For today's news post, one of our narrative designers, Nick, gathered some interesting bits about Heist's lore. If you've been enjoying the Heist storyline and NPCs, check it out!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Before we get too deep into this, this article is likely to contain spoilers -- both major and minor. Read at your own peril!

• Some of the characters may have familiar last names -- Vic and Vinny Vox are likely related to Cardinal Sanctus Vox, one of the Legion bosses. The timeframes are inexact, but there are at least a few generations separating them.
  
• The Clients for general contract targets include The Midnight Tinkerer, who you may also know as Riker Maloney, and Anton Laffrey, who is possibly related to Aisling Laffrey.
  
• You may have seen some familiar faces around the Rogue's Harbour: Tarkleigh, Hargan and many others can appear at random. In fact, you can also see any member of the Immortal Syndicate except the Mastermind, but only if they aren't currently part of the Immortal Syndicate (ie. you've 'removed' them).
  
• Gianna and Adiyah are both voiced by the same actress -- Elle Wooton. Any time you hear Gianna and Adiyah talk at the end of a heist, she's just talking to herself!
  
• Rogue's Markers took many different forms during writing and development. My personal favourite was 'Prints', coins with a fingerprint pressed into them, making them hard to counterfeit and tying it into the criminal theme (don't leave prints behind!). After that, they were 'Seals', and were the wax seals from completed contracts. Apparently, people would hear 'Seal' and think of the animal, hence they are now Markers.
  
• Storylines underwent a bunch of changes over Heist's development cycle. Ideas that we considered and cut include: Having your first heist be larger, busier, and end in a betrayal that would set up a central rival early on, a story in which Gianna reveals her fate is due to a lecherous and abusive theatre director (I wanted a boss fight that was a pursuit through the backstage area of a theatre), and a sequence in which the Vox twins invade the Rogue Harbour for an early version of their boss fight.
  
• Hana, Kurai's cat, used to be called Beans, because I thought that was an absolutely adorable name. In the first draft of Kurai's quest, Beans the cat was killed in the aforementioned Rogue Harbour raid. After a few people at GGG read the draft, "For Beans" started appearing on whiteboards around the office. Then cans of beans started appearing around the office, including one on my desk. People got really attached to Beans.
  
• Karst used to be filled with even more bluster, and was even more cowardly than he currently is.
  
• We added somewhere in the vicinity of 2800 new dialogue entries. Prior to Heist, all of Path of Exile, including past leagues (even Betrayal!), totalled about 6000 dialogue entries.
  
• We created a conversation system specifically for Heist, but that we can generalise for future content. For Heist, we added 268 conversations, including one that Vinderi has with himself.
  
• There were several weeks between the first dialogue recording and the last, with each character recorded individually. It took a lot of work to piece the lines together and tinker with pauses and overlaps to get them to sound natural-ish.
  
• I had the most fun writing Vinderi. My favourite line out of literally all the dialogue is "Anytibbs, time."
  
• Writing Kurai's heartbreaking scene was particularly emotional as, during Heist's development, my own cat got sick and had to be put down.
  
• The Rogue Harbour was originally going to have dynamically moving NPCs and more conversations between them, but then Lockdown 2 happened. For that version of the Rogue Harbour, I wanted Tibbs to be sitting by the fireplace sewing or whittling toys, and Karst, Tullina, Isla and Vinderi playing poker. Karst would keep losing and get angrier and angrier, Tullina would keep goading him on, Isla would use their distracted fighting to cheat, and Vinderi would undo the cheating when Isla wasn't looking. It was elaborate, and probably good it didn't happen. There are still a few dialogues that can trigger around the Rogue Harbour, however.
  
• Kurai's name is an anagram of Karui, which I only realise once we'd already recorded a lot of her dialogue. It wasn't intentional.
  
• I tried to make one of the characters an ethical cannibal (again), but that was cut. One day...
  
• We might try to use a few of these characters again in the future. There are some I'm keen to explore further.

There are probably a lot more little bits and pieces I'm forgetting, since Heist was one of the busiest leagues I've worked on. I've seen a lot of feedback and it really helps knowing people do, in fact, care about lore, stories and dialogue in Path of Exile. And all that feedback is helpful in polishing what we work on next.

Last week we talked about the changes to the Heist league we've been recently working on. The team is finishing preparations for the 3.12.4 update with the mentioned improvements, as well as other fixes. The patch will be deployed in the coming days, we're aiming to release it as soon as possible. In the meantime, check out a preview of its patch notes below.

The 3.12.4 patch on consoles will be released as early as possible after its deployment on PC.

Note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to release of the 3.12.4 update.

• Enabled the questline that leads toward the Freidrich Tarollo, Slave Merchant boss encounter.
  
• Increased the range that you can move away from your Rogue Allies before they are interrupted from a Job that they are performing.
  
• Unique Contracts can now be placed in the Unique Collection Tab.
  
• The Passive Tree window will now be in the same position when re-opened as when it was last closed. Exceptions to this rule include the first time being opened after logging in to a character, characters below level 8, or if you have any unspent Ascendancy passive points with the Ascendancy passive tree visible.
  
• You can now delete characters that have Harvest Infrastructure in their inventories.
  
• Fixed an issue where Heist members could sometimes ignore orders to perform Jobs if they were in another room or in combat.
  
• Fixed a bug where Maltreatment Axe, Disapprobation Axe and Psychotic Axe were unable to drop.
  
• Fixed a bug where Talismans dropped from some Heists Chests in level 68+ areas were not correctly Anointed.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where a Curio Display in a Grand Heist could contain nothing.
  
• Fixed a bug in Quest Contracts where the quest objective didn't drop for party members.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "increased Rogue's Marker value of primary Heist Target" Heist Equipment modifier didn't work.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "+X to Level of all Jobs" Heist Equipment modifier didn't work.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused projectiles fired by a Shrapnel Ballista supported by Fork Support to hit a target more times than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented the use of movement skills after using Shield Charge if it didn't actually move your character.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused Zombies raised from a Phantasmal Raised Zombies skill gem to take Chaos Damage based on a Life total before some Life modifiers were applied, rather than their Life total after they were affected by all maximum Life modifiers.
  
• Fixed a bug where Seismic Cry and Ancestral Cry's cooldowns were not correctly reduced to four seconds when using the unique claw Al Dhih.
  
• Fixed a client crash.

• Alternate Quality Gems can now be supported by gems which match the bonuses granted by their Alternate Quality.
  
• Divergent Heavy Strike (whose quality grants reduced Knockback Distance) can no longer cause enemies to be pulled towards you when the gem has greater than 20% quality. At 20% quality, the skill will not provide any Knockback effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where Alternate Quality effects on the following gems didn't work as intended: Anomalous Slower Projectiles Support (Projectiles from Supported Skills deal increased Damage with Hits to nearby Enemies), Phantasmal Rallying Cry (Exerted Attacks deal increased Damage), Divergent Seismic Cry (Exerted Attacks have a chance to Knock Enemies Back on Hit), Phantasmal Raise Zombie (Minions gain a portion of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage), Phantasmal Blade Vortex (increased Damage while you have 5 or fewer Blades).
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Flameblast's Less Cast Speed effect was not displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Sunder had the wrong quality effect. It now grants increased Physical Damage.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Fire Penetration, Anomalous Brutality Support and Anomalous Vicious Projectiles Support didn't display their quality effect range when at 0% quality.
  
• Fixed a bug where Anomalous Barrage Support and Anomalous Pierce Support didn't display their quality effect range if the gem had 10 to 19% quality.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Arc's secondary chains dealt damage as if they had chained the maximum number of times.

At the beginning of next week, we're planning to deploy another patch (with a short server restart) which includes more improvements for Heist. While we prepare this patch for deployment, we wanted to give you some insight into what it contains.

We're implementing fixes for various Alternate Quality Gems that weren't working correctly.

• Alternate Quality Gems can now be supported by gems which match the bonuses granted by their Alternate Quality.
  
• Divergent Heavy Strike (x% reduced Knockback Distance) can no longer cause enemies to be pulled towards you when the gem has greater than 20% quality. At 20% quality, the skill will not provide any Knockback effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where Alternate Quality effects on the following gems didn't work as intended: Anomalous Slower Projectiles Support (Projectiles from Supported Skills deal increased Damage with Hits to nearby Enemies), Phantasmal Rallying Cry (Exerted Attacks deal increased Damage), Divergent Seismic Cry (Exerted Attacks have a chance to Knock Enemies Back on Hit), Phantasmal Raise Zombie (Minions gain a portion of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage), Phantasmal Blade Vortex (increased Damage while you have 5 or fewer Blades).
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Flameblast's Less Cast Speed effect was not displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Sunder had the wrong quality effect. It now grants increased Physical Damage.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Fire Penetration, Anomalous Brutality Support and Anomalous Vicious Projectiles Support didn't display their quality effect range when at 0% quality.
  
• Fixed a bug where Anomalous Barrage Support and Anomalous Pierce Support didn't display their quality effect range if the gem had 10 to 19% quality.
  
• Fixed a bug where Divergent Arc's secondary chains dealt damage as if they had chained the maximum number of times.

We've improved the overall behaviour of Rogues and fixed problems where they were not prioritising their jobs over combat or other situations.

We've also increased the range in which you can move from your Rogue before it interrupts the task they're performing.

We're introducing one more Unique Heist Contract which leads to Freidrich Tarollo the Slave Merchant, another Heist Boss.

This patch includes some Mac-specific improvements as we continue to get closer to our official Mac launch.

These are fixes for things like keyboard input failing, gateways not displaying their server latency, improvements to patching, images not displaying and the client crashing after being minimised alongside general client improvements.

We are also working on various instance and client crashes which will be hotfixed as they're ready. We'll share a preview of next week's patch notes prior to the patch going live. This preview would cover more small changes outside of those detailed in this post.

We don't have any updates to provide here unfortunately but we are getting a lot closer to narrowing this problem down.

These are still making good progress. In terms of deployment timeline, we're looking at one week as an optimistic estimate and three weeks as a worst-case scenario. The variance in time depends on how much more iteration will need to take place during testing.

Today we've gathered several pieces of concept art for some of the cosmetic effects introduced in our recent Twilight Mystery Box. If you're interested in taking a sneak peek into the development process of the box, check out the artwork below!

Bright as dawn and mysterious like the starry night, the Twilight Mystery Box has easily become one of the most popular Mystery Boxes of all time. As an appreciation for your continued support, we're making the soundtrack of this Mystery Box available as a free download.

To download the Twilight Mystery Box soundtrack, click (or Right-click, “Save link as”) on the file type you prefer: .flac or .mp3. Enjoy!

If you enjoy music created by our composer Kamil, check out his Soundcloud here or YouTube channel.

For the Heist expansion our art team created not only new NPC models, but a lot of new assets and materials, as well as updated some existing ones. Stan, one of our environment material artists, has written an article about creating materials for the Heist expansion.

----------------------------------------------------------

Hi! I'm Stan Brown, an Environment Material Artist at Grinding Gear Games. I joined the team in May 2020 to work on the exciting Path of Exile 2 project, I also had the privilege to create materials for Heist League.



Creating materials for a game already rich with history and lore is a lot of fun and gives an opportunity to add details from already existing parts of the game. An example of this is the Mansion area in Heist. The marble floor mosaics are based on the stained glass windows in the Chamber of Innocence, and the tiles around it are an unbroken recreation of the floor in the Sceptre of God area.



I use mostly Adobe Allegorithmic's Substance Designer to create my materials. This is a node based system for creating PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials. This means that materials created correctly will react more realistically with light sources than previous methods. It's also cool to be able to add scratches and other details that show up as a light is moved across the surface.





A part I love about material creation and especially for ground materials is to delve into the stories behind them. This means asking questions such as: Did they have the technology to create the floor type I envision? Who lives there? What kind of foot traffic does this area have? What kind of dirt or oil stains could potentially be in this area and why? Is it well kept or abandoned?



The answers to these questions then help make a believable material that fits the surrounding models, for example like the floor in the Tunnels using the same stones under the dirt as the side walkways.



A big thanks goes out to all my colleagues for being such awesome people to work with! Stay safe everyone.

----------------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to check out more works of Stan, have a look at his ArtStation profile here.

Earlier this week we discussed our plans about improvements to the Heist league for the immediate future. The team has been working on a new patch which contains some of the things mentioned in that news post, as well as other fixes. We're planning to deploy the 3.12.3 update as early as possible next week (Monday or Tuesday NZT). Today we've prepared a preview of its patch notes to give you an idea of what to expect.

Please note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to release of the 3.12.3 update.

• Enabled questlines that lead towards The Twins and the Nashta, The Usurper Heist boss encounters.
  
• Significantly increased the likelihood of obtaining Unique Contracts from Smuggler's Caches.
  
• Reduced the maximum length of a Heist in higher level areas. The number of Reward Rooms remains unchanged.
  
• Reduced the number of Heist Job Doors along the path to the primary objective in Heists.
  
• Moved some of the more valuable main-path chest rewards to Reward Room Chests.
  
• Improved the rewards of Generic, Talisman, Metamorph and Harbinger Reward Room Chests.
  
• Dropped Talismans in level 68+ areas now drop with higher-tier modifiers on average and with a random Anointed Notable.
  
• Many Reward Room Chests can now drop their respective Scarabs.
  
• Updated the minimap icon used for Generic Rewards to more closely reflect the random assortment of possible rewards.
  
• Significantly increased the amount of experience that Heist monsters grant when killed.
  
• Increased the Rogue Marker value of Heist objectives by up to 40% (based on the Tier of the Contract).
  
• Reduced the revealing cost for high-tier Blueprints by up to 15%.
  
• Blueprints now display all Reward Chests that Wings contain, rather than just the Reward Chests which can be revealed.
  
• Rooms on Blueprints that you must spend Rogue Markers to reveal will no longer include Armour, Weapons or Jewellery rewards.
  
• The "additional seconds to Lockdown Timer" modifier on Ally Equipment now gives a maximum of 5 seconds (from 10 seconds). Existing items are affected by this change.
  
• The "increased time before Lockdown" modifier on Ally Equipment now gives a maximum of 10% increased time before Lockdown (from 20%). Existing items are affected by this change.
  
• Isla, the Engineer's Heist Perk now gives 30% increased time before Lockdown at Level 1, up to 50% increased time before Lockdown at Level 5 (from 80% at Level 5).
  
• Opening a Heist chest during the Imminent Lockdown timer will now reduce the remaining time by 3 seconds (from 1 second).
  
• Improved the visibility of Observer Totems and their skill effects.
  
• Observer Totems in Contracts requiring the Perception Job now only increase your Alert Level if their area of effect pulse hits you.
  
• Prophecies can no longer trigger when entering a Heist area.
  
• A description of the Rogue Marker value of a Heist Target can now be seen on a Contract.
  
• Blueprints will now display the area level on their item tooltip.
  
• Corpses of many Heist monsters can now be created with Desecrate.
  
• Lockpicking Doors now open slightly faster.
  
• Karst, the Lockpick and Tullina, the Catburglar now complete their Agility Jobs faster.
  
• Gianna, the Master of Disguise's Disguise skill no longer has a cooldown. This fixes a case where she was unable to disguise herself in quick succession.
  
• Rogues now have a short cooldown after using a voice line before they can use it again.
  
• Reinforcements now spawn slightly quicker in Laboratory and Prohibited Library.
  
• Fixed a bug which could sometimes result in fewer monsters spawning than intended as reinforcements during Lockdown.
  
• Fixed a bug where Tullina could fail to open a Heist door in the Underbelly.
  
• Fixed a bug where Rogues would sometimes dance in place after placing a bomb near a Demolition job if you were standing too close to the door.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented the "League Interface" hotkey from working on Heist Chests during Lockdown if you had Tibbs or Niles with you.
  
• Fixed a bug where a Heist chest could spawn in unwalkable terrain in Smuggler's Den.
  
• Fixed a visual issue where it appeared as if Alert Level was not increasing when opening Heist chests.
  
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to apply Veiled Modifiers and Incubators to Ally Equipment, Contracts and Blueprints.
  
• Fixed a bug where Trinket modifiers which caused Heist Chests to drop additional rewards weren't being applied if the chest was opened by an accompanying Rogue.
  
• Fixed a bug where some Ally Equipment could list Adiyah, the Wayfinder and Kurai, the Administrator as Rogues that it could be equipped by.
  
• Fixed a bug where Heist Rogues would retain their Quest Item dialogue option after you had already taken the Quest Item.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ashblessed Warden's Beam skill hit a larger area than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where Contracts and Blueprints displayed level requirements.

• Hexblast now prioritises Cursed enemies.
  
• Steel Shards are now maintained between areas.
  
• Tane Octavius can now be Ctrl + Clicked to bring up the Vendor window.
  
• The Captain Fairgraves encounter in The Ship Graveyard now begins slightly sooner.
  
• Added The Hidden Blade, Crest of Desire and The Ghastly Theatre to the Unique Collection Tab.
  
• Adjusted the look of Exalted Weapon Effect to closer match its original visuals.
  
• Fixed a bug which could cause Cremation to sometimes deal no damage.
  
• Fixed a bug which could prevent the use of Berserk after weapon-swapping.
  
• Fixed a bug where Phantasmal Cyclone's "x% Chance to Avoid Interruption from Stuns While Using this Skill" quality modifier rolled when you began channelling and used the outcome of that roll until you stopped channelling, rather than rolling each time something attempted to stun you.
  
• Fixed a bug where Void Sphere, Sigil of Power, Flame Wall and Frost Shield supported by Trap Support could visually disappear after you threw a different trap.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the moving of the camera when Lightning Warping to be out of sync with the skill effects.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Unnatural Instinct unique Viridian Jewel would not grant implicit modifier stats if they matched a stat granted by being socketed into your passive skill tree.
  
• Fixed a bug where Replica Rumi's Concoction unique flask didn't display its buff name while active.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Crackling Lance has x% increased branching angle" Eternal Labyrinth helmet enchantment had a lower value than intended. It now grants 36% increased branching angle.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where the Cortex encounter no longer spawned minions.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where Void Pits in Synthesis Guardian encounters weren't removed.
  
• Fixed a bug where opening a Map with an Alva Atlas Mission while you had no Incursions remaining for your Temple of Atzoatl would consume the mission.
  
• Fixed a bug where Vaal Temple Map displayed an incorrect Atlas Region and was required to unlock a Favourite Map slot in Valdo's Rest.
  
• Fixed a bug where the size of Dragon Portal Effect was smaller than intended when created outside of your Hideout.

• Fixed an instance crash.

We've prepared a small update which should fix the portals to the Rogue Harbour from Heists, as well as a handful of other issues. We're planning to deploy the 3.12.2b update by the end of this week, likely today (Thursday NZT). In the meantime, check out a preview of its patch notes.

Please note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to release of the 3.12.2b update.

• The Rogue Harbour is now a private area which only you and your party members can access.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused Grand Heists to sometimes fail to spawn an entrance to a Wing.
  
• Fixed a bug where Agility Jobs could sometimes not be completed in Underbelly.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where Skitterbots preferred pathing towards allies, rather than enemies.
  
• Fixed a bug where Animated Guardians didn't lose their items when they died.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when stealing a modifier from a Nemesis Rare monster.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when applying the Revenant Explosive Arrow Effect microtransaction.
  
• Fixed an instance crash that could occur when using Infernal Blow.

We'll deploy more improvements to the Heist league next week in the 3.12.3 update. Thanks for your feedback and patience!

During the development of the Heist expansion, just when we were about to record voice lines for the league, New Zealand went into a second lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Nick, one of our narrative designers, has written an article about the process of recording the Heist voice acting from Level 3 lockdown.

----------------------------------------------------------

Earlier this year, New Zealand, like much of the world, went into mandatory lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus -- right in the middle of development for Harvest. Thankfully, Harvest was relatively light on narrative, and we were able to record Oshabi's dialogue after restrictions had been eased. Harvest's simpler story let us put more effort into Heist, which was intended to be much more story- and character-driven.

I'd started concepting characters a month or two before development began in earnest, and had run through more narrative ideas than I can actually remember. From the outset, this looked like it would give Betrayal -- the previous dialogue heavyweight -- a run for its money, but at least we were on track.

Then, on August 11, it was announced that Auckland, where GGG operates, would be put in lockdown again.

Uh oh.

At that stage, we had maybe two out of thirteen scripts complete, but we'd luckily already cast the majority of characters, and writing can thankfully be done basically anywhere there's a steady supply of coffee and snacks. But recording the characters, well, that can't be done from home.

...Usually.

The first character we were to record was Kurai, voiced by Miriama Smith. She was, at the time, in managed isolation (AKA quarantine) as she'd just returned from a shoot in Australia. The team at Native Audio went to her hotel and handed off a home-recording kit, and the bulk of Heist's story framework was recorded in her hotel room, with us listening in from our homes.

It was a trial by fire, and a necessary one, because it turns out that was how we'd be recording nearly all of Heist's characters. Many of the people we'd cast had home studios -- some even lived in, and recorded from the UK -- and the ones that didn't either got a home kit temporarily or went into the Native Audio studios under very rigorous hygiene restrictions.

The end result isn't perfect. One of the main reasons to consistently use the same studio is to ensure all characters have the same quality to the voice, and in Heist, there are a few characters that distinctly sound a bit different when heard in isolation. But we had to record dialogue earlier for Heist than most leagues so we could implement them into our new conversation system.

Given the circumstances and challenges we faced, the end result is honestly pretty stellar.

We implemented a new system for handling conversations for Heist. This system lets us rank dialogue by priority, with higher priority dialogue cutting off lower priority dialogue and preventing any new lower priority dialogue from playing. We did this specifically to avoid the Betrayal issue of characters yelling over each other in an unintelligible mess. Then we made our poor programmer Josh make a bazillion exceptions to this so I could intentionally have characters talk over each other. Making Huck and Tullina awkwardly and repeatedly talk over each other is probably the greatest abuse of my power I've achieved while working at GGG, and hearing it brings me endless joy.

In a future post we'll talk about how we build out some of the lore for this league, and some interesting facts and connections you might not know about, so keep an eye out for that!

We're now in the second week of the Heist league and the team is continuing to monitor your feedback and reported issues. In this news post we'd like to give you an update about some recently reported issues and to provide a general indication of what we're working on. Please note that a lot of the plans here are early and may change as they undergo development and internal testing.

While there's currently no experience penalty on Heist monsters, we agree that in actual gameplay, they don't grant enough experience. We plan to significantly increase the experience that Heist monsters grant, with a focus on monsters encountered during Lockdown.

We're going to standardise the size of Heists so that once you hit maps, they don't get any larger than the current Tier 1 size. You'll find a greater density of reward rooms in the higher-tier ones, of course.

We have reduced the number of Heist Job doors along the direct path to the primary objective which need to be opened prior to Lockdown. We have also increased the speed at which Karst and Tullina complete the Agility Job.

There are some Heist Jobs that currently can't be sped up, but we're investigating the possibility of allowing this. In addition, some of the Heist doors have timing values that we'd like to make faster.

Observer Totems, which can be found in Heists that require the Perception Job, increase Alert Level when you are close to them. One of the core issues is that it isn't necessarily obvious when you are approaching these totems or when you are in range of their Alert Level aura. We will be improving their visibility in a future update (both where they are and indicating when your Rogue specialising in Perception has made them vulnerable to damage).

Currently when a totem uses its Alert Level generation skill on you, your Alert Level goes up unless you kill it before it finishes using the skill. We will be changing it so that the skill essentially travels out in a wave that you can run away from or avoid. It will only increase the Alert Level if you are hit by it.

We plan to enable two new boss encounters (and their accompanying questline) in an upcoming patch this week. Following that, we are aiming to enable another boss encounter (and questline) next week!

We have completed a large pass on Heist rewards. Our current plan is to increase the value of various reward types, such as Generic, Talismans, Metamorph and Harbinger. We want to provide further incentive to prioritising Reward Room Chests, therefore we will be moving some of the special rewards from Main Path Chests into Reward Room Chests.

Various Reward Room Chests will have a chance to drop Scarabs which match their respective rewards. We will be reducing the frequency at which Generic Reward Room Chests appear in Heists as well.

We have increased the Rogue Marker value of Heist objectives by up to 40% (based on the Tier of the Contract).

We have reduced the revealing cost for high-tier Blueprints by up to 15%. Alongside the increased Rogue Markers generated by running Heist Contracts, we expect that you should feel less strained by Blueprint revealing costs.

Additionally, we plan to change Blueprints to display all of the Reward Rooms that the Wings contain, rather than just the Reward Rooms that can be revealed. This way, you'll be able to see all of the potential rewards in a given Wing, giving you more information to decide whether you'd like to reveal a given Wing.

We are also considering some changes to how much you can extend the lockdown timer, such that it's still an effective strategy, but not one that trivialises opening all reward chests.

There's a problem where returning to the Rogue Harbour can put you into the wrong Harbour, preventing you from returning to your Heist. We attempted to fix it last week but ran into some big problems and had to revert the fix. We have another plan for fixing it which we hope to deploy later this week.

We aim to fix crashes as soon as possible, prioritising crashes based on how frequently they're occurring and how many players they're affecting. On Saturday, we fixed the most common client crash. We will continue to fix crashes as quickly as possible in our upcoming patches.

The common client crash on this platform has the full attention of our engine development team at the moment.

Stash Tab Folders are nearing completion. We will then be doing extensive internal testing. As soon as they're ready to go, we will be patching them in.

Stash Tab Affinities will take a little bit more time to complete, but we don't want to delay Stash Tab Folders. We're aiming to have Stash Tab Affinities released within the next few weeks.

It's critical that both of these features are implemented very safely and tested thoroughly, due to their nature.

Since our unofficial release of an experimental macOS client immediately before the Heist release, we have been working on fixing commonly-reported issues. There are still a few important issues remaining, so we don't have a release date locked down yet. We'd like it to ideally be next week though.

• Fixed a bug where Tullina could fail to open a Heist door in the Underbelly.
  
• Fixed a bug where some Prophecies would trigger and be consumed in Heists.
  
• Fixed a bug where Elemental Overload would not show its buff timer.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused Grand Heists to sometimes fail to spawn an entrance to a Wing.
  
• And many more - we'll post a preview of patch notes once we have them tested and assembled into a patch.

Thanks for making it through this long post! We'll continue to monitor feedback as these changes are deployed. We're likely to make additional improvements, and we'll keep you updated about those too.