Author: Bryan

Patch summary

This patch intended to introduce our first summer event, alongside various QoL additions, bug fixes, and other modifications. However, with our project leader and dear friend’s tragic passing, development for patch 1.5.11 was halted and said plans were postponed. Its main focus became that of in-game tributes in Omerta’s loving memory, hence the timing of its release despite its incomplete state. 

 

Note: Item links will be added at a later time.

 

Patch 1.5.11b notes

 

Tributes to Omerta

• A statue of Omerta, wielding his namesake sniper rifle, was erected in Stonehenge.
  • While this tribute was bound to be made, we must still thank all of you who reached out and suggested it. The statue’s placement and function may change at a later time.
• A memorial poster was added to the roster of station posters.
  • Our heartfelt thanks to HeWhoHunts for inspiring this poster.
• A new Hunter torso, “Jacob’s Desert Camo”, was added to the game.

Alongside the above permanent tributes, a temporary memorial splash image was also added on client startup.

 

New items

The following Legendary-grade Named items, all tributes to departed loved ones, were added to the game:

• “Jacob’s Desert Camo”
• “Vestments of Soteria”
• “Demeter’s Eleusis”

These items will have a 15% chance to drop from Blood Barons in Ancient Bloods and a 3% chance to drop from Shulgoth in either difficulty, with said chance split equally among the three. Their item levels will scale to the level of the enemy which dropped them, and their final item level will inform the maximum values of the following affixes:

• “Jacob’s Desert Camo”: Evasion, duration of Boost skills.
• “Vestments of Soteria”: Total Armor Value increased, userate of Prayer skills, all sfx defenses (the “Kaleidoscopic” affix).
• “Demeter’s Eleusis”: power regeneration, userate of Mind Power skills.

Please note that “Jacob’s Desert Camo” also features unique green text within its inspection window. This is typically used for clarifications of unique mechanics such as hidden affixes, but in this one case it is only used for flair. This item only comes with the affixes listed on it, and will in no way hinder your efforts to find leg armor. 

 

Station poster changes

• New posters were added to all stations.
  • Our many thanks to DeusBlackheart for bringing this front of development back onto the table, as well as inspiring the “see, say” poster. 

 

Bug fixes

• “Balbi’s Ring” will now properly roll Swarm among its possible skills. 
  • This arose due to a hidden skill group cap, which we have now raised to prevent such issues. Moving forward, all unlocked (ie pre-Abyss) skills with multiple skill groups will now be treated properly by affixes that reference them. 
    • Our many thanks to Contra, who brought this to our attention some time ago.
• “Megan’s Fury” will now properly display its two +2 Sword of Reckoning affixes as a single +4 affix.
  • This new affix will not occur normally anywhere else, and will still prevent further +Sword of Reckoning augments of any grade like the original ones did.
    • Data-wise, the item granted +2 to each class variant of the skill with the intent to give either class +2 – but the game always summed the two and offered +4 to both classes. Since the item has been this way for 15 years, we deemed it fair to not nerf it by reducing the affixes to the intended +2, and instead fused the two into a +4 affix. 
• Charge and Shield Charge have been fixed and will now properly apply their damage once successfully connecting to a target.
  • Higher attack speeds caused this issue. Player character animations were lagging behind the actual sequence of the skill, thus leading to the damage being applied “into thin air” right before the character would move.

 

QoL changes

• The Escape menu now offers a “character selection” option.
  • This option is in addition to the original “exit game” option, so as to not complicate either process.

 

Skill description clarifications

The following skills’ descriptions received additional clarifications:

• Word of Fear’s effect field now correctly states that additional levels increase enemy armor reduction.
• Venomous Spirit’s skill description now states that the skill is capable of inflicting Fear.
  • While the skill’s effect field suggests this, listing Fear strength upgrades, there was no way for the player to know this before investing one point into the skill. 
• Shield Master’s skill description now reads “Shield attack skills” for more clarity.
• Great Defender now states that its health regeneration effect scales to the player’s maximum hp.
• Sword of Justice now better explains its damage penalty per swing, in both its description and effect field.

As with all clarifications, these text changes are strictly explanatory and do not affect the skills’ functionality in any way.

 

Item clarifications

The following items received additional text information in their inspection windows that clarifies how their hidden affixes function:

• Venom Lances, outlining their onhit Toxic Novas. This includes the Legendary “Vicar’s Viral Lance” and the Unique “Surya’s Perfect Solution”, which preserve this feature.
• XM314 Viral Thunders, outlining their onhit Morbid Fangs. This includes all caste variants, as they all feature the same hidden affix.
• Crusader Lashers (mk1) and Crusader Lances (mk2), outlining their onhit novas. This includes the Unique “Burning Crusader”, which features different novas than the normal versions, and its clarification text also outlines that its unique Exploding Spikes come with a longer cooldown interval than the normal 2-second one.
• The Unique Threat Elimination Device, “Harper’s Fury”, noting that its onkill nova uniquely lacks a cooldown interval.

As with the above, these text changes do not affect the items in question in any functional way.

 

Global map refinements

• The global map has been adjusted to both connect the Liverpool Station-St. Paul’s Station route better, and improve the readability of zone names across it. 
  • This change is strictly visual, and does not affect gameplay in any way.

 

Skill changes

• Tactical Stance will no longer be cancelled when the player throws a punch while using it.
  • In turn, the sfx bonus of Elemental Vision which upgrades Tactical Stance will also apply to punches.
• Master of the Flame will now require 2 points in Fire Elemental to be unlocked, in line with the other Elemental Mastery skills.
• Master of Lightning will now grant Storm Elementals a 5% damage boost per level, for a maximum of 50%. In addition, each level will grant them a 1% chance to trigger Electric Discharge on hit, centered on their target, for a maximum of 10%. 
  • Please note that Storm Elementals will not have the Electric Discharge effect by default. This effect is granted by Master of Lightning at lv1, and upgraded with additional levels.   
    • The +attack speed effect this skill had before was bugged, and failed to produce the intended outcome. Since that bug could not be fixed, we found this a fitting alternative.

 

Punch refactoring and achievements

The Pugilist achievement, unlocked at 100 punch kills, will no longer grant +100% punch damage while equipped. Instead, it will substantially empower punches in the following ways while equipped:

• Base punch damage will now scale to player level.
• Punches will now also deal minor splash damage, the radius of which will also scale to player level. 
  • Both of these values will be dynamically reflected on the achievement skill’s description window.

Beyond these changes, punches will still deal physical damage and will still be affected by +punch damage, +physical damage, +damage, and +melee speed affixes as normal.

In addition, two new punch achievements were added to the game:

• “Master of the Ring”. This requires 1000 punch kills, and becomes visible at 100. It awards the title “the Puncher”.
• “The Legend”. This requires 10000 punch kills, and becomes visible at 1000. It awards the title “the Punch Machine”, and equipping it grants +15% punch damage.
  • Please note that these kill counts will not include punch kills scored prior to this addition.

 

Punch event achievements

Finally, three new event-exclusive punch achievements were added to the game:

• “Knockout”. Completed by consuming a “Candy Of The Legendary Puncher”, this grants the title “the Class B Hero”.
• “Hard as Bricks”. Completed by consuming a “Candy Of The Elite Puncher”, this grants the title “the Rock”.
• “Trailblazer”. Completed by consuming a “Candy Of The Punch Connoisseur”, this grants the title “the Dynamite”.

The items for these three achievements will only be awarded to the winners of an upcoming punch-themed event, which will be announced and ran on the project’s Discord server. These achievements will remain invisible to everyone but the winners, so as to not take up space. Depending on the event’s appeal, we may run similar events with these and other rewards in the future.

Patch summary

This patch marks our first reactive work to event feedback, and brings an optimization in the form of new loot and treasure rolls for Emissaries of Myth bosses. As it does, it brings some fixes, more skill clarifications, and minor QoL and quest changes – while keeping its scope relatively narrow, as 1.5.7 intended to allow us to do moving forward.

 

1.5.8b patch notes

 

Fateful Attribute Retrainer distribution

Because of the changes outlined below, this patch will automatically distribute Fateful Attribute Retrainers to all existing characters. This is a new Unique variant of regular ones, which will also be distributed in the future if the need arises. Like its Fateful Skill Retrainer counterpart, it cannot be auctioned, traded, or dropped, and does not have a limit of one per character. 

 

Skill description clarifications

The following skills’ flavor texts and descriptions were further clarified to better convey their intended effects and behaviors. None of these skills were functionally changed in any way.

Templars

• Prayer of Healing: specified its healing range as within the user’s Holy Aura, and clarified that each healing recipient heals based on their own max hp.
• Templar Restoration, Crosscutter, and Heaven’s Arc: specified in their description texts that they can be used even under shock.
• Shield Bash: removed the description text’s “knockback” and “stun” components, and streamlined it to better convey the skill’s general sfx focus.
• Aura of Thorns: added a line that clarifies its range.
• Anchor: added a “TOGGLED SKILL:” field to its description text, and clarified its effect applies to swords, shields, and guns.

Cabalists

• Darkform: clarified in its description text that learning the skill allows the player to dual-wield foci even outside the transformation, and split the effect into lines for easier reading. Clarified that the Shadow Minion synergy bonus it grants applies to the effect of Dark Lord.
• Dark Lord: slightly rephrased the effect. Clarified that the maximum number of Shadow Minions depends on the skill’s level, and moved its line to the skill’s effect field.
• Demonspine: removed the leftover description line that suggested it can pierce enemies, which it no longer does.
• Bone Shards: removed the description text’s “knockback” component, and clarified it deals damage on cast. Also clarified that stunning enemies is not guaranteed.
• Wall of Bone: clarified in its effect field that it may be destroyed before expiration.
• Blood Surge: clarified in its effect field that it restores power instead of increasing it.
• Concentrate Damage: added a “TOGGLED SKILL:” field to its description text, and clarified its effect applies to both spells and guns.
• Elemental Mastery skills: separated the new description texts from the original flavor texts for easier reading.

Hunters

• Medpak Retrofit: corrected its effect field to state that upgrading the skill increases healing and shield regeneration amounts per tick, not tick frequency.
• Ghostly Strike: better clarified in its effect field that phasing is not guaranteed.
• Tactical Stance: clarified in its description field that using other offensive skills also cancels the skill’s effect.
• Multishot: clarified in its description field that using it does not cancel Tactical Stance.
• Drone Aggressive Mode: added a new field to its description text to better convey its behavior, and clarified that the movement speed bonus only applies during the skill’s effect.
• Rebounder, Ravager, and Concussion Rounds: clarified that the skills must be actively used for their full effect to apply, and that the listed “bonuses” come from other Rounds skills.
• Flashcrasher Grenade and EMP Blast: specified in their description texts that they can be used even under shock.

 

Drone fixes and changes

• The Drone will now start with 3 points in each of its 4 attributes as intended. It will then get 3 attribute points per levelup, maxing out at 147 points at lv50.
  • This change is not automatically retroactive; it will only apply to existing Drones after the player has used an Attribute Retrainer.
• Using an Attribute Retrainer will now also reset the Drone’s attributes as well as the player’s, if (and only if) the player has an active Drone at the time. In that case the Drone will be automatically dismissed on Retrainer use.
• Drone feeds will now properly account for attribute points given by Retrofit skills that are provided/buffed by +skill gear on the player. 
  • Previously, the game would sometimes fail to account for those +attribute sources before calculating total Drone attributes and deciding if they cover equipment feeds. This fix addresses that interaction.
• The Drone will now properly check for item feeds of attributes which it has 0 of.
  • In effect, this should prevent Drones from equipping gear whose feeds they don’t fully meet. While this should not occur naturally anymore, this fix was also applied for more security and futureproofing (ie bugs/glitches and potential attribute penalties).

 

Map changes

• Possibly Australia was reduced in size by roughly 50%.
  • This change should hopefully make its native quests easier, as well as help with game performance during the Ruax encounter.

 

Monster changes

• Shriekers, Screechers, and Howlers were changed from demons to beasts.
  • This includes named and noexp versions.
  • This change was made both for consistency with the model and to slightly increase the availability of beast essences across the game.

 

NPC and ally changes

• The Smith in Covent Garden Station has been moved away from Ko to avoid the issue of overlapping minimap icons.
  • He may now be found next to the portal to Train Depot, to better align with the station’s side quest progression.
• The Lightning’s damage bonus has been increased by an additional 200%. 
  • This is in addition to the 200% it had before.

 

Quest fixes and changes

• Ken’s “Petrified” and “And One More” quests have been repaired, so their quest target “Hybrid Zero” will now spawn normally.
• Joanne’s “Kill No Name” quest will now award Legendary-grade mods instead of predetermined Common weapons.
• The following quests have been reordered so that quest progression flows more logically:
  • Tyndall’s “Regicide” quest now comes before “Death To Order”, to avoid having the player backtrack into the Deep again. The quests’ texts have also been switched to reflect this change.
  • Gil’s “Dogs” quest no longer requires the completion of “That’ll Get Infected” to become available. It still requires the completion of “Arms & Answers”, as well as Gil’s previous quest, “Hey You”.
  • Lolli’s “Jaywalker” quest now requires the completion of part 3 of the “Arms & Answers” quest in Death’s Sewers, so as to align with Hatton’s “Lightweight” quest for Death’s City.
• The following quests’ targets have been changed so as to not inconvenience the player by not appearing or commonly dying to NPCs:
  • Volunteers: Defilers were changed to Shock Minions.
  • Give 110: Warpers were changed to Doom Husks.
  • Omnia Omnibus: Plague Zombies were changed to Bile Lords.
  • Gold-digger: Zombies were changed to Bile Lords.
  • Magnificent Thighs: Pain Leeches were changed to Bruisers.
  • Date Escape: Pain Leeches were changed to Shriekers.
  • Another’s Work: Soul Drinkers were changed to Shadow Husks.
  • Crybaby: Soul Drinkers were changed to Hellmeats.
  • Bad Customers: Dervishs were changed to Carnagors.
• Quest rewards across the game have been revamped:
  • With the exception of Named quest rewards, all quests after Charing Cross Station will now offer items of a minimum quality of Rare.
  • Several quest rewards will now offer Legendary items, often those of more demanding quests or ones closer to the ends of quest lines and stations. The item types most affected by this change are boots and mods.
  • Quest rewards should no longer roll Common focus items among Legendary items, due to the item change outlined below. This still excludes ones that offer conversion weapons (ie Puppet Masters and Id Pulsars), which still cannot roll for grades other than Common and Unique.
    • These changes affect both Normal and Nightmare, as the two share quest reward treasures.

 

Hunt-type quest fixes

• All targets of hunt-type quests (ie quests that require the player to kill specific Named targets) will now behave in the same way as Abyss bosses and Moloch do. Namely, they will now check for the quest holder’s presence in the map at the time of kill, and will not award loot if the quest holder is absent.
  • This fix intends to address a common longstanding exploit with boss farming, which Flagship was also struggling with and had started to implement countermeasures against. 
  • This fix does not apply to enemies who are quest targets but also spawn naturally (ie without requiring an active quest), or to targets of collect-type quests (ie that require collecting kill trophies from their targets). It only applies to those enemies who are exclusively spawned through kill-only quests.

 

Item changes

• Stovall’s Smiter’s damage icon has been changed into the proper physical one.
  • This change is only cosmetic.
• Attribute Retrainers will now require confirmation on use, the way Skill and Expertise Retrainers do.
• Attribute, Skill, and Expertise Retrainers now have a new hover text that states their function.
  • The Attribute Retrainers’ one also notes that it applies to active Drones.
• The following focus item lines that could previously only roll for up to Rare grade will now be able to roll for all item grades, from Common to Mythic:
  • Coreslicers, Coreslashers, Coreshredders
  • Ripping, Riving, and Rending Radiants
• The following focus item lines that could previously only roll for Legendary+ grades will now also roll for Double-Edged:
  • Mk1, mk2, and mk3 Ripshards
  • Mk1, mk2, and mk3 Bloodshards
  • Mk1, mk2, and mk3 Glyphshards

 

Recipe fixes and additions

• Weapon reroll recipes will now correctly award 2-handed Templar guns of the same grade as the 2-handed guns used as materials.
• Focus item reroll recipes will no longer produce the following focus items:
  • Coreslicers, Coreslashers, Coreshredders
  • Ripping, Riving, and Rending Radiants
• A new reroll recipe, exclusively for Mythic-grade Emissaries of Myth weapons, was added to the Cube. This recipe requires the following materials: 
  • 2 of the same Mythic item type from the same boss (ie with the same inherent caste)
  • 10 fragments of the boss’s corresponding caste, acquired by event subbosses of the same caste 
  • 100 spectral essences

 

Item additions

21 new Unique armor pieces, all using Flagship’s unused names, were added to the game as Emissaries of Myth boss drops. As with their Mythic weapon counterparts, CCM castes will depend on the boss from which these items drop.

Cabalist, Invoker set

• Tegument of the Ages (helmet)
• Carver’s Razormantle (shoulders)
• Fryjia’s Frock (torso)
• Glittens of the Archmage (gloves)
• Band of Trickery (belt)
• Obraim’s Tassets (legs)
• Way of the Eternal Mist (boots)

Templar, Order set

• King Baldwin’s Crown (helmet)
• Horns of Hattin (shoulders)
• The Tinker’s Chest (torso)
• Ascalon Bracers (gloves)
• Troyes’ Council (belt)
• The Traveling Pants (legs)
• Unrepentant Pace (boots)

Hunter, Military set

• Eagle Eyes (helmet)
• Harry’s Hardcase (shoulders)
• Milo’s Reprieve (torso)
• Wheldon’s Wheelgrips (gloves)
• Multitask Holder (belt)
• Destriders (legs)
• Drexler’s Smooth Move (boots)

 

Event boss and subboss changes

• The Bile Brain spectral subboss was changed to a Fury, and its affixes were changed for a more aggressive encounter.
  • This change seeks to prevent spawn issues and passive encounters, in line with player feedback.
    

Xitalu

• Its hp and armor values were reduced.
• The armor value of its Eye minions was reduced.
• The maximum number of Eye minions it can spawn was reduced from 12 to 6.

Ruax

• Its poison and ignite resistances were reduced.
• The number of Rifts it can spawn was reduced from 5 to 3.
• It will now heal for 10% max hp whenever it spawns minions.
• Its sight range was reduced to 60m.
• It will now spawn in an invulnerable state, which it will break out of once engaged. It will revert to this state if players disengage and distance themselves from it.
  • This change intends to address an exploit that allowed it to be farmed safely from a distance.

 

Event boss treasure changes

• The Emissaries of Myth bosses will now come with the following additional treasure rolls:
  • 6 rolls for Legendary+ mods; 50% chance each. 
  • 3 rolls for a random new Unique item among the ones above, 1 per faction; 20% chance each.

Patch summary

This patch brings the first iteration of a much-awaited drop rate revision, after the last one’s arguable step back. It offers more clarity across skill and item descriptions, some bug fixes, and multiple QoL-oriented changes to monsters, minions, and quests. It restores Flagship’s foundations for 2-handed Templar guns, and adds the first batch of them to the game for the aspiring Templar gunslingers. Sadly, it also reins in some of our recent affix additions, some enemy densities in specific maps, and some overperforming skills. In return, as what is perhaps the highlight of this patch, it brings a new, permanent event, which introduces its own new challenging enemies to fight and ample new gear to collect.

Finally, patch 1.5.7 signifies our last patch of this general scope for the foreseeable future – outside of hotfixes, new circumstances, and minor reactive patches along the way, of course. Going forward, we will primarily dedicate our efforts to bringing our own endgame expansion to life. In turn, future CM diaries will primarily focus on providing meaningful updates on our work in this area.

 

1.5.7b patch notes

 

Fixes

• The glitch where daily quest mobs in the Australia dungeon would get random property names has been fixed.
• The bug with the interaction between Challenge and Grand Aura has been fixed.
• Many data and string fixes were applied, which should hopefully fix the visible string glitches players have been seeing. 

 

Skill and item description clarifications

• The skill description of Shield Master has been slightly altered to better convey the skill’s intended behavior.
• The skill description of Summon Reaper has been altered to reflect the recent changes to its Demon.
• The skill descriptions of all new Elemental Mastery skills have been revised to clarify that their bonuses are always active and do not require the presence of their corresponding Elemental to apply.
• The following items received additional text information in their inspection windows that clarifies how their unique, hidden affixes function:
  • Sam’s Poker
  • Kikina’s Plague Mass
  • Malachor’s Pathfinders
  • The Phoenix
  • R. J. Donald’s Diplomat

 

Misc changes

• The Single-Player button has been removed from the game’s main menu.

 

Vendor and Consignment House changes

• All vendors across the game will now sell an unlimited amount of consumables.
• Flagship’s 4th Consignment House filter for Templar weapons was restored, so now the faction can filter for 1-handed and 2-handed guns separately.
  • A few new items make use of this filter, which you may find below.

 

Drop rate changes

• Common enemies in Australia will now drop items much less frequently.
• Champion and Boss enemies across the game now have a chance to drop items of their previous, pre-1.5.6b “enriched” treasures.
  • Specifically, Champion enemies will drop “enriched” loot 25% of the time, and Bosses will do so 50% of the time.

 

Quest changes

• Broker’s “Exinde” quest will now only be available in Normal mode, instead of once in either mode.
• Broker’s “Exinde” quest now requires 1 “Guardian’s Blood” item from the same quest target as before.
  • This and the following change intend to prevent issues with other quests that required the same quest items.
• Both of Ken’s quests in the Foreboding Wilds now only require 1 “Mummy’s Blood” drop from a new named mummy, “Hybrid Zero”. 
  • This mummy is much larger than others of its type, so it should be much easier to spot within this large map.
  • Ken’s quest texts have been slightly altered to reflect this change.

 

New items and affixes

• 6 new Mythic weapon types, 3 new Mythic items, and 9 new Unique weapons have been added to the game as event enemy drops. These are all event-exclusive drops, so you may find these in the event section below.
• 3 new early-game Common+ weapon types, each with its own midgame Mk2 version, were added to the game as global drops. These are all 2-handed Templar guns, and are the following:
  • Crusader Lasher (mk1) and Crusader Lance (mk2); modified Zeus Rifles
  • Inquisitor (mk1) and Holy Inquisitor (mk2); modified Electropulse rifles
  • Threat Nullification Device (mk1) and Threat Elimination Device (mk2); modified HARPs 
• The Mk2 versions of each of the above weapon types also come with their own new Unique variants, which are also global drops. In order, these are the following:
  • Burning Crusader
  • Sine Nomine Inquisitoris
  • Harper’s Fury
• Flagship’s unused Morbid Fang nova has been restored, without its unlimited piercing effect.
  • Currently, affixes with this nova may not roll normally. Two of the new items below make use of its “when it hits an enemy” variant, however; the “Lolth’s Ritual” mod, and the “XM314 Viral Thunder” weapon type. 

 

Item fixes

The following items’ unique affixes have been repaired, and will now appear and function normally.

• Hukhuk’s Virulent Knuckle; +3 to Word of Fear
• Edge of Fate; +30% Prayer cooldown reduction
• Ironbound Valley; +10-20% chance to trigger a Toxic Nova when the player is hit

 

Item and affix changes

• The new mod affixes for +Naturalism/Spiritualism damage, introduced in 1.5.5b, now have dedicated WILL feeds. 
  • This change is retroactive. 
• The new affixes for +Naturalism/Spiritualism damage across most sources have been adjusted to scale more linearly and more closely match their regular +damage counterparts. Across all common sources, these affixes’ new values are as follows:
  • Relics:
    • Common: 14-16% from 8-14%
    • Rare: 18-20% from 14-18%
    • Legendary: 22-24% from 20-24%
    • Mythic: 32-34% from 40-50%
  • Weapons: 
    • Common: 20-24%, unchanged
    • Rare: 26-28% from 30-34% 
    • Legendary: 30-32% from 40-50%
    • Mythic: 50-55% from 80-100%
  • Armor: 
    • Mythic: 12-17% from 20-30% 
  • Invoker armor inherent values and Unique items’ affix values were left unchanged. 
  • These changes are retroactive.
• The displayed Rate of Fire of all Starbursts has been reduced to 30. 
  • This change is only visual. 
  • As with all Rate of Fire changes, this and the following ones are retroactive.
• The Rate of Fire of all Sniper rifles which were slower than 30 has been increased to 30. Ones which were already above 30 remained unchanged.
  • This includes all Unique and Named versions.
• The Rate of Fire of all Eel Launchers has been reduced by 50%.
  • This includes the Unique version, Voltaic Eel Vat.
• The Rate of Fire of Blessed Revolver has been reduced to 30.
• The missiles of Infector guns will now pierce and damage all targets in their path.
  • This includes the Unique version, The Cleanser.
• The Cleanser will no longer drop globally. In addition, its minimum damage value has been considerably increased for more consistent damage output.
• Kikina’s Plague Mass now has a 10% field damage component. In turn, its interrupt strength was considerably reduced.

 

Monster changes

• All regular monsters and turrets in Australia maps will now fade away on death.
  • This intends to improve both base map performance and the event boss encounter that takes place on this map.
• Hell’s Cook has been enlarged so that it can be spotted more easily in Australia maps.
• Mummies in Dawn of the Dead will now fade away on death.
• Quavontavius will now only spawn in Veil Asunder if the corresponding quest, “Awakening”, is active.

 

Map and monster density changes

• Monster density in all park type levels was reduced by 50%.
• Monster density in Wake Hallow was reduced by 25%.
• Monster density in Elite Passageways was reduced by 50%. Champion probability was reduced by 25%.
• Monster density in Ancient Bloods was reduced by 25%. Champion probability was reduced by 50%.
• The maximum length of cave passageways was reduced, but each will always contain at least one chamber, excluding passageways found in the Wilds.
• Catacombs levels will no longer guarantee Passageway spawns. Instead, levels 1-5 will have a 30% chance, levels 6-10 a 40% chance, and levels 11-15 a 50% chance.
  • This last-minute change was done to avoid trivializing the new event introduced in this patch, while still keeping Catacombs a more Passageway-rich area.

 

Class changes

 

Summoner changes

• Elemental Nova was removed from the “Elemental Mastery” skillgroup.
• All the new “Master of” skills, introduced in 1.5.5b, and Master of the Elements were removed from the “Elemental” skillgroup.
• Summoning Circle was removed from the “Demon” skillgroup.
• The Shadow Minions’ ignite defense was brought in line with their other sfx defense values.
• All Elementals will now fade away on death.
  • This change intends to improve map performance and reduce crashes, but also has the practical effect of reducing opportunities to use Afterlife.
• Each Elemental summoning skill now has an individual cooldown of 10 seconds.
  • You may still summon different types of Elementals with no cooldown interval in-between. This only means that resummoning Elementals of the same type will have a cooldown between uses.
  • There are currently no new affixes that affect this cooldown, outside of the unique Elemental +userate found on the new “The Master’s Wand” Unique item.

 

Evoker changes

• The damage of Drain Life was reduced by 25%.
• The damage of Drain power was reduced by 25%.
• The damage of Flameshards was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Hellfire’s initial explosion was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Spectral Bolts was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Spectral Lash was reduced by 25%.
• The damage of Arc Legion was reduced by 25%.
• The damage of Demonspine was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Boneshards was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Skullsplitter was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Venomous Spirit was reduced by 50%.
• The damage of Toxic Armor missiles was reduced by 50%.
  • These may seem intimidating as standalone values, but they reflect our own buffed states of these skills over time – including the foci damage buff of 1.3.1a, skill damage recalculations and buffs in 1.4.2a and 1.5.3b, and the introduction of skillgroup affixes in 1.5.5b. These reductions, within their context, still intend to leave the class both early-game viable and highly endgame-viable – as our testers have assured us.

 

Guardian changes

• Shield Throw’s maximum number of bounces was reduced to 4 from 8.
• Shield Throw’s individual hits will now deal 35% of base damage.

 

Engineer changes

• The base damage of Spider Mines was reduced by 25%

 

New global event: Emissaries of Myth

New, powerful enemies of the mythical Mutant grade have found their way to London and beyond. Those enemies will rotate each week, emerging and retreating throughout the month. This will constitute our first, and permanent, global event.

 

 

Structure

 

From lv31 maps onward, you will encounter Mutant subbosses in Hidden Passageways across London (excluding cave-type ones found in Stonehenge). These Mutants will carry some valuable treasure of their own, and a unique, tradeable, caste-specific ingredient.  You may combine 100 of this ingredient into an untradeable consumable item in the Cube. Using this item will initiate quests that call forth the respective caste’s Mutant boss in specific maps, which you may then challenge.

The caste of the subbosses and respective bosses will change each week, with each caste taking up one week of each month. Should you not manage to gather enough of a caste’s ingredients in time, they will permanently remain in your inventory.

 

 

Bosses and rotation

 

These powerful new bosses have been mutated by an unknown power. While their base forms will be familiar, they will come with some unique characteristics of their own:

• Mutant quality; these bosses have been mutated into new levels of power. They will be much sturdier, and deal much more damage than their common brethren.
• New mechanics; with their ascension came newfound powers. Each of them will have a new set of skills to dissuade challengers.
• Iron will; these bosses will be summoned, but they will not be swayed. With power comes wisdom, so they will not respond to taunts and provocations, succumb to fear, or have their minds controlled.

Each of them will take up one week of the month, and each caste’s boss will be summoned in its own dedicated map. Specifically:

• Week 1 will be the Demon caste’s. You may summon Malphas, a mutated Shaman Imp, to Veil Asunder. Beware, its leashed allies have also tapped into new powers themselves. 
• Week 2 will be the Spectral caste’s. You may summon Xitalu, a mutated member of the unnamed species of Oculis, to Step into Hell in Piccadilly Circus. 
• Week 3 will be the Necro caste’s. You may summon Ruax, a mutated Zombie Summoner, to Possibly Australia. Unlike this map’s usual residents, it will award exp if killed.
• Week 4 will conclude the month with the Beast caste. You may summon Eihort, a mutated Carnagor, to the Foreboding Wild. Like Malphas, it has shared its newfound powers with its leashed allies.

Note: The current weekly rotation starts on the 1st of each month and ends on the 28th. This means that each month will have a short window when no subbosses will spawn, and this behavior is natural. If this arrangement changes in the future, there will be relevant patch notes and announcements.

Note #2: This window only prevents subbosses from spawning in Hidden Passageways. If you have gathered enough fragments for a talisman, or have stockpiled talismans, you may summon any boss at any time – including during this window.

 

Rewards

 

Each subboss will carry the following new items:

• Screecher’s Wail (Unique Steelhook)
• The Beeholder (Unique MIRV)
• Gift of Hades (Unique Poseidon SNPR)
• Tontus Talontus (Unique Locus)
• Bragi’s Tongue (Unique Tempest Rifle)
• The Master’s Wand (Unique Cabalist Arc Rifle)
• Arcane Desolator (Unique Templar Firefox)
• Kilij Reforged (Unique Afflictor)
• Faraday’s Law (Unique Devastator)
• Tymora’s Tear (Mythic relic)
• Reach of Talos (Mythic battery)
• Lolth’s Ritual (Mythic tech)

Instead of specific pre-designed Unique items, each boss will carry named Mythic weapons of 6 new types with random affixes. These weapons have been permanently transmogrified by the bosses’ influence, so they will differ from their original counterparts. Specifically, they will come with an array of unique characteristics:

• An initial level of 57
• Unique base mechanics, with only one exception, and different slots compared to their original counterparts
• An affinity for toxic damage, with only one fiery exception
• A standard Critical Chance Multiplier affix depending on the boss they come from
• More base affix rolls than other items

These items are the following:

• Claw of Eihort (Ripshard)
• Fist of Ruax (Bloodshard)
• Contagion Grinder (Dissector)
• Serpent Protector (Dissector Shield)
• XM314 Viral Thunder (XM909 Thunderclash)
• XM83-B Nuclear Rail Cannon (F-S Force Magnum)

Fixes

• The drop rates of the Explorer’s dungeon have been fixed, and items may now drop normally at rates depending on their grade.
  • These items do not belong to defined treasure tables, so Luck affects drop rates in this dungeon.
  • Zart’s Considered Opinion has been properly disabled from the global loot table, and may now only drop in this dungeon.
  • The loot table of T-3000 has been enhanced to include nanoshards and be more comparable to that of regular bosses.
• Hell’s Cook, Hell’s Packer, Reanimator Alpha, and T-3000 now don’t award exp when killed as intended.
  • Their qualities have been reverted from Unique to common for this to happen, so their names will now be written in white. Their treasure is still enriched Champion-grade loot as it was before.
• The stats of all named enemies in the Explorer’s dungeon have been adjusted to compensate for their loss of quality and to address their encounter difficulty. Namely:
  • Hell’s Packer, Reanimator Alpha, and T-3000 had their hp slightly increased.
  • Hell’s Cook had its hp slightly reduced. Its interrupt defense was removed to make handling its self-destruction easier.
• The visual glitch of slower swords with inherent +Group Attack damage duplicating rolled +Swordsmanship damage affixes has been fixed.
• Broker’s “Exinde” quest now requires a Mind Cradle instead of a Shiny.
  • This has been done to prevent a completion bug that occurred between this quest and Miner’s “Mausoleum of the Emperor” quest that follows, which required the same item.

 

Misc changes

• The Librarian’s “The Forgotten Trek” quest text has been updated to provide more specific directions to Oxford Circus Station.
• The treasure of Quavontavius has been changed from that of Wurm’s, and will now be identical to Sydonai’s.
• The global drop rates of Puppet Masters and the Unique “The Master’s Hand” variant have been slightly increased.
• The exp awarded by mummies in Dawn of the Dead has been reduced to 1/4th of its previous value. 
  • This change is in line with consistent player feedback, and intends to make the dungeon more appealing for its endgame drops than for rank exp. 
• An old buff to generic Champion and boss treasures has been reverted. 
  • This change intends to make Legendary-grade items drop slightly less often across the game, while allowing Luck to affect them more linearly and predictably. 
  • This change does not apply to the Explorer’s dungeon, as the enemies there have enriched (ie non-generic) loot tables.
• The Explorer’s dungeon’s drops and all other new items have been added to the wiki.
  • For your convenience, the 1.5.5b patch notes now include direct links to each Explorer’s item’s wiki page. 

 

Clarifications

• The Explorer’s dungeon deliberately awards no exp. This is to allow players to farm for their item levels of choice, without outleveling them as they do.
  • Hell’s Cook “disappearing” is also intentional. This is the base mob type’s normal behavior, and it occurs when it charges on nearby enemies and self-destructs. The quest text mentions this and suggests solutions. 
• Tutorial questline disruptions some old characters may still be experiencing are typically due to Broker quest completion status. To address them, please visit the Baker in Holborn Station (even if you have done so before), and follow the questline across stations to find any available quests you may be missing. You will need to complete the entire questline, along with Broker’s quests, to gain access to Miner’s final quests in Liverpool Street Station.
  • You may find more detailed instructions in this Discord announcement.
  • Please remember to update your game clients through the launcher. Missing quest rewards and other issues may arise due to outdated clients.
  • If you have picked up any quest before and are now offered wrong/missing rewards, please reroll the quest (by clicking on your zmail icon while in the quest window) for it to refresh.
  • Players who have completed the questline on both difficulties before the last hotfix and have lost Retrainers as a result will be receiving new Retrainers. We cannot automate this process so our GMs will have to do so manually – there will be a Discord announcement on this shortly.

Bug fixes and misc changes:

• Rings shouldn’t be able to roll Shield Generator Retrofit anymore. This skill was disabled as its effect was merged into Medpak Retrofit a few patches ago.
• EMP Blast was moved down by a row in the skill tree to take the conventional lvl10 skill position. This change is only cosmetic, and has no impact on gameplay at all.
• Fixed a discrepancy where Nicor was referred to as “The Nicor”. It is now referred to as “Nicor”, in line with the other Stonehenge bosses.
• Rick Sullivan and Nichols now correctly display their inspection texts.
• Moon Blades of all grades now correctly state that their attack speed is higher than “very fast”. This attack rate was named “extremely fast”. 
• All items with a splash and field radius penalty now correctly display this affix in red.
  • This affix is now named “Limited”. It does not currently roll naturally on Double-Edged items, and may only appear on specific Uniques.

 

Quest related changes: 

• You will be able to choose only one reward of the repeatable Wanted quest chains around London.
• Broker’s first quest, “Deinde”, now requires the completion of the new quest “The Call” to become available, along with “Triage” as it did before.
  • “The Call” belongs to a new quest chain that begins with “Mad Skills” in Holborn Station, and leads directly to the Broker.
• Broker’s final quest, “Exinde”, will now be immediately available after completing “Invicem”, the one before. 
  • “Exinde” will now require only 1 Shiny drop from a Named Lost One, “Salgrum”, in Liverpool Approach.
• Dotter’s “Bad Doggy” quest now requires the completion of Beasley’s “Mopping Up” quest to become available.
• Gil’s “The Narrow Way” and Joanne’s “Gig for Old Cap” quests will now be the last on their respective quest chain.
  • These changes intend to improve quest routing, by not having the player revisit these areas after reaching Temple Station.

 

Skill description changes:

• All skills now display their subgroups (Boost, Buff, Curse) in their skill descriptions.
  • This includes the universal skill, Sprint.
• Skills that are affected by the player’s minion stats and are not clearly defined as minions now state this interaction in their descriptions. These skills are:
  • Wall of Bone
  • Spectral Serpents
  • Tempest (newly added)
  • Swarm (newly added)
• Skills that scale with the player’s maximum hp value now state this interaction in their descriptions. These skills are:
  • Surge of Restoration
  • Aura of Renewal
  • Afterlife
  • Drain Life
  • Brom’s Curse
• Skills that scale with the player’s maximum power value now state this interaction in their descriptions. These skills are:
  • Drain Power
  • Aura of Power
• All Aura skills now define their base range of 10m in their description.
• Multishot now states the damage penalty reduction per level in its skill description from lv1 onward.
  • Multishot now correctly defines Strike skills as “Precision Strike”.
• Nanobots and Bomber Bot now state that they are affected by the Engineer’s shield penetration value in their skill descriptions.
• Sword Master’s skill description now aligns more closely with the phrasing of the others.  

 

Monster changes:

• Imp Snipers of all kinds will attack more aggressively.
• Teleporting monsters got their maximum travelling distance reduced to 25m (from 40m).

 

Level changes:

• Portal duration for Dawn of the Dead has been reduced to 5 minutes. 
  • This has been done to prevent an emerging trend of certain groups excluding players from parties who can’t complete the level multiple times per talisman use. 

 

New content:

• A new survivor has found his way to Holborn Station. The Baker seems very willing to help you, and he and his acquaintances throughout London will guide you and explain key mechanics. This questline will lead you all the way to St. Paul’s, and it’s our very first long-form plotline.
  • Each quest of this questline will require that you complete the previous one, and some will also require station-specific quests that unlock their respective areas.
  • Access to Broker’s quests will require that you follow this questline – which will lead you directly to him. Finishing this questline also requires that you complete all of Broker’s quests. He somehow seems to be involved in this…
  • This questline will provide one of the most requested rewards for midgame players; a unique, untradeable Skill Retrainer. This step occurs just before St. Paul’s Station.
  • Other rewards will include new, unique items of varying item grades. These are all tradeable, as knowledge is to be shared. 
    • Each quest of this questline directs you to the next in line, including talk-style quests that reveal their whereabouts.So new players will be properly directed to Oxford Circus Station, and be given clearer directions toward St. Paul’s Station. 

• Four new survivors have found their way to Stonehenge. Three of them will greet you with one introductory quest, and then offer daily quests related to the area. Specifically, these are the following:
  • Tour Guide Sangan will show you around Stonehenge. Both of her quests will send you to the Wilds, and her daily quest will award a lv30 Legendary Dreadmask, Spiked Guard, or NavShell.
  • Ken is a troubled Hunter who needs your help. Both of his quests will send you to the Foreboding Wilds, and his daily quest will award a lv30 Legendary Dire Cowl, Tower Helm, or Blast Helm.
  • Athanasios is a Hunter who needs no help, but will further explain how Stonehenge works. His first quest will send you to Wake Hallow, and his 4-part daily quest chain will have you farm the minor bosses’ heads in the bosses’ caverns, with each step awarding you with an additional head. 
• Four more survivors have set up camp in Stonehenge. Their quests will send you to a new, scaling, party-oriented dungeon that pays homage to hellgateaus. This dungeon’s drops are split into 2 tiers, based on what item levels may drop within the map; tier 1 items between item lv20-39, and tier 2 items from item lv40 and up. Each tier includes 5 new items per faction – with the exception of tier 2 Cabalist items, of which 4 are new. You may find these items in the “new items” section below.
  Specifically, these survivors’ quests are the following:
  • Explorer will send you to recover his old notes, across both his initial and daily quests. For both, he will award you with 10 essences of your choice.
  • Coder will send you after a familiar demon in his primal form. Both his initial and daily quests will award you a random lv30 weapon.
  • Modder will send you after a modified demon who can tank a few hits. Both his initial and daily quests will award you a random lv30 armor piece.
  • Tester will send you against an elusive enemy who prefers to quit than be fired. His initial quest will let you choose among skill tokens for Templar Restoration, Shield Throw, EMP Blast, Drone Aggressive Mode, Dark Form, and Wall of Bone. His daily quest will let you choose among skill tokens for Crusader’s Wrath, Aura Stability, Flashcrasher Grenade, Spider Mines, Dark Lord, and Spectral Serpents.
    • This dungeon’s items are NOT exclusively Unique, and include Rare, Double-Edged, and Legendary-grade items. So bear this in mind and adjust your Piecemakers accordingly. 

 

General item changes:

• Eel Launcher missiles now last for 2.5 seconds instead of 5.
• Eruptor missiles can now hit enemies.
• Hestia’s Vision got a new 15-20% chance to trigger Exploding Spikes on hit.
• Affixes that add points in Sniper and Master Sniper will now only appear and be augmentable on 2-handed sniper rifles.This is to account for Sniper no longer being usable with non-sniper weapons, making such affixes useless for them.
  • Rupert’s Rifle’s +3 Sniper affix was replaced with +3 Elemental Beacon.
• The Rate of Fire of Gau’s Equalizer was reduced to 60. Its Critical Damage Bonus was reduced to 0 from 50.
• The Rate of Fire of all Templar Nova guns was reverted to 30.
• The Rate of Fire of all Templar Grenade Launchers, Firefield Casters, and Flamecasters was reverted to 60.
  • This excludes the Unique Fisher’s Fiery Cast.

• Vigilantes, including the Unique version, can now fire 2 additional bullets per shot, each with a 30% chance.
• M51, XM55, XM57, XM63 and XM66 rifles can now fire 2 additional bullets per shot, each with a 15% chance.
• Zart’s Considered Opinion will no longer drop globally.

 

New items:

• 27 new items were added to the game as quest rewards across the new questline. These items are all named after the NPCs that award them, and are the following:
  • Baker’s Locus, Firefox, and Corrupt Blade
  • Smith’s Poisonous Fuel, Relic, Tech, Ammo, Rocket, and Battery
  • Librarian’s Radiant, Rifle, and Reaper
  • Teacher’s Lens, SNPR, and Nightblade
  • Seer’s Wrap, Chestguard, and Surcoat
  • Auctioneer’s Arcane, Holy, and Hi-Tech Ring
  • Vicar’s Axis, Viral Lance, and Wardcleaver
  • Miner’s Pickaxe, Detonator, and Beehive
• 3 new Unique items were added to the loot table of a new enemy, Ara, each with a ~10% chance to drop. These items are:
  • Edge of Fate (Shock Blade)
  • Claws of Destiny (Coreslicer)
  • Watcher’s Will (Poseidon SNPR)
• 29 new items of various grades were added to the game as drops of the Explorer’s new dungeon. Zart’s Considered Opinion was also made exclusive to this dungeon, given its theme. These items, split into level tiers, are the following:
  • Tier 1 Templar items: Maeyan’s Revival, Wild Retribution, Pennywise One, Jaknet’s Jacks, Deathwalker’s Bulwark.
  • Tier 1 Hunter items: Serious Killious, Peeter’s MacGnificent Belt, Johny’s Mecha-Slicer 3000, Blue Sunshine’s Hand Cannon, Kite’s Loctites.
  • Tier 1 Cabalist items: Zen Focus, Hukhuk’s Virulent Knuckle, Seferoth’s Supernova, Nagahaku’s Optional Jeans, Harrowing Truce.
  • Tier 2 Templar items: Sam’s Poker, Kikina’s Plague Mass, Butsutekkai’s Fervor, Leitner’s Legacy, Drai’s Glorious Belt.
  • Tier 2 Hunter items: Raw Meat Hide, Thumper’s Barrage, Malachor’s Pathfinders, The Botmaster, Athenai’s Power Gloves.
  • Tier 2 Cabalist items: Grace’s Lucky Garb, Berit’s Shock Treatment, Nadja’s Leisurely Strolls, Norak’s Anorak, Zart’s Considered Opinion.
• 3 new Legendary items were added to Big Ben’s loot table, each with a ~33% chance to drop. These items are:
  • Big Ben’s Radiated Ribauldequin (Raptor)
  • Big Ben’s Corrosive Falcata (Corrupt Blade)
  • Big Ben’s Transmogrified Arquebus (Rebounder)
• 6 new Unique items, 5 of which carry Flagship’s unreleased item blueprint names, were added to the game as Stonehenge-exclusive drops. These are:
  • Face of Death (Dreadmask)
  • Hounskull (Spiked Guard)
  • Skiff’s Guard (NavShell)
  • The Unconquered Sun (Sun Blade)
  • Pyromaster (Pyrosmasher)
  • Fry Fry Baby (Hellbore)
• 3 new items were added to the game as global drops. These are:
  • Brom’s Stalker (Spectral Spiker, Unique)
  • Adam’s Addler (Steel Adder, Double-Edged)
  • Envoy’s Persuader (Grizzly Rifle, Unique)

 

Armor set and sword changes:

• Swords of normal and slower attack speeds got an inherent +Group Attack skillgroup damage property, depending on their attack speeds. Specifically:
  • Very slow swords got +30% Group Attack damage.
  • Slow swords got +20% Group Attack damage.
  • Normal swords got +10% Group Attack damage.
    • This includes all Named and Unique swords, but excludes Wart’s Peg Leg.
• The Invoker armor set got reworked, and all Invoker pieces of item levels 1-44 can now spawn with one of the following:
  • All evasion affix (2-9, depends on item level).
  • A randomly picked caste damage (10-15%).
  • A randomly picked elemental damage (5-9%).
  • Naturalism or Spiritualism skillgroup damage (15-23%).
    • The possibility of inherent power regeneration affixes was removed.
• The Conjurer armor set can now randomly roll new inherent bonuses:
  • Weapon range and Firing Accuracy can appear on all armor pieces.
  • Mind Power skillgroup cooldown reduction can appear on all armor pieces.
  • Demon Command cost reduction can appear on Arms, Belts, and Helmets.
• The Caster armor set got reworked, and all Caster armor pieces can now spawn with one of the following:
  • Increased power regeneration (10 + (item level / 2)).
  • Inherent cooldown reduction, which was increased by 1% per piece for a total cooldown reduction of 49% at max level.
  • Inherent power cost reduction, which was increased for a total cost reduction of 49% at max level.
• The Rifleman armor set got inherent Critical Chance values.
• The Military armor set can now randomly roll new inherent bonuses:
  • Random sfx attack strength or increased damage vs a random caste can appear on all armor pieces.
  • Movement speed can appear on Belts and Leg armor.
• The Order armor set can now randomly roll new inherent bonuses:
  • Group Attack modifiers can appear on all armor pieces with different values.
  • Prayer Damage modifiers can appear on Arms, Belts, and Leg armor.
  • Prayer Cooldown modifiers can appear on all armor pieces.
  • Weapon range and Firing Accuracy can appear on Arms, Helms, Shoulders and Torso armor.
  • Missile Speed and Weapon Accuracy can appear on Belts, Leg armor and Boots.

 

Engineer changes:

• The Drone’s AI got tweaked to attack more aggressively and more consistently.

 

Blademaster changes:

• Templar Restoration and Crusader Wrath were removed from the “Group Attack” skillgroup.
• Crosscutter, Sword Typhoon, and Path of Righteousness were added to the “Group Attack” skillgroup.
  • There are currently no new affixes for the “Group Attack” skillgroup that may drop normally or be augmented onto gear, outside of the inherent sword and Order armor properties noted above. Unique items may also have this property.
• Onslaught now grants Critical Chance and Critical Damage to Charge and Path of Righteousness, in addition to its original bonus.
• Templar Restoration may now be used while the player is under the effects of shock.

 

Guardian changes:

• Shield Turn and Stampede were added to the “Group Attack” skillgroup.
• Shield Wall’s effect was reverted to its original form.
• The cooldowns of Prayer of Retribution and Prayer of Smiting were increased by 100%.

 

Evoker changes:

• The skill damage calculations of all spells that deal damage were refactored to enhance the effect of skillgroup affixes on them. There should be no discernible difference in performance when not using such affixes.
• All of the skills in the Nature tab, with the exception of Wall of Bone, were added to a new “Naturalism” skillgroup.
• Venomous Spirit, Swarm, Spectral Bolt, Spectral Lash, and Spectral Serpents were added to a new “Spiritualism” skillgroup.
• Afterlife was added to the “Mind Power” skillgroup, in line with the Summoners’ version of the skill.
• Blink was added to the “Mind Power” skillgroup.
  • This also affects the Summoner version of this skill.
• Venom Armor was added to the “Mind Power” skillgroup.
  • This also affects the Summoner version of this skill.
• Tempest’s initial damage was reduced by 50%. However, Tempest is now affected by the player’s minion damage value.
• Swarm now deals damage on impact before its field component begins to deal damage. In addition, it is now affected by the player’s +minion damage value.
  • This also affects the Summoner version of this skill.
• To better facilitate the new skillgroups, the following affixes that increase skillgroup damage were added for all focus items, with a level range of 1-100:
  • Naturalism: Gravedigger’s (Common, 20-24%), Stormcaller’s (Rare, 30-34%), Pyromancer’s (Legendary, 40-50%), Naturalist’s (Mythic, 80-100%)
  • Spiritualism: Reincarnator’s (Common, 20-24%), Harbinger’s (Rare, 30-34%), Channeler’s (Legendary, 40-50%), Spiritualist’s (Mythic, 80-100%)
  • In turn, the following affixes that increase skillgroup damage were added for all relics, with a level range of 1-100:
  • Naturalism: Arcing (Common, 8-12%), Gravebound (Rare, 14-18%), Infernal (Legendary, 20-24%), Naturalist’s (Mythic, 40-50%)
  • Spiritualism: Eldritch (Common, 8-12%), Chthonic (Rare, 14-18%), Otherworldly (Legendary, 20-24%), Spiritualist’s (Mythic, 40-50%)
• Finally, the following Mythic-grade affixes that increase skillgroup damage were added for all Cabalist armor pieces, with a level range of 1-100:
  • Naturalism: Naturalist’s (20-30%)
  • Spiritualism: Spiritualist’s (20-30%)

 

Summoner changes:

• The “Minion” skillgroup was renamed to “Demon” for clarity. In turn, the “Minion Commands” skillgroup was renamed to “Demon Commands”, and Demon skill descriptions now refer to Demons simply as “Demons”.
• Meat Shield was moved 2 columns to the right. This change is only cosmetic. 
• Summon Reaper was added to the “Demon” and “Mind Power” skillgroups.
• Venomous Spirit and Swarm were added to the “Spiritualism” skillgroup, in line with the Evoker versions of these skills.
• Dark Offering was added to the “Naturalism” skillgroup.
• The Reaper has gained the following affixes:
  • Backlash
  • Thorns (fire)
  • Fire field on death
  • Knockback immunity
• Summoning Circle now also grants all Demons passive hp regeneration per skill level.
• Spellstorm will no longer have its cooldown reduced per skill level.
• The cooldowns of Spellstorm and Spectral Strike were increased to 20 seconds. In turn, their shared cooldown was reduced to 10 seconds.
• A new passive skill, “Attunement”, has been added to the Demons tab, replacing Enrage. Unlocked at player lv5, this skill grants Willpower and increased damage to Demons per skill level.
  • “Skillful”, “Proficient”, and “Masterful” (+1, +2, and +3) affixes for Attunement have been added to the game, and may appear on any Summoner focus items and Cabalist guns.
  • Attunement (skill level 1) is now a prerequisite for Blood Link. In turn, Blood Link has become a lv10 skill, and Summoning Circle a lv20 skill. 
  • Summoning Circle (skill level 2) is now a prerequisite for Summon Reaper. 
  • The Blood Link skill level requirement to unlock Summoning Circle has been reduced from 3 to 2.
• 4 new passive skills were added to the Elementals tab, each corresponding to one non-Fire Elemental. Along with the revamped Master of the Flame skill, the 5 “Master of” skills, and their effects, are now the following:
  • Master of the Flame (lv5): +splash radius for Fires, +damage for all Elementals.
  • Master of the Arcane (lv15): +armor penetration for Spectral, +sfx strengths for all Elementals.
  • Master of Gaia (lv20): +hp regeneration for Forces, +hp for all Elementals.
  • Master of Lightning (lv25): +attack rate for Storms, +shield penetration for all Elementals.
  • Master of Venom (lv30): +sfx strengths for Toxics, +sfx defenses for all Elementals.
    • Each of these “Master of” skills requires 2 points in its corresponding Elemental to unlock.
    • All “Master of” skills, along with Elemental Nova and Master of the Elements, were added to a new “Elemental Mastery” skillgroup.
    • “Skillful”, “Proficient”, and “Masterful” (+1, +2, and +3) affixes for all “Master of” skills have been added to the game, and may appear on any Summoner focus items and Cabalist guns.
• Fire Elementals now deal splash damage instead of direct.
• To account for the new Elemental skills’ bonuses and overall class balance, the Elementals’ base stats have been decreased as follows:
  • The attack of all Elementals has been reduced by 33%.
  • The hp of all Elementals has been reduced by 20%.
  • The sfx attack strengths of Fire, Spectral, Force, and Storm Elementals have been reduced by 25%.
  • The poison attack strength of Toxic Elementals has been reduced by 33%.

The icons for the 5 new Summoner skills were all made by Korosukuma, to whom we owe our heartfelt thanks. 

Bug fixes:

• Itemized blueprints (aka “single-use recipes”) have been changed to only produce mods, which should prevent them from appearing bugged. The issue occurred because we’ve changed the crafting results of station crafters to be always usable by the player in the previous patch.
• The cube recipe which produced a two-handed gun for your class out of three two-handed guns failed on Templars, because they don’t have such an item. The recipe will produce a one-handed gun in this case for Templars from now on.
• The recipe which produced a focus item out of three foci occasionally resulted in a focus item type that doesn’t have a Legendary, Double-Edged, or Mythic quality level, turning the resulting item normal quality. To prevent this, we’ve excluded these item types from the result.
  • To be specific, these focus item types are Coreslicers, Coreslashers, and Riving Radiants. 
    • The reason for this grade discrepancy is that Coreslicers and Coreslashers were the non-Abyss counterparts to Ripshards, and Riving Radiants were the non-Abyss counterparts to Bloodshards. Flagship had these “lower” types restricted to Rare and lower grades, while the “higher” variants were restricted to Legendary and above.
• Fixed a bug that caused Korosukuma’s Claw to spawn a lot less than its intended drop rate.

Quest related changes:

• Repeatable Wanted quest chains around London must now be completed in order within the repeat interval (= one hour). 
  • To clarify; the first repeatable quests in quest chains start a 1-hour (in-game) timer on initiation. Any following quests on the same chain require that you have completed their prerequisites and must be initiated within this hour, otherwise the chain resets. Once you’ve successfully started the final (3rd) quest within the timeframe, the chain “reset” will not impede your ability to complete this quest.
• 5 Analyzers were added to the rewards of 1st-step repeatable quests in quest chains.
• 2 adrenaline pills were added to the rewards of 2nd-step repeatable quests in quest chains.
  • These new rewards are in addition to the existing Nanoshard rewards.
• The item level of legendary mods rewarded in every 3rd-step repeatable quest in quest chains got increased to 55, making them suitable for the item level 58 legendary weapons rewarded for completing the Parliament Square daily quest. 

General changes:

• Added a load balancer which should reduce network lag.
• The Necromantic Talisman got a description that states its functionality.
• Fixed the quirk that the backpack would start to collect 1×1 items even before it was actually in your possession, while still in the quest reward slot.

 

Item changes:

• Drop chance for Vipers, Id Pulsars, and Puppet Masters got reduced.
• Drop chance for recently added world drop Uniques got reduced.
• Drop chance of Dreadmasks, NavShells, and Spiked Guards got reduced.
• Empyreal Cannon and Contagion Delivery Device are now tradeable.
• The Rate of Fire of Templar nova guns was increased to 60/min from 30/min.
  • This change excludes the Unique Novastorm and all Starburst nova guns.
• Thermo Cannons’ interaction with Ravager Rounds got fixed, and each missile will only damage the same target once from now on.
• Reduced the chance for extra pellets on Jackhammers to 25% each from 66% and 33%.
• Reduced the attack speed of Shock Rail Pistols to 80/min from 120/min.
• Increased the splash radius on Core Magnums to 1m from 0.5m including their unique variations.
• Increased the splash radius of Vigilantes to 1.5m from 0.5m including their unique variation.

 

Cube and crafting changes:

• Armor and guns that crafter NPCs and blueprints produce will always be for your class. 
  • Focus items, swords, and shields may still be produced, regardless of your class.

• The essence requirement for the Cube’s Mythic recipe got reduced to 25 Spectral and   Demon essences from 100 Spectral and Demon essences.
• The Enhanced boss ring recipes were renamed to “Upgraded” for clarity.
• You can now reforge 3 identical legendary boss rings into a new one in the Cube, without the chance of it becoming unique.
• A new Mythic mod reforging recipe has been added to the Cube. The results will still be random.
• New crafting recipes were added to the Cube, which won’t show up in your recipe list. Specifically: 
  • 3 identical types of armor/weapon with a quality of Double-Edged, Legendary or Mythic can be combined into a new random one for that slot type, e.g. 3 legendary helms will create a new legendary helm, 3 one-handed weapons will create a new one-handed weapon, etc. The resulting item will always be for your class regardless of the ingredient items’ class requirement. These recipes can occasionally roll a bunch of nanoshards for you as a result, instead of producing an item.
    • In the case of focus items, swords, and shields, the resulting item will be the same as the ingredients regardless of your class.

 

Shields got reworked:

• Each type of shield got reworked in a specific role in mind. Lower base damage ones got splash damage, while higher base damage ones remained direct; some of them spawn with high critical chance others with high critical damage; some come with an uncommon amount of slots.
  • The base damage type, inherent sfx attack strength type and value, and the inherent sfx defense type and value of each shield type got modified to provide a unique character and purpose for each shield type.
• All shields excluding your initial one can now spawn with mod slots.
  • The overall inherent sfx attack strengths on shields got lowered to counterbalance the existence of slots, and to promote maxing shield skills, which grant you increased sfx attacks strengths.
• The base damage of all shields was increased by 100%.

 

Skill changes:

• The Summoner’s Spellstorm and Spectral Strike skills incorrectly stated their passive behavior, therefore this tag got removed from the skill description. They now correctly state these buffs only strengthen your Demon during the skill effect.
• Reduced the size multiplier for Carnagor under the effect of Meat Shield.
• Reduced the character size multiplier of Great Defender.

 

Evoker skill changes:

• Firestorm’s damage per level was increased to 10% from 5%, and its ignite attack strength was increased by 100%. Damage was converted to splash from direct.
• Damage of Spectral Lash was increased by 67%.
• Damage of Arc Legion was increased by 67%. Changed the bonus per level from shock attack strength and damage to 3% Armor Penetration per level. The default shock attack strength got adjusted to make up for the old bonus. Power cost increased by 25%.
• Damage of Drain Power was increased by 166%.
• Damage of Drain Life was increased by 275%. 
  • This change also affects the Summoner version of this skill.
• Damage of the initial explosion of Hellfire was increased by 100%. Field damage was increased by 33%.
• Phase attack strength calculation of Spectral Lash got reworked to better match with the shock attack strength of Arc Legion.
• Phase attack strength of Spectral Nova was increased by 100%.
• Ignite attack strength of Flameshards was increased by 100%.
• Ignite attack strength of Hellfire was increased by 150%.
• Poison attack strengths of Venomous Spirit and Venom Armor were increased by 500%. 
  • This change also affects the Summoner versions of these skills.
• Wall of Bone can be targeted by monsters from now on, and attackers suffer thorns damage which scales with player level.

 

Guardian skill changes:

• All shield attacks gained Shield Master’s 70% increased damage bonus by default.
• Shield Master no longer has a skill pre-requirement, and it no longer grants increased damage of shield skills. Instead, it provides increased critical chance and critical damage to all offensive shield skills.
• Shield Throw no longer grants critical chance per level, but increased range instead. Base shield throw range reduced to 15m from 20m. Changed the maximum retarget count to 8 from 2.
• Decreased the shield bonus granted by Shield Wall. The skill now also grants an increasing shield recharge delay reduction per skill level.

 

Marksman skill changes:

• Overshield now also increases your shield regeneration and decreases shield regeneration delay while active.
• Multishot’s skill description now correctly states the 45% base damage multiplier on grenades and strikes while the skill is active.
• EMP Blast is now a lv10 skill, and its cooldown was reduced to 30 seconds.
• White-Out Grenade is now a lv30 skill.
  • The skill tokens Nesmith’s Blast Cell and ElectroMag, which unlock White-Out Grenade and EMP Blast respectively, had their sources swapped to account for the respective skill level changes.

 

Engineer skill changes:

• Medpak Retrofit’s description now correctly states that its bonus also applies to shields.
• Molotov Assault’s description changed to make it more in-line with other skill descriptions.

 

Blademaster changes:

• Templar Restoration now also restores shields for the same % amount it does for health. The skill’s description changed accordingly.
• The Thorns skill got reworked and it’s now called Holy Instinct, instead of physical thorns it grants you Melee Evasion. 
• Grammatical changes were made on Crusader Wrath’s skill description.

 

Monster changes:

• All Champions’ SFX fields on death have had their SFX attack strength lowered by 50%, and the state duration of the physical one by 50%.
• Gatekeeper should only take 2% damage per ignite tick instead of the default 5%.
• All Juggernauts got the Unyielding affix which increases their armor rating.
• All Morphoids got the Overloaded affix which increases their shield overload value, and their ignite attack strength also increased.
• The Mindripper got new affixes, and can drop its first-time loot any time you kill it.
• The following early-game Named mobs got new affixes to make them more challenging or unique:

 

Fat Bully

Typhoid Mary

Sleestak 

Big Ben

Fangsnort

Mini Dynamo

Zeder

The Harrow Witch

The Sandman

The Phantom

 

 

 

• Fat Bully can now drop some low-level Named Rare items which were meant to be quest rewards by FSS, but remained unreleased. These are the following:

 

Hand of Manos

Gambeson’s Hellcat

Griswaldo’s Lament

Gulliver’s Slicer

Infernal Halo

The Bleeder

The Burnshredder

Zeus’s Fist

 

 

 

 

 

Level changes:

• Savage Fiends in Physical Rifts were replaced by Razor Carnagors.

 

Quest related changes:

• The item level of daily quest rewards in Parliament Square was increased.  You can now get Abyss-specific weapons and armor as a reward, and they can spawn with a higher tier of properties.
• Repeatable and Daily quests state this in their name from now on.
• Quest Firesnaps got replaced by Chimeradons.

 

New items:

• A new tier of Thermal Bolters, called XM44 Palladium Bolters, got introduced, and can drop from lvl33. They can fire 2 additional missiles at 33% rate for each at a cost of lower base ignite strength and higher accuracy feed than their lower-tier variants.
• A new tier of Thermo Cannons, called XM271 Thermo Cannon, got introduced, and can drop from lvl32. Their base damage is fully physical splash unlike the lower tier ones, and they come with an increased accuracy feed cost compared to them.
• A Unique variation of XM271 Thermo Cannon, named Withering Tube, got introduced, and can be acquired as a world drop.
• One-handed variations of the XM666 Bladesaw and Bladefrenzy got introduced called XM333 Bladesaw and XM333 Bladefrenzy (nightmare version). Instead of armor, they have shield and evasion as their inherent property.
• New Legendary items can be acquired through a rare encounter in Savile Row or St. James Park. These are:

 

Blackheart (XM333 Bladesaw)

Rebellion (XM333 Bladesaw)

Korosukuma’s Claw (Darkclaw)

Daybreak (Firebrand)

Mr. Steven’s lazer sword (Lightning Sword)

Necrobro (Viper)

 

 

Achievement changes:

• Added a new achievement related to Fat Bully which grants you a new title and a passive skill.