Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap news & patch notes

Hey War Mages – Kyle here – game director on Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap. We’ve been hard at work on adding some new ways to play and some extra challenge for those looking for it. I’ve been excited to tell you all about this because we’ve been having a ton of fun playing it. So, let’s get into it:

Difficulty 20

The first addition is the smallest, but ties into the new modes as well. You can now crank the difficulty slider up to 20 – the previous cap was 10. This drastically increases enemy health and damage. I know some of you have reached this scaling during runs, but it feels quite a bit different when you start there with no Threads.

Challenges

When you approach the Rift in the Order Fortress, you’ll now see two additional mode options. The first you’ll see is Challenge Mode. These are extra difficult challenge runs handcrafted by our designers that can be played solo or in co-op.

I’ve always loved the challenges in previous OMD games, and here we wanted to experiment with some new ideas as well. Unlike previous games, you’ll be able to take the War Mage and trap loadout (and elixir) of your choice into the Challenge.

The Challenges feature custom waves of enemies as well as some Distortions created exclusively for this mode. There are other factors that you’ll see affected by the Challenges: Rift Points, Difficulty slider, Barricade count, and whether your trap and skill tree upgrades are active.

Another cool change compared to previous Challenge modes is that these Challenges can be multiple Missions long. Some are just one Mission, but others are three or five.

There are ten Challenges to start with, and each keeps track of your high score. Some even grant new cosmetics you can equip to your War Mage when you complete them. Note: Some of these are obtained via Endurance Mode (which we'll get to shortly)!

The Challenges are tough, but they’re fun and they get us thinking about beating the levels in new ways.

Endurance

We hear the calls for Endless mode, we’ve been testing, and we will continue listening. However, we’re also adding a new mode called Endurance Mode that we think takes the best parts of Endless while cutting out the fluff and frustrating aspects.

Endurance Mode allows you to play 25 waves on a single map. That’s 25 waves of placing traps and choosing Threads, so by the end, your killbox should look pretty impressive.

Okay, 25 waves, so it ends, but what improvements does Endurance Mode have over Endless? First, the beginning 10 waves or so of an Endless mission are rote and easy. We wanted to skip that part, so the base Endurance mode starts at Difficulty 10. From there, the enemy health and damage scales on every seventh wave.

That’s the second advantage over Endless – we only scale health and damage. We know the Mission ends after 25 waves, so we don’t feel the need to scale and add features like CC resistance, which previous Endless modes had.

Thirdly, unlike previous Endless modes, you’ll still get a Go Break between every wave like in every other Mission in Deathtrap.

The base Endurance missions only feature one Distortion outside of the enemy scaling, and that’s a coin reduction on enemy kills. This is not to limit the number of traps you can place. However, because we start you at Difficulty 10, you’ll immediately be getting some big combos, and through playtesting we found the default coin generation to just make the mode easy to an unfun degree.

Like in Challenge Mode, we can also affect your Rift Points and starting Barricades. Each Endurance mission starts with 20 Rift Points and 16 Barricades.

Each Endurance mission tracks and displays your high score, and just like the Challenges, some even have cosmetic unlocks. We’re starting with 10 Endurance missions.

And for those who still aren’t challenged enough, we have a second page featuring Nightmare versions of each Endurance mission. These crank the Difficulty slider up to 20 and add three more Distortions: War Mages can no longer be revived by teammates, Overdrive takes twice as many combos to fill, and War Mage Rift Point loss on death doubled.. These don’t offer any cosmetic unlocks because so few of you are even going to be attempting these, but they still track your high score. Tip: Don’t forget your elixir.

An Endurance mission takes us about two to three hours to complete. So, while it does end, we do hope it captures what people are looking for – which is extending that time spent on a map, playing in different parts of a level, experimenting with different trap setups, and really building out that killbox – all while being challenged.

We’ve had a lot of fun building and playing this new content, and we hope it scratches that itch you’ve had for some more challenge. Let us know how it goes. Good luck out there!

PS There’s more to share and show for this patch – keep an eye out for our preview video.

Welcome back to a new update War Mages! The State of Slay update is here and a comes bearing good news - crossplay is officially expanding for our Steam audience to even more players with PlayStation 5 support. Please continue to use our community channels to give any and all feedback. And as always, don't forget to join our discord - the ultimate place to connect with other OMD fans! We appreciate your undying support.

NEW CONTENT

Levels

• Another Classic OMD map makes a return – with a Deathtrap reimagining

  • Brunch Square

Traps

• Seed Spitter

  • An Organic Wall Trap that has 5 heads that each independently target enemies and fire a three-round burst of projectiles.

• Solar Prism

  • A floor trap that fires a beam attack at up to 3 enemies to deal continuous damage. This trap does additional damage as a percentage of the target’s current health.

Heroes

• Wren and Harlow have an updated default style. 

  • Their original skins are still available in the Wardrobe.

Gameplay Adjustments

General

• Increased how often repeatable boss missions can show up in mission select.

Other

• Temporarily disabling Life Finds a Way to fix a performance issue when players have a significant amount of organic traps.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Kalos's thread Nature’s Fury. Special abilities now also properly receive cooldown reduction on killing blows. Killing blows from any hero ability now properly count instead of just Primary attack kills.

• Fixed Fractured Steps having the incorrect amount of starting coin.

• Fixed button size on modal widgets

• Fixed Exit button scale and placement on several menus

• Fixed incorrect instances of trap visibility when purchasing traps

• Fixed Spellbook duplicating unlocked entries

• Fixed trap upgrades not respecting unlocked traps when displaying locked traps

• Fix for gamepad cursor scroll action interfering with binding

• Fixed a Grenadier statue unlock issue

• Fixing light flicker during War Mage draft

• Fixing the objects and displays for the status effects in the codex

• Fixing trap grid issues on Drydocks

• Fixing trap grid on Fractured Steps

• Boom Barrels no longer affect friendlies, barricades or the Rift Crystal

New Content

Narrative Updates

• New dialogue plays the first time Missions 1, 2, and each Boss level is played.
  • Players on existing profiles will need to create a new profile to experience the new dialogue.
• New cinematic added when defeating last Boss.
  • Players who have already defeated the last Boss can view the new ‘Final Cinematic’ as a video at Maximilian in the HUB.

Codex

• The Codex contains information relating to the Enemies, Status Effects, and Pickups of OMDD. It also includes a section on the History of OMD, to recap the story of the previous games and set the current state of the OMD world.
• The Codex can be accessed at any of the stations in the newly opened Library section of the Order Fortress (HUB).

Enemy Figurines

• Enemy Figurines can be acquired by completing new Milestones or finding them hidden within levels.
• Specifics for unlocking each Figurine can be seen within the Enemies’ page of the Codex.
• Once collected, Figurines will be displayed within the Library of the Order Fortress.

Emotes

• Emotes can be accessed by opening the Communication Wheel and navigating to the new Emotes page or by holding the ‘Y’ key on Keyboard.
• While emoting, players can move the camera around the character. Performing any action or taking damage will stop the Emote.

New Map

• Fractured Steps
  • Another Classic OMD map makes a return – with the Deathtrap reimagining

Skins

• Gabriella: Magic Mirror
  • Unlock after completing the milestone found in the wardrobe.
• Maximilian: Magic Mirror
  • Unlock after completing the milestone found in the wardrobe.

Gameplay Adjustments

Heroes

• All Heroes now have Movement Abilities
• Dev Notes: We’ve been hearing the feedback on how enjoyable it is to move around with Gabby and Max. They are spreading the joy and have taught the new War Mages their signature traits. Gabby and Max have received new traits to compensate them.
  • Double Jump: Maximilian, Vaan, Sophie, and Harlow
  • Blink: Gabriella, Wren, Kalos, Mac

Maximilian

• New Trait - “Strong Chin”: +1000 starting health.
• Stun Bolt cooldown decreased from 20s to 15s.

Gabriella

• New Trait - “Sentinel Budget”: +5000 starting coin.

Harlow

• Henry’s base refire rate in both big and small forms lowered from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Henry’s AOE radius during Treat Time increased by 50%.
• Pretty Lights cooldown reduced from 20s to 10s.
• Windblast cooldown reduced from 25s to 15s.
• Boom Barrel now does 10% of a target's maximum health as damage in addition to its base damage.

Mac

• Gravity Blast has 1 additional base charge.

Wren

• Proximity Orbs can be placed faster.
• Proximity Orb activation range increased by 50%.
• Proximity Orb projectile speed is doubled.
• Trap Blast projectile speed increased by 50% to increase effective range.

Vaan

• Rift Orb cooldown decreased from 60s to 50s.

Kalos

• Berry Bush cooldown decreased from 30s to 20s.

Sophie

• Knife Throw cooldown decreased from 10s to 8s.
• Knife Throw during a combo increased from 8 knives to 12 knives.
• Shadow Form cooldown decreased from 45s to 40s.

Traps

• Orc Eater
  • Cooldown decreased from 20 to 16.
  • Mini Orc Eater damage increased from 200 to 300.
  • Mini Orc Eater cost is now half the default cost.

Threads

• Anti-Air now prioritizes Fliers instead of only targeting them. The double damage bonus will only affect Fliers. No longer mutually exclusive to Big Game Hunter.
• Big Game Hunter now prioritizes large enemies instead of only targeting them. The double damage bonus will only affect large enemies. No longer mutually exclusive to Anti-Air.
• Heavy Hookset now prioritizes Heavy Orcs instead of only targeting Heavy Orcs.

General

• Bosses now play a cutscene when killed and level immediately ends when the Boss is killed.
• Removed a spawner on Patio Library that allowed Kobold Mounds to spawn directly behind the rift.
• On Courtyards the first door was adjusted to be one spawner in order to improve performance.

Other

• Controller
  • Increase size of Controller Cursor
  • Controller Stickiness option added to Settings menu.
  • Added action buttons on most UI screens. Buttons can still be accessed using the Cursor.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that allowed Unstable Rifts, Water Orbs, and Kobold Mounds to be launched by the Rift Burst ability.
• Rift Barricade damage buff no longer stacks multiple times on a single trap. This was unintentional.
• Fixed an issue with the Mini Orc Eater not being correctly buffed by the Go All In Thread.
• Fixed an issue with the Organic Elixir not affecting the Orc Eater trap.
• Fixed an issue on Resort where hunter enemies with no target just run to the Rift and wait.
• Fixed an issue with Trap Surge locations appearing on the repeatable boss maps for Back Alley and Museum.
• Various other minor bug fixes.

New Content

New Sentinel - Gnome Balloonist

• Additional Aerial Support has arrived! Gnome Balloonists will position themselves around a map providing extra ceiling space in various locations. Multiple Gnome Balloonists are guaranteed to spawn on larger maps, while on smaller maps there is a chance for a single Balloonist to spawn.
• Dev Note: We saw a lot of feedback that the outdoor areas of many of the larger maps were lacking in ceiling space. Ceiling space is intentionally limited on most maps, but the Gnome Balloonist should serve to alleviate the lack of ceiling options in many of the wide-open spaces.

Rift Surges

• Rift Surges are an area coursing with Rift magic. Rift Surges have a chance to appear on any map after Mission 1 of a Run. Traps placed within the Rift Surge area will receive a 2x damage buff.
• Rift Surge Elixir has been added to the Alchemist. This Elixir guarantees that a Rift Surge will appear on all maps for the Run.
• Dev Note: We’ve heard players asking for more reasons to play in different areas of maps. We hope the damage buff provided by Rift Surges will encourage players to swap their boxes to these locations when they appear, without feeling like they are forced to.

Kobold Mounds

• Kobold Mounds have a chance to spawn during a wave on any Mission. Once a mound appears, it will begin spawning Kobolds after a brief delay. Kobolds will continue to spawn from the mound until it is destroyed by the player, or it runs out of kobolds to spawn.
• Dev Note: We wanted to add another random element to levels that can sometimes draw a player’s attention. While these can increase the difficulty of a Mission when they appear, we believe War Mages will be able to handle the Kobold threat.

Traps

• Orc Eater (Organic Trap)
  • A large plant that instantly kills small enemies by eating them. This is an organic floor trap that can also target fliers.

New Level - Resort Canal

• An all-new Dual Rift map.
• Dev Note: Resort is a larger map closer to the size of other maps at the launch of the game. This map was originally intended to be our first addition post-launch but was shifted around as we worked on bringing in the recent smaller maps. We will continue evaluating feedback on map size for any future map additions.

Skins

• Gabriella: Order Master
  • Unlock after completing the milestone found in the wardrobe.
• Maximilian: Mr. Maximilian
  • Unlock after completing the milestone found in the wardrobe.

Threads

• Shiny Tar
  • Tar is replaced with Shiny Tar that applies Shiny to enemies that step on it.

Gameplay Adjustments

Enemies

• Balloon Orc: adjusted minimap icon to use larger icon to reflect their weight class.

General

• Adjusting location of “Free Skip” button during Thread Selection and changing text from “Free Skip” to “Skip Thread” based on player feedback.
• Reroll button added to Mission Select screen, allowing players to Reroll the first mission of a Run.

Threads

• Shotgun Sniper damage multiplier is now multiplicative instead of additive.
• Shotgun Sniper and Unconventional Ammo are no longer mutually exclusive.

Other

• Skins and Accessories are now separate categories in the Wardrobe. This allows you to apply an accessory to any available Skin.
• Added an animation and VFX to the player when purchasing a potion.
• Added VFX for invincibility status on spawn.
• Made improvements to many traps to help with performance.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some minor trap grid issues on Castle Plaza.
• Fixed the distortion Furloughed not counting for Dwarf Cannoneers.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a Quicksave.
• Fixed an issue where the Double Wide barricade would become selectable in the spell book after gambling forward or loading a Quicksave.
• Freebie thread should now properly carry over to the next mission if the player takes the thread but has not yet opened a chest.
• Fixed the Ability Elixir and Wren’s thread The More the Merrier to correctly increase the placement limit along with the number of charges.
• Fixed an issue where subtitles were not shown for Max or Gabby’s Hologram versions in the Order Fortress.
• Fixed an issue where the Go All In thread could potentially reduce some traps cooldown below 0 effectively breaking the trap.

General Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Quit button could occasionally fall off the main menu.
• Fixed a bug causing War Mages to spawn underground.
• Fixed an issue where War Mages could become stuck in traps when using movement abilities, including:
  • Gabriella’s Blink
  • Sophie’s Shadow Form
  • Kalos’s Slam Jump
  • Fixed miscellaneous crashes.

War Mage Fixes

• Fixed an exploit that allowed Gabriella to repeatedly cancel her ultimate, extending invulnerability duration.
• Fixed a bug causing her ammo to return earlier than expected during reloads, allowing Blink to skip the animation.
• Fixed an issue where Gabriella’s Warp Return Trap was sometimes invisible to the host.

Traps & Levels Fixes

• Fixed a trap grid issue in the Hedgemaze level.
• Fixed an issue where Max’s Showoff Thread was not persisting correctly across missions.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several quicksave issues
• Fixed an issue where Bonelord Zadzik would not attack players after all enemies were killed.
• Fixed missing translated titles and descriptions.
• Improved Web Spinner VFX.
• Fixed an issue with Gabby playing the incorrect lines in certain instances.
• Fixed a multiplayer quicksave issue where players were getting the wrong heroes when joining a quicksave game in a different order.

New Content

New War Mage: Gabriella – The Master of the Order has returned!

• Can be unlocked by finding her Scepter hidden in the Order Fortress

Master Gabriella Abilities

• Passive: Pox
  • Gabriella’s abilities have the chance to apply Pox to enemies causing them to take increased damage from all traps

• Hero Trap: The Warp Return
  • A square shaped trap that aids Gabriella in her Special Ability: Warp

• Primary Ability: The Sceptor of Domination
  • Fire an unconfined beam of arcane magic at your enemies

• Secondary Ability: Arcane Blast
  • A high-speed enchanting projectile that deals high damage
  • If Arcane Blast explodes on impact, it will apply pox to enemies within range

• Special Ability: Warp
  • Requires placement of Hero Trap: The Warp Return
  • Gather up nearby enemies and teleport them to The Warp Return
  • Works on all enemies except for Elementals or Bosses

• Overdrive Ability: Mesmerize
  • This enchantment charms up to 5 nearby enemies to fight for Gabriella
  • Mesmerized enemies are fully healed and gain increased health and damage

• War Mage Trait: Blink
  • Jumping around while in the air will cause you to teleport short distances
  • Gabriella will default to teleporting backwards

New Maps – 6 new ones!

• Two Classic OMD maps return – but with a Deathtrap reimagining
  • Order Bathhouse
  • Unrestricted Section
• Four remixed, smaller Deathtrap maps – compact, high-intensity arenas ideal for that perfect killbox. These new versions are titled:
  • Patio Library
  • Hedge Maze
  • Courtyards
  • Back Alley Sewers

New Traps – fortify your defenses with three wicked new tools:

• Beehive (Organic Trap)
  • Drops a hive that explodes into a swarm of stinging bees. Painful, persistent, and perfect for softening enemy waves

• Orc Cannon (Ballista Trap)
  • Lures in a Light Orc, loads it like a projectile, and blasts it into oncoming foes. A little orc-on-orc violence!

• Web Spinner
  • Slows the horde by suspending them mid-air in sticky webs. Great for crowd control and setting up devastating combos.

New Enemy: Unstable Orc – Slow, Tanky, Deadly

• A slow but high HP Orc that ignores War Mages and is worth 10 rift points
• Explodes on death disabling traps and damaging War Mages and enemies within a large area
• On Crystal Defense mission, explodes when reaching the Rift Crystal – dealing 10 rift points worth of damage to the Crystal
• Only appears from Unstable Rifts or when taking the new “Looming Disaster” distortion

New Skins

• Minty Fresh
  • A new minty color palette can be unlocked for each War Mage’s default skin by completing new milestones.
  • A new milestone can be found for each War Mages when previewing the skin in the Wardrobe.

New Threads

• A complete suite of threads for Gabriella
• Multiple new threads to accompany the new traps
• Floor Scorcher: Turn the Wall Scorcher into a Floor Scorcher

New Distortions

• Furloughed: Sentinels cannot be summoned
• Price Hikes: All trap prices are increased by an additional 25%
• No Combo No Coin: Enemies that die without a combo are no longer worth any Rune Coin
• Too Short to Ride: Kobolds are no longer worth any Rune Coin
• Missing Moneybags: Ogres are no longer worth any Rune Coin
• Troll Exemption: Trolls are no longer worth any Rune Coin
• Mage Training: Orcs have a 25% chance to heal nearby enemies when they die
• Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: Kobolds are immune to Stun, Slow, and Freeze status effects
• Hot Commodity: Physics Traps cost 100% additional Rune Coin
• Faulty Parts: All activated traps have a 15% chance to be disabled for 10 seconds instead of activating
• Looming Disaster: An Unstable Orc appears with every wave. Unstable Orc trap disable lasts 50% longer

New Features

New NPC: The Alchemist – Sullivan

• Purchase Elixirs with Skulls to empower the next run. Only one Elixir per player can be active at a time.

Multiplayer Quicksave

• A new station is near the Rift in the Order Fortress where players can save and load their quicksaves
• Single Player quicksave has been moved from the main menu to this new station
• Multiplayer quicksave will save all the progress of the run for each player with their current state during the run. When loaded, anyone who is not present will be removed from the save. Anyone who joins a save in progress will start from scratch

Free Skip choice during Thread Selection

• Dev Note: A new choice added alongside Reroll and the Skip for Coin options. This will allow players deep into a run to avoid taking an unwanted thread, or challenge seekers to attempt thread-less runs

Map Star Rating for Map Size

• All maps now have a Star Rating when displayed during Mission Select. The Star Rating shows the relative size of a map using a scale from 1-star (smallest) to 3-stars (largest)

Gameplay Adjustments

Traps

• Spike Wall now launches all Hunter enemies by default
  • Dev Note: Player sentiment was largely that this trap was outclassed by most other options, but since its damage potential is already fairly high for a physics trap, we decided to let it launch hunters by default to increase its situational viability
• Added Bounce Count stat to the Magic Orb’s stats page
  • Dev Note: Since there is a maximum bounce count on this trap, and a thread to increase that bounce count, the community requested visibility on this stat

Enemies

• Troll Archers: Adjustments made to attack to aim higher at target
  • Dev Note: This adjustment is to help reduce unintended damage to barricades

Threads

• Wren’s Rollback has been re-enabled but changed so that it has a 50% chance to reset Trap Blast after using it, instead of the 25% chance after a successful reload
  • This thread originally triggered off Perfect Recharge but it was not intended for a player to trigger repeatedly in a short period of time. Moving the trigger to Trap Blast itself, but with a 50% chance is more in line with the original intent of the thread
• Friend of the Dead no longer removes Orc Skeleton Aggro from Sophie Instead, it reduces Orc Skeleton health and damage by 50% each
• Undead Hall Pass now makes Orc Skeletons always cost 0 Rift Points instead of having a 50% chance for them to cost nothing
  • Dev Note: Due to community feedback that these two Sophie threads didn’t feel particularly useful, we reworked them to something we thought would be more appealing options

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Enemies could walk through barricades with specific setups
• Fixed doubled spawn issues when wearing a skin
• Fixed issues with solo quicksave not saving all data correctly
• Fixed an issue with Hookshot not applying a combo point while holding an enemy
• Fixed an issue where Lifebats would rush to the Rift Crystal and ignore healing other enemies on Crystal Defense maps
• Corrected the War Mage downed bar color
• Fixed issues where Enemies and Wisps were getting stuck on certain Floor Traps placed on the Platform surrounding Rift Crystals
• Harlow's boom barrel upgrades to add hero trap now works properly for clients
• Fixed the issue where Ogres could become stuck in-place performing their Charging Ability if it did not successfully contact the player
• Fixed NonHUD hero portrait icons defaulting incorrectly after hero swap
• The Scramble Distortion has been fixed and reenabled
• Fixed various issues in maps where players could exit the level or get stuck in geo
• Fixed various polish issues with UI’s

Bug Fixes

Crash & Stability Fixes

• Fixes crash in settings when some anti-aliasing methods were not supported by graphics card
• Fixes a crash that would occur occasionally when leaving a level or returning to the hub
• Fixes a crash that would occasionally occur while placing traps
• Fixed a compression crash
• Fix for crash on failed login while being invited to a game
• Fix for crash that can occur if the game doesn’t start up successfully
• Fix for crash that occurs when joining a friend’s game while loading into a game
• Fix for crash that occurs when the host leaves the game while a player is searching
• Fix for dead characters that are pinged causing a crash when unpossessed
• Fixed a crash on adjusting graphics settings
• Fixed an engine crash when a combo box selection change removes the combo box
• Fixed an Xbox permissions crash
• Fix for an async crash when shutting down Xbox
• Fixed Xbox crash when opening Gameplay settings offline

Traps Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Swinging Mace would occasionally miss enemies on the back swing.
• Fixed a bug where traps wouldn’t be sold in multiplayer if replaced by an item in the hidden loadout bar
• Fixing an issue with Molten Gold where the damage was incorrectly dealing five times the intended amount after a previous bug fix where it stopped functioning if the cooldown was lower than the duration.
• Fixing the poison flower cloud not appearing on clients
• Made minecart self-destruct after 5 seconds if not stopped
• Fixed Grinder permanent DPS even when jammed
• Maximilian’s hero trap will now appear on the minimap when placed

Distortions & Thread Fixes

• Fixed distortion refund issue for barricade destruction after player death
• Fixed Supply and Demand Distortion applying multiple times
• Fixed an issue with Giant Morningstar and You Get What You Pay For threads not stacking correctly on the Morningstar Shooter
• Fixed the Rift Blessing Making Gains to properly give 500 health
• Add Rune Coin to Quicksaves to make Playing the Odds thread work
• Fixed trap count reset on death
• Fixed the Bigger Stronger Flippers thread to correctly double the cost of Flip Traps
• Fixed the Disabled Safety Features thread so it no longer targets Hero Traps
• Fixed an issue where Mac’s Extra Gravity Grenade upgrade, Max’s Hit ‘Em Again thread, and Harlow’s Free Flying Lessons thread were granting 3 additional charges instead of 1
• Fixed Rift Barricade buff being removed when a Rift Barricade is sold while another Rift Barricade was still buffing the trap

Visual Effects & Damage Fixes

• Freeze Death Effects now work properly when the No Gore option is enabled
• Fixed Ultimate Secondary damage issue for Max by removing extra damage window

UI Fixes

• Fixed an issue with tutorial video fade not applying to video image correctly
• Fix downed bar not having the right color
• Fix draft cancellation leaving host stranded in hero select
• Fixed unmapped Social Menu button in Mission Select
• Fixed Non-HUD hero portrait icons defaulting incorrectly after hero swap
• Fixed persistence issues for "You Dropped This" message in Sniper Thread
• Fixing DLSS not working if Anti-Aliasing is set to anything besides TSR
• Fix for pings displaying at origin when the enemy despawns
• Fix for enemy ping placement for Rift Elementals and Water Elementals

Enemy and Pathing Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Ghostfang Boss would die after getting stuck
• Fixed Lizardman Thief achievement related to coin spending
• Fix Ogre Charge ability to prevent getting stuck
• Kobold Sappers now delay explosion upon reaching a barricade and will no longer survive their own explosion on High Difficulties
• Units stuck due to path blocking now attempt to find a new movement node
• Fixed issue to prevent unnecessary AI re-pathing

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fix for rejoin option not working when getting kicked from a session
• Fix for respawning players unable to find a spawn location
• Fix doubled spawn when wearing a skin
• Ensured Quicksave loads data for all players, not just the host
• Fix for lobby list showing private friend's games
• Fix for cancelling map draft after launch causing issues when the map loads
• Fixing an issue on Patio with the Unstable Rift, Skeleton, and Water Elemental spawners

Improvements

• Players are now invulnerable for a brief time after spawning and after being revived.
• Xbox Performance Improvements
• Optimized overall VFX performance
• UI Polish and Texture Memory Optimization
• Lighting Improvements for medium and high settings
• Difficulty now recalculates on wave change
• Improved Go Online functionality when disconnected
• Updated Trap VFX
• Added Wounded Status VFX to Player
• Added Silenced status VFX to Player
• Adjusted Sawblade wisp lifetime
• Made poison cloud FX more transparent
• Added visuals for Lightning Damage Wrench Staff
• Excluded password-protected games from lobby search results
• Adjusted pickup durations to 300 seconds from 120 seconds
• Added Steam Deck default graphics and improved font readability
• Additional audio for breakable props has been integrated
• Additional sound design added for various enemies, bosses, sentinels, & traps
• Additional environmental audio has been added for all maps
• The volume of all video playback is now controlled by the overall volume setting
• Various audio mix adjustments have been made
• Modified scaling on Spellbook icons to fix coin display issues on larger resolutions
• Updated text for mission select social button and corresponding UI button

Quality of Life

• When a new patch version is detected, players will be notified via chat and in the HUB and lobby browser
• Password protected games are now removed from the list when not searched
• In the Lobby List, when the star icon is moused over, it now shows friends in game or the host’s name if no friends are in the lobby
• Added a message to notify the host to change their settings when a player attempts to join their private game
• Add confirmation to Quicksave button on post-game menu
• Made options menu more mod-friendly by using names instead of enums

Gameplay Adjustments

Traps

• Barricade and Rift Barricade health now scales with Difficulty and Mission Count
• Decreasing trap cost distortions from 100% to 50% and fixing supply/demand distortion text
• Making trap cost increase distortions no longer affect the rift barricade
• Traps buffed by the Healing Tree’s organic traps thread now display the same glow as the Time Crystal trap

War Mages

• All Heroes
  • Adding Damage and Aggro Immunity during all Ultimate activation animations
  Dev Notes: This was intended to allow players more safety when activating ultimate's during the heat of battle.
• Kalos
  • Calling Stone (Special) health now scales with Difficulty and Mission Count
  Dev Notes: This allows the Calling Stone to remain consistent across difficulties and later mission runs.
• Harlow
  • Primary damage increased from 28 to 32
  • Secondary damage increased from 30 to 35
  • Wind Blast (Special) can now launch all Hunters by default
  • Big Henry’s damage now scales with Difficulty and Mission Count
  Dev Notes: First 3 bullets were specific buffs to add to her dmg ability. There was feedback that she felt a little weak. Big Henry's change was also intended for late game or difficulty constancy.
• Sophie
  • Increasing movement speed modifier during Shadow Form (Special) from 2 to 2.5
  • Adding Damage and Aggro immunity during start-up of Shadow Form (Special)
  Dev Notes: Sophie's changes were mainly to make her move speed feel faster during Shadow Form and to make her safer when activating the ability.

Threads

• Reducing Make it Rain thread coin drop chance from 50% to 25%

Levels

• Allowing a chest to spawn on boss maps and their repeatable versions
• Replaced Troll Archers for Ogres in Fish Market Onslaught
• Adjustments made to Rift Crystal to allow minion attacks to more reliably hit the crystal
• Dry Docks - Added ceiling trap space along the second-floor market area

Enemies

• Unstable Rifts
  • Decreased health from 5000 health to 2500 health
  • Increased chance to spawn Blue Elementals
• Decreased Water Elemental Orb health from 2000 health to 1500 health
• Red Rift Elemental
  • Decreased health from 10000 health to 7500 health
  • Decreased damage dealt to players from 150 damage to 75 damage
• Elemental Firelings are now Player Hunters. They will no longer target barricades, but their explosion can still damage barricades
• Cyclops Mage: Adjusted fire point of projectile. This is to help reduce projectile unintentionally hitting barricades

Distortions and Blessings

• Reducing Lane Opener from minus 3 barricades to only minus 2 based on player feedback.
• Fixing Supply and Demand text to correctly reflect the trap cost increase of 100 additional coin per trap placed
• Reducing Ceiling Tax, Floor Tax, and Wall Tax distortions from a double cost increase to a 50% cost increase
• Separated the trap cost increase and trap cost decrease multiplier channels so that trap cost reduction threads do not feel as weak when trap cost distortions are taken

General

• Changed “kill all enemy” milestone to no longer require Bosses, Little Moneybags, or Blue Elementals

Known Issues

• An issue where placed barricades do not place a proper obstruction, causing enemies to walk through them, is known and a fix is in progress
• Issue with players not respawning after dying in shallow Arboretum water
• Issue where players getting Revived being stuck at 99%
• Issue where Sentinels can fall off platform and despawn
• Issue where Unstable Rift can spawn in walls
• Issue with lost or corrupted profiles
• Investigating issues with crossplay connectivity
• Investigating issues where enemies can be at zero HP, but not die or enter rift

Gameplay Adjustments:

• Adjusted Shotgun Sniper text to accurately reflect damage reduced to 15%.
• Hookshot base cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Spikewall base damage increased from 250 to 300.
• Spikewall base cooldown decreased from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Bartholomew is no longer targeted by ranged enemies.
• Troll Launcher will now only launch basic Trolls and Troll Archers. Mountain Trolls will not be launched.
• Ogre Launcher will now only launch basic Ogres and Shield Ogres. Armored Ogres and Fire Ogres will not be launched.
• Adjusting text of the Double Wide Barricade thread to reflect the Orc damage increase instead of Rift Point cost increase.
• Scramble! distortion is disabled pending client side bug fix.
• Increased Bring The Heat distortion from 2 Fire Ogres to 3 Fire Ogres.
• Increased Beefy Bosses distortion from 50% health to 100%.
• Increased Thick Skin distortion from 25% health to 50%.
• Increased Heavy Hitters distortion from 25% damage to 50%.
• Increased Budget Cuts distortion from -3,000 starting coin to -4,000.
• Increased the quantity of enemies that spawn Random Onslaught Nodes.
• Added Healing Flyers to Random Onslaught Nodes.
• Added Fire and Earth Elementals to Unstable Rifts.
• Increased Lane Opener from barricade per war mage reduced by 1 to barricades per war mage reduced by 3.

Bug Fixes:

• Setting Shotgun Sniper and Unconventional Ammo to be mutually exclusive so player's aren't reduced to 0 damage on primary.
• Fixed issue where Molten Gold would sometimes not trigger its effect.
• Fixed issue where laptops were limited to 60fps.
• Fixed issue on Xbox so that players will stay in game or in the hub (offline) if disconnected from the internet.
• Fixed issue where players couldn't access the lobby list after being disconnected.
• Fixed Troll Launcher thread to launch Troll Archers.
• Fixed Auto-Crossbow Sight Range upgrade to properly increase by 10% each upgrade.
• Difficulty multiplier no longer multiplying gambled skulls, and only affecting the skulls earned in a mission.
• Fixed perception traps (Auto Crossbow, Ice Lance, Hookshot, Poison Flower) not firing on Museum Raining map.
• Fixed issue for players at skull cap (99,999) that would lose skulls from losing a gamble.
• Fixed an issue where players could reroll coin costs enough times where it would exceed limit and become zero.
• Fixed issue where Ghostfang would continue to die on spawn in specific instances.
• Fixed issue where Blunderbuss Primary Ammo Thread wasn’t increasing ammo to 8.
• Fixed issue where quicksave was not maintaining the correct data on load.
• Fixed issue where Maximilian’s Primary/Secondary icons in UI were defaulting to Harlow’s.
• Added warning message when profiles were corrupted or not loading correctly.
• Fixed an issue on Xbox where the requirements for “Threads of Fate” and “Remember, You Chose This” Achievements were flipped.

Known Issues (Still Investigating)

• There are still issues where Ghostfang can die instantly in a level.
• Issue where players have issues accessing the Lobby List on PC after a disconnect.
• Instances where players sometimes load under the floor. If occurs in the HUB, switching to a different War Mage will respawn the player in the correct location.
• Quicksave issue where Playing the Odds Thread (Rune Coin carryover) is not being saved correctly.
• Investigating reports of lost or corrupted profiles.
• investigating issues with crossplay connectivity
• Investigating issues where enemies can be at zero HP, but not die or enter rift

Gameplay Changes

• A new Rift Barricade has been added. 
  • Check your Trap menu. You’ll find a new barricade that Gus and Hugo have infused with a little Rift magic. This barricade takes up a loadout slot and costs rune coins to place. However, it has a ton of health and powers up adjacent traps. This has no effect on your free barricades.
• Players now have the choice to spend rune coins to either reroll Thread choices or skip Thread choices.
  • Thread reroll starts at 1,000 coins and doubles with each reroll. This resets at the start of the next mission. It rerolls all three Thread choices.
  • Skipping a Thread starts at 5,000 coins and doubles and resets at the start of the next mission. Skipping seems expensive but you also gain a free barricade that stays in your inventory for the remainder of the run.
• Complete Thread balance overhaul.
  • The entire Thread inventory has been adjusted to make Threads more interesting, powerful, and rewarding. Many tiered Threads have been combined into one more powerful Thread, less interesting choices had their weights lowered, and many others received strong buffs. Many previously mutually exclusive Threads are no longer mutually exclusive.
• Double Wide is now considered a Cursed Thread that doubles the size of free barricades but doubles the value of orc-type enemies entering the Rift.
• Downed players can now choose to give up instead of waiting for their downed timer to run out.
• Difficulty now scales per wave based on the number of players. 
  • The game now checks at the beginning of each wave for the number of players and scales the health and damage accordingly. This does not affect coins and barricades, but we are looking into solutions to refund coins and barricades when a player leaves.
• Bosses now reward 100 skulls when defeated.
  • This is intended to make boss levels a more attractive choice during a run.
• Gamble HP scaling for enemies reduced to 25% from 50%.
• Difficulty Slider HP scaling for enemies increased from 40% to 50%.
• Chance for a chest to spawn on a map increased to 100%.
• Further tweaks on melee War Mages to allow smoother combat and quicker animation cancelling into and out of secondary attacks.
• Removed Gnoll Assassins from Random Nodes
  • Previously, extra Gnoll Assassins could spawn from Random Nodes in each Onslaught on every map. This chance has been reduced to 0%.
• Cyclops Druid health reduced to 3,000 from 5,000.
• Bartholomew barricade immunity range increased to 600 units from 300 units.
• Buffed Electrified status effect. Double its base damage and chain segment reach.
• Disabled Rollback Thread for Wren.
• The Victory screen has been reworked to better communicate the Gamble mechanic.
• This is part one of a two-part overhaul of the Victory screen. The skull reward size has been increased and the word “Wager” added to the “Gamble Forward” button.
• Steam Vent is now super effective at taking out flying enemies.
  • Unlike other floor traps, flying enemies can now trigger the Steam Vent and take major damage in the process. We hope this adds another option to your loadout for air defense.
• Push Trap now stuns large enemies by default.
• Increased Max’s Friendly Flip Trap base count to 2 from 1.
• Added a Steam Vent Thread that allows it to be placed on the wall

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Ghostfang was dying on spawn
• Fixed an issue where some players were not spawning correctly and getting stuck in the ground.
• Fixed an issue where the Heat Exhaustion Thread would show up with Wall Charger instead of Wall Scorcher

Crash Fixes

• A crash with malformed News has been fixed
• A crash occurring for some at startup has been fixed

Patch Notes:

Bugs:

• Crash fixes
• Fixed an issue with lobbies not showing all games available
• Fixed Briar Patch “Death by 1,000 Cuts” Thread chance to Rend
• Fixed typo in Kalos ability text
• Fixed typo in Minecart Tracks description

Quality of Life:

• Difficulty can now be increased without having to defeat the final boss
• Damage flyoffs can now be hidden in the Gameplay settings
• Moved animation notifies in primary attack animations for Kalos and Sophie to allow next combo swing or movement earlier
• Added Open Trap key to in-mission HUD
• Barricades near Bartholomew will no longer take damage from nearby enemy attacks
• Added lobby setting visibility and social menu button to Order Fortress Mission Select
• Added new player notifications to each NPC in the Order Fortress
• Added new player experience requiring new profiles to begin Max’s first two videos in the classroom.
• Added new player experience requiring new profiles to play Patio as their first Mission

Balance:

• Stone Bat petrify duration decreased from 5 seconds to 3 seconds and ability cooldown increased from 2 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Difficulty slider enemy health increments increased from 35% to 40%
• Buffed trap upgrade levels previously set at 5%, up to 10%.
• Buffed trap Cooldown upgrade levels previously set at 2%, up to 5%.
• Changed Gamble Forward values from 40% enemy health and damage to 50% health and 25% damage
• Increased last combo hit bonus damage of Kalos and Sophie primary attacks to 50% from 25%
• Slightly reduced rune coin values for light orc, medium orc, heavy orc, orc archer, balloon orc, drummer orc, light ogre, and light troll
• Changed Elite Lane Changer Thread to be available in single player and multiplayer games

Xbox Series X and S:

• Changed framerate cap from 30 fps to 60 fps
• Various performance improvements and fixes

Known Issues (In progress, not in Patch):

• Bosses can occasionally step on breakable props and die
• Investigating an issue with solo players getting disconnected and being sent back to the Order Fortress

Barricades:

Skulls:

Patch 1.0.7

Gameplay changes:

• Starting Barricade Count Increased:
  • Solo Players will start with 22 barricades (increased from 16)
  • Duo Groups will start with and share 20 barricades (increased from 16)
  • Trio Groups will start with and share 18 barricades (increased from 16)
  • Quad Groups will start with and share 16 barricades (remains the same)
• Trap and War Mage Upgrades will see decreased skull costs throughout the skill trees allowing for faster progression
• Improved Kalos melee attack advances
  • Kalos can now target and advance to enemies from a further distance, meaning he will miss swings less often. While there’s more work to do on melee, we hope this improves his game feel.
• Unlocking Max made more obvious
  • Playable Max is unlocked in the hub by collecting 5 shards. One of the shards has been moved lower no longer requiring a specific character ability to reach it. Go unlock Max. He’s got a great kit for orc killing!

Lobby List Filtering

• Players will no longer see lobbies of players with different build versions.
  • Note, players running 1.0.6 may see lobbies of players with 1.0.7. In this scenario, you will get a “can’t connect” message. Please update the game.

Crash Fixes

• Crash occurring during login has been fixed
• Crash when pinging a dead player using the map has been fixed

In the Works and Coming “Soon”

The Road Ahead

Solo Play

Co-Op Play

• 7 Stunning Hero and Weapon Skins: Give each of the seven War Mages a fresh new look with unique Order-themed skins and legendary weapon designs.
• Our Endless Gratitude for Your Support of Orcs Must Die!

• What: Sign up for the OMDD Technical Playtest
• How: Go to our Store Page and scroll down until you see the request access link for the playtest!
• When is the Playtest?:
  • Start - Wednesday, November 13th, 2024 at 10AM CT/4PM UTC
  • End - Friday, November 15th, 2024 at 12PM CT/6PM UTC

• What: Sign up for the OMDD Technical Playtest
• How: Go to our Store Page and scroll down until you see the request access link for the playtest!
• When is the Playtest?:
  • Start - Wednesday, October 30th, 2024 at 10AM CT/3PM UTC
  • End - Friday, November 1st, 2024 at 2AM CT/7AM UTC

Distortions and Unstable Rifts

Orcs

Light, Medium, Heavy, Archer

Dynamite Archer

Skeleton Orc

Drummer Orc

Balloon Orc

Ogres

Ogre and Armored Ogre

Shield Ogre

Fire Ogre

Trolls

Troll

Mountain Troll

Troll Archer

Kobolds

Kobold Runner

Kobold Boom Sapper

Kobold Gas Sapper

Infected Kobold

Gnolls

Gnoll Assassin

Gnoll Grenadiers

Flyers

Hellbat

Baby Hellbat

Lifebat

Stone bat

Cyclopes

Cyclops Mage

Cyclops Druid

Cyclops Guardian

Lizardmen

Lizard Thief

Little Moneybags

Elementals

Fire Elemental and Fireling

Earth Elemental and Earthling

Water Elemental and Waterling

Blue and Red Rift Elementals and Riftlings

Bosses

Reworked Traps

Poison Flower

(formerly the Confusion Flower)

Poison Gas Emitter (formerly the Dart Spitter)

Wall Blades

(formerly Wall Blades, but like, bigger)

Cursed Ground

(formerly Cursed Ground, but like, smaller)

Ice Vent

Morning Star Shooter

(formerly Bowling Boulder)

Bomb Dispenser

(formerly Boom Barrel Dispenser)

Wall Scorcher

(formerly Floor Scorcher and Deep Freeze)

Totally New Traps

Minecart Dispenser and Track

Acid Shower

Ice Lance

Hookshot

Hero Traps

(yes...more new traps!)

Vaan’s Rift Teleport

Wren’s Time Crystals

Harlow’s Boom Barrel

Mac’s Gravity Lift

Kalos’s Healing Berries

Sophie’s Vampiric Jaws

Maximilian’s Friendly Flip Trap

“This game was clearly designed around co-op"

Solo Balance in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap

Enemy Health and Damage

Onslaught Pacing

“Go Breaks”

Barricades

Loadout

Overdrive Combos

Playtesting

Missions and Distortions

Threads

Rewards and Gambling

Traps and Trap Upgrades

Skills

Hey War Mages!

• Orcs Must Die! (2011)
  • This was where it all began. We introduced you to Max, the War Mage, and a world where strategy and action collided in the most explosive way. The goal? Defend your rift from those pesky orcs using a wild array of traps and weapons.

• Orcs Must Die! 2 (2012)
  • Things got even better with co-op play. Gabriella joined Max to form a duo of orc-fighting War Mages. Teaming up with friends to tackle orc hordes brought a whole new level of fun. More traps, more weapons, more levels – it was everything you loved, but bigger and better.

• Orcs Must Die! Unchained (2017)
  • We took a bold step into the PvP world with this one. It was a free-to-play adventure that introduced new heroes and complex gameplay. It was different. We learned a lot about the challenges of sustaining a free-to-play game. While it didn't last as long as we hoped, fans still tell us that they loved the unique heroes we created. We also experimented with a new mode called Sabotage, with two teams battling on separate versions of the same map, that went on to influence future ideas.

• Orcs Must Die! 3 (2020)
  • After OMDU was shut down, we knew we needed to get “back to the basics” of what originally made OMD successful. We explored some new additions to gameplay such as War Scenarios, where we significantly increased the number of invading orcs, and Scramble Mode, where we first experimented with roguelite concepts. This version has been a nice success and inspired us to push on. We’ve listened closely to fans and your most requested features. Our challenge - how do we maintain what fans most love about OMD while still innovating and expanding the boundaries? We hope we’ve done just that with….

• Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (2025)
  • OMDD maintains the personality, charm, and vibe of the series, but the way that we’ve changed the metagame will make it hit different and deserving of a fresh new name. You can look forward to:
  • Four-Player Co-op: We know some of you were forced to split up your friend group to play… no longer! And if you don’t have three friends to play with, we’re making it easier to find games to join. Of course, the solo experience will also be great to play.
  • New Heroes with Unique Abilities: OMDU fans have been passionately reminding us how good unique heroes from that game felt – and we’ve listened. We’re interested to see how people strategize their party makeup around our new War Mages, which come with distinctive abilities, unique character traits, and their own exclusive trap to keep things fresh and tactical. You’ll see Max and Gabby in the hub to guide you along, but they’re not playable. Yet.
  • Expanded, Deeper and Different Progression: You’ll have access to a deep skill tree to progress and grow your heroes, as well as having separate progression paths for weapons and traps. Our new progression systems go well beyond any prior entry in the series.
  • Rogue-lite Runs and Expanded Level Variety: Each run brings new challenges and upgrades. You’ll choose buffs and debuffs that can dramatically change the way you play, and it all stacks as your run progresses. Environmental conditions will additionally alter your interactions with each level. There is no longer one ideal way to solve a given puzzle.
  • Improved Combat: Our third-person shooter combat is tighter and more responsive. We’ve never loved our melee combat so this area has received the most attention. The melee heroes have already become internal favorites during playtests.
  • Enhanced Visuals and Physics: We’ve upped the ante with better graphics and crazier physics. We’re aiming to make physics-based traps not just more exciting, but also more practical as part of the mix for a good trap loadout.