This build will be playable on our Playtest Client. Get access to the client here. Play the latest build during Community Nights, Friday Night Fights or by jumping in to custom games at any time. 

This is one of our beefiest patches yet, and we’re sure it’s a lot to take in. We welcome any and all feedback through our Forums, and we’ll be sharing more about why we made these changes in this week’s Tower Hour.  

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY UPDATES

Since Steam Next Fest, we’ve been working hard on improving Arkheron’s performance and stability across the board. From mitigating crashes and lowering ping, to CPU/GPU improvements, to decreasing loading times, and even to upgrading our ability to track all of these issues in real time - it’s been a long grind, but we’re very excited to share the fruits of our work thus far with you through this patch. Keep in mind though that this work is still ongoing. We have a long way to go, and we’re grateful for your patience and help in catching, reporting, and discussing performance and stability issues as they come up.

We know this has been a big issue for players, so we’ve dropped a post in Arkheron’s Forums with a lot more detail around the changes we made to improve performance and stability.

ETERNAL ROTATION

Grimwold and Vaton - Out

Irenna and Leodin - In

NOTE - PATCH SIZE

We’ve implemented some optimizations that should help improve loading times. In other words, when you open the client, it should be faster to get into the game. The tradeoff is that this patch will be much larger than usual while those optimizations are applied.

NOTE - PATCH NAMING & SCHEDULE

“Hey Bonfire, didn’t we already have Patch .20?” Great question! 

You may have noticed we’ve slowed down from our normal quick iteration patch cadence in these past few weeks. As we get closer to Closed Beta, we’re moving back towards the meatier, monthly patch cycles and are resetting our naming convention to match - welcome to the official “finished” .20 build. Pending any needed fixes, you can expect the next major patch will be .21, and so on. 

We’ll still push smaller bug fixes as needed, but long term our patch cadence for new content & features is planned to be monthly.

SPIRES GAME MODE UPDATES

Remember: Spires is a work-in-progress game mode, and you can expect it to continue improving over time. With that in mind, we look forward to your feedback!

Spires has received several changes to enhance the experience (and the pressure!) of climbing higher and higher. Namely, we’ve removed chests and instead built a dynamic economy for purchasing your items from the Shrine, which scales based on your purchasing history and progress within a single Spires run.

Here are more details about the dynamic Spires economy:

• Chests no longer spawn in the checkpoint room. Instead, you will purchase your items from the Shrine. You’ll have access to the full pool of in-rotation items, plus the usual Abyssal items, Consumables, and Anchor Abilities.

• Note: Consumables will only fill up to the amount you purchased; they will no longer auto-fill in after purchasing just one.

• When you’ve started a new Spires run (Floor 1), Eternal Items start at a cost of 250 fragments. With each subsequent purchase, the price of that item will increase by 250 fragments (so 2nd purchase is 500 fragments, 3rd is 750 fragments, and so on).

• Abyssal Items and Anchor Abilities start at a cost of 100 fragments, and increase by 25 fragments with each subsequent purchase.

• You have a cap of 2,000 fragments per checkpoint room.

• You can sell items back to the shop that you’ve previously purchased.

• You cannot purchase something from the Shrine and drop it for a teammate – this includes Consumables.

• You cannot drop Fragments for teammates.

Additionally, your Spires run now ends after 10 Floors. This will likely change again in the not-too-distant future, but for now, this limit helps us test the new progression and economic system more consistently.

You’ll also see a more polished load-in screen, once you’ve found a match and are loading from the checkpoint room into the Spires proper. This screen will display your team’s loadout and your opponents’ loadouts.

SPIRES CUSTOM GAMES

You can now set up Spires Custom Games! You’ll notice some new Settings in the Custom Games menu.

Matchmaking Settings:

• Game Mode - Choose Spires or Ascension.

• Region Selector - Choose which region you want the Custom Game to run in.

• Number of Teams - Select any even number of teams between 2 and 14.

• Team Size - Select 1-3 players per team.

Social Settings:

• Same as Ascension - here you can toggle Invite Permissions, Invite Code Permissions, and Assignment Permissions for your Custom Game lobby.

Gameplay Settings:

• Number of Matches - This is the number of matches a team will be matchmade into before returning to the lobby; a sliding bar from 1-5.

• Best of X Rounds - How many rounds in a match; a sliding bar between 3-7.

• Chests On - Spawn chests in the checkpoint room.

• Full Store On - Toggles between the old training room-style Shrine and the new, fully-stocked Shrine.

Note: We are aware of a bug that will prevent a player from re-joining a Spires Custom Game if they disconnect while the match is running. They can re-join the lobby, but won’t be placed back in the active match. We are working on this– it just didn’t make the cut.

FRIEND CODES

You can now add any player as a game friend via code, without needing them to already appear in your social panel.

The "Add Friend" button at the bottom of the Social Panel now opens a new "Add Friend" sub-panel.

In this new sub-panel:

• You can see your own Friend Code, along with a button to copy it

• You can enter another player’s Friend Code and send them a friend request

• Any successful friend requests will appear in the "Invites" tab in the Social Panel

NEW DAMAGE TYPE: SEARING

Searing Damage deals 50% damage to Fortitude and 150% damage to Health. 

NEW MECHANIC - BREAKOUT

We know CC in any game can be brutal, so we wanted to give players a little more counterplay. These abilities no longer queue until the stun or animation ends. Instead, they now break you out instantly for a potential life-saving play. Keep in mind that this still uses your cooldown, so it may be something you want to save for especially sticky situations.

Note: This is a new mechanic, and we’re still exploring which abilities it fits best on. Let us know how it feels to use, and whether it feels clear when someone uses it against you.

The following items can now break out of stuns:

• Elusive Crown 

• Edani’s Outburst Crown

• Leodin’s Sanctuary Amulet

• Grimwold’s Oscillating Regeneration Crown (rewind only, not teleporter placement)

• Tsu’bo’s Run Free Amulet

• Penelope’s Porcelain Parasol - Under the Weather

The stuns these items can break out of:

• Dahla’s Dancing Blade - Twisting Thorn 

• Dahla’s Eternal Ability - Curtain Call 

• Irenna’s Sword “Caretaker” - Krurian Handshake

• Edani’s Pulling Claws - Irresistible Pull 

• Edani’s Lunging Hook - Startling Lunge

• Rynshi’s Wrath Cleaver - Savage Leap 

• Rynshi’s Fury Bracer - Sadistic Throw

• Rynshi’s Vortex Amulet - Vortex

• Ravah’s Talonflight Crossbow - Unload

• Leodin’s Eclipse Hammer - Righteous Swing

• Leodin’s Eternal Ability - Sky Strike 

• Grimwold’s Charged Rings - Chain Reaction

• Vaton’s Serpent Staff - The Pillars (knockback)

ETERNAL ITEMS

EDANI

• Edani’s Lunging Hook - Startling Lunge stun has been reduced to 0.5s (down from 1s)

• Updated VFX for Edani’s Suffering Amulet radius 

DAHLA

• Dahla’s Curtain Call cooldown reduced to 25s (from 26s) 

GRIMWOLD

• Grimwold’s Strange Device - Static Turret hitbox has been reduced. Previously, it could be hit even when you weren’t actually hitting it.

• Grimwold’s Strange Device - Shock now transitions to its target more quickly

• Improved Grimwold’s Magnetic Field VFX to help performance

HOLLOW

• Hollow’s Gloomy Swarm no longer travels in an arc and instead fires in a straighter, more predictable line. It is now a 45-degree cone.

• Hollow’s Companion Crown - Gloomy Groundlings hits are now 50% Vampiric

• The Unscathed set bonus now grants 25% bonus damage while you have Fortitude (up from 20%)

IRENNA

• Irenna’s Icebreaker Mace - Icebreaker slow and root durations are back to 1.5s (down from 2s)

• Irenna’s Icebreaker Mace - Callous Swipes damage is now 26 (from 28). It is still Crushing damage.

• Irenna’s Sword “Caretaker” - Krurian Handshake charge distance is back to 8m at Levels 1 and 2. Level 3 no longer applies Freeze, but keeps the 10m charge distance. Stun duration for all levels is now 0.25s.

• Irenna’s Cold-blooded set bonus now provides bonus damage to tethered targets, in addition to stunned and slowed targets 

KARRIV

• Karriv’s damage-over-time abilities now deal Searing Damage

• Karriv’s Searing Shovel - Searing Blast Ability is now 25 damage, plus damage over time

• Karriv’s Fire Cage cooldown reduced to 23s (from 25s) 

LEODIN

• Leodin’s Sky Strike stun duration has been reduced to 1s (down from 1.5s)

• Leodin’s Sanctuary Amulet - Sanctuary size at Levels 1 and 2 is now 4.5 (down from 6). Level 3 is now 6 (down from 8). 

PENELOPE

• Penelope’s Correction Amulet - Lock The Door now has a smaller tether size, making it less likely to get stuck on collision. The transition time out of this ability is also a bit faster, letting you walk and use abilities about ten frames sooner than before.

RAVAH

• Ravah’s Distant set bonus is now 25% (up from 20)

VATON

• Vaton’s Disquieting Metamorphosis is now has a 22s cooldown (from from 26)

ABYSSAL/ECHO ITEMS

• Bow Shot is now broken into three projectiles, which means it will no longer hit players hiding behind walls

• Bashing Shield now consumes half of the shield’s health when used. Previously, it could be hit three times. Bashing Combo damage on the first two hits is now 24 (from 25)

• Scimitar hit damage is now 17 / 20 / 20 / 22 (from 20 / 20 / 20 / 20)

• Axes hit damage is now 19 / 19 / 21 / 21 (from 18 / 18 / 18 / 18) 

ETERNAL EMOTES AND EXECUTES

• Transforming into a full Eternal now gives you that Eternal’s unique emote and execute.

GAMEPLAY

• Allied summons (Yah’towah and Grimwold’s Static Turret) now display their health bars to allies, not just enemies.

• The end-of-match banner now recognizes a wider range of placements. In addition to the gold Victory banner for first place, there is now a silver banner for second, bronze for third, and a green rank display for placements 4 through 8. Ninth place or below still shows as Eliminated.

• Enemy Dahla phase dashes can now be heard when they are very close to you and/or facing toward you.

• We’ve made a small update so that your character model’s facing direction no longer snaps back toward the camera for certain abilities where that behavior did not matter. This only affects specific abilities that do not involve aiming or spawning/summoning something. Movement and locomotion speeds were not changed here.

• Reloads that are started by attacking while out of ammo will no longer be interrupted if you leave that state before the reload is complete. This behavior is now consistent across all reloading weapons.

• Rynshi and Tsu’Bo’s set bonuses now trigger when they are under a TOTAL pool of 100 (Health + Fortitude + Extra Armor). For example, this could be 50 Health and 50 Fortitude. 

HEALING 

• Heal-over-time now updates your healing bar smoothly. Previously, it increased in small chunks; now it displays as a smooth gradient. 

  • This applies to Healing Ward, Essence Crown, and Dahla’s Amulet. For Dahla’s Amulet, we’ve moved the channel bar back to better match when the actual heal occurs. Visual effects will also ramp up more slowly so it is easier to read when healing begins. 

  • There has been no change to the actual start time here, this is moreso a clarity update. 

ITEM DISPLAY UPDATES

• Weapons that do multiple hits on a single input will now show that damage with a + between hits. For example, Dahla’s Blade first has two 15-damage attacks, followed by a third attack that hits for 10 damage twice. Previously, this was shown as 15 / 15 / 10 / 10. It will now display as 15 / 15 / 10+10.

• All items now display flavor text

• The Destroyer Crown now uses the set bonus section to better communicate how it enables single-item set bonuses for everything else 

TEAM COMMS

• There is now a voice-over callout that says “I’m attacking” when a distant solo teammate (more than 25m away from their nearest teammate) damages an enemy player. 

  • To keep this from firing too often, the player must be out of combat for 20 seconds before it can trigger again. 

AUDIO

• Added a prototype modular item-based music system for Spires Checkpoint Rooms. There are now unique music layers when you equip Dahla, Irenna, Leodin, and Vaton’s items. 

  • Equipping any of these as a full set gives you that Eternal’s unique music as you ready up, but you can also mix and match items to mash things up!

• Added Eternal banter lines in the Spires Checkpoint Room when a full matching set is equipped

• Added new audio layers to the Empowered buff, especially while attacking or actively doing things in combat. This is meant to give it more of a clear tonal anchor and help the fantasy read more strongly in fights. 

SETTINGS

• There is now a default audio output device setting that matches your system default device

• Push to Talk is now the default voice mode for new users. This should not affect existing users. 

CUSTOMIZATION

• We’ve updated the available skins on the Customize page in preparation for future testing. For clarity, cosmetic progression testing is not something we can confirm details on yet. Right now, we expect that to happen closer to launch, and we’ll share a firmer timeline when we can.

• We’ve updated the camera perspective in the Emote preview on the Customization menu. It now matches the Execute camera to give a more accurate preview of how emotes will appear during gameplay. 

HIT REGISTRATION

• Screen shake has been added for hits. This can be toggled on or off in Settings. 

• Predicted Presentation: This shows a player a predicted version of the game state before final server confirmation. This helps abilities feel more responsive while reducing cases where something looks like it fully happened on your screen, only for the server to disagree a moment later. 

• We’ve added Predicted Presentation to more ability trees, including:

  • Dahla’s Curtain Call

  • Irenna’s Spiral Strike

  • Vaton’s Disquieting Metamorphosis

  • Edani’s Outburst Crown

  • Penelope’s Porcelain Parasol

  • Tsu’Bo’s Run Free Amulet

  • Slide Amulet

  • Elusive Crown

  • Leodin’s Radiant Crown, Phase Dash, and Mending Hands already had this. 

OTHER

UI

• The game mode selector has refreshed visuals.

• Font size has been scaled up. We may increase it further, but we need to stay mindful of localization.

• Ability names now include button bindings.

• An upgraded level is now represented with the symbol instead of a text string.

• Item Cards in the F1 menu and Training Room have updated visuals.

BOTS

• Bots now use more items, weapons, and abilities. 

Note: We are working on fine-tuning some “new player bots” that will be friendlier and less aggressive to first-time players. We are also exploring various difficulty levels for bots in the future - so stay tuned!

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a bug where the Social Panel would cut off the bottom part of the friends list in the Offline and Online sections

• Fixed an issue with lighting and shadows around the Forbidden Passages

• Fixed a bug where the Start button would be grayed out in the Custom Games lobby after returning from the End of Game screen

• Fixed a bug where the client would lose focus when typing certain keys while the Social Panel was open

• Fixed a bug where Leodin’s Eclipse Hammer would deal incorrect damage at Level 3

• Fixed a crash that would occur when clicking Exit Game and then Confirm in the escape menu

• Fixed a bug where sound effects were missing on the Empowered buff. 

• Fixed a bug in the Custom Games lobby where pressing Tab to cycle channels would jump between UI elements instead

• Fixed a bug where players could use BBCode styling in text chat

• Fixed a bug where players were unable to save Customize selections

• Fixed a bug where the Spires End of Match screen could appear twice in quick succession

• Fixed a bug where the Spires End of Match screen would not show player names and stats for teammates

• Fixed a bug where Elimination sound effects would not play in Spires

• Fixed a bug where players would not hear the sound effect when gaining the Invulnerable buff

• Fixed a bug where there were inconsistencies when teammates attempted to open a paid locked door at the same time

• Fixed some inconsistencies with Health Potions when consumed from the ground

• Added a missing word to Vaton’s Payback Crown item description

• Fixed a bug where players could be matchmade with the same team in Spires after voting not to stay together

• Fixed a bug where, if you ascended via an uncontested Challenge Rift, you would briefly hear the Safety Music from the previous floor

• Fixed some inconsistencies with the Stop Damage Buff sound effects for Edani’s Suffering Amulet

• Fixed a bug where bots would not pick up amulets

• Fixed a bug where projectiles could briefly collide with dead gizmos or players as they transitioned into their dying states

• Fixed issues where Irenna’s North Wind Amulet slow would not apply correctly if an enemy entered the radius while immune to slows, or if multiple Irenna slows overlapped on the same player and expired at different times

• Fixed a bug where Bashing Shield would not regenerate shield health after blocking, even after the intended delay

• Fixed issues where Irenna’s Frost Armor Crown could incorrectly lose armor value if the player reapplied additional armor while channeling before the previous armor expired

• Fixed some cases where Ravah’s Ringblade could teleport players into unintended locations. AKA GREG has now put some safety locks in place to keep naughty players out of the Circulation loot room on Floor 2.  

• Fixed a bug where Ravah’s Ringblade RMB could consume its cooldown without moving the player correctly

• Fixed an issue where firing one wide projectile immediately after another could cause the second projectile to deal no damage

• Fixed inconsistent hit registration on Rynshi’s Wrath Cleaver

• Fixed incorrect damage info on Irenna’s Caretaker third LMB hit

• Fixed a bug where Edani’s Pulling Claws Level 3 RMB would not reset cooldown after killing an enemy player

• Fixed a bug where players could sometimes emote instead of using a weapon ability that was on cooldown

• Fixed a bug where players could attack through a closed door

• Fixed weapon swap animation issues on Grimwold’s Strange Device

• Fixed controller navigation issues on the Spires End of Match screen, including the ‘Stay with Team?’ prompt

• Fixed a bug where players could get stuck between Spires rounds

• Fixed a bug where players could be left alone between Spires rounds instead of being grouped correctly

• Fixed a bug where players did not always revive correctly between Spires rounds

• Fixed a bug where players could be pulled back into a Spires match after leaving to the frontend

• Fixed a bug where teams were not always re-matched correctly if someone left in the Checkpoint Room

• Fixed a bug where the Spires minimap could break

• Fixed a bug where parts of the Spires environment could fail to appear in some matches

• Fixed a crash that could occur when selecting Exit Game in the Spires Checkpoint Room

• Fixed a bug where the Spires Checkpoint Room music only responded to the Master Volume slider

• Fixed incorrect Spires vote gizmo text/audio referencing Challenge Rift

• Fixed a bug where bots only used single LMB attacks instead of full attack chains

• Fixed a bug where bots did not fully channel charged LMB attacks

• Fixed cases where bots could get stuck trying to path through Hollow’s wall instead of routing around it

• Fixed incorrect Player Downed text

• Fixed incorrect Friends List presence and Context Menu text

• Fixed a bug where regions were missing from the Select Matchmaking Regions menu

• Fixed a bug where the Death Recap needed two Space inputs to close the first time

• Fixed a bug where pressing Escape in Customize did not return players to the Play menu

• Fixed a bug where the Swap Weapon button appeared while spectating

• Fixed a bug where players using a controller in the Training Gym could not select individual items from the Eternal mannequins

• Fixed missing input glyphs for pinging Anchor Abilities, Exit Early, and some modal aim actions

• Fixed reversed Cancel / Cast controller glyphs when aiming modal abilities on PC

• Fixed a bug where the Report a Bug modal would not close correctly when selecting Cancel

• Fixed a bug where the Report a Bug modal could lose focus while typing if the Social Panel was open in the background

• Fixed lobby chat text that incorrectly suggested Tab would cycle channels

• Fixed a bug where the Anchor crystal did not show on the HUD

• Fixed a bug where Bashing Shield Block UI could linger

• Fixed a missing space in “Seeking Revenge on” text

• Fixed incorrect Health Potion item description text

• Updated Edani’s Lunging Hook item description to correctly mention the multiple hits on its final attack

• Fixed missing Ascension VFX on the ground while ascending and after dropping

• Fixed missing VFX on the Eliminated and Victorious UI

• Fixed missing Team Elimination SFX

• Fixed cases where Elimination SFX were not heard in Spires

• Fixed timing issues with Team Found music and Player Card SFX

• Fixed lingering audio on Dahla’s Petal Dance Amulet after interrupting it with another ability

• Fixed looping audio on Karriv’s Forgefire Crown and Flamepath Amulet at Level 3

• Fixed Edani’s Suffering Amulet audio inconsistencies

• Fixed mistimed Ravah’s Stalking Amulet damage buff SFX

• Fixed a bug where Ravah’s Parliament audio/VFX could persist after being Banished or killed

• Fixed missing SFX for the Invulnerable, Empowered, and On-Fire buffs

• Fixed repeated audio when starting the Full Heal Anchor Ability channel multiple times

• Fixed a bug where some UI hover sounds in the Custom Lobby were overly harsh

• Fixed a bug where Social Panel spam could cut out all game audio

• Fixed a bug where players could hear an echo (hah) of their own voice through a teammate’s mic

• Fixed a bug where changing the Windows audio output device did not update Arkheron’s audio output correctly

• Fixed a bug where teammate interact channel audio did not stop correctly

• Fixed a bug where the Destroyer could not be pinged on the map

• Fixed a bug where Crossings bridges did not unlock both entrance portals when one side was purchased

• Fixed several cases where players could see out of bounds on Floor 2 and Floor 3

• Fixed several portal and minimap issues, including missing markers for Reliquary, Lifts, and Scriptorium Exit Portals

• Fixed a bug where Gateway teleporters displayed incorrect Portal Icons when pinged

• Fixed a bug where Fog of War was not updating on the Full Map

• Updated the Royal Crypt loot room icon on the Full Map for clarity

• Fixed a bug where Orange Arrow could appear below the HUD equip slots

• Fixed a bug where player models could fail to appear on the Spires face-off screen

• Fixed a bug where pickup cards could show “Drop Item” instead of “Upgrade”

• Fixed several dissolve, collision warping, and projectile clipping issues across Floor 2 and Floor 3

• Fixed multiple lighting, shadow, and flickering issues across Mahara, City of Bells, Sanctuary of Stone, Bloom, and Palace of the Ancient

• Fixed several missing flame VFX and environment VFX issues

• Fixed a bug where some skins displayed splotchy purple textures

• Fixed a bug where bookcases, arches, and other environment pieces were not dissolving correctly in certain rooms

• Fixed a bug where the Tutorial Complete screen appeared completely black for some players

• Fixed a bug where the Ascension map music could restart by pressing ESC on the Drop Map

• Fixed a bug where “All Beacons Claimed” VO could play incorrectly after a long Beacon fight

• Fixed a bug where dead players could block ascending players from interacting with nearby items

• Fixed a bug where players were unable to start a Custom Game with more than 3 people

• Fixed a bug where players assigned to the last team in a Custom Lobby could disappear when the Number of Teams setting changed

• Fixed a bug where players could get stuck on the Match Found screen, return to the main menu, and end up on a black screen

• Fixed a bug where players could sometimes crash while loading into Ascension

• Fixed crashes that could occur while loading into a match or returning to the frontend after End of Game

• Fixed a bug where players could sometimes receive too many request failures on the frontend

• Fixed a bug where lobby/team access could fail in some queue states