Alpha 0.5.4

Purchasing Access
This version of the game requires alpha access, which is included in some of the Supporter Packs available from the official website.

Installing the Alpha Launcher
This support article shows how to download the alpha Game Launcher and install the game.

Commentary
It’s good to patch again! This update brings many improvements, most importantly new crafting items, side zones, a quest system, visual improvements and bug fixes.

Mechanics

 * Added a separate tab for crafting materials to the inventory
 * Contains a slot for each crafting item (does not include shards)
 * Crafting items are placed into your regular inventory when picked up, and are put into the materials tab with right click (shift + right click to move all)
 * Individual Affix Shards can now drop from enemies and barrels
 * These go into your regular inventory when picked up. You can right click on them to instantly transfer them to the crafting window. If the crafting window is open you can shift+right click on a shard to transfer all shards to the crafting window
 * Crafting window improvements
 * The shards list now automatically filters for the item which you are crafting on
 * Shards which match an affix already on the item and have an available tier are highlighted and placed at the top of the list
 * Shards which match the item but do not have an available tier or slot are faded and placed at the bottom of the list
 * When a shard is selected from the list, it remains selected after crafting
 * You can now search for particular shards
 * Added a new fracturing visual to clearly show when an item is fractured
 * Improved the help panel
 * Adjusted spacing and appearance of the window
 * Changed the stun formula from “chance to stun = damage dealt / (max health + stun avoidance)” to “chance to stun = damage dealt / ((max health + stun avoidance) - 0.1)
 * Any hit that would previously have 10% or less chance to stun will no longer stun, hits are less likely to stun overall
 * The Mastery System and Skill Trees are now searchable
 * Nodes with matching descriptions or titles are highlighted and nodes which don’t match are faded
 * Added the Quest system
 * Quests are tracked in a text overlay on the right side of the screen
 * Pressing J opens a window with quest details
 * So far there are 2 quests in Chapter 1
 * Quest rewards will be in a future patch
 * Lightning Blast and Rip Blood will now hit crates and barrels if there are no nearby enemies

Items

 * Added three crafting modifier items. Shards and Shattering Stones are also considered modifier items.
 * Rune of Removal: “Removes a random affix on an item, along with adding fracture chance.”
 * Rune of Refinement: “Rerolls all affixes on an item within their tiers, along with adding fracture chance.”
 * Rune of Cleansing: “Removes all affixes from an item. 5-15 fracture chance will remain, up to the previous fracture chance.”
 * The Shattering Stone is now known as Rune of Shattering and has new art
 * Added two crafting support items. Support items must be used at the same time as a Modifier item
 * Glyph of the Guardian: “If a fracture occurs, the tier of fracture is reduced by one. This glyph is always expended when crafting.”
 * Glyph of Stability: “Causes a modifier item to add 80% less to 40% more fracture chance.”
 * Shards now have different art based on broad groupings
 * Shards are now colored corresponding to their affix
 * Shards in the shard list that add a single stat now always have (added) or (increased) after their names for clarity
 * Blunt weapons (such as maces) now have implicit increased stun chance instead of implicit increased physical damage.
 * Increased the implicit flat physical damage of blunt weapons
 * Increased the power of stun related affixes (in part to overcome the stun formula change)
 * Reworked ring implicits
 * Copper Rings now give Increased Stun Chance
 * Ruby Rings now give Added Health and Added Stun Avoidance
 * Sapphire Rings now give Added Mana
 * Ward Trail unique belt
 * Now gives a flat 40 ward on dodge
 * Reduced Added Dodge Rating from 100 to 80
 * Stormtide unique boots
 * No longer shock you more than once every 0.34 seconds
 * Now grants 260% Increased Shock Effect, up from 120%
 * Ring of the Third Eye no longer grants increased ward retention
 * Humming Bee now grants 1% increased elemental damage per 250 ward (previously per 100 ward)
 * Reduced necrotic damage from Grimoire of Necrotic Elixers from 40 to 20
 * Added Jade Rings which have implicit Added Dodge Rating

Skills

 * Nodes that change a skill’s damage type or add a sub ability that deals a different damage type now update the skill’s tags on its tooltip.
 * Ex. When you take one of the individual novas on Elemental Nova, or prevent skeleton mages from spawning from Summon Skeleton, the tags are changed
 * Devouring Orb’s Abyssal Juggernaut node now gives 10 protection and 10% increased protection per point, down from 15 and 15%
 * Added a skill tree for Flame Reave, including:
 * Tighter cone but faster attack speed
 * Wider cone but slower attack speed
 * Ignite and related effects
 * Synergy with other elements
 * Flame Reave returns to you
 * Vines spawned by Fury Leap nodes are now combined into one portrait at the top left of the screen
 * Slightly nerfed most nodes on the Hungering Souls tree
 * Added a skill tree for Lunge, including:
 * Hits enemies in your path
 * Knockback
 * Spear Requirement with upsides
 * Additional charges
 * No cooldown but increased mana cost
 * Extra attacks
 * Reduced Mana Strike’s global damage increase on hit to 7% per node from 10% (??)
 * Reduced base crit chance of Lunge to 5% (from 100%)
 * Added Rebuke, a new Knight skill: 1 second channeled ability followed up by an aoe attack. Reduces all incoming damage by 75% while channeling.
 * Shield Rush is now a channeled ability. The character will move until you stop casting, then make an AoE hit. This was done to make the skill more distinct from Lunge
 * Teleport
 * Now has a 4 second cooldown
 * Costs 25 mana (down from 60)
 * Now takes half as long to cast
 * Tempest
 * Void Spiral now gives 1 added base void damage (down from 2) but can have one more point allocated
 * Draining Assault now gives 15% increased damage (down from 20%) per point
 * Abyssal Flurry now gives 25% more cast speed per point (down from 30%) per point
 * Whirling Blades can now have 6 points allocated (down from 8)
 * Reduced base movement speed of Volcanic Orb by 14%
 * Slightly nerfed many nodes on the Wandering Spirits tree
 * Reduce the damage of the possess ailment by 14%

Level Design

 * Added multiple side zones to Chapter 1
 * Lighting and post-processing effects have been re-done for all levels
 * Redesigned the Forest Arena
 * Most NPCs in Chapter 1 now have their own model
 * The first time you approach the first dead guard in Last Refuge Outskirts there will be a Captain’s Ring on his body that grants 20 to 35 stun avoidance
 * The wave fight at the end of Last Refuge Outskirts changes once you complete it the first time
 * Added transparency to volumetric lights. Results in less haze near light sources
 * Added new god ray effects

UI

 * Moved The Sheltered Wood icon on the map to avoid ambiguity over how to get there

Enemies

 * Rare Winternids now flee for a much shorter duration

Sound

 * A sound effect now plays when skills level up
 * The Frozen Orb node of Volcanic Orb now has a different cast sound
 * Active waypoints now play an ambient sound

Visual Effects

 * Added visual effects that display whenever skills (player, minion or enemy) hit, depending on the type of damage dealt
 * Enemies now have a flash effect when hit. This helps to make combat feel more impactful, and scales with the size of the enemy to avoid being overwhelming
 * Updated visuals for Abyssal Sundering and Void Spit (enemy skills)
 * Reduced size of trail effects on small void enemies
 * Improved stun and poison status effects
 * Updated click to move visual
 * Improved visuals for Aura of Decay, Fire Nova, Fire Shield, Hungering Souls and Rip Blood

Optimization

 * Greatly optimized The Last Archive, increasing FPS considerably
 * Improved poly counts in many scenes, increasing FPS
 * Damage
 * Refactored how damage values are stored. This should improve the performance of modifying and applying damage
 * Improved performance of skill tree nodes that modify base damage
 * Improved memory usage of most instances of damage
 * AI
 * Improved performance of AI target finding
 * Improved performance of AI that hasn’t been aggroed yet
 * Improved the performance of summoning minions for the player and enemies
 * Improved the performance of most abilities that repeatedly deal damage in an area
 * Improved performance of chaining skills
 * Improved performance of checking for changes in movement speed
 * Reduced performance impact of some visual effects

Bug Fixes

 * Finally fixed the damage number bug which caused some players to have invisible damage numbers and green crit numbers.
 * Fixed a long-standing bug where items would sometimes get stuck on the cursor
 * If the bug still occurs in some situations, the “sort items” button should fix it
 * Fixed a long-standing bug where it was possible to duplicate items when inserting them into the crafting window
 * Fixed a bug preventing the Spriggan from moving and engaging in combat
 * Fixed Abyssal Echoes’ Creeping Decay node breaking the skill
 * Fixed the Rise and Poisonous Thicket nodes on Fury Leap
 * Fixed the Spectral Wolves and Claw Totem nodes on the Swipe tree
 * Fixed Volcanic Orb’s Volcanic Fury node requiring 2 points in Orb of Speed despite Orb of Speed having a max of 1 point
 * Updated Wandering Spirits’ Eternal Haunt node tooltip to reflect what it actually does
 * Fixed passives that trigger on block not working, specifically Sentinel’s Rallying Block
 * Fixed the Necromancer’s Reconstruction passive
 * Fixed the Sentinel’s Gauging Strike passive not working unless all 10 points were allocated
 * Fixed a bug preventing Iron Gauntlets from dropping
 * Fixed Ring of the Third Eye giving crit multi instead of subtracting it
 * Fixed missing textures for Detonate Corpse, Plague (Serpent Strike ailment), Sacrifice and Transplant
 * Fixed a bug where necrotic damage from the Grimoire of Necrotic Elixers was applying to DoT effects
 * Fixed some minion stats in the character sheet being calculated incorrectly
 * Fixed a bug where the lightning blast vfx would briefly start off stretched to the left before moving its proper position
 * Fixed a bug where bloom dirt couldn’t be disabled
 * Fixed crates flying off when entering the Council Chambers
 * Fixed a pathway in The Precipice appearing on the minimap despite being inaccessible
 * Fixed Stun Avoidance being referred to as Tenacity on Strong Mind
 * Fixed increased being spelled as “inceased” on the Savagery Primalist passive
 * Fixed a typo in Lunge’s tooltip
 * Fixed the Hungering Souls tooltip saying it fires 7 projectiles when it fires 5

Undocumented Changes
These changes were made in Alpha 0.5.4 but were not included in the patch notes.

Items

 * Increased Physical Damage implicits on One Handed Blunt Weapons and Two Handed Blunt Weapons were changed to Increased Stun Chance.
 * Throwing Attack Damage Shard and Throwing Attack Speed Shard are no longer applicable to Two Handed Blunt Weapons or One Handed Blunt Weapons.

Mechanics

 * The Chronomancer in The Council Chambers now allows passive respec in groups of 1, 5 or 20 points
 * You can now quick-move items from the materials tab to the crafting window using right click (moving from the crafting menu doesn't move to the materials tab yet)

Optimization

 * Improved performance in The Sheltered Wood
 * Improved the speed of loading items in the stash

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed being unable to switch stash tabs
 * Mourningfrost now removes the cast and attack speed bonus from Agility correctly
 * Mourningfrost now interacts with increased attribute effects correctly
 * Fixed the listed passive respec cost not matching the actual cost
 * Fixed Volcanus's projectiles not being created at the right height, which was causing them to instantly collide with the ground and be destroyed
 * Fixed War Mauls having an incorrect implicit
 * Flame Reave
 * Fixed the extra crit damage against ignited enemies node applying 7 times
 * Now correctly gains the Lightning tag when nodes that add base lightning damage are added
 * Fixed Ashen Wake being unreachable because it required 5 points in a 4 point node. It now requires 3 points.
 * Fixed support items being moved to the modifier item slot when quick-moved
 * Fixed some barrels being unreachable in The Forsaken Trail
 * Fixed a typo in Lunge's Blade Stream node
 * Disabled Screen Space Reflections on Linux due to multiple bugs

Patch Preview
Patch 0.5.4 brings improvements to existing zones and fleshes out our crafting system.

Highlights

 * Quests have been implemented!
 * Chapter One has been expanded through the addition of side areas.
 * Crafting has been a focus of this patch, with changes including;
 * Added Glyphs, which are single-use items which modify a craft in some way. (e.g. If your craft results in a fracture, the fracture tier is reduced by one)
 * Added Runes, which differ from Glyphs by being standalone items. (e.g. Remove an affix from an item; make it more likely to fracture in the future)
 * The drop rate of Shattering Stones has been increased.
 * Affix Shards can now drop from enemies as loot.
 * The inventory now has a dedicated tab for crafting items.
 * When shattering an item you will now be told which Shards were obtained.
 * The crafting window no longer displays Shards you cannot apply to the item.
 * Added a search bar to skill specialization trees.
 * Added a search bar to the mastery window.
 * Flame Reave now has a skill specialization tree.
 * Lunge now has a skill specialization tree.
 * Added visual effects to make combat more visually responsive.
 * Reduced stun chance across the board.
 * Stun-related affixes have been buffed to offset this.
 * Made improvements to lighting, post-processing, and performance.
 * Bug fixes including;
 * We reproduced the bug causing most damage numbers not to be displayed! Using what we learned from this, we created a fix which resolved the issue internally.
 * Fixed a bug which could result in an item being ‘stuck’ to the cursor.
 * Corrected an issue which could result in items being duplicated.

After this patch
In addition to incrementally adding specialization trees to skills which lack them, we will be gradually adding new quests, side areas, and crafting items.

New character models and multiple Chapters are in various stages of development.