Patch 1.5.9b Notes

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Patch summary

This patch’s primary focus is twofold; first, to provide new fragment sources for our Emissaries of Myth event, introduced in 1.5.7, in line with player feedback. Second, to introduce a new Easter event of our own – hence the timing of its release.

Those aside, 1.5.9b brings a few concise changes to skills, quests, and items that streamline them and reduce redundancy. It also brings a new permanent encounter to Elite Passageways, which continues Wart’s legacy and pays homage to the work of Flagship Studios before Hellgate: London.
If the latter interests you, you can read more about the subject in CM Diary #29.

 

1.5.9b patch notes

 

Easter egg hunt

A new Easter event has been added to the game. This will serve as an annual event going forward, just like Flagship’s Halloween and Guy Fawkes events. 

Of course, this event may see changes in its second run next year, in line with player feedback – as it is our first event of its kind.

 

Structure

 

For the duration of Easter (April 17th to May 1st this year), you may randomly encounter “Liderc” in any of the following maps:

  • Chocolate Park
  • Savoy
  • Forgotten Ducts
  • Monument Crawlway
  • Bishop’s Court
  • Old Bailey
  • Abandoned Tunnels
  • Little Britain
  • The Foreboding Wild
  • York Road

This new enemy carries eggs which you can use to craft new, event-exclusive items in the Cube. The eggs come in 7 colors that correspond to their grades:

  • White – Common
  • Green – Enhanced
  • Blue – Rare
  • Orange – Legendary
  • Cyan – Double Edged
  • Yellow – Unique
  • Purple – Mythic

The drop rates for these eggs don’t exactly correspond to their grades, and are as follows:

  • 100% chance for one among white, green, blue, and orange
  • 10% chance for cyan
  • 5% chance for yellow
  • 1% chance for purple

 

Note: despite their assigned grades, eggs are quest items – so they will not be dismantled by the Piecemaker. As quest items, eggs will not be automatically placed in backpacks unless at least one copy of them is manually placed there first.

 

Rewards

 

The recipes that use these eggs are all hidden, so as to not clutter the Cube, and they will all require different eggs. These recipes are as follows:

  • 1 white, 1 green, 1 blue, and 1 orange: new Rare, faction-specific boots; “Templar’s Tramplers”, “Hunter’s Hoppers”, and “Cabalist’s Clogs”.
    • These items will scale to the crafting character’s level.
  • 1 white, 1 green, 1 blue, 1 orange, and 1 cyan: new Unique ring, “Hopper’s Ring“.
    • This item will scale to the crafting character’s level.
  • 1 white, 1 green, 1 blue, 1 orange, 1 cyan, and 1 yellow: the previously unreleased “KungFu Bunny” dye kit with a new affix. 
    • This item doesn’t have a character level restriction. Its affix’s value also does not scale to the crafting player’s level.
  • 1 green, 1 blue, 1 orange, 1 cyan, 1 yellow, and 1 purple: a consumable candy, “Candy of the Hopper”, that grants a new title when consumed for the first time.
    • This item doesn’t have a character level restriction. Consuming more than one of this item will not have any additional effect.

All of the above eggs and items are tradeable and auctionable, with the exception of “Candy of the Hopper”.

 

Emissaries of Myth – fragment changes

Fragments will now be available from the following sources as well, alongside Hidden Passageway subbosses:

  • Catharina’s “They Returned” and “Thorned” daily quests, found in Parliament Square, as an option over Shinies (2)
  • The Explorer’s “Survival of the Fittest” daily quest, found in Stonehenge, as an option over essences (5)
  • The Abyss bosses (Dreadnaught, Fulcrum, Talox, and Squadro), in addition to their existing loot (2)
    • Bosses will only carry fragments of their own caste, and will only drop them during their caste’s weeks. So Dreadnaught will only carry beast fragments and will only drop them during beast weeks, and so on. Quest fragment castes will also rotate according to caste weeks.
    • The above quests’ texts have been updated to reflect this change.

 

Wart’s new Elite encounter

A new enemy, “The Butcher’s Imp”, has been added to the game, and will always be found in Elite Passageways. Generous loot aside, this enemy has a 50% chance to drop a “piece of gold” item. Using 50 of those alongside Wart’s Peg Leg will allow you to craft one of the following in the Cube:

The recipes for these items are hidden, and will only produce the item that is usable by the crafting character’s faction. These items will scale to the crafting character’s level.

 

New quests and quest changes

  • During Easter (April 17th to May 1st this year), Nemo will offer a new quest, “The Chicken and the Eggs”. This talk-type quest will signify the start of our new Easter event, outlined above.
    • You will not need to initiate or complete this quest to enable the Easter event; this quest only acts as an informal in-game announcement of it.
  • Techsmith 314 will now offer a new side quest, “Debt”, as soon as players reach Green Park Station and speak to Lucious Aldin, completing the 2nd part of “Arms & Answers”. This new quest will send the player to Savile Row and end with Goodall in Oxford Circus Station, serving as another way of leading players to this often-missed station.
    • Goodall’s first quest, “Placement”, will not require the completion of this quest to become available. While logical, this approach was avoided to prevent potential issues for characters who had already started her questline. 
  • The following one-time (ie non-repeatable) quests in Stonehenge and Parliament Square will now only be beatable in one difficulty instead of both:
    • Ken’s “Petrified”
    • Tour Guide Sangan’s “From The Underworld”
    • Athanasios’s “Perfectly Balanced”
    • Architect David’s “A Ship’s Flag”
      • These changes intend to reduce redundancy, where players would acquire the same dye kits twice. Completing these quests in either difficulty will unlock their subsequent daily quests for both difficulties.
  • Gil’s “Dogs” quest will now also award the following alongside “Empyreal Cannon”, so that non-Templar players can also get a reward they can use:

 

Item changes

  • Gil’s “Dogs” quest reward items, old and new, have been modified:
    • “The Burnshredder” has been removed from its prior location as a Fat Bully drop. Its level has been adjusted to match Empyreal Cannon’s more closely, and will now have a Nightmare version. It has also acquired an additional battery slot to match regular weapons of its type.
    • “Sympathy” will no longer drop globally. Its level has been adjusted to match Empyreal Cannon’s, and will now have a Nightmare version. It has also acquired a 20% field damage component.
    • “Empyreal Cannon” will now have a Nightmare version.
  • The levels of tutorial items have been adjusted to better align with their stations’ native levels:
  • “Watcher’s Will” will now grant +2 to all Grenade skills instead of +1.
    • This change intends to give it more comparable value to “Doompulse”, while accounting for additional new +Grenade sources.
  • “The Master’s Hand” will now drop slightly more frequently.
  • The new 2-handed Templar guns introduced in 1.5.7 will now drop slightly less frequently. This includes:

 

Skill changes

  • Shield Bash and Dark Offering can now be used even when the player is under the effects of shock.
    • These skills’ descriptions have been updated to reflect this change.
  • Great Defender has been removed from the “Shield” skillgroup.
    • This change seeks to have skillgroups make thematic sense, as Great Defender never required a shield or was related to shields, and to prevent near-constant uptime for a tremendous party buff – after 1.3.1’s massive CD reduction, from 180’’ to 60’’, and 1.5.0’s addition of +shield skill userate to Defender gear.