Hello Pioneers, Patch 8 is an exciting one, so buckle in and let's take a look at what's here now!
The biggest news is that the Spectra Raid is now available! This unique boss allows you to bring a team of up to eight people and confront this dangerous foe for fantastic rewards like the brand-new Necromancer gear set and mount!
After completing the main story quest Tremors, the quest 'Ashes in Virelda' will trigger automatically prompting players to go to the city to start the Spectra quest line.
After defeating Spectra in Normal mode as part of the story, you'll unlock Hard Mode where you can obtain the new gear and mount.
Plus, we've added fast travel points between cities! Now you can freely travel between cities you've visited, making it much easier to explore the wide world of Soulbound.
That's not the only thing we've sped up. Crafting ingots is now 30% faster and chests from Unstable difficulty dungeons and higher now guarantee at least one piece of gear. Now crafting will be even more rewarding and tackling higher difficulty dungeons is more worth it than ever!
We've also implemented several relic and ability fixes, including changes to Bulwark, Heavy Payload, Critical Surge, and Voidline Belt.
For the full details, be sure to read the full patch notes below:
Highlights
The Spectra Raid is open. Gather up to eight people and take on Spectra in Spectra's Lair, our first raid. Finish the main story quest Tremors, then speak to Warden Odell in Lunar City to begin the two-part introduction, Ashes in Virelda and A Key to Something Worse. Completing it hands you your first Lunar Key and opens the raid.
Two difficulties, two reward tiers. Clear the raid on Normal to unlock Hard Mode. Hard Mode is where the top rewards live: tier 6 Necromancer gear including Legendary pieces, and a brand-new mount that only drops there.
Added legendary gear that drops from Spectra.
New achievements. The Spectra's Lair achievement category tracks Normal and Hard Mode kills separately.
Fast Travel between cities. Some major zones now has a Fast Travel point. Visit a zone and interact with the dedicated Traveling NPC once to unlock it, then hop between any towns you have discovered. Fast Travel works from the Lunar, Arcadia, Virelda and Neo-Tilus locations only
Crafting is faster. Ingot crafting times are down around 30%, every dungeon chest from Unstable difficulty upward now guarantees at least one piece of gear, and the Station screen shows your level with a one-click upgrade button.
Relic and ability fixes. Bulwark, Heavy Payload, Critical Surge and Voidline Belt have all been corrected or rebalanced. Several are significant changes for Hammer and Drone builds, so read the Relic & Ability Changes section before your next run.
That covers the most notable changes, but keep reading for the full update.
The Spectra Raid
Getting in
Complete the main story quest Tremors, then visit Warden Odell in Lunar City to start Ashes in Virelda. The quest opens on the aftermath of Spectra's attack on Virelda.
The second part, A Key to Something Worse, rewards a single Lunar Key. Lunar Keys open the raid, and a new tutorial entry explains where to earn more of them: run the Lunar Dungeon.
During the introduction you are pulled into a ruined, emptied version of Virelda and must make your way north to the beacon past Spectra's creatures. The NPCs are missing on purpose.
The Ashes in Virelda encounter now shows Spectra's Apocalypse: three expanding shockwaves roughly a second apart that tint the world red. It is purely visual and deals no damage.
The raid has a Normal and a Hard Mode. Hard Mode unlocks once you have cleared Normal.
Rewards
Tier 6 Necromancer gear drops from the raid, with the top pieces on Hard Mode, including Legendary armour.
A new mount drops on Hard Mode only. It is a rare drop, so expect to earn it over several clears.
A new Legendary cape is part of the raid reward pool.
Achievements
The achievement category formerly called Hall of Death is now Spectra's Lair.
Defeat Spectra has four tiers on Normal: 1, 5, 10 and 25 kills.
Defeat Spectra on Hard Mode has three tiers of achievement: 1, 5 and 10 kills.
Fixed the Discover Hollow Rock achievement not unlocking on first entry to Hollow Rock.
Dungeons
Rerolling a relic selection while digging for relics no longer resets the group's selection timer. The countdown keeps running when you spend a reroll, so one player can no longer stall the run. Solo runs still have no timer. ENG-1847
Every dungeon chest from Stable difficulty up to Abyssal now guarantees at least one gear piece from that dungeon's own armour and weapon sets, on top of the normal chest roll, which can still add a second piece. Stable dungeons already guaranteed gear and are unchanged.
Fast Travel
Added Fast Travel to select cities (Lunar, Arcadia, Virelda and Neo-Tilus). Each of these cities now has its own Fast Travel NPC, visiting the city for the first time and interacting with the NPC unlocks it as a fast travel destination.
Once unlocked, you can travel between any of the cities you have discovered. Fast Travel is only available from within a city, so you still cross the wilds on foot or by mount.
Crafting Changes
Ingot crafting times reduced by around 30% across the board. Each ingot from each tier now needs 2 ore instead of 1, so mining still matters, but you spend far less time waiting at the smelter.
The main Station screen now shows a level bar with your current and maximum level, plus an Upgrade button that jumps straight to the upgrade page. The button turns green when you can afford the upgrade and grey once the station is maxed.
Relic & Ability Changes
Bulwark (Hammer)
The Bulwark relic could keep its shield up permanently with modest cooldown reduction. It has been rebalanced and its descriptions rewritten to match how it actually works.
Bulwark now needs 6 stacks to release its pulse, up from 3. Each connecting hammer hit grants one stack.
The shield from the pulse now lasts 3.5 seconds, down from 5. Shield strength is unchanged. Because the shield now expires before the pulse can fire again, there is always a gap and 100% uptime is no longer possible.
Phase I now reads: each hit grants a Bulwark stack; at 6 stacks Bulwark releases a pulse granting you and nearby allies a shield for 3.5s.
Phase II now reads: the pulse also grants you and nearby allies War Pulse (5s): +30% weapon damage. Duration unchanged.
Phase III: the effect previously named Unbreakable is now Warbreaker (5s): +30% hammer damage, +30% area of effect radius, and the shield increases to 15. The old name implied the shield could not break, which was never the case. The buff itself is unchanged.
Because War Pulse and Warbreaker ride the same pulse, their uptime drops in line with the shield.
Heavy Payload (Drone)
Heavy Payload I and II were not working with Drone at all, and Heavy Payload III was leaking a permanent +50% heavy hit chance even with no drones out. All three have been rebuilt as straightforward stacking bonuses.
Heavy Payload I: +4% heavy hit chance with Drone per pick, stacking up to 5 times for +20%. Previously the bonus was applied to the enemy you hit, so you received nothing.
Heavy Payload II: an additional +4% heavy hit chance with Drone per pick, stacking up to 5 times for +20%. It now counts drone explosions as well as direct drone hits.
Heavy Payload III: a flat +20% heavy hit chance with Drone, down from an effective +50%, and it no longer applies while you have no drones deployed. BUG-1659
Fully stacked, the ladder totals +60% heavy hit chance with Drone. The stat labels on the II and III cards now read Heavy Hit Chance. Because the bonus is tied to drone abilities, your global heavy hit chance on the stat panel may not visibly rise; judge it by your drones.
Critical Surge (Chain Lightning)
Fixed Critical Surge - Phase II granting no critical bonuses at all. The buff was being applied to the enemy instead of you. It now builds as Chain Lightning hits: +1% Crit Chance per hit up to +10%, and +2 Crit Damage per hit up to +20, capped at 10 stacks, decaying 2 seconds after your last hit. The stat now reads Crit Chance & Damage and the description states the 10-stack cap.
Other relics and gear
Fixed Voidline Belt not granting its void damage bonus when black holes were spawned by Pyrosphere Gravity Well Phase I. The belt grants increased void damage for 5 seconds whenever you spawn a black hole.
Removed unobtainable legacy tutorial relics from the Pyrosphere and sword relic lists, so the ability book only shows relics you can actually roll.
Fixed the Bomb ability tree being labelled Technology in the Abilities book. Bomb abilities are Dexterity and now display and grant Dexterity consistently. Blackhole Bomb remains Technology.
Balance & Design Changes
Improved resource node availability at higher tiers: Hacking nodes are denser worldwide, Shinjitsu Zakura has both more nodes and faster respawns, and Starbloom respawns sooner.
Added an extra tier 6 fishing spot to the Lunar Mountain node and increased fishing respawn rates.
Bud now sells Potato, Tomato and Bell Pepper seeds at Farming level 1 instead of level 3, so new characters can start Farming straight away.
Completing City of Light and Shadow now permanently opens the Blockade between Arcadia and Virelda in both directions, and Kaito's dialogue acknowledges your right to pass.
Added a one-time cinematic encounter with the Creator. After completing Point Proven, walk to the top-left edge of Veralda toward the world map to play it.
Game text now displays in your selected language across menus, dialogue and tutorial pop-ups. Open dialogue windows switch over on the next line.
Bug Fixes
Fixed Rowan vanishing during the final Mayor Hall step of Diplomatic Relations, which left Speak with the Virelda Ambassador impossible to complete. Expect brief scripted camera and movement control during those transitions.
Fixed the third room of Farpoint Shattered spawning nothing and blocking progress. The dungeon is back in the dungeon finder.
