Halloween marked the first public release of Soul Reaper's Open Beta, and the last few weeks have been simply incredible for us! We've had many one-on-one conversations with users describing their first impressions, and we've received a multitude of amazing recommendations since the build went live! Our team has been keeping a careful eye on the bugs submitted via our Bug Reporting Form, and this next build will see a series of improvements based on all the amazing feedback!

Grab the new build here at powerlevelstudios.com/beta!

Before we even get into the changes, let's take a look at the new content added in this update! For starters, Elysium is now available to explore!

Cloud Nine, Baby!

Players are no longer restricted to just Volcanhiem! You'll be able to explore the grassy landscape of Elysium, a series of floating islands in The Vault! While the terrain is more vibrant and carefree, don't be fooled! There are some seriously strong monsters (and bosses!) in this area!

While the new area is a sizable addition to Soul Reaper's current landscape, there's another major change involving our favorite cloaked hero. Get ready for a twist, because…

The Soul Reaper… Joins The Fight!?!

That's right, the Soul Reaper himself can now be added to the combat grid! While he's still more than comfortable issuing orders to his subservient souls, there are times where sitting out simply won't due. He takes his job as Warden of The Vault pretty seriously, and he'll hop onto the battlefield if necessary!

While a really cool change to the system, such a decision didn't just spawn out of thin air! There's a number of factors that lead to his implementation, so allow me to explain!

Firstly, we felt that giving players the option to select Soul Reaper as a unit would add far more value in powering him up! Players will now get to experience the full set of his attributes in combat, and can create some crafty row bonus combinations with him as well! This way, you'll be getting a lot more mileage out of leveling up the Soul Reaper than you would have otherwise!

Secondly, it also gives the player more use out of the Soul Reaper's fragments! By besting your impostors in combat, you'll be able to utilize unique row bonuses based on the fragments you collect! Nifty, huh?

Lastly, it presents an interesting fallback should a player decide to devour or trash all of their souls. Take the following situation, for example. A player starts a new file, and immediately sacrifices their souls to boost the Soul Reaper. Without any souls on the battlefield, he actually won't get the opportunity to flex his newfound muscle! Any combat would result in an immediate loss, preventing the player from obtaining any new souls! (While we could offer free souls in this scenario, such a gesture would be rather easy to exploit.)

All in all, allowing users to throw the Soul Reaper onto the battlefield improves his utility, and provides even more unique ways to progress throughout the game. With this, we hope that you'll give him a try!

The feature is brand new, so using Soul Reaper as a monster unit isn't quite as polished as we'd like it to be just yet. Still, it's a great way to spice up your squads while giving the player an option to fight if all souls have been consumed. Take him for a spin in 0.0.2, and let us know how it goes! (Oh, and he behaves like a normal element type! So nothing is super effective by, or against him!)

What's Changed Since the Last Version?

There's been a number of improvements made to version 0.0.2! We'll outline all of the adjustments below! (List compiled by the man himself, Danny Forest!)

Major Features and Additions

• Feats system: Perform various things to complete feats and earn rewards:
     a) New menu section
     b)Talk to Vipo to claim your rewards
     c) 321 feats right in that version!
• Each fragment unlock improves the exp you get from devouring a specific type of soul. For example, the Romantic fragment increases exp gained from devouring water-based monsters by 10x!
• You can now "equip" fragments of previous Soul Reapers you've defeated.
• Equipping a fragment affects many things in the game:
    a) The eye color
    b) The dialogues with all NPCs in the game
    c) You get a different row bonus depending on fragment you equip (more on that just below)
• Soul Reaper can now be added to your Squads!
    a) In the squad, Soul Reaper makes use of all available stats (for example, health and resistances on Soul Reaper had no use before)
    b) Soul Reaper has a row bonus that depends on the fragment equipped. For example, the Arrogrant fragment boosts Fire Damage Bonus.
• Elysium is now unlocked, leading to 3 new bosses with new abilities to use in the Vault. Two of the bosses are in Elysium and the other one can be found in Volcanhiem later.

Minor Features and Changes

• Soul Reaper is now easier to level up and levelling up gives him more stat points
• Soul steal chance is now defaulted to 70% (up from 40%)
• Soul Find attribute can now spawn on any loot (only affects the unit with the loot equipped)
• You now start the game with Soul Reaper in your squad, instead of a Nuttercutter
• Bug fix: You can no longer be stuck with having no units to add to your squad (the Soul Reaper never goes away)
• Nicer display for choosing the save file
• Tons of bugs fixes and progression improvements in Volcanhiem
• Fixed all monster behaviours in the Vault
• Added Badnanas and Damnabull to Vault maps
• Fixed minor issues affecting combat (like Soul Reaper not having a default target)
• Ignopede now spawns geysers (this may change in the future)
• Now saving the equipped squad index so when you restart you start the game with the same squad
• Fixed Opponent Soul Reapers looking the wrong way and having no eye color
• Tons of new dialogues all over (Vypo now gives useful tips on progress)
• Some Combat UI adjustments
• Tons of Menu UI improvements
• Fixed bug preventing selection of arsenal loot or squad units at the bottom of the screen (in the menu)
• Fixed keeping overpowered loot from the intro
• Fixed menu issues with Percie (merchant)
• Tons of dialogue fixes
• Hold "left shift" in combat to see the actual health values of all the monsters (Left Trigger on controller)

A New Event Approaches

At the end of October's Developer Interview, it was mentioned that Power Level Studios might make an appearance at the Montreal International Game Summit. We have great news to share, as we can confirm we'll be attending!

We're still ironing out the timetable and booth location, so we'll make this information available as soon as things are finalized! We're looking forward to playtesting with the public once again!

The Animation Sensation (Frogs and Fruit Edition)

We love showing off Soul Reaper's animations, and this batch includes a few of our favorites! Check out the Frogginhood and Badnana below!

Unclog the frog, unload the toad! This ribbiting fiend wields a bow and arrow with nothing more than its tongue!

This is the one fruit that might turn YOU into composting material. Be careful, he's a trained warrior!

Follow Us!

That about wraps things up for this update! Remember to check out our new build at powerlevelstudios.com/beta, and let us know what you think! Our Discord and Steam Community are the easiest ways of making your voice heard, but feel free to reach out to us via any of our social media links below! Stay tuned for further news, and we'll see you fine folks next time! Stay safe, and have a good one!

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