Just like the game that inspired it, Vampire Survivors, Halls of Torment has been one of the most surprising games of 2023. In fact, I found Halls of Torment more enjoyable than even Diablo IV, and it costs just $4.99. Earlier today, the game got a sizable update that added two new characters — the Norseman and the Beast Huntress — along with new abilities, new features (Class Marks and Agony Mode), and a new stage called Frozen Depths.
The team has also done some polish and quality-of-life updates to the game, including the ability to now discard all abilities from a Scroll of Mastery to receive 50% XP of your current total XP bar. Other changes include adjustments to potion quantities, all final stage bosses now start with lower health, but they increase in difficulty over time, and picking up quest items or ingredients now shows a short text telling you what you’ve picked up.
As for the new characters, the Norseman is a dual wielding axe fighter and when he hits a certain number of enemies, he unleashes a devastating Frost Nova. Meanwhile, the Beast Huntress throws a spear that can pierce through enemy lines and apply a frost effect. She’s accompanied by a hound that protects her from close enemies.
Check out the full patch notes from today’s update for Halls of Torment below.
Halls of Torment Update 08/31/2023
FEATURES
- New feature: Class Marks
- Class Marks allow you to pick traits from a different class
- To unlock a class mark you will need to finish the class master quests.
- Those quests require you to reach agony IV on the character’s stage of origin.
- These quests superseed the character quests to reach level 100.
- If you have already completed the level 100 quests those quests will be set as completed.
- New feature: Agony Mode
- Agony Mode can be unlocked by defeating the Lord of a stage.
- Monster count, monster health, and XP drops are dynamically scaled based on your performance
- Each killed enemy increases agony, while monsters that are alive reduce agony over time.
- Aside from monsters, only reviving reduces agony.
- You may find ‘Uncommon Items’: stronger variations of items that you’ve retrieved previously
- Additional champion monsters are spawning
- Champions are randomized monsters with extra modifiers and abilities.
- Champions can drop various rewards from ability scrolls, to uncommon items, gold, flasks, or an extra bucket for the well.
- New stage: Frozen Depths
- Can be unlocked by defeating the frost knight on the Forgotten Viaduct.
- New unknown enemies await with 3 unique bosses and a new lord.
- The stage layout limits your movement and requires you to navigate carefully through the caves while avoiding getting encircled by foes.
- New elemental effect: Frost
- Frost explodes and deals damage in an area when the affected monster dies or 20 stacks have been accumulated.
- If the frost effect runs out it triggers with only half of its damage.
- Frost deals damage based on the number of stacks.
- The strongest hit that applied frost determines the area of the effect.
- New characters
- Norseman
- Dual wielding axe fighter boosting your physical abilities.
- When he hits a certain number of enemies he unleashes a devastating Frost Nova.
- Beast Huntress
- Throws her spear with great force, piercing through the enemy lines and applying frost effect.
- Has a hound that protects her from close enemies.
- Norseman
- New abilities
- Ice Avalanche: an ice based attack with a diagonal pattern.
- Flame Strike: close quarter defense or boss killer.
- Arcane Rift: magic mines that deal devastating damage.
- Spirit Warrior: summoned warrior that dashes through enemies.
- Potion of Renewal: allows you to reroll abilities
- Hallucinogenic Elixir: allows you to reroll items in a chest
POLISH & QOL
- All final stage bosses have lower health but they increase in difficulty over time.
- Potion of Oblivion now allows you to banish a trait without closing the trait selection.
- Discarding all items in a chest gives you XP worth 50% of your current total XP bar.
- You can now discard all abilities from a Scroll of Mastery which will also give you 50% XP of your current total XP bar.
- Some fixes regarding item and monster positioning in level geometry
- Picking up quest items or ingredients will show a short text telling you what you’ve picked up
- Potion quantities have been adjusted (max amount and bottles)
- Many more tweaks, adjustments, and bug fixes that would either go beyond the scope of this post or we didn’t track properly.
- Retrieving potion bottles doesn’t use up the well any longer. Also, when you survive a run, all bottles in your bag will be automatically added to your potions (no purchase necessary).
