Patch Notes/3.8.0

Release Curseforge: Sunday 12th of March

Note from the team

With update 8 we have focused on making the game broader, more polished and more accessible to all players. We have buffed a lot of RNG elements and made the game overall more rewarding. We recognise that the entry level to the game was a bit harsh and have taken steps to make it feel more rewarding, fun and exciting right from the start.

Update 8 is also possibly the biggest update yet, we are excited and hope you will love it!

Spotlight Features

Runes replaced with Inscriptions

The rune system was in dire need of some updating, it was completely RNG based and didn't really add much gameplay to the player. Running through common rooms to locate the one room you want didnt feel right with the new POI based game loop.

We threw runes out entirely and replaced them for Inscriptions with a brand new crafting system. The goal is to provide more control for the player and more excitement about building the vault.

• Empty Inscriptions can be found with omega rarity in Living Chests
• Inscription Pieces can be found in Living Chests and Wooden Chests
• Room Inscriptions can be crafted in the new Inscription Table, the player chooses what room to craft.
• An inscription rolls "Completion", "Time" and "Instability" randomly. Empty inscriptions found inside Living Chests have a bigger roll range than those crafted.
• Completion is a new mechanic, a player can enter a vault that isn't complete, but parts of it (to the % of uncompleted) will be replaced with vault bedrock. This includes POI's, Chests and ores.

Note, despite our best effort, because of a complete backend rewrite to crystal data, old runes will not work after this update but can be diffused in the soul diffuser.

Gear Enhancement System

We love vault gear, it's a lot of fun to play around with, and for a long time we have had a plan to further make gear fit into different play styles as a powerful enabler. Helmets will become a main feature in any build styles with this addition.

• Enhancement Altars can be found rarely inside Dungeons
• When interacted with the player gets a task to complete inside that vault, similar to a bounty
• If the player completes the task, a Vault Helmet can be placed inside the altar and be enhanced at no cost
• The enhancement will roll randomly and the altar can only be used once per player and vault (multiple altars can be found inside one vault however)
• Gear Enhancements targets abilities directly, and greatly enhances them, for example it can double the damage of Nova, half the mana cost of Dash, etc.
• Only Vault Helmets can have enhancements, and only one enhancement per helmet.

Crafted Gear Modifiers

We want to give more options for the player to be in control of their gear and builds. We have created a new station, the Gear Modification Table. It allows the player to craft a prefix or suffix onto a gear piece. A gear piece can only have one crafted modifier at any given time, and the crafted modifier trails behind discovery of the tiers. Some crafted modifiers have to be taught by finding a Modification Archive rarely inside Dungeons (level 60+) and interacting with it.

Wardrobe

We really like the idea of customisation with gear and loadout, and as such we felt the need for a simple way for the player to compare their loadouts, and quickly swap between their sets. The wardrobe does just that. The player can save all their gear, including trinkets, and their hotbar, in a Wardrobe block, and quickly swap between depending on their preferences.

Elixir Objective

Inline with making the game broader, while easier to understand and get into, we have created a new base objective. It will randomly roll from level 10 onwards, and can also be forced using the Seal of the Sage. Looting, mining ores and killing mobs all contribute elixir towards a progress bar. Every vault will randomly, and without directly informing the player, roll values for each task, for example looting a Wooden Chest could be worth more than looting an Ornate Chest, while killing a Zombie could be worth more than both - no run is the same. The player gets an indication of value per task when doing them by paying attention to the Elixir dropped by the chest, ore or mob. The Elixir does not need to be physically picked up as it is only a visual indicator and immediately counts towards the progression. Once enough Elixir is collected the player is tasked with finding a Lodestone, an ancient purple stone, to complete the vault.

We hope this objective teaches the player about the value of looting and progressing inside the vault, while presenting a challenge for completion, and lots of replayability.

Augments

On completing a vault there is a 20% chance to get an augment in the completion crate. The augment can be applied to a crystal to determine its theme. The augment dropped is dependent on the theme completed.

Chaos Catalyst

A new Uber Catalyst, found rarely inside treasure chests and the black market, that will turn the crystal it is attached to into a chaos crystal. Upon entering a Chaos Vault 30 random modifiers are rolled.

Treasure Rooms

We recognise that the heavy RNG with treasure rooms does not leave the player with a good feeling most of the time, therefore we have made the RNG more predictable. In addition the content of a treasure chest has also been heavily buffed.

Cascading vs Bonus modifiers

The modifiers Gilded, Ornate and Living were changed from spawning "Bonus" chests to instead extend a POI of their type by 25% per modifier. This change was made to allow the modifier to follow the gameplay and game loop of Vault Hunters Third Edition. The old "bonus" chest modifiers still exist but can no longer be obtained with catalysts. Instead they only roll randomly and their name was changed to reflect this change.

Catalysts & Crystal modification

We felt that the catalyst mechanic was a bit under-used and too linear. While random vaults are fun, as with everything in Update 8 we aim to provide the player as much control as possible over the RNG. We have made the following changes to in general buff the use of catalysts and customised vaults;

• The Crystal Instability system was re-written, it now has a 75% chance of cursing the crystal if the instability procs, instead of a 75% chance of making the crystal unmodifiable [previously exhausted]. This will allow for more catalysts (and inscriptions) to be added to a single crystal before it becomes unmodifiable, and instead make the player focus on handling the curses using motes or immunities. \

*Note: Mathematically this increases the odds to get more modifiers on a crystal significantly, previously it was about 45% chance to be able to apply a 5th catalyst without the crystal exhausting, that number is now 75%, and the 50% drop comes first around 7 catalysts.

• The recipe for Mystical Essence was made significantly cheaper
• The amount of Catalyst Fragments awarded in Wooden Chests in random vaults was heavily increased
• The chance of getting a "Super" catalyst (with no negative modifier) was increased from 1% to 10%
• Negative modifiers no longer roll before entering the vault, and are completely hidden to the player - We feel that this will break the linear experience of "Plentiful + Trapped" catalysts, and goes hand in hand with all other buffs done to catalysts

Cake Vault

We have had many hours of brainstorming how to make the cake vault fun for everyone, and while we believe the scaling difficulty introduced in update 7 was the right way to go, we felt like it was still missing something.

Cake vaults now have a 10% chance to spawn a Crake Pedestal somewhere in the room opened. Right clicking a crake pedestal will complete the vault for the individual player who claims it (2 players can not use the same pedestal). There is no goal for the amount of cakes, they are now infinite and the player chooses when to stop. The amount of experience gained for completing a cake vault is tied to how many cakes were consumed before right clicking a crake pedestal. With this change the player should no longer have to run back 30 rooms in case they struggle finding a cake, and are more incentivised to use the scaling difficulty to their advantage. Cake vaults remain sealed only and can not randomly occur.

Jewels

Instamining chests is amazing, and while the previous tiers of mining speed on jewels made it plausible to achieve instamining on the second tier of vault tools, it wasn't very easy. We have therefore heavily buffed mining speed on jewels all the way from level 0;

• T1: 3-6 (from 1-2) Req lvl 0
• T2: 6.1-7 (from 2.1-3) Req lvl 20
• T3: 7.1-8.0 (from 3.1-4) Req lvl 35
• Legendary T1 8.1 - 10 Req lvl 20
• Legendary T2 10.1 - 16 Req lvl 35

We also buffed Trap Disarm ranges as they felt pretty weak in the early game.

In addition we also made jewels cheaper to craft, they now require 5 wutodie gems (previously 8) and 8 silver scrap (previously 16) and 1 gemstone (previously 2). For QoL reasons we removed the use of Wutodic Silver Ingots. Jewels are now crafted in the Tool Station instead of the Forge

Scrapping a jewel will yield 0-1 gemstone back instead of 1.

General Objective & Rewards

In line with wanting to make the game more accessible and easier to get into, we have organised the random objectives and made the completion crates have predictable RNG. There is also no longer a difference between completion crates depending on the objective.

We recognise that "failing" an objective early game is a bad feeling and we want to make it easier to complete objectives.In the early game the probability of finding monoliths was heavily increased, the target monoliths was capped at 2 before level 10 and 3 before level 30.

Random objectives appear like so;

• Lvl 0-9: 100% Monolith
• Lvl 10-19: 50% Monolith, 50% Elixir
• Lvl 20-49: 33% Monolith, 33% Elixir, 33% Scavenger
• Lvl 50+: 25% Monolith, 25% Elixir, 25% Scavenger, 25% Hunt the Guardians

The Cove & The Diamond Caves

Two brand new rooms, the Cove, an omega coin pile focused room, and the Diamond Caves, found only in Lush themes, is a room filled with Diamond Ore.

Ore Scavenger Task

A new scavenger goal has been added: Ores, it will roll randomly like any other goal and the scavenger items will drop from any ore mined.

Village Room Changes

Village rooms felt a bit out of place, and weren't accessible for everyone. The challenge was also more RNG based than anything else, the reward wasn't strong enough and the gameplay dull and boring. Because of that we have completely remade the bottom of them;

There is now only one possible entrance to the catacombs that lies beneath the peaceful village. Gilded at night, Living at day, the catacombs can be unforgiving, and hard to navigate, but the loot found within can be very rewarding.

Factory Room Changes

The Factory room has always been a bit of a weird room, being the one of the only rooms that the player can't safely traverse through without getting mega spawned on. We have changed that, the factory room remains a resource pit for compressed blocks, but they are only available in the corners of the room now. Additionally, the room no longer have an infinity spawner in the middle, and we have added "The Bucket", a bucket hanging in the ceiling with guaranteed Ancient Debris spawning inside it, and a rare chance of Netherite Blocks.

Sky Vaults

We have added an End Resource room, and level scaled the Sky Vaults to feel more rewarding and accurate at the time they are found.

Chromatic Iron

In line with making the game more accessible, and easier early game, we have made chromatic iron generate without the "no air" rule. This will make it much easier to find and discover, as caving is a fully viable option to find it

The Goat & The Bunny Guardian

Two brand new armour sets for you to discover, in Epic and Omega rarities

Speed & Haste + Idols

We removed the ability to get +Speed /+Haste on idols as it was the only source of these buffs for the player and it felt weird forcing someone who wants extra speed to use idols. Instead we buffed the Speed Talent and added another level of Speed, the talent now also unlocks speed 3 already at lvl 50 (previous 80) and speed 4 at 75.

Haste 3 is now unlockable at level 50 (previously 70)

Legacy idols will still work, but the modifiers can no longer roll

Bounties

We overhauled the tasks and rewards for bounties. They now scale much better to the player's current level, and there is a lot more variety in tasks and rewards.

Other Changes

• Stun now completely stuns the target for 1.5 second when procced, stunned mobs can not attack nor move.
• Buffed the Painting Room amount of average chests inside buckets
• Buffed carved POI's average chests
• Crystal room no longer contains larimar ore, and instead have higher focus on other ores
• Crystals will now inherit the colour of their seal, and so will the portal they open
• Modifiers Update
  • • Buffed Opulent (from 5% to 10%)
    • Buffed Lucky (from 5% to 20%)
    • Added a new modifier, Accustomed, +20% Vault Experience
    • Added a new modifier: Rapid Mobs (+5% mob speed)
    • Nerfed Trapped (from 10% to 5%)
    • Nerfed Draining (from -20% to -10%)
    • Nerfed Furious (from +20% dmg to +10% dmg)
    • Nerfed Chunky Mobs (from+20% hp to +10% hp)
• Armour & Durability implicits was buffed by capping scaling earlier, meaning the low roll for higher level rolls is now higher (from 8 for armour to 12 for example)
• Eye of Avarice recipe removed (can be obtained in Black Market and Treasure Rooms)
• Hunter no longer spots "Dungeon" chests
• The player can now select to craft lower level vault gear or jewels
• Unmodified crystals are now much more likely to roll positive random modifiers than negative, and the positive modifiers have more stacks, we also added a chance to roll (and stack) Plentiful on unmodified crystals, as well as the new Accustomed.
• Furious and wild can no longer roll randomly before level 50
• Frail can no longer roll randomly at all
• Faceted Foci was overhauled, they no longer group their target, and each modifier now has its own faceted focus, which provides more control for the player modifying gear.
• Snowmen no longer appears in Sweet Themes
• Added Tier 4 mobs, they are more rare than T3 mobs were, and start appearing at level 65 - they present a bigger challenge and are designed to be scarier to face.
• Added Tier 2 and Tier 3 Piglins
• Added Magmatic Piglin Guardians, they can appear in any vault after level 70, they are quick moving crossbow snipers with "low" damage but can crit.
• Automatic Genius was changed to cost 1 knowledge star (non scaling), but be gated behind every other mod in the game, as it allows auto crafting, which surpasses any research requirement. (This was originally intended but due to mod-ids changing in the port to 1.18 it was overlooked). Automatic Genius unlocked before this patch will not be reverted.
• Early game general buffs
  • • Before Level 5, spawners only spawn maximum 1 wave, and the amount of mobs per wave was heavily lowered
    • All vaults before level 5 have Beginner's Insurance, which nullifies any trap chance.
    • Pylons before level 20 are focused on healing & recovery and are now 4 times as frequent
    • T1 vault dwellers (lvl 0-30) have had their movement speed reduced and can no longer land critical hits
    • Wraiths can no longer spawn in before level 15
    • Skeletons no longer have bows before level 15
• Buffed Cheese Burger Feast and Spicy Hearty Burger
• Added Waxing and Waning focus to ornate chests lvl 65+ (omega pool)
• Made Chaotic focus' more common
• Removed all but one vendor room, and heavily buffed it
  • • More pedestals will spawn
    • All costs are now in Bronze, which makes the talent Bartering work properly
• Recipes for seals were changed, in general they were made cheaper.
• Removed the challenge digsite room for now, until we figure out a more fun way to implement it
• Reaping tools can now be used on Bee Pens to harvest honey combs
• Raised the rarity of finding Bounty Pearls inside wooden chests
• Updated texture for Silver Scrap
• Recipes for Junk Management items have been updated
• Blank Seals can now be obtained from level 0 in completion crates, but can no longer be crafted
• Experience gain for all objectives have been buffed
  • • Hunt The Guardians will give more experience the more guardians the player unalive
• Completion crates for all objectives are now stream lined and the same
• Burger Sauce added to Living chests after level 75

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that made the Omega Digsite way more rare than intended
• Fixed a bug that made Wild not scale the vault dwellers properly
• Fixed a bug that made Mob Traps not spawn scaled vault dwellers
• Trinkets now work on their last use as intended
• Stonefall flask is now craftable
• Triple jump from Prismatic Feather now correctly triple jumps
• Junk Identifier now correctly takes priority over backpacks for pickup items

Mod Updates

• Added Equipment Compare to the pack, by default holding shift will compare one piece of gear with whatever is equipped in that slot, we heavily recommend changing the keybind to CTRL because of our extended tooltip functions
• Added Pickup Notifier to the pack, default configuration will put the notification window in the bottom right hand corner, above the modifiers of the vaults, this can be changed to suit your personal needs (< Footsteps) in config/pickupnotifier
• Updated Cagerium; Magma Cubes, yes
• Added ReAuth to the pack to allow players to re-authenticate inside the client instead of a hard restart when the Microsoft session times out