Patch 018

Early Access Patch 018: The BEEFY Update - May 7, 2019

Our fourth Major Update has arrived, letting you rise higher into the Underworld than ever before! This one is packed, so _ A) _we hope you enjoy it! and _B) _we'll be monitoring feedback and making follow-up changes for a number of days before switching focus to our next big update.

Highlights[ | ]

Elysium: rise up to an all-new biome of the Underworld, rife with new perils and mysteries
Theseus & the Minotaur: they await you in the afterlife of heroes... who else will you find up there?
Redesigned Dash: outmaneuver your foes like never before with this newly revised core ability
Improved UI: all-new Boon Info display lets you track an even greater number of power-ups
New Foes: confront the Exalted and the Nemean Chariot, among other Elysian foes
New Boons: look for new God Boons, including all-new 'Exchange' choices
New Story Events: including ~1,000 new voice lines! The most added in an update since launch

General Gameplay[ | ]

Added the third main biome after Asphodel (good luck up there)
Boons and other power-up rewards now show up relatively more often as Chamber Reward options
You can now find and use more than one Daedalus Hammer per escape attempt
Reworked damage scaling from multiple Boons; effects are generally additive rather than multiplicative
Olympians will sometimes offer an Exchange of Boons; Exchanges always have a higher power level
Added Heroic rarity level for Boons, greater than Epic (note: used with 'Exchange' Boons)
Poms of Power now yield diminishing returns when repeatedly applied to the same Boons
Infernal Troves requiring Skeleton Keys are rarer but yield greater rewards
Infernal Gates appear slightly more often

Weapons & Powers[ | ]

Dash: redesigned for a more fluid feel
Wrath: reduced meter gain from dealing and receiving damage; meter no longer gained from pillars
Stygian Blade: slightly reduced recovery time of Nova special
Heart-Seeking Bow: standard shot now staggers foes on-hit; increased stagger duration of Power Shot; reduced recovery time of Volley special
Shield of Chaos: increased attack damage; increased knockback for Bull Rush; you are now invulnerable while using Bull Rush
Eternal Spear: reduced damage of Throw special; removed recovery time if you retrieve a thrown Spear by moving to it; slightly increased range of Spin Attack to match the visual
Adamant Rail: increased speed and reduced recovery of Bombard special; attack projectile hit box slightly increased (making it more effective against foes' projectile attacks)

Olympian Boons[ | ]

Boons affecting your Dash are all updated based on the new properties
Status Curses: each Olympian now has their own status effect; some descriptions have been updated
Static Discharge (Zeus): newly added!
Thunder-God's Fury (Zeus): slightly increased damage and range
Freak Accident (Zeus x Artemis): newly added!
Sea-God's Rage (Poseidon): increased damage, duration, and maneuverability
Razor Shoals (Poseidon): slightly reduced damage
Blinding Flash (Athena): newly added!
Titan Toppler (Athena): no longer freezes you in place for a moment
Sure Footing (Athena): increased damage resistance
Deadly Reversal (Athena x Artemis): reduced chance of Critical damage
Hunter's Mark (Artemis): newly added!
Exit Wounds (Artemis): increased damage
Barbs of the Master Huntress (Artemis): shots pierce obstacles; increased long-range damage
Deadly Reversal (Artemis x Athena): reduced duration of guaranteed-Critical buff
Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite): increased duration of Weak effect on this and her other Boons
Dying Lament (Aphrodite): increased radius of effect
War-God's Thirst (Ares): increased damage and added immunity to knockback effects
Positive Outlook (Dionysus): reduced damage resistance

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades[ | ]

Empowering Nova (Blade): slightly reduced duration of Critical buff
Sudden Sunder (Blade): redesigned as Instant Nova; much faster but no longer blinks forward
Piercing Barrage (Bow): reduced armor damage (to compensate for increased rate of fire)
Explosive Shot (Bow): increased damage; increased duration of charge-up (making it slightly slower)
Defensive Aura (Shield): removed from game
Dark Barrier (Shield): removed from game
Assault Flight (Shield): removed from game
Minotaur Rush (Shield): redesigned; now gives your Bull Rush a Power Shot opportunity
Pulverizing Blow (Shield): redesigned; now hits twice
Dashing Wallop (Shield): newly added!
Explosive Return (Shield): newly added!
Armor Shredder (Shield): newly added!
Mirage Flight (Shield): returns to you faster; updated visuals
Sudden Rush (Shield): increased duration of charge-up
Vicious Skewer (Spear): reduced chance of Critical damage
Exploding Launcher (Spear): increased attack speed
Triple Bomb (Rail): reduced recovery time
Explosive Fire (Rail): newly added!
Heavy Slug (Rail): newly added!
Invigorating Blast (Rail): newly added!

Foes & Encounters[ | ]

Beware of a variety of all-new foes and traps in Elysium
Removed Survival encounters from Asphodel
Reduced how many types of elite foes can appear in Thanatos encounters
Removed Elite Voidstones from Asphodel (look for them later on...)
Reduced enemy counts in Asphodel 'river crossing' encounter
Pest: mines thrown onto impassable terrain now harmlessly defuse instead of exploding
Burn-Flinger: death weapon should be slightly easier to avoid
Wave-Maker: slightly reduced projectile acceleration
Megagorgon: removed short-range area attack
Bone Hydra: further adjustment and improvements to attack telegraphing
Alecto: reduced attack speed while enraged

Mirror of Night[ | ]

Greater Reflex (Mirror): max rank reduced (as part of the Dash redesign; invested Darkness will be refunded)
Privileged Status: newly added! deal greater damage by chaining godlike powers
Shadow Presence: reduced max rank

Keepsakes & Items[ | ]

Keepsakes can now rank up during escape attempts (not just in between)
Broken Spearpoint: newly added!
Tinge of Erebus (Well): reduced shop cost

Pact of Punishment[ | ]

Updated Skeleton Key cost and ordering of options once the system is unlocked (as a result, the Pact should be able to more quickly and meaningfully enhance challenge)_
Shared Misery makes foes spawn faster as well as in greater numbers
Tenebrous Veil now locks random choices

Level Design & Environments[ | ]

Added Elysium chambers
Updated newer Tartarus mini-boss chamber with more walkable space
Chaos Gates now can spawn in the first chamber of Asphodel
Other minor fixes and improvements to various chambers

Art & Visual FX[ | ]

Added new Elysium environment set
Updated main menu based on new Major Update
Updated animations for Alecto
Updated animations for Tisiphone
Updated colors of Asphodel Witches to be distinct from those in Tartarus
Updated colors of wave-shooting Bone Hydra head to be more distinct from the others
Updated visual effects when interacting with Primordial Chaos
Added visuals effects for new Status Curses and other new Boons
Added visual effect for Second Wave (Poseidon)

Menus & UI[ | ]

Updated and reset default Boon Info command; now toggles the screen on/off instead of requiring a press-and-hold (note: you may need to update your control mappings)
Updated Victory Screen after successfully completing an escape attempt
Improved low-health feedback on the life gauge
Added feedback when Keepsakes rank up after encounters
Added feedback when Pierced Butterfly (Thanatos) upgrades in power
Added new feedback for when you are being targeted by certain ranged attacks
Death Defiance charges granted by Athena have a special indicator
Updated Boon icon backings to show rarity color more clearly
Improved 'active Heat' feedback when using the Pact of Punishment
Improved feedback for Boons affected by Tenebrous Veil (Pact)
Improved feedback for recently ranked-up Keepsakes in the selection screen
Improvements to Well of Charon formatting
Improvements to boss life gauges
Improvements to feedback on charmed foes
Damage numbers from damage-over-time effects have distinct formatting
Updated text for various Boons and interactions
Other minor changes and improvements

Music & SFX[ | ]

'The King and the Bull': added new music track to Elysium
Added many new sound effects
Minor fixes and mix improvements

Voice & Narrative[ | ]

Added narrative events with various characters
Added Zagreus voice events for various gameplay contexts
Added 'Remembrance' and Victory event variants
Added Wrath voice events for when Olympians are displeased in 'Trial of the Gods' encounters
Added Codex entries for new foes and characters
Updated requirements from some narrative events
Fixes and tuning to some contextual voice events

Miscellaneous[ | ]

Updated Development Roadmap to reflect our plans for our next Major Update
Improvements to Aim Assist tuning using controllers
Gameplay timer now pauses while entering Chaos Gates and Infernal Gates
Skelly's unlockables now become available after clearing Elysium (if you haven't revealed them yet)
The Pact of Punishment is now unlocked after clearing Asphodel (if you haven't unlocked it yet)
Gameplay performance optimizations for some system configurations
Added lightning effects for Scintillating Feast (Zeus x Dionysus)
The catch animation for the Shield's Throw special now plays more reliably
Reduced frequency of the hint to use Wrath
Improved D-pad scrolling in Mirror screen
Updated some non-English language strings in menus
Updated Voice Cast in Credits

Bug Fixes[ | ]

Fixed various issues with Charm effects from Aphrodite
Fixed issues with Last Stand and Deathless Stand (Athena) not applying to all Death Defiance effects
Fixed an issue causing the Adamant Rail to have too much knockback from Tempest Strike (Poseidon)
Fixed an issue where Sea-God's Rage (Poseidon) could be earned before a specific event
Fixed an issue where Ocean's Bounty (Poseidon) did not affect rewards in Erebus
Fixed incorrect prerequisite Boons for earning Second Wave (Poseidon)
Fixed lingering visual FX issues with Razor Shoals (Poseidon)
Fixed Engulfing Vortex (Ares) not upgrading his War-God's Thirst
Fixed an issue where you could exit chambers while charging up the Shield's Bull Rush
Fixed an issue where upgrades affecting Rail ammo supply did not update the UI right away
Fixed issues where reduced healing from Grim Inevitability (Pact) did not always preview correctly
Fixed issues with the Wrath Gauge sometimes not showing correct feedback when full
Fixed issues with controller vibration occurring unintentionally in some contexts
Fixed lava damage causing a physical impact sound
Fixed a rare issue where the Codex update notification would not display when intended
Fixed an issue with Tisiphone's AI when standing in the corner during the last phase of the fight
Fixed an issue where opening the Codex near Thanatos did not always turn to the correct page
Fixed an issue where Dusa could be gifted after flying off
Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch[ | ]

“	...now Theseus encouraged his father and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotaur, so that he gave the pilot another sail, a white one, ordering him, if he returned with Theseus safe, to hoist the white sail, but otherwise to sail with the black one, and so indicate the affliction.	„
	~ Life of Theseus (Plutarch; B. Perrin translation)