well met, friends! our favorite day has returned - it is patch day once more!

this time, it'll be slightly different, as we've got a big patch on our hands. so big, in fact, that i think the best move is to release it on a separate testing branch first before putting it out to the public. you can consider this to be a beta test of sorts! i will explain how to access this build at the bottom of this page.

the highlight of the update is the fabled NewGame+ mode!

beating the game now unlocks NewGame+ mode! upon reaching the end screen, you will be prompted to continue onwards for another run through the Tower. in this mode, you will keep your items and stats and spawn at the bottom of the Tower once more. there will be new items and new enemies to face, as well as the older enemies receiving increased strength and health to match yours!

NewGame+ is HARD, and therefore not every build can reach the end reliably. you must use everything at your disposal if you hope to reach the top.

the best way to approach it is to imagine me, the developer, throwing the metaphorical gauntlet down, claiming that you, the player, will not beat it because it's too hard. good luck!

Update v1.3

Added Content:

-Added first implementation of WASD movement. The movement keys are unbound by default.

-Added NewGame+

-A new summoning spell is added - Forbidden Djinn Ritual, which requires an item to be sacrificed to summon a powerful ally, whose strength will depend on the fed item!

-You can now give your Health Potions to your summons

-Summoned units have more things to say when speaking

-A new secret spell has been added, which requires an enemy to be vanquished to gain access to it.

-Increased max level of all spells to Level 8 to allow spellcasters to face NewGame+ fairly.

-Added Japanese Localization

-Added some Menacing Obelisk effects, including a few which are tied to certain levels or rooms

-Added many Unique items, both for the normal game and for NG+

-Added a few new Item modifiers to the normal item modifier list: No Requirements, Lower Mana of Spells and Attacks Cleave

-Added several rooms to Lower Dungeons 1, Lower Dungeons 2, Upper Halls, Skeleton Pit and Breeding Grounds 1

-Added a few more trap rooms to certain levels

-Added two secret enemies. See if you run into them...

Gameplay Improvements:

-You can now have multiple Ironman runs active at the same time. Previously, starting a new ironman playthough would overwrite all other ironman saves. Now you can have as many as you want.

-Improved several of Athanasi's animations

-The Poison Wand projectile received new visuals, as well as the Spitter's 'spit' projectile

-Skeleton Golems have more Taking Damage animations

-Some spell icons were improved, such as Blinding Gas, Unstable Pressure Orb and Freezing Strikes

-Items can roll 3 modifiers by default in the NewGame+ starting from the Halls of Pain and onwards

-The 'Endless Loop' room in the Blood Coven's Landing 1 will be made to spawn much more often, but only one is allowed to ever spawn.

-Slightly nerfed the difficulty in Lower Dungeons 2 and the Halls of Pain, to bring the difficulty curve to a more linear path instead of having two hard-stops for most players. Some rooms were made easier, and the strength of the enemies on these floors was slightly lowered.

-Many spells got buffed, including: Ice Wave, Ice Circle, Combustion, Fire Wall, Fireball, Poison Circle, Annihilation and Shocking Discharge

-Buffed several unique items, including Fatebinders, The Revenge and Gakmarok's Sacrificial Stone

-Changed the Mask of Kus-Mass to either give 2Hp or 1 Armor, instead of giving both 1Hp and 1Armor per use. Full HP+MP Potions also work for the Mask effect now. If you have a save with the Mask, the stats will not change, but the effect will be switched over to this newer one.

-Summoned Units no longer disappear when returning to the Paladin Camp after a certain event has been activated.

-Nerfed the Skullcrusher weapon-type slightly by reducing their max damage rolls

-You can no longer roll the same Menacing Obelisk effect twice in a row

Bug Fixes:

-Fixed Shield Bash's collider sometimes staying on if you take damage (and play the Taking Damage animation) right as you cast Shield Bash

-Fixed being able to lock-up movement by interrupting the Slam Combat Arts by holding both Left and Right Mouse clicks as the Slam animation begins

-Freezing Strikes no longer lasts forever

-Fixed error where a specific sequence of actions when saving a game would undo the name of your last saved file instead of the currently selected save file

-Fixed multiple rooms in the Spire and in the Halls of Pain occluding themselves within the vision of the player

-Fixed certain chests in The Top not being removed when reloading a previous save

-Fixed Devastators being a lower itemLevel than intended, leading to less powerful item modifiers

-Fixed issue where Golden Goblin items sometimes did not keep their name through saves

-Fixed the Healing Spell costing 10 mana if you had Marni's Ring equipped

-Fixed spells being colored red in the Spell Slot on the UI when the player had Marni's Ring equipped and over 10 mana, but less mana than the original manacost of the spell

-Fixed error where some Doors would remain transparent

-Fixed error where enemies you don't see couldn't open doors properly

-Fixed the 'Snake Coat' 3D model not changing colors when worn by Kira

-Fixed the 'Stutter-step' enemies would do at the end of the Balcony cutscene

-Fixed area in the Lost Corridor's trap room where the player thought they could walk through

-Fixed issues with certain Arches staying visible when they shouldn't

-The 50% Potion Effectiveness Item effect will properly carry through saves

-Fixed error where certain enemies would aggro to summons from a great distance

-Fixed error where a rare sequence of events would lead to an enemy (mostly Goats) not being outlined despite the outlines being set to Always

-Fixed issue where the Player would sometimes not properly load the Ironblood Poison Resist effect when loading a saved game which has the effect

-Fixed Burning Spirits sometimes not properly playing their Taking Damage sounds

-Fixed Tombs blocking item pickup

-Fixed Skeleton Golems stopping their attack patterns if they are retargetting to a summon after finishing an attack

-Fixed Acidfangs in Breeding Grounds 2 still being called Spitters

-Fixed the Barrel trap rooms not being properly reset on reload under certain conditions

-Fixed some enemies being able to easily attack players through doors

-Fixed error where the Blood Coven doors would block vision even when opened

-Fixed some issues with the Endless room in Blood Coven Landing 1

-Fixed Ice Wave being unable to damage the Portals in the Arena fight in the Blood Coven Landing 2.

-Fixed a spot in the BCL2 Arena fight which would prevent portals from working if the player saved and loaded at that position

-Fixed Portals in the BCL2 Arena fight sometimes not making a proper explosion sound when destroyed

-Fixed certain spells having incorrect values if you were to lose a level in them, such as Slow and Shocking Discharge

-Fixed the Holy Rend soundeffect still playing after loading a game

-Fixed the Treasure Seeker's Protector not having Dodge/Armor values shown on mouseover

-Fixed Manticore's item drop position being far away from the enemy's center

-Fixed issue with the Kill Tracker sometimes being wonky when loading very old saves

-Fixed issue in trap-rooms that could cause enemies to be spawned outside the boundary of the room

Miscellaneous:

-Golden Goblin items now have a yellow background

-Taking Damage will no longer interrupt Multistrike

-Holding the Hold-Position key will behave properly when using Multistrike instead of Multistrike overriding the Hold-Position action

-You can no longer weapon-switch while attacking with a Wand.

-Loading a Save is now faster

-Improved loading time/speed on the Halls of Pain

-Summons will now properly open doors in the Blood Coven levels

-Roaches will now properly move in the Blood Coven Landing 2 level

-You can have actions that are unassigned with no corresponding keybinds

-Items should stack up on each other less often, and loot explosions are more optimized.

-Several item icons were improved and had their mipmaps enabled, such as the Horned Helmet and some rings

-Fixed certain props changing to fit the dungeon theme after the player already began playing

-Fixed a few localization issues where the localized text would be too big to fit in the text area

-Fixed some collision issues in the Paladin Camp

-Blood Coven doors' audio range and volume have been lowered

-Changed a Potion Icon to avoid confusion

-Some items will no longer roll the Dark Blue color scheme to allow for more visibility of the item art

-Reduced wall 'pop-in' when loading games

-Set proper sounds for several unique items

-The Infestor Phasmid's debuff will properly highlight which stat it is reducing when active

-Fixed many combinations of item modifiers which would lead to "Item of X of Y" instead of "X Item of Y"

-Improved some Item modifier names, such as 'Guided' being used for both +Dmg and +Attack Rating

-Added another Brazier type to the Skeleton Pit

-Slugmen enemy type is now slightly louder

-Kira's position in the Paladin Camp is moved to be more visible

-Changed the model rotation speed in the Bestiary to no longer be tied to CPU speed

-Ice Wave soundeffects are slightly louder

-Adding spells to the Spell Wheel through the hotkeys will now play the proper sound

-Fixed some typos in the Bestiary

-Five achievements will be added shortly

so, that's all the new stuff! how exciting.

as mentioned previously, this build will not be live on the default version of the game for a few days, as i make sure everything works as it should.

it is however available to play right now!

simply look for it in the Betas tab of the game's properties

you can find this menu pop up by right clicking the game (not the demo), and selecting properties

it'll be available like this until the following weekend, at which point i will make it available by default, after ive dealt with any snags. please keep in mind that achievements are disabled on this build by default!

just in case, dear reader, i encourage you to back up your saves! especially if you have a Despair+Ironman save you're waiting to take into NG+! while your saves will most likely be fine, it pays to be safe than to be sorry!

and that's it for now! i hope you will like this update! i had plenty of fun making it. now to see what i should do next..

all the best,

-osur