Let's wrap up the year with the largest content update to date.
New Mechanics
Some monsters now can web cards. Webbed cards can be played which removes the web, and discards the card but doesn't trigger any normal card effects.
Monsters can now also freeze players. Frozen influence distributes its counter value among the player's hand next turn, increasing the costs of random cards by 1 mana per counter tick.
New Monsters
Today we welcome on board spiders, ice skeletons, scorpions, and more. Most with new mechanics. This almost doubles the number of monsters in the game and should contribute to much more run variety.
These changes come with a new improved way of adventure generation, where monster types encountered between floors are more cohesive. Once you start meeting zombies, chances to meet more zombies increase. If you encounter spiders, chances are there will be more spiders during this run. This will allow you to prepare and contribute to a more cohesive experience.
Other noteworthy changes
Launcher is now skippable in options. If skipped it will load only after updates that contain new changelogs.
Fanny Pack will now display an icon on affected cards.
The save system was reworked to write in a background thread. This is an experimental feature that should fix the stutter on the Summary Screen.
What's next?
We are now working full throttle gearing up for the 1.0 launch early next year. Before that happens there will be an Artifacts Update introducing a slew of new artifacts (including starters!). For 1.0 a new class will be added. Before that, we will organize a closed smaller-scale beta. Sign-ups for it will be posted on the community Discord, which will be the main feedback and comms channel for the playtest.
We are also reworking Endless Mode to give players more agency when it comes to picking how the run will shape. Particularly which modifiers will affect it and when. We still have to see how our idea will play, but this also should be ready for 1.0.
Full Changelog
[*] New monster family: spiders
[*] New monster mechanic: Web. Spiders can web cards. Playing a webbed card discards it, ending the webbed status but not triggering the regular card's effects
[*] New influence: Frozen. The influence counter is distributed as temporarily increased mana costs among cards in the player's hand next turn
[*] Moved Hellcard to a separate pedestal in the Launcher
[*] Added Skip Launcher checkbox in options
[*] Reworked save system to write in a separate thread. This should address the game's stuttering on slower hard drives
[*] Increased XP rewards for finishing runs
[*] Changed card progression for new players
[*] New monster: Arachnid - smallest spider without special features aside from 8 legs.
[*] New monster: Arachnad - when killed, spawns 2 arachnids
[*] New monster: Arachnod - webs a card that killed it
[*] New monster: Corrupted Arachnod - a zombie spider with a rotten heart (Returns 1 damage when non-lethally hit) and poisonous attack (Unblocked damage adds a Poison Wound card to draw pile)
[*] New monster: Arachnoleton - a skeleton spider that changes to a random skeleton when killed
[*] New monster: Cool Crawler - a scorpion that gets a bonus block every time it is attacked. Its attacks add Frozen influence.
[*] New monster: Hot Crawler - a scorpion that gets a bonus block every time it is attacked. Its attack adds Burn A Card influence causing the hero to draw fewer cards the next turn
[*] New monster: Horror Crawler - a massive skorpion miniboss that doesn't take direct damage from cards when in the far range. It gets bonus strength when a monster is killed in it's map section
[*] New monster: Wicked Longlegs - miniboss whose attacks webb a random card in the player's deck.
[*] New monster: Arachgod - miniboss that spawns eggs for every monster killed in the current turn. After a couple of turns a random spider hatches from each spider egg
[*] New monster: Shielded Skeleton - an improved version of a basic Skeleton Warrior that blocks itself.
[*] New monster: Cool Skeleton - a skeleton warrior whose attacks add Frozen influence
[*] New monster: Cool Archer - a skeleton archer whose attacks add Frozen influence
[*] New monster: Horror Imp - a bigger imp that explodes with a bigger bang when killed
[*] New monster: Slithering Bowman - ranged demon whose arrows make heroes draw fewer cards next turn (adding Burn A Card influence)
[*] New monster: Mirage Lancer - a ghost that curses a hero that killed it, making them lose mana the next turn
[*] New monster: Battering Flamegoat - a charging goat that attacks all heroes at once
[*] New monster: Hungry Plant - a zombie plant that is linked with other plants on the battlefield and distributes its strength to them when killed
[*] New monster: Shamanic Goat - a miniboss that strengthens a random monster each turn and when killed
[*] New monster: Voracious Corpse - a zombie miniboss that strengthens other zombies when attacked
[*] New monster: Horror Whopper - a skeleton miniboss that strengthens other monsters if not attacked this turn
[*] New monster selection algorithm that makes runs more cohesive, increasing the chance for monsters from families you have already met during that particular run
[*] QoL: Added Fanny Pack icon to stashed cards
[*] Added VO when heroes get hit or die
[*] Added or improved visual effects of some cards
[*] Added GFX and SFX when the hero receives an artifact
[*] Added communication bubbles queue
[*] Added character change functionality to Endless mode
[*] Fixed misleading Garbage Day card description
[*] Fixed character creates exclamation mark always showing
[*] Fixed influence counter size when large UI is enabled
[*] Fixed Hearteater bonus when using Bolt Hell
[*] Fixed Initiative card when targeting monsters without intent
[*] Fixed some options' descriptions
[*] Fixed location buttons too long text issue
[*] Fixed Jar of Pickles giving mana more than once per turn
[*] Fixed double HP loss when using Bookmark + Burrito
[*] Fixed player's hand sometimes showing for a split second when taking gem reward after battle
As Always,
Stay Safe in Paper Dungeons ːarchduckː
Konstanty
