The Oathbound Update

REMINDER: Mortal Sin is 40% off right now — and this is your last chance for a deep discount! As I approach the full 1.0 launch, the price will soon increase and future discounts will reset to much lower levels. So if you’ve been on the fence, now is the best time to dive in — or gift a friend while the sale lasts.

This is a massive update that brings the game closer than ever to my original vision. It also includes the full Quest Update Part I, which introduced new quest types built around spatial and timing-based objectives. If you missed it, read that announcement here.

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🧬 New Feature: Oath System

A brand-new Oath System has been added! These are powerful run modifiers unlocked through Helena’s questline. Each one drastically alters gameplay with its own risk–reward twist, encouraging unique builds and new playstyles.

• Oaths are unlocked as you level up Helena.

• At levels 2, 4, and 6, you’ll choose between two Oaths per tier.

• Most Oaths can be mixed and matched, but some (like level layout modifiers) are mutually exclusive.

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✨ New Oaths

🧩 Fractured Realm Each level becomes a branching puzzle of floor plates and locked rooms. Rewards and traps appear more frequently. Rooms from other areas always appear at the end of branching paths. Portal rooms are longer and have branching paths.

There's a forest in my dungeon...

🔥 Crucible Path Each area has fewer rooms. All rooms are replaced with arena battles. Bosses drop up to 3 skill chests per arena battle.

💨 Divine Grace Your block is replaced with a dodge. Dodges consume guard meter and grant brief invincibility. Dodging in time triggers a dodge parry. Your next attack becomes a slow power strike dealing 400% bonus damage.

😱 Feast of Fright Scares occur more frequently. Scares have a chance to spawn Sinful Essence, up to 5 per level.

🧠 Gift of Insight Equipment no longer provides stats. All equipment grants skill stacks increasing with rarity.

💪 Gift of Might Equipment no longer grants skills. All equipment provides +50% increased stats. Your stat limits are increased by 10%.

🕳 Hollow Tribute Loot rooms no longer appear during the run. Gain +30% more gold essence.

🌕 Providence Path Each level becomes a long winding corridor. Loot appears in each corridor and improves the farther you go.

⚔️ Sacred Flow Only Shuffle Combos generate combo meter. Combo meter gain is doubled when performing a Shuffle Combo.

🛡 Sacred Reflex Parries have a much stricter timing window. Parries grant more combo meter and unleash a shockblast.

💎 Snare of Avarice Each room is either filled with traps or filled with rewards. Breakable objects have a chance to drop loot chests.

🧬 Twisted Lineage Enemies are randomized in each room. Gain +15% chance to find rare items.

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🛠 Gameplay & Content Updates

• Meta quest rewards like Divine Retribution and Oaths now have distinct icons and colors to differentiate them from standard rewards.

• Helena’s quest UI no longer closes after each reward — making it easier to claim multiple rewards in one go.

• Gold Essence quest reward base amount increased from 15,000 → 50,000.

• Skill stacking now goes beyond level 5, up to a hard cap of 25, with diminishing returns beyond the soft cap.

• Class list reorder: Mage is now listed above Pirate to better reflect newcomer viability. Pirate will be reworked soon, and I’m planning changes to Vampire as well based on community feedback.

• Auto combo improvements: You can now correctly charge a thrust or hold attack mid-combo.

• Arena slow motion improvement: Buffered input is cleared if you're mashing during a slow-mo finisher to keep it cinematic.

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🧩 World & Level Adjustments

• Cave drop rooms now have elevators for backtracking, preventing softlocks in the Fractured Realm layout.

• Quest storage overhaul: Dying now adds quests to a global reserve pool, which is only accessed on new saves. This fixes previous confusion and bugs around quest inheritance. Otherwise, once you hit the first save point, your saved session will track it's own quest rewards on that round as well as quests that are carried over to the next round.

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🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Divine Retribution would sometimes reappear even after being claimed.

• Fixed: Issues with old quest reward reserve system that would delete rewards unexpectedly.

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🎨 Visual & UI

• Added a new loading splash screen that reflects the game’s realistic visual style. The classic version still appears if you're using legacy visuals.

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🎁 Final Note

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Sulfur x Mortal Sin bundle is now available! Pick it up here: Steam Bundle Page

Thank you for playing and supporting Mortal Sin — I’m incredibly grateful to be building this alongside such a passionate community. I can’t wait to deliver a full, robust 1.0 that brings the full vision to life.

Stay sinful, –Nikola