SNEAK PEEK into Update 0.91: CROSSBOWS, Bow Rework, Lanterns, New Mob, & More!

GREETINGS CRAWLERS!

*We have been a little silent here on Steam, but nonetheless hard at work on the game's next major update, Update 0.91! *

We are currently wrapping up development on 0.91 and are in the testing and polishing stage of development for the update! We are very excited to get feedback on these new features and additions, so please take a look at what's coming and tell us what you think!

Discord:

To stay up to date on what we're actively working on, feel free to join our Discord, where we post regular development updates in our #development-updates channel, and often we pop in chat to chat with players or answer questions!

https://discord.gg/bUPT3bT7hk

0.91 Release Date:

We are planning to release update 0.91 on October 2nd, at 4 PM EST!

Ranged Weapon Rework:

The majority of our time spent working on 0.91 has been on COMPLETELY rebuilding and reworking nearly every aspect of ranged weapons in Cave Crawlers. For a long time, we have been unhappy with the state of ranged weapons in the game and have wanted to take them to the next level, turning them into something very unique.

Below are the major changes we have made to ranged weapons with 0.91!

• Crossbows

The first new weapon type being added to the game since hammers with 0.7 all the way back in March of 2024!

Crossbows are a subtype of ranged weapons that work functionally similar to how bows have worked prior to update 0.91. You immediately fire a shot on left click, then start reloading your next shot to fire again. There are 11 crossbows coming with 0.91, with even more planned to come in the updates after!

• Bow Rework

How bows fire has been COMPLETELY rebuilt. You now need to HOLD left click down to pull back your bowstring and change your shot up to a certain stage to be able to actually fire an arrow. The stage at which you release left click determines how much weapon damage is dealt with your arrow.

There are two stages by default: half-draw (50% weapon damage) and full-draw (100% weapon damage), with an additional third stage called overdraw (150% weapon damage) that can only be used if you have a certain expertise talent in the new expertise tree.

Several new bows have also been added to the game, as well as many of the current bows being art updates, new item proc effects, and stats rebalanced

Example of a bow reaching the full-draw stage, but also having the option to continue holding down left click for the bonus overdraw stage unlocked in the expertise tree.

• New Ranged Expertise Tree

The ranged expertise tree has been remade from the ground up. Almost every talent from the old pre-0.91 tree has been either removed or reworked, and a whole bunch of new talents have been added in their place. The number of talents in the tree has also more than doubled, making it one of the largest expertise trees in the game!

Regarding ranged spells, Rapid Fire has been removed, and in its place we have added two new offensive spells:

• Quick Shot: Instantly fire an arrow from your ranged weapon for 250% weapon damage. Each time you kill a mob, this spell gains a charge. 4 charges are required to cast. 6 second cooldown.

• Multishot: Instantly fire 3 homing arrows dealing 120% weapon damage each. 20 second cooldown.

And a new utility spell has also been added towards the end of the tree!

• Barrage: For 10 seconds, each shot loads an additional homing arrow. 90 second cooldown.

• Ranged Item Changes

Every single existing bow has had its stats rebalanced to fit with the new bow string stage system we've added to them. Bows are now one of the highest base weapon damage weapons in the game, with fairly slow attack speeds if you are charging to the full or overdraw stages. We have also made several very significant changes to ranged weapons to make them distinctly different from melee weapons:

• Ammo: Ranged weapons now require a new stat, called ammo, to fire. Ammo works similarly to torch duration, where it is visible above the ranged weapon, but it is instead carried by your character instead of being tied to the weapon itself. So if you drop your ranged weapon and pick up another, you will still have the same amount of ammo. You gain ammo through several notable talents in the ranged tree, with the very first talent giving you ammo when you strike a mob with a melee weapon.

• Quivers: Quivers are a new type of equipment added, with a max equipped of one. Quivers give strong damage boosts to ranged weapons and increase the max amount of ammo you can carry on your character.

• Reload Speed: Reload speed as a stat has been completely removed from the game, and in its place, attack speed now reduces the time it takes to reload any ranged weapon and increases bow draw speed! We feel this opens up a lot more options for ranged weapons to build with, as prior to 0.91 you were fairly limited by what items you could use if you wanted to do a fast attack speed type of ranged build.

• Knockback: Knockback has been removed from each ranged weapon's baseline stats, but can still be obtained through certain talents or proc effects. We also plan on adding knockback to some equipment in the future that could be used to give ranged weapons knockback.

• Weapon Range: Weapon range now affects ranged weapons by increasing their effective damage range. Bows have a baseline weapon range of 10, and crossbows start with 5. When you are outside of your damage range, your crosshair is no longer red when aiming at a mob, and you deal reduced damage based on how far the mob is past your weapon range.

• Torches: Due to the new animations involved with reloading crossbows and drawing your bowstring on a bow, we felt that it didn't make sense for the player to be able to use ranged weapons with your left hand and use a torch in your left hand at the same time. So now holding a ranged weapon takes both hands and prevents you from holding a torch in your left hand. Of course, you still need to be able to see, so we have added a new item type that solves this issue and has been a planned addition we have been waiting to add to the game for a long time!

• Lanterns

Lanterns are something we have wanted to add for a long time, but haven't found the right implementation for it until now! With the change of ranged weapons requiring both hands to use, and with shields coming in a future update, we felt 0.91 was the perfect time for us to add lanterns!

Lanterns are a new piece of equipment that frees up the need to carry a torch, but takes up an equipment/armor slot instead. Functionally, they work very similarly to torches. You can find common lanterns in many spots where torches currently spawn, but can only find rare and epic lanterns within chests. You can refill lantern duration at torches or lanterns you find within the caves. Lanterns can also be turned on and off using the X key by default, as we know players like to sometimes put away their torch to save duration when they have other sources of light around them.

New Mob:

A new mob is coming to the game! The Crystal Beetle is a new hostile mob found early on within the Crystal Caverns. They are balanced to feel about as difficult as regular Goblins, but with a special attack!

Beetles can charge at you, dealing damage and knocking you up into the air! As a bit of a secret counter, if you dodge a beetle's charge and they slam into a crystal, they will die and break the crystal.

New Perks & Perk Rebalancing:

Several new perks have been added, and several existing perks have been reworked or adjusted to better fit the balancing we are trying to go for with perks. I don't want to go over every new perk and change here, but I do want to share some of the more significant balancing changes we've made!

• Extra Supplies: "Start your run with a basic weapon of your choice, plus one additional item: a Bomb, Fuse, or Minor Health Potion." This means the perk allows you to choose what item you start with.

• Alchemist's Blessing: "Sets your maximum health to 3. Drinking a non-health potion grants +1 maximum health until the end of the floor. Each potion type can grant this bonus only once per floor."

• Reuse and Recycle: "When using a non-health potion, there's a 25% chance it won't be consumed, a 25% chance it is consumed at half strength, and a 50% chance it consumes normally."

• Second Wind: "Receiving a heal while downed revives you. 10 minute cooldown." Has also changed from a square slot perk to a hexagon.

We have made changes to how some perks are obtained, adjusting some existing achievements, as well as adding new ones. Additionally, we are currently working on a new early-game questline that rewards the newly reworked Extra Supplies perk!

Stat UI Updates:

We have gone through and updated every stat to have improved 32x32 icon art, and new 10x10 icons that can be seen in the bottom left of nearly every talent or proc effect in the game. This helps with the readability of your talents in your expertise tree, as well as figuring out what your buffs are actually doing for you!

The stats UI panel in your inventory has also had a big update, changing the font size and adding the associated 10x10 stat icons to each stat. We are hoping this helps teach players which stat icons are for each stat. Some less important stats are now hidden by default until you have some of that stat, like max ammo or torch duration.

The pinned stats UI has also been changed to look cleaner, and now only shows the stat icon instead of the stat name. This allows pinned stats to be a bit more readable at a glance, but also take up less screen space on your UI.

Hardmode Chests:

Hardmode chests are a new type of chest found throughout the caves where a chest usually spawns. They can only be found on the hard difficulty, and are simply an additional chance to spawn in place of nothing rather than a reduction in your chance to find a regular chest!

All hard-exclusive items have been moved off of the regular single and double chests loot pool and moved into the hardmode chests!

Final Thoughts:

0.91 is primarily focused on the new ranged system, additions and changed, but also introduces several smaller features we are very excited about! We are looking forward to hearing what people think of the new content coming out on October 2nd!

Please share your thoughts with us on this sneak peek either in the Discord or in the comments of this news post, as your feedback is incredibly important to us in making Cave Crawlers the best it can be!