Release 2.1

# Release 2.1 – Premium Shoppe

## New Feature: Premium Shoppe

We have a new feature for our most dedicated of players: the Premium Shoppe! This shop is available to players once they have received duplicate trap cards after reaching Tier 7. When this occurs, these duplicates will be converted to Gibs. Gibs can be spent in the Premium Shoppe on chests that have better odds for rare cards, exclusive vanity items, and more!

## New Feature: Account Vanity

Players can now customize their in-game avatar and new background art to personalize the dashboard appearance. This can be done by clicking the account background in the top right corner of the dashboard and selecting from the available options. Additional avatars and backgrounds are available in the Premium Shoppe.

## New Mercenary: Gnoll Breeder

This mercenary breeds teacup gnolls and trains them to attack heroes. Kill him quickly or he will keep releasing his teacup gnolls!

## New Sabotage Map: Falling Folly

Falling Folly is now available in Sabotage.

## New Sabotage Consumables

* **Ability Disable Spell:** disables a random enemy hero's abilities.
* **Drain Unchained Spell:** drain the enemy teams' Unchained meters over time.
* **Crogon Hatchlings:** summons a large army of small crogon hatchlings that spit health-draining and slowing poison at heroes that can stack up to 8x.

## New: Additional Base Deck Consumables

Players can now expand the base deck of consumables by completing achievements or purchasing them in the store. Additional base deck consumables are not stronger than other consumables, but they do have unlimited charges like other base deck consumables. They have updated card art, and minions and bosses also have updated in-game skins. We've made a special effort to make both the cards and skins look as cool as possible* **Scroll of the Unchained** – Obtained by using Scroll of the Unchained 200x.
* **Summon Tubifore** – Obtained by using Summon Tubifore 100x.
* **Summon Swiftyhooves** - Obtained by using Summon Swiftyhooves 150x.
* **The Bomb Spell** – Obtained by using The Bomb Spell 50x.
* **Unstable Rift Spell** - Obtained by using Unstable Rift Spell 75x.
* **Kobold Pups** - Obtained by using Kobold Pups 25x.
* **Mercenary for Hire Spell** - Obtained by using the Mercenary for Hire Spell 125x.
* **Bulgod** – Purchased in the Store.
* **Mountain Trolls** – Purchased in the Store.
* **Ogre Spudge Spell** – Purchased in the Store.

## General:

* In solo games, players have twice as much time during go-breaks.
* Minions now have 10% less health in solo play and 5% less health in duo play.
* Restricted Section (war mage), Crogon Keep (war mage), Stables of Eventide (war mage and master), and Falling Folly (master) have been made easier.
* Throne Room (apprentice and war mage) has been made slightly more challenging.
* Par times have been made significantly easier in apprentice and war mage difficulties.
* Most apprentice maps have been made more challenging for 3 players.
* Cliffside Clash (master) has been made easier for solo and duo players.
* Mercenaries' difficulty now scales with map level.
* Mercenary health and damage lowered by 30%.
* Players can now cancel their daily Sabotage quest for a quest that requires Survival games instead.  This alternative quest will reward 75 experience.

## Art and Sound:

* Heroes will now play defeat animations upon losing in Sabotage.
* When heroes use their dance animation, they will now dance until stopped, rather than only playing their animation once.
* The orcs have learned many new vocal reactions.

## Sabotage:

* Sabotage game rewards have been increased. Players will receive more XP and skulls per match.
* Sabotage will no longer re-balance when players leave. Unfortunately, this is a better alternative than having players intentionally leave matches to gain a competitive advantage.
* "Summon Kobolds" now summons 12 kobolds (down from 16).
* Early waves have been made easier on Restricted Section and Banquet Hall in Sabotage.
* Later waves have been made more difficult on Throne Room, Orcri-La, and Baths in Sabotage.
* Sabotage matchmaking will now pick easier maps than before.
* The ranking system has been updated for Sabotage.  Players will need to replay their placement matches.  However, their previous progress will not be lost.  In general, this will result in a higher rank than before.

## Endless Mode:

* Difficulty now scales with player count.
* Now spawns Mercs in the repeating (later) waves.

>
>  *Developer Comment: Previously, we intentionally encouraged group play by
>  making Endless not scale with player count. However, the majority of players
>  play Endless solo anyway, so we have decided to re-evaluate this decision.
>  Sabotage has opened up additional avenues for group play making non-scaling*
>
> *not as important.*
>
>

## User Interface:

* Video playback now loads much more quickly in the launcher.
* Unit keywords have been added to the card backs of all Sabotage minion consumables.
* The leaderboard score calculation is now broken down on the post-game screen.
* Some Weavers have been streamlined to be shorter and easier to read. No balance changes have been made.
* The tactical map in Sabotage now shows the area of staves your team has placed.

## Hero Design:

**Bionka:**

* Damage reduced significantly.
* Make Dem Stop weaver upgrade now slows by 40%, rather than stunning.

**Bloodspike:**

* Increased Brutal Axe's damage by 16%.
* Increased Maiming Blow's damage by 10%.
* Increased Health by 8%.

>
>  *Developer Comment: We are considering larger-scale changes for the
>  future, but in the mean time, we want to make sure that Bloodspike is*
>
> *dealing enough damage and is hardy enough in battle.*
>
>

 **Dobbin:**

* Rich Vein Weaver upgrade to coin bags lowered to 1.5x coin (from 2x).

>
>  *Developer Comment: This weaver upgrade is mandatory and by far the best
>  option as it stands.*
>
>
>
>

 **Cygnus:**

* Damage increased by 12%.
* Rift Shard cooldown decreased to 30 seconds (from 35).

>
>  *Developer Comment: Cygnus has fallen behind in damage, win rate, and*
>
> *play numbers. We think a buff is warranted here.*
>
>

 **Hogarth:**

* Reduced the mana cost of all of his abilities by 15%.

**Midnight:**

* Prowl now costs 15 mana to activate.
* Prowl mana cost per second reduced to 10 (from 13).
* Prolonged Prowl Weaver upgrade now removes the activation cost, rather than reducing the sustained mana cost.

>
>  *Developer Comment: We didn't wish to change how powerful Midnight is,
>  but we did want playing Midnight to require a little more thought as far*
>
> *as when to use Prowl.*
>
>

 **Oziel:**

* Damage increased by 10%.

**Ivy:**

* Modified "Natural Knack" weaver to provide 25% cooldown reduction, rather than 4 seconds of cooldown reduction. This results in a small nerf to up-time during normal play and a large nerf to up-time when stacking cooldown reduction.

**Tundra:**

* Modified "Freezer Burn" weaver to provide 3% cooldown reduction per projectile hit, rather than 2 seconds.

## Minions:

* **Dynamite Archers:**
	+ Increased the collision area of the dynamite, making them easier to detonate by shooting them. This does not affect their radius for hitting heroes.

## Traps:

* **Boulder Chute and Icicle Impaler:**
	+ Damage no longer scales with distance.
	+ Now deals significantly more base damage.
	> *Developer Comment: The requirement to manually fire the trap is what makes this trap unique. However, this trap also needs to be placed on high ceilings to be effective. This makes them too conditional to use. We are okay if these traps remain fairly niche for those that enjoy a power boost from manually firing the traps, but we felt there should be more incentive to use them.*
	>
	>
* **Ice Vent:**
	+ Number of charges increased by 25%.
	> *Developer Comment: This trap should be a core part of ice killboxes, but its performance is currently underwhelming, hence the change.*
	>
	>
* **Cursed Ground:**
	+ Now ticks 12% faster
	> *Developer Comment: Ever since we increased minion speed, this trap has fallen behind in usage. This should help this trap gain an extra hit on enemies.*
	>
	>

## Guardians & Big Game Hunting Traps:

* Now have a damage cap for rare, high-damage situations.

## Additional Bug Fixes:

* Fixed a bug where Hunters could attack players from further away than intended.
* Fixed a bug where minions could be knocked through the wall using triggered maces on Throne Room.
* Kinetic Reclaimer and Heat Activated Trigger's internal cooldowns behave properly.
* The trigger volume for Overload Trap has been corrected.
* Temple Alarm Gong is now properly resisted by Earth Elementals.
* Fixed several issues with melee attacks missing or feeling unresponsive.
* Many achievement bugs have been resolved.
* Fixed a bug where dancing was not dispelled by Freedom Trinket.
* Fixed many minions' vocal reactions.
* Fixed an issue where too many minions would spawn in Sabotage sudden death.
* Mercs will no longer die when spawning.
* Mercs now have anti-stuck behavior when they spawn.
* Fixed an issue that prevented receiving Stinkeye's Tears of Oasis on barricades.
* Several descriptions have been updated for consistency and clarity, without any functional changes.
* Guardians now display their unique skills rather than their at home benefits.
* Added a pop-up dialogue when players fail to connect to the post game stats screen.