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Categories: Gaming News

Stoneshard Bolt Thrower Update

Here you will read Stoneshard 0.5.9.0 “Bolt Thrower” patch notes. We post them as they appeared on Stoneshard Steam page.

The 0.5.9.0 “Bolt Thrower” content update has been released! The complete list of changes can be seen below:

Main Additions

New playable character: Velmir. A hardened revenger hailing from distant Skadia, he begins the game with Affinities for Spears, Ranged Weapons, Maces, Athletics, and Combat mastery.
New weapon type: Spears – 24 new items.
Spears offer average Damage, but have high Accuracy and Armor Penetration, and their skills have a 2 tile Range.
New weapon type: Crossbows – 17 new items.
Crossbows deal high Damage, do well against armor, and are much more accurate than bows, but they require to be reloaded after each shot.
Arrowhead variation: ammunition is now split into 3 types with their own special properties: leaf-shaped, broadhead, and bodkin.
New bag type: Quivers – there are 8 of them, 4 for arrows, 4 for bolts. They are equipped in the weapon slot and can store 2 to 4 stacks of ammunition.
New ability tree: Spears – 10 new skills.
Immobilize enemies from afar, run them through with impaling lunges, receive defensive bonuses as you retreat, and deliver strikes to your foes as they approach.
New ability tree: Dual Wielding – 10 new skills.
Deliver devastating flurries of blows, fight entire groups head-on, deflect incoming attacks, and cut through the enemy lines in a whirlwind of steel.
New fauna: Hedgehogs and squirrels. Hunt them down for their new type of meat or precious squirrel pelts.
New flora: Rhubarb and nettle. Don’t forget to wear gloves.
Tweaks to ranged combat. Enemy and props sizes now correctly influence your shots’ Accuracy. If you want to improve your chances of hitting your foe, make sure there is nothing between you and the target.

Bows and crossbows are now considered a two-handed weapon with an option to equip appropriate ammo or a quiver in the second weapon slot.

Balance

New critical weapon effects: It may not be evident at first, but different weapon types have different crit effects. This mechanic has been there for quite a while, gradually becoming outdated. As a result, it has been reworked:

Swords: 100% chance to apply Bleed for 5-8 turns
Axes: +50% Bodypart Damage
Maces: 100% chance to Daze for 2-4 turns
Daggers: +220% Critical Damage against unaware targets. Burn 10% of the target’s Max Energy
Greatswords: cleave through 3 tiles. 125% chance to apply Bleeding for 6-10 turns.
Staffs: cleave through 3 tiles. Replenish 10% Max energy.
Spears: +100% Immobilization Chance
Bows: +100% Immobilization Chance
Crossbows: +100% Knockback Chance

REWORKED – Stance-based skills. Old stances functioned rather strangely: their duration and stack count were way too easy to ramp up and sustain throughout a fight, and it was entirely up to chance whether you lose said effect stacks or not.

Changes:

Reduced the max number of stacks from 6 to 4.
You gain 1 stack each time you use other skills from the stance’s ability tree.
Basic attacks with an appropriate weapon decrease the number of stacks by 1, but prolong the effect’s duration by 1 turn.

These changes are meant to make stances more tactical: they can no longer be activated at the start of a fight and then completely forgotten till the end of it – the new system requires balancing between maintaining stance duration and stacks, which are spent on empowering your attacks.

Reduced the amount of reputation needed to reach Amity and Respect (by 25%)
Rebalanced hunger and thirst gain.
Changed some equipment and weapon stats.
Spear-wielding enemies no longer have placeholder skills from other ability trees, and have been assigned Spear skills.
Ancient Troll now drops his pelt and tusks on death.
Added a new stat: Immobilization Chance.
Stun Resistance was renamed into Control Resistance and is now also used for resisting Confusion.
Knockback Resistance was renamed into Move Resistance and is now also used for resisting Immobilization
[Dual Wielding] Equipping dual weapons now also grants +15% Cooldowns Duration and +7.5% Fumble Chance.
[Dirwin] His starting Dirk was replaced with a Short Dagger.
[Dirwin] Maces Affinity was swapped for Staffs Affinity
[Arna] Her trait now grants [-7.5% > -5%] Abilities Energy Cost and Cooldowns Duration, as well as [-4% > -3%] Damage Taken for each enemy within Vision.
[Jorgrim] Maces Affinity was swapped for Dual Wielding
[Greatswords] Feint Swing: removed the penalty to Damage. Removed the bonus to Accuracy (it wasn’t really useful, as the skill already drops the target’s Dodge Chance to 0). Feint Swing now grants extra Damage, while also lowering Fumble Chance.
REWORKED – [Greatswords] Parry: now grants Block Chance and Block Power for 1 turn. Counterattacks now trigger on every received attack. Each strike you block reduces this skill’s Cooldown by 1.
REWORKED – [Greatswords] Feast of Steel is now a stance-based skill. It decreases Fumble Chance, improves Accuracy and Crit Efficiency, while also guaranteeing each 3rd attack to Crit.
[Ranged Weapons]: Taking Aim grants +[50 > 75]% Accuracy for the next turn. The bonus to Damage now scales with Perception.
REWORKED: [Ranged Weapons] Precision: hitting a target after using “Taking Aim” grants “Exceptional Accuracy” for 2 turns.
[Combat Mastery] Seize the Initiative – changed the max number of stacks from 4 to 6. Removed duration – the effect persists until the target affected by “Initiative Loss” either dies or leaves your Vision. Receiving “Initiative Loss” removes the effect of “Seized Initiative” and vice versa.
[Combat Mastery] Setup – bonus Accuracy and Damage you gain after skipping a turn persist for [1 > 2] turns and can now stack.
[Combat Mastery] Stance Training: if “Defensive Tactic” is active, stance-based skills start with 3 stacks on activation. If “Offensive Tactic” is active, using applicable skills additionally grants +1 stack to stance effects.
[Athletics] Mighty Kick: upon landing a kick, reduce the enemy’s Control and Move Resistances for the next turn.

Fixes

The state of fog of war is now being properly preserved, so it no longer conceals previously visited locations.
Changed the bug which caused huge Crit damage with bows.
Just as it’s stated in stat description, blocking arrows and bolts now requires an equipped shield. This rule also applies to enemies.
Removed the ability to shoot through dungeon walls and surface structures.
Fast travel between villages now takes some in-game time and changes your character’s stats just like sleeping would.
“Blessing” effect received a 1200 turns duration cap.
Fixed Vivifying Essence not burning Energy on use.
Fixed the use rule for fleawort.
Fixed the softlock occurring while removing a piece of equipment when both the inventory and a container are full.
The drunkard’s wife in Mannshire no longer flies around.
Fixed context menu when lockpicking a container.
Numerous fixes across all localizations.
Torso condition now correctly displays its influence on Max Health.
Fixed a number of mistakes in abilities’ formulas, as some of them didn’t work as they were supposed to.
Optimized rendering
Destroyed Unholy Altars no longer leave a lighting source behind.
Wraiths no longer spray blood when hit.
Effects no longer flicker on medium settings
Fixed Ancient Troll being able to attack during regeneration.
Many actions are now being properly logged.