The long awaited Act 4 is finally here, just in time to dive into Hell at Halloween time! The Act 4 update is now available to be downloaded in the Beta Branch, where we will be testing and refining as we work towards a stable release. There are still a few things we will be expanding on or adding with this act, but we are excited to get this release out to everyone to play with the new content and give feedback. Come and join the community on our discord at https://discord.gg/m9MAfrP if you haven't already! [h3]How do I download the Beta Branch?[/h3] Opting into a Beta branch is easy on Steam. Simply right click Time Break Chronicles in your Library, select Properties, and then click "Betas." From there you can select the Beta branch from the dropdown, and Steam will download the files for you. You do not need to enter a beta access code. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38550877/a93e5740569a2a0700bc7d1ef57b1a0637f65f11.png[/img] [h2]Changelog for version 0.5.0b[/h2] There's quite a bit of new content for you to explore in this update. We'll separate it out below, into a few categories. [h3]New Content[/h3] [list] [*] A new act, with new enemy types, relics, encounters, and continuation of Claire's story [*] A new form for Claire to unlock after completing Act 3 [*] A new Time Break tech to discover [*] 14 new heroes to find and unlock, bringing the total available to 75! [*] New heroes also added as unlocks in Singularity mode [/list] [h3]Balance Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Changed town Temple Relic Enchanting upgrades to make relic-granted skills lv 2 and 3 [*] Relic-granted skills in Singularity mode always level 3 [*] Angel's Wing relic now activates when at critical HP, instead of when you would be downed [*] Frozen Claire's Snow Drone now has lv 3 Blizzard [*] Blizzard skill updated with better description, and improved its targeting to more evenly spread its hits around [*] Reworked Siren's Lullaby, Hypnotic Presence, and Shell Charm relic to make her sleep damage more easily maintainable in any team [*] Blitz Stance skill (Linebacker) no longer starts activated, and bonuses reduced [*] Enemy Warm Up skill (also granted by Forge Emblem relic) is now a Bonus Action [*] Samurai's Sword Spirit skills reworked [*] Cursed's Extinguished Soul MP value increased by 150 [*] General's Command skill now charges over time [*] Generals Strategize skill levels reworked [*] Dark Knight's Eclipse and Darkblade reworked to better work with new mechanics [*] Caleb's Malice relic now reflects all damage types, instead of just attacks [*] Ionizer relic's damage is now piercing [*] Wraith and related Mirror Image skill reworked somewhat [*] Frenzy skill (Super Soldier, Viking) is now a bonus action instead of giving a free turn [*] Consecrate skill (various heroes) reworked [*] Medic's Amputate and Syrette skills reworked [*] Woodsman's Chop skill now has bonus effects at lv 2 and 3 [*] Plague Doctor's Plague skill now ignore resist stacks [*] Protect skill levels reworked [*] Act 1 hunting mission base enemy level increased by 1 [*] Improved general enemy AI so they will always use Bonus Actions when available, and improved some skill priority AI [*] Dominator enemy's Soul Nexus skill now also absorbs speed [*] Increased base enemy Max HP a bit, based on how much they are over the base level [*] Instability growth rate increased a bit [/list] [h3]Bug Fixes/Other[/h3] [list] [*] Added an improved animation for healing items, that shows the item being used [*] Improved shader/animation effect on water maps in Act 3 [*] Added a "burning" status text effect when a character is affected by fire DoT, and fixed some fire DoT skills not having a burning effect on the target [*] Fixed last hero pack heroes being unavailable as starters after they are rescued in Singularity mode [*] Fixed bug where Blacksmith's Temper skill added an unintended Toughness buff [*] Fixed Claire using laser hit sound when hitting with melee skills [*] Fixed hidden enemy being untargetable when it was the last enemy alive [*] Fixed summons not always properly following their summoner after summoner was shifted [*] Fixed some possible infinite loop bugs related to Holy Shield and Spellscreen healing effects [*] Fixed a few issues with character sprite alpha not being reset properly when dealing with hiding/showing overlapping sprites in battle [*] Fixed Holy Shield skill not making a sound when hit [*] Fixed Stances and Alcohol skills being dispellable [*] Fixed Priestess' Blessing effect being stealable [*] Fixed Frost Shield skill showing BLOCKED text over the caster instead of the affected target [*] Fixed Strange Spores' forced fight effect always targeting the same ally [*] Fixed possible rare crash related to enemy Pollen skills [*] Fixed possible crash when using Grenade skill in certain encounter situations [*] Fixed some handling of confuse[*]related effects [*] Fixed skill point icon being visible without any skill points in battle status menu [*] Fixed several instances of possible memory leak issues, and improved caching of ui elements to improve performance in some areas [*] Various typo fixes [/list] Finally, as mentioned, there are a few things to be aware of that are remaining to be finished up in future patches: [list] [*] There is one more hero who is not quite ready for release [*] Act 4 bosses do not yet grant unique relics on defeat [*] Act 4 endless mode difficulty modifiers have not all been defined yet, though each tier is playable and enemy levels do increase. [*] Steam achievements have been added for the Act 4 bosses, but hero rescue achievements will not be added until the stable release. These achievements can be awarded retroactively once they are added. [*] Some of the new hero relics currently have stand-in art. [*] New hero lore/backstory blurb content has not been added yet. [*] For Singularity, the new heroes are available to unlock, but the new enemy encounters will be added in a future patch, along with a bit of change to the tiers to fit them in. [/list] Patches will likely be coming fairly regularly in the coming weeks as we get the additional content done and respond to bug reports, etc. We'd love to get your feedback, bug reports, and anything else you'd like to share with the community on our discord at https://discord.gg/m9MAfrP as we polish up this release. Thanks to everyone who has already participated!