-Feels like the rates on lower difficulties are nerfed overall compared to before. This is okay, though it would be nice if higher difficulties would be more rewarding than before.

-Picking up vertical spikes adds more time to the whole looting process (you have to pick up and throw to shatter any remaining vertical spikes on the ground), it feels slow for something that gives you only a single material, so gathering spikes feels overall slower than before. It would be good if picking up and throwing vertical spikes onto enemies would be more rewarding in some way (making vertical spikes drop more spikes on shatter?) - the idea seems fun overall

-Also related, it doesn't feel very worth it to pick up and throw spikes during combat - with groups of enemies you tend to get overwhelmed (especially with spiked enemies around) despite the spikes doing high damage. It could use an AoE explosion effect (the AoE damage part could be the same or bit less) that staggers everything within the radius

-Spikes shattering on pick up is pretty satisfying, throwing spikes could use a bit more flair to VFX (like with the AoE idea!)

To the above, the amount of spikes does not seem like such an issue to me. I am a player who works alone yet managed to finish my Mandolin in the first event, with time to spare to help one of my friends get some progress. The intention seems to be that some players will need multiple events to finish the Mandolin, which seems okay if the event will re-run often.
It's still a large grind, don't get me wrong. Personally I did not really like going through depths of crystals I was finished with in order to reach the ones I needed, as sometimes the latter outweighed the former heavily. But I don't think the answer is tripling or quadrupling the spike counts, that's a bit too far.

Alt farming is not the way to go. Pooling your spikes together from other players is a privilege that should not be taken for granted.

The things that I wanted to bring up correlates with the issues that Destroy-Destroy already has brought up.
Something that has bothered be since the last storm, I'd love to see some tweaks about how that whole spike stacking works.
Enemies that already have enough spikes stacked are extremely fast, especially the more "responsive/aware" ones like from the Gremlin and Lichen family.
So while you're busy dealing with a horde, the already spiked ones can just quickly run to the back and gather even more spikes.

Two (or three?) things:
- Enemies carrying more than four spikes shouldn't be able to mortar them immediately but rather have it be on a timer & cooldown whenever the next spike gets fired out
- Some enemies like Lumbers have a prolonged dying animation, they should not be able to fire out spikes during said animation

And here for the new Spike Shower preview:

I'm not so sure about the throwable Spikes idea.
While personally I do like the thought and mixing an alternative way to attack that actually does some damage (looking at you throwable pots and Battle Sprites to an extend (which is a completely different issue)), it might cause some issues during some more "hectic" moments when everything has to go fast.

Picking up spikes individually and throwing them takes a bit of your time away.
Not a lot of time is lost but enough for enemies to swoop in and catch the other available spikes.
Especially since enemies can pick up the spikes in an instant while Knights have to wait patiently to "drop" first.

I should've also voiced my opinion on the now non-existent Spike Counter:
I liked it.
Sad to see it being removed honestly.

Why do you keep referring to it as being 4x harder, or getting 4x as many spikes last time? The amount of spikes obtained per individual player is the same, no?

It's was simple and comfortable... But "many where confused" so confused that they lost their way to the forums to say it themselves...
Now, I'm talking for my self, I liked the counter was a nice way to know how many spikes we had and if the aurora glitched and wasn't visible the counter would reassure you that you where on a level affected by the Aurora... those things where Nice. Can I have Nice things even when "many, ohh! so many said otherwise"

For the most part I really Like the Update and testing the spikes pickup the animation is similar that the one for bombs and keys and sometimes it feels weird! and is worse when using bombs... as a compromise, Can we have the 'pick up' by way of walking to them and having to throw them?

Originally during the first crystal event you can deny enemies from pick it up crystals if you were fast enough making that heavy grinding nightmare “more” manageable (less annoying) and a little more interactive.

Now every Crystal who isn’t pick it up by any enemy yet, you’ll have to manually pick it up (Like statue, pot or water) and manually throw it into something so it can explode and then you can took it into your inventory.

In real gameplay, you rarely can pick it up before an enemy does and even when you can it’s just not worth it throwing it in combat.

Most of the time, this interaction slows your already heavily farming and more often than before it causes an enemy to be overloaded with crystals making you lose material just because lols.

My 100% "needed" changes:

• Increasing difficulty should grant you more crystals than the game is giving you in this preview.

• Reverse that picks it up crystal mechanic because is un-interactive and not fun at all.

Alternatively, you can make some crystals a "bigger" version from the rest when it falls either enemies or you can pick it up without breaking first (You need damage the crystal to create small pieces the enemies and you can now pick) but this "bigger" versions drop more crystals (maybe can drop 2-3 from the current tier is falling in that floor considering this crystal like a lucky bonus instead of balancing the amount around this mechanic).

• After enemy dies, allow a margin of time to allow us the players to pick up crystals before the enemy.

I don’t want to be a party pooper but the changes of how the crystals are stored (now every knight need to individually pick their crystals) are not gonna stop people of using alts or exploits, if you want to really stop people doing that you have to reduce that breach between players using cheats and players who aren’t, so people don’t have to recurring to use exploits, third party software to control multiple knights at once, using more devices, or doing worm holes yadda yadda, the more heavy the grind is, the more "walls" you put, the more harder people are gonna cheese the way out. don't spend you little resources trying to patch something people are gonna unfix day 1, people are gonna play the beta just to find any way to chesee it and they're gonna zip it until live update.

I don't recomended by any means you can make the weapons from the event uncapable to unbound (like the rocket hammer) so using alts is pointless (bad idea?)

Optional changes for the sake of the event: to reduce the grinding

• Increase the duration of the event so people who play legally can obtain that weapon without playing 24/7 (in comparison to the last event more than 11 days)

• Reduce the amount of crystals needed to craft weapons or increase the amount of crystals you can obtain.

Personally I don't care about the alts I just wanna a fair and fun event for people who aren't stupily tryhard.

So far I personally like many of these changes, although, just like how most recent preview events have been going currently, a bit of polish could help making the update feel much better.

First of: Compounds. These have been very useful during spike events, however it seems that compounds containing Glop Drops (and by extension other slimes) do not spawn spikes due to being classified as an other monster class (which I imagine are construct, gremlin or fiend, considering icon colors of the levels I've seen). Considering levels like Scarlet Fortress (which contain both slimes and undead) seem to spawn spikes during this slime-spike event, I think it would make sense for compounds containing Glop Drops (slimes) to spawn spikes, too.

Second of: Throw-able spikes. I will start off saying I personally like the mechanic, it's fun and the spikes themselves deal pretty heavy damage, it's a very interesting way to interact with spikes that takes a bit of it's own risk since you are pretty vulnerable while picking it up and throwing it! However, it is extremely slow to have to pick one up and throw it out of combat just to obtain the spike material from it, I feel being able to attack it or walk right to it to break it could help with the current pacing issues the new throwing mechanic introduce.

Third of: Time concerns. I believe that a pretty talked about subject in the previous spike event was the large spike quantity needed for creating a slicer weapon, specially Mandolin (5 star variant). While I personally find reasonable to make a powerful weapon locked behind a considerable lengthy grind, I'm also worried that I'll have to go through that again for some other weapon, piece of gear, cosmetic and/or any other item. I'm (unfortunately) an adult, and that means I won't always be available to play the game whenever the event is online due to studies, work or other factors outside the game.
This is, of course, a much more subjective problem, and I am most likely to not be the target audience for the game (specially considering I don't tend to give a cent to live service games like this one, I rather have a whole new game over a couple of cosmetics, for the most part).
However, from what I've seen within the community, it feels people get the feeling that they *have* to get the new content of an event right away due to the limited availability of the event itself, even if progress is kept between events (the fact you removed the original Obsidian Obstacle from last Apocrea probably doesn't help with this either! People may feel this is their only chance to get something new if stuff like this happens).
I think a way to mitigate this issue would be to make this specific event more available in a way that gives players either more control or more information.
From my experience, players don't tend to like to have certain aspects of the game to be extremely obscured (a good example of this is how Hollow Knight Sinksong, which has boss healthbars and your location being shown on the map at all times, as some of of the most endorsed and downloaded mods in Nexus Mods) and maybe this is more of a me-thing but I am quite sure frustrations may also arise when the game arbitrarily stops you for anything outside improving the player experience (looking at you, Warframe's foundry system!).
I know communication and giving information is generally not something GH likes to do a lot (mostly because they can't, according to some GMs words), they seem to want to keep event availability to be a bit spontaneous, too, and once again, seeing how things are going, I doubt the game is really focused on someone like me who doesn't have a massive amount of time to spare, but it's probably better to leave my grain of salt here than stay quiet, specially considering I am capable of using the preview server again.

If the current gates are intended to be slime themed in certain stratums, the current slime compounds don't count as being slime themed for spikes

If we are going with the previous spike event approach with gates, that might need to be adjusted

I miss the spike counter in the HUD. It made it very easy to tell how well the floor was for spikes. Now you have to note your before/after count.. please add this back.

Everything about it feels wrong; only the reward makes things bearable. (Was it, though?)

Overall, recent changes cause the whole event to feel worse to grind. I understand about combating alt farming. But this just costs too much.
There are a few changes I wish to keep.

I will lay out comments on the change list and then suggestions

>>> Spikes no longer accumulate in a "party" tally in the HUD. Instead, the first person to reach a spike "shatters" it into per-player material pickups. The resulting total of spikes per player should be the same as before.

I dislike having to open my inventory to check the spike I got from each level in this event. The old HUD ui was fine. If people don't like them, you can add an option to toggle them or move it next to player heat or the middle top of consumable pockets.
Here is an example: https://i.postimg.cc/85YYx4H8/image.png

>>> If you reach a spike in situ (vertical), you can now do the "pick up" action on it. Carry it overhead and throw it. When a thrown spike hits, it also "shatters" as above.

I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE this change. And wish to see it removed.

Here is why: One of the golden rules of combat flow is do not disturb it. The old event with spike is ok. It created a little race between the player and the mob. current "Pick up and throw" system is too much for everything.

You will have to rush before the mobs and "pick up," and then have to throw somewhere just to eliminate Spike from getting picked up by the mob. This looks fun for the first time. But in practice. A busy room, or the moment you have to do something else besides just run and automatically get picked up, is not it. You cannot do it all in time, unlike the previous event. This overall makes the combat more Slog And same issue with Mortafire mobs. Their pickup can get in your way in the middle of comboing or attacking a high-priority target. This completely ruined my combo, and I got killed by it because Spike decided to spawn in front of me. Mobs can always get the spike before you, even though they are dead.

Adding more layers to the player to get the spike off the ground is not it.

In a spread-out crowd room >> can be manageable
In a busy, crowded room >> problematic and quickly snowballs because you cannot tell, or it's hard to tell, which can be picked up or not. With spike "automatic" pickup radius nerfed on top (which is now shatter).

>>> Spike rates per level vary by Difficulty

This change looks good on paper until you look at the number...

• normal: 52% chance
• advanced: 65% chance
• elite: 78% chance

what...

Whole 3% from the previous event. That is nothing. And why make it less than the former instead of buffing and rewarding whoever goes for it with extra challenge?

SUGGESTIONs to make this thing more bearable or feel more rewarding

• Remove the "pickup" and "throw" situ spikes mechanic. Or make it a consumable with buffed AoE and damage. This will not interrupt combat flow, and those who like the mechanic get to keep it.
• If the above request cannot be met. Make all types of spikes shatter when being walked over by a knight and turn into material form.
• If the above request cannot be met. Make all spike cannot be reuse by monsters once the spiked monster is defeated. Other monsters cannot pick up the said spikes.
• If the above request cannot be met. Reduce the cost of the Mandolin and its lesser version recipes.
• Dead mobs during their dying animation should not be able to pick up spikes and turn them into artillery.
• More items to exchange for spikes, like unique variant tickets
• Reduced cost of spikes for fire crystals from 15 to 5
• Spike spawn rate increases by difficulty should be this following: Normal >> 60% | Advanced >> 80% | Elite >> 100%
• Some mobs with spike stats are still slightly over-tuned. This scaled badly with danger room mobs. A few giant-class mobs are simply too fast and can one-shot you. Giant Lichen colony, for example.
• Return the Spike counter UI to the HUD

Currently, this event is not enjoyable for anyone. Too many difficulty steps. Only thing that people willing to farm it for is the gun. And if there's no gun. This event isn't worth the effort.

While these changes take steps to address alt-farming, they also add new pain points which will likely become common complaints if pushed to live. Thoughts and suggestions below:

Throwable Spikes
A cute novelty in smaller fights, but a tedious extra step in empty rooms, and a detrimental handicap in dense fights (arenas, danger rooms, etc).
Having to manually pick up each spike makes it much harder to intercept spikes before monsters reach them. Holding a spike over your head locks out your weapons and shield until you get rid of it, making it highly imprudent during more intense combat when monsters and projectiles are piling down on top of you.
Having to manually break every single spike also horribly slows down the farming process, by forcing players to go through an entire animation loop every single time they pick up a spike. Over the course of thousands and thousands and thousands of spikes, that animation loop will waste a lot of time and get extremely tiresome.

Proposed tweaks:
A) Allow players to break spikes simply by running over them
B) Add a new hotkey/interaction option for instantly breaking spikes, instead of picking them up (so E to pickup, X to break, something like that)

Rates/Costs
Reduced spawn rates on Normal/Advanced difficulty, the new per-player material drops, and the forced animation delays for breaking spikes will all significantly slow down the farming process for this event.
The sheer material costs for a single gun were already a complaint during the first spike storm, and those complaints will only intensify now that players have to fight through higher difficulties for the best rates, without materials getting vacuumed away to alts or party members.

I don't think the idea of a weapon you slowly craft over the course of multiple storms is going to resonate with players in practice. People want their hard work to pay off. If you dedicate time to farming down an event, you're going to want a real chance of reaching completion during that event itself. Spending all that time only to get partway and have to wait for the next storm will just burn and frustrate players. Sure, you can buy spikes, but I feel like that should be an option for convenience, not a necessity for reaching the finish line during one storm.

Proposed tweaks:
A) Increase Elite spike spawn rates to 90/100%. Perhaps a monkey's paw suggestion, as it would also increase the difficulty.
B) Reduce the material costs of the gun recipes. Simple, fast, hard numbers fix. Players were already complaining about the recipe costs during the first storm, and plainly speaking 7200 mats for a single item is insane. If we're going to move forward with making alt-farming harder, then the total material costs for a full 5* gun could stand to be dialed down by a few hundred. Giving players a little more breathing room on the material costs would be universally appreciated.

Minor Issue: Spike Counter UI
I actually liked the old spike counter on the HUD - it gave a clear sense of progress per-level without being particularly obtrusive (it was just a single little box on the hotbar, it wasn't blocking anything or adding any real clutter). Certainly it was more convenient than opening the entire inventory UI to do quick-math on my entire pile of spikes.
If we're experimenting with whether or not to have that Spike Counter, I would prefer to have it back, rather than get rid of it.

Noted Oversight:
Slime Compounds do not count as Slime levels for this variation of the spike storm, and generate zero spikes/have no aurora effect.

I have mixed feelings about changes, but overall I think this was a downgrade.

I'd like to start off saying that I do like the idea of throwing the spikes and it seems like it could be quite fun, but it needs a little work around the edges. I think I speak for many when I say that I don't like being forced to slowly pick up each spike and throw them at a wall just to loot them when enemies aren't around. Worse yet, it's very slow and restrictive being required to walk up and pick them up in the middle of a fight to prevent them being grabbed by enemies, and it was already a very tight window to get to them first during the first spike event. Before, we could dash through the spikes to pick them up, but now we usually need to walk up to them, and then interact (which is very inconsistent with any amount of lag.) Enemies also have priority and can interrupt the pick up animation. It feels like it's safer to kill the enemies before they pick up spikes instead of grabbing them first; which brings us back to our first problematic scenario: looting spikes while enemies are gone.

I think of it as 2 separate issues, first being that when enemies aren't around, looting spikes is slow and tedious. This slows down the grind considerably, and makes grinding for spikes a lot less fun when the moment of acquisition feels like a chore instead of satisfying. The second issue is that it's too dangerous, inconsistent, and most importantly slow to grab spikes during combat.

Now, here's my suggestion. Make in situ/upright spikes pick up just like vials or other consumable items when a knight touches them. This way, we don't need to walk up and interact, wait for the pick up animation, and throw immediately. We can pick them up just by touching them, while dashing or doing other actions, and we can throw them when it's safe to do so. If there's any fear of this being too strong, then just limit the number that knights can hold in their hotbar to 1. However, it's important that having a full hotbar or max spikes in the hotbar does not prevent us from picking up the spikes. If it's full, the spikes should shatter as if they were resting.