War for the Overworld

Patch 2.0: “Untold Depths”

Release Notes

Attention due to the impressive size of this patch we’ve yet to complete the full release notes. What follows are the highlights! Please check back in the future for more!

New Expansion: The Under Games

An all-new 7-level campaign

• Choose your Underlord and participate in a deadly tournament, set across a series of scenarios that call back to classic Dungeon Management gameplay!
• Each of the 4 playable Underlords has a unique playstyle, driven by their powerful traits and exclusive minions and Aspects.
• A completely overhauled AI awaits with 5 difficulty levels and a multitude of personalities to put you through your paces.
• Conquer arenas with distinctive layouts and a variety of visual themes, including the new blood-soaked Sanguine theme.

• 3 new Underlords with their own unique unlockable Dungeon Themes.
• 9 new Aspects expand your Veins of Evil, with new defences, constructs, potions and spells!
• New terrain features and shrines await in the Underworld, such as the ultra-hard Quartz and Moongate teleportation shrine.
• See this blog post for the full details!

New Game Modes

King of the Underhill

• War for the Overworld’s spin on King of the Hill
• Several Underhills are present on the map, that can be claimed and unclaimed in the same way that a Shrine can
• If you claim an Underhill, it will begin firing powerful projectiles at your opponent’s core every 5 seconds
  • If an enemy also claims an Underhill, they will cancel eachother out
  • You need to be in possession of more Underhills than your opponent in order for any of them to fire at the enemy Dungeon Core
• Dungeon Cores can sustain a total of 300 hits before being destroyed
• Dungeon Cores cannot be attacked any other way
  • This focuses the action around the Underhills over an extended period of time, rather than forcing players into one single battle to end the match
• The recommended number of Underhills on a map is 3
• King of the Underhill only supports 2 teams (1v1, 2v2, 2v1 or 3v1), FFA doesn’t work

 

Core Shards

• Each Underlord is in possession of one or more Core Shards
  • These Core Shards represent – you guessed it – shards of their Core!
• In order to defeat an Underlord, all of their Core Shards must be destroyed
• Dungeon Cores cannot be attacked directly – this forces players to attack and defend multiple locations simultaneously
• Core Shards supports any number of players in any team combination
  • If two players are teamed up, their Core Shards are pooled and they live and die together

Revamped AI

• The AI has been completely rebuild from the ground up
• It now supports using every type of aspect, including Defences, Constructs, RItuals, Potions and Spells
• Several new personalities have been added (see below)
• Big thanks to Kieron Baxter-Cockbill & Jannes “Crythor” Jaudszims of our volunteer QA team for helping us make the AI as deadly as possible!

 

Personalities

• Ravager
  • Used by Shale and Rhaskos
• Guardian
  • Used by Volta and Marcus
• Gold-Digger
  • Used by Kasita
• Undertaker
  • Used by Lamash and Draven
• Steamroller
  • Favours stacking to himself and building up a large force before cruising across the map and destroying anything in its path
  • Used by Korvek
• Underlord
  • As vanilla as can be – favours all aspects equally
  • Used by Oberon
• Assassin
  • An extra-intelligent and terrifying flavour of AI designed by some of the best WFTO players in the world – good luck!
  • Used by Zeam

The Map Editor

MightyScript

• It’s simply not possible to communicate this fully with patch notes, so go and read this blog post instead!
• Big thanks to Thomas “Fluffiest” Parfrey, George ” Sliche” Smith and Simon Evo from our volunteer QA team

Bug Fixes

• Too numerous to count, but we would like to give an extra-special thanks to Philipp “Fireeye” Giese, Andrew “Nutter” Jagger, Aaron “Swizzle” Walker, Jared “Antking” Croslin and Klaus “Biervampir” Ringhofer from our volunteer QA team

Aesthetic Improvements

Over 100 New Animations

• Tons and tons of animations have been added to almost every unit in order to better telegraph their abilities in combat and
• Units now bend down and pick up their gold
• Units now pick up the Micro Piglet before ripping it apart
• Micro Piglets can now backflip and roll in the mud
• Many units now have additional combat animations that better link with the abilities effect

 

Overhauled VFX

• Many instances of overly-bright VFX have been reduced
• Combat VFX have been reworked, VFX for stun, burn, lava-burn and slow have been added.
• VFX for abilities have been reworked to better fit with their animations

 

Overhauled Materials & Shaders

• Applied cubemaps to some metal flourishes to improve metallic look
• Changes to unit lighting so that they are more visible
• Fixed some corrupted materials (e.g Lord O Theland) to cleanup their look

New & Updated Systems

Sacrifices

• After unlocking the Sanctuary, you will now gain access to a new ‘Sacrifice’ ritual
• Activating the ritual will allow you to drop 3 units onto the altar
• After doing so, the ritual will complete and you will be rewarded with a prize!
• There are a number of recipes, but any combination that does not match a recipe will reward some gold

 

Moongates

• Moongates allow units to instantly travel from one part of a map to another
• Comes in two forms: a Construct and a Shrine, which both link up and behave in the exact same way
• Units will automatically use Moongates if they are the fastest (or only) route, no need for the player to interact

 

Banshees

• Banshees are a new type of unit with unique behaviour
  • Banshees automatically seek out the closest enemy objective (primarily cores, secondarily inhibitors, etc) and path to it (shielded targets are always lower priority than non-shielded)
  • Once it reaches its target or cannot get any closer to its target, it will explode, dealing a large amount of damage to anything nearby, including walls and friendly targets
  • Damage is reduced against units
  • Damage scales with the amount of remaining health the Banshee has
  • Banshees cannot be picked up, healed, possessed, etc
  • Slapping will detonate them early
• Used by the Empowered Banshee (Empowered Banshee Spell) and Banshee (Reanimation potion, Nether Shrine)

 

Mana

• You are now able to increase your total mana to a total of 2000 (up from 1500)
• Mana can now be gained from:
  • Earning Sins
  • Artefacts of Mana
  • Mana Shrine (which has been revised – see below)
  • Mana Vaults (new Construct)
• Mana from the Mana Shrine and the Mana Vault is ‘unstable mana’
  • ‘Unstable mana’ is mana that it is possible to lose (eg: if your Mana Vault is destroyed)
• The main campaign and Heart of Gold are still limited to 1500 mana
  • The Kenos now increases your mana pool to 2000 (in levels 12 & 13)

 

Veins of Evil

• Several new aspects from The Under Games have been added
• Some potions in the centre have swapped places
• Annex has moved from Wrath to Sloth
• Augrum Wall and Rampart have swapped places
• Titans now cost 5 Sins to summon, rather than 3
• See the image below for the new layout – the changes are highlighted

 

Work Experience

• Units now gain XP when working in most rooms
• The XP gained is equivalent to 17.5% of that gained in the Barracks, and will scale down as units level up in the same way that the Barracks does

Remastered Campaign

Highlights

• The ending has been completely remade and now featured a brand new cinematic cutscene
• The endings of levels 5 & 7 have also been updated to feature smaller cinematic cutscenes
• Level 12 has been completely rebuilt to be significantly less infuriating
• New terrain themes have been added throughout the campaign
• Tutorialisation has been significantly improved throughout the first few levels
• Unit intro sequences have been improved to feature the new unit entry animations

 

Level 1: Awakening

• Now uses the new Onyx terrain theme
• Minor changes to the tutorialisation
• Added a new Gnarling introduction

 

Level 2: Welcome to Kairos

• Removed Empire Barracks to prevent the Templars getting to a high level before the player encounters them
• Added new bonus objectives to teach Worker Rally, Peaceband and Sell
• Removed the Prophecy tutorial (as it’s also introduced in level 3)
• The ‘expand your rooms’ optional objective now requires the player to build at least a 5×5 Archive and 5×5 Barracks to complete
• Other minor change to tutorialisation
• Added a new Cultist introduction
• Replacement Earth is now available (tutorialisation does not happen until Level 4)

 

Level 3: The Breach

• Significant revisions to the tutorialisation sequences and of the level
• Added a new Chunder introduction
• The speed run achievement (Portal Gems) now awards for beating the level in under 19 minutes, rather than 15
• Replacement Earth is now available (tutorialisation does not happen until Level 4)

 

Level 4: Shades of Grey

• Added a new bonus objective to teach Beast Rally
• Swapped one of Marcus’ Gateways to a Manufacturing Shrine in order to reduce the total number of units that spawn in his dungeon
• Replaced the Warding Totem tutorial &  introduction with a Conduit tutorial & introduction

 

Level 5: The Rear Guard

• Now uses the Snowy terrain theme
• Added a brand new cinematic cutscene to the end of the level
• Added new bonus objectives to teach Warbands, Potions and Defences
• Ritual progress is now displayed on the UI
• Rhaskos’ Sanctuary has a slightly modified layout and now begins the level with fortified walls
• Added a new Crackpot introduction
• The speed run achievement (Short Joke) now awards for beating the level in under 25 minutes, rather than 23

 

Level 6: Behind Enemy Lines

• Now uses the new Sanguine terrain theme
• Replaced the Mana Shrine with an Incantation Shrine
• Increased starting gold from 10000 to 16000
• The speed run achievement (Prison Architect) now awards for beating the level in under 30 minutes, rather than 28

 

Level 7: Heart Attack

• Now uses the new Sanguine terrain theme
• Added a brand new cinematic cutscene to the end of the level
• Added a new art asset for The Aum
• The ‘Heart Attack’ achievement for finishing the level with Rhaskos’ Core on less than 25% has now been changed to instead award when you convert 50 Empire units in the Torture Chamber

 

Level 8: Desecration

• Modified the distribution of enemies to make the difficulty more consistent
• Prophecy is now banned, but all points of interest are permanently revealed

 

Level 9: Belmorne’s Pass

• Now uses the Snowy terrain theme
• Replaced the Mana Shrine with an Incantation Shrine

 

Level 10: The Kenos

• Now uses the Snowy terrain theme
• Added a new art asset for The Kenos
• Significantly updated the in-level ending sequence
• Mira is now cyan to match her appearance in The Under Games
• Replaced the Mana Shrine with an Incantation Shrine

 

Level 11: Desperate Power

• Now uses the new Onyx terrain theme
• Mira is now cyan to match her appearance in The Under Games
• Replaced the Mana Shrine with an Incantation Shrine

 

Level 12: Welcome to Kairos

• Now uses the Snowy terrain theme
• Completely rebuilt from the ground up
  • The player now has significantly more space between them and the enemy Underlords
• Added a new art asset for The Kenos
• Updated the effects of being attuned to the Kenos
  • Causes the player to be an incredibly nostalgic shade of red
  • No longer grants passive gold generation
  • Increases maximum mana from 1500 to 2000

 

Level 13: Equilibrium

• Revised the ending sequence and added a brand new cinematic cutscene
• Added a new art asset for The Kenos
• Added a new art asset for the Aum, which now follows Emperor Lucius around
• Emperor Lucius is generally more badass
• Updated the effects of being attuned to the Kenos
  • See above

 

Oberon’s Home Realm

• Now uses the new Onyx terrain theme

 

Heart of Gold & My Pet Dungeon

• Replaced the Mana Shrine on level 1 of Heart of Gold with an Incantation Shrine
• Replaced most Mana Shrines present in My Pet Dungeon with Incantation Shrines

New Aspects, Units & Shrines

Conduit

• Construct, Wrath
• Replaces the Warding Totem
• Significantly increases the work speed of friendly workers in a 5 tile radius
• Provides vision in a 5 tile radius – even over walls
• Locks 15 mana
• Costs 350 gold, very quick summoning time

 

Moongate

• Construct, Wrath
• Links to other Moongates you own, allowing your units to teleport across the map
• Costs 10,000 gold, long summoning time
• Locks 25 mana

 

Mana Vault

• Construct, Center
• Provides an additional 100 mana, up to a cap of 2,000
• Costs 10,000 gold, long summoning time

 

Shackle

• Spell, Wrath
• Disables an enemy defence or construct, prevent it from activating and attacking
• Locks 100 mana, lasts for 10 seconds
• Defence or construct hit by Shackle are then immune to Shackle for 30 seconds

 

Infernal Urn

• Defence, Sloth
• Breathes fire on nearby enemies dealing a small amount of damage over time
• When activated, destroys the Infernal Urn and absorbs any explosive energy in the nearby area
  • Ember Demons are banished back to their rifts
  • Underminers are immediately disabled and sold
  • Brimstone is converted into Quartz (this is a chain reaction, like blowing it up, and will convert the whole patch)
  • If this reaction hits Obsidian, it will convert the Obsidian into Sand (this is also a chain reaction)
• 1500 gold, 2 defence parts, locks 10 mana

 

Storm Vortex

• Defence, Sloth
• Two modes: Lightning and Vortex, click to toggle between them
  • Lightning mode: Shoots lightning bolts at enemies, dealing heavy damage and stunning them
  • Vortex mode: Shoots vortex beams at enemies, instantly teleporting them back to their dungeon core (same behaviour as recall)
    • This damages the Storm Vortex for every enemy teleported, the amount of damage taken is equivalent to the strength of the target
    • Workers are free to send home
    • Targets the enemy closest to it
    • It’s possible for the Storm Vortex to destroy itself
• Costs 7500 gold, 5 defence parts, 30 locked mana

 

Empowered Banshee

• Spell / Unit, Wrath
• Summons an Empowered Banshee
• 10 second summon time during which the Empowered Banshee cannot move or explode, but can still be attacked and killed
• Locks 150 mana until the Empowered Banshee dies or explodes

 

Reanimation

• Potion, Wrath
• Converts any of the following sources into Banshees:
  • Prisoners
  • Dead or KO units on the ground (of any faction)
  • Souls in Crypt props
  • Souls in a Well of Souls
• Banshees behave identically to Empowered Banshees, but are far less powerful and do not lock mana
• Costs 3500 gold

 

Thunderling

• Potion / Unit, Center
• Summons a powerful Thunderling for you to command
• Also deals damage and stuns enemies in the area when dropped
• Can overlock mana when used
• Costs 7500 gold, locks 200 mana while the Thunderling is alive

 

Alchemine

• Defence, Sloth
• Allows you to drop a potion, turning it into a mine
• Will detonate the potion when an enemy gets near
• Right click to immediately detonate, left click to pick up potion
• Costs 2500 gold, 3 parts, does not lock mana

 

Sacrifice

• Ritual, Automatic Unlock
• See notes at the top

 

Core Door

• Defence, Editor Only
• This is a special door that can only be placed when creating maps to section off certain parts of the map for specific factions
• It allows the owners units to pass through
• It cannot be attacked, sold, destroyed, locked, or interacted with in any way

 

Nether Shrine

• Periodically spawns Banshees for the owner
• Spawns 1 Banshee every 5 seconds, up to a maximum of 3 total Banshees at any one time
• Banshees respawn at the Nether Shrine when they explode or are killed

 

Mana Shrine / Incantation Shrine

• The mana shrine now has a new mechanic:
  • Grants 250 additional maximum mana for as long as you own it
• The old Mana Shrine mechanic (spell cost reduction) has now been given to the new Incantation Shrine

 

Wizard

• Empire Unit
• The Wizard is the new Empire counterpart for the Witch Doctor
• He works in the Spirit Chamber and the Archive

Rebalanced Systems

Dungeon Core

• Health regeneration reduced from 140/second to 50/second
• Health regeneration delay (after last instance of damage) increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds

 

Defences

• Out-of-combat regeneration reduced from 7.5%/second to 1%/second
• Out-of-combat regeneration now starts after 15s, rather than 10s
• Doors no longer grant XP to enemies when attacked
• Doors now act as fortified walls for the purposes of calculating room efficiency

 

Research

• Speed modifier in Skirmish & multiplayer reduced from 65% to 50%
• Speed modifier in My Pet Dungeon reduced from 50% to 40%
• This is to offset the research speed increased gained by Cultists that now level up whilst researching

 

Unit Vision

• Unit vision has been standardized
• Long range units now have a vision radius of 7 tiles:
  • Oculus (and boss variants)
  • Huntress (and boss variants)
• Short range units have a vision radius of 3 tiles
  • Ghoul
  • Disciple
  • Revenant
• Workers has a vision radius of 4 tiles
• Food has a vision radius of 0 tiles
• All other units have a vision radius of 5 tiles

Updated Aspects, Units & Shrines

Workers

• Friendly fortified walls are now mined as quickly as unfortified walls

 

Arena

• Removed the flat XP penalty from training in the Arena
• Added a scaling XP penalty that increases with level, ramping up to -40% at level 9
• XP for non-Beast units now matches that of Beast units (however, non-Beast units still need to be manually dropped into the arena)

 

Barracks

• Reduced training speed by 33%
• Reduced the intensity of the XP penalty at higher levels (now -80% at level 9 instead of -90%)

 

Warding Totem

• Scrapped, replaced with ‘Conduit’

 

Wooden Door

• Gold cost reduced from 1000 to 500
• Health reduced from 3500 to 1500

 

Bone Chiller

• Passive slow increased from 55% to 60%
• Passive slow no longer stacks
• Passive and active range increased from 3 to 3.5 tiles
• Active ability no longer deals damage
• Active stun increased from 2s to 4s
• Active ability now halves all damage from targets for the duration
• Mana cost increased from 10 to 15
• Part cost increased from 3 to 4

 

Augrum Wall

• Now activates automatically (instead of needing to be clicked)
• Unpacking time reduced from 15s to 5s
• Gold cost reduced from 3500 to 500
• Part cost reduced from 5 to 2
• Health (of the box) increased from 100 to 1000

 

Replacement Earth

• Gold cost reduced from 350 to 150
• Summoning time increased by 50%

 

Bombard

• Part cost increased from 2 to 3

 

Armageddon

• Damage keeps firing for 60 seconds, giving a solid window for attack
• Reduced summoning time by 15%

 

Haste

• Now also slows down enemy units the exact same amount that it speeds up friendly units

 

Hellfire

• No longer stuns units
• Unit damage increased from 100 to 650

 

Transmutation

• Now creates a zone of transmutation when dropped, which deals damage over time for 5 seconds and converts any dead or KO units into golden statues
• Also deals bonus damage to Sentinels and the Colossus

 

Garrison

• Damage reduction for walls reduced from 50% to 35%

 

Ember Rift / Ember Demon

• Ember Demon health reduced from 2250 to 1600
• Ember Spirit (death explosion) damage reduced by 25%
• Ember Demon mana lock reduced from 75 to 60

 

Wormhole

• Now creates a wormhole that lasts for 5 seconds, continuing to teleport units to your core for the entire duration
• Core explosion radius reduced by about 1/3rd

 

Quick-Freeze

• No longer leaves a patch of ice on the ground that prevents Quick-Freeze being used again in the same location

 

Gold Shrine

• Mining speed increased by 50%

 

Portcullis

• Part cost reduced from 3 to 2

 

Midas Door

• Part cost reduced from 4 to 3

 

Glacial Door

• Part cost reduced from 5 to 4

 

Prophecy

• Reduced mana cost from 200 to 175

 

Blood Money

• Reduced mana cost from 100 to 50

 

Spirit Workers (Potion)

• Gold cost increased from 750 to 1500

 

Succubus

• Health increased from 1400 to 1650
• Basic attack damage increased from 70 to 95
• Soul Fracture damage decreased from 15% to 10%
• Soul Fracture cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 5 seconds
• Now heals for 100% of a target’s health upon killing them (up from 50%)

 

Gnarling

• Health reduced from 1100 to 1050
• Basic attack damage reduced from 110 to 100
• Cleave damage reduced from 100 to 90

 

Necromancer

• In-combat summon ability now summons a Revenant (Archon version) instead of a Wraith (Uprising ritual version)

 

Ghoul (Necromancer)

• Basic attack increased from 55 to 90

 

Disciple (Matriarch)

• Basic attack increased from 55 to 90

 

Augre

• Speed increased from 4 to 5 (same as a Chunder)
• Basic attack damage reduced from 160 to 140
• Ground slam damage reduced from 160 to 140

 

Behemoth

• Immolation (flame aura) has been adjusted to do a constant 75 damage per second, rather than increasing damage the longer an enemy is near the Behemoth
• Basic Attack damage reduced from 350 to 250
• Basic Attack cooldown increased from 2s to 3.5s
• Flame Breath damage increased from 300 to 400
• Flame Breath cooldown increased from 8s to 9s
• Rampant Charge damage reduced from 300 to 100
• Passive healing reduced by 2/3rds
• These changes are focused around maintaining the Behemoth’s strengths against large groups of weaker units whilst making it less imposing in one-on-one combat

 

Colossus

• Is now able to work in the Barracks

 

Witch Doctor

• Base heal increased from 40 to 100
• Base heal cooldown increased from 2.4s to 3s

 

Skarg

• Increased health from 1200 to 1300
• Increased basic attack damage from 100 to 105

 

Oculus

• Petrify stun duration increased from 2s to 4s
• Basic attack damage reduced from 85 to 60
• Basic attack cooldown reduces from 3s to 2.5s

 

Bafu

• Basic attack damage decreased from 125 to 95
• Screech cooldown reduced from 20s to 15s

 

Shadow

• Nightmare stun duration increased from 2s to 3s
• Bonus damage when leaving stealth increased from 75 to 140

 

Work-A-Lot Potion

• Unit efficiency reduced from 300% to 250%

 

Bombard

• Health reduced from 2000 to 1750

 

Archon

• Reduced self-healing by 33%

 

Gild

• Healing to gold units increased from 500 to 1500

 

Sentinel

• Now generally less grumpy and should be easier to keep happy

 

Frost Weaver

• Potion cost reduced from 3500 to 2000
• Basic attack damage increased from 175 to 225
• Movement speed increased by 25% (it’s now at an average speed)

 

Inquisitor

• Health increased from 1000 to 1500

 

Wraith (Uprising Ritual)

• Reduced health decay per second from 5 to 3
• Basic attack damage increased from 35 to 55

 

Restless Spirit (Vampire Pet)

• Duration of summoned Restless Spirits increased to 60 seconds (if not damaged)

 

Apocalypse (Crucible Lifeline)

• Points are no longer gained by killing units with Apocalypse

 

Screecher (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Basic attack damage reduced from 250 to 200

 

Shambler (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Basic attack damage reduced from 200 to 125
• Basic attack cooldown increased from 2s to 2.25s
• Now able to level up
• Now able to use the Barracks

 

Restless Spirit (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Basic attack damage reduced from 100 to 150
• Basic attack cooldown increased from 1.5s to 1.75s
• Now able to level up
• Now able to use the Barracks

 

Terror (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Basic attack damage reduced from 250 to 185
• Health reduced from 2500 to 1900

 

Molten Skarg (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Basic attack damage increased from 105 to 115
• Basic attack now burns target for 5 seconds
• Can now walk through lava

 

Chilli Chunder (Crucible / My Pet Dungeon minion)

• Can now walk through lava
• Basic attack cooldown reduced from 5s to 2.5s
• Headbutt cooldown reduced from 15s to 5s