Patch 022

Early Access Patch 022: The HIGH SPEED Update - June 11, 2019

Our fifth Major Update is here, so get ready to pick up the pace in a big way! As always, we'll be monitoring feedback and making follow-up changes for several days before switching focus to our next big update -- which will introduce the next biome after Elysium! Check our Roadmap for details.

Highlights

• Hermes: the god of swiftness arrives to give you a serious boost!
• New Foes: beware the Soul Catcher and the Flame Wheels up in Elysium!
• New Chambers: step inside dangerous, new Elysium environments!
• New & Updated Boons: look for new powers from the god of war, plus many balance changes!
• Updated 'Trial of the Gods': spurning any of the Olympians is a bigger deal!
• New Music: fight your heart out to Thanatos' theme, 'Last Words'!

General Gameplay

• Updated input buffering on basic moves (should result in a smoother feel, with fewer dropped inputs)
• Enhanced Poms of Power found in Erebus now increase Boon level *2 (rather than changing rarity)
• Power Shot damage bonuses now additive instead of multiplicative
• Damage Reduction effects such as Different League (Aphrodite) now additive instead of multiplicative
• Lava in Asphodel deals less damage to foes

Weapons & Powers

• Cast: shots now bounce off when blocked by shield-bearing foes, so ammo can be retrieved
• Stygian Blade: chop attack now can more reliably hit enemy projectiles; Nova special's blast speed lined up with visual effect (rather than hitting instantly)
• Heart-Seeking Bow: Volley special can stagger foes
• Adamant Rail: reduced scatter while firing

Boons & Blessings

• Added Hermes, God of Swiftness, with a variety of his unique Boons
• Re-balanced Attack, Special, and Cast damage bonuses for each Olympian
• Reduced effect of Boons that help build up Wrath Gauge
• Artemis no longer offers Exit Wounds and Quick Reload if your Cast is not compatible
• Static Discharge (Zeus): increased Jolted effect damage
• Thunder-God's Fury (Zeus): increased damage
• Tidal Dash (Poseidon): increased damage radius; now can briefly stagger foes
• Typhoon's Fury (Poseidon): increased damage
• Breaking Wave (Poseidon): increased damage
• Razor Shoals (Poseidon): increased damage
• Ocean's Bounty (Poseidon): re-scaled bonuses from higher rarity levels
• Sea Storm (Poseidon + Zeus): increased damage
• Last Stand (Athena): reduced healing effect
• Divine Protection (Athena): shield effect no longer consumed when successfully blocking attacks
• Wave of Despair (Aphrodite): reduced area of effect
• Shatter Shot (Aphrodite): reworked; increased range, now deals a single instance of damage per foe
• True Shot (Artemis): can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
• Burst Shot (Artemis): now affects Cast Boons from other Olympians
• Quick Reload (Artemis): reduced effect
• Barbs of the Master Huntress (Artemis): can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
• Black Metal (Ares): reduced area-of-effect bonus
• War-God's Thirst (Ares): reduced damage
• Curse of Eternity (Ares): cut from game
• Battle Rage (Ares): newly added!
• Vicious Cycle (Ares): newly added!
• Curse of Longing (Ares * Aphrodite): restored this previously-cut Boon; reduced successive damage
• Merciful End (Ares * Athena): newly added!
• Bad Influence (Dionysus): increased damage
• Black Out (Dionysus): increased damage
• After Party (Dionysus): healing effect now scales with life total; no longer upgradeable using Poms
• Wine-God's Stupor (Dionysus): increased damage
• Stabbing (Chaos): reduced self-damage
• Atrophic (Chaos): now reduces health as well as life total
• Enshrouded (Chaos): now counts down in each Chamber (not just each Encounter)

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

• Piercing effects can no longer be blocked by shield-bearing foes
• Piercing Fire (Rail) and Explosive Fire (Rail) now mutually exclusive
• Instant Nova (Blade): replaced with Double Nova
• Explosive Shot (Bow): reduced charge-time penalty
• Sudden Rush (Shield): now also removes Bull Rush knock-away effect
• Explosive Return (Shield): reduced damage

Foes & Encounters

• Added a new mini-boss encounter variant in Elysium
• Trial of the Gods: enhanced foes blessed by spurned gods; the spurned god's Boon has reduced rarity
• Wretched Thug: increased Elite armor
• Wretched Witch: increased Elite armor
• Wretched Lout: increased Elite armor
• Skull-Crusher: attack can no longer be blocked
• Exalted Strongbow: removed duration variance from pre-attack
• Exalted Longspear: slightly reduced leap attack damage radius
• Exalted Greatshield: reduced health
• The Minotaur: starts fighting sooner once the encounter begins
• Theseus: adjusted his Poseidon Wrath variant; increased spin attack recovery time; Chariot reinforcements reduced to one at a time; other minor timing changes

Keepsakes & Items

• Lambent Plume: newly added!
• Skull Earring: reduced active threshold
• Kiss of Styx (Well): increased shop cost
• Ranking up a Keepsake now refreshes its on-equip effect if it has one
• Minor rearrangements to the ordering of Keepsakes in the Display Case

Pact of Punishment

• Vicious Torment: now also increases damage from inferno-bombs from Caustic (Chaos) effects

Level Design & Environments

• Added two new Elysium chambers
• Adjusted spawn points and object positions in Asphodel 'river crossing' encounter
• Other minor fixes and improvements to various chambers

Art & Visual FX

• Updated visual effects for weapon upgrades with an explosive property
• Updated attack animations for Heart-Seeking Bow; updated visual effects for its Power Shot
• Updated some Bone Hydra effects and animations
• Updated some Exalted visual effects and animations
• Updated artwork for Theseus' thrown spear
• Updated visual effects for Ares' Doom hitting foes
• Updated visual effects for Invigorating Blast (Daedalus - Rail)
• Updated main menu based on new Major Update
• Updated animation for ambient butterflies in Elysium
• Updated aspects of Hypnos portrait
• Other minor changes, additions, and improvements

Menus & UI

• Updated text for various Boons; clarified some Status Curse tooltips
• Added more color variety to damage numbers (based on each god)
• Reduced duration of region text presentation when warping to new regions
• Improved controller D-pad navigation in some menus
• Other minor changes and improvements

Music & SFX

• 'Last Words': added new music track to Thanatos encounters
• Added distinct sound when Infernal Troves unlock after encounters
• Added distinct sound when Wells of Charon unlock after encounters
• Updated sound for Wretched Pest mine-fling attack
• Updated sound for Ares' Doom hitting foes
• Updated sound from taking lava damage
• Improved timing on audio chime as Wrath effects are expiring
• Reduced how often hurt vocalizations play from boss foes
• Other minor changes, fixes, and mix improvements

Voice & Narrative

• Added narrative events with several characters
• Added more Zagreus voice lines for various gameplay contexts
• Added Codex entries for Hermes, Soul Catcher, and Flame Wheels
• Updated requirements for some narrative events
• Fixes and tuning to some contextual voice events

Miscellaneous

• Updated Development Roadmap to reflect our plans for our next Major Update, and beyond
• Reduced the delay before the Chamber Reward appears after the Minotaur mini-boss fight
• Improved feedback when manually picking the Eternal Spear after the Throw special
• Improved feedback when catching the Shield of Chaos after the Throw special
• Renamed Titan Toppler (Athena) to Divine Dash (it no longer reduces your mobility like it used to)
• Renamed Sick Status Curse to Poison
• Wrath effects and other effects on Zagreus should stop more reliably after defeating bosses
• Credits: Hermes added to Voice Cast

Bug Fixes

• Fixes to some rare crashes
• Fixed a rare progression blocker in the Prince's Bedchambers when the Pact is first revealed
• Fixed a rare progression blocker with the Fallen Warrior
• Fixed an issue where True Shot (Artemis) could not deal backstab damage
• Fixed issues with some weapons not applying knock-away effects consistently
• Fixed an issue where you could reload the Adamant Rail while using Ares' or Poseidon's Wrath
• Fixed an issue where life total could be higher than expected after unequipping Old Spiked Collar
• Fixed an issue where Bone Hourglass could apply to some effects unexpectedly
• Fixed issues where some sound effects could loop indefinitely after encounters
• Fixed an issue that could cause music not to resume in some chambers
• Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch

“	Thanks to Hermes the guide, who gives all work of our hands the grace and fame that it deserves, no one alive can match me at household chores	„
	~ The Odyssey (Homer; R. Fagles translation)

Note: You should see v0.18276 in-game once you have the update.