Release 1.6

# Release 1.6 – Patch Notes

> that you’re about to play. From the newly overhauled moment-to-moment action and
> trap strategy to item collection and player progression, the changes should be
> immediately obvious to you.
>
>
> With these changes, we’ve tried to bring back that OMD feeling. With that
> said, our players are our best judges of our success, and as always, we want to
> hear from you. What do you like? What do you feel still needs improvement? Give
> the new update a go and let us know what you think!
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
>
>
> **Chris Rippy
> VP of Production, Robot Entertainment**
>
>
>

Important Note:
## Account Resets

**An account reset has occurred in order to deal with Siege’s removal.
Players have been refunded all gold that they have purchased. DLC and bundles
are being refunded with their value in gold plus an additional 50%.  For
a full accounting of what content will carry over and what gold will be
refunded, please read here.**

New Battleground:
## Eventide Ramparts

Eventide Fortress, aka "Surrounded," has been divided up into three new maps
with new enemies and new challenges. The Eventide Ramparts represents the south
eastern wall of the fortress. With multiple doors and paths, watch out for
unexpected attacks and use your barricades wisely.

## New Battleground: Training Grounds

Bionka trains only the most formidable of her warriors in the grueling
conditions of her Training Grounds. Protect them by fighting both the Order and
the elements. Remember to conserve your coin and watch your trap cap for when
the third door opens.

## New Battleground: The Falling Folly

High in the clouds, this tower is crumbling under the onslaught of attacks
against it. A simple map with two doors, two guardian spots, and steep
stairways, make sure to bring physics traps to make your enemies take the quick
way down.

## New Battleground: Stables at Eventide

Because of Eventide Fortress's strategic significance as the capital's main
port, the enemies of the Territories Humaine are trying any way they can to get
in--even the fortress's stables. With two potential fronts, one of which is very
close to the rift room, players must find innovative ways to kill their enemies
before they find their way to the rift.

## New Battleground: Academy Sewers

Sneaking into the Order Academy is hard. Many believe the best way to do it
is through the sewers. "Best" may be an overstatement. "Smelliest" may be more
accurate. In either case, bring some physics traps and don't let the Order flush
you out!

## New Battleground: Thuricvod Village

The subterranean city of Thuricvod has recently been unearthed from the
Shifted Sands. The calamity that buried it has also flooded it with lava, so
remember to bring your physics traps, barricades, and boom barrels and to make
use of the dwarves' ingenious environmental traps.

## New Battleground: Docks at Eventide

Most of the goods that supply the Order come through Eventide Fortress's
docks. Unfortunately, pirates want a piece of the Order's sweet, sweet booty.
Protect Eventide and tell those pirates to keep their hands--and hooks--to
themselves. This map features many opportunities for physics traps as well as
dock guardians.

## New Battleground: Storm Drain

Storm the massive drainage system of the capital of the Territories Humaine.
Beware of the Order as it tries to wash you out. Bring your physics traps and
wall traps, but beware that your barricades may not help you much!

## New Battleground: Temple Cemetery

The Unchained have defiled the Riftmaker's Temple cemetery on their visit,
and its undead residents are not amused. Use your barricades to funnel the
Unchained into their spooky grasp, and they'll make their visit permanent.

Classic Battleground Returns: Gates of
## Thuricvod (Corridor)

Feel the heat in the newly unearthed ruins of Thuricvod. Bring your physics
traps to send your enemies for a refreshing dip in hot, boiling lava. It's a
short trip from the gates to your rift, so be sure to think about your barricade
strategy.

New Feature:
## Prologue

Players now play through 5 missions to build their starter deck and unlock
the remainder of the game.

## New Feature: Weekly Challenges

Weekly challenges are a new game mode played with a restricted set of heroes,
a pre-defined deck, and a modified ruleset. Players are rewarded with a chest if
they complete the challenge with its suggested heroes. In addition, obtaining 3
or 5 stars for the first time also results in a chest.

## New Feature: Survival Pass

Players can now purchase a Survival Pass to gain bonus XP and Skulls from
matches played.

## Update: Revamped Profile Screen

This is now the new home to guilds. In addition, a new overview screen has
been added, showing basic account statistics and upcoming rewards. We will
expand the profile significantly over time.

Update:
## Visual Effects Overhaul

We have made minion deaths, trap effects, and reactions bigger and better so
that they feel more like OMD2. These changes are designed to improve the
moment-to-moment excitement and power that the player feels while playing.

## Update: Physics Traps Overhaul

We have dramatically overhauled the code behind physics traps.  The physics
should be more realistic, more reliable and more fun. For example, physics traps
no longer deal damage initially.  Instead, they now deal damage when the minion
hits a surface after flying through the air. This makes it much more likely for
comedic collisions and elaborate deaths to occur.

## Update: Hero Overhaul

We have redesigned every single hero in the game to better support Survival
gameplay. This means all new abilities, balance, and weaver upgrades have
changed. **See below for more detailed changes.**

## New Trap:

* **Trip Wire:** This trap costs 1,500 coin and fires once
 before being destroyed. When a minion walks over this trap, it fires all
 other nearby traps.
* **Temple Alarm Gong:** This trap costs 1,000 coin and stuns
 nearby minions when triggered.

## New Traits:

* **Fire Sale:** Reduces the cost of fire traps by 15%.
* **Insane Arcane Sale:** Reduces the cost of arcane traps by
 15%.
* **Lightning Deals:** Reduces the cost of lightning traps by
 15%.
* **Smashing Deals:** Reduces the cost of physical traps by
 15%.
* **Bear Hugs:** Hero deals 8% bonus damage to nearby
 minions.
* **Killer Buzz:** Every time a hero kills a minion, the hero
 gains an 8% damage boost for 3 seconds. Buff does not stack.
* **Paging Dr. Love:** Increases your hero's healing power by
 12%.
* **Extra Padding:** Dealing damage to any enemy provides
 your hero with a 12% damage reduction boost for 3 seconds.
* **Attention Deficit:** Reduces incoming CC effects by 40%.
* **Respect My Authority:** Increases your hero's CC power by
 15%.
* **Rift Away:** Grants 30% bonus damage against unstable
 rifts.
* **Rift Gift:** Killing an unstable rift fully restores your
 hero's health and mana.
* **Rift Rocket:** Killing an unstable rift gives your hero a
 50% speed boost.
* **Over Protective:** Traps near your hero take 25% less
 damage.
* **Never Pays Retail:** Never Pays Retail: Reduces hero
 respawn buy back costs by 25%.
* **Moneybags:** Gain 250 coin at the start of every wave
* **Overachiever:** Start the game with 500 XP

## New Minions:

* **Fire Fiends:** These wily elemental demons come in light,
 medium, heavy, warlock, and fast variants and are resistant to fire but
 susceptible to ice damage.
* **Stilt Orcs:** A new orc unit that avoids damage-dealing
 floor traps. Physics traps and movement speed debuffs still affect them.

## New Bosses:

* **Mr. Moneybags:** This new boss scores no rift points but
 drops 5,000 coin if killed.
* **Commander Tower:** A new boss with a wide directional
 shield that blocks all attacks.

## New Trap Parts:

* **Subsidized Parts:** Reduces the build cost of traps by
 10% and provides 500 coin at the start of each match.
* **Rental Parts:** Reduces build cost by 50%, but the trap
 auto-sells after 60 seconds.
* **Vanity Plating:** Increases build cost, but trap
 generates XP trickle for your hero.
* **Self-Improving Coil:** Reduces trap cooldown each wave by
 3%, up to a max of 30%.
* **Discount Coil:** Increases the cooldown of the trap by
 10%, but reduces its cost by 25%.
* **Reflective Armor:** 50% of damage done to this trap is
 reflected in an area.
* **Bounty Generator:** Minions moving through this trap have
 their coin reward increased by 1% permanently.
* **Combo Generator:** Minions moving through this trap
 generate +2 combo points while on the field.
* **Kinetic Reclaimer:** Grants a 10% chance for this trap to
 instantly reset when any minion is thrown into it, regardless of cooldown.
* **Crowd Control Trigger:** Trap is only triggered if 3 or
 more minions are within its area at the same time.
* **Ambush Trigger:** Trap is only triggered by minions with
 more than 75% health.
* **Execution Trigger:** Trap is only triggered by minions
 with less than 25% health.
* **Debilitation Resonator:** Minions damaged by this trap
 have their physical armor reduced by 50 for 2 seconds.
* **Kinetic Resonator:** Minions damaged by this trap are
 slowed by 10% for 2 seconds.

## UI:

* Players can now invite others to their guild from chat.
* Players can now invite others to their party from the friends list.
* Cards are now automatically added to your deck until it is full.
 At this point, the deck editor will become unlocked, allowing you to
 customize deck contents.
* Damage/Coin Flyoffs have been redesigned.
* Barricades are now shown on the minimap.

## Settings:

* Controllers can now be bound in the keybinding menu.
* Keyboards, mice, and controllers now support binding any combination of
 keys or buttons to a command.
* The video menu now contains an option, “Change Monitor” that allows
 players with multiple monitors to set which monitor the game will display on
 when the game starts.

## Meta Game:

* All players now own Maximilian, Gabriella, and Blackpaw. There is no
 longer a free hero rotation, but additional heroes can be purchased from the
 store with either gold or skulls.
* All materials except skulls and gold have been removed.
* Players now tier-up traps by collecting duplicates of that trap. When
 the player has collected enough duplicates, they can spend skulls to upgrade
 the trap to the next tier.
* We have now created four new tiers of gameplay (Apprentice, War Mage,
 Master, and Rift Lord). There are multiple battlegrounds within each tier
 and each battleground is of similar difficulty.
* Players can unlock harder difficulties by reaching the required account
 level associated with each difficulty.
* Each difficulty has a unique chest associated with it. For example, War
 Mage difficulty drops War Mage chests. Higher difficulty chests drop more
 cards and more card types.
* Players now earn chests in five ways:
	1. By obtaining 3 stars in a battleground or weekly challenge for the
	 first time.
	2. By obtaining 5 stars in a battleground or weekly challenge for the
	 first time.
	3. By beating a battleground or weekly challenge for the first time
	 with each hero.
	4. By completing quests.
	5. Through daily log-in rewards.
	6. By buying chests in the store.
* Vanity chests are now sold in the store. Vanity chests contain a skin or
 dye. The contents of each vanity chest are new visible in the store. Keep an
 eye on the store as we add new chests from time to time.
* Account levels and trap tiers provide smaller bonuses, but scale better
 with play.
* Downscaling has been removed.

> *Developer Comment: Because the difference between a level 1 and*
>
>  *100 player is less significant, we no longer need downscaling. We made this**change so that players could play a wider range of content at any one time.*
>
>

## General Gameplay:

* Unstable rifts added. At Master level difficulty and above, players will
 occasionally encounter unstable rifts. These are small rifts that appear at
 different locations and at unexpected times. These unstable rifts spawn a
 small wave of minions or even a boss. Players are warned when an unstable
 rift appears, giving players a short time to attack and destroy it before it
 spawns additional enemies. If a team or player fails to destroy the unstable
 rift while it is spawning, it will open and allow an additional enemy army
 to enter the battleground and attack.
* Enemy heroes now deal less damage.
* Rift lightning has been removed.
* Traps no longer have a build time.
* Traps can now only be sold during go breaks and between waves.
* Traps now always resell for full value.
* Guardians have significantly more health in later levels.
* The camera has been zoomed in significantly to put players closer to the
 action and their traps.
* Respawn times have been reduced significantly.
* Buyback costs for instant respawn have been increased significantly.

> *Developer Comments: Buybacks were pretty cheap relative to the*
>
>  *amount of time it saved players. On the flip side, being dead for extremely
>  long periods of time wasn’t very fun. We have compressed death times and the
>  amount of time saved from buying back to create more interesting and less
>  frustrating decisions.*
>
>
>
>

## Managing Barricades:

* Minions can now deal “collateral damage” to barricades like they did in
 OMD2.  Don’t fight with your heroes too close to barricades.
* Barricade rubble time reduced to 10 seconds from 30.
* Barricades now show up on the minimap.
* Kamikaze Kobolds now damage nearby minions when killed.
* Battlegrounds no longer randomize minion portals.
* Many minions now have visual and auditory effects that better indicate
 their presence. For example, Kamikaze Kobolds now glow brightly and have
 associated sound effects.

> *Developer Comments: While poking holes in barricades adds needed*
>
>  *gameplay tension, we weren’t happy with how unpredictable it was. We have
>  added more ways for players to defend against barricade destruction while
>  also reducing burst damage to barricades. To compensate, we added more
>  sustained forms of barricade damage like “collateral damage.”*
>
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## Endless:

* When players unlock a new difficulty, they now also unlock a
 corresponding Endless level.
* Playing no longer requires keystones.
* Matches are now balanced around 3 players.
* Minions now gain health and damage every wave rather than every couple
 of waves. This minimizes the feeling of large spontaneous jumps in
 difficulty. Furthermore, the previous system's scaling kicked in after 20
 waves, so the game was super easy for 20 waves before becoming challenging.
 Now content scales more gradually.

## Hero Design:

* Many heroes can now move and attack more freely.
* The jump penalty has been removed.
* Hit bloom has been reduced universally.
* All ranged heroes now have significantly less health. Players should be
 more careful when fighting enemies at close range while playing a ranged
 hero.
* In general, heroes have shifted towards single target damage and away
 from area damage.
* Heroes no longer have health regeneration. However, far more healing
 potions will now drop.

* **Maximilian:**
	+ In Your Faces now deals tremendous initial target damage, but
	 less area damage.
	+ Attack rate doubled, damage halved.
	+ Absolutely Stunning Bolt stun time increased to 2 seconds from 1.25.

* **Gabriella:**
	+ Kinetic Pulse now knocks down minions.
	+ Passive changed so that Gabriella regains mana when she is damaged.
	+ Primary attack damage greatly increased.

* **Blackpaw:**
	+ Cooldowns reduced significantly.
	+ Summoned gnolls now deal far more damage and have far more health.
	+ All of his attacks now hit in an area.

* **Ivy:**
	+ Cooldowns lowered dramatically.
	+ Penetrating Arrow now knocks down enemies.

* **Hogarth:**
	+ Health increased dramatically.
	+ Now aggros far more enemies.
	+ Hogarth has a new passive called ANGRY! When Hogarth takes damage,
	 his attacks deal 1% more damage. This effect stacks up to 50 times.

* **Dobbin:**
	+ Coin bag drop rate increased significantly.

* **Cygnus:**
	+ Feign death removed.
	+ Pylon's abilities can now be activated with a limited duration.
	+ Mana shield removed.  Health increased.
	+ Old debuff removed.
	+ Mini-Rift no longer has rift lightning by default. Mini-rift is no
	 longer destroyed when it touches an enemy minion.
	+ Rift Lord passive now provides 100% increased damage near a rift, up
	 from 15%.

* **Stinkeye:**
	+ His attack totem is now much more powerful, but is now
	 destroyed after being attacked 3x.
	+ His speed totem can now be attacked and stuns nearby minions when
	 hit. It is destroyed after 3 hits.
	+ New Passive: Stinkeye spawns a totem at his location that attacks
	 the nearest totem when another totem is destroyed.

* **Bionka:**
	+ Sing-an-March removed.
	+ Health and damage increased significantly.
	+ Movement speed decreased.

* **Smolder:**
	+ Movement speed increased.

* **Midnight:**
	+ Stealth can now be used in combat and dramatically increases
	 movement speed.
	+ Snare replaced with dash, damaging all enemies in her path.
	+ New Passive: When Midnight uses an ability from stealth, she stuns
	 enemies hit.
	+ Damage increased significantly. Health lowered significantly.

* **Oziel:**
	+ Haunting Spirits now affects enemy minions and continuously spawns
	 spirits for several seconds.
	+ Oziel can now move in any direction at full speed, even while
	 firing!

* **Bloodspike:**
	+ Maiming Blow is now a line damage attack, rather than single target.
	+ Stunning Execution can now be used on enemies.
	+ Bloodbath stack limit has been increased dramatically.

* **Zoey:**
	+ Feebee’s Wrath cooldown has been reduced to 90 seconds from 180.

## Traps:

* Charge-based traps, such as Cursed Ground, Ice Vent, Brimstone, Fire
 Cracker, and Grinder now regenerate charges more quickly.
* Unique traps are no longer exclusive to a hero but now have “association
 bonuses” instead.  For example, the Arcane Bowling Ball now deals 25% more
 damage when used by Stinkeye.

## Consumables:

* Players may now purchase consumables with skulls.
* Effects granted by consumables now last longer.
* Consumables now have secondary effects, meaning potions now have two beneficial effects. These secondary effects last until the hero dies.

## Gear:

* Cooldowns reduced significantly.
* Now costs mana once again.
* Affects have been increased.

## Consumables:

* Players may now purchase consumables with skulls.
* Effects granted by consumables now last longer.

## Minions:

* Kobolds now ignore guardians again.
* Hunters now have significantly more health and damage.
* Archers now deal significantly more damage, but their projectiles are
 more visible and slower.
* Ogres will now charge the player but no longer stun.  Instead, they slow
 heroes by 80%.
* Many bosses will now aggro players again.

>
>  *Developer Comments: We have made these changes to create more
>  moment-to-moment gameplay. That being said, we do not want the game
>  harder. These changes work in tandem with waves being easier, making
>  gameplay more fun.*
>
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