Hello Heroes!

Patch notes for 0.8.1.

• Maledict's Masquerade (Lantern Manor) and the Winterheart Festival (Hollyhold) open at party level 15 and fight at your party's average hero level (from 15 up), rounded to the nearest level. Previously they used your highest hero's level, so one strong hero made the whole party face harder enemies.

• Below party level 35, event enemies in Lantern Manor and Hollyhold have reduced encounter pressure so newer players can enjoy the event without hitting a wall, while earning low-level rewards for their band.

• Event bosses still appear two levels above their map, at the same stages as before.

• Lantern Manor enemies are about 20% easier, and event enemies on party-scaled maps land critical hits less often (6% chance for 1.4x damage, down from 8% and 1.5x).

• Hollyhold enemies are about 12% easier.

• The Heartvault dungeon scales to your group's average level, from 40 up to the level cap. Entering it still needs one hero at level 40 or higher.

• Map previews for these events judge the party's average level, so the expected difficulty matches what you will fight.

• Event gear now drops at the band of the ladder map that matches your party's average level. Festival gear is no longer held back by the highest ladder map you have cleared.

• Wrapped Gifts and Winter Market festival gear use the average level of your six strongest heroes, so the gear you can buy matches your roster even when no party is fielded.

• Lantern Manor and Hollyhold award 50% of the XP of equivalent-level adventure maps.

• Event Invitations drop about 20% less often in Lantern Manor and Hollyhold. They come from the per-energy roll and from opened Wrapped Gifts (below). Event quests and the Winter Market are unchanged.

• The Heartvault now rolls Winterheart Invitations on the same per-energy rate as Hollyhold, so a 30-energy clear has a 12% chance of one for each player. Midnight Bells doubles the Heartvault's Large Wrapped Gift as well as its Frostbells, and no longer claims to double treats or coal there, which it never dropped.

• Wrapped Gifts can hold a Winterheart Invitation. Each opened gift has a 1% chance (Small), 2% (Large) or 4% (Grand). The roll happens when the gift opens, so an unopened gift never shows its contents.

• Opening a Wrapped Gift plays a wrapped-box reveal. Each size has its own paper and ribbon colours, and the reveal lists any invitation the gift held.

• Hero-locked event quests can now also be completed by clearing event runs. Daily quests ask for 5 event runs and weekly quests for 30.

• This applies to event quests rolled from now on. Quests you already have keep their current objective.

• Catch-up XP for under-levelled heroes is more generous, with a new step at 35 levels under:

  • 5 to 14 levels under: 250% XP (was 150%)

  • 15 to 24 levels under: 350% XP (was 200%)

  • 25 to 34 levels under: 450% XP (new)

  • 35 to 49 levels under: 600% XP (was 250%)

  • 50 or more levels under: 800% XP (was 500%)

• Adventure XP previews in the Adventures screen show the new multipliers.

• Ventures now earn XP at 40% of on-level adventuring pace (was 30%). Training earns 52% (was 39%).

• The Ledger badge in the hub now counts levels you have reached but not yet claimed.

• Auto equip now works on one hero at a time from the Heroes screen and the roster. It equips the hero you choose from your bag and works only on heroes in your formation.

• The equipment loadout shows the selected hero's auto-attack and abilities beneath the Character Sheet, with cooldowns adjusted for that hero's Haste.

• Tier stars now appear beside a hero's name in the party details, replacing the Tier badge so it no longer crowds the other badges.

• The Codex Heroes tab has an "Owned only" filter, so you can see just the heroes you own.

• Equipping a two-handed weapon while an offhand is equipped, or an offhand while a two-handed weapon is equipped, now offers to return the conflicting item to your bag. The offhand slot stays visible when your hero can use one, and the swap is blocked if your bag has no room.

• The website Heroes codex shows each hero's Battle line as Front, Mid or Back, instead of "Any line". Heroes without a set line use their class default. You can filter by Battle line, and search finds heroes by line too.

• Heroes no longer appear in the quartermaster's sell list. The All Sellable and Junk tabs gain sort options for rarity, required level, quantity, type and name.

• Unique Effect text is clearer. It now says each hero resolves its own copy, and the wording that suggested other heroes could activate it too has been removed. Unique Effect lines and Bleed and Shield effect lines are coloured green.

• Right-click any item in your satchel to open its menu. It offers Inspect item, Sell to quartermaster, Sell whole stack, List on auction house, use or equip where that applies, Manage gem sockets, and Salvage gear.

• Items you can sell to the quartermaster also have a Sell to quartermaster button in the item details panel.

• Account-bound items stay unsellable, and the menu shows that instead of hiding the option.

• Fishing catches can be inspected from the satchel, the same as other items.

• The energy cap rises from 2,000 to 5,000. Capacity items (Energy Shards, Cores, Crystals and Prisms) still raise your cap permanently, up to the new limit.

• At the cap, using a capacity item no longer goes to waste. It converts into gold and XP instead: 100 gold per capacity point, and each hero in your fielded party gains 0.5% of their next-level XP per point.

• Converting needs a fielded party. Without one, the item is not used up and the game says why.

• Bosses drop capacity items (Energy Crystals and Prisms) about half as often: 4% of boss clears, down from 8%. Energy Shards from normal stages are unchanged.

• The auction house is open during adventures and dungeons, so you can buy and list items while your party fights. Fishing still blocks it.

• Settings has a new "Skip gear score warning when entering adventures" option. It skips the under-geared warning when you enter a map. The first-visit warning still appears, and other start warnings still apply.

• Resting at camp only heals when a hero is wounded.

• Settings now has a "Show tray icon" option. Turning it off removes the icon completely, including from Windows' tray overflow menu.

• "Minimize to tray" is on by default and can be turned off in Settings. With the tray icon hidden, minimizing or closing the main window keeps the game available on the taskbar instead.

• Settings now includes a "Quit Game" button, so you can exit even when the tray icon is hidden. Tray preferences are saved and apply without restarting in both clients.

• A Guild no longer stays leaderless when its owner goes quiet. If the owner has not been online for 60 days, leadership passes automatically to the longest-serving officer who has been online in the last 7 days. If no officer qualifies, it passes to the longest-serving member who has been online in the last 7 days.

• The former owner becomes an officer, and every Guild member is told the leadership has changed.

• If nobody in the Guild has been online in the last 7 days, the owner keeps the role until someone returns.

• Stacked materials and consumables split across several bag rows now count and spend correctly.

• The live connection gives up on a stalled connection attempt after 15 seconds and tries again, instead of stopping retries until you restart.

• Event food (Masquerade candy and Winterheart treats) now shows its full strength range in the bag, the forge and the website, such as "+7% to +15% Concentration, scales with party level". Before, it showed only the strongest value, while the active buff applied the value for your party's level when you ate it.

• The game no longer closes itself during realm maintenance. It stays open and shows the maintenance screen until the realm is back.

• If an update is released while you are away, the game stays open on the "please update" screen when you return instead of disappearing. Quit on that screen closes the game as before.

Thanks for playing Taskbar Legends and helping the Realm grow.