New beta speculation

[RexySeven]

On 3/9/2025 at 12:50 AM, Mike23Ua said:

The next update was said to be in freaking September,

They said there's gonna be two big updates before the story ark concludes in September. 

Edit. I mean one big update before last ark update in September.

[Kacpert25]

11 hours ago, Biskit said:

Unfortunately, the game is currently unbalanced and heavily biased towards early rewards for shadow side, with Nightmare Werepig dropping the Pure item of the shadow
side, "Pure Horror", as early as day 1, giving an early and significant advantage to the shadow side of multiple characters, giving easy and early access to their shadow powers, after only defeating 1 boss, without activating any rifts. As a result, their Lunar side is unfairly disadvantaged. Some Lunar skills even completely nullified in the early to mid-game. This incentivizes playstyles of choosing shadow side early-mid game and switching to the Lunar side later via the Celestial Portal.
Examples are:
- Wurt's Dreaded Mudslinger
- Wendy's new Cursed Vexation elixir
- Winona's Pure Horror Generators and Shadow Strike
- Shadow Plinth Kit, leading to: Walter's new Pure Horror Rounds
- Wigfrid's Dark Lament
- also worth mentioning Maxwell and Wanda greatly benefiting from Dreadstone Helm and Armor
- other potential character specialties with their upcoming skill trees

Yet, on the other hand, the Lunar side’s Pure item, "Pure Brilliance", requires a series of very lengthy steps: Pearl quests, Moonstone, Archives, Pearled Crab King, Moonstorms, defeating the final Lunar Boss, Celestial Champion, activating rifts, something irreversible and hardcore, and finally, only after a considerable amount of time Pure Brilliance can be obtained.
(obviously with the exception of Wilson's Lunar transmutation perk, which still requires everything up to Moonstorms, and likely Wickerbottom's End is Nigh. Locked behind 1 specific skill of a specific character, which already requires defeating Celestial Champion mind you!)

There is widespread agreement that there must be an early-mid game, pre-rift way to obtain Pure Brilliance, a Lunar alternative to Nightmare Werepig, which hopefully can be achieved after only one, yet challenging boss fight.
And a progression like this, even as a pre-rift Lunar Werepig, would mean 3 bosses, with shadow boss already being first:

Personally, I think that instead of giving the option to get pure brilliance before activating the rift, it's better to block the ability to use pure horror and dreadstone to craft endgame items.
Walter can prototype his items from special stations, so it would be logical to implement this for the rest of the characters. Any character items that require an item tied to a station would be locked at the start and would require prototyping at special stations.

For example:
- Time pieces, gembells at the ancient pseudoscience station.
- Mudslingers, super elixirs at shadowcraft plinth and brghtsmithy.

Of course, I realize that such a lock would not completely block the option of using endgame items in the early game, because it is still possible to craft shadowcraft plinth, which only requires nightmare fuel, pure horror, and dreadstone. That is why I think that dark tatters and brightshade husk should be added to the shadowcraft plinth and brightsmith recipes. Additionally, their graphics should be modified to include the listed resources. Then, access would also require activating rifts.

In my opinion this is a good idea, because really, considering how strong a dreaded mudslinger is, characters shouldn't have access to affinity items from either side until they activate the rift.
Granted, Winona would still have the ability to use pure horror, but shadow strike isn't really super op. Plus, she still has the ability to gain pure horror in the early game via Charlie side.

Anyway, if they implemented the mechanics I mentioned, I think it would be possible to give the option to get pure brilliance before rift.

[Blue Tangerine]

On 3/9/2025 at 4:22 AM, Kacpert25 said:

Now that we've finally released the skill trees, I'd like to talk about what we can expect in the next update.

So Klei wrote that there will be 2 more updates of From Beyond Arc. In the last update there will definitely be the once mentioned rift bosses, but what could be in the penultimate update?
Well, considering that if it weren't for the extension of the beta, the next update would probably be in March.
And who was added in March in the last two years?

  Reveal hidden contents

Werepig

In March 2023, Nightmare Werepig was added, which belongs to the shadow side.

In March 2024, Scrappy Werepig was added, which uses Wagstaff's items.

There was the shadow side, there was the Wagstaff side, so now there's only the lunar side left, which means there will be Lunar Werepig.

So now that I've outlined what might be in the next beta, I'd like to give some ideas on how a Lunar Werepig could look and work.

Lunar Werepig would be a boss that could only start spawning after activating Lunar Rift, and thus have planar armor and damage.
Before the rift was activated, the spawns of the other two versions would have worked the same as they do now. I.e. after beating Nightmare Werepig, Scrappy Werepig would respawn after 10 days, and after beating Scrappy, Nightmare would also respawn after 10 days.
Whereas when Lunar Werepig is available, the respawn of the other versions will be as follows: Nightmare => Scrappy => Lunar => Nightmare.
Of course, so that you don't have to wait 30 days to beat Werepig, the respawn time of all versions would be reduced again. From 10 days to 6/7 days.

Lunar Werepig as he would be a post rift boss, would be trapped by brightshade roots this time.
When he is freed, he will tear out the roots that bind him, and these will become his armor and weapon.
The roots as weapons will be used as whips wrapped around the Lunar Werepig's wrists.
Then with the whips, Lunar Werepig will also have long-range attacks.
Perhaps he would then have the ability to deal damage after someone hits him since he would be wrapped in brightshade vines, which also have that ability.

Lunar Werepig - Concept Art:

  Reveal hidden contents

The fight could involve chopping down roots with a pick/axe or shadow maul, temporarily rendering the Lunar Werepig weaponless.

I don't know if it's possible from a game code perspective, but it would be interesting if Lunar Werepig had some planar attacks and some normal attacks. Root attacks would deal planar damage, while fist attacks would deal normal damage.

So, that's all I wanted to say, thank you for reading this post.

I'm more interested in where it came from than "where Daywalker would go"; Pigman has always been a featured creature at DS/DST, but I've never seen one that grew so huge. It said it found the rift to Shadow Plane first (or is it called Tenebrus?), apparently it later absorbed Pure Horror's power, but what about before that? Where did it come from? Was it a normal Pigman before? Normal pigs usually live on the surface world , not in caves, how did it get into the caves then? Charlie/Mithus is now Queen of the Shadows, she tied up the daywalker, so why didn't she drain Pure Horror from it?

[readkey]

12 hours ago, Biskit said:

First, I want to clarify that the followings, don't necessarily contradict OP's ideas. They may work alongside a solution that addresses the concerns I'm about to raise.
Here's my concern:

Unfortunately, the game is currently unbalanced and heavily biased towards early rewards for shadow side, with Nightmare Werepig dropping the Pure item of the shadow
side, "Pure Horror", as early as day 1, giving an early and significant advantage to the shadow side of multiple characters, giving easy and early access to their shadow powers, after only defeating 1 boss, without activating any rifts. As a result, their Lunar side is unfairly disadvantaged. Some Lunar skills even completely nullified in the early to mid-game. This incentivizes playstyles of choosing shadow side early-mid game and switching to the Lunar side later via the Celestial Portal.
Examples are:
- Wurt's Dreaded Mudslinger
- Wendy's new Cursed Vexation elixir
- Winona's Pure Horror Generators and Shadow Strike
- Shadow Plinth Kit, leading to: Walter's new Pure Horror Rounds
- Wigfrid's Dark Lament
- also worth mentioning Maxwell and Wanda greatly benefiting from Dreadstone Helm and Armor
- other potential character specialties with their upcoming skill trees

Yet, on the other hand, the Lunar side’s Pure item, "Pure Brilliance", requires a series of very lengthy steps: Pearl quests, Moonstone, Archives, Pearled Crab King, Moonstorms, defeating the final Lunar Boss, Celestial Champion, activating rifts, something irreversible and hardcore, and finally, only after a considerable amount of time Pure Brilliance can be obtained.
(obviously with the exception of Wilson's Lunar transmutation perk, which still requires everything up to Moonstorms, and likely Wickerbottom's End is Nigh. Locked behind 1 specific skill of a specific character, which already requires defeating Celestial Champion mind you!)

There is widespread agreement that there must be an early-mid game, pre-rift way to obtain Pure Brilliance, a Lunar alternative to Nightmare Werepig, which hopefully can be achieved after only one, yet challenging boss fight.
And a progression like this, even as a pre-rift Lunar Werepig, would mean 3 bosses, with shadow boss already being first:

Which is absolutely not a solution, with Shadow side already being way ahead and early, and Lunar side requiring a very long time and effort.
I personally would also prefer not to make Scrappy Werepig or Crab King to be the solution to early access to Pure Brilliance. Still very unfair game, with shadow side being easily ahead. Frostjaw not that much, but it's still very painful to locate.

[As a side note to OP's idea, I would like to also mention, in regard of having a 3rd Werepig variant: it complicates the Werepig boss cycle, especially when playing with multiple people or in community servers. It's already quite hard to figure this out with 2 variants. For example 1 day after someone has defeated either Nightmare or Scrappy Werepig, there is no way to know which is next on the cycle without having intel. Adding a 3rd to this cycle would make this even way worse, complicated and very conflicting. Nightmare Werepig's spawn is already random and can have even quite a few different spawn locations.]

TL;DR: Pure Brilliance should be accessible pre-rift in the early to mid-game. My suggestion:
A new unique & challenging Lunar Boss (not Werepig-related, as explained) that spawns on Lunar Satellite islands, an underused location with barely any purpose. Which also encourages people even further to look for Lunar Island, which is not as hard and random as locating Frostjaw.
This Boss would be obviously Lunar-Aligned, drop few Pure Brilliance, and potentially:
- requires high lunacy requirement (similar to low sanity requirement of Nightmare Werepig)
- drops Blueprints for some new Lunar Aligned gear set, similar to Dreadstone set with planar defense: pre rift special armor with immunity to minor Gestalts that repairs by sacrificing blood slowly (As the Moon wants to possess the body), and repairs faster the more sane, with no repair if insane
- Rare Blueprints for things such as: random Wagstaff Gear, or new Moon Glass Walls, Pillars, Gear
- some special drops that will make it worth killing multiple times, maybe 1 Restrained Static (Which helps Wigfrid) or 1 Enlightened shard or another unique drop that can be used or replace something in the whole Celestial Champion quests
- this new boss can potentially be related to and do something with some unused/unfinished things in the Ancient Archives, such as Sealed Portal, after being defeated.

How about Werepig only crushes the pillars post rift? Like the Junkyard werepig only pull out his laser gun after rift is opened. 

[Keknutui]

I think the story could go like this:
Charlie might be able to free the shadows that used her.
Wagstaff will be able to open a portal to the real world. 

And in the end, Charlie will ask for help, and Wagstaff and the survivors will fight with Alter and the Shadows at once. 

I really don't know how the Glue will make the ending of the arc, which began with New Reigin.

[Blue Tangerine]

6 minutes ago, readkey said:

How about Werepig only crushes the pillars post rift? Like the Junkyard werepig only pull out his laser gun after rift is opened. 

In that case we wouldn't get dreadstones to open the rifts.

[AleksyPL]

On 3/8/2025 at 9:22 PM, Kacpert25 said:

Now that we've finally released the skill trees, I'd like to talk about what we can expect in the next update.

So Klei wrote that there will be 2 more updates of From Beyond Arc. In the last update there will definitely be the once mentioned rift bosses, but what could be in the penultimate update?
Well, considering that if it weren't for the extension of the beta, the next update would probably be in March.
And who was added in March in the last two years?

  Reveal hidden contents

Werepig

In March 2023, Nightmare Werepig was added, which belongs to the shadow side.

In March 2024, Scrappy Werepig was added, which uses Wagstaff's items.

There was the shadow side, there was the Wagstaff side, so now there's only the lunar side left, which means there will be Lunar Werepig.

So now that I've outlined what might be in the next beta, I'd like to give some ideas on how a Lunar Werepig could look and work.

Lunar Werepig would be a boss that could only start spawning after activating Lunar Rift, and thus have planar armor and damage.
Before the rift was activated, the spawns of the other two versions would have worked the same as they do now. I.e. after beating Nightmare Werepig, Scrappy Werepig would respawn after 10 days, and after beating Scrappy, Nightmare would also respawn after 10 days.
Whereas when Lunar Werepig is available, the respawn of the other versions will be as follows: Nightmare => Scrappy => Lunar => Nightmare.
Of course, so that you don't have to wait 30 days to beat Werepig, the respawn time of all versions would be reduced again. From 10 days to 6/7 days.

Lunar Werepig as he would be a post rift boss, would be trapped by brightshade roots this time.
When he is freed, he will tear out the roots that bind him, and these will become his armor and weapon.
The roots as weapons will be used as whips wrapped around the Lunar Werepig's wrists.
Then with the whips, Lunar Werepig will also have long-range attacks.
Perhaps he would then have the ability to deal damage after someone hits him since he would be wrapped in brightshade vines, which also have that ability.

Lunar Werepig - Concept Art:

  Reveal hidden contents

The fight could involve chopping down roots with a pick/axe or shadow maul, temporarily rendering the Lunar Werepig weaponless.

I don't know if it's possible from a game code perspective, but it would be interesting if Lunar Werepig had some planar attacks and some normal attacks. Root attacks would deal planar damage, while fist attacks would deal normal damage.

So, that's all I wanted to say, thank you for reading this post.

 

Poor Werepig moving left and right up and down, he could just chill in his place minding his own stuff.

It would me interesting having more interactions with bosses that doesn't have any, for example CrabKing that gives us suspicious plant and then quest for brightshade mandrake (revived and cute creature) that could occasionaly plant dead mandrakes in ground. For ideas they are many many ways to make game even more enjoyable and tasks that makes us rush for it ;p

[kayla137]

KLEI I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU ADD 27 WEREPIG BOSSES I WILL DO STUFF TO YOU 

[Valase]

2 minutes ago, kayla137 said:

KLEI I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU ADD 27 WEREPIG BOSSES I WILL DO STUFF TO YOU 

What do you mean, we are in a dire lack of "possessed Werepig" and "Masque Werepig"

[Wormboi]

4 hours ago, Valase said:

What do you mean, we are in a dire lack of "possessed Werepig" and "Masque Werepig"

and "sea werepig" and "monkey werepig"