Patchnotes v26.10.1

Hi everyone, it's time for another big patch! With the help of your feedback, I've made a few more balancing adjustments to really get this game to the balance I want. I also fixed a bunch of bugs and made some quality of life changes like a Focus Regain display and faster elevators.

Ranged Combat Art Focus regain

Until now, most ranged Combat Arts regained basically no Focus at all. I implemented it like this to avoid cheesing enemies from afar, if a projectile keeps regenerating enough Focus to use it again you can just stand far away from bosses, spam the projectile and not engage with the fight at all.

However, a way better solution to this problem was right in front of me: projectiles now regenerate less Focus the further they travel. It already works like this for damage and stagger, so why not Focus too? Using this system, I was able to buff the Focus regain of almost all projectile attacks to make them way more fun to use in combos. You can find the detailed buffs in the patchnotes below!

Increasing Flasks of Blood

From watching gameplay and listening to your feedback, I realized that the endgame turned out far more punishing than anticipated. However, I didn't want to further nerf any more bosses (I think these fights are well balanced for the combat system once everything clicks) but I wanted to give you more chances to learn these complicated fights.

This is why I placed 4 Flask shards throughout the world. 2 Flask shards can be used to increase the amount of Flasks you can carry by 1, letting you upgrade your Flasks to a total of 6 by the time you reach the endgame.

I think this is a great addition to the game for multiple reasons. It gives you more chances to learn fights and makes the game a little bit less punishing, it adds additional character progression, it adds more meaningful loot to the game and it's entirely optional if you prefer the more punishing 4 Flasks.

If you're already into a playthrough and want to pick up the Shards you missed, I added a guide at the bottom of this post on where to find them. (Beware of minor spoilers)

Displaying Focus regain

One player suggested something really important: Focus regain should be displayed in the Combat Art menu. This way you can easily see how much Focus you will regain on a successful attack with each Combat Art. This is important data for making your build and it's finally easily visible!

Controller l3 & r3 issue

A small amount of players are experiencing an issue where they sometimes cannot use l3 or r3 to lock on and sprint. I'm still investigating this, but I have found that it seems to be driver or firmware related. If you are experiencing this issue, try to upgrade your controller drivers and firmware and if possible, let me know if that fixes the issue. I'm going to continue looking into this and more information on what does or does not fix it would be an enormous help!

That's it for this patch! Thank you everyone for playing! You can find all the detailed changes and fixes I didn't mention in the detailed patchnotes:

Balancing

• Increased Focus regain of most projectile attacks, but made them regain less Focus the further they travel (This avoids long-distance-cheesing which was the main reason for low regain on projectile attacks, but makes them more fun to use in close range)
• Increased Book Throw Focus regain from 10% to 25%
• Increased Flamethrower Focus regain from 0% to 30%
• Increased Living Hands Focus regain from 0% to 30%
• Increased Rock Throw Focus regain from 0% to 70%
• Increased Toxic Retch Focus regain from 20% to 40%
• Increased Shattering Step Focus regain from 50% to 60%
• Increased Chaotic Swings Focus regain from 44% to 48%
• Increased Blood Orb Focus regain from 30% to 50%
• Increase Corpse Barrage Focus regain from 18% to 42%
• Increased Radiant Beam Focus regain from 35% to 55%
• Increased Pure Light of Hope Focus regain from 9% to 54%
• Increased Blood Wave Focus regain from 20% to 40%
• Increased Deathly Discharge Focus regain from 20% to 50%
• Increased Red Flame Cannon Focus regain from 36% to 64%

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Added the ability to increase the amount of Flasks of Blood up to x6 using Flask shards found throughout the world

• Placed Flask shard in the swamp area at the "Fallen Paradise" Bloodspring
• Placed Flask shard in the machine workshop at the "Prison of Death" Bloodspring
• Placed Flask shard in front of the hidden dragon shrine at the "Temple of Hope" Bloodspring
• Placed Flask shard in one of the rooms at the "Root of the Red Flame" Bloodspring

[/*][*]

Slightly increased minimum Red-Flame-Parry angle

[/*][*]

Increased poison build up time until the first damage tick when stepping into poison-water or blood-pools

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Reduced size of Apostle of Death tentacle hitbox

[/*][*]

Adjusted Easy and Very Easy difficulty

• Reduced Damage Taken on Easy from 75% to 72%
• Increased Damage Dealt on Easy from 110% to 113%
• Increased Damage Dealt on Very Easy from 130% to 150%
• Increased Stagger Damage Dealt on Very Easy from 120% to 130%
• Made enemies wait for a minimum of 0.8 seconds between combo strings on Very Easy difficulty

[/*]

Misc

• Added stat block for Focus-regain in the Combat Art menu
• Removed hard-to-see fences and walls in the Decrepit Village to improve navigation and make it less easy to get stuck
• Automatically focus camera on the True Angel after the phase-swap cutscene to make reacting to the first attack easier
• Increased speed of various elevators
• Reduced intensity of the poison screen-effect to improve visibility in poison
• Added an automatic savefile backup system. If a savefile gets corrupted due to a not yet found bug, you will now always have a backup from said savefile available
• Added white glow to Apostle of Death projectiles to increase visibility

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where a game crash right after defeating a boss would lock you out of ever getting the corresponding boss Combat Art
• Fixed a bug where a game crash right as the game is saving would corrupt the affected savefile
• Fixed a bug where player projectiles would sometimes target the Wish-summon instead of enemies
• Fixed a bug where you could get stuck in a vine bridge in the temple of Birth
• Fixed a visual bug where you could see outside the map through one of the windows in the Despair boss arena
• Fixed a bug where right after upgrading, an incorrect stagger number was displayed in the upgrade menu for multi-hit Combat Arts
• Fixed a bug where the Pumping Carcass armor could be picked up a second time in NG+
• Fixed a bug where sound was not mirrored in Mirror Mode
• Fixed a bug where flying towards a Wind Point using the Wings of Hope the same frame as dying would cause permanent fall damage cancellation and blocked player rotation
• Fixed a bug where the Scroll of the Summoner did not affect damage dealt by parasites spawned through the Scroll of Parasites

Where to find the Flask shards

1. For the first Flask shard, start from the "Fallen Paradise" Bloodspring and walk out into the large swamp area. Go over the wooden bridge that leads to the black tentacle door, then turn left until you reach a tree with 2 items next to it. One of those is the first Flask shard.
2. For the second Flask shard, start from the "Prison of Death" Bloodspring and turn right to the glowing green spot. Use the Vines of Birth to progress into the workshop where you will find the second Flask shard.
3. For the third Flask shard, start from the "Temple of Hope" Bloodspring and move through the Sakura garden towards the waterfall that is the water-source for the puzzle in this area. Turn the lever to open the path towards the dragon statue and find the third Flask shard in the rubble to the right.
4. For the final Flask shard, start from the "Root of the Red Flame" Bloodspring and move up the stairs you initially came from. Open the door into the first room on the right to find the final Flask shard.