https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1147560/view/3120434024088084280

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

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<Overall>

Normal Attack
• Improved phenomenon where attacks would be interrupted when attacking continuously
Passive
• Increased chance that weapons drop after clearing enemies with Revived Mummy and Revived Ancient Mummy
  
• Improved weapon damage
  
• Increased ammo for some weapons
Skills
[Mummy Poison]
• Increased cooldown time: 6s → 8s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Mummy Bomb]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 10s → 12s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Mummy Ball]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 5s → 6s
  
• Reduced skill damage when using Revived Mummy
  
  [Scratch]
  
• Increased skill damage

<Revived Mummy>

Passive
• New weapon added, ‘Laser’
  
• New weapon added, ‘Homing Missle’
Swap Skill
• Changed so that a random weapon is received through a supply drop

<Revived Ancient Mummy>

Passive
• New weapon added, ‘Railgun’
  
• Reduced supply drop cooldown time: 60s → 40s

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer comment
Originally, the text describing the cooldown time of supply deliveries was mistakenly listed as 30secs and it took us a long time to recognize the error. We think this is because the Swap Skill had to be relied on so heavily for this skull.

We tried to design Gargoyle to control the skies, but there were few opportunities to actually fight in mid-air.
The original Gargoyle had to be mid-flight in order to get bonuses, but the enemies weren’t in the air so the player always had to maintain an awkward altitude. This wasn’t what we hoped to achieve with this skull’s design. And since we can’t just increase the number of airborne enemies, we changed our way of thinking.




The new Gargoyle will still be a master of the sky and might even spend more time mid-flight.
When in mid-air, it can dash three times in whatever direction you want and the reformed skills should help to adjust its altitude.
.And most of the attacks will target enemies below and to the right, so it should boost your battle prowess.
Enemies will now be struck with fear when seeing the Gargoyle fly above them.

<Overall>

Passive
• Improved Passive
  
• Increased speed when falling to ground after performing a mid-air basic attack
Swap Skill
• Swap Skill Reformed
Skills
• [Wind Gust] skill reformed
  
• [Eye of the Gargoyle] skill reformed
  
• New skill [Storm] added
  
• [Stone Stomp] skill removed
  
  [Petrify]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 10s → 16s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
• Reduced amount of time enemies are slowed by Golden Gargoyle

<Gargoyle>

Normal Attack
• Changed damage type: Physical → Magical

<Overall>

Normal Attack
• Improved feeling of control when attack speed is increased
Passive
• Reduced explosion range of marks
  
• Increased damage dealt by marks when using Pierrot and Joker
Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Two in One Hand]
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [Surprise Box]
  
• Reduced skill damage

<Clown>

Skills
[Peek-a-boo Knives]
• Increased skill damage

<Pierrot>

Skills
[Peek-a-boo Knives]
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Highlight]
  
• Reduced skill damage

<Joker>

Skills
[Peek-a-Boo Knives]
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Increased duration of stun inflicted by Peek-a-Boo Knives of normal explosion
  
  [Highlight]
  
• Reduced skill damage

Originally, the Water Skull’s unique point was its ability to knock back enemies. We intended for its design to sweep up enemies and carry them away on waves, but due to the high number of enemies moving around from side to side, this wasn’t very rewarding for players.



The new Water Skull will now allow you to push around enemies when and where you want. Along those lines, the Normal Attack has also been improved so that the Passive takes effect and that should create interesting synergies.

<Overall>

Normal Attack
• Changed damage type: Physical → Magical
  
• Increased attack speed of combos
  
• Increased distance moved forward by combo attack
  
• Increased attack range of combos
  
• Improved hit boxes of combos
  
• Increased attack range of jump attacks
Passive
• Removed knock-back effect of waves
  
• Increased distance traveled by waves
  
• Increased duration of waves
  
• Increased damage dealt by waves
Swap Skill
• Changed swap skill name: Dive → Overflow
Skills
• New skill [Lake of the Spirit] added
  
• [Ebb Tide] skill removed
  
  [Rising Tide]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 8s → 6s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed the number of hits: 5 hits → 1 hit
  
  [Dive]
  
• Changed name: Overflow → Dive
  
• Added invicibility frames to moving action before raising water pillar
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 12s → 10s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [Tornado]
  
• Changed it so that water pillar will move the player when using Aqua Skull and Poseidon

<Water Skull>

Swap Skill
• Reduced damage of Swap Skill
Skills
[Tornado]
• Reduced skill damage

<Aqua Skull>

Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Tornado]
• Increased cooldown time: 14s → 18s
  
• Increased skill damage

<Poseidon>

Passive
• Icon will display the number of waves on the current map
Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Rising Tide]
• Changed proportional effect of number of waves: Increased size → Reduced cooldown time
  
  [Tornado]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 14s → 18s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
• Increased amount that the duration of whirlpools is increased by each wave: Max 15s → Max 20s

The Ghoul’s main concept is eating up enemies and growing in size. This characteristic is quite unique and visually appealing. Also, growing in size and being able to attack whole groups of enemies in a large radius is a fun factor that can’t be found in other skulls.

However, due to the Skul being a Rogue-lite, it’s extremely important to manage your HP bar and having a huge body (and hit box) really increases the chances of being hit.
And since the act of “eating enemies” was such a large focus, the Passive only being activated by clearing enemies meant that it wasn’t really usable in boss battles.



The new Ghoul can now be commanded to “Digest” the flesh chunks it has and shrink to its normal size while recovering some health.
And now when taking damage from enemies, there is a certain chance that flesh chunks will drop. This should help boost your power in battles with Adventurers or bosses too.

We also changed [Hook Attack] to a basic skill to boost Ghoul’s mobility and usability rather than focusing on damage dealt.
We hope these changes will help you to slice and dice enemies with the huge butcher’s blade.

<Overall>

Passive
• Changed it so that there is a certain chance that flesh chunks drop when hitting enemies with normal attacks
  
• Increased duration of flesh chunk buff: 10s → 20s
  
• Increased max carrying amount of flesh chunks: 10 → 30
  
• Reduced amplification of physical attack damage per flesh chunk: 4% → 2%
  
• Reduced maximum size that the body can grow
  

  #Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

  Developer comment
  Now Ghoul can go anywhere, no matter how big it grows.

Skills
• New skill [Wide Slash] added
  
• [Hook Attack] Changed it to a basic skill
  
• Improved hit box of biting attack for Ghoooul and Ghoooooul
  
  [Inhale]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 10s → 13s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Body Bullet Tank]
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed the number of hits: 8 hits → 1 hit
  
  [Deadly Crusher]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 12s → 13s
  
• Changed the number of hits: 2 hits → 3 hits
  
• Changed it so that jump distance is adjustable

<Ghoul>

Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill

<Ghoooul>

Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill

<Ghoooooul>

Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Inhale]
• Increased duration of stacks gained for biting attacks: 5s → 20s
  
• Reduced amplification of physical damage per stack for biting attacks: 10% → 4%
  
  [Body Bullet Tank]
  
• Increased duration of stacks gained for biting attacks: 5s → 20s
  
• Reduced amplification of physical damage per stack for biting attacks: 5% → 3%
  
  [Deadly Crusher]
  
• Increased duration of stacks gained for biting attacks: 5s → 20s
  
• Increased crit chance per stack for biting attacks: 3% → 5%

The original Ninja wasn’t bad, but it’s also hard to say that it was great. It wasn’t easy to control or maximize its potential, so some players didn’t prefer it.
So for this reformation we focused on making it easier and more fluid/agile.
When we first designed Ninja, we focused on the skills/attack done by the dagger rather than ninja arts, but this changed as we released ver1.0. For instance, during Early Access, the Swap Skill of Ninja used a dagger instead of the current ninja arts such as Fire/Water Style. This eventually weakened the color of Ninja and we decided to change the Swap Skill to using a dagger.

<Overall>

Passive
• Changed it so that you’re invincible when performing a Switcheroo
  
• Increased damage dealt by a Switcheroo
Swap Skill
• Changed Swap Skill: [Fire Style: Fire Dragon’s Breath] → [Light Speed]
Skills
[Flash Rampage]
• Reduced cooldown time: 8s → 6s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Reduced delay between charging forward and slashing
  
  [Full Blooming Blade]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 10s → 8s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Reduced amount that projectiles spread
  
  [Phantom Rampage]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 15s → 12s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed the number of hits: 18 hits → 9 hits
  
• Increased skill speed
  
  [Wheel Shuriken]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 13s → 10s
  
• Reduced skill damage

<Ninja Master>

Passive
• Allows to use special jump attack up to 3 times in the direction player wants
  
• Increased special jump attack damage
  
• Reduced the charge distance when special jump attack is used in up, down
Skills
• [Phantom Wheel Shuriken] skill removed
  
• New Skill [Transform: Phantom Wheel Shuriken] added
  
  [Flash Rampage]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 8s → 10s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed it so that the skill can be charged 3 times, but you can only move forward once
  
  [Flash Phantom Slash]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 5s → 10s
  
• Increased skill speed
  
  [Full Blooming Blade]
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Reduced amount that projectiles spread
  
  [Exploding Shuriken]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 7s → 16s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
• Allows the player to cancel the later delay if the skills are used in a row
  
• Changed it so that the skull will temporarily maintain its elevation when using a skill
  
  [Phantom Rampage]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 25s → 12s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed the number of hits: 14 hits → 7 hits
  
• Reduced the amount of clone groups that can be summoned: 4 → 3
  
  [Phantom Cross]
  
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Wheel Shuriken]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 18s → 14s
  
• Reduced skill damage

<Overall>

Skills
[Mad Rush]
• Increased skill speed

<Overall>

Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Single Slash]
• Reduced base damage of skill
  
• Increased damage per mark
  
  [Spinning Slash]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 10s → 9s
  
• Increased skill damage
  
  [Evading Slash]
  
• Increased skill damage

<Samurai>

Skills
[Quick Slash]
• Reduced amount that cutting wave is spread

<Neo Samurai>

Passive
• Increased amount gauge is filled by using skill attacks on enemies
Skills
[Full Moon Slash]
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [Spinning Slash]
  
• Reduced max amount of spins: 4 times → 3 times
  
  [Evading Slash]
  
• Increased amount gauge is filled by successful counterattacks
  
  [Quick Slash]
  
• Increased skill damage

It was quite difficult for the previous Soul Knight to collect the spirit flames until it was in a stable stage.
Also, using the skill in a state of combustion would consume all soul flames and the skill tended to be restricted until it became stable, which was frustrating.
Therefore, we have increased the number of spirit flames for Living Armor, while Soul Knight will have fewer spirit flames for a stable stage and be able to deal with the strengthened skills more frequently.

<Overall>

Normal Attack
• Changed damage type: Physical → Magical
Passive
• Increased the size of the gauge
Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Soul Sword]
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [Soul Burn]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 15s → 12s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Changed the number of hits of the blaze on the ground when used during combustion: 10 → 5
  
  [Soul Knuckle]
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [Soul Charge]
  
• Reduced cooldown time: 13s → 12s
  
• Reduced skill damage

<Soul Knight>

Passive
• Reduced the amount of flame spirit required from combustion to being stable
Skills
[Soul Sword]
• Increased skill speed when used in a stable state
  
  [Soul Burn]
  
• Changed the number of hits of the blaze on the ground when used in a stable state: 10 → 6
  
  [Soul Knuckle]
  
• Increased skill speed when used in a stable state
  
• Reduced number of consecutive explosions when using this skill in a stable state: 10 → 5
  
  [Soul Charge]
  
• Increased skill speed when using this skill in a stable state

<Overall>

Swap Skill
• Changed damage type: Physical → Magical
Skills
• Changed it so that the amp is affected by gravity
  
  [Climax]
  
• Changed damage type: Physical → Magical

<Overall>

Normal Attack
• Improved hit VFX

The Grim Reaper was the very first Legendary skull, so its really simple mechanisms drove us to work on it some more. So we took this chance to completely overhaul the Grim Reaper and it has been reborn.



The new Grim Reaper can collect spirits each time an enemy is killed. And depending on how many spirits are collected, its Magic Attack Power can be increased and when certain thresholds are reached, every skill will grow stronger.
This type of Passive means that the Grim Reaper will be a little bit weaker than other Legendary skulls. However, if you pick it up in the beginning of the game, it should become a force worth reckoning with in the late game.

<Grim Reaper>

Character Animation
• Improved character animation
Normal Attack
• Changed damage type: Magical → Physical
Passive
• Improved passive
Swap Skill
• Reduced damage of swap skill
  
• When clearing enemies with the Swap Skill, receive the same effect as collecting spirits
Skills
• [Harvest] skill reformed
  
• [Sentence] skill reformed
  
• New skill [Guillotine] added
  
• New skill [Fissure of the Netherworld] added
  
• [Death by Fire] skill removed

Champion is a master of one-on-one matches with specialized skills. However, we don’t think Champion is a true champion just yet. We plan to make our Champion the utmost fighter and as a boss slayer through this update. The first step to this will be having all of Champion’s skills consist of skills that give damage to a single target.
<Champion>

Dash
• Changed Dash Type: Normal → Duck(Counterattack and deal physical damage when hit while dashing. Every action can be cancelled by dashing.)
Passive
• Improved effect of rage
  
• Reduced amount of energy gained with Normal Attacks
  
• Increased amount of energy gained with Skill Attacks
Swap Skill
• Swap Skill Changed: [Dragon Kick] → [Start Match]
Skills
• New Skill [Combination] added
  
• New Skill [Dirty Smash] added
  
• [Nuclear Punch] skill removed
  
• [Parry] skill removed
  
  [Quick Step]
  
• Reduced skill damage

The original concept of stomping the ground the attack wasn’t bad. However, being tied to the concept of stomping and requiring dull gameplay was.



The new Yaksha unfolds the Domain of the Wicked to take the form of Rakshasa, and stomp on enemies within the Domain.
<Yaksha>

Character Animation
• Improved character animation
Normal Attack
• Improved normal attack
Passive
• Improved passive
Swap Skill
• Reduced damage of Swap Skill
Skills
• [Yaksha Fist] Reformed skill
  
• New skill [Iron Strike] added
  
• New skill [Demonic Massacre] added
  
• New skill [Rakshasa of Iron Will] added
  
• [Yaksha March] skill removed
  
• [Sorcery: Goblin Stomp] skill removed

One unfortunate thing about Archlich was that the preference for Deathtrap was overwhelmingly low compared to other skills. One can only pray to meet the Dark Priests if they only had Archlich without Deathtrap. This got us to think, “if it’s a skill that you always want, let’s make it a skill you always have!”
<Archlich>

Passive
• Archlich can now input commands at specific intervals to use Deathtrap.
  
• Reduced damage of chains summoned to random enemies
Swap Skill
• Increased damage of swap skill
Skills
[Soul Steal]
• Reduced skill damage
  
  [March of Death]
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Increased the speed of summoning chains
  
  [Prison of the Damned]
  
• Increased cooldown time: 16s → 20s
  
• Reduced skill damage
  
• Reduced the effect of slowing down the time
  
  [Deathly Chill]
  
• Reduced skill damage

Depending on luck, the Gambler is a skull that can become stronger or weaker. Unfortunately, we felt that the previous Gambler was not worth the risk, which is a mistake in design. Hence we continued to contemplate ways of making the Gambler’s risk and return fun and appropriate. As a result, in addition to providing a new solution, the controls and visuals were also improved.

<Gambler>

Normal Attack
• Changed attack method of combo attacks
Passive
• Upon the skill’s great success, regains 100% of its cooldown
  
• Upon the skill’s failure, regains 50% of its cooldown
Swap Skill
• Changed the Slot Machine’s attacks
Skills
[Roulette of Destiny]
• Changed the Roulette’s attacks
  
• Increased skill casting speed
  
  [Russian Roulette]
  
• Changed success and great success’ attack method
  
• Reduced damage upon failure
  
• Reduced damage upon great success
  
• Increased skill casting speed
  
• Improved VFX
  
  [Black Jack]
  
• Changed so that projectiles pass through terrain
  
• Changed great success’ attack method
  
• Improved VFX
  
  [Rain of Darts]
  
• Changed great success’ attack method
  
• Improved VFX

---

Mana Bone

• Improved item effect’s effect

Look forward to the newly reformed skulls on February 10th.



Update Schedule :
PST : February 9th @ 4PM

Hey Skul Squad!
There are now more than 1,000,000 players, meaning that Skul is now a million seller! We are extremely delighted and honored to have more than 1 million players with us. Hence today, we’ll be looking back on our journey to becoming a million seller.

---

Skul was first shown to our players on February 19, 2020. It was SouthPAW Games’ first game, created over a period of 2 years.



During Skul’s Early Access period, which featured 22 skulls, we were able to closely communicate with our players and worked towards fun changes.



We remember the June 2020 2.0 version as being an experimental yet successful update. Can you believe that before the update there were no map rewards or crossroads, and that the amount of items owned was limited to only 6? Not even half a year has passed since Early Access began when we decided to challenge the foundations of the game with a variety of changes through the 2.0 update.
It was then that many systems such as stage composition, rewards, stats, inventory limit etc. were changed to become the basis of Skul’s system today. Although we were certain that the game would become even more enjoyable with this update, some of those around us were doubtful, questioning if the update was too drastic and what if the game loses its enjoyment.
It was risky of course, since it was extremely experimental and brought changes to various systems. But, isn’t that what Early Access is for?



Another reason the 2.0 update was particularly memorable is because of the DeadCells collaboration, for which we had a lot of fun integrating the Prisoner to Skul. While maintaining true to the speed and characteristics of weapons in DeadCells, the detailed designs of weapons that only existed as icons were brought to life through character animation. We wanted to stay true to DeadCells while bringing a new feel and sense of enjoyment that could not be experienced in DeadCells.

---

After almost a year of Early Access, Skul was finally officially released on January 21, 2021.



Skul experienced many changes after graduating from Early Access. Among which, the most memorable was the “Awakening”. To be honest, originally there were no plans for an Awakening system. But, it ended up being a newly designed system to resolve issues discovered during Early Access.
At the time, whether the player had a powerful skull greatly affected the likelihood of finishing the game. Meaning even if they had a skull that they liked, it was recommended that higher grade skulls were used. Naturally this led to an increase in the importance of luck. Hence during Early Access, the Awakening system was created to resolve such issues. However due to the amount of work required for the Awakening system, it was clear that starting development so late would cause a delay to the official release schedule.
It was a hard decision, but we decided on moving forward with the Awakening system because at the end of the day, what really mattered was that our game was fun. In order to reduce the delay caused by developing the Awakening system on the official release timeline, our team members put forth their best efforts to speed up the development process. It sure was difficult, but we were able to reach our goal because we had a great time while working on the Awakening system.


In 2021 many updates such as the item unlock, event map, and Quintessence reform were carried out. Among these updates we think that the Quintessence reform was an especially meaningful one. The context of the Quintessence reform was also similar to the Awakening system.
Because the stats of each Quintessence varied greatly according to grade, the base stats of a high grade Quintessence was much more important than having a good combination of Quintessence, items, and skulls etc. This led to only a few high grade Quintessences being used constantly while the others were barely utilized.
As a result, we emphasized the unique effects of each Quintessence and reduced the performance difference of each tier to resolve the issue.



We also attempted to display each Quintessence in-game. It was already possible to see some of the Quintessences when used, however most of them were only expressed through text so players had to use their imagination.
Creating a physical form for the Quintessence by combining the concept designer’s imagination and the textual descriptions was an interesting and fun experience for our developers as well, which is why the Quintessence reform was such a memorable update.

---

We originally planned to provide updates such as a hard mode, and QoL improvements in 2021. But it unfortunately didn’t happen and it is true that recently updates have been infrequent. This is because there was a lot of trial and error while developing hard mode, which meant that we had to adjust the design and update plan.


In the midst of developing hard mode, we came to the conclusion that Skul's hard mode shouldn’t just be “a higher level of difficulty”. It was a difficult decision but we ended up redoing the previous design, and are currently working on developing a more daring approach. Hence other systems related to hard mode must also be reformed in order for the hard mode’s content to function as intended.


Therefore as you all know, plans were changed and it was decided that the reform of Skul be carried out first.
Old skulls will be renewed, boring skulls will be more fun, and it will become meaningful to use skulls that were weak.
Through the upcoming Skull reform update, we would like to bring forth a new sense of enjoyment and experiences while laying down the foundation for hard mode content.



In addition to skulls, items and Inscriptions will also be reformed, and adjustments to level design made along with the hard mode update. The direction of this reform is the same as the skull reform.
The goal is so that even more diverse combinations can be powerful and enjoyable to prevent certain items and combinations from becoming overused.
It is very unfortunate that content which should have been released in 2021 is delayed once more. But in addition to re-creating hard mode, many quests occurred in the process of expanding the size of the development team, which inevitably led to a longer update cycle.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

It's under construction!

One of our recent quests is to move our studio from a regional city to Seoul, the capital of Korea. Thanks to everyone's support we are now able to continue developing in an even better environment. In return, we'll continue to do our best for our games.

Even though it may be a bit slow, we’ll continue to provide updates for our players and stay true to SouthPAW Games’ philosophy of guaranteeing the fun in our games.

---

Thank you for sticking with us while we looked back on Skul’s road to becoming a million seller. This was a lot of fun to write while reminiscing about our journey with our players.
Once again, we deeply thank all of Skul’s one million players for your wonderful support. We’ll continue striving towards creating fun in our games.

Hey, everyone!
This is our seventh dev blog and where we'll be talking about the direction we're going to be taking with Skul: The Hero Slayer.
Currently, our scheduled date for the major Skul reformation update is in early February.

Our apologies for the delay in both the blog and the update.
SouthPAW has grown tremendously over the past year through your support and as such, we are facing new quests that surpass our current capacity. We're grateful to everyone for getting us here, but it is true that the team is just not big enough to cover everything.
We're actively recruiting new members and transforming our environment to set a smooth working pace and continue polishing Skul.
The team may be under pressure now, but we believe we're right in the middle of another milestone that'll push us forward to become a greater team of developers. Rest assured that we're working hard to achieve this milestone and make Skul a fun and lovable game.

So first, let's talk about what everyone's been waiting for: the skulls.
A diverse pool of skulls defines fun in Skul.
Including the Awakened ones, 100 skulls currently exist in Harmonia. We realize some of these skulls have flaws, big or small.
Not only that, but there are also skulls that can be really fun to play, given the right change in mechanics.
These are the reasons why we're working on skull reformation- in order to mitigate the flaws and amplify the fun.
Let's walk you through what kind of changes are coming.

---

Yaksha's stomping skill is quite unique.
You can stomp on your enemies with normal attacks or by using skills; on your fifth use, you can deal great damage with Yaksha's giant foot.



Yaksha was a huge character, originally, but we downsized it a bit throughout development.
Despite the change in physique, we kept the idea of Yaksha brutally stepping on its enemies. The concept was maintained when developing its passives and skills.
We were satisfied with how we conceptualized Yaksha's skills in the game, so the character hasn't seen much change since its appearance in Harmonia.
However, after the addition of far more interesting skulls, the signature Yaksha stomp ended up being more bland than unique. Yaksha couldn't quite provide an exciting gameplay experience.


We decided to be bold with Yaksha.
The concept we originally had in mind wasn't just stamping feet, it was the idea of brutally crushing the enemies with a massive and menacing physique.
Wait, it doesn’t look that intimidating?




The new Yaksha uses power stacks to open the Domain of the Wicked. Within the realm's boundaries, evil spirits reign the world.
Yaksha returns to its true form, Rakshasa, in the Domain of the Wicked. As Rakshasa, its basic attacks and skills are stronger.
Yaksha doesn't just stomp around anymore- you can now use its ability to open the Domain of the Wicked and swing a giant club at your enemies.

---

In Skul, Awakening means to obtain the true power of the skull’s owner.
Awakening wasn’t part of Skul’s development plan; we’ve implemented it through our players’ feedback during Early Access.
This is why early skulls that were already made before the Awakening feature were difficult to design when we had to create Awakened levels for them, since they were made without taking upgrades into consideration.



We had an especially hard time designing the Awakened skulls for the Ent Skull.
The concept at the moment is that each Ent Skull has the characteristic of its matching Ent enemy found in the Forest of Harmony.
Due to this exceptional design, the Ent Skull’s attack type and play strategy continued to change with each Awakening, which wasn’t the direction we meant to take.
Through the reformation, we’re going to define a single play style for the Ent Skull and allow its Awakened skulls to build up on that style.


We’re going to focus on shaping the new Ent Skull into a melee fighter regardless of its type.
It pounds on the ground as it advances, and can enlarge its body part to reach enemies that are standing slightly farther.



The Ent Skull will be able to plant grass using seeds.
When you use a skill while standing on the grass, you’ll receive helpful buffs such as shorter cooldown times or the activation of stronger skills. Different buffs are available depending on the Awakened level.
The grassy area is not big, but you can plant multiple patches around the map. Where you plant and how you plan to use the seeds will be strategically important.

---

We put a lot of thoughts into balance each time we design a new skull.
Three main elements we take into account for each skull are concept, fun, and efficiency.
We found that if we focus on just one or two elements of the three, by the end of the development it makes the skull feel rather incomplete.



The Ghoul grows in size and strength by devouring its enemies.
We designed the Ghoul’s skills and passive with this concept in mind, which led to quite a disappointment in terms of efficiency considering Skul’s gameplay mechanics.

As the Ghoul, you grow in size and receive stat bonuses by acquiring flesh chunks or Swallowing your enemies.
A big body means increased attack range, but it also means a huge hitbox in favor of the enemies. This worked as a double-edged sword for Ghoul players.
Allowing your enemies to land hits on you is a huge risk in roguelike or roguelite games like Skul. Keeping your health bar full is of utmost importance.


All of the Ghoul’s skills require you to defeat the enemy.
This is useful against a mob of enemies, but becomes a huge pain during one-on-one battles.



The new Ghoul can “digest” the chunks of flesh it has. Digesting uses up all the flesh chunks you’ve got; you’ll restore some health and return to your normal size.
In addition, chunks of flesh have a chance to drop each time you hit your enemy, which will help you fight adventurers and stage bosses.
We hope this will help make playing the Ghoul less challenging and, in turn, encourage our Ghoul lovers to tackle melee fights against powerful enemies.


Last but not least, Throw Hook is now a basic attack.
In Skul, where you can only have up to two skills, deciding which skills to make “essential” always comes with much contemplation.
Skulls with essential skills will have much less skill combinations, so we try not to lock the skills down as essentials.
We made Throw Hook an essential skill only to realize that it was a poor choice.
There aren’t many reasons to make Throw Hook an essential skill.
We still do, however, think that Throw Hook is an interesting and fun technique, so we decided to turn it into the Ghoul’s basic attack.

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The Water Skull uses up moisture, which is obtained via basic attacks, to attack and strengthen its skills.
This means basic attacks are crucial in using the Water Skull, but short range and slow attack speed unfortunately had a negative impact on the Water Skull’s efficiency and controls.
Additionally, the waves you can create with moisture have shown the adverse effect of pushing your enemies back. This inconveniently relocated the enemy at unwanted times.



Our goal with the Water Skull is to improve the efficiency of its basic attack by increasing the attack range and speed.
We’ve also changed the waves so that they will no longer push the enemies around.
The idea of tides creating knockback makes sense, but in all reality, did not provide a satisfying gameplay experience.
The new Water Skull’s waves now focus on dealing swift damage.
The longer your battles are, the more powerful your Water Skull will become. The skull’s increase in power will be visible to the eye when fighting in smaller areas.

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We’ve categorized the attacks to physical and magic in Skul.
So-called hybrid skulls came into play because we wanted to create skulls that utilize both physical and magic types.


Piercing Shot is the only magic attack the Hunter has. Any other attack by the Hunter deals physical damage.
Since it’s inefficient to buff your magic attack only to use Piercing Shot, the skill was absolutely useless to Hunter users. As such, we changed Piercing Shot’s attack type to physical.
Like so, we’re going to switch the attack types of various moves accordingly, and continue to research new ways to make hybrid skulls fun to play.

---

Problematic skulls aren’t the only ones changing through our upcoming reformation update.
We’re constantly trying out different ways to help you enjoy Skul even more.
The skulls we’ve shared with you today are only a part of what we have planned. Many other skulls will see changes, whether they be big or small.
We’ll continue to do our best to ’balance the fun’ and make each and every skull fun to play.

Thank you all for your continued love and support.

Hey everybody!

Voting for The 2021 Steam Awards has started!
We're shooting for the winning space under Outstanding Visual Style and would greatly appreciate your support. Each and every one of your votes means a world to us.

You can finally enjoy Skul on Switch, XBOX, and PS4 starting at midnight on 21st October.



Thank you for your continued support and love for Skul: The Hero Slayer!

Hello Skul Squad! Are you enjoying swapping some skulls?

Today, we would like to spend some time to give you an update on what SouthPAW devs have been up to since the last update.

Skul on Switch / XBOX / PS4

We have been continuously working on the porting process of Skul to Switch, XBOX, and PS4 so the players could enjoy Skul anywhere, with any gadgets.

We have been working on the porting process with Blitworks, who are experts in high-quality game porting. We believe in their successful experience in porting Divinity Original Sin 2, Rogue Legacy, and many others. We are almost at the last step of the porting process, and are carefully estimating when would be the best time to release the game.

We aim to release the console version at about mid-October, and we will make sure you know when we fix the date.

Skull Reformation

We believe that every skull’s action needs to be fun to play with and that every one of them should perform just as strong as the others with each play style and item combination.

But with about 100 skulls in Harmonia, we are aware that some skulls don’t come up to the expectations.

To achieve our aim, we are analyzing and reviewing every one of our skulls for the reformation. Hopefully, the system is going to be implemented in the game by the end of the year.

The main problems that we aim to address are as follows:

1. Skulls developed from the very beginning with lower performance and mechanisms than the ones developed later.
   
2. Skulls lacking consistency in mechanism with their Awakening process.
   
3. Skulls that cannot fully uncover their potential due to in-game aspects, including enemies.
   
4. Skulls with low specs or bad controlling experience.

We are actively developing the skulls with the features above, aiming to introduce more detailed information on reformation through the next Dev Blog.

And we are going through an experimental phase with applying crowd control on the Boss phase.

It is an experimental tryout as it hugely breaks away from the basic game design. So we are doing much research and trials to develop a new amusement for our players.

We have not fully decided on implementing crowd control in the Boss stage. We want to test it out as much as possible so Skul: The Hero Slayer can provide more exciting experiences.

Every Skul development has one very basic condition: It should be fun.

We aim to make every single skull and its systems have their unique fun, so the players could have more to enjoy while playing Skul.

Hard Mode

We are aware that many players have already become veteran hero slayers of the Demon King’s castle, and they long for challenging quests to conquer. For this, we are working on developing the hard mode.

The original roadmap shows that the hard mode is supposed to come out in Q3. However, we thought it would be best to come out in 2022 Q1 to deliver a perfectly polished version after the skull reformation update. The schedule for the contents that aimed to come out in Q4 will also be adjusted to come out after the hard mode update.

While we are fully aware of the users’ expectations on the Hard Mode contents, we ask for your generous understanding in adjusting the schedule to deliver our best.

The hard mode of Skul doesn’t mean a simple increase of power and HP of Carleon soldiers. We are going through various trials and errors so we can provide you with new and exciting experiences.

The initial plan for hard mode focused on making levels simply more difficult for the players.

We tried constantly changing the patterns of the enemies, changing the map system mechanic to randomly level up the difficulty, trying to create new hardship for the players. We even tried to weaken the player.

However, we quickly concluded that this is just not ‘Skul Style.’

The very core of Skul is the player, and the new content should be there to provide a new experience for the player.

Therefore, we blew away the weakening system. The pattern change system was also discarded as it completely ignores the players’ learning process, ruining the intuitive experience.

Instead, we are focusing on developing brand-new enemies for the hard mode, and implementing a new level-up aspect for the players to stand against the more difficult levels.






We will have new enemies for each chapter.

They will have more threatening patterns than the original enemies and the new and the old will blend to provide a fresh combat experience.

As for the new abilities to deal with the powerful new enemies, we are trying to reduce the effect of RNG compared to the original level-up contents.
The players will control and design the new level-up aspect to tackle the hard mode, along with the original skulls, items, and essences.

You can match the controllable elements to the RNG elements, or you can create synergy by matching RNG elements to the controllable elements.

One thing is for sure: the way you play Skul will be greatly intensified, and you’ll be able to try your way on the new enemies without restrictions.

In this way, we expect Skul Hard Mode to not just stop at being a hard mode. It will be another aspect that further expands the Skul story.



After polishing the existing content through the skull reformation, we expect to present cool and fun hard mode content.

We hope you will continue the journey of Skul with us, sharing your experiences and stories along the road.

Thank you.

This hotfix (Release 1.3.2) fixes the bug that switching some levels of Grave Digger would not raise any tombstone.
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Hello Skul Squad!

This update (Release 1.3.1) improves some VFX that affected gameplay and resolves some bugs in the previous build.

From now on, players will be able to enjoy the action without any visibility issues. We’ll keep polishing those effects and thank you guys again for sharing your feedback!

• Fixed bug where the achievements could never be achieved with The King, Overload or Saviour
  
• Fixed bug where Saviour’s skill ‘Macbeth’ would call upon 3 Macbeths
  
• Fixed bug where The King would get the same skill when talking to Dark Priest
  
• Fixed bug where the treasure chest animation would not properly start when opening the chest with The King
  
• Fixed bug where walking animation would not change when The King acquires a random scroll
  
• Fixed bug where Overload’s skill ‘Heaven-Earth Slam’ would deal much higher damage than normal
  
• Fixed bug where some projectiles from certain skills would deal damage at incorrect locations

• Fixed bug where the required number of hits to destroy the Kobold’s ‘gold vein’ and Naias ‘ice flower’ would be much higher than normal
  
• Fixed bug where the player could not jump down when transforming into Harpy
  
• Fixed bug where spear attack would occasionally switch its direction when activating Centauros
  
• Fixed bug where the damage reducing effect would not properly be applied when activating Ogre
  
• Fixed bug where Max HP would increase when transforming into Slime
  
• Fixed bug where the status icon would show as Demonomicon when acquiring Kobold
  
• Fixed bug where the generation rate of the gold vein was incorrect when killing enemies with Kobold
  
• Fixed bug where Phantom’s skill ‘Phantom Magic’ would deal when using other kinds of dodge buffs
  
• Fixed bug where the attack from the Magic Tech Turret would occasionally affect much lower hit than normal
  
• Fixed bug where Flame Dragon’s attacking effects would not match its VFX in time
  
• Fixed bug where Ifrit’s effect ‘Firestorm’ would have much more hits than normal
  
• Fixed bug where Spinks’s effect ‘Poison Gas Trap’ would show its VFX at incorrect locations

• Fixed bug where Magical Slime would not randomly duplicate items when rescuing it
  
• Fixed bug where the gunpowder cart would not explode when bumping into Dang-Ka People in Dang-Ka Knight Map
  
• Fixed bug where the minimap would not properly show in Dark Market
  
• Fixed bug where Adventurer Warrior would cancel the casting and use his special move when attacked by the player

Grave Digger

• Reset y-axis move as 0 when using skills in the air with different levels of Grave Digger
  
• Fixed problem where the player would not find spirits when entering maps and preparing for switching different levels of Grave Digger

The King

• Changed VFX for [Wave of Denial]
  
• Changed VFX for [Blood Sword]

Centauros

• Increased the reducing cooldown when recovering the spear: 10s → 15s
  
• Changed VFX for the end of the flying spear

King Dwarf

• Increased the hit of turret attack when activated: 3 → 4
  
• Polished charging VFX for turret attack when activated
  
• Adjusted the turrets that cover the player and enemies when activated

Harpy

• Increased the contact damage when activated
  
• Changed VFX for the attacks when activated

Raven Lord

• Increased the damage of activation
  
• Adjusted VFX for Raven Soldier and the explosion

Imp

• Fixed problem where Imp’s jump attack would not deal damage until landing
  
• Increased the explosion rage of Imp’s Fireballs
  
• Changed explosion VFX for Imp’s Fireballs

Shadow Knights

• Increased the activating damage and range
  
• Changed the activating animation

Naias

• Increased the explosion damage of Ice Flowers when activated
  
• Adjusted the Ice Flowers that cover the player and enemies when activated

Mana Golem

• Increased the activating damage

Hareubang

• Increased the speed of cooldown: 150% → 200%

Evil Eye

• Increased the activating damage

Archdemon

• Increased the activating damage

Banshee

• Polished the electrocuting animation

Cyclops

• Adjusted VFX that cover the player and enemies when activated

Dwarf

• Added flare VFX when activated
  
• Adjusted the turrets that cover the player and enemies when activated

Flame Dragon

• Adjusted the Flame Dragon that covers the player and enemies when activated
  
• Changed the disappearing animation for VFX

Gryphon

• Changed the appearing animation for Gryphon when activated

Ifrit

• Adjusted the Ifrit that covers the player and enemies when activated

Slime

• Changed the landing animation when transforming into Slime

Specter

• Changed the VFX of the activation

Suonisio

• Changed the disappearing animation for Suonisio

Succubus

• Changed the disappearing animation for Succubus

Weapon Master

• Changed the disappearing animation for Weapon Master

Other Changes

• Fixed problem where Magical Slime would appear in Chapter 1

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer comment: Magical Slime can be made full use of when the player has already acquired different items during several chapters. Therefore, we brought out this temporary solution and will add some special rewards to it when the player bumps into Magical Slime with an empty scroll.

• Fixed problem where some objects in the event maps would not properly show in the minimap

• Fixed issue where Barlog’s cooldown was incorrect: 30s → 20s
  
• Fixed issue where Phantom’s activating damage type was incorrect: Physical → Magical

Hey Skul Squad,

Are you enjoying the new update? :)

Well...we have some more great news for you! We’ve joined forces with the legendary Motion Twin to create the “Off With Your Head” Bundle!

Both games can be purchased with an extra 10% discount through the bundle (even if you already own one of them). Not only that, but Skul will be available at 25% off for the duration of the summer sale too.

Last but not least, we’re also introducing another bundle with Blade Assault that is aptly named “The Bone & The Blade”. It will be available at 15% off, so check it out!

Hello Skul Squad,

Here come two new skulls (the Stone Monkey and Grave Digger!) to take part in the assault of Carleon Castle.

The Stone Monkey beats up Carleon soldiers with its clones while the Grave Digger calls upon different spirits to unite the Legion of Death.

Also, the Prisoner will finally get his original form back.

With the help of completely new Quintessences, skulls will continue their way to the Carleon Castle.

Along those same lines, the Quintessences had some issues with balancing and/or didn’t have stunning effects, so we decided to work on overhauling every Quintessence in this patch. We’re also planning on a huge update for skulls, so don’t miss it!

Last but not least, we also added new special event maps and NPCs. Please see below for more detailed information.

*This patch will reset the Auto-Saved data in the previous version.

• New Skulls
  - Stone Monkey
  - Grave Digger

Stone Monkey
Rarity: Common
Type: Speed



A monkey demon born on a rock at the top of a mountain in the East.



Grave Digger
Rarity: Common
Type: Power



Well, apparently some drab guy with a coffin was fighting some spirits.

• Added ‘The King’ (Upgraded ‘Prisoner’)

The King
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Speed



You... ARE AN INCORRIGIBLE ASS!

• Reduced incoming damage caused by each survival scroll for ‘Prisoner’: 10% → 5%

1. Changed status icons for some item effects

New Quintessences

• Common
  - Steel Golem
  
• Unique
  - Wisp
  - Hareubang
  - Phantom
  - Banshee
  
• Legendary
  - Balrog

• Changed VFXs for every quintessence
  
• Changed effects for every quintessence
  
• Deleted stat bonus for every quintessence in the previous version
  
• Deleted ‘Pegasus’

Overwhelming size and incredible power. It feels like the end of the world.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer Comment: In this update, we focused on both balancing and maximizing the effectiveness of quintessences during gameplay.

• New NPCs
  - Halfling Girl
  - Magical Slime
  - Odd Dark Priest
  - Frivolous Dark Priest
  - Cynical Dark Priest

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer Comment: Most of the priests who worked in the Demon Temple were kidnapped by Carleon. Now you can rescue them to change your skills more often.

Do you want to compare our height???

1. New Special Event Maps
   
2. Quintessence Sanctuary
   
3. Dangerous Chest

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer Comment: The Unknown Boy is now back in-game.

• The master of Quintessences will appear more often in the Black Market
  
• Added animations for every dish

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Developer Comment: The food looks tastier, doesn't it?

• Fixed bug where the Prisoner’s damage decreasing effect from Survival scroll would not properly work on some attacks
  
• Fixed bug where the Evil Druid’s buff ‘Greed’ would not disappear after starting a new game
  
• Fixed bug where the enemies with ‘Freeze’ or time-controlled status would still hit by the player
  
• Fixed bug where Carleon Commander’s soldiers would appear at incorrect locations
  
• Fixed problem where the item ‘Elder Ent's Gratitude’ would not save its current barriers during Auto-Save
  
• Fixed problem where the background image would not properly display in Chapter 1
  
• Fixed problem where the player would jump onto the elevator in the first map of Chapter 4

• Fixed issue where the description for the Prisoner’s skills was incorrect (English)