Early Access Patch Notes - The Breach Refined
Hey folks,
The Breach Refined is live now!
After shipping Hotfix 4, our next goal (while working on co-op) was to work on some of the bigger feature requests that all of you sent over.
This Patch represents us diligently working on exactly that - The Breach Refined is a direct response to all your feedback, comments and suggestions!
So without further ado, hereâs what weâve been up to!
IMPORTANT:
- If you were in Eleanorâs or Whittackerâs level 2/3 building, you will need it use âContinue at Last Whisperâ on the realm screen so that you can continue playing. Since we removed the old separate indoor area and replaced it with ones within Sacrament that need no loading screen.
Performance:
- Startup time optimization, it should take a lot less time to reach the main menu
- Optimization of updating static entities
- Resolved spikes related to spawning certain types of entities
- More fixes in Garbage Collector memory allocations
- Optimization for leaves falling from trees
Quality of Life Improvements:
- Attacks and Rune Attacks now have ledge protection
- Added the ability to reset tutorials in the Gameplay Settings
- Improved and updated older tutorials
- Improved ingredients so that the buffs now stack instead of refreshing
- Chests can now be assigned carpets with signifiers for what is inside. Easily mark your chests with food, weapons, etc
- Fallen Ember UI will now persist after using a Fallen Ember to reroll/add an enchantment, so the item no longer needs to be re-selected each time it is used
- When using a Fallen Ember, rings are greyed out to indicate that the item cannot be used to change them
- A proper loading screen has been added that will show art of the area being loaded into, and will also provide random hints
- Increased the amount of bounties & challenges the player receives per day
- Added more bounties & challenges to the game
- Standardized the default rune HUD to be the same on both Keyboard & Controller, with the option of returning to the older HUD version
- Vendor items will now be organized by their tier/level requirements
- Plagued items now have a different UI visual
- The Bounty/Challenge circular map indicators now have different colors that match the icon colors within the activity UI
- Added an indicator to enemy health bars to show that they are 5 levels or more above the characterâs current level and are deemed too difficult to fight
- Item drop bag now has a proper model & textures
- It now takes much less time to fish at fishing spots
- The low amounts of copper currency have been removed from the drop pool of shinies
- Added tools and gems to the shiny drop pool
- Recipes on the Recipe UI will now show where they can be crafted
- Increased the number of basic map markers that can be placed from 12 each to 99 each
- The faction present in the current zone is now visible upon an area transition and on the clock HUD area
- Bombs & Flasks can now be put into cupboards
- Tools are no longer destroyed upon reaching 0 durability
- Added HUD indicators for the entrance to interiors where pestilence bosses are spawned
- Elevation will now be considered when placing map icons within a certain radius of the player character
- All keys now have unique icons
- Heat, Cold and Electric damage have been renamed to Fire, Ice and Lightning respectively
- Implemented proper animations for Halberd backstabs
- Filleter now attacks more like a normal sword, rather than a rapier
- The animation for digging has been updated to fit better with the Perfect Strike system
Quests:
- A Small Mercy (New Quest)
- Eleanor will be waiting for the Cerim after they wake up in the Rookery. She has a request for the Cerim and in return for their aid, she will provide various services for them.
- The Innkeepers Husband (Updated Quest)
- Gordon is now available immediately upon reaching Sacrament, but will temporarily leave Sacrament after Ellsworthâs Speech, whereupon he will need to be rescued
- Servant of God (Updated Quest)
- Speaker Lucian will now be waiting to speak with players just south of the Sacrament marketplace at the cook fire
- All quests will now grant experience upon completion
- Quest NPCs have now improved animations when you interact with them.
Input:
- Improved input and targeting responsiveness
- Added ability to change targets during attack windups
Areas:
- Ionaâs Cavern now has proper lighting throughout the zone
- Eleanor & Whittakerâs tier 3 interiors are now integrated within Sacrament and now exist in the overworld itself. No more Loading required.
- Birch trees in front of the Marin Woods zone entrance have been re-positioned to be more spread out in the area
Vendors:
- Eleanor can now extract/destroy gems
- Extracting a gem from an enchanted item will destroy the item, but will recover the gem for future use
- Destroying a gem in an enchanted item will clear the gem slot and preserve the item
- Gems can be extracted from non-enchanted items (common or masterwork rarity) without the item being destroyed
- Seneschalâs vendor menu - via unlocking âScavenged Remainsâ - now has a wide variety of items available, including Fallen Embers, gems, runes gear, recipes, upgrade materials etc
- Fellhorn set is now sold by Mira & Meri (Tier 2)
- Ironstud Interrogators are now sold by Ilaria
- Added map markers to Marin Village vendors
- Mira & Meri now sell 5 garments & leather each day
- Vegetable Cake recipe added to Gordonâs tier 3 shop
- Items sold by Finley now cost 50% less
- Resources have been removed from the possible items that Finley sells
Systems:
- Difficulty Tiers Added
- When creating a realm, select from 3 difficulty levels for your playthrough Whether you are a beginner or expert, looking to play casually or looking for a challenge â youâll have a way to set the difficulty you want.
- Difficulty Tiers available:
- Path of the Torn
- For players who are newer to Wicked or would like a more relaxed experience
- Enemy HP is reduced by 20%
- Enemy Damage is reduced by 50%
- Path of the Chosen
- The intended experience for players
- This is the default difficulty for existing realms
- Path of the Unspoken
- For players who are looking for a more challenging experience
- Enemy HP is increased by 20%
- Enemy Damage is increased by 35%
- Enemies have increased Poise
- Player XP gains are increased by 20%
- Path of the Torn
- Whispers and Fast Travel Reworked
- Elder Whispers
- Players can fast travel freely via Elder Whispers
- Lesser Whispers
- Can be upgraded to unlock fast travel per-whisper
- Elder Whispers
- Perfect Strike System for Resources Added
- Hitting resources with perfect timing speeds up the gathering process
- Perfect strikes will result in more loot & more focus gained
- Basic ranged attacks now cost stamina
- The basic Arrow rune on bows now costs stamina
- The most basic spells on staffs/wands now cost stamina (Fire Dart, Fireball etc)
- The aforementioned runes that cost stamina also generate focus
- Weapon upgrade path changes
- Weapons past tier 2 will now all require special resources to upgrade, such as Siren parts or Boar parts
- Weapons that are acquired from drops, chests and bounties/challenges now start at a higher upgrade level than before
- Innate Character Utility Rune Slots Added
- Player Characters will now be able to slot utility runes that are tied to their character and not to items
- Up to a maximum of 4 can be set at a time and can be replaced at Eleanor in Sacrament.
- Players will start with 2 slots and can add extra slots via Plague Ichor upgrades at The Watcher
- Utility runes can no longer be slotted into weapons
- Characters will start with a basic âHealâ rune by default
- The required amount of kills for summoning the Pestilence Boss has been reduced from 65% to 50%
- Experience is granted even when dying to a boss, with the amount granted depending on how much damage was dealt to the boss
- Gathering resources now generates focus and grants experience
- Wand and Staff runes can now be slotted into either weapon type
Character Customization
- Added three new beard customization options
Gear:
- Sacrament Guardian set moved to Tier 1
- Fellhorn set moved to Tier 2
Enchantments:
- Enchantments will now show what grouping they belong to, shown as an icon at the start of the enchantment line
- Two enchantments of the same grouping cannot appear on the same item, e.g âDamage increased by 3-10%â and âRune Damage increased by 4%-15%â cannot exist on the same item
- Elemental Infusions now have their own grouping and can now be rolled separately from other damage-based enchantments
- Groups are: Damage, Elemental, Focus, Health, Stamina, Defense, Speed
- Enchantments which do not belong to any of those groups can be rolled without restrictions
- Enchantment buffs:
- Duration of status effects granted by enchantments increased
- Health & Focus regeneration values on enchantments & gems has been doubled
- Regenerate Health enchantments now also scale with Healing stat
- Regenerate Focus enchantments now also scale with Focus Gain stat
- Enchantment Nerfs:
- Plagued enchantment raw values have been reduced to match the ones on Magical enchantments, but conditional enchantments on Plagued items still have greater overall values
- Reduced Lifesteal coefficient from 0.3 to 0.2
- Focus Cost and Damage Taken stats now have diminishing returns so stacking them should be less effective
- Focus Cost and Damage Taken enchantments are generally weaker
- âFrozen Enemy Armor decreased by 25%-50%" decreased to âFrozen Enemy Armor decreased by 15%-30%â
- Removed:
- Gain x% Health once per Rune Attack
- Added:
- Gain Health equal to X% of Focus Spent
- Gain X% Health on Damage Dealt against Frozen Enemies
- Execute Infected Low Health Enemies on Damage Death
- Certain keywords in enchantment descriptions are now highlighted and have their corresponding icons displayed beside them
Enemies and Bosses:
- Updated model and textures for The Lost Huntress
- Introduced new attacks for Winged Brood
- Improved The Lost Huntressâ hitboxes during the 3-hit combo
- Improved Darakâs turn animations
- All of Darakâs attacks are now parryable
- Polished Nith Screamerâs attack combos
- Reduced the damage of Torn Crawlerâs attacks
- Some Torn Crawler attacks are now parryable
- Improved Torn Crawler attack hitbox
- Giant enemies now drown at a lower depth
- Risen Stalkers now have a more delayed crossbow shot
- The Nith faction has a new faction-wide ability that slows players in the affected area
Balance:
- Fall damage has been halved
- The scaling has been changed on the stamina-based runes sold by Ilaria, so that they scale with the playerâs level and not with the weapon type
- Stamina is frozen for a short window upon quick stepping/rolling
- Reduced the drop rate of weapon oils
- Elemental status effects:
- Reduced Shatter damage on frozen enemies significantly
- Infected enemies now have reduced Fire Damage resistance
- Attributes:
- Investing Focus attribute now also increases your Focus Gain
- Increased the amount of Stamina you get per attribute point
- Increased the soft cap ceiling on the Stamina attribute
- Equipment:
- Upgrade level of dropped items have been increased in early- and mid-game
- Upgrade level of dropped items have been reduced in late-game
- Gear level requirement is now determined based on its tier when dropped
- This would apply to already existing gear
- Rings have no level requirements anymore
- Rings:
- Ring of Determination has had its secondary effect removed (Focus Cost decreased by up to 60% based on Missing Health)
- Battlecry Ring has had its secondary effect removed (Cannot Lifesteal)
- Crow Ring has had its primary effect nerfed (Max Stamina increased by 40%)
- Slightly increased the drop rate of gems
- Removed experience reward from Bounties & Challenges completion
- Plunge attacks now deal Knockdown damage
- Slightly increased repair costs
- Slightly reduced the damage dealt by Cold Sling
- Vial of Poise has been changed to Vial of Defense, which increases poise and reduces damage taken
- Weekly bounty enemies have had their level increased slightly
Music:
- Improved music mix
- New music for plagued Areas and Bosses
- Improved music system for more robust explore and boss fight performance
- Tavern interior coverage
- Improved timing of Darak Cinematic music
Audio:
- Polished SFX and custom VO for new enemy plagued Leader and Female Lumberjack enemies
- New haunting enemy voice design for the Winged Brood Boss variants
- music Integration and VO for âA Small Mercyâ Quest
- Music Integration and Mix for Nameless Pass and Quarry Areas
- Music Integration and Mix for Plagued Areas
- Bespoke UI SFX for new Fast Travel and Whisper Upgrade Menus
- Added new repair powder SFX
- Added destructible drum SFX
- Added bell SFX to Ashen Tunic armor
- Added Balak Taw platform landing impact sounds
- Added ambient rope creaks and bridge surfaces to the Marin Woods treetops
- Improvements to the Bane Moth attack SFX
- Improved Unbreakable Egg SFX
- Improved goat, chicken, and other critter audio
- Improved Caylen Vista ambience
- Updated Stagger SFX
- SFX for freezing and unfreezing enemies, and smaller secondary ice shatters
- Added enemy weapon parry impact SFX, which gives more satisfying parry responses
- Added helmet effect on Cerim vocalizations when full coverage helmet is equipped
- Audio coverage for new areas in Sacrament like the new woodcrafter and enchantress shop interiors
- Updated to Wwise 2022.1.19.
- Improved performance of room-aware object processing
- Improved stability of music scene manager
- Added new sound for Creep Heart destruction to match animation
Cinematics:
- Polished Lighting on some cinematics
VFX:
- Added hit, destruction & liquid effects to Savor Lab bottles
- Darak VFX update
- Added secondary ice VFX upon shattering frozen enemies
Localization:
- Added and updated localized text in many places across multiple languages
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed the Bounties & Challenges screen freezing if giving too many inputs too quickly
- Fixed Fallen Embers not getting consumed if the reroll animation was cancelled
- Fixed bosses being able to be frozen & knocked back off edges
- Fixed the Quickstep queue window being too large, resulting in multiple Quicksteps being accidentally queued
- Fixed being unable to jump if characters were touching a wall
- Fixed the Bounties & Challenges screen freezing if the reward item icon was selected
- Fixed Marin Woods & Lowland Meadows being unable to become an infected area naturally
- Fixed Plague Splatter having a much larger AoE than it should have
- Fixed Plague Splatter sometimes going through stairs or moving platforms
- Fixed Plague Splatter being unable to lifesteal when applicable
- Fixed Glimmering Bulwark Unique being craftable
- Fixed the vendor refineries not upgrading when their respective Danos Project is completed
- Fixed upgraded vendor stall refineries not decreasing the time required to refine materials
- Fixed the items in a storage chest disappearing when the chest was picked up
- Fixed food buffs not applying while Serendipity Ring is equipped
- Fixed Throw Knifeâs & Throw Axeâs damage not scaling properly
- Fixed being able to burn a higher amount of items than necessary when increasing the plague intensity of zones
- Fixed items with the Unrepairable plagued downside being able to be repaired if the item was unequipped and in the inventory
- Fixed Health bars becoming visible at the wrong times
- Fixed the selection box sometimes disappearing after rerolling an enchantment using a Fallen Ember
- Fixed being able to complete the Enchanted Gear challenge by using Fallen Embers
- Fixed the camera during The Lost Huntressâ phase change transition
- Fixed Boarskin Preacherâs hammer slam down having too large a range
- Fixed the rune selection screen jumping to available runes instantly without first selecting a slot, if the first rune slot was empty
- Fixed Echo Knight using his charge attack under the wrong conditions
- Fixed Rotwheel dealing physical damage innately, instead of plague damage
- Fixed bears not bypassing poise defense when using shielded stance
- Fixed not being able to queue arrow shots
- Fixed two-handed swords creating a stretched ground decal on plunge attacks
- Fixed Wallowing Husk being able to drop Corpse Smeared Blade
- Fixed Risen Kindler drowning animation
- Fixed various critter drowning animations
- Fixed Echo Knightâs tracking being too extreme for some attacks
- Fixed The Riven Twinsâ sweeping strike missing automatically if players were close to the boss
- Fixed various tooltip & functionality issues with Crucible Echoes
- Fixed The Shallows appearing infected inappropriately, when Marinerâs Keep was infected
- Fixed several fader/lighting/overlapping textures/collision issues throughout the game
- Fixed several problems with armor sets (female variants missing, clipping, missing textures etc)
- Fixed being able to clip through a wall in the prison area in Nameless Pass
- Fixed the enemy factions changing after dying
- Fixed the character blurring when using sliders on the character creation screen
- Fixed Gordonâs eavesdrop in The Shallows, forcing UI menus to close
- Fixed the falling SFX playing when performing a plunge attack from a high enough height
- Fixed being able to cast Plague Explosion in the air
- Fixed not being able to get up when knocked down while encumbered
- Fixed being able to heavy roll, via the use of a plagued downside, while encumbered
- Fixed Medium Vial of Poise and Large Vial of Poise having the same values
- Fixed the Plagued Ring providing lifesteal when above the âlow healthâ threshold
- Fixed missing fire SFX for Aldenâs funeral pyre
- Fixed Randolphâs salute missing SFX
- Fixed the old elevator SFX playing upon killing Echo Knight
- Fixed Mire Leech not having hit reactions
- Fixed Nith Leviathanâs corpse chunks increasing in size upon shattering
- Fixed some projectiles persisting on walls for long periods
- Fixed some gauntlet attacks having a misplaced impact visual effect
- Fixed Lara moving too fast when trying to catch up
- Fixed Risen enemies with shields lacking impact SFX & VFX
- Fixed issue with Gloam enemy sounds not firing consistently
- Fixed rain being present when inside of Gordonâs interior
- Fixed the rotation for Boarskin enemy attacks
- Fixed falling through the floor after being crushed by an elevator in The Crucible
- Fixed being able to reach the main part of the Black Trench via the alternative side before being on the relevant quest step of Of Rats and Raiders
- Fixed the Ionaâs Bloom effect rapidly disappearing at the broken Cerim Statue if the effect was activated when the Potion Seller quest was not active
- Fixed three-digit numbers of food and consumables getting cut off in the quick-use menus
- Fixed Illuminate runeâs stuttery movement
- Fixed being able to move Guard Rend out of his seat by running into him in Gordonâs shop
- Fixed an NPC at the Mountain Gate attempting to chop a tree that is already cut down
- Fixed the âArcane Reservoirâ echo granting health regeneration instead of focus regeneration
- Fixed the unique rings having too low a gold value when sold
- Fixed the NPCs post-Ellsworth Speech not leaving the square unless the player is close by them
- Fixed music not playing in the lower glade area near Lowland Meadowsâ entrance
- Fixed being able to climb up a door frame in the ship prologue, and being able to clip through the wall to the other side
- Fixed weapon enchantment audio stopping prematurely during certain cinematics
- Fixed the âTake x% Damage on Focus Useâ plagued downside applying when using Battlecry Ring or Ring of Determination
- Fixed âTake x% Damage on Focus Useâ not applying when using the unarmed rune
- Fixed the physics of some vases in Crucible
- Fixed some destructibles not fading properly when the floor under them faded
- Fixed Frost Step rune consuming all focus
- Fixed both a weapon and a helmet sharing the name âFalsteadâs Furyâ
- Fixed the weapon rewards from Bounties & Challenges not showing the runes in the reward preview
- Fixed being able to access a closed-off part of Sacrament by climbing on Ilariaâs vendor stall
- Fixed some wrong enemy types spawning inside Marinerâs Keep while infected
- Fixed Torn Grubhostâs ragdoll effect
- Fixed Barn Spidersâ ragdoll
- Fixed being unable to rotate while charging spells
- Fixed bounties not getting accepted if the input to accept them was held too long
- Fixed bounties not getting accepted if they were attempted to be acquired too soon after navigating to them
- Fixed the Torn Wolves respawning too quickly during the From the Depths bounty in the Nameless Pass
- Fixed being able to get stuck inside a gap along the wooden spike wall outside of the lumber mill in Lowland Meadows
- Fixed being able to get stuck near the hollow trunk near Hunterâs Vale
- Fixed being able to get stuck between a chest and the environment in the area above Hunterâs Vale
- Fixed being able to get stuck in a gap between rocks in the southern Lowland Meadows, south of Hunterâs Vale
- Fixed Two-Handed Halberd backstab animation misalignment
- Fixed automatically getting out of a bed/chair instead of it requiring input from the player
- Fixed Frost Blade rune being able to drop
- Fixed Hard Lock sticking on targets at too long a distance
- Fixed Lumber Stack not stacking items to 999
- Fixed the Royal Bolein and Bolein Royal armor sets having too similar names
- Fixed being able to climb a shelf in the prologue and going into the ceiling
- Fixed being able to interact with a dig spot through the wall of a small cabin near the mil in Marin Village
- Fixed getting stuck between the rocks above The Shallows waterfall
- Fixed the second roll attack on Caretakerâs Ruined Staff repeating if the input was continually pressed
- Fixed critters being able to spawn in the environment in Lowland Meadows near the lift to Marinerâs Keep
- Fixed The Unbreakable Egg being able to be knocked down without breaking his poise
- Fixed being unable to climb on balance beams properly
- Fixed Lightning Flash runeâs projectile often missing enemies
- Fixed Heal Aura rune not working properly on elevators
- Fixed the âDeposit Similarâ button in storage chests not depositing all stacks
