Changelog/2022/October 19

Hello,

Today we are improving existing content for both early and late-game players.

► Kuudra Revamp

Since their release, Kuudra has been a little sick, but they feel much better now. Here are the most important significant changes:

Shop Revamp



The shop still uses tokens, but instead of earning your own tokens, now whenever someone gains tokens, all players obtain the same amount. Once you have at least 50 tokens, you'll be able to choose a Route; there are 4 of them:


 * Cannoneer: Perfect for protecting your teammates from tentacles, and dealing with flying creatures.
 * Crowd Control: If your party is struggling with the waves of monsters, someone should take this route!
 * Strategist: The best route to accomplish all objectives faster, a must-pick!
 * Support: If you are strong enough to deal with the monsters but still want to help your teammates in the process.

Choosing a route means you'll have to stick to it for the rest of the fight. Inside each route, there are many perks you can level up.

Objectives



There are now three distinct phases to the boss fight:


 * Retrieving the supplies from the lava
 * Building the Ballista
 * Loading up and shooting the Ballista

While those 3 phases are very straightforward in the basic tier of the fight, higher tiers get more complicated and will require extra teamwork.

Here's a list of the rest of the changes:


 * There is now a wave system going all the way up to 100. There is no reward for seeing all the waves; it is more of a soft difficulty mechanic - the longer you take, the harder it gets.
 * The goal isn't to kill the tentacles anymore, but it can sometimes be useful to help your teammates collect supplies.
 * You need a lava rod to do some of the objectives, but you can buy one in the shop. You'll also need a pickaxe in higher tiers.
 * You can purchase a personal shop to have it in your hotbar for quick access.
 * You can now access the shop while dead.
 * The entrance fees are removed, however;
 * The free chest has much less loot.
 * Paid chests contain way more Crimson Essence, however;
 * The price of the keys went up a lot in the Emissary shops.
 * Hollow Armor is now released, along with a few other items that were locked behind higher tier of the fight.

Note: The Infernal Tier (or tier 5) isn't available just yet, but you can expect it to release in the very near future.

► End Island

The End has always been a staple of the early to mid-game; it was time to refresh some parts of its content.

Lone Adventurer

Thanks to many community members, this lost adventurer found his way to the end island. He will teach new players what he learned from this island and even reward them with new items.

 

Ender Armor Changes

As time goes by, we understand more and more which items should or shouldn't be soulbound.

The Ender Armor is part of the game's progression and should be easy to obtain - on your own. We are increasing the chances of obtaining the items while removing them from trading places.


 * Ender Armor is now soulbound
 * Ender Armor drop rate increased to 1%
 * Added four new pieces of equipment
 * Ender Cloak - Dropped from Watchers
 * Ender Necklace - Dropped from Endermen
 * Ender Belt - Dropped from Obsidian Defenders
 * Ender Gloves - Dropped from Shiny Blocks

Zealots Bruiser Hideout



The Dragon's Nest can be a pretty crowded and hostile place to new players who can barely deal with Zealots. Those portals teleport players to the Zealot Bruiser Hideout, where those Endermen reward more Combat EXP, have a greater chance to spawn special Zealots, but are also much stronger.

The goal is to get the strong players away from the nest and give new players a chance at fighting Zealots.

Draconic Altar and Essence Shop



You can now sacrifice most of the items obtainable on this island, such as dragon gear, ender armor, and more. The main purpose is to obtain Dragon Essence, but sometimes the Altar grants you secondary rewards.

Tyzzo, the Dragon Ritualist, is a new Essence Shop.



Tyzzo only accepts Dragon Essence, and it focuses on activities of the End Island, but not only!

Shiny Blocks

The loot table of Shiny Blocks got a full revamp, but the most important change is the addition of Endermite Nests. Killing the Endermites from those will drop Mite Gel, which is useful in many recipes and worth a nice sum of coins.



► Bits items

Elizabeth is selling a bunch of new Bits Items!



Simple, yet effective!



Very fancy!



Udel keeps on selling subpar phones just so he can sell better ones each year, despicable tactics.

But at least with the Abiphone Contacts Trio, you'll have plenty of contacts!



There are now plenty of new Abiphone Cases, each with a different use.

Abicases are Rare Accessories, but only 1 of them will work at a time.

Choose wisely!



Good bugs become features.



Surprisingly good smell.

 

New unique custom dyes, very expensive, however.

► New Abiphone Contacts

Abiphones are getting more and more popular, and many new SkyBlock habitants own one; here is the list:


 * Jacob
 * Anita
 * Fear Mongerer
 * Jotraeline
 * Mort
 * Maxwell
 * Jax
 * Fred (new NPC in dwarven mines forge)
 * Rusty
 * George
 * Zog
 * Tia
 * Elizabeth
 * Trevor
 * St. Jerry
 * Geo
 * Walter
 * Shifty
 * Plumber Joe

► Fast Travel

Recently the fast travel menu has become cluttered with its current design, so we've opted to segment up the menu into categories to give users a clearer and easier experience while allowing us to expand it in the future better.

 

► Powder Changes


 * Moved most buffs to be a percentage extra powder.
 * Fixed Powder Buff perk giving incorrect bonuses.
 * Fixed the following locations not respecting powder buffs:
 * Picking up powder items (dye)
 * Daily Powder perk
 * Powder rewards from commissions
 * Goblin Killer perk
 * Mining Events
 * Dark Monoliths
 * Puzzler
 * Fetchur
 * Bednom
 * Powder Ghasts
 * Crystal Hollows chests
 * Fixed chat messages not using the buffed amount of powder.
 * Buffed Dark Monolith drop rates and amounts.
 * Front Loaded perk now provides +2 base powder for your first 2500 ores.
 * Fixed a lot of lore/color inconsistencies

► Bug Fixes


 * Fixed normal item requirements not working in dungeons with dungeonized weapons (SLAYER REQ)
 * Fixed Catacombs 50 not giving any SkyBlock Levels XP.
 * Fixed Catacombs 50 SkyBlock level total not being correct.
 * Fixed Spider’s Den missing the apostrophe in the scoreboard.
 * Fixed some recipe items displaying the lore in the wrong order.
 * Fixed the Emerald Blade being capped at 2M instead of 2B.
 * Fixed progress bars in the commission menu being over multiple lines.
 * Fixed a lot of “a” and “an” being colored in the dark auction, minion skins, furniture, and training dummies.
 * Fixed wrongly colored parenthesis appearing in some collections.
 * Fixed all the Mana Ray trophy fish using the same skin.
 * Fixed Crystal Hollows Fairy Grotto Biomes not all using the correct zone.
 * Fixed Fairy/Butterflies not spawning in Crystal Hollows.
 * Fixed the HOTM Front Loaded perk remaining active after being disabled.
 * Fixed typos.

Known issue: Magma Boss Bestiary is removed but will be back after a fix.

► Balancing

A few recipes changed:


 * The Shark Water Orb requires
 * 8 Blue Shark Teeth instead of 16
 * 16 Nurse Shark Teeth instead of 32
 * 12 Enchanted Shark Fins instead of 16
 * The Winter Water Orb requires
 * 32 Hunks of Blue Ice instead of 16
 * 16 Green Gifts instead of 8
 * The Water Orb now requires
 * 16 Enchanted Prismarine Crystal instead of 0
 * 16 Enchanted Prismarine Shard instead of 32
 * Ichthyic Gloves require 24 Blue Shark Teeth instead of 48
 * Ichthyic Belt requires 16 Blue Shark Teeth instead of 32
 * Ichthyic Cloak requires 16 Blue Shark Teeth instead of 32

The Rampart Armor is now easier to obtain:


 * Bezals, Blazes, Wither Skeletons, Wither Specters, and Magma Cubes have much less health than before.
 * The drop rate of the armor pieces is buffed from 0.1% to 0.2% on all of those mobs.

► A note on future updates

Here's a quick recap of what you can expect in the next few updates!

Happening pretty soon, but in no specific order:


 * Garden Update (part 1)
 * SkyBlock Levels follow up
 * Wizard Portal

Happening moderately soon:


 * Garden Update (part 2)

Happening in a little while:


 * Foraging update (info soon)

Credits:

@Nitroholic_ - Kuudra Fight

@JacobRuby and @Plummel - Kuudra Tentacle and Ballista animations

@Dctr - End Update

@Minikloon - End Update + Bits items + Abiphone contacts

@TheMGRF - Fast Travel + Powder Changes + Bug Fixes

@Bloozing, @Citria, HPC and QA Team - Testing/QA

@Jayavarmen - Game Design

@Octaverei - Balancing Game Design

@LadyBleu - Skin arts

@Rozsa - End Island build changes

@Cheesey and @fudgiethewhale - Portalizer builds and Kuudra bossfight map changes

@DistrictGecko - Ballista armorstand design.

Remember that this list is not exhaustive. Developers on this list are often working on other projects.

Thanks for reading! And many thanks for continuing to report issues as we try and work our way through them. A special thanks to the players who helped in the testing and design of this update!