Unexplored v1.19.3 + DLC The Dark Ritual

We're proud to announce the launch of our third free dlc (well, fourth if you count the soundtrack): THE DARK RITUAL.

This is yet another way of playing Unexplored and this time you arrive at a Cultist's mansion to stop them from summoning a Great Old One! Gather clues about the nature of the ritual, and find the right method to stop them before it is all too late. Every time you change locations, time advances, and as the clock approaches midnight, foul magics start tearing at the very fabric of reality.

After installing you find The Dark Ritual in Special Runs in the menu.

As always: let us know what you think in the comments!

Update
We've also pushed an update live which focuses on performance. The Cyclic Dungeon Generator now takes less time and the game uses less memory. This should decrease stutters and increase smoothness while playing.

10% discount on Unexplored: Unlocked Edition for Nintendo Switch
As of today you can pre-order Unexplored for the Switch! You receive a 10% discount.
https://twitter.com/PlayUnexplored/status/986971090982522880

The game launches on August 9. Have fun playing Unexplored on the go!

Arcade Mode has arrived! If you are up for a new challenge you should try it. In this mode you will see the most monsters, magic, and mayhem the game has to offer. Arcade mode is tough, with many enemies spawning: you’ll be knee-deep in their dead. To compensate there is also a lot of magic loot. In fact, all character classes start with an extra boost to help deal with the hordes that populate the Dungeon of Doom in this mode.

UI Changes
This update also introduces two important UI changes. One change is purely visual, the UI now looks like it is made out of stone: it adds a little detail and changes the colors slightly. If you don’t like the stone look you can always switch back to a ‘classic’ neutral look, or a mahony look if you prefer. You can do this by going to the options/graphics menu from the title (the option will not be available from in the game).

The other change is with the way items are picked up. Picking up an item now brings up a small window showing the items lying on the ground at your location. Picking up from the ground now closely resembles picking up items from a container. This will give you much more control over what you pick up, and makes going through a chamber full of dropped loot a lot easier. Although it might be a little trickier to pick up items in the heat of combat.

Optimization
We’ve also made an optimization to the content generation which should make it less memory intensive. At this stage it is still a little unclear how effective it was; the effects are very likely different on each individual system.

Looking Ahead
All good things must end and we are nearing the limits of how long we can keep improving the game. We will never stop supporting Unexplored: we will keep fixing bugs and adding the last of the planned content, we will launch a Mac build, Linux build, and one more DLC. But, opportunities have arisen that we cannot let pass. We’ll be making more detailed announcement shortly (contracts need to be signed first...), but we can already tell you that these will involve more platforms for Unexplored, and… the sequel(!).

In the short term you will notice that the frequency of updates will go down. Starting this week as holidays are coming and team-members are taking well deserved breaks over the course of the next couple of weeks.

It’s been almost a year Unexplored first came out in Early Access, during that time a truly wonderful community has sprung up around the game. More and more people are helping new players feel welcome and making excellent suggestions. We are very proud of this little community, so please do not stop. We’ll still be listening, and definitely plan to add more content whenever we can.

New Features:
- Adds arcade mode.
- Changes the way items are picked up.
- Adds two alternative and optional UI themes.
- Visually improves and distinguished cauldrons and braziers.
- Adds a button to start without equipment.
- Scrollbars in journal and release notes can be dragged with mouse and controlled with a gamepad.

Game Balance:
- Silver keys and ornate keys count as treasure and are not destroyed when they opened all their locks.
- Adds extra identification scrolls to the Mithril Run and the Ripley Run.
- Increases chance of spawning a Pistol or Musket.
- Reduces the number of doors closing behind you.
- Rings of parrying can be forged onto shields.
- Rings of Parrying are sold by ring vendors.

Bug Fixes:
- Fixes a generation error involving guns and causing plans to be regenerated.
- Fixes issue with the silver key not spawning.
- Fixes crashes when hit by lightning in myst.
- Fixes at one cause of the poorly generated shops.
- Fixes issue with scroll of pain not working correctly close to chests and doors.
- Fixes recharge behavior if Water rune armors.
- Fixes issue with enchanting negative items and then crafting them.
- Fixes issue with books about staff of blinking and grapple not spawning on the correct level.
- Fixes rounding issue with the sliders in the options menu.
- Fixes issue with swing weapons being 'stuck' after being hit whilst swinging.
- Fixes issue that cause a lot of big wooden tables to spawn.

The invisible walls bug was caused by a graphic asset that somehow went missing in the last update. It was pretty critical, so we fixed it and just pushed a patch live.

This patch also addresses the following issues:

Bug Fixes
- Fixes issue with certain magic items not triggering.
- Fixes crash caused by enemies equipped with crossbows.
- Right-clicking in the main window does not unpause the game.

Game Balance
- You can hide with a glimmering blade.

Game Balance
- Adjusted the invulnerability time after a hit so that the repeater crossbow can damage with every hit.
- Plants no longer count towards kill count in the Ripley Run.
- Eggs no longer bleed.
- Changed the balance of eggs, crawlers, and creeps spawned in the Ripley Run.
-In the Ripley Run Creeps can charge you.
- In the Ripley Run arrows are less frequently found.

Bug Fixes
- Puts a vault key in the the Alchemy Lab in the Ripley Run.
- Fixes crash in menu when starting Ripley Run.
- Fixes possible crash with AI feedback.
- Fixes crash caused by spawning the Air Elemental.
- Fixes issue with Descend scrolls on a Ripley Run.
- Eggs cannot hatch after they were killed.
- You can forge a staff of Feiry Doom again.
- Stacks of creep skulls are saved correctly.
- Fixes issues with oiled weapons. |

After the release of the Ripley Run DLC quite a few player reported crashes and memory issues. So this week we scrambled to make sure these got fixed as soon as possible. We've already been testing out some solutions in the unstable branch over the last couple of days, and from what we hear most issues were solved. That alone would justify a major update; but we also managed to address some balance issues: mostly concerning the combat dynamics and stealth.

Combat Dynamics
From the comments here and elsewhere we noticed that melee combat was still something of an issue. The swinging attack was still difficult to time right, and attacks by enemies were hard to avoid.

To solve these issues, we've changed the swing attack so that you first hold your weapon to the side and then swing and step forward. Enemies do this also, giving a chance to dodge their attacks. You can also see when an enemy is about to lunge forward with a spear or short sword.

This is quite a big change to the fighting dynamics, and it might take some getting used to as the timing is slightly different. But overall we are pretty confident it is a big improvement and we expect you'll get the hang of it quickly. We'll be monitoring the forum in case you feel otherwise.

Stealth
There have been two changes to stealth. First of all, when you are in stealth mope you are no longer slowed down, as it sometimes was hard to control, and the lack of control could make it feel a little sluggish. On the other hand, enemies have a better chance of spotting you when you are hidden, especially if they have seen you just before, or when they have a keen sense of smell.

Other changes were also made. Check the complete overview below:

New Features
- Changes swinging weapon dynamics.
- You can see when an enemy is about to swing or lunge.
- Adds a couple of visual indicators of AI State.
- You can combine a staff of fire ball and a staff of lightning to make a staff of switching.
- When you reload a game it starts paused.
- You can grab torches from walls by using tools.
- You can coat weapons in oil.

Game Balance
- Enemies have a better chance to finding you while hidden if they recently spotted you.
- Sneaking no longer reduces your speed.
- Daggers and potions no longer knock back big creatures such as trolls as much.
- Boiled Leather stops 50% of the blows from the front.
- Increase knock-back on melee weapons (and stabbing weapons in particular).
- The Lounge Lizard's lightning spells deal 10 damage.
- The Marine Magus marine missiles deal 8 damage.
- Praying works for destructible walls, one-way teleporters, and disabled teleporters.
- Eggs wake up if you bump into them.

Performance
- Improves ray-tracing (better performance near multiple light sources).
- Less memory intensive game log.

Bug Fixes
- Fixes generator issue that caused memory leak like behavior.
- Fixes issues with the Crackling and Thorough achievements in the Ripley Run.
- Falling down in a time trial no longer caused problems.
- Fixes issue with count jade cat puzzle.

To all new players that joined us the recent sale: please let us know what you think about the game in general and these updates in particular. And to all players that have been around for longer, you knew already that any type of feedback is appreciated by us, so you didn't need to be reminded, did you?

New Features
- The entire map and dungeon lay-out are revealed after you die (but not in dailies or weeklies).
- Hovering an floor in the dungeon lay-out map makes the appropriate stairs blink.
- Iron ore can be used to repair unenchanted, corroded weapons and armor.

Game Balance
- Nerfs the vine attack from the Monstrous Vine.
- Restricts the number of random drops for sigils and ogre hearts.
- Class bound items, and regular hats and cloaks cannot be corroded.
- Changes order of damage resolution to armor first and immunities/reductions second (effectively nerfs stone skin ring a little).
- Changes the way corrosion and enchantments affects the protection chance of armors.
- There is a slight delay between activating and dealing damage for electrifying creatures.

Bug Fixes
- Solves generator issues with missing staircases.
- Fixes issue with being able to crash/unequip class-bound items.
- Fixes issue with potions and scrolls being transformed inside a blue chest after a failed puzzle.
- On retrying the same dungeon the dungeon lay-out is hidden again.
- Solves issues with the explored status of floors being reverted.
- When a bow of shrapnell is used as a key item, it is spawned with some arrows.
- You cannot surprise attack inanimate objects.

Polish
- Skeletons no longer sniff, but rattle.

More features
- You can now heat up water over fires. We expect to expand on this feature soon. So it stll is quite safe to heat up a potion of explosion, for now...
- Hot water cools down.
- Weapons and staffs also blink in the world when they are nearly depleted.

Game balance
- Reduces the number of magic missiles that can spawn in Myst at the same time.
- Enemies are more mindful of the things they pick up.

Bug Fixes
- Improves enchanted image of the orc necklace.
- Wizards always starts with a Staff of Magic Missile +2.
- Your gold display in shop menus can no longer be selected with a controller.
- Enemy archers release their bows when they loose their targets.
- Creeps can be hit by fire and magic effects again.
- Mimics retain the items they had as a chest.
- You cannot get a basic item +X after making an offering at an altar.
- You don't remain slow after unequiping an activated bow or shield.
- Sprites can no longer see you and therefore prevent you from hiding.
- Cursed item are not revealed when dragging something on them in your inventory.
- When you pick a lock or use a tool with a stack in your hand failure only removes one.
- When a staff is depleted and you fire it no energy is lost.
- Fire Wards don't trigger if you are Fire Immune from a potion.
- Copying a scroll creates a stack of 2.