Drums of Winter Update : Patch Notes

Hey Keepers,

Just in time for Christmas we have a little present for you: This is our biggest update for now. This update brings a bunch of exciting changes, including a brand-new weapon run, a unique skin for Next Fest winners, and a major overhaul to bomb mechanics with the introduction of War Drums. We've also refined game balance for 3- and 4-player modes, added quality-of-life improvements, and squashed several pesky bugs.

Whether you’re diving into the new Winter Weapons run, enjoying brighter nights, or exploring the improved crafting systems, there’s something for everyone. As always, your feedback has been invaluable, so thanks a lot for your great feedback and support.

Patch Notes Overview

New Weapon Run : Introducing Winter Weapons with a unique recipe.

Exclusive Skin : Winners of Next Fest receive the unique Lion Skin.

Bomb Mechanics Overhauled : Improved mechanics and strategic options with new War Drums.

Balancing Tweaks : Significant updates to projectile weapons, Myst & Magic abilities, and 3-4 player scaling.

Quality of Life Improvements : Enhanced brightness, save slots, better crafting UI, and controller updates.

Bug Fixes : Resolved critical issues, including rare map errors and controller vibration problems.

Dive into the details below!

Patch Notes

New Content

New Weapon Run: Winter Weapons (Physical Only)

Experience a new weapon type with a completely unique recipe. (No spoilers—try it out!)

Skins for Next Fest Winners

Added the exclusive Lion Skin for winners of the Next Fest Event.

Balancing Updates

New Feature: War Drums

Bombs no longer skip time.

War Drums are a new strategic tool that lets players manually skip time and call the next wave.

Using War Drums increases the gold gain modifier for the current night, scaling with the amount of time skipped.

Introduced the Drums Party Totem, which rewards gold whenever time is skipped.

Bomb Party Totem has been removed.

Projectile Weapons

Fire DOT effects now stack.

Increased Fire DOT damage:

Tier 1: From 10 over 5 seconds → 20 over 5 seconds

Tier 2: From 20 over 10 seconds → 40 over 5 seconds

Air projectiles now always trigger shock directly instead of only after hitting a shocked enemy, resulting in a significant damage increase and making it easier to understand.

Myst & Magic

Each new tier now increases loads by 1.

Hammer:

Now hits enemies regardless of their position.

Damage adjusted to 20/30/45/60 (T0/T1/T2/T3).

Vulcan:

Starts with 3 loads (previously 2).

Lightning Tower:

Damage adjusted to 20/30/45/60 (T0/T1/T2/T3).

Starts with 4 loads (previously 3).

3 & 4 Player Adjustments

Overhauled bomb mechanics improve gameplay balance for 3- and 4-player teams, resulting in greater gold gains for larger groups.

Time bonuses for 4-player teams increased by an additional 10%.

Quality of Life Improvements

Brightness: Increased night-time brightness for improved visibility. Let us know if it still feels too dark.

Day/Night Cycle Toggle: Players can disable the cycle, ideal for local co-op on large screens or for improved visibility at night.

Woodland Keep: Removed the door due to overwhelming feedback.

Controller Support: Added D-pad support for movement.

Confirmation Prompts: Added "Are you sure?" messages to Restart and Menu buttons.

Save Slots: Introduced multiple save slots for player convenience.

Crafting UI Enhancements:

Recipe steps are now color-coded for quicker recognition (e.g., smelting icons are now red).

Added a dynamic crafting recipe system for Sling Weapons: when picking up an item (e.g., an egg), players will see instructions for crafting it (e.g., placing it in a water bowl).

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where the Vault wouldn't load higher-tier diamonds in Practice Mode.

Fixed a bug caused by Pushing Firebugs interacting with Combustion Workbenches.

Resolved a bug where enemies gained max HP when hit by negative damage.

Addressed an issue where water projectiles could deal negative damage.

Fixed a rare error on the Quad Garrison map in Practice Mode that led to multiple issues.

Adjusted configurations to mitigate controller vibration issues:

Since these are difficult to reproduce, please report any remaining problems, including:

Controller type.

Action that triggered the vibration.

Whether playing in local multiplayer.

Whether you were the host or a client.

We appreciate your feedback and are dedicated to improving the game with every update. Keep the input coming!

We wish you happy holidays and a Merry Christmas!

Daniel & Daniel

Ps.: Want to talk about strategies, discuss balance and balance changes or learn how to play the game? Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/n24hXgwhaW