Version 1.7

Can you imagine if Version 1.7 came out? No need. The update goes live roughly 30 minutes after the posting of this devlog.
QOL? Yes! Balance tweaks? You know it! Bug fixes? Of course! Something extra special and rare? You didn't hear it from me... But yes.

Let's talk about balance
Balance is a tough thing to get right in a game like this. Things are going to fluctuate and change in response to how people play, and whether or not things work the way that I'd like to. I haven't been very satisfied with the difficulty curve in the high-tier areas of the game for a while, so they've been revisited. To be clear, 'difficulty' in this context refers specifically to how fast you can fill the progress bar. The numbers were set right at the beginning of the project, and as new features have come out that contribute to player power, the zones have slowly grown further and further from the intended progression. The aim here is not to make the game "harder" or even "longer", the aim is that each area feels like a smooth progression from the area that came before it. There should be a smooth curve in "progression time" rather than random spikes and valleys like there was.

The table below explains exactly what has changed, but if you want the short version: The progression between areas should feel smoother. This mean some areas have been made 'harder', and some have been made 'easier'.

In order to fully understand this table, you need to understand how an area works. When you visit an area (Let's say Volcano), an invisible number is set (for Volcano, this number was 500,000), and that is the amount of power that you need to 'contribute' in order to fill the bar. Whenever you press the grind button (or autogrind), you will contribute your current gear power, plus or minus any relevant modifiers, like pets. So if you are wearing full Epic gear, which has a power of 2,560, you would need to press the button 196 times to fill the bar in the Volcano.

Some of these numbers may seem quite harsh, but I'd urge you to play the game and try it out for yourself before dismissing this as just an attempt to lengthen the game. Things like Steed benefits and charms scale quite high into the late game, and this is an attempt to stop them from so easily trivializing the late game.

Additionally, the way that the Crucible calculates its desired gear has been changed. Originally, it's numbers were flat and static (They didn't change as you got higher in Ascension). Now, they update based on your Ascension level. The formula for this is (Base Number * (1 + (Ascensions * 0.1)). Essentially, this means that for every 10 ascensions you have, the Crucible will require double it's original demand.

Major Feature Update:

• Rebalanced grinding areas, and re-balanced post-ascension Crucible

Minor Feature Update:

• A little something extra special: Today's update brings a fun little addition to the game. I'm not going to detail exactly what it is in this devlog, but I can say that a new collectible has been introduced to the game. It is quite rare, and will be an immense source of prestige for those of you that do come across it. This new collectible is not required for any kind of game progression, and it entirely cosmetic. The one hint that I'll give you is that Magma Corgi may yet have a use, even after you've found all of the pets.

Tweaks:

• The Monolith will now crack if clicked persistently. This will cause it to go dormant for a while, and not provide its bonuses.
• Bunny now saves all of your mana
• Changed the donation button text (It shouldn't have said what it said previously)
• Monolith toggle now works as intended
• The triggered effect of Chronos and Scorpion now override each other

Bug Fixes:

• Warbler is now correctly referred to as a "Legendary" gift
• Bunny now correctly describes what it says in it's info screen
• The pet screen should now show the correct page when you open the game
• Fixed a bug that caused a title related to pets to not be unlockable
• Fixed a bug with the Title Completion bar
• Fixed a bug that caused the ending cutscene to not behave as expected
• Players who have "Pet Activation" toggled off in Loot Log Filtering will no longer be alerted when their Scorpion frenzy ends

1.71 Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused the Monolith appear earlier than normal
• Hopefully fixed a bug that caused the pet quick menu to not open
• Fixed the quest window showing the wrong window