We are a small independent game developer located in Warsaw, Poland. Before The Astronauts, some of us worked on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.
Our latest project is Witchfire, a dark fantasy first person shooter set in an alternative world in which witches are real and very dangerous – but so are you, witchhunter.
Our first game was a weird fiction mystery titled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game has won many awards, including BAFTA, and we sold over one million copies. It’s available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Click here for more details.
Witchfire Guard and Foul Stimulant are now mutually exclusive and cannot be used at the same time during expedition
Fixed percentage bonus formatting of Firepower Boost Arcana
Ring of Thorns: Now properly grants Ice Arcana
Ring of Thorns: Fixed an incorrect ability description on Mysterium II
Sigma Diabolicum no longer grants Decay Arcana at Mysterium I
Obelisk event no longer shows up in Madman’s Dream
Obelisk event no longer activates from inside of the island’s Vault
Lowered the Mysteria I activations for Psychopomp upgrade from 40 to 20
Fixed a misaligned crosshair on the All Seeing Eye ADS that was causing it to aim at a lower point then all other weapons
Tweaked the ASE front sight to make it more visible
Fixed Calamity objective UI showing a completed objective if you re-trigger calamity just after completing the previous one
Fixed a bug that was causing player health drop below 0 if the Assassin calamity spawned in the same run in which Foul Stimulant was used, causing the inability to shoot and look up/down as well as other issues
Text polish pass on the new stuff
Fixed the Calamity’s double rewards bug
Fixed visible crossbow’s projectile when interacting with the Collector or Gnosis book
PATCH 0.4.5.56088
(2024.10.19)
Highlights
The Island now has a new Monolith event, a mini-boss and a new area around the galleon with an extra event. A tease of upcoming new things hangs nearby.
Experimental: added Crosshair Spells Notifiers — a widget which is displayed around the crosshair and notifies you when one of your spells recharges. This feature is experimental and hidden by default, you need to turn it on in Settings -> Gameplay -> Experimental section. (Please note that this feature isn’t guaranteed to stay and may be removed in the future.) Tell us what you think, we’ll be happy to read your feedback!
Gear
Ring of Thorns
Ring of Thorns has undergone a thorough redesign.
Designer note: Ring of Thorns requires a very risky gameplay style, and thus needed a much bigger reward for playing well – hence the redesign.
Whisper
Whisper can once again stun Familiars and Faithfuls, but it takes a few shots, depending on the target’s size
Hangfire
Removed a hidden “Fourth Mysterium” from Hangfire, that ballooned its single target damage out of proportion.
Designer’s note: Early in Hangfire’s design process, it had a different Mysterium II:“Explosions get stronger the more bullets are lodged in the same enemy.”We changed it to the current version, not only because it wasn’t particularly engaging and was pretty overpowered with the right setup, but we also found out that making Hangfire a more crowd-fighting oriented hand cannon gave it a stronger identity. The problem is…that Mysterium was accidentally never removed from the game, So both versions of Mysterium II activated when the gun was upgraded. Whoops.
Hangfire had its single target explosion damage and stun damage adjusted: subsequent explosions on the same target deal less and less damage.
Even with the “Fourth Mysterium” removed, Hangfire’s single target damage and stun potential was still just a tad too high for its desired place in the combat sandbox. This feature was implemented so it could be reigned in without compromising its crowd-fighting capabilities
Increased Hangfire explosions base stun damage on initial target by 300%, and lowered Hangfire’s bullet stun damage by 20%.
This makes Hangfire actually better at controlling spread-out crowds with explosions, while not being overpowered on single targets thanks to the new stun damage decrease on subsequent hits.
Increased ammo reserves from 90 to 120
Flamebreath
Increased Mysterium II bonus damage on Burning targets
Midas
You can no longer trigger Mysterium III repeatedly by interrupting reloads.
All-Seeing Eye
One more bullet in the clip community suggestion
White Raven’s Feather:
Cost on Unveiling Arcana lowered from 2 to 1
Slightly lowered the amount of Feathers dropped
Foul Stimulant:
Now grants +100% witchfire for the whole run duration, in exchange for lowering health and stamina by 50% and preventing the corpse from spawning on death.
Witchfire Guard:
Now protects all volatile witchfire on death, but there will be no corpse left behind to recover treasures from
Merchant’s Stone
Now grants a significant heal, but consumes three random treasures from the Inventory
Gameplay
Fixed Stake Gun projectile launch location
Fixed an issue that caused enemy pathing to fail following the target
Fixed Buckler Swordsman collision to correctly reflect the mesh community request
Fixed teleporting enemy losing the elemental status applied prior to teleport community request
Removed some clutter from the Adventure Log, like mentions of locked supply chests
Tweaked some enemy drops to be more appropriate to their difficulty
Fixed a bug that caused “New Elixir slot unlocked” to display on incorrect levelup
A thorough balance pass has been made on Arcana parameters
Adeptus Major and Adeptus Minor had their description tweaked to better describe their use
Adjusted some Mirror Lock switch locations that were unreasonably hard to pinpoint. Fixed reward chest that spawned turned the wrong way around
Improved Rarog’s Egg event rewards community request
To avoid confusion, changed the Soultrap’s “Event Failed” notification to “Event Finished” when you fail to fill up the Soultrap before the timer runs out and only get partial Demonic Ammo rewards.
Absorbing Manifestations now heals significantly more.
Potions now drop slightly less often from chests
A malevolent being now watches for Manifestations left unused for too long…
When inspecting the monk statue in the Tower, golden footsteps now lead you to the scepter making the statue puzzle easier
Witchfire cost of cleaning areas with the scepter has been lowered from 5K to 2K
Witchfire cost of Gnosis Upgrade has been raised to limit accidental upgrades
Added the the second ship objective for Gnosis I to clear up any confusion
Ambush at Tower Gate has been polished and is a bit more newbie friendly
Fixed Ice Sphere and Heavy Gunner’s shield being valid targets for the stake
Fixed Firebreath second mysterium always being active
Fixed Firebreath second mysterium affecting enemies that weren’t already on fire
Fixed multiple gameplay related crashes.
Fixed broken spells inputs after switching spell casting mode back and forth in the settings
Fixed locked dash direction on controller when switched dash mode for KBM
Enemies no longer lose their elemental statuses when teleporting
Severed Ear’s reload trigger is no longer spammable due to reload interrupts
Fixed conditions for 2nd Mysterium activations objective for Hypnosis
Fixed sometimes incorrect notifications about available Ascension
Rotten Fiend is no longer a valid target for lightning jumps between enemies
Casting Rotten Fiend when another one is already active will correctly remove the previous one on any Mysterium, rather than only on the highest one
Fixed Rotten Fiend’s Decay aura
Fixed a crash happening when some inputs were left unbound in the settings
Fixed hidden weapon bug when trying to swap weapons and using Elixir at full health
Fixed Silent Secondary corrupted Arcana preventing swap to Demonic weapon using Quick Swap input action
Fixed loot drops for Sister, Devotee, Wretch and Sentinel enemies
Trying to cast a Spell while using Dash will now correctly cast it right after dash ends instead of failing
Stun bar UI above enemy health should now correctly display its value after switching targets
Spell cooldown icon will no longer appear as ready when in fact it’s still recharging (micro cooldown bug)
Increased the threshold required to change platform input icons using mouse or controller thumbstick
Moving the cursor with thumbstick while pressing (A) will no longer display KBM icons on the UI
Improved rebinding so that you can override other binds
Added better Sharpen option (lets you restore the soft pre-patch look)
When interacting with the Gunroom, you will now see notification icons (little stars) leading you to the new gear. No more guessing whether ‘new gear’ means new weapon, spell, relic, fetish, or ring. Little star (and corresponding objective: ‘New gear awaits in the Gunroom’) will disappear after you hover a new item with your cursor — there’s no need to equip it if you don’t want to.
Added a new objective displayed in the Hermitorium when it’s possible to start researching a new gear (weapon / spell / magic item). This should help new players understand how Workshop Mirror works. It should also eliminate instances when you start a new expedition only to realize you forgot to start a new research. (However, please note that objective is only displayed when there’s gear to be researched — incantations are currently ignored, as they are not limited and can be researched infinitely.)
Added safeguard in the logic of displaying map icons, which hopefully will fix the bug with the icon with empty name and description.
Settings / Controls: missing bindings are now displayed in red, making them easier to spot.
Settings / Controls: added warning popup which is displayed when you try to go back from the settings, and some of your bidings are still missing.
Settings / Gameplay: changed the names of ‘Screen effects’ setting options to be more descriptive.
Adventure Log should no longer display duplicate messages.
Optimized Adventure Log memory footprint.
Updated credits.
Fixed mouse cursor hotspot being in wrong position across various screen sizes
Fixed Striga’s projectile sometimes phasing through enemies
Better collision detection for Striga’s projectile
Slightly lowered tracking on Warrior Priest and Maceman attacks to make dodging them more viable in intense combat scenarios
Slightly lowered aim leading for Devotee projectiles and made her more inclined to push closer to its target
Fixed camera shake rotation on melee attacks from sides to better reflect hit impact direction
Fixed All Seeing Eye position while aimed-down-sights community feedback
Shieldbearer’s Shield dome radius increased by roughly 20% to make staying in it a slightly more managable task
Sounds
Added ambient sounds to the Island of the Damned
Designed sounds for the Obelisk scenario that occurs in the Island
Replaced the All Seeing Eye’s radial damage sound
Designed an additional radial damage sound for the All Seeing Eye’s decay shockwave
Added a new sonic element to part of the reload sounds for Hangfire
Tweaked the attenuation range of Hangfire’s explosions
Improved the sonic transitions that occur when the preyer teleports in and out of the Wailing Tower
Tweaked the End of Cooldown sounds for the Charged Melee, Light, and Heavy Spell abilities to make them more audible
Tweaked the attenuation ranges of many of the Proximity Mine sounds
Fixed a small issue present in the sound of the Proximity Mine’s explosions
Made a change so that the Bells that anticipate a Calamity remain audible for players who mute the game’s music
Fixed an issue that was causing Cornucopia’s casting sound to get interrupted
PATCH 0.4.4.55505
(2024.09.27)
Highlights
QoL Hermitory Upgrade: all stations regenerate your stamina when interacted with (Community Suggestion)
Cursed Treasures:
Fixed inaccessible Treasure locations
Tweaked Treasure spawnpoints that were particularly hard to spot
Tweaked Treasures’ look so they fit better with the environment
Slightly lowered the chance that multiple treasures will spawn right next to each other
Whisper no longer stuns Familiars / Faithfuls, knocks them back instead
Please note that technically this is not a nerf but a bugfix. The weapon always had “capable to stunning almost any enemy” in the description.
Both open and locked supply chest now drop more White Raven Feathers
Changed the order of early Light Spell research order, so the player gets access to more elemental variety earlier. (Note: This will not impact any in-progress player research)
Also:
Fixed rare crashes caused by async saving requests
Returned hit fx to mushrooms to make it clearer which ones deal damage
Fixed a couple of typos
Fixed a minor shader bugs on sights of both Sniper Rifles that was causing the sight of Basilisk to show a big red X while jumping with lowered crosshair
Fixed enemies being able to see the player through a wall in a few obscure scenarios
Submitted a potential fix to the audio stuttering problems present at the entrance to the Tower
Re-established the priority settings for some audio cues
Some general sound rebalancing
PATCH 0.4.3.55481
(2024.09.25)
Highlights
Crash fixes:
In human language, we fixed some crashes. In programmerspeak:
Added fixes for CheckIfShouldDelayDamage() crash. Added fixed for invalid Gameplay Event callbacks. Gameplay ability IsTickable() conditions are now divided to minimize crashes (investigation pending). Replaced debug #if guards in Spawn Manager with macro variants. Added functions for input and movement simulations for player and player controller. Added test assets to abuse spawning, destroying and dealing damage. Reparented Muscle companion abilities to GameplayAbility (was PerkAbility).
Also:
Fixed a hole in terrain, killed floating rocks on the island
Fixed a significant streaming hitch inside the Wailing Tower
Fixed misaligned vfx on Hunger’s Mysterium I
Removed buggy color randomization on Assassins
Fixed the bugged Antimagic Rune particle effects
Fixed existing Mushroom spawns on the island and doubled their number
Striga’s Mysterium I no longer incorrectly adds fire-oriented Arcana to the pool
Added lightning strike sounds when Ricochet’s Mysterium III triggers
Tweaked the concurrency settings asset that affects all music tracks
PATCH 0.4.2.55456
(2024.09.23)
Highlights
Striga:
Redesigned Mysteria 1 and 2
M1: +100% damage buff to stunned Minor enemies, +25% to Major ones
M2: +25% damage buff to the burning stake
M2 shockwave’s damage boosted from 10 to 30 HP
Fixed some minor Striga bugs
Also:
Added new setting which controls visibility of the interaction prompt. If you prefer to play with no HUD, you will no longer see any ‘[E] Open’, ‘[E] Collect’ or similar prompts. (You can re-enable them in the settings if you want.)
Fixed the crash when running game directly via .exe file
The Collector should have his collision active now
Ammo chests are no longer buried too deep in the sand
Broken mirror, Elias, and Clover should once again work as intended
Added particle effects to Wailing Tower doors after clearing the floor
Fixed Tower first level finished stinger playing when leaving the tower on the surface
Performance tweak do Cagefight event
Added Echoes to the Island Vault
Island of the Damned’s Scepter no longer shows on the map once it has been picked up
Lightsource performance tweaks on the Island Vault
Fixed some over-aggressive LOD transitions
Monk’s note in the Island of the Damned Vault now doesn’t show up again if you already picked it up
Added a custom “enemy pushed” sound to Ring of Obedience
Added idle sounds to Baleworth’s healing essence
Changed Eye of the Madwoman thunderstruck sound
Ring of Thorns decay activation sound cue now properely triggers on the enemy
Bittersweet Nightshade’s shockwave now has a custom sound cue
PATCH 0.4 .1.55385
(2024.09.23)
Calamity should drop correct type of ammo as a reward now
Fixed a bug where Four Leaf Clover was not working as advertised
Cursed items now chip away 5 Focus charges when the player is cursed
Elias now correctly updates the Calamity bar
Stakes now properly affect multiple environmental elements
Fixed sniper rifle sights for Centered crosshair
Fixed the ability to switch to ADS from running
Fixed Madness ticks in the Island Vault
Fixed the Cornucopia exploit
Multiple fixes to the Tower, for both gameplay and graphics
Fixed the passive Monks
Various tweaks to weapon sounds (mostly volume-related)
PATCH 0.4 – The High Stakes Update
First, the top level changes that arrived with the update are described here.
Second, below are the detailed but partial patch notes. Wait, “partial”? Yes. There have been over 1200 (one thousand two hundred) submits to our Helix (source control software) between The Wailing Tower update and now. Listing them all is an impossible task. We hope the partial listing is better than nothing, though, so here goes:
Gameplay
Equipment
Monkhood:
M2: Increased extra layer chance from 33%- 66% to 50%/70%
M3: Increased the chance that shield will hold after receiving damage from 10% to 25%
Ring of Excreta:
Lowered base damage from 30/40/50 to 20/25/30
Ring of Thorns:
Increased dodge window from 0,3 to 0,4 sec
Increased Decay power from 100% to 150%
Hailstorm:
Added 5 bullets to reserves
Echo:
Increased the base effective range from 7m to 9m
Reduced reload time from 500ms to 400ms
Psychopomp:
Reduced base effective range from 9m to 8m
Events
Cursed Chest:
Cursed Chest now grant more gold and an additional treasure
You can now see what type of a curse is put on a Cursed Chest before you open them
Barriers protecting enemies in a Precise Cursed Chest event are now vulnerable to knock backs, stuns and freezes
Shooting an protected undead monster in the face still won’t kill it, but might buy you some space. With no way to control shielded enemies whatsoever, this event tended to be very chaotic and not fun
Increase the area of Hungry Cursed Chest safe zone by 30%
Tweaked the visuals so it’s more clear when you’re about to leave the circle
Explosive Package:
Reduced the distance at which the severed head spawns by 30%
Crystalised Witchfire pickups:
Added crystalised Witchfire pickups to Scarlet Coast and Island of the Damned
Lowered the amount of crystals in the Irongate Castle and randomised their locations (same for all the other regions).
Added rare big crystalised Witchfire pickups
Cursed Items:
Made cursed items slightly more visible
Cursed items aura now activates from much further, making them easier to spot
AI / Weapons
Optimization
AI hit animation selection logic performance improvements
various minor optimizations to AI pathfinding especially in multilayered navigation cases
optmized pathfinding update requests to better fit in our ai budgeting
slight improvement to the Hermitorium load times
Bugfixes
Fixed some enemies not playing hit animations when applying the damage to their legs
Fixed a few rare crashes
Fixed enemy animations when looking at the player from up close
Fixed enemy hit animations on Swordsman skeleton family of enemies
Fixed a bug that cause the game haning during Sister egg laying animations
Fixed Prophet getting stuck on wooden elements in the boss room
Adjusted melee hitboxes on Musketeer, Arquebusier, Husk, Husk Archer, Cultist and Cultist Archer animations to better reflect the moments when the hit happens
Fixed walking into frozen enemies mid melee animation dealing damage
Improved blends on FPP animations
Fixed enemies getting stuck in walls
Fixed enemies not teleporting back to navmesh if they ever make out of it
Changes
Sniper Rifles:
Changed recoil behaviour on sniper rifles
Improved scopes clarity
Modified sniper rifles shooting animation
Modified Sniper Rifles snights
Hand Cannons
Added clip rotation and hammer movement during shooting animations
Buckler Swordsman
Shortened decay effect on the cloud his shieldbreak causes
Extended the decay effect on his projectile
UI
New features and changes related to them
Added Mysteria Forge where you can upgrade your gear. It should make whole process better UX-wise
Added new animations and sounds to make upgrading gear more fun
Upgrade button now displays remaining incantations number, making it easier to decide on which items should they be spent
Removed hitch which occurred after unveiling new mysterium and which was related to loading upgraded item assets. Thanks to that, all animations and effects should now be played smoothly, making gear upgrade more enjoyable
Changed notifications and objectives to lead player to the Mysteria Forge instead of the Gunroom when there is gear to be upgraded
Changed settings to support new dash and spell input modes on KBM. Notably, added a warning displayed when the player tries to use ‘Dash on Shift tap’ and ‘Sprint on toggle’ simultaneously (as these settings are incompatible with each other).
Changed tutorial to react to dash and spell input modes set by player — it takes into account KBM settings, always displaying proper prompts
Bugfixes
Fixed the issue with weapons in Inspect Screen being displayed incorrectly when player was standing close to any wall
Workshop: fixed issues with actions sometimes not being displayed in red when they’re unavailable
Fixed the bug with empty Death Screen being displayed after dying in the Hermitorium
Fixed bug which made weapons images be incorrectly scaled in a popup displayed when picking them up
Other changes
Updated credits
Added ‘Arcana’ subtitle to Prophecies’ powers descriptions, because it wasn’t perfectly clear that every Prophecy power consists of two parts: not only Omen, but also power controlling Arcana being rolled in a given row. Some players missed that information, and this change makes it more clear
Changed minibosses’ (Drowned Captain and Fallen Liberator) health bars. They no longer use bosses’ health bars — instead, they now use typical health bars with red icons above them making them distinct from other enemies
Tutorial now displays both keys bound to dash on KBM (V as well as MB4). Prior to this change, some players weren’t even aware of the second binding
Removed invisible wall in the Gunroom, you can now get as close to the chest as you want
Audio
Modifications to elements that were already in the game
Did some general sound rebalancing
Redesigned the sounds for the famously problematic Ring of Excreta
Redesigned part of the sounds of the Ring of Thorns (implementation pending)
Lightly redesigned the sounds for the Shadowmist Ring
Lightly redesigned the sounds for the Bittersweet Nightshade Fetish
Redesigned the sound that plays when you pickup the healing essence generated by Balewort
Lightly redesigned the sound for Mandrake
Lightly redesigned the sound that plays when the player’s shield is regenerated
Redesigned the sounds of the Severed Ear Relic
Redesigned the sounds of the Eye of the Madwoman Relic
Redesigned the materialization sound for Gnosis Chests
Redesigned the idle sound for Cursed Items
Tweaked Hunger’s freezing shot sound
Fixed an issue in the timing of Whisper’s reload sounds
Fixed an issue in the prioritization of Echo’s explosive pellets’ sounds
Additions to elements that was already there
Made it so that the weapon equipping foley is audible after casting or attempting to cast a spell
Added foley to the player’s dash
Designed sounds that play when enemies’ souls spawn as players dodge an attack while being in full focus, as well as sounds that play when said souls burst
Designed sounds that play when enemies are pushed by the perks of the Ring of Obedience (implementation pending)
Designed an idle loop for the healing essence generated by Balewort (implementation pending)
Work on new features
Designed sounds for Striga
Designed sounds for the Madness Statues
Designed a sound for the new UI elements tied to the Mysteria Forge station
PATCH 0.3.3.54289 2024.08.21
Gameplay:
All heavy spells now despawn if cast again before their duration runs out
Changed the order of Fetish research to make Fetishes more useful to beginners appear earlier
Changed the description of Cleansing Fire from “Increased weapon damage against witchfire-boosted enemies” to “Increased weapon damage against Elite and Ascended enemies”
Fixed missing reload speed bonus from Severed Ear relic
Fixed Preyer Echoes dropping from Ron the Revenant
Fixed a tiny audio bug that was taking place during Rotweaver’s reloading animation
Fixed Axeman teleporting close to the player post missed axe throw
Fixed issue where player could’ve gotten into the Madman’s Dream straight out of the box in the Tower
Picking items while transitioning from the Madman’s Dream back to the Tower should not freeze the game on fade-in
Rotweaver:
Reduced Mysterium II ammo regeneration from 20 bullets to 7
Rotweavers’ ammo regeneration was intended as a way to encourage longer bursts, a way to top off its ammo reserves. However, because it (intentionally) triggers on sources of Decay other than the Rotweaver, it was overperforming and basically given careful players infinite ammunition. This change should still give it incredible ammo economy when build around, but keep it at reasonable levels.
Ring of Obedience:
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Ring of Obedience from pushing enemies around
Changed Mysterium II from “Chance to drop extra items on push kills” to “Stamina regenerated on push kills”
Increased Ring of Obedience push damage by 10
These changes are meant to encourage a more aggressive playstyle the Ring of Obedience excels at
Chain Lightning:
Increase base range by 2m.
Stormball:
Basic Stormball strikes now have only 25% chance to knock back enemies (Mysterium II powered up Stormball still knocks back with every strike)
Decreased base and powered up lightning bolt strike range by 2m
Decreased base and powered up Mysterium III explosion range by 1 meter
Decreased base Mysterium III damage from 60 to 50, and powered up damage from 90 to 75
Burning Stake:
Range shortened from 25/30/35m to 20/25/30 m
Damage now partially drops off the further enemies are from the Stake
Traps:
You now need to be able to see the Antimagic Rune to disarm it
Freeze Crystals now receive full damage from any distance
Freeze Crystals are now visibile on the radar when you get near them
Lowered the amount of Freeze Crystals that can spawn at the same time
Events:
Increased rewards for Rarog’s Egg event (although Rarog’s Egg is a pretty easy event, it’s relatively long – the rewards were increased to reflect that time investment)
Bloodthirsty Cursed Chest no longer display fail message when you get damaged after you successfully finish the event
UI:
Fixed too big of a margin after echo quest objective
Added space after dash in echo quest objective for better appearance
Potential fix for objectives not being evenly arranged in some circumstances
Graphics:
Much better rocks collision on Island of the Damned for smooth movement and less invisible barriers
Increased fidelity on some assets/areas of Island of the Damned
Fixed some levitating rocks, seams, drawdistances, glitches etc. while slightly improving framerate
Fixed performance drop around The Collector in the Hermitorium
Fixed performance drop while using Hailstorm
EDIT: Plus this hotfix:
Foul Stimulant no longer stacks
Fixed a bug that prevented Witchfire Essence from spawning when using the Witchfire Orbs arcanum
Added Red Warning color to the info that Gnosis level-up increases difficulty a bit
PATCH 0.3.2.54205 2024.08.16
Buffs:
Rotweaver
Increased base damage (from 6 to 8)
Increased Mysterium I Decay strength (from 70%-150% to 100%-170%)
Slightly increased effective range (from 10m to 11m)
Basilisk
Increased rate of fire by 30%
Increased ADS zoom strength (from x2.5 to x3, this also increases its effective range when scoped in)
Fixes
Better Prophecy filtering
This should eliminate a lot of errors that some people had
Significantly increased the values for Fast Strafe arcana
Last Elixir now works as intended
Removed Earth element tags from Severed Ear
Means that no Decay arcana will be randomized to it
Quote from Panda: “I fixed one more Arcana but forgot which one”
Fixed the lost bolt while quickswapping the crossbow
Varia:
Made Preyer Echoes gold, for distinction and visual consistency
PATCH 0.3.1.54190 2024.08.15
Highlight:
Fixed Critical section prioritization when ADS
Tweaked AA values for all guns
This one is pretty interesting. Initially, Witchfire featured a very generous, Destiny-like level of bullet magnetism, whether you were using a keyboard and mouse (KBM) or a controller. It worked well—you could still miss shots, but the game’s focus was more on combat strategy rather than pixel-perfect accuracy.
However, some time ago, we optimized the bullet magnetism code, inadvertently introducing a bug that made critical hits harder to land.
Let me explain what that means. Typically, when a bullet just barely misses the critical area on an enemy but doesn’t hit any other part of the enemy, the game makes an easy decision: it bends the bullet to turn it into a critical hit. But when the bullet hits the enemy’s body near the critical point, the game has to decide whether to count that as a critical hit (which is part of the purpose of bullet magnetism) or leave it as a body shot.
Originally, the game always opted for the critical hit. The bug I mentioned, however, caused the game to always choose the body shot instead.
Surprisingly, we introduced this bug… and nobody noticed. We all felt the game was a bit harder, but for various reasons—”Maybe it’s because I’m using a new weapon,” etc.—we didn’t really recognize the underlying issue.
After releasing TWT, a player named Bidby brought this to our attention on Discord:
Headshots feel a lot more difficult to land. Was ‘bullet bending’ removed or tweaked? I used to really enjoy Hunger, but now it feels very weak because I can’t seem to land anywhere near as many headshots as I used to. I wasn’t able to get a single 6-headshot streak tonight, whereas I used to get several per run before.
That comment finally prompted me to investigate the issue. I went back to using my trusty Hunger, and sure enough, something was off.
A few hours later, Kacpi fixed the problem. I went to the Castle to test it, and while the issue was resolved, I now felt that the aim assist was too generous. Apparently, playing with the harder aiming difficulty over the past few weeks made me appreciate that challenge more, and I found that I enjoyed it. So, while the aim assist was restored to its pre-bug state, it now felt too easy.
As a result, I decided to tweak the aim assist for all guns, setting it somewhere between the “bug” and the original bullet magnetism. The game is now easier than it was yesterday, but slightly more challenging than it was over the past year.
Oh, and by the way, the values change depending on the weapon’s Mysteria. Just one more reason to enhance those guns…
Gameplay
Added the scepter to the map as Unknown Artifact, no more blind searching
Warden now properly appears in random places rather than one
Basilisk ammo count now properly raises at the right moment
After-boss door inside the tower made inactive …for now
Adjusted melee hitboxes on Madman attacks to better reflect the animations
Fixed Musketeer target tracking bug
Removed the placeholder The Collector used to trigger upon first meeting the preyer
Graphics
Fixed Scarlet Coast boss dome shield fx corruption
0,2GB less textures in the heaviest Tower areas
Fixed misc collisions and level holes
Fixed Main Menu Preyer and some Hermitory areas occasionally missing light reflections
Fixed Scarlet Coast boss’s dome shield vfx corruption
Normal and Cursed crystal light no longer flickers at High gfx preset
PATCH 0.3 – The Wailing Tower Update
The detailed TWT patch notes are available in a special blog post here.
PATCH 0.2.6.51306 2024.05.09
Unless some insane gamebreaker is found, this is the last patch for the Ghost Galleon update. Some smaller known issues remain (like wrong Stun meters in weapon descriptions) but, in theory, nothing big or in the way of fun. The game remains in a pretty great state, and we have already started the work on the next fat juicy update.
Iron Cross:
Fixed Iron Cross not pulling enemies properly
Fixed Iron Cross Hexed count not going up when affecting enemies
Reduced Assassin’s flashbang range
Mercenary’s IceTrap:
Reduced lifespan
Increased their projectile visibility
Fixed a case in which a trail particle would remain attached to the Mercenary’s hand
Fixed a case in which warning pointers would not show up when the enemy is behind the player but has no direct line of sight to them
Fixed a case in which animation canceling would count a reload as canceled even if it was performed (as in bullet got added to the mag)
Fixed Hungry Cursed Chest objective description
Added timer to Patient Cursed Chest objective
Fixed elemental effects remaining post death on elite enemies
Fixed boss types on Vault bosses and Fallen Liberator
This should fix the Book of Serpents exploit
Fixed radar dot type on Necromancer
Fixed fall damage protection on M3 Ring of Wings
Fixed Ring of Wings fall damage
Lowered the range in which the Musketeer pushes for melee
Dimacher now properly resists getting frozen
Fixed Irongate Vault objective descriptions
Fixed damage on some instances for M3 Echo
Axeman:
Fixed Axeman post axe throw attack not triggering if he was not stunned and knocked back before the throw
Safeguard for the Axeman remaining invisible
AI are no longer able to move behind certain walls in the Castle
The red ghost feet trail will no longer lead players to treasure they’ve already picked up
Fixed Gunners bubble ability not blocking projectiles
Fixes to penetration logic:
Made sure that if a penetrating hit encounters a blocking section at its end it will register damage to a non-blocking section before it such exists (specifically this fixes shooting at shielded frozen enemies from the back)
Added logic allowing penetrating hits to go through blocking sections of multiple different actors if need be (shooting through two shields of two different enemies now works)
Added penetration logic to the Gunner’s shield bubble ability
Fixed Hailstorm sniper rifle being invisible if it’s a first equipped weapon at the start of the game
Fixed a bug which was corrupting menu tabs after closing menu with inspection screen opened
Fixed a bug which in some rare cases blocked all actions in the menu, making bottom bar empty and unusable
Fixed a bug which made Preyer model in the menu disappear in some cases
All mirages should now properly display witchfire requirements
Audio
Tweaked the routing settings of some sound cues to improve the perception of incoming enemy attacks when they happen outside of the player’s field of view
Fixed a problem that could cause loops of enemies to remain audible after their owner had died
Added another safeguard for Galleon Idle sfx loop
Designed new sounds for all the interactions with Cursed Chests
PATCH 0.2.5.51242 2024.05.01
Fixed misaligned crosshair bug introduced with the fix to FOV scaling in ultrawide screens
Fixed FOV scaling (the last patch introduced a change that had inflated your FOV just a little bit if you played on any aspect ratio bigger than… 4:3 — it should go back to normal now 🙂 )
Reduced stamina damage range for Assassin’s flashbang grenade
Limited HP cost for falling from extreme heights (75 HP max)
Clearer description of Galleon Calamity objectives
Fixed some typos in objectives
Updated sound and particle effects for the Mystic Alphabet trap
Fixed missing poison flowers spawns in the Scarlet Coast Vault
Enemy blacklist fixes
Meaning some enemies can only appear in select areas now. This is to make the maps have their own “ecosystem”. For example, the Woodsmen will never appear inside the Castle
Knight IK fix
Adjustments to how damage affects the Calamity bar
Fixed Warden body staying after death
Fixed ghosts not being able to fly through walls
Sister
Increased melee animation speed
Increased spit animation speed
Increased spit projectile collision size
Increased spit projectile damage
Decreased spit attack swipe angle size
Tweaked behavior selection logic
Devotee
Increased melee animation speed
Increased spit animation speed
Increased spit projectile collision size
Increased spit projectile damage
Stigma Diabolicum on Mysterium 0 now has 1.2 dmg multiplier (reducing the effect of it being weaker than normal headshot)
Potential fix to Axeman remaining invisible after throwing the axe
PATCH 0.2.4.51213 2024.04.30
Highlights
Better AI
Fixed a building up delay of AI action selection that was caused by a large amount of AI units in a scene. This should result in much more responsive behavior selection
This affects …everything, so please let us know if you see any issues
Performance boosts
Various optimizations we performed resulted with around 25% CPU performance boost on average in our tests. This should be perceivable when the performance was CPU bound in the first place, like with weaker hardware, or while playing on lower settings.
We managed to tackle a few sources of heavy hitching related to high intensity damage situations (looking at Iron Cross + Blight Cyst combo) — there should be a significant improvement here, but there is still some work to be done!
Overall AI behavior
Spawn preparation while roaming the map
Added mouse smoothing option to KBM controls (Off by default)
Members of the PCMR cult, rejoice!
Limited Husk and Cultist Archers range to 40m community feedback
No more WTF hits from enemies on the other side of the map
No more level-up notifications for max level players.
From Cartman to Lukas, with love.
Gear
Hypnosis
Killing an enemy with fully charged Mysterium III Hypnosis now correctly triggers lightnings
Hypnosis no longer has blocked charging after cancelling reload animation
Crown of Fire
Mysteria II and III mechanics won’t trigger before unlocking
Fixed Mysterium III duration scaling
Stigma Diabolicum
Fixed a bug that made the cyst smaller on Mysterium I and II
Mysterium III now also triggers on Decay damage/ticks
Now deals more decay damage over shorter period
Fixed an incorrect Mysterium III decription. Now it says “Killing an enemy with decay or a shot at the cyst fully regenerates the spell.” This has always been Stigma Diabolicum’s third Mysterium ability (besides the Decay part)
Lightning Bolt
Mysterium III now correctly stuns the first target hit
Hunger
Fixed Mysterium III multi-target freezing caused by a weapon swap.
Adjusted charged bullets glow for ammo regenerating abilities and effects.
Shadowmist Ring
Adjusted the activation angle: now you have to dash more in the direction of the enemy to proc the ring effect
Gameplay/UX
Fix to FOV scaling in ultrawide screens
Fixed an oversight caused Incantation II to be a much rarer Irongate Castle drop than intended
Calamity Timer around Mini-Map is back community request
Ascension notifications were triggering with old unlocks data, this has been fixed
New potion slots are granted on level 15, 25, 45, and 70 now
Patrolling enemies now have proper drops, this should speed up leveling a bit as well
Added another hidden chest to the Irongate Castle, unveiled when players are at Gnosis II or higher
Optimized method of refreshing map icons. This should improve your performance during gameplay and also reduce hitches experienced by some players when opening the map
Nerfed the compositions and enemy counts of roaming enemies at the Castle
Calamity vortex now has a bigger “crown”, should be easier to spot from across the map
Empty room in the Gnosis Room no longer consumes witchfire. All other Mirage costs have been lowered. This is aimed to limit their influence on ascensions, especially in the early game
We’ve nerfed certain Calamity triggers to make less of a influence on the Calamity bar. Calamity bar takes longer to fill now. Additionally, some of the triggers got cooldown periods. This was to address the issue of penalizing players for mashing the potion key several times in quick succession
Range of camera shake from galleon cannonade was lowered to make it less of a nuisance
Ascension requirements have been smoothed out to provide a better level up experience
Ascension cost is now normalized and no longer relative to player’s class starting level
Removed duplicated King’s Bell item which was not useable by the player
Fixed a bug that was causing Swordsman to remain invisible if they got damaged sufficiently just before teleporting
Arcana updates
Deadeye arcana now correctly boosts critical damage
Immunity Swap arcana now correctly triggers immunity and has added shield effect
Stormbringer arcana now works as described
Cascade arcana now works as described
Fixed Ice Statue’s infinite duration on minor enemies
Fixed Witchfire Orbs arcana witchfire dropping and scaling
Fixed Piercing Bullet arcana, now works correctly with Shieldbearer’s shield
Stun Bullets arcana fixed to only work for physical damage. Added percentage value to the description
Memento Mori event
Lost souls now properely dissolve after you bring them required items
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented them from granting rewards
Increased chances of receiving Incantations as event rewards
Simultaneous Weapon swap + Fire inputs will no longer make the weapon disappear and disable all interactions
Spell casting action followed by a very quick Fire/Reload will no longer play spell fail animation and will proceed to firing/reloading instead
Fire/Reload input pressed at the end of the spell fail animation will no longer result in invisible weapon
Fixed a navigation bug that was allowing Patrol enemies to step into Vaults when the door were closed
Musketeer group shooting fixes (this should also stop them from running outside of some events)
Weapon mesh is no longer visible under player’s feet when performing weapon swap or casting abilities
Increased vendor price of Witchfire Cluster to 3 gold pieces (previous price didn’t take bonuses from Gnosis into consideration, which could lead to infinite witchfire exploit)
Poisonous Flowers now only spawn of arenas with Manifestations (In the future they will spawn around other combat scenarios, but additional work needs to be done to ensure that they don’t prevent players from completing those scenarios and flowers properly wilt when the scenario is done)
Provoking a Devotee attack by breaking too many eggs now increases your calamity bar (as much as triggering any other trap would)
Fixed ragdoll deaths on Decay and Electro explosions for all enemies
Optimized logic updating the weather state
Restricted Woodsman and Larva movement so that they don’t leave their designated areas
Fixed Crouch mode switch settings implementation.
Fixed Drowned Captain ice mesh using Musketeer ice mesh
Fixed a bug that caused Drowned Captain to remain invisible and invincible if his teleport got interrupted early on
New weapons now show correct values on their Inspect screen
Fixed a bug that caused both Faithful to take no Decay or Ice damage
Fixed some improperly set up in place turning animations
Fixed Sister Headshot particle rotation
Adjusted Sister and Devotee shooting conditions
Changed Devotee shooting pattern and damage
Fixed improper Revenant Rotation Rate
Lowered Grenadier Artillery’s attack occurrence frequency
Fixed a black screen bug which occurred when player pressed Tab immediately after clicking ‘Start expedition’
Added a feature allowing flying enemies to teleport back to navigable area if they ever seem stuck
Added better logic selection for Sister and Devotee movement targets to prevent them from flying off of navigable area
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented alarms bells from spawning during the Ambush event
Fixed a bug that would keep displaying Event Failed messages each time you get damaged after failing one of the Cursed Chest events
Fixed issues with some events not updating their map icons after player completed them.
Crystal that attracts proximity mines now properly grants treasure when destroyed Incantation II now displays proper pickup prompt
Fixed a bug that caused one Mirror Lock event on Scarlet Coast to spawn below the ground
Adjusted some particularly hard to find Mirror Lock battery locations
Lowered the chance that three Gatekeepers will spawn at the same time
Fixed a bug which caused Gatekeeper objectives to stay on the screen in some cases
Elemental effects on enemies should correctly refresh after Fire+Freeze synergy.
Optimized Gnosis chamber slightly on low quality settings – this is not a big change, but we’re looking at more reasons on why the framerate there can suffer
Altered Devotee spitting pattern to make it actually dodgeable
Lowered requirements for Mysteria unlocks on new spells to take into consideration their single target nature or increased cooldowns
Fixed missing objective completion when required progress was patched below the current objective progress.
Improved shadow quality on enemies and gameplay items at LOW quality preset
Sounds
Added sounds to the Buried Treasure scenario
Psychopomp’s damage boost SFX now correctly triggers only after shooting
Fixed a bug reported by one of the players, that was causing a wind to fade out too abruptly around the Quarry in the Village
Designed new sounds for the Mystic Alphabet trap
Tweaked the attenuation curve of the Warden’s idle VO
Tweaked the attenuation curve of the Proximity Mine’s idle VO requested by the community
Fixed a bug that could cause the Galleon’s foley sounds to remain audible after defeating the Calamity reported by the community
Added idle sounds to the Sister and Devotee to make their presence in the battlefield easier to detect requested by the community
Tweaked the attenuation settings of the Swordsman’s teleport sound cues
PATCH 0.2.3.50947 2024.04.15
Crown of Fire:
Now properly ignites enemies 🔥
Activation window reduced from 1/1.2/1.5 sec to 1/1.1/1.2 sec
M2 now triggers when you ignite a non-burning enemy
Ring of Wings:
Reduced Stamina cost from M2 now only works for the first dash
Airborne dashes no longer possible when exhausted
The above tweaks change nothing for the intended use, simply blocks the ability to fly around the map like a witch on a broom
Ring of Obedience:
Does not work on bosses anymore
We not not like making exceptions for items but this makes sense from the lore reasons, too: the bosses are basically too big and heavy to be smacked around with a magic leash like a puny ghoul
Hypnosis bolt action rifle
Decreased the time window for the Perfect Shot
The gun is incredibly strong and its user needs to prove they’re worthy of all that power. With great power comes, uhm, great skill requirement
Ice Stiletto M3 now correctly resets its cooldown when nothing was hit
Tribute event now has proper collisions
Added missing rewards for some Mirror Lock events
Fixed missing or broken bonus reload speed limits on some weapons
Dimacher now has correct Freeze resistance
An anti-death fix to dropping to the first Familiar
PATCH 0.2.2.50919 2024.04.12
Highlights
Added poisonous flowers to Scarlet Coast Witch Vault boss arena
Discourages players from running straight to the boss
Makes the Vault puzzle more interesting
Progression changes I
Gnosis 1 multiplier on Scarlet Coast raised from 1.1 to 1.15
Gnosis 2 multiplier on Scarlet Coast from 1.25 to 1.35
Gnosis 3 multiplier on Scarlet Coast from 1.5 to 1.55
Gnosis 2 multiplier on Irongate Castle raised from 1.4 to 1.5
This should make leveling around level 15 feel a lot better
Progression changes II
Significantly lowered costs of ascension on levels 1 to 5
Penitent class is still the hardest, considering stat penalties or scarce initial gear but now a bit faster to bring up to speed in relation to other classes
Progression changes III
Changed the level up costs around level 15 to make the difference in cost more pronounced (instead of jumping from 18K to 20K, it jumps from 16K to 25K)
Progression changes IV
Added a slight boost to research for each set of patrol enemies
Changes and fixes for Cornucopia spell and Psychopomp shotgun
Cornucopia now refills ammo from reserves instead of regenerating it
Psychopomp now grants +10% damage per hit instead of +20%
These are fairly mild nerfs so we will see if this is enough. We still want this combo to be useful and exciting, just not broken
Cornucopia’s duration now extends when cast again while active
Other fixes, updates and tweaks
Fixed one case that could glitch the spawn system
You can now pick up more King’s Bells and Ornate Keys
Projectiles no longer collide with some event mirages
Fixed infinite witchfire glitch w/ Ring of Obedience on the tutorial enemy
Major enemies now properly resist Freeze, shortening its duration
Fixes to flying enemy pathing
Fix to Warden seeking behavior
Added foley sounds to the no-hit melee attacks 💪
Changed objectives colors in Gnosis Screen for better clarity
Better display of bonus witchfire in Deus Vult notification community request
Class Selection Screen now displays starting level of each class
Improved display of research requirements in Workshop Screen
A mix pass on weapon shooting sounds
Mysteria objectives now correctly progress only for equipped items
You can no longer disable the mirage in the Scarlet Coast Witch Vault before killing the Vault Guardian
Scarlet Coast Witch Vault should now complete properly
Scarlet Coast Witch Vault Guardian got it proper boss buff
Explosive Delivery: walking is now less aggravating to the Head
Enemies no longer keep spawning after you finish the Explosive Delivery
Flamekeeper event now drops non-cursed items
Mandrake no longer prevents death from falling out of world bounds
Calamity Catalyst will no longer appear in the Castle’s boss room
Calamity objective UI should now disappear without spoiling anything if you kill too many enemies
Closed portal should bo longer appear on the mini-map during Calamities
Cleanup of various adventure log entries. Messages in the bottom left side of the screen should not duplicate as often now
Enemies are no longer able to get on the barrier blocking the passage to boss arena in the Scarlet Coast
Smaller/cosmetic tweaks and fixes
PATCH 0.2.1.50866
Locked chests now get added to the map properly after looking at them
Patrolling enemies now grant witchfire on death
Mirror Lock event now works properly
Added High quality water reflections to final Scarlet Coast Vault arena
Fixed Hermitory severe visual issues when loading from slow disks
Enemies no longer able to shoot through walls from inside (or outside) of barracks room in Irongate Castle
Fixed several visual glitches and ability to walk outside of game space in Castle vault
Fixed ability to walk outside of game space through ceiling of Gnosis Room
fixed Vault logic affecting all Necromancers on Castle and all Sisters and Devotees in Village past Vault activation
Fixed Music not being changed post calamity
Falling Star’s homing projectiles bonus damage now ramps up slower. It’s stun damage has been drastically lowered.
Gold cost of starting new research now properely ramps up over the first few projects, starting at 0 for most of them
Some event starting objects were not emmiting subtle witchfire particles as they are supposed to, making them harder to spot in the game – this has been fixed.
Fixed incorrect formatting of the Breadcrumbs event timer
Gnosis Chest mirage is no longer teeny-weeny
Fixed issue with some players not having ‘New game’ nor ‘Continue’ option in Main Menu. If your savefile is corrupted, main menu will now display an option to open ‘Profiles’ window (so you are able to manage your savefiles). Corrupted savefiles are now displayed in the ‘Profiles’ window. Note: if any of your save files happen to be corrupted, please report it on the #wf-bug-reports channel and send us the whole folder with your saves before deleting the faulty ones.
Tweaked the sounds for the Charged Melee and Charged Melee on Stunned Enemies abilities, made them slightly quieter on the mix and made them duck other mix elements.
Fix for Wf balance in run summary when safe deposit arcana is active
Fixed the Sound Class settings on a few ambient sounds that were playing outside of the systems, remaining audible regardless of the game’s sound settings.
Fixed Mirage in Castle Vault entrance not playing sounds
Fixed player insta death on melee use if snapping found a collision in between player and melee target
Fixed Liberator perma staying in frozen state when dying while frozen
Fixed Bosses and minibosses not playing crit death sounds on death in some circumstances
Lowered Hypnosis zoom-in effect
Stigma diabolicum now gives the right amount of charges when combined with Extra Charge arcana
Fixed penetration settings on Shieldbearer shield
Fixed lore in ice stiletto
Fixed ability descriptions in Burning stake
Smaller tweaks and bugfixes
HOTFIX 0.2.0.50804
Gameplay
Workaround for the “hitbox too small” issues affecting some objects like portals, Gnosis Book or mirage incantations.
PATCH 0.2 – Ghost Galleon Update
The detailed GGU patch notes are available in a special blog post here.
PATCH 0.1.10.48090
Important announcement! First, unless a severe issue is found, this is the final patch until the GGU (our first big update). The game is in good shape, so we can now focus exclusively on creating the new content and gameplay for the GGU. Second, we have announced that the GGU will be out second half of November/beginning of December but we’re no longer so sure (which, for the 100th time, is the lesson one should never announce a date until 100% certain). Reason? We have basically increased the scope of the update to make sure it’s both:
A great jumping point for new players
A worthy reason for returning players to spend some quality time in the game playing something they have not played before
This means not just new content, but new gameplay and other surprises, including some changes to the core systems. To make sure we deliver, we’re not aiming for a date, we’re aiming for the GGU to be complete as according to the plan. If this means we’ll slip, then we think it’s worth it, and we hope you’ll agree when the GGU is out. We will be updating the status on Discord, Twitter and Facebook, and we plan on blogging more in the coming weeks.
Highlights
Updated used Unreal Engine version from 4.27.1 to 4.27.2. This should hopefully fix some rare crashes
Tweaked the warning sounds that play when there’s an incoming attack from an out-of-sight source community feedback
Significant texture optimizations in some Castle areas community feedback
Game-wide texture pool optimizations
Gameplay
Pressing the Sprint key will longer interrupt auto-fire weapons when standing
This might have been the reason for “Midas sometimes stops firing” kind of bugs
Pressing Dash input while airborne won’t trigger dash-related events
This prevents unwanted behavior of Arcana, such as Reload Dash, which could be abused by repeatedly pressing dash in the air
Fixed double-jump while crouching or sliding
Pressing Jump key for the first time when already in the air/falling will now correctly trigger double jump instead of the normal jump
Added a visual effect to spell icons to indicate that the spell is ready to be cast community feedback
Added a visual effect to spell icons to indicate that spells are disabled community feedback
The names of new Arcana are now displayed when you claim them in the Workshop community feedback
Fixed incorrect Cricket’s First Mysterium description. It now reads: “Killing enemies generates extra Witchfire Essence”
Added a new layers to Cricket’s auto-reload sound
Fixed the bug that caused the Eye of the Madwoman’s thunderstrike to be inaudible. Now for realsies
Fixed a bug that was causing Cursed Chests to spawn in the same place. This time for good. Or so we hope
Gates event in the Castle now changes the color on completion
Echo’s damage boost will no longer stay charged indefinitely after sliding
Improved the logic to show Souls Sigils, it’s now easier to materialize them
Added new sounds to the torches and extended their audible range
Extraction portal should disappear from the map correctly after collapsing
Sentinel icon will change the color to red when Master Sentinel gets killed
Fixed a pathfinding issue that caused the ghosts to get stuck
Cooldown reset prompt in the tutorial now also melee
Tech/gfxcommunity feedback
Merged functionality of two ‘reset’ buttons in controls settings to avoid confusion. Now you reset both settings and bindings using the same button.
Fixed small tree branches and leaves blocking bullets
Minor zone traversal performance optimization
Flying Effigies of Plague healing particle effects no longer stack on top of each other
Fixed a bug that could result in Effigies of Scabs spawning outside the bounds of the level during the Duel Events
optimized Soul Sigils performance
Improved 16:10 support in Weapon Inspect Screen
Fixed a bug which in some cases made it possible to shoot while being in the Map Selection Screen in the Hermitorium
Slightly better visuals at two Castle spawn points
Fixed more holes and streaming issues in Castle
Miscellaneous visual polish
Fixed a couple of places where player could get stuck unable to move
Added potential fix to bugged Midas’ magic sight’s material
Midas heat bar won’t show anymore on top of main menu when the game is loaded
Fixed a bug that caused enemies to get into locked areas in the Castle
Fixed a faulty collider that would stop Vulture bolts from passing over Cursed Chests
PATCH 0.1.9.47935
A week’s worth of updates in one patch.
Highlights:
Added ADS modifier setting for both mouse and controller community request
Potential fix for enemy spawns that stop functioning for the duration of the run community feedback
Hunger’s charged bullets and Freezing Bullet will no longer disappear when reload is canceled community request
Also tweaked the visuals: color of the bullets won’t go from blue to orange (charged -> normal) right after the reload has started
Lightning Bolt’s range has been increased slightly community request
Gameplay:
New sounds for the exploding barrels
Fixed incorrect or missing reload interrupts in following scenarios: community feedback
Jump after already performing two jumps – won’t interrupt
Jump after walking off the edge and falling – will now interrupt
Dash while airborne – won’t interrupt
Sprint without actually starting to sprint – won’t interrupt
Healing with no elixirs available – won’t interrupt
Pressing Healing key won’t interrupt sprinting when player has no elixirs in the inventory
Pressing Fire while airborne with running velocity will prevent the player from continuing the sprint after landing (unless Sprint key is pressed again before landing)
Held inputs now reset when pausing the game (i.e. via opening the menu). This prevents them from being pressed indefinitely after unpausing
Running speed while Exhausted is no longer slower than normal walking speed
Snare updates:
Snare minions (eyeballs) no longer stack on top of each other
Vulture bolts no longer pass through Snare minions
Enemy projectiles can now destroy Snare minions
Added a particle effect to a disappearing Fire Orb (Arcana effect)
Fixed some Gatekeeper power sources geometry clipping
Fixed an issue that could spawn unreachable enemies during Rituals on Irongate Castle community feedback
Teleport audio mix now triggers way closer to teleport
No more progress research while killing the Hermitorium Revenant
Treasures shouldn’t spawn anymore outside of the player space in Castle’s boss arena
Fixed access to treasure spawn behind statue in Castle hallway
Pausing the game will no longer “lose” some of the input logic
This potentialy fixes a lot of issues with targeting, casting, interruptions and other player-weapon interactions.
Applied a possible fix to the bug that caused Swordsman’s telegraph sound to be inaudible
Applied a possible fix to the bug that caused the Eye of the Madwoman’s thunderstrike’s sound to be inaudible
There are now always exactly two cursed chests on each expedition
This was always the intention – due to a bug, sometimes there were less or more cursed chests present
Fixed a cooldown bug for spells with charges (might help with some of the reported issues with casting being blocked)
Switching weapons back and forth in Gunroom no longer blocks reloading, ammo usage and ADS stamina draining
Fixed issue with Interact input still being pressed after closing the menu
Tech:
Hermitorium stairs collision fix – no more interrupted sliding community feedback
Hermitorium vista cosmetic fixes
Fixed a bug that added to the stutter during traversal between zones
Significantly reduced rendering cost of poisonous plant fields
Fixed two instances of falling out of level while inside Castle
Fixed camera clipping through some level geometry in Castle
GPU optimizations in a few Castle arenas
Cosmetic fixes in Scarlet Coast villages
Fixed streaming bug causing parts of level to disappear when hugging some hallway walls inside Castle
Disappearing calamity portal shouldn’t leave active portal sound behind
PATCH 0.1.8.47828
Last ping this week unless someone finds a game breaker in this patch (let’s hope not). Half of the team went to GIC (Game Industry Conference, https://gic.gd/) so we shouldn’t be risking anything else for the weekend. The main reason for the patch is to fix the enemy spawns.
Gameplay:
Fixed the cursed chest breaking the spawn system
Added a potential fix to the spawn system breaking all together
Now a faulty scenario spawn can — but doesn’t have to — affect only that given scenario but not the whole run. Please report if any of these two things happen to you!
Pathfinding bug fix – enemies should now more consistently push their target as well as reach their destinations
FIxed melee attaching to enemies – no more flying around. For now.
Tweaks to Swordsman jump attack and teleport logic to allow them to get into more locations
Minor pathfinding optimization
Added a failsafe that should prevent two Cursed Chests from spawning in the same location
Tech:
Fixed v-sync being unavailable when only DLSS SR is on but not FG. Now only FG disables v-sync community request
Cosmetic and collision fixes on Scarlet Coast
Tower ruins on Scarlet Coast now have precise collision for easier climbing
Added option to switch Run action between Hold and Toggle community request
PATCH 0.1.7.47804
Lots of nice things in this one. See the highlights. Also, a few buffs to the player. We want a hard game but a fair game. A few nice QoL updates up in this patch too.
Highlights:
Cloud saves community request
Added an option to disable low health and stamina exhaustion effects community request
Gameplay:
Traps (including the Warden) are now added to the game at higher player level community feedback
Game ramped up in difficulty too fast at the lower levels. This should let new players get a better grip on the core combat before the witch starts throwing new obstacles at them
Player HP during the Assassin Calamity capped higher, at 21. You will survive small damage once, now.
Fixes and tweaks to research progression
Fixed errors where player was being granted random amounts of research while simply walking across level. This fix slowed perceived research speed significantly so we boosted the amounts granted elsewhere to compensate for the change:
Following ghosts and killing bosses also gives research points now
Killing enemies now grants small amount of research up to 7 points of research. This is mostly to help some players with early item unlocks during the starting hours of the game to compensate for situations when you have problems with area clears
We’ll keep an eye on how it all turned out, so please report your overall feelings after those changes
Lowered the Research Time of the first Heavy Spell from 25 to 15
Removed Mine spawnpoints in Sunken District that could trigger on player spawn
Enemy footsteps now more clearly audible in short ranges and the midst of battle
Headshot now sound always audible always, even when you snipe at long distances
Extended duration of the post death camera effect and tweaked logic to better showcase the enemy behind the final blow
Lowered the tick rate of the Grenadier AoE effect to decrease its stamina penalty
Tick now occurs every 0.5s instead of 0.25s
Damage dealth per tick increased from 2 to 4
Added Volatile Witchfire reward to Soultrap event (the bigger the better you do during the event)
So those of you who do it before unlocking Demonic Weapons don’t feel like you wasted your time community suggestion
Spells with charges should now work properly on any charge and do not block casting
Spell cooldown UI was adjusted to better display charge status and whether the spell is available or not
Fixed a bug with incorrect notification text being displayed after trying to upgrade stat at the max level
Unveiled Arcana now display feather icon and short explanation that it’s possible to unveil them using White Raven Feathers
Watching you play made us realize that it wasn’t clear that you can unveil third Arcanum in a row simply by using White Raven Feathers. Now it should be more clear
Interaction prompt will now always appear regardless of your HUD visibility settings
It was possible to accidentally hide interaction prompts completely. It looked like a bug, especially when using “minimal HUD” preset, and could be confusing to some players
Added small version indicator in the top-right corner of the screen
Calamity Projectiles now resemble sentinel skulls and no longer deal damage, they only strike sanity of the preyer
This should hugely help with dispatching Catalyst vortexes while having two close range weapons
Tech:
It’s now possible to bind mousewheel in your KBM controls scheme
Few more ‘stuck in geometry’ fixes for Coast and Castle levels
Lots of enemies and traps got optimized when viewed at distance
Added Discord and Patch Notes links to the main menu
We want to be in touch with as many players as possible and this change should make it easier to find us. We also want to be transparent how the game evolves, and thus made the patch notes to be more accessible
PATCH 0.1.6.47760
This week we are focusing 99% on optimizations, QoL updates and bug fixing. There might be one new feature soon but if we manage to squeeze that in, it’ll mostly concern new players. In other news, next week we’re starting the work on a big update planned for the second half of November. We will also reveal the road map. Finally, expect a cool blog post tomorrow!
Gameplay:
Adjusted Mines explosion ranges
You can now run away from the Sanity-draining Cursed Chest ritual to avoid further Sanity drain
Removed Mine spawnpoints that ended up in a rock
Removed occasional wrong visual effects near interaction objects
Fixed an indestructible Gatekeeper Switch on the Scarlet Coast
Fixed a Cursed Chest Barrier Scenario bug that caused a black aura to linger on enemies after their protective aura was removed
Removed collisions with a destroyed Cursed Chest
Players can no longer claim rewards off failed Cursed Chest rituals
Added a few stream sounds that were missing in the Castle’s Garden
Easier to climb the tower ruins on Scarlet Coast community pain relief initiative
Did a minor tweak to the way being in proximity to a portal affects the ambient sounds
Fixed Stamina Bar overflow bug
Fixed crouch related dash bugs
Temporarily removed Larvas from Cursed Chest Barrier Ritual enemy pool, in lieu of other enemy compositions
Larvas were encountering numerous serious problems in this event (like being invisible), we’ve temporarily put them on the bench until we sort those problems out
Tweaked the behaviour of the first boss’s dome to better represent the intended design
The dome now scales down to better represent that the player is supposed to stay inside
Changed the damage interval while outside to 1s up from 0.67s, and fixed the time of the 1st application
Shortened the duration of the dome from 90s to 31s
Tech:
Reduced CPU and GPU cost of all chests and some other spawnable gameplay items
Added an icon for unknown keyboard input
Some of you use more exotic input devices, like AZERTY keyboards. Currently we can’t make custom icons for all possible inputs, but we added a generic “unknown input” icon. This way you know that the game recognized you input but simply can’t show a correct icon
Added quick weapon swap binding to keyboard (default: Z) community request
Added subtab swapping bindings to rebinding menu
Fixed issues with binding keyboard’s U key
Miscellaneous collision fixes, light visual polish and more level optimizations community feedback
2023.09.30 – PATCH 0.1.5.47713
We’ve done an extensive pass over all the Light Spells, fixing, tweaking, and balancing them. Some even got new powers…
Highlights
Blight Cyst:
Fixed the growth animation, explosion range and damage
Removed friendly fire and proximity detonation
Replaced the Second and Third Mysterium powers with new ones
Fireballs:
Fixed projectile target acquisition and homing
Changed base charges to one, increased to two with the Second Mysterium
Shockwave:
Fixed Shockwave’s recharge on Third Mysterium
Lightning Bolt:
Affected targets now scale with each Mysterium
The spell now correctly stuns the first target with the Third Mysterium
Frost Cone:
New Frost Cone’s Second Mysterium bonus
Third Mysterium now properly refreshes the charge. Changed required targets from 3 to 5.
Wretch, Musketeer and Assassin hit particle effects from projectiles disabled if they hit the player community feedback
The fights are now even more dynamic with your vision clearer
Double and Triple mushrooms are now much rarer, but restore much more health
Finding a rare mushroom should be a reason to celebrate
Gameplay
Fixed missing Mysteria objective descriptions for some weapons
Tweaked the sounds that play during the Bell Ambush, making them audible at longer distances
Added new sounds that play when opening Ammo and Supply Chests
Improved Wisp navigation capabilities
This will hopefully eliminate instances in which it got stuck and the event couldn’t proceed
Added a second completion condition to Wisp
Even if for some reason it can’t move, it will run out of power after summoning enough enemies
Fixed some Angelica spawns that clipped with geometry
Fixed multiple unreachable Cursed Treasure spawns in Irongate Castle
Tech
Fix for dematerialized enemy bodies stopping bullets and projectiles
Insanity post process eye adaptation fix
Fixed some Scarlet Coast bushes blocking bullets
Removed an invisible wall blocking the entry to the wooden pier
Witchlock switch minor optimization
Fixed animation blends from equip to sprint on Hailstorm and All Seeing Eye
HOTFIX 0.1.4.47685
We’re getting reports that the Castle has some performance issues on some setups. We have found one culprit, and even though this does not fully solve the problem — which is a puzzle in itself, as during the development the level ran very well — we’ve decided to publish it right now before the next bigger patch. We will continue investigating but you should feel a difference nonetheless.
Just to make life more fun, we’re also releasing experimental redesign of Balewort. Hopefully we didn’t make it op. With much larger pool of player data, it was obvious that Balewort was under-performing by a huge margin, compared to other Fetishes. Those changes should make it a viable choice.
Highlights
Major optimization to navigation requests performed close to multi-layered navigation planes
Translated to human language, enemies will calculate their paths to you much faster than before
Balewort’s rebalance:
Healing Essence now drops when you are below 75% health, instead of 50%
Increased Healing Essence drop chance from 10/12/14% to 30/35/40%
Gameplay
Fixed a bug that allowed multiple chests to spawn in the same location and prevented a more even spread throughout the level
Tech
Fixed a bug that forced Horizontal FOV scaling even if that option was overridden in the Engine.ini file SuperUltraWide fans rejoice
2023.09.27 PATCH 0.1.4.47671
Our short term focus will be improving the new player experience (without killing the spirit of the game) and balancing. Expect some nerfs and buffs in the Friday’s patch!
Also, as always, we’ll be taking care of various bugfixes (e.g. 2nd and 3rd Mysterium of various spells and items) and QoL updates. We’re working on the game’s roadmap as well. Eta? Next week or the week after. We are having tons of discussions based on your feedback and need to make some decisions first!
Highlights
Swapped Shockwave with Fireballs in the Research order community feedback
After a lot of player feedback, we realized that Shockwave was way less new player friendly than we thought – and as such it didn’t work well as the very first spell you research, and probably your first research ever. Fireballs should fill that role much more better. If you already researched Shockwave, it will remain safely in your inventory.
Gameplay
Fixed weapon upgrade objectives, now correctly marks them as complete
‘No Ammo’ warning shows up when using Demonic Weapon
Blunderbusser and Dimacher now show properly on the minimap (instead of as tiny white dots) community request
Preyer now becomes invincible after stepping into a portal community feedback
Another pack of fixes helping ghosts find their way
Ghost wont startle you now when you are too close
Removed flickering from Wisps and trapped enemy souls during the Soultrap event
Removed mine spawnpoints around one of the Castle’s starting portal
Tweaked duration of the killcam after death
This should help understanding what killed you
Killcam will be improved / longer in the next patch
Boss on the Scarlet Coast should always spawn now
Fixed locations for two bugged Gatekeeper’s “batteries” – they spawned inside geometry, which made them unreachable
New sounds for the Ring of Excreta
Tweaked the way the Gatekeeper’s Power Sources’ idle sound propagates in space. This change should make them much easier to locate
Chests now spawn more evenly throughout the level
Fixed a bug that prevented flying Effigies from displaying their particle effects: beams, explosions on death and teleportation effects
Fixed a bug that prevented most Effigies from correctly displaying their healthbars and names when you targeted them
New treasure and event icons
Fixed a bug that caused Survival Ritual to Succeed even if you moved too far from it.
Tech
Added ability to remap Map button (default M)
Improvements to the off-navigable area teleport logic
Fixed elite enemies effects remaining post death
Significantly less textures streaming in the Castle
The Castle remains less smooth that we know it can be. Consider …not Ultra. Top men are working to discover the source of the curse!
Miscellaneous collision fixes and visual polish community reports
Fixed bug with the last row of Arcana being not entirely clickable
Fixed bug with icons on the map being not clickable at times
Fixed bug with black screen after pressing Esc immediately after death
Fixed a bug that was causing the a part of the drops’ sounds to play twice
Fixed a bug which caused Shielbearer to play his Shield calling animation twice in a quick succession
Known issue/next patch
21:9 and other ultra widescreen ratios don’t work for everyone
We have a fix but it’s an engine-level change. We didn’t want to risk it with this patch, needs extensive testing first
2023.09.25 – PATCH 0.1.3.47576
Highlights
The focus of this patch was to finally reign in Calamities and the Warden. And thus: community Astro colab
Warden now has way lower chance to trigger Calamity
Warden now moves slightly faster and might decide to abandon his search for you earlier
Destroying traps doesn’t raise the calamity roll requirement (it’s still there, it’s just not growing anymore for now)
Calamities now grant sweet drops on completion. Use them wisely
Gameplay
Improved base Echo power and increased max ammo capacity (36 to 48)
Very long story short: slightly more damage to pellets, less to explosion make it a better gun early on (can one-shot Husks with a well-placed headshot). This massively improves its early game ammo economy, makes it viable at low-level content and more fun to level-up.
Reduced Hunger base range 16>15m and ADS range 22.5>21m
Our first nerf, rip the dream. But the gun was too hot. We slightly lowered its effective range to keep things relatively balanced, while keeping it beginner-friendly
Added low ammo notifications except for Demonic Weapons
Ammo economy is super important in the game but it’s easy to stop counting in the heat of the battle
Lowered kills required to upgrade Echo and Hailstorm
Taking their lower max ammo reserves into consideration, both Echo and Hailstorm were supposed to have lower upgrade kill requirements. They did not, until now.
Added “Stun Power” to weapon inspect screen. An important stat!
Ammo Chests can no longer spawn in two extremely hard to reach places
Increased Mines proximity trigger delay by 0.1 sec
Changes to explosions speeds made it a bit to difficult to get out of the mine’s range without taking damage
Removed almost every level up notification like “A new event unveiled”.
This was an infospam, didn’t really add anything, ruined the mystery and made no sense (witch reacting in 0.01s after levelup)
Added fail-safes to Effigy of Scabs that should prevent wandering enemies from acquiring permanent invincibility shields
Calamity Catalysts no longer spawn the portals inside Village geometry
Flame barrels now properly set both enemies and the player on fire
Dramatically lowered the amount of damage flame barrels deal to the player per tick
Reduced tick damage from the poisonous flowers
Enemies should now properly spawn in the Castle’s garden, and grant Crystal at the end
Sentinels now block damage when closed
Tech/graphics/audio
New skulls and ammo map icons
Fixed multiple instances of displaying incorrect mouse input icons
Tweaks to crouching animations across all weapons
Dash should no longer kill you community pain relief initiative
Fix to player fall damage vo sound not playing if the velocity was low enough to take fall damage but not high enough to trigger the harshest animation
Minor systemic AI optimization
Minor shader, texture and geometry fixes
2023.09.22 – PATCH 0.1.2.47492
Highlights
We had a fantastic opening hour …for people who knew how to play the game. A few nuclear changes to make it new player friendlier:
Increased the starting weapon range
The world (seed) when you’re level 1 is now the same for all players (i.e. minimum potentially punishing RNG on the first map)
Lowered the cost of the first three level ups
Apothecary and the crafting of Healing Elixirs are now available from the start instead of Level 2
Husk Archers arrows don’t set the target on fire anymore
The witch reacts to your growth but it was too much (not to mention bugged). To make the game more fun for higher level players:
Way less often Calamities for “aimlessly wandering about”
Wretch Calamity (the cold one) requirement lowered to 10 kills
Assassin Calamity (the slo-mo one that lowers health) shouldn’t request Assassin spawns while it’s inactive now
Grenadier now comes into enemy pool at lvl 15 (still can be triggered earlier in events), other enemies unlock after him
New traps are added a bit slower to the pool. Max number of traps on the map rises slightly slower with further level-ups
21:9 and other non-16:9 aspect ratios should work properly now
Also, more resolutions available for your display device
Gameplay
Inventory: added option to consume entire stack of crystalized witchfire at once community suggestion
Vastly reduced the intensity of the stamina exhaustion post process effect community request
(we’re working on some additional options to turn some of the effects off – but that will require a little bit more work)
Iron Cross now correctly progresses towards its upgrade requirements
Crouch Toggle/Hold option now works correctly
Wisp now stops spawning new enemies when players move too far away
Moreover, if the players moves too far and doesn’t come back for a long while, the event fails and all spawned enemies de-materialize
Proximity mines trigger zone no longer stops projectiles
Henbane now heals up to maximum health in the Elixir’s current healing duration
Multiple Cursed Chests can no longer spawn in the same spot
Enemies now teleport to a navigable area after too much time outside of it
Settings: QoL improvement: settings no longer stop at the first or the last option (you can cycle through them using one button) community request
Apothecary: changed ‘Herbs’ to ‘Angelica’ to avoid confusion
Melee/Spell/Elixir + Dash combo no longer makes the weapon disappear
Melee now snaps properly to all enemies
Enemies won’t attack until they’ve fully materialized
Inventory: added section which displays ALL items
Removed misplaced trap spawnpoints that could trigger as soon as the player entered the Irongate Castle
Galley Slave now grants rewards on death
Fixed an Event-related infinite witchfire exploit (who found it?)
The ghost that leaves footsteps should have less problems leading the player to his possessions
Tech/graphics/audio
Fixed evil sinkholes in some rocks geometry
Fixed missing collision on crates and other stuff in the quarry
Miscellaneous visual polish
Tweaked volume of impact sounds.
This should make shooting and kills even more satisfying
Tweaked the volume of the explosions when using the Ring of Excreta
Cool new sounds coming soon
Known issues for the next patch
We now know exactly what causes DLSS Frame Generation crashes but might take a moment to deploy a proper fix
2023.09.21 – PATCH 0.1.1.47414
Highlights
Doubled the Angelica spawn rate community suggestion
Fiend is now green on the radar instead of red justice for Bobby
Negative luck modifier now properly resets after triggering Calamity
Lowered the chance for Calamity to trigger on traps interactions
Both above mean less Calamity chaining / a bit more rare Calamities community and Astro colab
Tech/graphics/audio
Added a potential DLSS FG related crash fix.
Added warning information when using DLSS Frame Generation. It is known to cause crashes for some players, we’re working on a proper fix
Fixed visual glitch on some open chests on lower quality settings
Castle gate chains no longer levitate by the forbidden magic
Fixed invisible forest collision, few more visual fixes
Fixed a bug which caused the headshot sound’s volume to be controlled by the Dialogue Volume in the Audio Settings
Gameplay
Barrels can no longer spawn inside chests
Cursed Chest can no longer spawn an excessive number of enemies
Added missing collision to Cursed Chest
Itinerant portal (the orange one) properly spawns in every run now
Elixir Station in Apothecary now properly shows the elixirs produced
Your remains now properly show on radar community suggestion
Cricket’s inspect screen no longer shows an incorrect Clip Size
Warden’s map icon should now properly disappear with him
2023.09.20 – Hotfix 0.1.0.47362
Strange Coins are now Bound instead of Unbound, meaning you don’t lose them on death. That was the idea from the start, they were Unbound by mistake
More Arcana packs to research. We have reshuffled Arcana close to release and …puff, some disappeared for a second
Lowered unlock requirements for Incantations. They didn’t really need a higher level (15/30) req, now you can evolve your weapons earlier