Patch 004

**Early Access Patch 004 - December 13, 2018**

This patch contains numerous fixes and balance changes based on further reports and observations since launch. Some weapons are stronger, and the gods have heard your prayers about certain Boons.

## General Gameplay

* Slightly longer player invulnerability after taking heavy damage.
* Reduced brief slow-mo effect on some combat interactions.
* Player briefly invulnerable in end-of-encounter slow-mo moments.
* Charon's Obol (Money) no longer offered at the run start (this was the only option that did not directly improve your power or survivability).

## Balance - Weapons & Powers

* **Blade of the Underworld**: increased damage on 2nd and 3rd swings of Attack combo; increased radius and added knockback on Special.
* **Heart-Seeking Bow**: shots natively pierce through foes; slightly increased max range; slightly reduced power shot recovery time
* **Shield of Chaos**: special returns to you more reliably; slightly reduced Special damage.
* **Eternal Spear**: slightly increased Special damage.
* **Cast**: increased base damage; added slight homing to base version.
* **Dash**: brief invulnerability now lets you phase through some attacks.

## Balance - Boons & Upgrades

* **Lightning Strike (Zeus)**: normalized base damage.
* **Tidal Surge (Poseidon)**: replaced with Tidal Dash.
* **Phalanx Shot (Athena)**: increased base damage.
* **Divine Protection (Athena)**: increased how often the effect occurs.
* **Blade Surge (Ares)**: replaced with Blade Dash.
* **Curse of Agony (Ares)**: reduced time until damage dealt.
* **Curse of Pain (Ares)**: reduced time until damage dealt.
* **Engulfing Vortex (Ares)**: increased effect radius.
* **Sweet Surrender (Aphrodite)**: reduced power level.
* **Deadly Flourish (Artemis)**: increased base effect chance.
* **Multi-Shot (Artemis)**: reduced power level; renamed to **Burst Shot**.
* **Life Drinker (Daedalus - Blade)**: reduced health penalty.
* **Penetrating Shot (Daedalus - Bow):** replaced with **Piercing Shot.**
* Other minor changes and improvements.

## Balance - Foes

* **Bloodless**: increased health (weaponless variants only).
* **Lout**: slightly delayed attack point; slightly increased health.
* **Pest**: small improvements to movement and collision.
* **Bone Hydra**: reworked various aspects of this encounter.
* Bloodless-type foes no longer impervious while leaping.
* Bloodless-type foes more effective at flanking the player.
* Added unarmored Inferno-Bombers and Slam-Dancers in Asphodel.
* Adjusted frequency of various foes in Asphodel.
* Player knockback vs. impervious foes now only at close range.
* Other minor changes.

## Balance - Mirror

* **Quick Temper**: rescaled; reduced effect of each rank.
* **Avenging Gain**: rescaled; reduced effect of each rank.
* **Deep Pockets**: rescaled; reduced effect of each rank Note: As a result of these changes, you may have new Upgrade Ranks available.

## Balance - Keepsakes

* **Myrmidon Bracer (Achilles)**: reduced penalty damage.
* **Bone Hourglass (Charon)**: increased effect duration.
* **Harpy Feather Duster (Dusa)**: increased chance to find healing items.
* **Skull Earring (Megaera)**: higher active threshold; reduced dmg. bonus.
* **Lucky Coin (Skelly)**: increased health restoration.

## Level Design & Environments

* Numerous art and collision fixes in many Tartarus chambers
* Numerous art and collision fixes in many Asphodel chambers
* Re-tuned Asphodel 'river crossing' encounter
* Asphodel 'lava jelly' objects now can be destroyed on touch
* Additional visual polish in the House of Hades

## Art & Visual FX

* Ares: the God of War's portrait is now more suitably impressive...
* Life Fountains are more noticeable when they can be used.
* Updated Numbskull attack VFX.
* Updated Critical Hit VFX.
* Updated 'Invincibubble' VFX (for Impervious state).
* When chaining Dashes, camera shifts more smoothly.
* Updated Hypnos' sleeping Zs; fixed dialogue indicator not showing.
* When interacting with Sisyphus, Life Total is shown in tooltip.
* Updated some Codex images.
* Additional visual polish.

## Menus & UI

* Send Feedback: F10 to send feedback anywhere in-game.
* 'Run Cleared' screen run shows completed runs per weapon.
* **Mirror of Night** shows when you reach max rank for an upgrade.
* Pause Menu now displays time of last autosave.
* Alternate boot-up announcement if your game build is out-of-date.

## Music & SFX

* Added SFX to some Boon powers.
* Updated some SFX for Brimstone-type foes.
* Updated SFX for 'Trial of the Gods' events.
* Updated SFX for blood splatter.
* Music goes quiet prior to facing each Guardian (if Charon isn't there).

## Voice & Narrative

* A certain court musician now is more susceptible to persuasion...
* Start-of-run 'Remembrance' scenes less likely to repeat.
* Some character interactions less likely to repeat.
* Other minor changes to voice lines and events.
* Fixes to minor text and caption errors.

## Miscellaneous

* Credits: Orpheus added to Voice Cast.
* Improvements to analytics sent via the Transmit Data feature.

## Bug Fixes

* Fixes to additional rare crashes reported by players.
* Fixed an issue letting players recover health using Keepsakes.
* **Impact Blast (Daedalus - Spear)** dealt backstab damage unexpectedly.
* Player now invulnerable while exiting chambers.
* Fixes to controller vibration not working with some weapons.
* Fixes to some control remapping issues.
* Reopening **Well of Charon** could affect their contents.
* Boons sold by Charon no longer use up rarity bonus effects.
* **Pulverizing Blow (Poseidon)** caused knockback unexpectedly.
* Fixed cases where Codex could be opened during other events.
* Fixed an issue where the Aegis weapon could be cloned.
* Fixed text display issues in some languages.
* Possible fix to a rare black-screen issue in the House Courtyard.
* Numerous other minor fixes.

## Known Issues

* Shield throw can knock you back and/or damage you!
* Resolutions > 1080p are intentionally scaling down in Fullscreen.

## Quote of the Patch

> O child of Zeus, one word shall tell thee all.
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> We are the children of eternal Night,
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> And Furies in the underworld are called.
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> **Eumenides** (Aeschylus; E. Morshead translation)