Patch Notes 71.12
LSV breaks down Patch 71.12, which comes bearing new heroes, treasures, and more!
Welcome to Patch 71.12! We’ve got plenty of new additions this patch, including three Hero reworks, six new Treasures, and two new characters (plus some character changes). Let’s dive in!
Remastered Grumblegore Art
In this patch, we get to see the introduction of a new art style for Grumblegore. The art team made a conscious decision not to use realistic proportions. The large exaggerated shapes of the character design capture the fun and whimsical nature of the characters. In contrast, the color of the red glowing eyes and rendering really captures the mood of what an evil mage would look like if you ran into her in the enchanted forest. Of course, her cute pet bats add to the overall charm as well. We hope you like the new art direction as we'll be revealing more "remastered" art in future patches.
That's not the only change coming for Grumblegore—we're looking into a new name as well, to match the new concept. Please let us know what you think about the new art style on Twitter (@storybookbrawl), and feel free to suggest a new name!
LSV & Matt Nass discuss the new changes
Heroes
We've reworked several heroes for this patch, and are excited to get them into your hands. After looking at play and placement rates, plus our experiences playing with these heroes, we concluded they could all use some spice.
Snow Angel
Snow Angel now scales, giving you higher level characters as you buy more Good characters. If you go on a real shopping spree, you can even get higher-level characters ahead of schedule.
The Sphinx
Sphinx still lets you play spells for free, but instead of doing so once you level up, it's over the course of the game. As you learn each riddle (cast each spell), the list of free spells goes larger, and I've had some sweet endgames with Sphinx where basically everything is free.
Trophy Hunter
Trophy Hunter hasn't been collecting a whole lot of trophies lately, so now it gives all your Last Breath characters +2 attack. That will help get things going a little more often, and perhaps the trophy case will expand once again.
Beauty
This change is more to tighten things up than strictly gameplay, though it comes with gains on both fronts. Now, Beauty makes ALL your characters Good, so even Neutral characters can fit into your sweet combos.
Treasures
Great Library Card
Is it a card to the Great Library or just a really great library card? I suppose the world may never know, though I do know that seeing two spells a turn is a lot of fun.
Potion Master's Cookbook
The Cookbook leads to some spicy recipes, as it lets you buff any character quite rapidly. This is the perfect complement to Potion Master itself, and as fun as you'd expect with Crystal Ball.
Skip's Puzzle Rune
This is a bit of an oddball. Skip's Puzzle Rune pays you off for finding a lot of treasures, as +2 XP and +2 Health is a huge boost. When you take this, the race is on, as you need to replace it before you hit level six to get the full benefit. That's been a fun experience, and hitting this early leads to some sweet games.
Enchanted Clocktower
Speaking of skipping ahead on XP, the Enchanted Clocktower gives you a one-turn window where you get to be the highest level. Ideally you buy a level 6 character and lock for at least one more, but regardless of what you do, this greatly changes up the game.
Krampus' Sleigh
Just how strong do you think you are? I know I can't resist grabbing the Sleigh, and hoping to, uh, sleigh my next opponent. When you steal a level 6 or 7 treasure, it feels incredible, and this treasure always has you at the edge of your seat during a fight.
Radiant Prism
Radiant Prism adds another treasure to the vaunted level 7 ranks, as turning all of your characters into every type can lead to some wacky (and powerful) plays. How will you take advantage of this?
Characters
Bossy
Inveterate job-hopper Bossy is back, though this time in an entry-level position. Mini-Bossy, as it were, now appears at level 2, and pumps your Dwarves accordingly.
Fanny - Cut
In order to make room for Bossy, Fanny got let go, as the two played in a similar fashion.
Amy
Dwarves aren't known for their ranged prowess, but Amy is here to correct that. Given enough Lordy and Angry buffs, she can be quite the force.
Oni Tyrant -> Level 6 (with 13/13 stats and +10/+10 ability)
Oni Tyrant proved to be a little too strong, and as such, is getting moved back to six. Its stats return to 13/13, and the ability to +10/+10, where it will still have an impact in the right comp.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed a bug where Riverwish Mermaid would stop supporting if Evil Eye was replaced
- Fixed a bug with Echowood gaining double the stats from summons if you controlled multiple bearsteins
- Mihri, King Lion’s text has been updated to include “Royals”
- Fixed an issue where while you were in Collection you were unable to use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down
- Fixed a bug where Echowood would not gain stats when a Tweedle Dum was summoned
- Fixed an issue where if a group name is hidden it would become visible when re-entering the group lobby
- Fixed a bug when playing as The Fates, Frog Prince and Awoken Princess would keep appearing as destined characters after upgrading them.
- Fixed a bug where Kidnap and Gloves of Thieving would take up a natural shop space if your hand and board were full
- Fixed a bug where Time Flies and Mordred summons would maintain the bonus from The Ark when put into play from hand
Art Changes
In preparing to upgrade the new board design, the camera has been updated to a perspective camera from our previous orthographic camera. This will allow the Art and VFX teams to have much more flexibility when it comes to creating and updating the visuals.
What does this mean for the game? Everything visual was affected, as the camera is how visuals are captured and displayed on screen. Most of the animations and VFX had to be adjusted to be properly captured by this new perspective camera, this includes the attack animations which got some extra love!
VS Screen Update
This isn't in its final state, but is a step forward in the revamp!
Fight Speed Up Animation
If a fight goes long enough, animation speed increases.
Patch 71.13
UPDATED: June 13, 2022
This update is short and sweet, and fixes some issues we found in the last patch. Patch 71.13 includes the following:
Updated Attack animations
We heard your feedback on Attack VFX and continue to iterate on it. This update further refines the look and feel of the animation.
Turned off vSync
vSync was causing some of the animation jitters present in the last update, so turning it off will improve that.
Fixed spell targeting hitbox
We have addressed the issue where sometimes targeted spells would mistakenly target a nearby character. We will continue to fine-tune these hitboxes to make sure they feel as they should.
Card balancing
We will continue to keep an eye on things, especially the new cards like Clocktower, to see if any balance changes are needed later this month.