Hiiiii,

I fell behind in updates compared to the other platform, so here is a catch-up post of features from 1.7.4 to 1.8!

Rune System

I started fiddling with the runes in the last update, but I realized it needs far more work than what I could quickly throw together, so I came up with this:

This is a pretty significant UI and functional change, so let’s talk about it!
First of all, I wanted to make working with runes as effortless as possible. I still feel there’s room for improvement, but I’d love to hear your feedback first.

To summarize new features:

• Runes can now be upgraded (with a chance of being destroyed)
• You can now filter runes by their type, stat and rarity
• Rune recommendations now appear in a separate window.
• Quick rune discard functionality (with the same filters as above).
• Rune pages can now be cleared with a single button.
• Rune limit increased to 5000

And now for a tour—

Rune cards

Rune cards have been redesigned to better fit the overall UI aesthetic. The rune name is now slightly grayed out since it’s less critical, and the stat increase is more prominent to draw attention.

The orange bar indicates the quality of the rune—better quality means better stat increases.

Finally, we have rune reforging. This upgrades the rune to a higher rarity while rerolling its stat increase values. However, upgrading a rune risks destroying it! The displayed percentage shows the chance of a successful upgrade, which decreases with rarity and successful reforges.

Side menu

I’ve added several buttons to control the side menu. They are, in order:

1. Filter rune list
2. Recommended runes/auto-upgrade
3. Mass discard runes
4. Unequip all runes from the page

The screen above also showcases the new filtering options.

In 1.8 patch came another set of improvements to the rune screen’s UI!

Based on survey feedback, there was still some room for improvement, and I think these changes will be quite helpful.

You can now filter runes by multiple stats:



While sorting options were requested, I thought this filtering system would be equally useful. However, if sorting is still needed, please let me know!

Another interface change can be seen on the rune list itself:



Runes no longer disappear from the list when equipped. Instead, they’ll remain visible with a small icon indicating which character is currently using them.

This makes it much easier to transfer runes between characters without navigating through multiple menus. You can even upgrade a rune for one character directly from another character’s page! If you prefer, you can also filter out equipped runes so they don’t clutter the list.

Rune icons

Equipped runes are now color-coded because text alone was hard to distinguish!

Rune drops

Players will now be rewarded with three random runes upon completing a run!



This provides another source of runes for players who prefer not to engage with the recollection mechanic.

Achievements Menu

The Achievement Gallery has received a complete overhaul:

You can now filter achievements by multiple types and the maps where they can be obtained. This should make tracking your progress much easier!

Additionally, the new layout is more streamlined and consistent with the rest of the game’s interface.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback!

Tutorials

In response to feedback that the game’s mechanics were confusing to some, I’ve added tutorials for most menus:

These tutorials explain the basics, as well as some less obvious options and clickable areas.

When you first launch the game, you’ll be prompted to view these tutorials. If you skip them, you can always access them later by clicking the question mark icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

CO-OP improvements

CO-OP was meant to be the main focus of this update. While runes ended up stealing the spotlight, the planned CO-OP improvements have been implemented!

CO-OP Networking

Networking in co-op often struggles when large numbers of enemies spawn, especially with players firing numerous projectiles. To address this, I’ve worked on reducing network traffic:

• Players will now only see their own damage numbers, as this was a significant source of traffic.
• The number of packets sent to handle individual damage instances has also been reduced.

Hopefully, these changes improve performance during co-op gameplay!

Player Skill Synchronization

Player ultimates are now synchronized between players, so you can finally blind each other with your abilities!
There are some limitations, though: skills like Yami-no-Tokiya’s or Amelisana’s are not fully synchronized yet.

Effects that pause enemy movement should now work correctly when triggered by a joining player.

View CO-OP Stats

You can now view other players’ damage dealt in the summary screen. No more debates over who carried harder—you can inspect the facts yourself!

Multiplayer Notifications

The host will now be notified when someone joins or leaves their game. There’s also a notification for picking up the tear left by a dead player—because let’s be honest, we’ve all taken a moment to guess whether we picked it up or not, right?

Bug fixes

• Fixed a freeze for the host caused by players joining during the level-up screen.
• Fixed the game not processing the level-up screen correctly when a client leveled up in the pause menu.
• Players will no longer accumulate fall damage while dead or before hitting the ground at least once.
• In CO-OP, players will now wait for votes to synchronize to prevent random level-up skips or game freezes. (this may cause micro stutter when leveling up with no upgrades to pick)

Additionally, I’ve made players unable to collide with each other. It served no purpose and only caused unnecessary deaths. ┌(。Д。)┐

Other improvements

This isn't much, but it's honest work.

Dash Indicator

When dashing, the indicator will now gray out instead of disappearing.

Reduction in Visual Clutter

I’ve received some complaints about abilities covering too much of the screen. I hadn’t given it much thought before since it’s a common issue in many survivor-like games I’ve played. However, I’ve taken some steps and would love to hear your feedback.

Certain ability effects will now fade out when they are closer to the player’s camera. Should I add a configuration option for this effect?

Feedback Notification

I want to gather user feedback via a survey after each version release.
I understand that not everyone wants to participate, but I encourage you to share your thoughts—whether positive or negative—because every voice matters.



After each major release, a small dot will appear next to the survey, reminding you to fill it out.

The survey may change between versions to reflect new content or remain the same to gauge whether opinions have shifted after introducing new features.

New Map

Let’s start with the most important part of the update: the frozen wasteland of the Northern Tundra!

I’ll leave the exploration to you! The map is roughly twice the size of Capital Outskirts, with puzzles and points of interest scattered throughout. More will be added over time.

Oh, and yes—the snow is interactive, in case you were wondering.

New Skins

Snow alone isn’t enough to sell the winter update, so we’ve also added some skins!

Winter skins are available for Amelia, David, Lucy, and Oana! These are the first skins in the game, so I hope you like them~ Each one costs 50,000 gems and can be purchased in the shop.

Weapons and Items

Excuse my laziness, I wanted to record some gifs of these weapons but I don't want to set the standard for future changelogs too high Never mind—I did it anyway (✿◡‿◡)

This update introduces 8 new weapons and 1 new item, all unlockable on the new map.

Wind Maelstrom

An interesting new Wind AoE type weapon that creates a wind vortex that pulls enemies toward you. It may sound useless, but maybe you can find a clever use for it

Unlock method: 

Snowball

A simple Ice-type weapon—a snowball that flies in an arc. It’s not very practical, but it’s fun!

Unlock method: 

Gift Box

This Fire Follow-Up weapon spawns little gifts on the ground that explode after a short delay. While active, the gifts accumulate damage dealt by other weapons to increase their explosion damage.

Unlock method: 

Comet

Comet is a new Cosmic Follow-Up type weapon. Don't worry guys, I heard your cries about the meteors - so here is another one to clutter your screen! Whenever an elemental reaction is triggered the comet will be sent down at the location of that reaction. Sick!

Unlock method: 

Flame Purge

A Fire AoE weapon that shoots a fiery beam in the direction your character is facing. I’ve wanted to add something like this for a while!

Unlock method: 

Shockwave

This Earth AoE weapon releases periodic shockwaves that deal a single instance of damage around your character. Trust me, it looks better in-game than in the gif! 😭

Unlock method: 

Frost Breath

An Ice DoT weapon that releases a frosty mist in the direction your character is facing. Enemies caught in the mist are inflicted with Ice DoT. Finally, an Ice DoT weapon in the game—oops!

Unlock method: 

Orbital Strike

This Lightning AoE weapon works similarly to Summer’s Arrow Rain, prioritizing enemies with higher health.

Unlock method: 

Black Gloves

This new item enhances AoE-type weapons by reducing their internal damage cooldown, allowing them to deal damage more frequently.

Unlock method: 

UI stuff

DPS display

You can now track your DPS in real time with a new UI component.

Menu tooltips

Added tooltips to certain menus. Hover over UI elements to see what they do. Let me know if there are areas where additional tooltips would help!

Menu theme settigns

Added an option to switch between the new and older main menu themes. There’s also an early beta theme available to try out for those that never got the chance to see it.

Shop stuff

Stamina upgrade

You can now upgrade your stamina by buying the new permanent stamina upgrade!

Endless Mode

Let’s start with a request from one of you in the Steam Community forums. I intended to add this feature eventually, and since someone voiced their interest, I decided to get to work!

To enable Endless Mode, head to the revamped game settings screen:

It now matches the style of other menus, which is a nice improvement. However, I may revisit it again in the future.

Once enabled, Endless Mode removes the usual 30-minute (or other) time limit.

Here’s how it works:

• After the predefined waves are completed, enemies will spawn in random waves. This means any enemy can appear, including those from other maps.
• Every minute, enemies’ health, damage, and speed will increase, and they will reward more EXP.
• The game continues until you’re defeated.

You might ask, “But won’t it get boring? How can I keep getting stronger?” That brings us to our next feature!

Components

Components are available in both normal gameplay and Endless Mode. Think of them as gameplay-enhancing runes with a twist.

Here’s how they work:

• Components appear after you’ve leveled up and maxed out all weapons and items.
• Each component can enhance a specific weapon (based on its element), a character, or all equipped weapons, regardless of their element.

There are currently two types of components:

1. Flat Increase - These provide straightforward, fixed bonuses, similar to runes.
2. Conditional Increase - These require you to own a certain number of weapons of the same type or element. If you meet the criteria, you’ll gain significantly better buffs!

In the future, I plan to add more component types that go beyond simple stat boosts. Stay tuned!

General Changes and Fixes

• Fixed a mechanism responsible for spawning level bosses that could miss boss spawns in the Capital Undergrounds
• Fixed a wave in the Capital Undergrounds where all enemies would drop Memory Rifts
• Fixed the description of Lightning Orb's upgrade showing 0% cooldown reduction upon picking 'Storm Conduit (I)'
• Fixed graphical issue with Lightning Orb projectile
• Changed Fire Ring weapon's scaling. It will no longer produce more projectiles with duplication effects. Instead each duplication will increase the ring's duration by a 100%
• Fixed Chitose's skill allowing her to pass through walls
• Fixed Full Page achievement triggering when players attempted to insert rune into already full path
• Reduced Brute's Talisman's crit rate 10% → 8% and crit damage 15% → 10%
• Lowered recollection characters drop rate: Other character - 30% → 20%. At least one character is guranteed to drop every 10 pulls
• Lowered the cost of recollection pulls from 350 gems to 300
• Increased gems returned when pulling a character that's already maxed out from 200 to 300 gems
• Lowered the conversion rate of gold to gems from 350 to 300 gems
• Lowered the price of character fragments from 180 to 150 gems
• Reduced the amount of life steal each rune can provide (1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 10%) → (0.05%, 0.2%, 0.7%, 1.5%, 3%)
• Increased life steal effectivness of physical attacks by 100%
• Reduced life steal effectivness of AoE and DoT attacks by 75% and 50% respectively
• Fixed a bug that caused Yami-no-Tokiya's flowers to not deal damage upon exploding
• Tweaked difficulty settings to reflect rune changes
• Fixed CO-OP enemy HP scaling (or rather, the lack of it).
  
• Removed the flat lifetime increase from Amelia’s passive buff. It caused issues with some weapons, giving them permanent uptime.
• Enemies now scale with the number of players currently alive, making it easier to revive teammates.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to freeze when using Tornado with only one enemy on the field. (This freeze was reported way back in 1.7.3—I finally found the cause!)
• Fixed a bug causing Yami-no-Tokiya's ultimate to prevent joining players from attacking for the rest of the game
  
• Removed Static Discharge upgrade from Tornado
• Interaction prompts will now display keybinds instead
• Fixed incorrectly displayed skin price after clicking on buy
• Recollection will now gurantee one of the boosted characters every 10 pulls instead of a random character
• Added missing revive shrines to Northern Tundra
• Added background music to Northern Tundra

Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who participated in the last version’s survey, especially those who took the time to write detailed feedback. I’ve read all your responses, and you can expect to see many of your suggestions implemented soon if they haven't been already!

Here’s a summary of the survey results:

• Overall Satisfaction: Average rating is 6/10, indicating plenty of room for improvement.
• Game Difficulty: Most players feel the difficulty is well-balanced.
• UI Feedback: Some users find the UI lacking; I hope the new tutorials help. Let me know how I can further improve it!
• AI Assets: While some players are critical of AI-generated assets, many are willing to overlook it, which I deeply appreciate.
• Updates: Players prefer faster updates, though the current pace seems acceptable.
• More Runes: This was the most popular request!
• Character Design: Most agree that characters feel unique, which is fantastic to hear.
• Recollection System: Opinions are divided. I believe it’s a fair gacha mechanic, but I’m open to suggestions.
• Story: I was surprised to learn how much interest there is in the story! Expect more narrative development in future updates, that includes revisiting character shard stories!
• Expectations: Players want more characters, weapons, and maps. While it’s challenging as a solo dev, I’m doing my best to deliver!
• Game Identity: Requiem For a Lost World doesn’t stand out enough compared to similar games. I hope that it can be changed in the future.
• Events: Players support adding more themed content, which I was initially hesitant about. I’m excited to explore this idea further!

Here are some specific requests I can address right now:

• Map or Minimap: It’s coming! The feature existed previously but caused performance issues. I’ll revisit it soon.
• Rune Combining: This is already in progress and should be ready for the next patch.
• Story Mode: This is a big ask, but I will be starting my research to make it a reality at some point