work updating the game's placeholder assets (as charming as they are). Many cards, relics, enemies, and even Nonupeipe the Ancient have received some official visuals!

There have also been some really cool additions to enemy animations as well as VFX for certain character moves. Speaking of VFX, card afflictions have also received some fancy new visuals. There are even character-based VFX for energy counters now!

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE

There have been a ton of additions (and even overhauls) when it comes to UI and UX.

First of all, a brand new system for things called Badges has been implemented. Badges may appear at the end of a run, noting various things that happened during a run like defeating a boss without losing HP, beating the game quickly, specific easter eggs, or pointing out that you forgot to spend your gold. They're meant as little reminders to let you know what was unique about each adventure.

Building off of that, leaderboards have been totally revamped. The leaderboards will now only show your friends' scores. We'll add a way to view global scores later. In general, we don't really want to incorporate invasive anti-cheat protection into the game so it's sort of impossible for us to prevent people putting in the maximum score.

Secondly, no more magic numbers. While there are still points accrued for unlocking new cards and such, the score that's sent to the leaderboards and how it's sorted is based on whether you won, how many badges you accrued, and how quickly you finished the run (in that order). This should clarify why you did better on a Daily run compared to your friends.

Because the schema has changed, leaderboards between main branch and beta branch will be separate going forward. We'll eventually add more features like sorting and whatnot, but in the meantime, do let us know what you think of these changes!

Other major changes include the addition of a Phobia Mode setting, the in-game feedback tool's maximum character count increasing from 500 to 8000, the removal of the ability to unlock achievements and epochs in Daily or Custom runs, and various improvements to controller support.

WRITING

Most of the writing-related changes have come in the form of slight rewording to make it clearer what certain cards, relics, potions, and powers actually do. For instance, those who have been confused as to why their Fairy in a Bottle potions haven't saved them from The Insatiable can now understand that the potion only triggers if your HP reaches 0, not if you die by any other means.

BUG FIXES

Many, many various bug fixes have been released, including a fix for the common "Fatal Error" Steam cloud sync issue and multiple crashes, softlocks, and black-screen startup issues. You'll also notice that a myriad of gameplay bugs have been addressed, such as ones related to the logic of Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic.

If you prefer to play on controller, you should find that various navigation problems have now been fixed. In the multiplayer realm, we've fixed some bugged gameplay interactions, state divergence problems, and have resolved many "Error 5008" disconnection issues.

As always, we greatly appreciate your in-game feedback, and will rely on it as we return to releasing more content and experimental changes on the beta branch.