Hey all! It's that time of year, spooky season! Enjoy the candy before it's gone!

In addition, version 0.8.1 features an update to Health Regen, buffs the strength of enemies, and reworks the gem shard items.

Since original Early Access launch, every sealer has received at-least one buff and many items have been buffed. The game is overall slightly easier than intended. To combat this, enemies are receiving a base health increase, and will get slightly stronger as each zone. Do not despair! Sealers are also receiving a massive increase to base Health Regen.

The goal of these changes are:

• Make the early game less punishing.
  
• Slight increase to the difficulty of the mid game to compensate for the many buffs since v0.7.
  
• Large increase to the difficulty of the late game to massively reduce the number of "average" runs reaching double digit zones.
  
• Continue to make passive items more interesting and nuanced.

I'll be keeping an eye on how these changes play out. If the game is too difficult, I'll be looking at potentially reducing the quantity of enemies, rather than reducing their stats.

• Increased the base Heath Regen of all sealers from 1 to 5.
  
• Health Regen now procs every quarter of a second, but the healing rate is the same.
  
  
• Increased the base health of ALL ENEMIES by about 10-15%.
  
• Very slightly increased the health and damage scaling of enemies per zone.
  
  
• Reduced the base damage of Winter Spirits from 10 to 8.
  
• Reduced the base damage of Bone Archers from 14 to 11.
  
• Increased the base damage of Scorpions from 5 to 7.
  
  
• Increased the global buff duration cap from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

• Adjusted Quickstep to improve feel.
  
• Fixed an oversight where Longspear was halting horizontal momentum in the air.

• Reduced flat Attack Damage from 20% to 10%.
  
• Now increases your Attack Damage by up to 100% over 8 seconds while not dealing damage.
  
• The bonus decays down to 0% over 2 seconds after dealing damage.

• Reduced flat Skill Damage from 20% to 10%.
  
• Now increases your Skill Damage by up to 50% over 8 seconds while not dealing damage.
  
• The bonus decays down to 0% over 2 seconds after dealing damage.

• Reduced flat Health Regen from 20 to 5.
  
• Now increases your Health Regen by up to 100% over 8 seconds while not dealing damage.
  
• The bonus decays down to 0% over 2 seconds after dealing damage.

• Changed healing from a flat 3 to 1% Max HP.
  
• (with a minimum of 3 for those Mark of Corruption runs ːsteammockingː).

An item being out-healed by base health regen felt bad. Now it scales much better.

• Reduce gold gain on armor break from 100% Armor to 20% Armor.
  
• Updated item compendium entry to be more descriptive.

This item was just completely busted, so yeah it's being taken down a notch.

• Fixed minor seals "exploding" for a very long time late into runs.
  
• A single seal can no longer contain more than 35 enemies.
  
• Persistent effects no longer constantly trigger Zinet's triangle.

• Added new Sealer: Runewarden.

[/b]

Added new Zone: Igneous Spires.

[/b]

Added new Enemy: Arctic Spirit.

Added new Boss: Goblin Marauder.

Added new Boss music for Barren Cliffs, Glacial Thoroughfare and Igneous Spires.

[/b]

Added new Item: Augur of Thorns.

Added new Item: Opportunist's Charm.

Added new Item: Blastboot Shell.

Added new Item: ???

Added new Item: ???

Added new Item: ???

Added new Item: ???

[/b]

Added 5 New Challenges

[/b]
[/list]

• Shrines have a small chance to spawn as a golden shrine.
  
• Golden reforge shrines reforge items into a higher rarity.
  
• Golden item shrines drop epic, legendary, & relic items.
  
• Golden healing shrines permanently increase Max HP.
  
• The Shrine Insanity Chaos Trial modifier now also increases the chance for golden shrines.
  
  
• Item shrine drop chance increased from 50% to 60%.
  
• Healing shrines explode after 2 uses like other shrines.
  
• Healing shrine heal amount capped at 1000 (reached at zone 10).

• The "rooted" status effect has been added which prevents enemies from moving (they can still attack).

Augur of thorns, the Runewarden, and Lady's Wrath can apply this status effect.

• Base Armor recharge time increased from 8 to 10 seconds.

Armor recharged a little bit too quickly considering it also grants passive damage reduction.

• Reviving a downed sealer takes 1.5 seconds down from 2.

Increasing the viability of a revive mid boss fight.

• Void Flame requirements to level up increased at higher levels.
  
• Level cap increased from 25 to 100.
  
• Signs stop granting stat ups past level 25, but you still get the general +1 Physical and Magic damage increase.

[/b][/list]
This change allows on level up items to proc late into a run, while shifting the power curve around a bit (mid-game should be slightly harder).

• Number of elites reduced.
  
• Elite health increased.

[/b][/list]
Elite hordes felt either too easy or completely overwhelming. These changes should reduce the variance a bit.

• Enemy damage bonus increased from 50% to 75%.
  
• Removed reduced healing effectiveness.

[/b][/list]
Healing items being less viable on Hard was not fun or interesting.

• Increased the cast speed of Blast Chord by 8%.
  
• Increased the damage of Blast Chord from 125% to 140% Magic Damage.
  
• Reduced the end lag on Sundering Melody.
  
• Increased the damage of Sundering Melody from 175% to 200% Magic Damage.
  
• Increased the cast speed of Arpeggio by 20%.
  
• Increased the stun duration of Mass Stun from 3 to 3.5 seconds.

Speeding up the strummy boi.


Mark of The Assassin

• Added +10 Max HP.

Mark of The Warrior

• Max HP reduced from 25 to 20.

Mark of Earth

• Max HP reduced from 40 to 35.

Mark of Kingship

• Max HP increased from 20 to 25.

Mark of Queenship

• Max HP increased from 20 to 25.

Mark of Corruption

• Increased Physical Damage from 3 to 4.
  
• Increased Magic Damage from 3 to 4.

Buffs everywhere! Tuning up some of the more underwhelming items.

Ruby Shard

• Increased Attack Damage from 15% to 20%.

Emerald Shard

• Increased Health Regen from 15 to 20.

Tonic Vial

• Removed healing capping at 50% Max HP.
  
• Healing changed to a linear +15% Max HP per additional stack.

Life Ring

• Increased Max HP from 25 to 40.

Kingsbud

• Increased healing from 50 to 100.

Spiked Pauldron

• Increased damage from 500%(+250%) to 1000%(+500%).

Void Rifle

• Increased damage from 33% to 45%.

Ice Lance

• Increased damage from 100% to 140%.

Tri-Stone

• Added +40% Skill Damage.
  
• Added a visual indicator for when your next skill cast will proc the effect.

Lady's Wrath

• Added a 20% chance for vines to apply the rooted status effect for 2 seconds.

Chaos Unyielding

Chaos Unyielding was the most boring legendary item despite having a cool name. Now it's immensely powerful and rewarding if you can stay in the fight!

• New Visual.
  
• Removed Health on Kill.
  
• Removed Attack Damage.
  
• Added: On hit gain +1 charge. Each charge grants +2% Attack Damage and Lifesteal. Charges are lost if you do not hit for 3 seconds.

Bottomless Purse

• Item Rarity changed to Relic.
  
• Drops off the new Goblin Marauder Boss.

• The Specialist's grappling hook now spawns slightly above him. If it collides with terrain on the first frame it's out, he will be boosted upwards.
  
• Feedback has been added for Readying Up at the Boss Seal.
  
• Giant slimes will no longer draw behind shrines and chests.
  
• The traveler can appear in a new spot and will now always appear if they can.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Pyromancer's Meteor damage was not being effected by Omega Shard.
  
• When returning to the title screen after a run the menu music will start further into the song.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused Void Vials to be infinite use when combined with the Manasick chaos trial modifier.

And that's the update! I appreciate the support and the patience while I worked on this. Apologies for the lack of communication and the delays. COVID-19 impacted me in a way I never could have prepared for. Hopefully this marks a return to more frequent updates. Enjoy! :)

Demonic fireballs have been reworked a bit:
They now ignore terrain.
They now slowly accelerate instead of starting at top speed.
They fire more infrequently.
They have slightly increased range.

Fighter has received new sound effects and has been renamed to Weaponsmith.

Increased the base Health of Bard and Monk by 100.
Increased the base Armor of Bard and Monk by 5.
These Sealers now match the bonus defensive stats of other "melee" Sealers.

You now have to press Interact to bubble to a friendly sealer while off-screen.
You can now press Interact while close to your bubble destination to pop it.
Added sound effects for bubbling.

The post run screen now displays your game mode, signs and sealers.

Armor has changed from flat damage reduction to percent damage reduction.
Armor damage reduction is now capped at 50%.

Example:
If you have 25 Armor and an attack deals 30 damage you will take 22.5 damage (previously 5).
If you have 25 Armor and an attack deals 300 damage you will take 225 damage (previously 275).

This makes Armor much more relevant late game, but heavily nerfs it early. To compensate a new mechanic has been added:

Armor now generates a temporary barrier equal to 1% of your Max HP per point of Armor.
After 8 seconds of not taking damage your barrier will recharge.

Damage taken is dealt to the barrier before your health, and it does not overflow.

If you have just 1 barrier point the next attack will break your barrier, but not deal any damage to your health.

As a result of this change most Armor sources have been tweaked:

Reactive Cuirass:
Each hit now stacks 3 seconds onto the duration of the buff, instead of overwriting it.
This gives your barrier a chance to reform with the bonus Armor if you take a couple of hits.
Now properly effected by buff duration modifiers like Bard's Earrings (this was a bug).

Unknown Alloy:
Removed Armor on hit.
Added +8 Armor.
Added Increases Armor recharge rate by 25%.

Augmented Carapace:
Reduced Armor gain from 40 to 35.
Now instantly recharges your Armor on use.
Cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds.

New Armor Item! Spiked Plating (Rare Passive Item):
+5 Armor.
Whenever your Armor breaks, damage nearby enemies for 500% Armor.

Reduced the Armor granted by the Bard's buff song from 12 to 10.

Removed Max HP increase on Mark of Fortitude.
Added 3% Skill Damage to Mark of Fortitude.

• Fixed crash when scrolling up on the stats menu item list.
  
• Fixed multiple boss death weirdness.

• Demonic elites added.
  
• Boss encounters can now spawn a horde of elite monsters in place of a normal boss.
  
• Multiple bosses will now spawn after looping.

• Wall jump height from each stack reduced.
  
• Removed wall jumping on the stage borders.

• Increased cooldown from 40 to 60 seconds.

• Speed and jump height increase reduced from 33% to 20%.
  
• Effect hard caps at 5 stacks.
  
• Speed increase changed, see below.

Speed increasing effects like Boots of Agility, Vestigial Arm and Frostgard's banner now also effect top speed in the air.

• Increased the damage of Shank’s third hit from 120% to 140% Physical Damage.

The Arbalist needed a little more incentive to get in.

• Increased the damage of Shortsword’s second sword swing from 130% to 150% Physical Damage.

Solidifying the role of Shortsword as the Fighter’s highest DPS move if you can commit to multiple swings.

• Added a chilling nova when placing a frost banner.

Frostgard is in a pretty good spot right now. This change gives her a reason to use her omega even if you haven’t moved outside it’s radius. It also chills nearby enemies making it easier to charge the banner.

• Changed the ability type of Caltrops from a Skill to an Attack.
  
• Caltrops damage reduced from 25% to 20% Magic Damage.
  
• Caltrops tick rate now increases with Attack Speed.

This is a bit of a weird change but the Marksman’s caltrops have been applying on-hit effects which usually only attacks can apply. Rather than remove this, I’m solidifying it as a part of the game and making Caltrops an attack. This means Caltrops scales with Attack Damage and Attack Speed now. This is a slight (but welcome) nerf to Focus Strike oriented builds because it no longer scales with Skill Damage.

Tip: Remember to cast Caltrops while you have the Focus buff now for increased tick rate!

• Reduced the damage of Firebolt’s projectile from 50% to 40% Magic Damage.

Currently the Pyromancer is a bit overtuned. These minor nerfs should bring them slightly more inline with other Sealers. Firebolt stacks ablaze so quickly that it’s just doing too much damage. To put the nerf into perspective, a single tick of ablaze does 20% Magic Damage so this is barely a decrease in overall damage.

• Increased the cooldown of Volcanic Rune from 4 to 6 seconds.

Volcanic Rune is potentially the best evasive ability in the game, and it makes the Pyromancer too safe overall. Pyromancer players should have to think more about their usage of the ability.

• Reduced the cooldown of Flame Cannon from 6 to 5 seconds.

Flame Cannon was underperforming and needed a slight bump in uptime.

Note: Meteor’s slow cast animation is a core design element of the character and is not being adjusted as of now.

• Dodge Rolling in the air now causes the Swordsman to hover for a bit.
  
• Dodge Roll can now be combo’d into abilities in the air.
  
• Dodge Roll can now be combo’d into abilities much earlier in the roll.
  
• Increased the size of the hitbox on the upwards swing when Longsword is combo’d.

These changes should improve the Swordsman’s mobility and overall feel.

• Reduced camera shake in co-op games.
  
• Slightly increased the spawn rate of Shrines.
  
• Reforge Shrines now break after 2 uses.
  
• Reforge Shrines no longer reforge into other active items.
  
• There is now an infinite use Reforge Shrine in Destination Omega.
  
• Speedrunner challenge time requirement increased from 14 to 15 minutes.
  
• You can now scroll down the passive item list.
  
• Revived sealers are now placed briefly into the bubble state.
  
• Falling off the map now puts you in the bubble state are returns you slowly to your last position.
  
• Increased the damage taken by falling of the map from 10% to 20% Max HP.
  
• Items dropped at the bottom of a stage by enemies falling off the map now spawn at the boss seal.
  
• Leaving Destination Omega sets your gold to zero.
  
• Health regen on stats menu now displays value modified by your healing power (ie Medical Pouch).
  
• Revitalizing Elites heal less frequently and receive 75% less healing from other Revitalizing Elites.
  
• Reduced the damage of all Elites from 150% to 140%.
  
• Increased the health of Elite monsters (not bosses) from 175% to 225%.
  
• Reduced drop rate of Keystones from Elites to 20% (was 25%).

• Added ability damage types to sealer select screen.
  
• Sealer details closed by default, button prompt added.
  
• Sealer select menu now uses A/B on controllers rather than jump/interact.
  
• Removed Chronobent from the chaos trial modifier pool.
  
• Game performance should be much better.

• Increased the base HP and armor of the Swordsman, Frostgard and Fighter.
  
• Slightly reduced the base spawn rate of enemies.
  
• Slightly reduced the number of enemies that spawn during boss encounters.
  
• Very slightly reduced the health and damage scaling of enemies.

It's been a long 23 months of development. I hope you all enjoy playing what I've created. However this is just the beginning, expect a content road-map in the near future; big plans!

Good luck Sealers!
- rologfos