Aug 16, 2018

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hello all,

This week we're bringing in new Ascension levels, a good amount of colorless cards, and a few bug fixes here and there!

Ascension

Ascension 16 - 20 is here! Gold becomes more precious, enemies are tougher, and a change is added to the final encounter. These ascension levels are not yet finalized and feedback is welcome :).

New Colorless Cards

Ten new colorless cards have been added to the game!

Community Fan Art

Once again we are blessed with beautiful fan art from the community. PRAISE SNECKO!

This incredible hand drawn piece by @ScorpionTundra

"I am the Deadliest Assassin" by /u/Zixzs

Silent vs Darklings by @Vasilas32

Patch Notes

Content

Ascension 16 - 20 is now available!
Adding Achievement for beating Ascension 20.
Adding colorless card Chrysalis.
Adding colorless card Discovery.
Adding colorless card Forethought.
Adding colorless card Hand of Greed.
Adding colorless card Impatience.
Adding colorless card Mayhem.
Adding colorless card Metamorphosis.
Adding colorless card Panic Button.
Adding colorless card The Bomb.
Adding colorless card Violence.
Adding curse card Shame.

Balance

Incense Burner relic nerf: 5 -> 6 turns.
Paper Krane relic nerf: 50% -> 40% damage reduction.
The Guardian boss' Phase Shift is now 35 starting Ascension 9.

Bug Fixes

Display-related configs are no longer applied on save slot switch (caused UI issues).
Parasite + Fungi Beast combat can actually be encountered now.
Fixed an instance where you couldn't proceed if all rest site options were unavailable.
Gold Shrine event's desecrate option now shows the correct gold amount.
Save Slot completion % should now be more accurate.
We Meet Again event no longer allows the player to drink or discard the potion.
Wrist Blade relic now works with cards that are cost 0 via Setup or Forethought.
You can now drink Fruit Juice in more locations. (FRUIT JUICE REVOLUTION)

UI and Effects

Compressing campfire option assets
Bestiary is removed from the Main Menu as it's not implemented yet.
Deleting a save slot now removes the name of that save slot in the background (top left corner).
Removing 'Controller Support not supported' message in Run History Screen (as it's supported).

Localization

Adding initial support for EPO (Esperanto).
Updates for DEU, IND, ITA, JPN, KOR, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.

Aug 9, 2018

Weekly Patch 37: Darkness

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hello,

This week's patch brings in the Save Slot system, some balance changes, custom mods, and a few other tweaks here and there. Special thanks to our beta testers for helping us improve the UI for the Save Slot system!

Save Slots

Now your guests won't ruin your winstreak

The Save Slots system allows players to create multiple saves in the game. Each slot tracks its own progress, playtime, and preferences. You can now also delete your save if you wish to start over. Note: Steam achievements are not removed when deleting profiles.

Community Fanart

So much art! We're really happy to have inspired so much art! There's always a ton of exciting art to be found in all of the social media things. As always, just ping us on Twitter, reddit, Discord, facebook, etc if you want us to feature your stuff :).

Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire by @AzulCrescent

This adorable illustration of the trio by @Kapibeee

The Defect by @nuzme

Patch Notes

Content

New City Encounter - Shelled Parasite and Fungi Beast.
Custom Mod: Blue Cards. Adds the Defect's cards into the card pool.
Custom Mod: Colorless Cards. Adds Colorless cards into the card pool.
Custom Mod: Green Cards. Adds the Silent's cards into the card pool.
Custom Mod: Red Cards. Adds the Ironclad's cards into the card pool.

Balance

Enlightenment card is now Uncommon (was Rare).
Glacier card nerf: 8 -> 7 Block. Glacier+ nerf: 11 -> 10 Block.
Juggernaut+ card buff: Upgrade amount 1 -> 2.
Leg Sweep card nerf: 12 -> 11 Block. Leg Sweep+ nerf: 15 -> 14 Block.
Offering card nerf: HP Loss increased from 5 -> 6.
Reboot card nerf: 5 -> 4. Reboot+ 7 -> 6 card draw.
Ritual Dagger card buff: 12 -> 15.
Ritual Dagger+ card buff: Upgrade amount 1 -> 2.
Transmutation card buffed. Cards acquired by Transmutation now cost 0 for the turn.
Wraith Form card nerf: 3 -> 2 Intangible. Wraith Form+ nerf: 4 -> 3 Intangible.
Champ boss' Execute attack nerf: 7x3 -> 10x2.
Champ boss' Slap attack buff: 10 -> 12 (Asc: 12 -> 14).
Champ boss' Slash attack buff: 15 -> 16 (Asc: 16 -> 18).
Elite Sentry enemies buff: Damage +1. Hp increased by about 3.
Gremlin Leader HP lowered. 155 - 164 -> 140 - 148. Asc: 162 - 172 -> 145 - 155.
Hexaghost's 6th turn Inferno attack now deals slightly less damage.
Nemesis elite buff: HP increased. 175 - 186 -> 185 - 200.
Nemesis elite buff: Scythe attack damage 40 -> 45.
Reptomancer enemy is now affected by Ascension 2 and Ascension 7.
Shelled Parasite and Slaver combined combat has been removed from The City.
Spire Growth enemy is now affected by Ascension 2 and Ascension 7.
Thread and Needle relic nerf: 5 -> 4 Plated Armor.
Gold Shrine event's desecrate option now gives 25 more gold.
Neow's Potion option now opens a reward screen with three potions.
Neows 50% downside is lowered to 30% and now displays the exact amount of damage dealt.

Bug Fixes

an -> a typo in the Nest event.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Abandon Run button.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Exit Game button.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Game Settings tab button.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Input Settings tab button.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Proceed button.
Controller button icon can no longer overlap text for Skip Card button.
Draw 1 Shiv -> Add 1 Shiv into your hand. Infinite Blades Power.
Preview card in We Meet Again event now shows a copy (not shrunk or rotated anymore).
Red Skull relic no longer has odd behavior if you heal at the start of combat (Pantograph, etc).
Scrape and All For One cards now correctly work with cards that set cost to 0 until played.
Thunderstrike card no longer shoots a single lightning if you have channeled no Lightning.

Localization

Credits for SPA added into the game.
Credits updated for UKR.
Updates for DEU, FRA, ITA, JPN, KOR, SPA, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.

Next week's focus will mainly be on secret content (still a ways out). However, we'll be sneaking in some reworks and Ascension content while you wait for that.

Aug 2, 2018

Weekly Patch 36: Power Through

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey everyone,

It's patch time!

This week brings a few bug fixes and quality of life improvements. We thank you for your patience while we work on various features that are still forthcoming! It's gonna be good :D

Save Slot System

We're finishing up a Save Slot system! This will probably be available in beta next week.

Community Fan Art

Battle of the 3 Ds by @AzulCrescent

Ironclad admiring Singing Bowl by @Kapibeee

Lagavulin by @EyeSakk

Patch Notes

Hotfix

LOC: Updated Spanish!

Bug Fixes

Fixed an incorrect interaction with Mark of the Bloom and the Moai Head event in Act 3.
Fixed bug where We Meet Again potion removal didn't apply for the left most slot.
Fixed issue where Custom Mods would be enabled in a Daily Run.
Improved blight stacking for Endless. Grotesque Trophy is just 1 blight now.
Limit Break card now also doubles negative strength.
Moving Bronze Automaton and its orbs 50px left so the rightmost orb's powers aren't cut off.
Opening the Daily Climb screen should now properly show today's score.
Poison is now capped at 9999.
Preventing save corruption due to power loss.

UI and Effects

Draw and Discard piles can now be opened from hand select screen (Gambling Chip, Armaments, etc).
Thorns and Flame Barrier powers are made consistent.

Balance

Ascension Mode unlock requirement updated. Now unlocked per character when you win.
Ball Lightning+ card nerf: Upgrade damage 4 -> 3.
Blade Dance card rarity lowered from Uncommon -> Common.
Slaver/Looter and Slaver/Monster encounters in Act 1 swap positions to prevent Vulnerable + Attack turns.

Localization

Updates for DEU, IND, ITA, KOR, RUS, ZHS, ZHT.
Updating credits organization for RUS.

Jul 26, 2018

Weekly Patch 35: Aggregate

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey everyone! We hope everyone's getting some shade, it's actually too sunny.

This week's focus was on designing future content and a save slot system (which will be in beta soon). Some of the new content requires art or balance so they aren't in the main branch just yet.

Localization

We now have support for Indonesian! We're always looking to add new languages. Did you know Slay the Spire is translated into 20 languages? It's pretty great, and all thanks to you! As always, you can speak to localization experts (and us!) at our Discord.

Community Fanart

Honestly, this is the greatest thing we started adding to our weekly announcements.

This jolly Time Eater was gifted to us by @lotsofwoomy

The Ironclad facing off against the Gremlin Nob by Westly LaFleur

战士 by LAZY10086

Patch Notes

Content

Adding event We Meet Again.
Adding rare relic Stone Calendar.
Adding shop relic Chemical X.

Balance

Attack, Skill, and Power potions now allow you to choose 1 of 3 cards (buff).
Reptomancer enemy now gives Weak instead of Vulnerable.

UI and Effects

Updated Smoke Bomb's use text from Drink -> Throw.
You can now toggle between dates when viewing Daily Climber leaderboards.

Bug Fixes

Buffer is no longer lost when hit by 0 damage attacks.
Centennial Puzzle no longer draws cards when taking 0 damage as a result of things like Buffer.
Corpse Explosion power is now a debuff.
Dropdown Menu scrolling thumb fixed (used when dropdown overflows).
Fix for a crash instance when loading a save for an Endless run.
Fix for abnormal behavior when you load the game into ? rooms.
Fix for an old save incompatibility crash.
Fix for crash when playing Havoc against half dead enemies (Darkling/Awakened one).
Fixed issue where potion targeting failed if the left most enemy was dead (controller only)
Mind Bloom event's boss battle no longer counts as a boss for scoring or achievements.
Orange Pellets relic no longer has strange interactions with negative Focus.
Shelled Parasite now accounts for Buffer and Intangible with its life leech action.
Sling Of Courage relic was incorrectly flashing in every room.
Smoke Bomb now disables the end turn button so that enemies cannot attack you as you flee.
Smoke Bombs no longer trigger Come at Me achievement.

Localization

Indonesian language added.
Updates for DEU, FRA, IND, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, SRB, SRP, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.

Jul 19, 2018

Weekly Patch 34: Malaise

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Greetings,

This week's focus continues the trend of adding content to reach our content goals. On top of this, we took some time to examine various cards and relics for balancing. We appreciate your continued patience and feedback!

Content

The main branch gets 4 new relics! The beta branch contains various relics, cards, and events. However,they still require testing, fine tuning, and art assets until they're officially available on the main branch. For our newer players, information on the beta branch can be found here.

What's Still Coming?

Lots! We still want to add (or are currently working on) a Save Slot system, Steam Workshop support, Steam Controller support, improving and adding various VFX, etc etc... and of course NO SPOILERS.

Localization

Is the translation for your preferred language missing, lacking, or outdated? Well, the tremendous efforts of community translators are working tirelessly just for you. Help them out! Just visit our official Discord server and hop in the localization section! I'll draw you a cultist in return!

Community Fanart

We really enjoy posting these. As always, just ping @MegaCrit if you want your works showcased here!

This gorgeous illustration of the main characters by Clara Cheung

The Silent by @khg9201

This interesting cultist design by @Pixel_State

Patch Notes

Hotfixes

Fixed an issue with older saves causing games to crash when continuing.

Content

Adding common relic Maw Bank
Adding rare relic Nunchaku.
Adding green boss relic Hovering Kite.
Adding green boss relic Wrist Blade.

Balance

Custom Mode is now available if your highest daily score is more than 0.
Anger card buff: 5 -> 6 damage. Upgraded 7 -> 8 damage.
Berserk card buff: Cost 1 -> 0. Upgrading now reduces Vulnerable from 3 -> 2.
Eternal Feather relic buff: 2 -> 3 HP per 5 cards.
Expertise+ card nerf: 8 -> 7 cards in hand.
Glacier card nerf: Block 9 -> 8. Upgraded: 12 -> 11.
Hovering Kite relic nerfed. (1 -> 2 discards)
Hyperbeam card buff: 25 -> 26 damage. Upgraded: 32 -> 34.
Juggernaut card buff: Damage 3 -> 5. Upgraded 5 -> 6.
Malaise card is now Rare (was Uncommon).
Offering card nerf: Self damage increased from 4 -> 5.
Poisoned Stab card buff: Damage 5 -> 6. Upgraded: 6 -> 8.
Rampage card's ramp increased from 4 -> 5. No change to upgraded version.
Rebound card buff: Damage 8 -> 9. Upgraded 11 -> 12.
Ritual Dagger card buff. Base damage +3.
Snecko Oil potion buffed. Draw 2 -> 3 cards.
Tactician card is now Uncommon.
Tiny House relic buff: 30 -> 50 gold.
Unload card buff: Damage 12 -> 14. Upgraded 16 -> 18.

UI and Effects

Adding a few periods for some Choose a card... messages.
Adding keyword highlighting for Bottled relics.
CARD_OBTAIN sfx no longer stacks for add card to hand actions like Storm Of Steel.
Dream Catcher's wording is made more consistent with Regal Pillow.
Improved formatting for Tactician and Ritual Dagger cards.
Oxford comma for Orange Pellets relic.
Removed LT/RT vertical scrolling for dungeon map screen with controllers.
Updating wording for Daily Unlock requirement.
When targeting monsters with controllers, the left most monster is always targeted first now.

Bug Fixes

Binary mod is now correctly marked as a negative modifier in the custom mode screen.
Cards in Run History weren't being sorted correctly.
Enemies in the Awakened One encounter were not attacking in the correct order. Now attacks left to right.
Fixed an issue where continuing an Endless run would crash.
Fixed bug where you could play locked characters with controller.
Fixed issue where Multi-Page tutorial didn't work with controllers properly.
Fixed issue where viewing map legend via controller while transitioning to next room caused issues.
Fixed issue where you couldn't view relics in dungeon map screen using controller.
Fixed Save and Quit Smoke Bomb exploit.
Fixed some instances where closing the relic view popup prevented the screen below from updating correctly.
Gold gain effect from things like Dead Adventurer is now a localizeable string.
Players could get the Catalyst achievement from the regnerate power.
Using a Smoke Bomb no longer gives the Champion score bonus.

Localization

Credits added for ZHT.
Updates for DEU, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, ZHS, ZHT.

Jul 18, 2018

The bestest and most top PC games of 2018 so far

The Council - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (RPS)

We’re just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we’ve shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you’re reading right now this second.

And what games they are! 2018 has been a great year so far, and our top picks run the whole range, from hand drawn oddities made by one person, to big mega-studio blockbusters that took the work of hundreds. And each of them is special to us in some way. Just like you are too. Click through the arrows to see the full spread of our faves so far. Better luck next year to the games that didn’t make the cut this time.

(more…)

Jul 12, 2018

Weekly Patch 33: Terror

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hello,

This week's focus was on content creation and polish! With the completion of the animations for 3 new enemies, they have been unleashed into the Beyond!

Act 3 Enemies

Three new enemies have been added into Act 3. This doubles the variety of enemies in Act 3!

Three new ways to die

Relics

Five new relics have been added! We're still adding more content (as our beta players are aware) so stay tuned.

The Hand Drill: A new shop-only relic

Custom Mode

We're glad that you're all enjoying Custom Mode. It's fun to experiment and see some crazy interactions.

This week we're adding in the Endless and Blight Chest mods, allowing players to keep modifying their decks and fight monsters that keep getting stronger.

We're looking into lowering the requirement to unlock Custom Mode, adding more goodies, and eventually expanding into supporting mods better (Steam Workshop?!). When we lower the unlock requirement, we're considering the removal of the special seeds. As always, let us know what you think in the comments or at our official Discord.

Community Fanart

Hey, why is there only one this week?! Because you're making art but not pinging @MegaCrit, and saying you want it in the announcements, that's why. We want to see and post all your creations!

Time Eater by @ShadowmarX

Patch Notes

Content

Adding enemy Reptomancer.
Adding enemy Spire Growth.
Adding enemy Transient.
Adding relic Frozen Core.
Adding relic Hand Drill.
Adding relic Orange Pellets.
Adding relic Ring of the Serpent.
Adding relic Sling of Courage.
Endless mod added to Custom Mode. Enemies get stronger and stronger.
Blight Chests mod added to Custom Mode. Boss chests give unique unavoidable blights for added challenge.

Balance

Berserk card buffed. Applies 3 Vulnerable to self instead of 5.
Corpse Explosion power can now trigger on Darklings.
No Draw power now counts as a debuff.
Red Skull relic is now Common.
Singing Bowl relic is now Uncommon.
Tough Bandages relic is now Rare.
Twisted Funnel relic is now Silent only.
Wraith Form power now properly counts as a debuff. (Like Biased Cognition)

UI and Effects

If cards have too many keywords (eg Rainbow), the tips are shifted up.
Improved Face Trader wording for top option to better reflect what happens.
Updating Power icon for Corpse Explosion.

Bug Fixes

Fixed issue where Run History sometimes displayed a custom seed for normal runs.
Gambler's Brew will no longer crash if used with no cards in hand.
Gremlin Leader summon used the incorrect RNG, resulting in different enemies for the same seed.
Havoc card now utilizes RNG to select its random target (save/load consistency).
Normality card's reminder text no longer uses incorrect wording.
Obtaining Pandora's Box without Strikes or Defends no longer opens a blank screen.

Localization

Updates for DEU, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, SRB, SRP, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.

Jul 6, 2018

The 100 best-selling games on Steam in 2018 so far

Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

biggest-steam-games-2018

We’ve just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It’s a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you’ll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.

2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets. (more…)

Jul 6, 2018

Slay the Spire adds Face Trader event, new Shop Relics and neat UI adjustments

Slay the Spire

Last week, Slay the Spire added a third game mode and cracked one million copies sold. This week, the roguelike deck-builder adds a new Face Trader feature, five new Shop Relics and Relic Overflow Paging—the latter of which improves how multiple Relics are displayed at once. It now packs up to 25 relics per page. Which, in the heat of a game, is a lot of Relics.

Let's start with that. Developer Mega Crit says Relics were difficult to identify when "people were having fun testing the game's limits". As such, in order to maintain a "reasonable" hitbox, Relics no longer shrink as more are added to your deck. Instead, players can now page through relics, and reduced spacing means 25 reclics can now fit into a single page. That looks like this:

The new Face Trader event is described by the dev like so: "It's a new event. This event shows up in any Act and can give you one of five relics exclusive to this event, we think it's facetastic."

With that, expect the new Cultist Headpiece, Face of the Cleric, Gremlin Visage, N'loth's Hungry Face, and Ssserpent Head. New Shop Relics include the Clockwork Souvenir, Dolly's Mirror, Meal Ticket, The Abacus and the Twisted Funnel. Moreover, the third relic sold by the merchant is now always a shop rarity.

Full patch notes on all of that can be found here. If you're struggling with Slay the Spire, let me suggest our tips for topping the tower.