We’ve been working on new content for Nine Parchments ever since we first released the game, and now we’re excited to finally share what we’ve got for you!
The Astral Challenges free content update is making its way towards all our players on all our Nine Parchments platforms. The highlights of the Astral Challenges update include:
Six new Arena levels that will challenge even the most battle-hardened wizard veterans. The arenas are designed for characters who are at least level 40, so better get ready for a rough ride. Simply put… you will die.
A new unlockable character, Selius, waiting to be discovered in the new arena levels, and along with him you’ll discover new hats, staves and spells.
The new Quick Chat feature will make talking to your classmates as easy as pressing a button, so get ready to yell at your friends.
Check out the trailer!
The Astral Challenge Arenas
When you enter the Arena levels, you are able to select two additional spells to add to your spell wheel on top of your three starting ones. Using these five spells, you must fight to survive to the end!
You are tasked with defeating incoming waves of monsters until a certain number of waves has been defeated. Completing an Arena unlocks the next, more difficult one, until you get to the sixth and final one, where monsters will spawn infinitely and you’re trying to survive for as long as possible.
Fighting in the first five Arenas gives you a score based on your clearing time, and survival time on the final one, so get ready to claim your spot on the newly added Arena Leaderboards!
Here’s a few preview screenshots:
The Arenas are designed with leveled up characters in mind, as skill upgrades will make the difficulty more manageable. However, killing monsters in the Arenas also gives experience, making your escapades there an effective alternative way to level up your characters as well.
Unlike in the Adventure Mode levels, monsters in the Arenas don’t drop health or mana. Mana can spawn in between waves however, and there are also three new items spawns in the arenas: Immunity, Superchaged Mana and Supercharged Blink. These three items come with a short time duration between 5-10 seconds.
The Arenas will also have some new types of enemies not seen in the Adventure Mode.
A New Student Joins Class
To Professor Butternut’s delight, he has a new student joining his class of enthusiastic fireball experimenters. Players can discover and unlock Prince Selius in one of the Arena levels. Like the other students, Selius has his own fashionable staff and hat accessories, and sports some unique spells of his own.
You’ll find out more about Selius by finding him in the game and playing the main game with him – or you can just wait for our upcoming blogpost about him!
Release Date: Today!
The Astral Challenges content update is out today on Nintendo Switch, PC and PS4, and the Xbox One version is coming as soon as the patch gets approved.
We hope you enjoy! Thanks for the continued support 🙂
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FULL CHANGELOG:
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NEW CONTENT:
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Spells:
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Ice Nova
• An Ice blastwave bursts around the caster, affecting anyone caught in its wake, slowing and freezing them
• Deals 50 Ice damage per cast
• 4 charges
• 4s charge regeneration time per charge
Hailstorm
• Throwable ice spell that conjures a Icefall in a large area
• Deals 50 Ice damage per falling projectile
• 1 charge
• 18 second charge regeneration time per charge
Piercing Shadow
• A stream of shadow magic which pierces all targets, freezing and inflicting moderate damage
• Uses new element type: Shadow
• Pierces all enemies dealing 20 damage 4 times per second
• After channeling for 1.7 seconds powers up and deals 70 damage for the remainder of the channeling
• 13.2s regeneration time to full mana
Quick Chat
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• Greet fellow students, ask for help, question their decisions and more, with fully voiced lines that change with your selected mood
• Spell order and character moods moved to options menu
• Using directional keys activates Quick Chat instead
Arena Gamemode:
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• Recommended for level 40+ students
• Six Arena levels in total
• Five time attacks with a set amount of waves
• One partially randomized endless survival
• Leaderboards for the Arenas to compete with other players on
Student:
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• Added a new playable character, Selius, who you can unlock in the new Arena levels
• Six new achievements to unlock new variations and skill trees for Selius
Staves:
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• Added two new staves that can be found in the new Arena levels
Staff of Shadows
• +8% Fire, Ice and Death power
• Blink deals 25 Death damage 2 times per second for 4 seconds
Staff of Nightmares
• +30% to all healing received
• +40% beam spell power for 7 seconds after Blinking
Hats:
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• Added 3 new hats that can be found in the new arena levels
OTHER CHANGES:
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Students:
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Rudolfus the Strange
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Dying Breath
• No longer provides damage resistance for each student in spirit state
• Instead adds +3% critical hit chance (max 15%) for each student in spirit state
Marvek the Torrid
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Ignite
• Deals 20 damage over 10 seconds (max 100 damage over 10 seconds)
• Stacks up to 5 times
Spell adjustments:
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Cursed Fireball Rain
• Increased damage from 25 to 50
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 40 to 20
• Reduced delay between projectiles 0.33 to 0.2
• Stomp speed from 10 to 12
Poison Flower
• Flight speed from 12 to 16
• Stomp speed from 10 to 12
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 20 to 17
Electric Totem
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 180 to 60
Bouncing Heal
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 60 to 25
Chain Death
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 45 to 35
Steal Heal
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 60 to 45
Electric Wave
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 15 to 10
Deadly Sacrificial Bomb
• Reduced charge regeneration time from 45 to 30
Staff adjustments:
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Gislan’s Staff of Verdure
• Increased damage from 30 to 40
The Staff of Serenity
• Increased Life spell power from 10% to 15%
The Searing Staff
• Melee now deals 40 fire damage instead of physical
• Increased chance to deal bonus damage from 20% to 25%
• Increased bonus damage from 20 to 100
The Eventide Icicle
• No longer gives +5% elemental resistance
• Instead has a 40% chance to freeze melee attacker for 5s
The Copper Rod
• Increased chance to stun target in melee from 10% to 20%
Owl’s Lightning Rod
• Increased Lightning spell charges from 15% to 25%
The Wolfram Rod
• Shorter stun duration from 25% to 50%
Nim’s Enchanted Broom
• Increased chance to deal additional damage from 20% to 50%
• Increased Steam damage from 15 to 30
Nim’s Boreal Broom
• Increased max stack amount from 3 to 30
• Reduced damage per stack from 2 to 1
• Reduced duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds
The Staff of Quackening
• Chance that Blink regenerates itself increased from 15% to 20%
Good luck to your battles!
EDIT: The Xbox One version is now out as well 🙂
32 comments on “Nine Parchments Free Content Update – Introducing The Astral Challenges”
I can’t wait! I continue to be pleasantly surprised by your continued support of the game. It feels more and more solid every update!
I’m actually really excited for Quick Chat. The character quips is one of the most fun parts about playing with friends.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks for your support! 🙂
I’m very happy about the continued updates and excited about the new content. As a former WoW player, I was looking for a game with similar elements, but a more linear playstyle that I can jump in and of due to time constraints…because life happens. Nine Parchments fits the niche for me. I’ve been having a blast with this game whether in solo play or co-op. Thanks so much for bringing this game to life. I can’t express that enough.
Awh! Thank you very much, your support means a lot. 😊
96,257 Is my score in the “Crystalline Quarry”.
And going by the records, that is
Number 1! *next to my friend Sandy*.
As many hours as I put in this since December I should take no Lesser place. >;-)
👍
Really enjoying this update so far. The staff and spell changes in particular are fantastic! Thanks, Frozenbyte. You guys are the best.
I am finding myself missing the ability to rearrange my spell-wheel on the fly, though. I wonder if there isn’t some way the D-Pad could still be used for that with an auxiliary input? For instance, if one was to hold down the right stick or the “back” button while using the D-Pad to rearrange spells or switch mood without pausing and disrupting other players.
Regardless, the Astral Challenges are brilliant and I’m enjoying the rest of these changes very much. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your support and the suggestion! 😊
Unfortunately I’m not sure will we be able to go back on the change anymore, but I did forward your comment ahead. Let’s see if we can work with it.
Also happy gaming!
Add actual voice chat online please! I appreciate the work done on middle grounds like the quick chat, but theres no good reason to not have voice chat in a co op game. Overall, great game and I’m happy to see you’re all still working on it. I’m excited what’ll come next. 👍✌️🖖
Thanks so much! Hope you also add a random survival mode tower where you start with a 9 parchments already and you climb up to the infinity tower.
Love your guys’ game been playing non-stop.
Would you guys mind expounding on the “Spell Books” that drop randomly in Astral Arenas? I read this, “Unlike in the Adventure Mode levels, monsters in the Arenas don’t drop health or mana. Mana can spawn in between waves however, and there are also three new items spawns in the arenas: Immunity, Superchaged Mana and Supercharged Blink. These three items come with a short time duration between 5-10 seconds.” Are you refferring the “Items” to the Spellbooks that drop in Purple, Blue or Green? I grab them but can’t figure out what they do or which one does what. There’s no Indicator to which One I got or anything. I’m just looking for some clarification.
Also would love the ability to jump with R3 or L3, Trying to Cast Spells Certain spells whilst jump and dodgeing by moving my right thumb from the Joystick to the A or B button is brutal I might be the only one complaining about this though.
Love all you guys do and I’m trying to get my friends to play
Glad to hear you like the game! And yes we’re referring to those books and here are what the buffs do. 🙂
Blue
Fast spell renerations and +50% crit chance
Green
This one grants immortality. The target can’t be resurrected or healed during this time.
Purple/Pink
Grants fast blink charge
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Also unfortunately I don’t think we can promise any changes to the bindings, but still thanks for your feedback!
I hope this helped but let me know if you have other questions. Also have fun playing, and hopefully your friends can hop in too! 😊
Thank you for that amazingly fast response.
If any feedback on that Astral Arena, It would just be nice to have some sort of visual cue or indication for the buff duration or effect. Cause at at first I thought they refunded Death, Ice and Healing Mana when touched and thanks to this post I know that wasn’t the case.
Love your guys’ work!
I must say, the frozenbyte team did more than just an excellent job on this game. And they give us playable content for free, when other companies do not even let us play their games for free. Every opportunity i get i promote this game. And everybody who has at least half a brain and a decent taste in games is blown away.
There are only a few riddles i can not solve. One has to do with the gamer community. How come, when a game like battle front, that is done by i greedy big coorporation, asks their players to pay extra for main features, everybody loses their mind and the whole internet cries out loud, but when a company like frozenbyte is donating content to an already, pardon the term, ridiculously underpriced game, no one even talks about it. And the second riddle is, why would a company that actually lives off the products they sell, donate content for free to an already mind blowing game. The second one i just assume, that there are reasons for it. So to be fair, i am more than just grateful you did it.
Anyways if you would give me the possibility to pay for a DLC, that would cost the exact same amount the game cost and had may be about half as much playable content, i would just say: “shut up and take my money.” That’s how much i love this game. Of course me and my friends were already coming up with ideas what to do. Like an open world for example, where you can walk around with the already trained characters and solve quests for randoms to increase the level towards unlocking all of the skills. Or an Arena where you can face 4v4 PvP teams. A game mode that could potentially make it’s way into esports. To me the opportunities are limitless. But until then i will remain happy playing this digital pearl you created for us. Thank you guys so much. Cheers
Thanks for your lovely words! 😊
We unfortunately don’t have plans for additional DLC, but I’ll forward your feedback ahead. Also we usually make a bit more content to keep the game interesting for a while longer as we add bug fixes. Unfortunately I don’t really know answers to the other riddles, which I think most gamers have just began to accept – not making it more right though.
Thanks again, and hopefully you’ll possibly try our other titles, or games we have coming up in the future. Cheers!
I really love your game! I would also embrace some dlc. But I would also be very happy if there would be the possibility to kick out people of your online game. Yesterday I had a troll who tried to destroy a game and it would’ve been much easier to just kick him out. I (and I think many others as well) would really appreciate such a feature.
Thank you for your great work and many hours of fun!
What’s your platform?
On consoles you can kick players from the pause menu, on PC it’s by writing “/kick playername” in the chat.
Also thanks for the feedback! It means a lot to us. 😊
I play on the Nintendo Switch, didn’t find IT Yesterday.
Thanks again 🙂
Please make a sequel to nine parchments!! This game is so much fun for the whole family, serious gamers and casual players. The graphics are really impressive throughout the story and everyone I know that has tried it loves it. There really isn’t another game quite like it that I have found!
There is currently no sequels planned, but thanks a lot for your support. It means a lot to us. 😊
It still possible that we can make one later, especially if there is interest in it, like comments and videos.
Cheers!
Have been reading the many requests for sequel to Nine Parchments and I agree with the many supporters and requesters. It’s been now 4 years. Now in 2022, the demand and support for this game is still as strong and growing still. The potential has been proven and the call for expanding on this game has been loud and clear. Would Frozenbyte seriously look into extending the journey and the 9P universe,please. Do say “Yes!!”. Thanks
We’re aware that there are plenty of players wishing for a sequel, we do keep getting requests for it regularly. I can’t promise anything as we’re currently still very busy with Starbase and the console release of Melody of Mystery, but we’ll keep the requests in mind – who knows what the future will bring. Cheers! 🙂
Just discovered the Switch version thanks to Holiday sale. A great way to satisfy my old Magicka itch with a more mobile/action feel. I’ve been having a ton of fun but I feel the game could use another balance patch (or ideas for a sequel)
I’m a bit concerned how some spells are very weak they can’t kill even a goblin with a full bar (death flower/ spreading disease) while others are good but run out super fast (lightning waves) while others are high damage, long use, and avoid reflections (the Barrage spells are godly in other words). It was kind of unfair for my girlfriend that Gislan’s spells are harder to use, starting talents so pigeonholed to healing, and the achievements much harder than Cornelius for variant unlocks.
Having the characters unlocked much earlier in the campaign would have helped as well to offer variety at the start of the game. Some friends got turned off when I started with just 2 available.
Big healing circle seems to be the only good healing spell outside of killing death mobs, and it’s the best spell for killing death mobs. Faster throughput with less waste should be more prevalent in the life element.
Lastly, the tutorial level could have explained shields, auras, and reflective enemies alongside basic controls.
Sorry if the above comes out harshly, but I think the above would really elevate the game to legendary quality.
Thanks for the feedback!
I really recommend just trying to go for other characters if you still enjoy the game. My own favorite is Carabel. There is also an option for her to gain health from doing ice damage. And I don’t think the characters are that hard to unlock.
Also one thing you have to consider is that if the spells are weaker, you can usually spam them. Another strategy is focusing on each monster’s weaknesses.
Unfortunately I can’t promise any changes, but thanks for the suggestions and we’ll try to learn from them in the future. 😊
Thanks for this absolutely great game. We have also discovered this game on Switch through Holliday sale and we can’t get enough of it. For the last month we are playing just Nine Parchments and the game gets better and better. It’s been fun for a whole family. We enjoy unlocking new characters, defeating bosses and finding new spells in 4 player co-op with our kids. You did great job with controls and I was really surprised it could be played with just one joycon. I am a great fun of Diablo but this game is amazing and for me much better than Diablo. I hope you will reconsider making the sequel because this game is so full of potential (open world, quests etc.) or at least some DLC content (it doesn’t have to be free). Thank you so much and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the lovely feedback! We are super happy to hear that you have been able to enjoy the game with your family. Unfortunately at the moment we do not have plans for a sequel, but we agree that Nine Parchments has a lot of potential. 🙂
Dear Frozenbyte. Do you have any plans for next DLC (best on Xbox)? This is the best game in local co-op I have ever played. Thank you a lot!
Currently no plans for new DLC as we’re busy with Trine 4 and Starbase, but thanks for the request, I’ll make sure to forward it! 🙂
So how do we get this DLC? I don’t see any links here, but everyone in the comments seems to have gotten it…?
I play on the Switch, and there’s no mention of this DLC on the 9Parch entry at nintendo.com…?
Thanks!
Eric
PS – Looking forward to Trine 4 too!
The DLC should install automatically as an update. After it has installed there should be a new option in the main menu called Astral Arena.
If the DLC has not automatically installed for some reason, you can check for updates manually on your Switch. You can do this by going into your main menu, choosing Nine Parchments and clicking the + button. Then choose Software Update from the menu and Via the Internet. Hope this helps!
Any future DLC or an update to make randomly generated level? Nobody is asking for the DLC to be free, there is a paid DLC market that frozenbyte has yet to tap into, ultimately giving new life to your library.
Currently no plans for this, but we’ll keep the suggestion in mind for the future! 🙂
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