📚Contest Reminder & General Updates

Hey again everyone. Another week gone! We've had 8 enchant discoveries so far. It's been great to see everyone's theories about what's to come. Time for a quick reminder and to summarize the main updates from the past week!

🔭 Build Contest Reminder

Reminder that there are just over 48 hours left in the Observatory build contest, and that the top 3 entrants get 2 Boundary Fragments. Good luck!

📝General Updates

• 💎 Valor & Trials:

  • Added a new Silence Tonic (seen below) to the Artifact Trader for a water bottle and Rune of Echoes. Use one on an entity to silence it. Each has two uses.

  • Fixed bugs with the Asteroids Hawking class and adjusted its boss fighting prowess. The bonus warp damage to bosses is lower, but it now generates Entropy when damaging bosses with warps or the black hole.

• 📖 Lexicon:

  • Added `/lexicon by_rune <rune>` to view all enchants whose recipes use the rune. This replaces the list in each `/rune` entry.

  • Updated `/rune` to show the rune's main *meanings*, the spell it casts in the Runic Tome, and a link to its `/lexicon by_rune`.

• 🪄 Enchantment adjustments:

  • Buffed the hunger/saturation restored by Taste Test.

  • Added rooted dirt and gravel as low-value transmutables for Transmuting shovels.

• 🌎 Rune Locales:

  • Increased spawn rates in Skatheim (Chills) and The Allforge (Moments), and increased the strength of The Allforge's copper golems.

  • Added corrupted variants of Arkose (Mortus) and Plimmýra (Tides). Thanks beccc!

• ✏️Miscellaneous:

  • Made poisonous potatoes compostable in a composter.

  • Fixed `/sit` and similar commands not working in chome...

  • Many other minor balance tweaks, bug fixes, and general optimizations.

Thanks friends! 🫶

📚Trusted Promos and General Updates

Hey again everyone. Hope you're all enjoying the event so far! We've had two discoveries so far - Mulching by JenoSnowconeIce, a hoe enchant which automatically composts surplus seeds, and Pestle by skelud, a mace enchant which crushes enemies into primordial dust which can be used to dupe gems. Excited to see more discoveries start ramping up!

We've got a decent batch of people we're promoting to [Trusted], and some general updates and fixes from the past week.

🤝Trusted Promos

We've got a big build up of people who have been around a while, play quite often, and have consistently shown good behavior and community involvement. All of the following players are now [Trusted] rank - congrats and much love to you all!

• Bunniworth

• ElectricSparx

• JenoSnowconeIce

• MareeAM

• Mishiaria

• MrHollowPoint99

• Shotdown01

• skelud

📝General Updates

• We've made many general optimizations to improve performance. Lemme know if the TPS feels better on average!,

• The boardwalk now sells a Creaking modulator, and the clairvoyant's hint is now for a random undiscovered spawn secret instead of always your next one.,

• Fixed Bane of Arthropods not working on Shulkers, and Kuiper Shulkers duping using the vanilla mechanic. These combined should make Kuiper less annoying!,

• Displays:

  • Many cases now show useful info when omitting arguments. e.g. /display brightness with no extra args shows the brightness of your selected displays.

    • Note /display info exists to show all info about selected displays.

  • When setting a text display to fixed billboard mode, it now turns to face your head so you don't lose it.,

• Fixed mob scarecrows not placing correctly.,

• Buffed Ground Pound by ensuring it uses pre-roll damage.,

• Various bugs and compatibility issues fixed, notably for Cerberus and Wrath (still more work to do for them...)

Thanks all!

📖1.21.5 Runecrafting Expansion

📖Runecrafting Expansion: Research Overview

Hello researchers! Thanks for joining today's research expeditions. We've discovered so much already, but this is just the beginning! I'm here to give you a quick summary of what was discovered, and how research and enchant discoveries will work throughout this event.

📝Event Summary

• Together, we discovered two new rune locales:

  • 🌆Val, the Ancient Capital, home of the Rune of Echoes, representing sound and repetition.

  • 🌩️Enelysios, the Deadly Current, home of the Rune of Sparks, representing electricity and inspiration.

• Upon discovering Enelysios, the nascent locale surged with energy, spawning an apex enemy.

• The apex enemy dropped Boundary Fragments, which we used to uncover information about 8 new enchants.

🔬Research Mechanics

• ⬆️The Arcanum has been upgraded, but at a cost:

  • Discovering new enchants now requires perfectly accurate recipes - runes must be submitted in perfect order.

  • The Arcanum now salvages 2 runes from failed runecrafts. If you nearly discover an active research project by using its correct runes in the wrong order, The Arcanum detects this, notifies you, and salvages 4 runes.

• 🔋A random locale surges with energy 4 times daily, at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and 10:00 PM CDT:

  • The surging locale spawns a boundary-touched apex boss and starts overcharging, accelerated by player deaths and slowed by damaging the apex.

  • The apex periodically spawns damageable runic tears and releases diffusion waves from them and itself, dealing damage which bypasses most enchants.

  • If slain, the apex drops 1 Boundary Fragment. If the locale fully overcharges, the surge ends unsuccessfully.

• 📑Active projects roll a new research quest daily at the start of the hour of their discovery.

  • Research quests use shared progress - once anyone completes it, that project's quest is done for the day. Work together to complete each quest daily!

  • Projects can be viewed using /lexicon project <project number>.

• 🧭A quest board has been set up on the back wall of /warp ArcanumResearchLab:

  • Active projects have a board entry that can be interacted with to progress their quest (if applicable) or submit a Boundary Fragment to it.

  • Completing a project's quest grants it +10% Research Progress. Submitting a Boundary Fragment directly to a project grants it +50% Research Progress.

  • When a project hits 100% progress, new information about it is discovered, up to 4 times per project.

  • Alternatively, a Boundary Fragment can be submitted directly to the Arcanum to scry for new enchants - this will randomly either uncover information about a new enchantment, beginning its research project, or add 50% progress to an ongoing project.

• 🧑‍🎓Once an enchant is discovered, its top researcher (whoever contributed the most research progress to it) will be contributed as an additional discoverer!

Thanks everyone for your help today. There are over 50 new enchants to discover. Feel free to ask any questions in ⁠📖arcanum-expansion. Good luck and happy researching!

📖1.21.5 Enchantment Changes

🔧System

• Many Runecrafted enchantments have been reworked, updated, or removed.

• There are 5 new enchantments which we're revealing immediately ↓

• There are 8 new curses which can be received from failed Runecrafts. These replace our previous 2 custom curses, and are mostly for fun, but some have potential use cases. These aren't listed here, but they (and the two vanilla curses) are viewable in the Lexicon for reference.

• Some enchantment recipes have been updated to more modern standards.

🎉New

• Ground Pound:

  • Replaces Feather Falling V. Reduces fall damage and allows double sneaking while airborne to slam down and deal radial damage. Exclusive with Feather Falling & Rocket Boosting.

• Ragdoll:

  • Replaces Knockback III. Killing blows deals 3x knockback ignoring knockback resistance. Enemies hit by their body are stunned. Exclusive with Knockback.

• Riposte:

  • Replaces Kinetic Battery. After a parry, your next attack automatically critically strikes.

• Wire Cutters:

  • Port of Blast Protection V, which is reworked. Shears enchant which allows shearing explosive entities to “defuse” them. Exclusive with Mitosis & Tithing.

• Kaleidoscope:

  • Now a spyglass enchant instead of a charm.

✨Reworked

• All Chestplate "Aspects" have been renamed to “Avatars”, e.g. “Aspect of the Shulker” is now “Avatar of Shulkers”. This differentiates them from the DoT Aspects, and subjectively we feel it sounds cooler.

• Battering Ram:

  • Bash (double block) to rapidly dash forward, pushing and stunning enemies you collide with.

• Blast Protection:

  • Defuse mechanic replaced with an Absorption “blast shield” upon taking blast damage, granting knockback immunity and damage reduction while it holds.

• Executioner:

  • Now a 1-level Looting mutual. Executes below 5% health and grants +200% head drop rates.

• Fencing:

  • After attacking, you can double-tap a movement key to hop invulnerably in that direction.

• Frost Walker:

  • Removed Runecrafted level III. Innately buffed to grant bonus speed on ice and snow blocks and convert powder snow to regular snow.

• Hot Rod:

  • Sears some caught fish, doubling their restored hunger and sell price, and allows lava fishing for 2x sear chance.

• Paradigm of Lust:

  • Enemies targeting a spouse are scorned, allowing you to leap strike them from afar, but if a spouse dies in combat, you wither away unless you enact reckless vengeance against their killer.

• Paradigm of Greed:

  • You can form lifelong contracts with humanoid mobs using raw gold, but if ever you don't re-up a contractor, they betray you.

• Paradigm of Sloth:

  • You can lumber, moving slower and gaining slow, massive attacks, but lumbering replaces sprinting.

• Shockwave:

  • Renamed to Undertow. Now releases a radial wave from you which pushes away enemies.

  Singularity:

  • Renamed to Snare. Now releases ropes which pull enemies towards the impact point.

• Skewering:

  • Attacks gain range and pierce in a 3-prong cone, and throws bypass shields and pierce enemies. Pierced enemies are slowed.

• Utility Belt:

  • Grants leggings a belt, a 9-slot item inventory. Shift right clicking them swaps the contents of their belt and your hotbar.

📝Adjusted

All changes are relative to current mechanics; unlisted = unchanged. Any very minor adjustments also unlisted. Use the Lexicon if you want every detail! ➕Buff, 🟰Neutral, ➖Nerf

• ➕Avatar of Bees:

  • Grants +1 block reach and prevents bees from targeting you.

• ➕Avatar of Ender Dragons:

  • Fires a dragon fireball instead of continuous dragon breath.

• ➕Avatar of Iron Golems:

  • Grants +2❤️ max health instead of bonus knockback.

• ➕Avatar of Shulkers:

  • Shell mode is now activated by sneak punching below you, grants knockback immunity, and only converts arrows to Shulker bullets.

• ➕Avatar of Slimes:

  • Replaced random slimes on damage with a split at 75%, 50%, and 25% health, spawning a slime which draws aggro.

• ➕Bane of Arthropods:

  • Always slows for the full duration (yes, it slows) and works against Shulkers (not new, but stating for visibility).

• ➕Blitz:

  • Max level reduced, III → II. Same strength at max level.

• ➕Bottom Feeder:

  • Pulls from a new scrap table with grab bag-style items.

• ➖Bounty Hunter:

  • Only rolls to spawn a bounty on-kill. Reduces AFK silver collecting, though can result in more bounties during active gameplay.

• ➖Chaining:

  • Nerfed chain range, 16 blocks → 12.

• ➕Eldritch Inclination:

  • Luck gained from void damage now stacks. Now causes Wardens to warn you 1 additional time before they spawn.

• ➖Extinction:

  • Can stack against any non-player entity. Damage against non-bosses capped to 5-10 ❤. Rune locale mobs now treated as unique entity types.

• ➕Fire Aspect:

  • Cuts healing of burning targets by 50%.

• ➕Flare:

  • Entities hit directly glow for 30 seconds.

• ➕Green Thumb:

  • Max level reduced, III → II. Same strength at max level.

• ➖Howling:

  • Attack speed per stack reduced, 10% → 5%. Offhand howl damage reduced, 37.5% → 25%.

• ➕Multishot:

  • Note that this enchant is buffed by projectiles bypassing iframes.

• ➕Paradigm of Vainglory:

  • Replaced cowering slow with +10% speed to reduce reliance on mobility/Envy. The key punishment is intended to be exiting combat, not the debuff.

• ➖Pestilence & Plague Aspect:

  • Spread is now delayed and only to the 1-3 closest enemies in range.

• ➕Riptide:

  • Now plays well with most enchants, and so is now only exclusive with Loyalty.

• ➕Rocket Boosting:

  • Max level reduced, III → II. Same strength at max level.

• ➖Schrödinger’s Thumb:

  • Max level increased, I → II. Same strength at max level.

• ➖Slingshot:

  • Can no longer store equipment.

• ➕Soul Speed:

  • Removed durability drain.

• ➕Sundering:

  • Now deals +1❤ attack damage, and stacks 3 times for 4❤ instead of 5 times for 3❤.

• ➕Sweeping Edge: Sweeps even when no target is hit directly.

❌Removed

• Aspect of the Blaze:

  • Struggled to find a good home since losing Blaze pacifying, which we don't plan to readd.

• Crucifying:

  • Doesn't see much use, nor is it worth the space.

• Feather Falling V:

  • Replaced by Ground Pound, see above.

• Frost Walker III:

  • Lava walking is better served by Striders. Vanilla enchant is now innately buffed, see above.

• Haunted Bulwark:

  • Doesn't see much use or fit our modern ideals for shields.

• Knockback III:

  • Replaced by Ragdoll, see above.

• Lightning Rod:

  • Doesn't see much use or fit our modern ideals for shields.

• Misanthropy:

  • Unnecessary now that Extinction works against any target.

• Phantom Strike:

  • We're not fond of single-target DPS enchants competing with AoE ones.

• Point Blank:

  • Fills an odd space as a bow enchant. Now better serviced by options like Valor Cerberus.

• Rune Scented:

  • Replaced by the Valor Mark of the Cult.

• Sapiovore:

  • Replaced by the Valor R.E.D. armor.

• Shadow Shot:

  • We're not fond of single-target DPS enchants competing with AoE ones.

• Swift Sneak IV:

  • Largely replaced by the Valor Umbral armor.

• Overload:

  • Plagued by balance issues, only used in abuse cases.