Towerborne Patch Nerfs Umbras, Fixes Status Effect Duration and Bugs

Towerborne, the latest title from The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio, launched in early access one week ago to decent praise. While it will eventually go free-to-play, the developer is busy addressing bugs and implementing various fixes in the current build.

The second major patch is live, fixing bugs like the Curios tab disappearing if players get disconnected or the Snaggleshire chest awarding Writs at Danger Level 1. Hits on blocking enemies should also display properly, and status effects have had their duration reined in after it was discovered they lasted for “double or triple their intended durations.”

While Stoic Studio will “have more to say” about the various classes later, it believes that several Umbra are over-performing. “Our design intent for Umbra is that there should never be a global ‘Always-Use’ Umbra, nor should an Umbra’s ability be out-performing the Ace’s Focus Abilities. As such, we have reduced the damage of several Umbra to be more in line with the expectation of the Ace’s total kit.”

As such, Sten now deals 30 percent less damage; Morberry’s radius damage is reduced by 20 percent; and so on. Check out some of the changes below and full patch notes here.

Towerborne is available for PC – check out our review here. It will launch for early access on Xbox Series X/S next year.

Early Access, Patch 2 – Balancing and Bug Fixing

Gameplay

• Writs Chest Fix: We’ve fixed a bug that was awarding Writs from Snaggleshire at Danger Level 1, as players were never meant to get Writs and Curios that early. This should not impact your total Writ inflow.
• Curios Tab Fix: Resolved an issue where players who lost network connection would no longer see the Curios tab.
• Bald Ace Fix: Your Ace will no longer appear bald after previewing a helm cosmetic in the Store or Curio tab if no helmet is equipped.
• Mission Soft Lock: Fixed an issue where some players were getting stuck when destroying a monster spawner when an encounter is not properly activated.
• Dialogue Fix: Corrected a conversation title that referenced the wrong NPC.
• Quest Adjustments:
  – A Return to Form quest text has been rephrased for clarity.
  – A Class Above the Rest has been updated to give you credit for playing with the Sentinel class.

Combat

• Hit Impacts: There was an issue where hit impacts were not displaying correctly when enemies were blocking. This has been fixed.
• Status Effects: We fixed an issue where status effects lasted double or triple their intended durations, resulting in a scenario where the Ace could be stunned or poisoned for a long time. This also caused status effects to exceed damage expectations.

Classes

We have been watching how everyone is playing their respective classes and we will have more to say about that later. Right now we’re just focusing on fixing any obviously broken issues. Please continue to give us feedback, we’ve been reading it all!

• Sentinel: Fixed an issue where some attacks weren’t contributing to the Valor Meter.
• Rockbreaker: Reduced Break Bar damage from the Elbow Drop (Jump Heavy Attack).
• Shadowstriker: Fixed an issue that caused the Class Mechanic to instantly build 3 bars by performing the focus ability, Deathrattle.

Umbra

After watching players for the past week, it has become apparent that we need to make some adjustments to certain Umbra. When we look at total damage output, Break Bar damage, and situational use, it becomes very clear that several of them are significantly out-performing our intentions. Our Design intent for Umbra is that there should never be a global “Always-Use” Umbra, nor should an Umbra’s ability be out-performing the Ace’s Focus Abilities. As such, we have reduced the damage of several Umbra to be more inline with the expectation of the Ace’s total kit.

• Sten: Sten’s ability was primarily intended to provide the Ace a crowd control with moderate damage. Sten’s damage was exceeding this and so we have reduced damage output by 30%.
• Morberry: Morberry’s radius of damage combined with total damage done turned out to be quite excessive, and so we have reduced the radius damage by 20%. Direct hits will still deal significant damage.
• Papyrus: We went back and forth on Papyrus. We could have increased its cooldown and kept the damage output, however, we’re pretty big fans of being able to extend combos using this Umbra and opted to lower its damage output instead of preventing cool moments. Overall, we have reduced Break Bar damage by 20%.
• Pox: This simply was dealing a lot of damage on the initial hit in addition to dealing poison. Let’s be real, it was pretty powerful. I mean, it also has multiple charges. Thus we have reduced initial explosion damage by 15% in order to bring Pox in line with other Umbra.