Greetings Vessels,
We’re back with another patch for Ravenbound! This patch lays down some important groundwork for addressing a few of the key issues we’ve seen discussed in our community spaces on Steam and Discord.
This patch is the first in a series of patches targeted at addressing the concerns in our community - we have more patches coming focused on some of the key points of concern among the community, along with constantly improving stability and fixing bugs. We expect the next of these patches next week.
Firstly, we wanted to address the difficulty spike introduced in the last patch and how this has affected the gameplay experience. In this patch, we’ve made some wide-reaching changes to enemy damage primarily targeted at bringing the game’s difficulty in line with our targets and making Tier 1 fights feel more balanced and accessible to players.
We’ve also implemented a Hatred tracker to help players better understand how accumulating Hatred affects Bosses & Elites as you progress. This is part of our mission to make the Hatred mechanic less nebulous and easier to understand and master.
We've received feedback about the difficulty in reading enemy attacks, particularly the Utlagi during Tier 1. In response, we've overhauled their attacks with a focus on improving readability, ensuring a more consistent combat experience when fighting these groups.
To better prepare players for the challenges they’ll face against the Wardens, we’ve based the revamped Utlagis attacks on those of the Wardens. We hope to create a smoother difficulty curve by giving extra opportunities to learn Warden attack patterns, while maintaining the challenge that Wardens pose.
We’ve also addressed the changes to Grey Health introduced in the previous patch. We’re mostly happy with the adjustments to Grey Health, but we’ve seen that it may be unbalanced in certain scenarios. By reducing incoming damage, we aim to make the game more forgiving.
Full details of all of these changes are listed below - read on to learn exactly what’s included in this update!
Hatred Tracking
We’ve added a hatred tracker to the Hand Screen to display how much more powerful Elites and Bosses have become in each run. This will update as you pick up more hatred in a run, and should make it easier to understand the tradeoff between power for you and powering up your opponents.
Utlagi have been updated
- Each human Utlagi type now only features 1 Armor set each, but have been updated to stand out much more from each other
- Utlagi attacks have been completely reworked to be based on the Wardens using the same type of attacks and weapons. This is intended to better prepare players for those tougher boss encounters.
- Human Utlagi have been updated to make their attacks easier to read, and the weapon they wield should have a greater impact on how they engage with the player
Card Balance Changes
Relics
Shards of Clouded Glass
PreviousNewMultistrike Chance while below 50% HPN/A50%
Talon of Luck
PreviousNewPassive Luck21%N/ATemporary Luck Increase on Critical HitN/A32%
Gem of Unreleased Fury
PreviousNewWeapon Damage Increase50%20 (flat)
Weapons
Lucky Arms
PreviousNewPassive LuckN/A25%Temporary Luck Increase on Critical Hit50%N/A
The Mad Frenzy
PreviousNewCritical Hit ChanceN/A45%
Armor
Expertly Reinforced Armor
PreviousNewArmor57
Trait Balance Changes
Painbringer
PreviousNewStatus Effect Potency Increase50%35%
Calculating
PreviousNewWeapon Damage Increase while Surging300%250%
Hatred Tier 1 Adjustments
While we want Ravenbound to provide a challenging experience, our goal is for the first difficulty level to be manageable. This should include a fair share of setbacks and deaths, but each defeat should serve as a learning opportunity, allowing players to come back stronger. Currently, the game's difficulty may prevent some players from even learning boss patterns. With these changes, we hope more players will experience progress, leading to deeper understanding and increasingly successful runs.
TL;DR - we’ve reduced damage from most enemies and bosses at Hatred Tier 1 by roughly 20% across the board.
Fire Warden (2H Axe)
1st fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage3024AOE Attack Damage2016Heavy Attack Damage4032Whirlwind Attack Damage2520
2nd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage3032AOE Attack Damage4032Heavy Attack Damage6048Whirlwind Attack Damage4032
3rd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage7560AOE Attack Damage7560Heavy Attack Damage10080Whirlwind Attack Damage7560
Sky Warden (2H Sword)
1st fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage3024AOE Attack Damage2016Heavy Attack Damage4536
2nd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4536AOE Attack Damage4536Heavy Attack Damage57.546
3rd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage10080AOE Attack Damage7560Heavy Attack Damage150120
Earth Warden (Dual Axes)
1st fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2016AOE Attack Damage3024Combined Attack Damage4032
2nd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520AOE Attack Damage3528Combined Attack Damage5040
3rd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4032AOE Attack Damage6552Combined Attack Damage8064
Ice Warden (Dual Swords)
1st fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2016Combined Attack Damage3032Thrust Attack Damage3024Whirlwind Attack Damage2520
2nd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520Combined Attack Damage5040Thrust Attack Damage3528Whirlwind Attack Damage4032
3rd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4032Combined Attack Damage8064Thrust Attack Damage6552Whirlwind Attack Damage7560
Spirit Warden (1H Sword and Shield)
1st fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520Heavy Shield Barge Attack Damage3024Thrust Attack Damage4032
2nd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage32.526Heavy Shield Barge Attack Damage4032Thrust Attack Damage5040
3rd fight
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage6048Heavy Shield Barge Attack Damage7056Thrust Attack Damage8064
Vittra
Standard Vittra
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520Soar (Lunge) Attack Damage3528
Vittra Tempest
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520Soar (Lunge)2016
Betrayer
Betrayer Fist
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage7560Left Foot Stomp Damage7560Right Foot Stomp Damage7560Spam (Repeated) Attack Damage5040
Betrayer Mace
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage10080Left Foot Stomp Damage7560Right Foot Stomp Damage7560
Betrayer Mace Spikes
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage10080Left Foot Stomp Damage7560Right Foot Stomp Damage7560
Draugr
Draugr Barbarian
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage1814.4Jump Attack Damage54
Draugr Champion (Sword and Shield)
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4032Soar (Lunge) Attack Damage5040
Draugr Champion (2H Sword)
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4032Soar (Lunge) Attack Damage5040
Draugr Warrior
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520
Häxa
Häxa Apprentice
PreviousNewLightning Ball Damage1512Lightning Strike Damage2016
Elder Häxa (Magician)
PreviousNewLightning Ball Damage4032Lightning Strike Damage6048
Elder Häxa (Staff)
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2016
Hulder
Standard Hulder
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage2520Extended Attack Damage3024Slam Attack Damage2016
Hulder Crownmother
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage4032
Tuftir
Tuftir (Dagger)
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage1512
Tuftir (Spear)
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage1512Jump54
Troll Brawler
PreviousNewDefault Attack DamageFist: 55Fist: 44
Elder Troll
PreviousNewDefault Attack Damage10080Left Foot Stomp5040Right Foot Stomp5040
Youngblood Troll
PreviousNewDefault Attack DamageClub: 35Club: 28
Utlagi
Utlagi - Ulvar (Wolf)
PreviousNewDefault Attack DamageDual Axe: 25Dual Axe: 20Shield Attack DamageSword and Shield: 5Sword and Shield: 4
Utlagi - Simlar (Deer)
PreviousNewBase DamageDual Axe: 12.5Dual Axe: 10Shield Attack DamageSword and Shield: 5Sword and Shield: 4
Utlagi - Human
PreviousNewDefault Attack DamageDual Axe: 10x2Dual Axe: 14x1Shield Attack DamageSword and Shield: 5Sword and Shield: 4Slam Attack DamageTwo Handed Sword Slam: N/ATwo Handed Sword Slam: 10 (New)Default Attack Stagger ImpactDual Axe: 10x2Dual Axe: 50x1Slack Attack Stagger ImpactTwo Handed Sword Slam: N/ATwo Handed Sword Slam: 200 (New)
Bug Fixes
We spent a lot of effort during this patch cycle on some systems behind the scenes that were causing issues across the board. While you likely won’t see a lot of that work immediately, it will set us up for a more stable experience in future as we continue to develop Ravenbound. This effort direction does mean that this list of bug fixes is shorter than we’d like, but we’re confident this decision will give us better results in the long term.
Tutorial
- Resolved an issue where enemies bodies were invisible, with only their head and arms showing
- Resolved an exploit where players could skip parts of the tutorial and remove the ability to drain cards
- Resolved an issue where a tutorial enemy didn’t die after performing Guard Break, causing some players to be unable to progress the tutorial
Challenges
- Resolved an issue where it was not possible to complete the seventh Fighter of Svali challenge due to a placeholder card
There are also numerous stability patches for various issues that were causing crashes. We can’t list all of these here, but we’ve addressed some of the high frequency issues, and we’ll continue to address more of these with each patch. If you do crash, please send in a report - they really do help!
Other Miscellaneous Changes
- Improved Attack Telegraphs for regular Vittra, Draugr Shield and Sword, and Draugr Dual Axe
- Enemies knocked down by Perfect Guard can now be Staggered while in that state.
- Guard Health increased from 80 to 100
- Energy Gained on Charged Attacks increased
- Blacksmith prices increased by 12 Coins across the board
- Increased the window for Primary Dodge Attack by 4 frames for Player Dual Sword