Hey, everyone!

Here are the patch notes for the first content update.

• Randomizer game mode has been added

  • Accessible once you have completed the game

  • Starting weapon and accessory is random, but armor is the same

  • All progression and unique items (weapons, armor, accessories, parts, etc.) are accounted for but are shuffled across the entire game. You could start with the Wingman and find the Valkyrie in the vending machine for example.

  • All enemy encounter locations are the same, but each enemy is randomized within its type. So if an encounter had a Skitterer originally, it might instead be a shark, a phorid drone, a crab, a drainling, etc. but it wouldn't be a miniboss enemy like a Kraken's Arm or Bloodclutch

  • There will always be at least two weapon manuals per run, found in the areas where they are originally, but more could be randomly shuffled in

  • When a new randomized run begins, a text file will be created in the same folder as your save file that will show the area where the items are in. This can be referenced if you get stuck or believe an item may not have been randomized in properly

• Four new costumes have been added (from left to right)

  • Laced: Purchase from the challenge shop

  • Wrapped: Purchase from the challenge shop

  • Sheer: Complete the game on New Game Plus on any difficulty

  • Nighty: Complete the game on any difficulty with the randomizer game mode active

• 12 new challenges have been added

  • Round 2: Complete the game on New Game Plus.

  • All Mixed Up: Complete the game on any difficulty with the randomizer game mode active.

  • Firestarter I: Set 10 enemies on fire.

  • Firestarter II: Set 50 enemies on fire.

  • Popsicle I: Freeze 10 enemies.

  • Popsicle II: Freeze 50 enemies.

  • Barbecue: Inflict a total of 100,000 damage from enemies being on fire.

  • Ice Carving: Shatter 25 frozen enemies with a brutal attack.

  • Farmer: Take a break while at full health.

  • Decaf: Complete the game on any difficulty without drinking coffee.

  • Dodgeball: Perform an action queue with Throw Stone followed by Throwing Knives

  • Locked In: Perform an action queue with Focus followed by 9 attack commands.

• You can now revisit Seaside (Night) after reaching Chapter 3

  • You can return to Seaside (Night) from the Farm House by interacting with the gate near the truck

  • You can also fast travel to Seaside (Night) once fast travel has been unlocked

• Reworked shotgun spread damage:

  • Damage is now evenly spread when shooting multiple targets. Previously the main target would receive 70% of the damage and each additional target would receive 30%, making it deal more damage than intended when hitting 3 or more enemies.

• Ultimaniac has had the following adjustments:

  • Base firepower slightly increased

  • Improved base weapon handling (reload speed, time to aim)

  • Improved the damage bonus while at full health

• Danse Macabre has had the following adjustments:

  • Base firepower slightly increased

  • Increased the flanking crit chance, flanking damage bonus, and counter hit damage bonus of its unique effect

• True Survivor game modifier will now unlock at the same time as Despair difficulty

• Slightly lowered the scrap cost and potency of improvised grenade, improvised flash, and improvised incendiary skills and increased the potency of the item equivalents.

• You will no longer be forced to change costume when going into Chapter 3 after your first play through

• Brutal Attack will automatically be learned when approaching the 2 clinger and 1 tick fight in North Breck Trail if you did not pick up the skill book

• You can now navigate from the top to bottom, and bottom to top of the bestiary list

• Increased the lighting on the poker table in the Manor Lounge to make it easier to see the chips and their color

• The time it takes for a Splittercrab Egg to hatch has been randomized a bit so they won't always hatch together

• The bush where you can call a Gluttonous Tick on the Stalker boss fight now has increased visual indicators when a tick is ready

  • The detection range has also been increased to better indicate it's something to interact with

• When entering combat, if a feat has been activated, it will now show much quicker and will no longer pause while the action menu is up

• The time needed to upgrade a weapon level at the work bench has been reduced from 1.2 seconds to 0.6, and the confirm button can now be held after an upgrade has completed to quickly upgrade multiple levels at a time

• Phorid Aurums will no longer attempt to flee and are now considered a guaranteed reward instead of a potential reward

  • The base chance for a Phorid Aurum to appear has been lowered to compensate for the above change, but the bonus chance for one to appear based on your Luck stat has been increased. This works out to be about the same chance by the time you find these enemies, but will now scale better into New Game Plus

• You can now adjust the volume of footsteps separately in the Options menu

• Added a game modifier to prevent shop items (excluding costumes) from being added to a new game

• Increased the offense contribution to fire damage over time, resulting in an overall increase to burn damage and should better scale in end game and New Game Plus

• Fixed a stuck spot in Candle Rock Coast by a back wall near the catwalk tunnel section

• Fixed an issue where a placeholder object was visible on one of the cliff traversal sections towards the beginning of Candle Rock Cliff

• Fixed a stuck spot behind a rock in the Misgiving Throat before the tunnel leading into the third section

• Fixed a stuck spot near the 4 clinger, 2 grasper fight in the Misgiving Throat

• Fixed a stuck spot on the cliff you drop down to on the way to the carver boss fight in Candle Rock Cliff

• Fixed a stuck spot in the Lab, where you could climb over a filing cabinet and get stuck on the other side

• Fixed several stuck spots, and overall flattened the shoreline in Candle Rock Coast

• Fixed an issue where the wall boundary in the final interactive cutscene was not fully encasing the scene making it possible to fall out of bounds if you ventured too far away

• Fixed an issue where there was a Grasper enemy spawning outside the encounter bounds in Candle Rock Coast on Despair difficulty

• Fixed an issue where a fight in Candle Rock Coast on Despair difficulty began too close to the stairs, resulting in the possibility of getting stuck

• Fixed an issue where putting in the 20th coin into the vending machine with full inventory would ruin your chance at the reward

• Fixed an issue where blueberries near the old cabin on Despair difficulty would come back when reloading the area

• Fixed an issue where the weapon manual in The Crawl on New Game Plus would come back when reloading the area

• Fixed an issue where incapacitated egg laying enemies could still lay eggs

• Fixed an issue where Majestra's effects would not be active until clearing an encounter, instead of when it was equipped

• Fixed an issue where the Detective Office puzzle didn't have button action prompts for Left and Right

• Fixed an issue where finishing an encounter in a "draw" (both you and the enemies are dead) would put you in a state of undeath

• Fixed an issue where enemies during the Finality sequence could take damage (such as from being On Fire) and die, resulting in a combat soft lock

• Fixed an issue where enemies that can summon reinforcements could do so during the Finality sequence

• Fixed an issue where the detailed status window would not always update after all stat changes (such as when adding or removing equipment parts)

• Fixed an issue where High Powered Ammo in a drawer in the Manor on Despair difficulty was inaccessible

• Fixed an issue where there were too many missing mesh faces on the back shirt of Rocker

• Fixed an issue where there was excessive clipping on the Ace costume when performing climbing or crawling traversal actions

• Fixed an issue where a Rusty Coin was in an inaccessible location in the Sewer on Normal and Hard difficulties

• Fixed an issue where game results would not properly save on New Game Plus if you had a higher rank and score

• (Hotfix @ 1:27 PM EDT) Fixed an issue where you couldn't adjust the Barefoot Sounds audio setting

• (Hotfix @ 1:27 PM EDT) Fixed an issue where the Ice Carving challenge wouldn't increment if the brutal attack did enough damage to kill the frozen enemy instead of trigger the instant kill shatter

I do have some smaller updates I want to release that didn't make it for this update, such as being able to delete save slots and add a "Continue" option on the main menu to automatically load the last saved game.

If you haven't yet seen my development roadmap going forward, I posted it as a stickied thread on the discussions board here: https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/app/2767530/discussions/0/765184596329489708/

I'll be updating exactly what's coming with each update as I'm able to share more and will do my best to keep that post up to date.

Thanks again for everyone's support of the game! I'm excited for the opportunity to add more content and will talk to you all again soon.

-Ryan

• Chemical can now be recycled

• The challenge to drag enemies during the Carver ambush fight at the cliffs has been reduced from 25 times to 15. This is to account for the increase in damage from enemy ground effects

• Reduced the number of times you need to exploit the Corundumcarver weakness from 2 to 1

• Reduced the number of weakness exploits needed for Shalecarver and Granitecarver bestiary entries

• You can now adjust the FOV in the options menu under the Camera tab

• Brutal Counter has been adjusted

  • It will still deal damage equal to a brutal attack when parrying an enemy into a staggered state, but the melee attack animation will no longer play. Sometimes the animation put you into harms way when this should only be a beneficial action

• Removed an incorrect statement on the fast travel notice about being able to travel to Seaside (night)

  • This will be coming in the future, but it's not ready yet

• Fixed an issue where the chromatic aberration setting would be ignored in the streets area

• Fixed the costume list and acquisition method for costumes when playing the demo version

• Fixed an issue where Empress was not reducing the stamina consumption of skills

• Fixed an issue where using Finality on an enemy while they are in the middle of summoning reinforcements would have them spawn out of the encounter bounds

• Fixed an issue where fast travel/taking a break could affect respawns on other save files