Wanderburg has been in Early Access for just two weeks, and Randwerk is still moving through fixes and balance changes at a pretty impressive pace.
Hotfix 0.9.14 landed yesterday, and this one does considerably more than tidy up a few bugs. Boss fights should be easier to read, the Electric Mage has received a useful buff, allied units are behaving better, several stability problems have been addressed, and every run now starts with another chance to say “nope” to an Artifact you don’t want. That last one could make quite a difference.
Another Artifact Reroll for Everyone
Players now begin with two Artifact rerolls instead of one. It’s a small change on paper, but Wanderburg is all about putting together a castle build from whatever the run gives you. Being able to reject another Artifact from the start means a little more control over where that build goes before luck starts making the decisions for you.
This comes on top of the progression-based rerolls added in an earlier hotfix, where unlocking more Modules and Artifacts can earn additional rerolls.
Electric Mage Can Hit More Targets
Electric Mage users have done particularly well out of 0.9.14. Its basic auto attack can now hit seven targets instead of five, and upgrades will add more targets than they did previously.
The Roaming Storm effect has also been made more robust, so the module should behave more reliably alongside its increased offensive power. That’s not the only combat change. Overtime enemies have had their stun resistances adjusted, while some larger enemies will no longer take percentage-based damage from boss explosions. The Repair Wrench Artifact has also changed from healing 25% to restoring a flat 25 HP, which makes it considerably less powerful on builds with large health pools.
Boss Fights Should Be Easier to See
Boss encounters have received a fairly straightforward improvement. The camera now zooms out slightly during them. Considering Wanderburg can already have enemies, projectiles, allied units, and an increasingly ridiculous castle filling the screen, a little extra visibility during the biggest fights should be welcome.
Allied units have been cleaned up too. They were already invincible, but could still be affected by fire, stun, and knockback. They’re now immune to all three, removing situations where an ally couldn’t die but could still be bounced around or disabled by effects that ultimately weren’t going to kill it anyway.
It should make allied units behave far more consistently during busy fights.
Several Annoying Problems Have Been Fixed
Hotfix 0.9.14 also tackles a handful of issues that could get in the way outside the main balancing changes. The “Welcome to the Desert” achievement has been fixed, along with a problem affecting the Tinderbox Artifact and an incorrect skull display in the Overworld biome UI.
Randwerk has also improved the robustness of map generation, leaderboard loading, and interactions with the escape menu. A 240 FPS cap has been added to the main menu and Overworld too, preventing those areas from running at unnecessarily high frame rates.
Given that performance has been one of the areas Randwerk has continued working on since the Early Access launch, those stability improvements are worth paying attention to even if they’re less exciting than another Artifact reroll.
Wanderburg Is Still Changing Fast
Wanderburg only entered Early Access on September 8th, and 0.9.14 is already the latest in a rapid series of hotfixes covering performance, difficulty, Modules, Captains, Overtime, achievements, progression, and quality-of-life improvements.
You’ve got more control over Artifacts. Electric Mage can hit more enemies. Boss fights give you more room to see what’s happening. Allies no longer get knocked around by effects that can’t actually kill them. And plenty of smaller problems have been cleaned up along the way too.
Hotfix 0.9.14 is available in Wanderburg now.