Hey Hellsweepers, are you ready to pull more friends into the fiery depths of hell? The Alliance Free Update is here -- From expanding co-op to 3 players to the all-new Gauntlet Mode, a relentless boss in Avarice, and Day & Night System, this update is packed with content that will test your endurance, teamwork, and style.
And as always, your feedback has been crucial in making this happen. So grab your weapons, rally your squad, and let’s dive in!
Watch the highlights here:
[previewyoutube=FX94y8OXVn0;full][/previewyoutube]
New Game Mode: Gauntlet
Endless. Relentless. Brutal.
The Gauntlet is a trial of pure endurance, throwing waves of enemies and bosses at you in an endless loop.
How far can you descend into hell before your strength gives out? This mode is available in both Single-player and Multiplayer. Bring your A-game (and a buddy or two) because hell doesn’t hold back.
Co-op now supports up to 3 players!
One of the most requested features is here—3-player co-op! Grab two friends, sharpen your blades, and see how long your alliance holds in the face of unrelenting demons. Huge thanks to our beta testers on Discord for helping us battle-proof this mode. You’re the real MVPs.
With the update finally live, our team will be doing another sweep to check the build's stability, and we thought... what better way to do it than with all of you? If you're in the mood for a co-op sweep, join us on December 12th from 9 PM to 10 PM EST for a game or a chat. We'll be opening several public rooms in the game!
New Boss: Avarice
Greed has kinda ascended, and its penchant for chaos is insatiable. Meet Avarice, the wheel of destruction that rolls across the battlefield with relentless force. Simple in form, devastating in action—don’t let your guard down. Sometimes, the deadliest enemies are the ones you underestimate.
Day & Night Mechanics
The Day & Night System brings a new layer of strategy to your runs:
- ☀️Daytime: Totems will remain dormant, but treasure? A little scarce. Certain enemies prefer day time.
- ????Nighttime: Treasure chests are more abundant, but darkness brings offensive totems and more of certain enemies.
And while not necessarily related to the Day and Night mechanics, here’s a fun bonus—torches are now interactive! Light them up with Fire Magic or extinguish them with Frost Magic... just for fun. :p
Show Off with Weapon Skins
What better way to celebrate dragging a third teammate to hell than showing off your weapons in style? With the addition of Weapon Skins, you can finally personalize your tools of destruction.
Bringing Back Launch Options for Steam Players
Important: We've brought back the Runtime launch options by popular request!
- OpenXR - This can be described as the one-size-fits-all mode. It will allow devices to use their proprietary app, eg. Oculus devices using the Meta Quest Link app. However, the customization is lacking as it is not possible to make any changes outside of the game.
- SteamVR - We recommend this to Valve Index users. This allows customization outside of the game, like putting bindings on certain buttons for controllers we don't support. The downside is that certain devices have to run their app through SteamVR, which will cause a bit of performance issues.
And as usual, there’s moar.
This update comes with a slew of improvements to make your runs smoother and deadlier than ever like new Traits, Epithets, Max Skill levels and community-requested QoLs.
Please refer to the full patch notes below.
If you’ve enjoyed Hellsweeper VR’s free content updates, help us keep the fire burning! Share the game with your friends or on social media. We know it’s not a new game anymore, but we hope these updates continue to give you something to look forward to.
Lastly, you could help playtest our studio’s next game 13Z—it’s not in VR yet, but we’d love to bring it to VR if there’s enough demand from the community. Your feedback could make all the difference!
Thank you, Hellsweepers, for being part of this ever-evolving journey. From all of us at Mixed Realms, happy holidays ahead. Let’s tear through hell together one last time before the year ends!
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Crafted with Love,
Mixed Realms
Full Patch Notes (#1.7)
All items with (*) were inspired by community suggestions! :)
New Content
- New Game Mode: Gauntlet
- New Boss: Avarice
- Added "Day & Night" mechanics.
- --- Certain enemies have increased chances of spawning in the day, while others at night.
- --- Island and Vault are considered to be neither day nor night.
- --- No totems will attack during the day. More treasure chests at night."
- Added skins for the weapon skills.
- Added Phantom Limb to the Katana skill.
- New Epithets:
- --- Sun Walker - Increased stats during the day, special mechanics at night.
- --- Bulwark - Increased defences."
- New Traits:
- --- Mana Engine - Casting spells with the spellball will not delete it, allowing players to keep casting spells.
- --- Hex Payback - Increase duration of status effects.
- --- Springboard - Applying the Haze status effect will throw enemies into the air.
- --- Dust Devil - Increase the movement speed of Haze Tornado.
- --- Gazing Snake - Default special trait for Haze Magic.
- --- Winged Serpent - Players can ride a Haze Serpent and fly around the level.
- --- Fully Loaded - Guns will spawn with max ammo and buffs but cannot be reloaded.
- --- Mimic Quiver - Arrow Conversion will no longer consume the item.
- --- Chasing Comet - Axe Glaive will hit additional targets before returning.
- --- Silk Steel - Increase flail damage but reduce the chain's length.
- --- Radiant Technique - Players can conjure Energy Spike without releasing the trigger, it appears after a thrust."
- Laser, Haze and Charge magic have their own status effect. This secondary status effect will not replace the primary status effects like Burning or Freeze.
- --- Laser - When the enemy takes damage, it will shoot out additional laser projectiles towards nearby enemies.
- --- Haze - Applying it for the first time will stagger the enemy. It will deal damage to all nearby enemies.
- --- Charge - Target takes increase damage from all sources, the damage is then stored. When the duration is up, it will explode with all of the accumulated damage."
- Players can extinguish torches with Frost magic and ignite them with Fire magic... just for fun!
- Increased the max skill level for all skills.*
Multiplayer Updates
- Increased the max number of players for MP to 3.*
- When clients abandon the run, they will disconnect from the host instead of causing everybody to return to Hub.
Updates & QoL
- Changed skill XR system, players have to pump in 'Echoes' into the skill and once it is full, the augment is unlocked.*
- Added new resource, 'Echoes', which is used to rank up skills.
- Experience is Gold' now gives echoes when completing an Act. It is removed afterwards.
- Updated the behavior of Axe Glaive, allowing it to stay around longer.
- Improved Phantom Limb system, the weapon will follow the swing and angle of the main weapon.
- Added button binding for Levitation and settings for "Complex Levitation".*
- --- Players can now levitate objects while holding onto an item.
- Added button binding for Quick Infusion.
- --- Holding down the button, players can open a small menu for the current magic skills to infuse the held item.
- --- Move the hand over to the magic skill and release the button to infuse.
- Added button binding for Reload.*
- --- Pressing the button will reload the currently held gun for that hand.
- Added option to adjust controller vibration strength.*
