Patch Notes — v0.40, Regular-Stage Pressure, Timer Clarity, and Ritual Objectives

Where Giants Fall v0.40 is a combat-and-clarity update focused on sharper regular-stage pressure, better timed-effect readability, stronger ritual objective pacing, and a more dangerous Morvessa fight.

This patch makes regular stages faster, denser, and more threatening, adds clearer HUD timers, damage numbers, and objective UI, expands Ritual Siege with new pressure moments, and tightens progression and economy balance around the heavier enemy flow.

Highlights

• Regular stages now hit harder with denser formations, faster enemies, and a stronger final pre-portal ramp.
• Regular-stage XP has been reduced by about 30%, while gold prices are up 25% to keep the economy aligned with the denser waves.
• Timed weapon ultimates now show clear HUD buff timers using each weapon’s icon.
• Buff and debuff tooltips now explain what each effect does, show key values, and include a live countdown.
• Damage numbers are now much easier to read and appear more cleanly on enemies, bosses, ritual anchors, and conduits.
• Ritual Siege now runs 3 minutes 30 seconds, adds a Ritual Champion at 60 seconds, and a Ritual Conduit at 115 seconds.
• Morvessa, Mother of Dread now adds Nature’s Grasp, stronger combo flow, improved warnings, and refreshed VFX.

Gameplay & Progression

Regular stages are faster and more dangerous

Regular-stage monsters now move 15% faster, making early combat pressure sharper and enemy movement more threatening.

Spawn events in regular stages have also been rebuilt to create denser and more deliberate attack patterns. Expect larger enemy groups, clearer formations, and more packs that shape their pressure around your movement direction, including blockers, wedges, flanking crescents, objective-style swarms, and champion-led groups.

To keep that intensity from turning into flat noise, major spawn-event waves now arrive a little less often, while the final pre-portal stretch ramps harder instead of easing off late.

Regular-stage XP rebalanced

Experience gained from kills in regular stages has been reduced by about 30%.

This change only affects regular stages and is meant to keep progression pacing aligned with the increased enemy density. Ritual Siege, boss stages, and Endless are unchanged.

High-speed movement feels better

High movement-speed and high-jump builds should now feel more responsive.

Direction changes are less slippery, and jump-height upgrades now provide better air speed and control, helping fast builds feel more deliberate instead of floaty.

Enemy scaling adjusted

Enemy health, along with some damage values, now ramps up more steeply through the early and mid stages.

The goal is to keep pacing tighter as the denser waves feed more momentum into a run.

Power-Up Beacons improved

Power-Up Beacons are now easier to spot in the middle of combat.

The standing stones for both standard and golden beacons are now twice as large, and beacons now use the interact button while in range to start their miniboss challenge.

That brings them in line with Orb Magnet interactions instead of firing automatically from proximity.

Weapons & Abilities

Weapon ultimate timers added

Timed weapon ultimates now show a HUD buff timer using the weapon’s icon.

This applies to duration-based ultimates such as:

• Bullet Frenzy
• Pandemic Protocol
• Shuriken Tempest
• Ancestral Storm
• Tempest Ascension
• Starfang Tempest
• Demonlash: Maw of Ruin
• Singularity

Buff and debuff tooltips improved

Hovering a buff or debuff timer now shows a tooltip with:

• The effect name
• A short description
• Relevant values or percentages
• A live countdown of remaining time

This applies across weapon ultimates, temporary buffs like Adrenaline Shot and Arcane Surge, ability effects like Blood Pact and Rejuvenation, and debuffs such as Mark of Death.

Weapon balance pass

Several weapons have been retuned in this patch:

• Demonlash hits harder
• Grenade hits harder
• Golden Gun has been toned down
• Machine Gun has been slightly toned down
• Plague Spitter poison damage has been reduced

Ancient Spirits visual cleanup

Ancient Spirits orbs are now slightly smaller, making them easier to read and reducing screen clutter during heavier combat moments.

Enemies & Bosses

Enemy formations hold together more cleanly

Spawn-event formations now keep better spacing instead of collapsing into one messy blob as soon as they start moving.

Rings, crescents, wedges, shield lines, and champion-led packs should now stay more readable in motion. Large rings can expand outward or split into multiple rings, shield lines keep clearer gaps, and champions hold more readable personal space inside the formation.

Enemy packs also move with slightly more individuality. Small differences in speed, activation timing, and personal approach points help groups spread more naturally while still staying aggressive.

Ritual Siege expanded

Ritual Siege stages now last 3 minutes and 30 seconds and use a calmer ritual-site spawn schedule that ramps more deliberately into the final minute.

Two new ritual pressure moments have been added:

• A Ritual Champion appears at 60 seconds
• A Ritual Conduit objective appears at 115 seconds

The Ritual Champion marches toward the dormant giant and is supported by a red objective arrow, a compact HUD health panel, an in-world health bar, and a tougher health pool.

Ritual Conduits now use a purple objective arrow and a countdown panel while charging.

Ritual objectives also now share a cleaner left-side HUD presentation under the dash meter, alongside other objective events like Slayer Trial, Follow the Lights, Swarm, Ritual Anchor, Soul Chase, Ritual Conduit, and Ritual Champion.

Morvessa gains new pressure

Morvessa, Mother of Dread has gained a new ability: Nature’s Grasp.

A wide line of grasping nature now surges toward the player with no wind-up. If it clips you, it deals heavy damage and stuns you for 2 seconds, rewarding a clean sidestep instead of a late reaction.

Morvessa combo flow improved

Morvessa’s attacks now chain into more deliberate combinations:

• Orbs of Terror now flows directly into Venom Sweep
• Call of the Gnomes now leads directly into Venom Eruption

Venom Sweep is also more dangerous now, spinning with three venom cones instead of two, leaving fewer safe gaps.

Mark of Death warning added

When affected by Mark of Death, an on-screen warning now tells you to find the cleansing pool.

That makes the mechanic easier to read in the middle of a hectic boss sequence.

UI, Rewards & Economy

Damage numbers are much easier to read

Damage numbers now always appear clearly on top of enemies and no longer disappear behind enemy models.

They also pop closer to where your hits actually land, which is especially helpful on very large bosses where only the lower body may be visible on screen.

Ritual Anchors and Ritual Conduits now use the same cleaner damage-number presentation.

Gold prices increased

Gold prices are up 25% across the board, including:

• Gambling Man shop items
• Spin the Wheel
• Weapon-slot unlocks

This helps rebalance the economy around the extra gold generated by denser enemy waves.

Item hover cards fixed in builds

Item hover cards now stay visible correctly in exported builds.

Reward wheel first-spin polish

The reward wheel now waits for its layout to settle before lottery-ticket and first-open spins begin.

That should prevent compact-screen layout issues and first-open positioning hiccups.

Audio & Visual Effects

Morvessa VFX refreshed

Several of Morvessa’s nature-themed effects have been refreshed, including:

• Cleansing pool visuals
• Venom spray visuals
• Nature’s Grasp visuals

Loot Goblin portal added

The Loot Goblin now arrives and escapes through a Midas portal.

A proper little gold-goblin entrance, which suits the encounter a lot better than a plain spawn-and-vanish.

The new portal entrance gives the Loot Goblin encounter a stronger payoff and a more fitting visual identity.

Performance & Stability

This patch also includes a few important cleanup fixes:

• Fixed a bug where pausing during regular-stage overtime could allow enemies to keep spawning in the background, causing a huge monster pileup when gameplay resumed.
• Overtime sudden-death waves and elite spawns now correctly stop and freeze their pacing while paused.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when dying during a Ritual Siege stage.

v0.40 is a pressure-and-readability patch: regular stages now ask more of you, rituals communicate their threats more clearly, Morvessa is sharper and meaner, and combat information across the run is much easier to read at speed.