Patch 037

**Early Access Patch 037 - January 22, 2020**

Thank you for all your feedback and excitement about yesterday's big Long Winter Update! This patch addresses several issues it introduced. Some changes we fully walked back and marked with \* below. We're continuing to monitor impressions as we prepare additional patches for the coming days *(or nights?)*.

## General Gameplay

* Reduced prices of Boons sold by Charon
* Reduced price of Daedalus Hammer sold by Charon \*
* Reduced price of augmented Boons and Poms sold by Charon in the Temple of Styx

## Infernal Arms, Aspects, & Abilities

* Stygian Blade (Nemesis): increased Critical chance \*
* Eternal Spear (Zagreus): reworked; now gives bonus damage, range, and speed to Skewer special
* Eternal Spear (Guan Yu): reduced penalty to life total and healing; replaced Skewer special with the new Firework Skewer, which deals area damage on its flight path and does not require retrieval
* Shield of Chaos (Zeus): increased damage rate of Throw special

## Boons & Blessings

* Wave Pounding (Poseidon): newly added! Boons with knock-away deal bonus damage to bosses
* Blinding Flash (Athena): fixed an issue causing bonus damage from this to be less than expected
* Divine Dash (Athena): fixed an issue preventing this from activating Blinding Flash and Merciful End (Athena x Ares) as intended
* Life Affirmation (Aphrodite): increased power level at higher rarity
* Support Fire (Artemis): increased damage; increased power level at higher rarity
* Deadly Strike (Artemis): increased Critical chance; reduced damage to compensate \*
* Arctic Blast (Demeter): increased damage
* Quick Reload (Hermes): significantly increased effect at higher rarity
* Increased power level of Chaos blessing effects at higher rarity \*

## Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

* Double Nova (Blade): slightly increased damage radius
* Cursed Slash (Blade): now restores 1 Life per hit (instead of a percentage)
* Charged Volley (Bow): slightly increased minimum range
* Charged Skewer (Spear): slightly increased minimum range
* Quick Rush (Shield): no longer removes the Bull Rush's innate knock-away effect
* Charged Throw (Shield): should now be more responsive to short button presses
* Hazard Bomb (Rail): increased damage; reduced self-damage
* Rocket Bomb (Rail): increased damage
* Explosive Fire (Rail): it's back; now briefly slows foes instead of staggering them

## Foes & Encounters

* Thanatos: reduced maximum number of waves of foes in encounters with him in Elysium and Styx; slightly reduced total enemy counts in those encounters
* 'Trial of the Gods': reduced radius of Demeter's attack if you spurn her
* Wave-Maker: reduced appearance rate in Asphodel
* Splitter: reduced appearance rate in Elysium
* Reduced damage rate of Poison effects in the Temple of Styx \*
* Final Boss: toned down a particular combo attack...

## Keepsakes & Items

* Evergreen Acorn (Eurydice): increased instances of damage absorption \*
* Lucky Tooth (Skelly): fixed an issue causing this to restore less health than intended

## Pact of Punishment

* Convenience Fee: reduced effect on shop prices (making this somewhat less punishing than before)

## Rod of Fishing

* Fixed an issue causing Fishing Points to appear more often than intended in Tartarus
* Fish in the Temple of Styx now net you a tidy sum of Gemstones
* Increased how often fishing opportunities occur in the main hub in the Temple of Styx
* The Gameplay Timer and Tight Deadline (Pact) Timer pause while fishing (*"Relax, boyo!" --Skelly*)
* Taking damage now interrupts any fishing attempts (*"Have you tried NOT standing in lava?" --Hypnos*)
* Fish fake-out jukes are harder to detect
* Additional adjustments to timings trying to catch those blasted little...

## Art & Visual FX

* Added reveal animation in the Weapon Aspects screen for the Aspect of Guan Yu
* Added unique icon for [[FrostbittenDemeter's Keepsake (note: this was included as part of a hotfix yesterday)
* Updated visual effect for Aspect of Guan Yu's Moon Cutter Spin attack
* Slightly reduced visual effect for Bloodless Burn-Flinger bomb blast
* Minor updates to some Elysium chambers and artwork
* Minor updates to the recently added chamber in Tartarus
* Minor updates to Charon's Shop in Tartarus
* Minor art fixes in the House of Hades
* Minor art fixes to visual effect for Mistral Dash (Demeter)
* Minor art fixes to Keepsake icons

## Voice & Narrative

* Fixes to narrative scripting to some new events
* Fixed Inspect Point for the new Massive Weights decoration appearing prematurely
* Moved an Inspect Point about decorative pillars to a more appropriate-looking set of pillars
* Fixes and tuning to various contextual voice events

## Miscellaneous

* Added mouse-wheel scrolling to the House Contractor screen
* Added simple interaction to Intricate Contraption and Bloodless Sculpture
* Small adjustment to gameplay timer formatting
* Minor text changes, clarifications, and fixes

## Bug Fixes

* Fixed a progression blocker opening the Codex or Boon Info screens while fishing
* Fixed a progression blocker renovating Zagreus' bedchambers after a character conversation
* Fixed some House Contractor decorations being unavailable after deactivating the Scrying Pool
* Fixed Eternal Spear (Guan Yu) causing your burst-damage shield to activate more often than intended
* Fixed Crush Shot (Aphrodite) not destroying some obstacles as expected
* Fixed Atrophic (Chaos) curse removing more health than intended
* Fixed an issue causing Demeter Duo Boons to only show up from her, not her extended family
* Minor fixes to Cluster Bomb (Daedalus - Rail) blast preview
* Fixed Dusa's conversation indicator sometimes remaining visible after she bails on you
* Fixed Dusa sometimes not being visible after using Companion Fidi
* Fixed Skelly Codex entry showing incorrect unlock conditions in some cases
* Fixed Cursed Slash (Blade) stealing life from urns or even poor Cerberus in the Temple of Styx

## Quote of the Patch

> Demeter's true concerns were not on Olympus, but on the earth. She presided over the crops, and over the grains in particular. For some reason she held the bean in contempt as impure.
>
> Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology (E. Tripp)

**Note: You should see v0.24965 in-game once you have the update.**