The testing server will be updated today with some rather significant changes. We're listing details of those changes here so you have an idea of what to expect.

Battle Sprites

Testing Battle Sprites is the main object of this preview period, and we’d greatly appreciate your battle sprites feedback here.

You will see battle sprites for the first time in a set of new introductory missions. Please note that some limitations remain on advancement of the sprites. Also, certain sounds and visual elements will be polished more before release. You can find details on the combat skills of each sprite here.

Battle Sprites are integrated into the character panel, which has been changed significantly to make Sprite management easier.

In addition, you will see some other new features, and while they’re not the focus of the current test, we want to explain a little bit about the reasoning for these changes. Please note that these changes are glimpses of a larger picture that we are not yet ready to reveal.

To give feedback on your experiences with stuff in this release that is not battle sprites, please post here.

Please note that off-topic posts will be deleted.

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New Items

We are adding important new items to the game. Orbs of Alchemy and Sparks of Life (the existing material will be renamed). Orbs of Alchemy replace the energy requirements for alchemy meaning that alchemy will require Orbs of Alchemy in place of energy.

Sparks of Life are used to revive knights and replace the energy cost associated with revives. Sparks of Life can be purchased in in bulk via the Supply Depot or individually when needing to revive in the Clockworks. This cost will no longer escalate as it does now. Additionally, every knight will receive an ‘Emergency Revive’ that is used immediately after dying once per level. An Emergency Revive instantly revives you with a generous amount of health.

Orbs of Alchemy and Sparks of Life will drop in the Clockworks (through Missions and the Arcade), and also be available for purchase with energy. The overall cost to craft an item and revive regularly should remain about the same in aggregate, it will just be done with Orbs and Sparks of Life.

In conjunction with this change, and after much debate, we are removing health sharing revives. Our observations show that health sharing to revive downed party members ends up being detrimental to teams working to complete levels; diluting overall team health to the point of team members being repeatedly one-shotted in combat.

However, you will be able to use Sparks of Life to revive downed party members just as you can with energy now.

Difficulty Modes and Loot Distribution

You can now set the difficulty mode of Missions and Arcade runs. Difficulty will adjust the strength of monsters and traps as well as their damage types. Playing on increased difficulty will reward you with more loot.

We have also changed the way that loot is distributed. Loot will now be individually distributed to all players and never randomly assigned or split. Each player sees only their own loot on each level and must collect or ignore each piece. This includes vitapods.

This change means that there are zero reasons to NOT party with others. You’ll get the same amount of loot regardless of party size.

Note: loot distribution is still under development, and there may be less obvious differences between the payouts at different difficulty levels than there will be in production.

Equipment Limits

One additional change to support this: going forward, players will have an equipment limit on their weapons and gear. Mission rank will prevent players from using gear deemed too powerful for their experience. For example, a 3* item would say, 'Requires Rank 5-1 to equip.'

This represents a significant change from the current way Spiral Knights works; however, we think it's in the best interests of the game in the long run to encourage players to feel like they've earned access to the weapons and gear they are using.

Summary

Our goal with the next set of releases is to encourage players to enjoy the process of finding materials and crafting their way to more powerful gear. Battle Sprites and the addition of Orbs are both features that will encourage more focus on individual choices about crafting and how they equip themselves for missions.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on these changes!

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Playtest Notes

- The battle sprite interface can now be found in your knight's character panel

- In the battle sprite interface, clicking on the icon of your sprite will open its feeding panel

Please note that these features are still a work in progress:

- Some materials and sprite items (harnesses and food) are using temporary icons

- Sprites are using temporary icons