This isn’t just our 6th major update since we launched, it’s our 1-year anniversary celebration in Early Access; and is our BIGGEST one yet! We can’t wait for you to jump in.

We would love to know what you think, and will be monitoring feedback in the coming weeks to ensure these latest additions are working properly.

Note: ⭐️ indicates changes inspired by community feedback!

• The new Lost Archipelago biome which includes:
  - A new Quest which will reveal some mysteries of the Vortex's past and introduce you to new characters…
  - A new Boss: the Broken Banger.
  - A bestiary of 10 new enemies (Blob, Golem Whip, Jaw, Baby Jaw, Laser Dog, Raptor Melee, Raptor Ranged, Tooth Beast, Baby Tooth Beast and Cavern) and 10 variants.

• 4 new melee Weapons(all to be found in the Lost Archipelago):
  - Golem Flail: its hits have a chance to Overwhelm - Crocojaws: its hits activates Brutality
  - Spinalsword: it changes when someone near dies…
  - Worm Clawsdeals Corrosive damageTo get those you'll need to perform a new action.

• 2 new Trinkets:
  - Fireworks: which flies in the air and stuns enemies around you (to be found in the Rat Village)
  - Smokey Dokey: which creates an AOE that makes most of the enemies' attacks miss you (to be found in the Lost Archipelago)

• 4 new Gifts that will only drop in some new Secret areas:
  - Full Blast: Blasts change shape and hit in all directions around the target.
  - Echoing Effects: Shattering Freeze, triggering a Mark and Rush hits apply Echo (125%).
  - Countless Scythe: You can have 12 more Scythes at the same time.
  - Blood Gush: Bleed can be triggered 9 more times per second.

• ⭐️ Alterattack Update: We've implemented significant changes to offer players greater depth, more strategic choices, and encourage the more aggressive playstyles (no more alter spam). Please take a look at the dedicated section for more details.

• ⭐️ Magifish Update: Magifishes recharge in a different way and can be enhanced with an Alterattack signal. Please take a look at the dedicated section for more details.

• ⭐️ New Expedition Recap Screen: You can now see all stats and information about your Expedition when it ends

• ⭐️ New Backpack feature: Added a new Upgrade to Eperin that can store one of your equipments for later use during your Expeditions

• ⭐️ New Killstreak Chest: You can open it by killing several foes in a row without being hit. You can switch that trial for the Timed Chest at the Ark (go the panel in front of the cannon).

• ⭐️ New Equipment Box upgrade: Get the new Upgrade from Eperin, visit the new chest and purchase a Weapon or Trinket to take with you on your next Expedition.

• ⭐️ 5 new Affixes are now available, with effects that enhance the Alterattack damage or grant Brutality, Echo, and even Overwhelm effects.

  ⭐️ 7 new Rare Affixes: this new kind of Affixes have a smaller chance of appearing but give stronger effects.
  Yes, there is a rare Size+% affix among them!

• New combat arenas and events. 70 new common islands to be found il all biomes. And a dozen of new biome-specific islands in the Golem Gardens and the Factory.

• NPCs: They can now propose several talking/interaction options.

• Updated Early Game Tutorials: A mysterious little girl will now assist you against the Headbanger until you kill it for the first time…

• New Cinematics for Boss fights and for NPCs' unlocks

• ⭐️ New Traditional Chinese localization

• 4 new Achievements!

• Optimization: Upgraded game and rendering engines to the latest versions to improve stability and prepare the game for future updates

• ⭐️ Damage Bonus Calculation:
  - The bonus now scales with the number of successful hits on a target
  - Manage your hits well and you'll deal more damage than before
  - If you miss entirely, the bonus is zero
  - This change encourages aggressive, high-risk playstyles
  - Tip: You can check how hits are counted via a new colored bar in the Weapon's button displayed in your Player HUD

• ⭐️ Chaining Changes:
  - Validating an Alterattack now ends the cycle. So to reach a Super Alterattack, avoid validating the base one; for Ultra, avoid validating both the base and the Super one ("Chained" are now individually called "Super" and "Ultra" Alterattacks).
  - When you reach your maximum chain (either Super or Ultra depending on your progress in the game), not validating it directly will not end the circle. You can now keep combo-ing to get a better moment to unleash it.
  - Their damage bonuses are now significantly higher (they multiply instead of just adding)
  - This rewards players who commit to long, risky chains and avoid getting hit (the chain also ends if you're hit)
  - Also, waiting just a bit after the signal and switching Weapons won't break the Chaining anymore - Note: Chained Alterattacks still receive a base bonus even if no hits landed
  - Tip: the bar's color in the Player HUD reflects the progression in the chaining

• ⭐️ Weapons Changes:
  - All weapons' base damage bonuses have been updated. The more risk required to trigger an Alterattack, the higher the bonus. For example, slow melee weapons now grant higher bonuses than ranged ones.
  - Boomerang / Ninja Stars / Sharp Sisters: their Alterattacks now have more i-frames
  - Boomerang: when its comes back automatically, you can trigger the other's weapon Alterattack even if you were already mashing the input
  - Charged Blade: can now ignite an Alterattack during non-held combos (with reduced bonus)
  - Katars: its combo hits 2 times when you are infusing Bleed (e.g. after its Alterattack)
  - Shield:
  - The number of rotating shields from Alterattacks now increase if it is a Super or Ultra one
  - The Alterattack rotating shields briefly stun enemies when hit
  - Guarded Hits can now trigger Alterattacks (with half the bonus of a parried one)
  - When you Parry, the Alterattack opportunity is now triggered when you hit (and not directly when the movement starts)

• ⭐️ Gifts Changes:
  - They have been updated to be compatible with the logic changes, and some have been rebalanced
  - Brutal Alterattacks: is now called Aggressive Alterattacks. Value changed to x1.5 (from x1.75)
  - Advanced Alterattacks: changed to "Your Alterattacks are always chained with bonuses x0.6."
  - Super Alterattacks: is now called Megalterattacks. Value changed to x1.25 (from x1.5)
  - Double Alterattack: changed to "Triggers another Alterattack after the 1st one, with a bonus x0.5." (will now re-trigger the previous Chaining level)
  - Alter Mark and other effects triggering an automatic Alterattack give the bonus as if all hits were successful. To compensate, their cooldown has been increased

• ⭐️ Misc:
  - Hitting an enemy who is unaware of your presence will not be heavily punished with damage reduction anymore
  - The signal of the Ultra Alterattack is usable for a bit longer than the previous ones (1s instead of 0.66s)

• They are recharged by time.

• ⭐️ You are briefly invincible when you launch a Magifish

• ⭐️ BUT unleashing it while Alterattack signal is active will increase their duration and reduce the cooldown (depending on the Alterattack Chaining)

• Rope: is now unlocked inside the new biome. Previous saves will need to unlock it again.

• Memory Link (previously refered as Player Remains): Is now an unlocked with Eperin

• ⭐️ Weapons: a lot of their attacks can now be interrupted way earlier by dashing

• ⭐️ Melee Weapons:
  - Improved the targeting of their combo attacks, making it especially more accurate when attacking between dashes
  - Combo movements enhanced on Elder Sword, Eye Blade, Charged Blade, Goo Brush, Heavy Blade, Katars and Umbrella.

• ⭐️ Ranged Weapons: hamonized their interruption timings

• ⭐️ Weapons: Telepike: Held attack has no cooldown anymore but now has a longer recovery after the teleportation

• ⭐️ Trinkets: Chrono Catch: Duration is now 4.5s and speed is now reduced by 25% (were 6s and 30% respectively)

• Trinkets: Frost Nova: Initial damage no longer shatters Freeze if used with Echo

• ⭐️ Gifts: Blast: Improved behaviour with Sharp Sisters' Alterattack

• ⭐️ Affixes: The values of "Attack speed + / Total damage -" and "Total damage + / Attack speed -" have been rebalanced

• ⭐️ Economy: The Gift Slots now have a higher chance of appearing in the Shops

• Enemies: Some enemy AOE attacks can now injure other enemies (and not just players).

• Infected Tribomber Boss: Has new attacks! And several previous attacks have been updated.

• Memoreaper Boss: fast 180 degrees sword attack is much slower

• Naveless Brothers Boss: between each fight you have 10 seconds to pick another opponent, otherwise one will break free from his incubator automatically

• ⭐️ Elites: Delayed some traits activation by 1s after the elite is spawned

• Elite Traits:
  - Fire AOEs: size reduced in Cataclysmic
  - Rotating lasers: are now toggled on/off every 5 seconds. When there is 2, the second is placed on the enemy's back. In Cataclysmic there are now 3 lasers.

• Enemies: Ark's Dummy: Now deals damage when attacking you

• Enemies: Bunker: The Bunker enemy in Factory has been updated with a new small jump ability to help it close the distance and maintain pressure on players.

• ⭐️ Enemies: Gundog Alpha: New Flamethrower attack

• Enemies: Sentinel: AOE attack updated

• Co-op: Revenge: We don't push enemies when entering the Revenge anymore

• Co-op: Timed Chest: Can be activated again in co-op

• Co-op: Trial Chests: Rewards in those chests are now exclusive to the player who opened it

• Ark / Training Racks: The 3 training racks have been merged into one, and have been moved to the other side of the central island in the Ark. The weapon training upgrade now needs to be bought first before accessing the 2 others.

• Trinkets / Magifishes: when the cooldown is still active, trying to launch it will display the remaining duration above your head

• ⭐️ Gears & Gifts UIs: Those interfaces now features icons to show what is considered melee or ranged

• HUD:
  - Updated placement of several counters and indicators.
  - Moved Brutality feedbacks from above the player to near the Health bar.
  - Added new feedbacks near the Health bar for Infusions and Lifesteal effects.

• ⭐️ UI: Tooltips: The last description mode chosen (simple, detailed etc.) is now saved and applied on all relevant interfaces

• Inventory / Objectives: When you close the inventory, the displayed objective will fade out with it

• ⭐️ Options: New music damping setting

• ⭐️ Options: The "No Flashes" option now removes flashes of lights from the fireworks in Rat Village and from the Fireworks trinket

• Options: You can now force to show the killstreak counter on your HUD

• ⭐️ Options: you can toggle the HUD's display of your current run timer. This timer is also no longer paused if you backtrack after defeating a Boss.

• ⭐️ Factory Ziplines: The dash cooldown is now ignored when you use them to make the movement more seamless.

• Tutorials: updated the Alterattack and Crystallize unlock zones, that were sometimes difficult to understand. They now contain statues that are connected to the doors: destroying them to open it.

• ⭐️ Crystallize: silly damage numbers are not shown anymore

• ⭐️ Save Manager: Play time is easier to read

• Dash: fixed being hit even if you dashed at the same exact frame an nothing was preventing you to do it

• Melee Attacks: fixed an issue where some circular melee attacks would fail to hit targets that were too close to the attacker

• ⭐️ Crystallize: Fixed trying to perform a Crystallize on an enemy who already disappeared, leading to a teleportation

• ⭐️ Weapons: Katars: Fixed always being able to crit with the "Next hit critical after held attack" affix after triggering it once

• ⭐️ Weapons: Fishing Rod: Fixed enemies rarely not dying when being dropped off with the fishing rod

• ⭐️ Weapons: Shield:
  - Fixed blood impacts being incoherent (blocking not having blood vfx, parrying spreading some)
  - Fixed some deflected projectiles with the shield not having their damages scaled
  - Fixed being hit while rotating shields from the Alterattack should protect you
  - Fixed not being able to launch the next chained Alterattack when parrying
  - Fixed hearing "hit" SFXs during the Alterattack
  - Fixed proposing the "Alterattack Damage+ affix" to this weapon

• ⭐️ Trinkets: Chrono Catch & Ice Bomb can now be applied ontop of eachother without issue

• ⭐️ Gifts: Boost Stock: Fixed the bonus Boost sometimes not appearing in Endless Mode

• ⭐️ Gifts: Merged Scythe: Behaviour is more robust now

• ⭐️ Gifts: Unstable: Fixed the Unstable Gift's VFX sometimes not playing completely

• ⭐️ Affixes: Fixed incompatibilities sometimes ignored when upgrading gear

• ⭐️ Enemies: Fixed Ant Mother's egg being able to spawn outside of terrain

• ⭐️ Memoreaper Boss: Healers cannot be spawned outside of the arena anymore

• ⭐️ Stagger: Fixed enemy sometimes staying in the air if staggered mid-flight

• ⭐️ Elites: Fixed having their effects damaging players on the first frame of activation

• ⭐️ Game Difficulties: the starting Fish Knife now properly gains additional gear level linked to a Game Difficulty

• ⭐️ Biome Extra Reward: Prevented locked biomes from getting the bonus until they are unlocked

• ⭐️ Arena: Fixed pressure plates still being visible after an arena's activation if the linked player(s) was dead during it

• ⭐️ Arena: Fixed pressure plates sometimes still being up after entering an arena

• Loots / Challenges: Fixed having interactable loots in the middle of a challenge fight (they are now delayed properly)

• ⭐️ Loot: Improved loot positioning so they overlap less frequently

• ⭐️ LD: Ark: Prevented players from being stuck on an island

• ⭐️ LD: Reward icons above doors are now correctly hidden before their setup

• ⭐️ Zipline: Fixed being able to drop items while on a zipline, which created issues

• ⭐️ Tutorials: Tutorials will be resumed after loading a save if left unfinished

• ⭐️ VFXs: Fixed slashes drawing shadows on the ground

• ⭐️ UI: FREND-4V3R: Fixed menu being hard to use with scrollwheel

• ⭐️ UI: Heal Flask: Fixed the heal AOE marker still being visible even though the flask VFX on the ground isn't there anymore

• ⭐️ UI: Shop: Fixed toggle tooltip label on shop items' descriptions not updating to reflect the current toggle action

• UI / RTCs: Fixed showing the Boss HUD briefly before the fight intro cinematic

• Visuals: the sea of cloud beneath the islands is now rendered properly again

• ⭐️ Under the hood errors:
  - Fixed error when parrying a non-character's attack like a mine

• ⭐️ Endless:
  - Fixed bosses spawning without being at max HP when in higher loops
  - Fixed showing wrong lower prices for gates in endless

• ⭐️ Co-op: Crash: Fixed crashes happening when interacting with the UI

• Optimized several aspects of the rendering to enhance the performances

• Alterattack Update: We've changed how they charge, upgrade, and reset. All of which aim to make the mechanic more strategic and impactful. Promoting aggressive playstyles.
  
• Magifish Update: These now trigger with the Alterattack signal, having their durations increased with each stage.
  
• New Expedition Recap Screen: See useful data like damage dealt, where that damage came from, the build you had and much more.
  
• New Eperin Upgrades: Three new purchasable upgrades - Equipment Chest, Killstreak Chests, and the Backpack.
  
• 5 New Affixes: with effects that enchance Alterattack damage or grant Brutality, Echo, and even Overwhelm effects

• Go to your Steam game library.
  
• Right click on Windblown and click "properties".
  
• Select the tab "Betas".
  
• In the first dropdown box select "public_beta"
  
• Click close and wait for the update to finish downloading.