[h3][b]Hello Knights![/b][/h3] From our team to you, we wish you a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! In celebration of the festivities, our team has worked hard to develop our new feature: [b]Hard Mode[/b] ([i]previously described as New Game+[/i]). We are proud to announce that this feature is officially live. Hard Mode is Here! [i]Sands of Aura[/i] will also be available for a [u]discount[/u] between [b]Dec 21st, 2023 - January 4th, 2024[/b]! New update, a holiday sale, it is certainly a time for cheers! We also wanted to take this moment to provide a quick update on Localization. We are still working on providing translations for [i]Sands of Aura[/i] as soon as possible. Our current target is in the middle of Q1 of 2024, as we begin quality testing at the start of the New Year! We will continue to update you as we can. We appreciate your patience during this time as we work to provide you with a quality experience in the language of your choice. [h3][b]What is Hard Mode?[/b][/h3] Once players have completed the game in normal mode you will be given the option of continuing your save file in Hard Mode. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38706629/ba8cde53c03f95ef883984b79a6204a616b09f72.png[/img] Here are some things that players can look forward to when continuing their journey into Hardmode. [list] [*] Players will retain all their equipment, talismans, and crafting knowledge but the rest of the world will reset [*] All enemies will be scaled up to provide a challenge for a player with high-level gear [*] Enemy placements and compositions have been adjusted all around the world [*] Resources will be more plentiful allowing you to try new builds and playstyles more easily [*] New achievements will be available for defeating bosses and completing the game in Hard Mode [/list] Along with this new feature we have also taken significant strides to improve clarity in quest dialogues, quality of life changes, and fixing issues we may have missed along the way. You can read all about our update in the patch notes below! [h1][b]Version 1.01.09 Patch Notes[/b][/h1] [b]General[/b] [list] [*]A new mode has been added to the game to provide an extra challenge for the toughest of Remnant Knights. [*] Added achievements for defeating each boss in Hard Mode as well as completing the game in Hard Mode [*] Updated the Heavy Attack and Parry tutorials to match the current functionality in game [*] Added a Weapon Swap tutorial [*] Felker will now warn you when you reach the edges of the playable world [*] Added 2 Bells to the Pillar of Entropy. [*] Fixed issue that could cause enemies that are supposed to die in cutscenes to survive and awkwardly stand around afterwards. [*] Fixed an issue that would cause Galina and Mellie to spawn on top of each other at the shop in Starspire Refuge. [*] Fixed issue that would cause one-shotting the festival statue to give you the lowest reward tier, rather than the highest. [*] Fixed issue that prevented the Flare Forge storm's kill volume from triggering under certain conditions. [*] Fixed issue that caused the Flare Forge storm VFX to remain active if you fast traveled from within the storm. [*] Adjusted player position after entering Malek’s Menagerie to ensure that the camera is not clipping into the wall or floor during Ceza's intro conversation. [*] Added missing kill volumes in Black Rot Chasm. [*] Slight geometry adjustments near the Black Rot Chasm boss arena so that some out of bounds areas no longer appear traversable. [*] Fixed issue that would cause the Ishular fountain puzzle to lock if the game was saved while a piece was rotating. [*] Added prompt to teleport to the bottom of Atnael's boss room after defeating him (you can also just jump if you'd like. Fall damage is disabled on that drop!). [*] Improved performance in Crumbling Basilica by adjusting how the hordes of Deprived are spawned. [*] Slight color adjustment to the Ruined Settlement flowers to help differentiate them from Starspire's flowers for quest clarity purposes. [*] Fixed issue that would leave a tiny Aura spawned at Ruined Settlement. [/list] [b]Quests[/b] [list] [*] Updated and added journal entries for better clarity on some quest steps. [*] Added additional clarifications to quests to indicate where NPCs are located within Starspire Refuge. [*] Added a prompt before entering Ishular if any sidequest chains that will fail are active. [*] Fixed an issue that could cause "An Honored Bond" to not trigger after completing Radix Stronghold. [*] Fixed a case that would cause Sir Gideon to not properly save his location during "A Fruitful Experience", resulting in a soft-lock. [*] The player will no longer be locked out of one of the Coveted Fragments in Flare Florge if you die or fast travel out of the Erudition Phantom encounter. [*] Minor adjustments to the sequence of events at Flare Forge if you side with Pleonexis to prevent potentially skipping the quest reward. [*] Adjusted the appearance of the secret wall in Lost Laboratory during “Remains of Redemption” to be slightly more distinct from other walls. [*] Fixed issue that would cause Hillson to stay in his state from "The Festival of the Spire" even after completing the quest. [*] Fixed soft-lock that would occur during “Scions and Succession” after defeating the Hashara Princess if you died or respawned before picking up the Abeyant Ovum and/or Rakky's Sigil. [*] Fixed state that would cause Kauzzum to become invulnerable during his boss fight in “What Lies Ahead”. [*] Updated interactions with the Ishulari Giant to add additional clarity on the source for the Broken Astrolabe. [*] Updated progression of "In Search of Providence" to clear up confusion on how to activate the elevator in the boss room. [*] Reworked progression at the Colossus of Radiance to still allow the puzzle to be solved if "A Fortunate Gesture" has failed. [*] Fixed sequence break during “A Fortunate Gesture”. [*] Fixed state that would cause Calder to not spawn in Crumbling Basilica after completing “In Search of Providence”. [*] Alaira can now be found at the Crumbling Basilica if you reach the endgame without completing her quests. [*] Added additional dialogue to Mentes to warn players of the consequences of visiting Aura at the Ruined Settlement before speaking with him. [*] Fixed state that would cause Mentes to try and summon the player even after a point of no return was reached. [/list] [b]Items[/b] [list] [*] The Bellwether Key will now be removed from the player's inventory once it has no more uses. [*] Adjusted conditions so that the Broken Blade can no longer be picked up after completing "A Smile of Hatred". [*] The Ferrum Helms collected during "A Smile of Hatred" will now be removed from your inventory upon completing the quest. [*] Updated Hirath's Sigil to use the correct version of the icon. [*] Quest items from "Scions and Succession" will now be properly cleaned up so that they no longer remain in your inventory after being used. [*] Fixed issue where Rakky's Sigil and Hirath's Sigil were not removed from the player's inventory after completing “A Natural Effect”. [*] Lore items will no longer despawn at The Colossus of Radiance before the puzzle is completed. [*] Disabled certain items that could soft-lock progress if used during the final boss encounters. [*] Changed wording on Stalwart talisman to clarify its functionality [*] Changed functionality of Dust Fall talisman to negate any fall damage that wouldn’t have killed you if you were at full health [*] Removed parry damage bonus from 1 Handed Stabbing fighting style description as it was outdated [*] Fixed bug causing Spellblades to not be upgradable if you had the exact required amount of glint [*] Rebalanced the value provided by armor and health runes to require more investment to hit the cap for those stats [*] Changed Galina’s inventory upgrades to sell large quantities of lower tier Sacrumite once she begins selling limited quantities of higher tier Sacrumite [*] Removed the ambient sound from the Radiation pommel effect [*] Increased the damage percent gained from the Assassins armor effect [*] Changed wording on Assassins armor effect to clarify its functionality [/list] [b]Dialogue[/b] [list] [*] Added additional clarification to Furn's dialogue during “Remains of Redemption”. [*] Fixed issue that would cause Calder's dialogue to try and trigger even if he wasn't present at Ishular. [*] Fixed state causing Pember's endgame dialogue to fail to play, which would cause the player to become rotation-locked until another dialogue was started. [/list] [b]Enemies [/b] [list] [*] Fixed bug causing Deflectors armor effect to negate all damage from Einar’s frost orb projectiles [*] Changed functionality of the Hashara Princess handmaids to spawn only once but be tougher to kill during the Hashara Princess boss fight [*] Reduced damage of human enemies special attacks [*] Atnael will now move to the center of the platform before performing his scythe pull in attack [*] The Hashara Hive Guard will now destroy his rock walls if he loses his target and doesn’t gain a new one within a specific duration [*] Made improvements to the Melgom boss fight[list] [*] He ensures he is on the platform and not very far from the player before performing his curved laser attack [*] He teleports to the center of the platform and performs a callout as he begins his cosmic collapse attack [*] The portals that appear in the arena won’t automatically teleport the player if they spawn on top of you. They also have a spawn visual effect for 2 seconds before becoming active[/list] [*]Made improvements to the Maveth boss fight[list] [*] Fixed bug causing Maveth to teleport outside his arena in rare cases [*] Changed functionality of his spawn tentacles attack to each tentacle reducing the players max health but also generating corruption for them [*] Removed his push back attack [*] Added a new arena wide mechanic where waves of corruption will spawn from the corruption pools around the arena and travel across the arena damaging the player if they touch them[/list] [*] Updated animations and models of the following enemies: [u]Swordsman Husk[/u] [list][*] Attack combo 1 [*] Attack combo 2 [*] Lunge Slash [*] Sprint Slash [*] Rapid attack [/list][u]Spearman Husk[/u] [list][*] Quick jab [*] Slow Stab [*] Shield Bash [/list][u]Ferrum Swordsman[/u] [list] [*] Double Slash [/list][u]Gourd Claw[/u] [list][*] Claw Attack [*] Attack Combo [/list][u]Hashara Elite[/u] [list][*] Lunge attack [/list][u]Maveth[/u] [list][*] Tentacle idle [*] Tentacle thickness [*] Tentacles emerge and vanish[/list][/list] [b]Interface[/b] [list] [*] Added more info to Save slots for hard mode [*] Added an option to increase the size of text in the gameplay options [*] Added an option to have a separate button for dodge and sprint [*] Made a change so that the quest updates and item displays or other pop-ups don't overlap [*] Added the current equipped weapons to show on the combat HUD and give an indicator of which weapon is currently active in the inventory [*] Added a Randomize button in character creation [*] Updated a few armor textures that had some visual issues [*] Added the name to NPC’s on the interact UI so you can see their name before entering the dialogue. [*] Added a link to the wiki on the main menu [/list] We will continue to monitor your feedback and continue to work to make improvements to Sands of Aura. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy what we have worked on in this update. And if you haven’t already, please join our [url=https://discord.com/invite/emU5UWv ]Discord[/url], follow us on our [url=https://twitter.com/sandsofaura]Socials[/url], and please leave us a Review on [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1119840/Sands_of_Aura/]Steam[/url] to let us know what you think! Thank you for playing! - [b]Chashu Entertainment[/b]