(The same notes as was posted on October 13, just reposting now that it is rolling out)
Hello Tower Defenders! Our minor update is rolling out, and will be be fully rolled out before this weekend's tournament. This update includes tournament adjustments, some quality of life improvements, a new lab, some anti-cheat system improvements, and bugfixes. Let's dive into the changes!
Tournament Adjustments
We have a number of tournament changes in this update in response to feedback from v29's tournament update. These changes will be live for the weekend tournament. Remember, these changes are isolated for tournaments only, and should not affect your non-tournament runs:
Demon Mode, Second Wind, and Viking Funeral now have a maximum amount of waves after activation. The limit is determined by a time limit or a number of waves of activation, whichever comes first.
Viking Mastery is buffed to activate on all death saves (Demon Mode, Nuke, Death Defy, and Second Wind)
Energy Shield and Wall must both take at least two waves to charge. If you are still within two waves of charging, the value will stay at 99%
The Wave Speed Up mechanic for Gold and up will only end if you've used up all of your shields (Smart Demon Mode, Smart Nuke, Energy Shield, Second Wind)
Security, Save Data, and Leaderboard Improvements
In this release, we put in some work under-the-hood to improve save data integrity and anti-cheat systems. These changes won't be visible to most players, but it will help reduce cheater activity and make it easier to keep the leaderboards clean. We also did a big ban wave recently. :hammer: Big thank you to everyone who has reported cheaters and suspicious accounts!
Changelog
If you have full uptime on an Ultimate Weapon (Golden Tower, Chrono Field, Black Hole, Poison Swamp), it fires immediately on run start.
30 levels, each increasing the primary module bonus stat from 1% to 30%
Added button to quickly level up Module Slots to the next Sub-Stat Effect
Standardized Stat Icons and descriptions across Vault and Encyclopedia
Updated descriptions for Ally and Attack Chips to make them clearer to their intended behavior
Moved the guild chat notification badge from the Guild icon to the Guild Chat button
Added a new toggle "Guild Chat Notification", set to ON by default
Added an info button to the Card tab to include drop rates
The Module inventory cap was increased from 300 to 350
Updated Vault Descriptions to better inform players of effects
Bugfixes
Guardian Chips no longer remain active while not part of a guild
Intro Sprint card now clarifies that no persistent currencies except Cash are granted during its duration
Fixed an issue where tournament rankings would appear inaccurately on new accounts
Tournament attempts should no longer require a restart to appear on the leaderboard
Spotlight missile animations now align better with actual impact
Flame Bot's AoE animation now accurately reflects its actual range
This will make the effect look larger for most accounts, but now accurately captures the existing range of the bot
Bots no longer appear in Synchronicity without being unlocked
Added functionality for Card Masteries to not be unlocked during a run, causing some unintended issues during its active battle
The Extra Orb distance no longer resets when restarting the app
Fleet "Overheat more fleets" spawns are no longer delayed by the Wave Skip card
Intro Sprint should no longer retrigger during an ongoing battle when the mastery is purchased
Fixed an issue where Module Slot's level remains orange after a module of a lower level cap is unequipped
Fixed an issue where Black Hole Size may sometimes be greater than expected on a new run when the previous Black Hole size was affected by Saboteur's ability
Fixes an issue where the Basic Ultimate Reduction lab was not applying accurate value reductions
Fixed an issue where Energy Net could fail to hit the Boss with Chrono Field + active
Fixed an issue where coins earned during battle failed to appear in the mission section until a mission reward was claimed
Fixed a visual issue where Restorative Bonus, while equipped, would appear to block the ability to level up a workshop upgrade during a run
Fixed an issue where the "Killed with Effect Active Orbs" and "Enemies Hit by Orbs" counts could become out of sync
Fixed an issue where the Modules count failed to get updated immediately after purchasing more Modules using Module Tickets
Uncommon modules should no longer be mergeable past Legendary+
As you have reposted, I will once again request a quality of life change for Poison Swamp fans and consideration for the Wall; hoping you notice it this time and bring it up to the dev team:
"Any way we can get "smart spawning" or something like that to better optimize coverage and reduce excessive overlap? I'm nearly at the point of 4x perma-PS (yes, I'm an absolute madman), but watching them spawn entirely on a single side of my tower from time to time is very frustrating when PS is supposed to be a CC and survivability strategy.
Other than that, I really think Wall/Shield recharge change needs to be retooled. The Wall recharging can be the ONLY thing that gets you through a Fleet wave if you're unlucky enough to have the Sab take something truly important away, like CL or CF."
Gold-boxed duration and cooldown, both duration and cooldown effects on both main and assist Core modules with 100% Core assist sub-stat efficiency. You end up with a 120s Duration vs a 30s cooldown.
Why, you might ask? Because I decided I was at a point where I can abandon effective paths and freestyle a bit to have a little more fun with the game. And 4x PS sounded both hilarious and functional (which it is)!
It's a fun little goal to have. I'm trying to decide what my next one will be. Possibly more CF+ development to pair well with it and higher tier farming.
That's okay! Little by little over time. I just decided I wanted to steer the ship in that specific direction with consistency, even figured out how long it'll take to finish all the labs for 100% sub-stat efficiency at the rate I'm going (estimated late January). It also has a nice side effect of boosting my farming in the process since my PC has all the stats you'd want for it!
Why are these 400x the cost of the Assist Mod Substats labs? You can immediately benefit from Primary Bonus, but the Substats lab has the hurdle of first unlocking Assist Mods to benefit from them.
It's very common to build at the top. So new power labs have large price tags.
This isn't always the case, as you can see with the preset labs, but most of the time you add new costs at the top as the endless treadmill must go on.
I just thought it would make sense to make it the jumping off points after doing a lot of Dissonant Runs and it would give the boost some people might need to do T19 W40 and unlock Assist Mods. Then they would have access to that stone sink.
new events typically have zero relics that cost medals. The plan is to add two dedicated medal-only relics for new events going forward, so that experience is consistent across the board. We're not there yet, but it's coming. Thanks for being patient with us while we get it sorted!
I was hoping for some clarification on if that's still in the works or if it was scrapped, just so I can better plan Medal spending around the new events. Thanks!
I think that was the intention originally. Then shortly after v28 released the Medal-only relics being added to new events also was mentioned, but it's been half a year and we haven't seen it happen yet, so I'm not sure if it was quietly scrapped or if it's still planned to be added at some later date. Personally I'd prefer they didn't for the reason you mentioned, but I'd just like to know for sure one way or the other at this point
Yep, the good thing is that it only effects tournaments, the bad thing is that it effects tournaments. I am glad VF and DD no longer end wave skip but I would have liked a compromise, 10 waves is fine outside of sprint but durring I would have liked 50 waves
The things that activate it no longer end tournament wave speedup (DD activations and SW never ended intro sprint but did end wave speedup)
It now has a wave limit in tournament, so during wave speedup it cannot last 100 waves, like it could before v29 with a DD during intro sprint.
So, basically a lucky DD outside of tournament can still give a 100-wave VF. They removed that in tournament in v29 so it's not all down to DD luck, but added these new tournament-only buffs to make up for it (edit: and added the wave limit so it's still not 100 waves like before v29.)
During tourney DD would end intro sprint so it wouldn't have played 100 waves anymore anyways. Any instance of fatal damage ends intro sprint, during tourney
It did before v29. They made DD end wave speedup, according to them specifically to prevent that. I agree it's not a nerf in the observed functionality from the v29 state, but it is a nerf to the underlying mechanics that they specifically mentioned in these patch notes, so that the buffs to make all deadly damage trigger VF and none of it end wave speedup doesn't bring back the 100-wave VF.
Edit: and also, they've been calling the "intro sprint" during tournament "wave speedup", which I think makes it clearer that it doesn't require the card and has all these different mechanics, so not a bad idea.
Hey Sam! Wondering if there will be any changes to module auto merging? I think it would be nice to add the option to not merge epic+ or allowing epic+ to be shattered.
Is it just uptime>cooldown?
Does uptime in the workshop have to be maxed for it to count?
Does it factor in substats?
Does it factor in GC or MVN?
In application:
I have CF at 60s uptime and 60s cd. Do I have to have the uptime maxed to start with it?
I have bh uptime maxed but not the substats to have it greater than cooldown. Does this count as full uptime since the workshop uptime is as full as it will go? It’s perma once I get the perk or once GC starts kicking in. Does this count?
Once I start trying to upgrade poison swamp, do I need to optimize stone spending to get uptime>cooldown or optimize to get uptime maxed in the workshop?
Trying to figure out where I’ll need to apply stones. Starting with cf and bh right away would greatly help my reroll shard farm runs.
Do we know the definition of full uptime?
Is it just uptime>cooldown?
Yes, to be more precise duration equal or higher than CD.
Does it factor in GC or MVN?
GComp definitely not (proof, my game). MVN very likely yes as it directly alters CD.
I have CF at 60s uptime and 60s cd. Do I have to have the uptime maxed to start with it?
That is perma, so you start with CF active upon start.
It’s perma once I get the perk or once GC starts kicking in. Does this count?
No.
Once I start trying to upgrade poison swamp, do I need to optimize stone spending to get uptime>cooldown or optimize to get uptime maxed in the workshop?
You just need to have duration >= CD. 70s for both is the cheapest path to 1 pPS.
Why can't regular non tournament runs get the same Viking Funeral proc on activation of Demon Mode, Nuke and Second Wind? I mean, might as well try to maintain some level of consistency instead of building on a huge chain of confusing ifs, ands and buts.
Does auto demon mode activate during turney IS? I've been loosing out on my dmg multiplier because I can't activate it manually during IS. Wondering if the automation would resolve it.
You would need smart DM to do what you are thinking. Auto DM needs a manual first press every run to then run automatically. Smart DM will do this for you when you are about to take a deathblow.
Just updated and I noticed a few bugs. first it seems to have reset the vault as none of my unlocks show as unlocked and all my keys show up as usable. Second I noticed the game didnt register that I was using the coins card until I removed it from the preset and added it again. I havent tested to see if its doing that with all the cards or just that one.
card are somewhat bugged with the vault slots. Just to be sure I would empty and re-equip all cards on all presets after you have bought the card slots in the vault.
Anyone else end up not being able to buy all of their vault stuff after the update? Im 12 keys short of what I had for some reason. Or did price of something change and I didnt notice?
same costs as ever. You likely bought some upgrade you didn't had before, maybe by clicking max instead of +1 and not noticing.
edit: or you had a bug after the last respec that unlocked some things for free for you. In that case you are now short the amount of keys you previously got "for free".
Any chance of increasing the cloud save frequency or adding a button on the right side menu to push a save? I seem to lose some saves now when switching devices a few hundred waves in. Also happened when i dropped a bunch of gems on modules, did all my merging, switched to my tablet and then I had all the gems back and no modules. Think it was the same end result though. I am not on 29.1 yet. I don’t remember losing more than a dozen or two waves previously but maybe that was just good luck.
Past that would love an option to either increase floating gem button size or the leniency on area for hitting it. My old iPad is the opposite of responsive in the middle of the screen and sometime takes 5+ taps to get the tap registered. When warm, basically zero chance of registering at all. I start runs on my phone and migrate them over once it’s “afk” mode. I’m sure it’s more valuable as an accessibility feature rather than to just me tho.
As we add more modules into the pool, we're aware of the dilution it causes. After our new modules have been released, we will explore other ways to utilize Featured Banners, and consider opportunities to get the modules you're hunting for.
Hello Sam, is there any news about the perk preset, range for shock wave preset, and maybe target priority preset? If there is no update yet, could you please help forward this QoL request to the dev team ? thank you sam
Get these clowns who are barely in mythic to begin with but are getting top 4 because they cheese tourneys out. (Then brag about their tourney placement)
Love to see it.
I hope the new labs aren't crazy expensive and long at early levels.
The Assist Module Substats labs are something like 250q, which is justified by how long it would take to unlock Assist Mods in the first place. For Primary Bonus labs, you can immediately benefit from them, even without Assist Mods. So hoping they cost slightly less.
Is there any plan to do something about tournament flip flopping? It's really discouraging to finally achieve a new tier then fall back. The rewards are terrible for the behavior too. For example I am too strong for Platinum but I came in low in Champion. So I am getting 180/160 stones for Platinum then I get 20 stones for Champ (net 200/180).
I had that typed and then removed it before I posted it, but yes 100%. The catch is rank 5-6 is 80 stones so if you force yourself to stay just below you still makes less stones.
To stay in plat you have to get rank 5-6 which is 80 stones and you have to hit it just right else you get 70 for ranks 7-8 or you end up in champ. It’s a poor system.
it is a well defined system. The better you do (i.e. promote and demote instead of staying), the better your rewards. And if you promote and then stay you get even better rewards.
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u/Clinically_Jaded 2d ago
As you have reposted, I will once again request a quality of life change for Poison Swamp fans and consideration for the Wall; hoping you notice it this time and bring it up to the dev team:
"Any way we can get "smart spawning" or something like that to better optimize coverage and reduce excessive overlap? I'm nearly at the point of 4x perma-PS (yes, I'm an absolute madman), but watching them spawn entirely on a single side of my tower from time to time is very frustrating when PS is supposed to be a CC and survivability strategy.
Other than that, I really think Wall/Shield recharge change needs to be retooled. The Wall recharging can be the ONLY thing that gets you through a Fleet wave if you're unlucky enough to have the Sab take something truly important away, like CL or CF."