Where Giants Fall - v0.61 Patch Notes

Where Giants Fall v0.61 is a major progression, movement, presentation, and performance update.

Weapons now evolve further into ultimate mastery, active abilities gain stronger late-path upgrades, and those final upgrades focus on changing ultimates and abilities instead of only raising numbers.

This update also replaces bunnyhop speed stacking with Giantstride, completely rebuilds Human Catapult, reworks Ancient Spirits, improves several ultimate finales, brings natural dusk lighting to Overtime and boss fights, expands music behavior, reduces startup load, cuts install size, and improves combat performance in dense projectile-heavy builds.

Major Highlights

• Weapons now run to Level 15.
• Level 10 still unlocks the weapon ultimate.
• Levels 11-15 are Ultimate Mastery upgrades for the ultimate itself.
• Active abilities now run to Level 8.
• Active ability slots have been reduced from five to four.
• The Everstone has been retired from the item pool.
• Bunnyhop speed stacking has been replaced by Giantstride.
• Human Catapult has been completely rebuilt.
• Ancient Spirits now uses a permanent wandering-spirit identity and a new Ancestral Hunt ultimate path.
• Fireball joins the public arsenal with the Sunfall ultimate.
• Overtime and boss encounters now transition the world naturally toward dusk.
• Loot Goblins and Soul Chase goblins now navigate around terrain.
• Music now crossfades smoothly and follows authored playlist order.
• Startup loading and install size have been substantially reduced.
• Dense combat performance has been improved across projectiles, lights, damage numbers, UI text, and pooled actors.

Progression Expanded

Weapons Now Reach Level 15

Every weapon track now continues beyond the old Level 10 ultimate unlock.

The structure is now:

• L1: weapon unlock
• L2-L9: standard upgrade track
• L10: ultimate unlock
• L11-L14: Ultimate Mastery I-IV
• L15: Ultimate Ascended

Levels 11-15 focus entirely on improving that weapon’s ultimate. Depending on the weapon, those upgrades can reduce cooldowns, extend durations, add projectiles, widen or strengthen attacks, add new behavior, or create a unique Level 15 finale.

This means weapons continue developing after the ultimate first unlocks. A finished weapon is no longer just “has its ultimate.” It can now keep becoming more dramatic and more specialized.

Wildfire Trail is excluded from the mastery track.

Active Abilities Now Reach Level 8

Every active ability now has three Legendary levels.

Levels 6, 7, and 8 change how the ability behaves rather than simply raising its existing values. Examples include:

• Blink can tear open a damaging rift along its path.
• Frost Nova can splinter outward and pressure otherwise unshakable enemies.
• Human Catapult becomes a devastating siege weapon.
• Phase Guard can replay the player’s path as a procession of detonating holy pools.
• Void Pull can command and relocate its vortex before collapsing into a stronger payoff.

Active ability slots have been reduced from five to four. The Everstone has therefore been retired from the item pool.

Giantstride

The old bunnyhop speed-stacking system has been replaced by Giantstride.

Giantstride rewards sustained, deliberate forward travel. Keep moving with purpose and you can build smooth travel momentum up to 1.75x movement speed.

It is designed for traversal, not permanent combat kiting. Momentum is disrupted by:

• Hard turns
• Backpedalling
• Sustained combat strafing
• Running into obstacles
• Taking damage
• Knockback
• Stuns

Jumping, dashing, sliding, and gliding can carry legitimate travel momentum through their own movement rules, but none of them can manufacture free Giantstride speed. Repeated jumping can no longer be used to stack speed.

At higher Giantstride speeds, camera FOV and movement dust respond dynamically so acceleration is easier to feel.

Human Catapult Rebuilt

Human Catapult has been redesigned from the ground up.

You now hold the ability to charge, then release for an explosive launch. The wings deploy almost immediately, sending you into a steep, controllable descent rather than a long predetermined arc.

Catapult flight now uses the same steering language as the wingsuit:

• Mouse movement
• Right-mouse behavior
• Controller-stick input
• Camera-relative movement direction

The flight is deliberately steep and short. You have strong control over where you land, but only a brief window to make that decision.

A live impact marker follows your steering throughout the descent, showing exactly where the landing explosion will strike. Charge longer for a more powerful impact, while quick activation remains useful as an emergency escape.

Presentation has also been rebuilt:

• The landing now creates a proper ground explosion with flames and debris.
• The visible explosion matches the actual damage area.
• Landing radius has been reduced by roughly 30%.
• Charge and landing indicators are now glowing segmented reticles.
• The landing reticle rotates and pulses faster as impact approaches.
• The marker conforms to slopes and uneven ground.
• The player’s flight pose now moves smoothly from ascent through apex and dive.
• The player no longer lands partially buried in the ground.
• An unintended fire orb during flight has been removed.

Weapon Changes

Ancient Spirits

Ancient Spirits has moved away from repeated cast flashes and close orbit behavior.

The weapon now conjures permanent, castless spirits that loosely follow you through unpredictable drifts, pauses, curves, and sudden catch-up surges. Contact damages enemies and gently shoves lesser foes away.

Its ultimate is now Ancestral Hunt. For a short window, the spirits turn orange, grow larger, move faster, and fixate on nearby enemies. Ultimate Mastery then improves the hunt with faster cooldown, more spirits, longer uptime, damage reduction on activation, and a final sweeping return at Level 15.

Fireball and Sunfall

Fireball is now part of the public arsenal.

Its ultimate, Sunfall, launches guaranteed-critical suns in a forward fan. In v0.61, Sunfall travels twice as fast, spreads additional suns outward more reliably, follows uneven terrain, and keeps the huge Level 15 sun at better ground clearance.

Impact effects have been reduced so enemies remain readable after being hit. Level 15 adds Second Dawn, a delayed second sun for heavier damage and radius.

Ironhail Rockets

The final rocket of Saturation Bombardment is now an unmistakable finale.

It is twice the size of an ordinary rocket, climbs much higher than the rest of the salvo, follows a more dramatic trajectory, and creates an explosion whose visible boundary matches its actual damage area.

At Level 15, Bunker Buster ends the salvo with one enormous rocket that climbs twice as high before falling and striking across double radius.

Frostwave

Frostwave’s Level 15 Cathedral of Ice now delivers the colossal finale promised by its description.

After the original walls pass, a delayed fourth wall arrives. It is dramatically wider, deals much more damage, and controls enemies for longer. The Frostwave ultimate is also now guaranteed to travel its full intended distance instead of expiring prematurely.

Other Weapon Tuning

• Dragon Breath has a slightly narrower cone at every level. It remains broad, but now rewards more deliberate positioning and aim.
• Machine Gun base damage has been reduced to 60% of its previous value. Level scaling, critical damage, and ultimate scaling continue from the new baseline.
• Golden Gun ultimate impact effects have been reduced so the blast stays forceful without completely obscuring enemies.
• Crimson Reavers, Chain Lightning, Golden Gun, Demonlash, Manaburst, Razor Shuriken, Plague Spitter, Machine Gun, and Astral Fangs all now have Level 11-15 Ultimate Mastery paths on their arsenal pages.

Active Ability Changes

Frost Nova

Frost Nova has returned to being a close-range crowd-control ability.

Its radius at every level has been reduced to roughly 46% of its previous gameplay radius. The visual ring now matches the actual affected area, which was previously much smaller than the effect suggested.

Cyclone Dash

Cyclone Dash’s ground trail now accurately covers the path travelled by the player.

Previously, the effect began halfway through the dash and continued well beyond the point where the player stopped.

Phase Guard

Phase Guard’s Level 8 Legendary upgrade now clearly replays the player’s path as a procession of holy pools.

Each pool appears along the recorded path, visibly swells, detonates, and applies damage at the moment of the visible explosion. Previously, damage could occur before anything appeared on screen.

Void Pull

Void Pull’s central vortex is now a dense, concentrated core rather than a thin haze stretched across the whole pull radius.

The range from which enemies are dragged remains unchanged.

The Level 7 relocation upgrade now cleanly moves the existing vortex instead of leaving the previous effect behind. The relocated vortex also preserves its remaining duration.

The Giants Answer

The Giants Answer now summons 18 giants selected from the three giant families belonging to the current biome.

Those families are distributed evenly and interleaved around a wider 40-metre ring, creating a more varied and readable encirclement. Giants also maintain clearer, size-aware approach lanes so enormous enemies are less likely to collapse into the same path.

Boss and miniboss contact kicks now have reach appropriate to their size and apply meaningful knockback with a brief stun.

Loot Goblin Chases

Loot Goblins and the Giant Remnant Soul Chase goblin now navigate around the world properly.

They attempt to escape around:

• Rocks
• Trees
• Ruins
• Walls
• Cliffs
• Other solid terrain

They no longer simply run through the same obstacles that block the player, turning each encounter into a real chase through the environment.

Both goblin types remain for 5 seconds longer before escaping. The Soul Chase goblin has 10% more health.

The World Falls Into Dusk

Overtime and boss encounters no longer place a simple darkening effect over the screen.

The environment now transitions naturally toward dusk. As danger rises:

• The sun weakens and lowers.
• Ambient daylight recedes.
• Shadows deepen and lengthen.
• The sky follows the changing light.
• Fog and environmental lighting transition with the biome.

The world approaches night without becoming too dark to fight in.

Each biome keeps its identity. Snow remains luminous, Desert keeps the openness of an evening sky, Forest and Swamp become naturally gloomy, Autumn keeps its amber tone, and Volcano remains primarily lit by lava.

Boss arenas use the same environmental system but stay slightly brighter than Overtime for combat readability. Phalanx, Morvessa, and the Iron Tyrant also bring their own lighting character to their arenas.

Snowy Forest has also been corrected so it no longer appears overexposed.

More Consistent VFX Colors

Biome color grading has been rebalanced so gameplay effects retain their intended colors across the world.

Bright orange fire could previously appear red or pink in certain environments, while tinted glow could shift frost, poison, and other effects. Combat effects now retain a more consistent visual identity while each biome keeps its atmosphere.

This includes improvements to Forest, Snowy Forest, Asian Mountains, Autumn, Winter, and Summer.

Music and Audio

Music no longer falls into silence between tracks.

The incoming song now fades up underneath the current one before it ends, creating a continuous crossfade with smoother volume curves.

Soundtracks now play in authored playlist order rather than shuffling automatically.

Overtime now chooses a fresh musical sequence each time rather than always tying the same track to the same Regular stage. Two additional Overtime themes have been added, creating a pool of four tracks.

Opening the Wheel of Fortune now lowers the soundtrack underneath the overlay instead of abruptly pausing it. Closing the wheel no longer causes the music system to skip to the next track.

Audio-authoring consistency has also been improved across weapons, projectiles, bosses, and giants.

Journey Biome Selection Fixed

The biome selected on a Journey card is now always the biome used for that stage.

Previously, randomized stage biome settings could cause the world to silently choose a different biome while the stage banner still displayed the player’s selected biome. A separate issue could also cause the first selected biome to remain locked for later stages.

Both issues have been fixed. Random biome selection remains available for game modes and situations where the player has not made a deliberate Journey choice.

Character Roster Changes

The following characters have been retired from the current roster:

• Aluna
• Beth
• Bunnyman
• Butch
• Veronica

Rambo is now the default startup selection. Players still choose which character they want to use for a run. Saves that previously had one of the retired characters selected will be moved to Rambo.

Faster Startup and Smaller Installation

A large amount of work has gone into reducing how much content the game loads before it is actually needed.

Biome content is now streamed when a stage requires it instead of every biome being loaded before the main menu appears. A large hidden load of the entire character library has also been removed from the first-stage startup path.

As a result:

• The game reaches the main menu substantially faster.
• The game is less likely to appear unresponsive during startup.
• Stage construction no longer performs the same hidden character load.
• The launch screen remains fully black until the main menu is ready.
• The version number no longer appears by itself over an empty loading screen.
• Download and installed size have been reduced to roughly half their previous size.
• The main menu now consistently uses the Autumn backdrop.

Combat Performance

Busy combat scenes should now run more smoothly, especially during high attack-speed builds with many projectiles and impact effects.

Improvements were made to:

• Combat-light processing
• Projectile target resolution
• Damage-number rendering
• Repeated UI text generation
• Pooled projectile and enemy behavior

Several sources of repeated work have been consolidated so they no longer scale as aggressively with combat density.

Additional Fixes

• Fixed pooled enemies occasionally failing during their first spawn.
• Fixed Darksteel Onslaught producing repeated physics warnings.
• Fixed missing symbol warnings on Journey threat indicators.
• Fixed inactive pooled giants attempting to start effects.
• Improved player-facing upgrade and ability descriptions throughout the game.
• Removed technical development terminology from cards and descriptions.
• Clarified crowd-control descriptions with player-facing terms such as bosses, giants, and lesser enemies.
• Improved the reliability of Void Pull’s Legendary effects.
• Fixed an issue where certain projectile interactions could be skipped during Void Pull.
• Improved giant spacing around the player.

Website Arsenal Update

The public arsenal pages have also been updated for v0.61.

Weapon pages now show Level 1-15 progression, including Ultimate Mastery and Ultimate Ascended cards. Active ability pages now show Level 1-8 progression, including Legendary Ascension, Legendary Evolution, and Legendary Apotheosis tiers.