Hextale

Added

• Radiant tools are wrapped in quiet lightning from pommel to tip - short arcs snapping here and there, a few sparks winding round, and now and then a discharge running the whole length. The abyss seeps out of riftforged tools: small clouds of the Void well up along them, sink and thin out, violet tendrils creep out and twist away, and now and then a short tear into the abyss flares.
• Building blocks of the new metals: blocks of charged hexsteel, radiant alloy and riftmetal (nine ingots, beacon bases), hexsteel plating and radiant trim cut from them on a stonecutter, and void carapace tiles.
• Radiant and riftforged Bulwark armour carries the same lightning and abyss, thinner, along the head, body, arms and legs it covers - on the wearer, on armour stands and on the icons.
• Two blade runes for the sword, the Tendril Dagger and the Strike Gauntlet: Backstab (a blow from behind lands 25/40/60% harder) and Bleeding (a cut may keep bleeding for 3/4/5 seconds). Their codex runes were Eclipse and Blight and had no use until now.
• Strike Gauntlet, made on the Hexcore: hold Use to charge it in three beats, release to punch. At a block within reach it breaks it - a 3 x 3 face from the second beat, two deep at the third; into the air it sends a shockwave that hurts and throws back the creatures in front. Held too long, it vents its steam and starts over, never hurting its wearer. It takes the sword's runes, three of them. It is worn rather than held: it closes round the fist and forearm in first person and on the player alike (a right and a left glove), the bare arm punches with it, and while it charges the arm comes up aiming the fist and the fist draws back, trembling harder with every beat.
• Tendril Dagger in four levels, researched and refined with the tools of its level: a quick blade that takes the sword's runes. In the off hand beside another weapon it now and then finds a gap and strikes along with the blow (30-45% by level). Held and released after a short swing it is thrown, bites the first creature it meets and always comes back along a tendril of light.
• Bulwark armour in four levels (Bulwark, Refined, Radiant, Riftforged), each set opened by one research and made from its level's materials like the tools. Every piece takes the runes of the clothes piece of its slot - one at the first level, up to four. The cuirass carries a crystal heart: raw hextech clicked onto it charges it, and while charged it soaks 30-60% of every blow armour can stop (a Crystal Battery nearby keeps it fed too). Every level has its own look - brass over blued steel, gunmetal with lit crystal slits, white gold with violet wings, riftmetal with chitin horns - and the heart glows as bright as it is charged. Run dry, it cracks open in a flash of tumbling crystal shards that throws the creatures round you back, and soaks nothing until it is charged full again.
• Radiant Alloy: the Hex Foundry at full heat melts two gold, a Charged Hexsteel and Gemstone Dust (the bright cuttings every gemstone finish now leaves on the Lapidary) into two ingots of white gold; Refined Shimmer does instead of the dust, quicker, but it thins the land. Ore melts beside an alloy as before.
• Radiant tools are made on the Hexcore only, from two Radiant Alloy, a gemstone and a vial of Acid that etches the light into the metal.
• Charged Hexsteel: a hexsteel ingot laid into a Crucible that holds lightning and metal comes out charged - the metal of the refined tools. Coolant splashed on hexsteel lying on a lit Chem Burner charges it at once, but the fumes thin the land.
• Engraved Diamond: the Lapidary with a master cutting disc cuts a diamond to a brilliant and engraves it (a cracked diamond comes back whole). Refined tools are now made of two Charged Hexsteel and an Engraved Diamond instead of gemstones and diamonds.
• Refined and Radiant Axe, Shovel and Sword: refined at the altar like the pickaxe (the same research opens all four of a tier), with every rune carried over. Refined tools hold two runes, radiant ones three.
• Riftforged Pickaxe, Axe, Shovel and Sword: a radiant tool forged on the Hexcore with two Riftmetal, a Sealed Void Crystal and a raw Void Crystal holds a fourth rune and keeps every rune it had.
• Riftmetal: Radiant Alloy thrown into a held breach is kept a while and given back black, with violet sparks inside.
• Void Crystals grow on Void Rock round a held breach; set in nullstone at the workbench they become Sealed Void Crystals. Void Chitin softened in a crucible that holds decay becomes Void Carapace.
• Runes can be burned in weaker than you know them: click a star in the stele's list to pick the strength (the number and the price follow). A 3-star Drill no longer forces a 5Г—5 hole - pick one star for 3Г—3. A rune already on the item is set to exactly the picked strength, weaker too; without a pick a rune is only ever raised, as before.
• Five new weapon runes from runes of the codex that no tool took before (their scrolls now turn up in chests):
  • Shockwave (sword, axe): a charged swing at the ground sends a wave rolling ahead through it. The ground heaves block by block and spits crumbs of itself, a glowing crack runs along it, and the creatures in its way are hurt and tossed into the air. The weapon rests a moment afterwards.
  • Blink (sword): right click at a creature to step through the shadow to its back and strike it harder.
  • Detonator (sword): a creature the sword kills bursts and hurts the ones around it.
  • Whirlpool (sword): a blow may open a whirlpool that drags the creatures around into it.
  • Whirlwind (sword): every third blow in a row sweeps all around you in a circle of light. A weapon takes one rune worked by hand (Shockwave or Blink). Two runes of the codex got names that suit them: Grounding is now Shockwave, Updraft is now Whirlwind.
• Six new runes for the researcher's clothes, the Skypack, the Crystal Battery and the Arc Spire (four of them from runes of the codex nothing took before, so their scrolls now turn up in chests):
  • Wavewalk (boots): walk on water as on ground and 15/25/35% faster there; sneak to sink. Caught just under the surface, you are lifted back onto it. Every stride spreads rings of light over the water with a splash of droplets. It replaces Pump - the boots still swim as easily under the water as Pump made them.
  • Static (robe): a creature that strikes you in close combat gets a spark back 25/40/55% of the time - 3/4/5 damage and a moment numbed (Slowness IV), drawn as a twitching bolt from the robe. The rune of the codex Conductor is now called Static.
  • Mirage (hood): when a blow leaves you under 40% health you fade for 3/4/5 s. The creatures hunting you lose you and go to look where you stood, where a shimmering figure of light stays behind; until you strike, none of them can take you for a target. The hood then rests 60/45/30 s.
  • Flamethrower (Skypack): while the jets thrust, a tongue of fire licks 3/4/5 blocks behind and below you. The creatures in it catch fire for 3/4/5 s and are burned a little; blocks never catch fire.
  • Sunlight Cell (Crystal Battery): under the open sky by day, in dry weather, the battery charges itself by 6/10/15 a minute, drinking a soft shaft of sunlight.
  • Beam (Arc Spire): its strikes come as a hot beam of light that sets the creature on fire for 3/5/7 s, so the animals it fells drop their meat cooked.

Changed

• In JEI, R on a HexTale item shows how it is made first: the researcher's notes moved from JEI's Information tab, which always came first, to a Notes tab of their own after the recipe tabs.
• The later gear asks for more at the altar: every refined, radiant and riftforged tool, Tendril Dagger and Bulwark piece now takes six to eight pedestal items instead of two to five, with vanilla finds that fit the tool - obsidian, redstone and TNT for the refined pickaxe, a brush and moss for the shovel, a lightning rod and a bottle o' enchanting for the radiant sword, echo shards, ender eyes, dragon's breath and shulker shells for the riftforged gear. The Recall Charm also wants a compass and a chorus fruit, and the Soul Flask a lead and a soul lantern.
• Each pedestal item unsettles the Hexcore a little less, so the bigger late rituals are no angrier than before.
• Recipes were gone over at every bench so that each thing reads as what it is, with less brass everywhere:
  • the Alembic is a copper still now, and the Separator takes a hopper and iron instead of looking like the Alembic; the Pump is half iron;
  • the Rune Stele wants a glow ink sac for its letters, and the Rune Circle a stick of Rune Chalk to draw it;
  • the Tendril Dagger is no longer the cheapest thing on the bench: two iron, two brass, a raw orb and a lead for its tendril;
  • the first Bulwark is built over a real iron piece (helmet, chestplate, leggings or boots) with brass plates, leather or chains;
  • hexsteel tools and armour need one diamond each for the edge or the plate, so they no longer replace diamond gear for a handful of iron and dust;
  • the Sealed Void Crystal is set in tinted glass and sealed with honeycomb besides the nullstone, and the Warding Lamppost costs 3 charge instead of 6;
  • each piece of the researcher's clothes has a thing of its own: a feather in the hood, a notebook in the robe, a compass in the trousers, rabbit hide on the boots;
  • the Impulse Plate takes a piston and the Levitation Plate a feather; the Sawmill a stonecutter, the Whirl Reaper a composter, the Experience Condenser a book, the Spawner Cage and the Void Anchor chains;
  • every Lab Bench experiment for a device is sealed with a sample of its own (tropical fish for the Axolotl Tank, gunpowder for the Chem Boiler, magma cream for the Chem Burner, sugar for the Chem Still, rotten flesh for the Disintegrator, redstone for the Pink Brazier, an amethyst shard for Synthetic Crystals).
• Every level of tools and Bulwark armour mends with its own metal at an anvil: brass, Charged Hexsteel, Radiant Alloy, Riftmetal.
• The refined research shows up once the level's materials and the Runed Pickaxe are known - no need to make the axe, shovel and sword first. The first Bulwark set comes beside the runed tools instead of after hexsteel.
• The chemtech shortcuts of the Arsenal cost what they save: quenched hexsteel thins the land three times as much as before and a violet plume rises from the burner, and Radiant Alloy from Refined Shimmer thins it three times as much too.
• The Separator heats over magma or lava too - slowly, with no blaze powder at all.
• The Bulwark heart takes at most 4/6/8/10 points of a single blow by level, so a crushing blow is still felt.
• The Whirlwind sweep is a softer crescent in the rune's colour, without the flat white sweep of a vanilla sword over it.
• A few finds of the Void - Void Chitin, Void Crystals and the Void's plants - now have to be studied under the loupe before the diary knows what to make of them.
• New ideas in the margins of the diary: where the level materials, the clouded crystal, the Void's flowers, the shimmer moss and the magic wood could lead. A few old ideas that came true got new directions.
• Runes now grow with the tool: a first Runed Pickaxe, Axe, Shovel or Sword holds one rune, a Refined Pickaxe two and a Radiant Pickaxe three, a Riftforged one four. Runes already burned into your tools stay and keep working; only new runes past the limit are refused.
• Chain Lightning on the sword is felt now: it fires more often (20/30/40%), its spark always bites the struck creature for extra damage with a visible arc, and then leaps on - to hostile creatures, or from an animal to others of its kind. It never touches players, pets or villagers. Before, it did nothing at all unless another hostile creature stood near.
• The Engraved Diamond shows its engraving: a glowing golden sign is cut into the middle of its table face, easy to tell from a plain diamond in the inventory.
• The purple crystals no longer look like amethyst and each other: Void Crystals (the item and the sealed one) are black inside with a sharp violet edge, Synthetic Crystals are shimmer pink, a Clouded Crystal is a cut hextech crystal gone smoky grey, and the Void Carapace is a ridged armour plate instead of a darker lump of chitin.
• Radiant gear looks like white gold now instead of bone and lilac: the Radiant tools, the Radiant Tendril Dagger, the Radiant Bulwark, the Radiant Alloy Ingot and its block and trim are pale gold with gold trim and walnut grips, with violet left only as a thin seam, so they no longer look like the Riftforged level.
• Calmer blocks that sit better in a build: brass (Block of Brass, alembic, sorting matrix and other brass parts) is smooth aged metal instead of a striped cartoon gold, Dormant Hextech is a softer blue with frosted glints, Chem Tubes are dark green glass held by iron bands instead of neon stripes, the Block of Hexsteel is a plain brushed plate, the steel of the World Anchor, Rift Gates and Grapple is blued, and Magic Leaves grow in white clumps with only a few golden glints.
• The Rune Circle stands out on a pale floor: its outer ring of stones is darker, and light-blue light glows in its grooves instead of a dark navy line.
• Riftforged Bulwark reads as armour now, not a violet lump: black riftmetal plates with lit rims and blackened brass rivets, violet carapace on the shoulders, chest, back and knees, and a sealed Void crystal heart - black core, violet rim, a pale nullstone band - held by the claws on the chest.
• The Runed Sword and the Refined Sword have real blades now: the Runed Sword a tapered steel blade with a bright edge and a glowing rune fuller, the Refined Sword a broad blade with a long point and its crystal core set in a dark spine, held by steel bands.
• The Chem Boiler looks like a working boiler now: an olive riveted drum of plates with a bright copper band, a round pressure gauge whose scale runs from green to red, and a stepped dome with a copper neck under the safety valve. It no longer flickers from afar.

Fixed

• The Researcher's Diary shows runes being burned in the way it is done now: the rune pages of every tool and device show the thing floating over the Rune Circle with the rune flowing in from a stele outside it, and the Rune Stele's step shows steles round a Rune Circle burning two runes into a pickaxe. The altar's ritual scene no longer has steles beside it.
• JEI shows where the Engraved Diamond comes from: a diamond cut with the Master Cutting Disc on the Lapidary.
• The Researcher's Diary no longer drags the frame rate down while it is open: its star map ran at about half the frame rate of the game behind it and now costs about as much as an inventory screen. The links between the steps are traced once instead of every frame, the hazes behind the steps are drawn as one picture each, and nothing outside the view is drawn.
• Opening a rune stele no longer freezes the game for a moment: the runes on screens are now painted in the background, several times faster, and once per size instead of once per colour, so hovering them costs nothing.
• The wisps an Eternal Flame pickaxe leaves in the dark are no longer put out by the next swing: a tool passes through them, only an empty hand puts one out. Each one is now a small magic flame of blue fire: a white core, tongues that flicker and sway, embers rising off it; under a ceiling it hangs a little higher.
• Items can be put on a Rune Circle from a few steps away again: the click used to be thrown away by the server unless you stood close (the same for every device that spreads past its block, such as the altar and the furnace).
• Relay and Siphon pylons no longer take runes that do nothing on them: a relay takes Reach only, a siphon the runes that move essence (Reach, Pulse, Levity). Runes already burned into them stay but still do nothing.
• Grapple Gauntlet: the Pulse (reel speed) and Reach runes work again - the wearer's own game never learnt them.
• Ore glow of the pickaxe's and the Tuning Fork's Insight no longer stays forever after the chunk unloads or the world is closed, and a held Tuning Fork keeps one glow per block instead of piling up new ones.
• Pickaxe Drill and shovel Erosion dig the face that was struck, also through a one-block wall.
• Pickaxe Eternal Flame no longer leaves wisps in daylight: the light around the broken block counts.
• Pickaxe Breath feeds clearly more often and more; Radiance gives a point or two of experience on ores that give none (iron, copper, gold).
• Trousers Haste is a felt speed-up now (+10/15/20%).
• Boots Pollen grows the nearest crop or sapling on the path instead of a random spot that was often empty.
• Slumber on the Levitation Plate and the Soul Flask puts creatures really to sleep: even skeletons stop shooting. They always wake again, also after the chunk was unloaded or the world closed.
• Rune texts: Impulse Plate Breath, Skypack Fireproofing, Grapple Gravity (now shows the yank speed), units on Null Lantern Banishing, Recall Charm Reach and Mending, Tuning Fork Insight, Levitation Plate Breath and Slumber, Soul Flask Slumber.
• Warding Lamppost Healing at high stars really heals (Regeneration was restarted before its first heal).
• Sawmill Growth makes the replanted sapling shoot up into a tree, as its text says.
• Chem Boiler Steam draws mixture from jars as fast as it cracks it; Thrift and Purification count fully at every star.
• Crystal Purifier and World Anchor Reach grow with every star.
• Greedy Funnel Engraving drops heads more often (3/5/8%) and shows when it does.
• Sword Engraving takes heads far more often (5/10/15% instead of 1-3%).
• Hood Mirage works around zombies, skeletons and other creatures that hunt by plain goals: it used to break off at them and leave the wearer seen.
• Disintegrator Thrift adds essence also to things worth a single point; Crystal Battery Thrift rounds its bonus up; Axolotl Tank Healing keeps working while the slime output is full; Crystal Purifier Thrift gives free draws also without light at hand.