Highlight Features

More information about all of these features can be found in the dedicated sections below:

• Reward Rework – Major changes have been made to rewards and progression pacing, resulting in greater rewards from completing difficulty tiers, but reduced rewards from repeatedly completing individual stages. This results in overall greater rewards for average play.

• Progression Rework – The cost of powers and gameplay upgrades compared to cosmetics has been reworked to have greater parity, making cosmetics overall less expensive than before, and powers and upgrades more expensive than before.

• Camera Shake – Hitting negative items now shakes the camera. The worse the item, the more it shakes!

• Stage Visual Upgrades – Stages now gently curve back and forth as you play, have more color variety, and environments throughout the game have received new props, visual improvements, and animations.

• Major Power Updates – Powers have received major love with visual upgrades, balance improvements, a reworked unlock and upgrade system, and a total rework to how powers recharge.

• Better Stages – Stage generation has received a top-to-bottom rework. Weekly stages are now much more distinct from each other, difficulty increases are more obvious, and the game is more fun than ever before.

• New Stage and Hazard Themes – A new stage theme has been added with a unique twist—you’ll want to go slow to get the best scores! Recognize it by a distinctive new item: a Firecracker inside a Cursed Ring. A new hazard theme which creates extra clusters of cursed fireworks has also been added.

• Performance Improvements – The game has received major performance improvements. This means less lag, more responsive controls, and the game running smoother on lower end phones.

• Power Button Customization Options – You can now customize the position, spacing, size, and transparency of your activated power buttons from the options menu’s “Controls” section.

• Seasonal Sales – Major sales now run for two weeks in mid-April, and for three weeks in December.

And much more – Read on for the full list of changes!

Quality of Life & UI

• Game startup time has been greatly improved.

Options & Accessibility

• Power buttons can now have their size, spacing, transparency, and positioning customized, and have been re-arranged into a triangle shape to improve their ease of use.
• A new “Remove center lane buttons” option has been added, which completely removes the center lane buttons while playing. This option is only available when “Return to center lane on release” is enabled.
• The Options Menu now has a button to reset all options to default.

General UI Improvements

• Equipped passive powers are now displayed in-game just like activated powers.
• Passive powers now use a different frame behind their icon for an additional way to tell them and activated powers apart.
• Activated Power buttons that are disabled have a new look that is more clearly distinguishable on low button opacity.
• The account stats area on the main menu now shows your distance flown.
• When placing in the top 3 for a stage, there is now a small button highlight on the leaderboard button instead of the old announcement pop up.
• A “HIGH SPEED” indicator now appears while at 200% speed and above.
• A new prompt now appears on the Powers button if a power upgrade is available and you have enough Lucky Envelopes to purchase it.
• The top-of-screen UI while playing a stage has been rearranged.
• The Celebration Bar (point counter) now shows how many points are needed to win the stage on the right side of the screen.
• You can now join the Tripping Whale newsletter from the main menu.
• Some UI icons have improved readability at small sizes.
• Some large numbers in the UI now have commas separating them.

Expedition Menu

• A new animation plays when opening the menu after the weekly reset.
• New art has replaced the old preview image at the top of the menu.
• The background behind the stage buttons now gets redder the further down you scroll to represent difficulty increasing.
• Stage buttons have had a visual makeover.
• Difficulties on stage buttons now say Easy+, Medium+, and Hard+ for the last three stages in each difficulty tier. These stages were always more difficult than the first three in each tier, but it wasn’t indicated on the UI until now.
• Added a short tutorial popup the first time you open the menu.
• The difficulty tier completion trackers above the stage buttons now have giftbox icons next to tiers you haven’t completed yet.
• There is now a tutorial popup to explain tier rewards which can be accessed from the “?” button next to the reward boxes.

Powers Menu

• Now divided into Active and Passive categories.
• Equipped powers are now located in a fancy new section at the bottom of the menu, which aligns to the new triangular button arrangement while playing.
• Buy buttons throughout the menu now glow if you have enough envelopes; green for upgrades and orange for unlocks.
• Power cards have had a visual polish pass to more clearly differentiate their possible states at a glance.
• The Power Selector menu has been improved and simplified. It now loads faster and the entire cards are clickable.
• When unlocking or upgrading a power, that power is now automatically set as the power in training if no other power in training was already selected.
• There is now a confirmation prompt before unlocking or upgrading a power to avoid accidentally spending Lucky Envelopes.
• The powers tutorial has been edited for improved clarity and to match new power progression rework.
• The unlock power slot dialog has been simplified and visually improved.
• When unlocking a power, if you have an empty power slot available the new power will be automatically equipped to it.
• Switching equipped powers and unlocking new slots and mana orbs at the end of a stage now updates the HUD accordingly.

Gameplay & Balance

Stages and Difficulty

• A new stage theme has been added with a unique twist—you’ll have to go slow to get the best scores! Recognize it by a distinctive new item: a Firecracker inside a Cursed Ring. You’ll want to grab this slow on purpose to navigate intricate and densely packed firework patterns. This theme adds to the pool of possibilities when stages are created each week.
• A new hazard theme has been added. This theme creates a larger amount of cursed fireworks than normal, and adds to the pool of possible hazard themes when stages are created each week,.
• Stage generation has received a top-to-bottom overhaul. Stages should now feel more unique from each other, and many odd and undesirable stage generation possibilities have been removed.
• Improved point distribution on a number of templates to reduce instances of too difficult/easy stage generations.
• Improved a number of templates where one item completely obscured another until it was too late to hit it.
• Many overly difficult templates have been redesigned to be more fun and less punishing.
• Stages will now include less templates from the difficulty below them. This results in each difficulty having a more distinct identity.
• Stages can no longer have hazards as the first items encountered.
• Stages now become locked again when the week resets (previously any stage you had beaten before remained unlocked). This is to make it more clear that the stages are new each week. You will always keep the first stage of a difficulty tier you’ve previously beaten unlocked.
• Difficulty point goals have been rebalanced:
  • Easy (stages 1-3): 3000
  • Easy+ (stages 4-6): 3500
  • Medium (stages 7-9): 4000
  • Medium+ (stages 10-12): 4500
  • Hard (stages 13-15): 5000
  • Hard+ (stages 16-18): 5500
• The envelope win bonus per stage has been rebalanced:
  • Easy: 6 (up from 5)
  • Medium: 7 (down from 10)
  • Hard: 8 (down from 15)
• You now only receive half the experience points for stages that you lose.
• Completion bonuses for winning all weekly stages in a difficulty tier have been greatly increased:
  • Easy Tier: Bonus increased from 20 to 100 envelopes.
  • Medium Tier: Bonus increased from 30 to 125 envelopes.
  • Hard Tier: Bonus increased from 50 to 150 envelopes.
  • These rewards can be earned once per week by completing all six stages in the respective difficulty tier.
• There is now a one-time-per-account bonus after completing your first difficulty tier of 20,000 XP and 50 Lucky Envelopes.
• Medium and Hard stages can now have more collectible Lucky Envelope items spawn than Easy stages (Hard can have more than Medium). The exact number still varies between stages.
• Evil Spirits now spawn more often.
• The “Curse” debuff from Evil Spirits now lasts 4 seconds, down from 8.
• Cursed Ring slow debuff has been reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
• Mini Cursed Rings now give -5% speed each down from -10%.
• Death Symbols now spawn slightly less often.
• Mana potions now spawn more consistently and have new spawn patterns.
• The tutorial stage has been improved. Explainer dialog boxes have been edited for better clarity, different item types will now arrive in a consistent and improved order, and explainer popups no longer pause the music.

Powers

• • Power Progression Rework – 
    • Powers no longer require XP to unlock level 1 (higher levels still require XP).
    • Powers now cost 40,000 XP for level 2, and 60,000 for level 3.
    • Power Lucky Envelope costs are now: Level 1 – 150, Level 2 – 175, Level 3 – 200.
    • Additional power slots now cost 200 envelopes each.
  • Power Recharge Rework – 
    • Activated Powers now consume “Mana Globes” instead of recharging individually. You start with one globe, and can unlock up to two more with Lucky Envelopes.
    • Additional Mana Globes cost 175 envelopes each.
    • You can now use the same power multiple times in a row if you have enough mana, instead of each power having its own recharge.
    • Mana Globes slowly refill over time, but can be quickly recharged by collecting Mana Potions.
    • Powers that affected recharge in the past now give Mana instead.
  • Power Major Balance Pass – 
    • Powers have had a major balance pass, with the goals of making them more impactful and fun to use, as well as some necessary changes to work with the new mana system.
    • Some Powers now have cooldowns after use, preventing accidental reuse when doing so wouldn’t give any benefit. For example, Powers which last for a duration can’t be used again until that duration has run out (unless their effectiveness also stacks with multiple uses).
    • Many powers have had their descriptions improved for better clarity.
    • Bonfire
      • Level 3 points from items burned increased from 10 to 15.
      • Now has a cooldown equal to its duration.
    • Cornucopia
      • This power has been reworked —
      • Now gives bonus points, or point loss, whenever points are gained or lost.
      • This bonus is 5 / 10 / 10 points.
      • Duration increased from 3 / 5 / 5 to 8 / 8 / 8.
      • No longer gives bonus Lucky Envelopes at all levels.
      • Collected Lucky Envelopes give 2 envelopes at level 3 only.
      • Now has a cooldown equal to its duration.
    • Focus
      • Now has a cooldown equal to its duration.
    • Pocket Ring
      • Now has the same unlock/upgrade costs as other powers.
    • Purify:
      • Level 3 shield charges per use reduced from 2 to 1.
    • Ring Master
      • Duration bonus increased from 2 / 3 / 3 seconds to 2.5 / 5 / 5
      • Level 3 duration reduction decreased from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds.
    • Spirit Bargain
      • Now refills 1 / 2 / 3 mana globes. 
      • Costs no mana to use.
    • Thrillseeker
      • This power has been reworked —
      • Now gives 5 / 10 / 10 points every half second while at HIGH SPEED (200% speed or above). 
      • At level 3, Sacred Rings give 20 points and Mini Sacred Rings give 10 points when collected.
    • Thunderbolt
      • Level 3 speed bonus cap reduced from +100% to +75%.
      • Level 3 speed loss when hitting hazards increased from 25% to 75%.
    • Transcendence
      • This power has been reworked —
      • Now an activated power.
      • Freezes the in-game timer for 1 / 2 / 2 seconds for every 10 combo you have when activating the power.
      • Losing your combo prematurely ends the effect.
      • At level 3, if you have 100 or more combo when used, pauses the timer indefinitely until your combo is broken.
      • Has a cooldown equal to its duration.
    • Wellspring
      • This power has been reworked —
      • Causes mana gained from Mana Potions to be gained gradually over 5 seconds instead of instantly.
      • Increases mana from Mana Potions by 15% / 25% / 25%
      • At level 3, Mana Potions give 50 points when collected.

Visuals & Sound

• Many particle systems have been improved and now cast shadows
• Particles effects from collecting items now have physics, reacting differently depending on how fast you were flying when you hit them.
• Hitting negative items now shakes the camera. The worse the item, the more it shakes.
• Stages now gently curve back and forth as you play.
• Stages now have an accent color, which colorizes parts of the terrain. This color aligns with each difficulty (easy has a different color from easy+ for example), and changes every week.
• Lighting and shadows have been improved.
• Powers have had major visual improvements.
• Passive powers have additional visuals to make it more obvious they are working.
• The main menu has a new intro animation, and the logo is now 3D.
• Added new cinematic camera movement to the start and end of stages.
• All uncollected items now destroy themselves when a stage ends.
• Cursed Firework models have been turned upside down. This makes them more visually distinct from their sacred counterparts, and reduces instances where a cursed firework could completely obscure a sacred firework of the same type.
• Evil Spirits have updated visual effects and wiggle as they fly, making them easier to see.
• Evil Spirits now make a sound when they spawn.
• Evil Spirits now play a “whooshing” sound as they pass by.
• Goops are now easier to see against dark backgrounds.
• Some hazards have been decreased in size to reduce instances of them completely obscuring items behind them.
• The in-game sky is now higher resolution and appears much sharper, and some of the stars now twinkle.
• Water and volumetric fog now undulate slowly.
• In-game terrain has been extended and visually improved, especially on the Market tileset (Medium difficulty tileset)
• A variety of new terrain props have been added, and some visual artifacts on existing props have been fixed.
• Dragon tail physics have been improved, making them look smoother when moving up and down.
• Death Symbols have an improved idle sound, and can be heard coming from further away.
• Death Symbol idle sounds now limit themselves so that they don’t increase in volume when there are many symbols next to each other.
• Suburbs (easy+), Market (medium), and Rooftops (hard+) music tracks have been remastered.
• “Offline” indicators added to show when leaderboards are not available.
• Bluetooth audio is now fully supported.
• The leaderboard now offers a “Download Update” prompt if a new version of the game is available.
• Texture rendering has been improved for many materials.

Shop & Cosmetics

• Lucky Envelope costs for cosmetic items have been updated:
  • Dyes:
    • Super Rare: Decreased from 400 to 200
    • Rare: Decreased from 200 to 150
    • Uncommon: Unchanged (100)
    • Common: Unchanged (50)
  • Cosmetic Effects:
    • Super Rare: Decreased from 500 to 400
    • Rare: Increased from 250 to 300
    • Uncommon: Increased from 150 to 200
    • Common: Unchanged (100)
  • Dye Patterns:
    • Super Rare: Decreased from 600 to 500
    • Rare: Unchanged (400)
    • Uncommon: Unchanged (300)
    • Common: Unchanged (200)
• Two major sales will now run each year: for two weeks in mid-April to celebrate the game’s anniversary, and three weeks in December for the holiday season. These sales feature an expanded set of store offerings with a range of discounts, switching the items offered each week of the sale.
• 3 new cosmetic effects have been added to the game: “Toxic”, “Hourglasses”, and “Hearts”.
• A weekly gift, displayed as a wiggling wrapped present, now appears each new week that the player returns to the game. This gift can be collected for a random common dye, or Lucky Envelopes if a player already has all common dyes unlocked.
• The shop will now offer a more consistent set of item rarities each week, overall resulting in more rare items being available than before.
• Shop load time has been greatly improved.
• A visual polish pass has been given to most cosmetic effects in the game. 
• The “Rocks” and “Drips” cosmetic effects have had their visuals upgraded and their rarity increased from Rare to Super Rare to match the other elemental effects.
• The “Fortune” cosmetic effect has had its visual improved and is now rare instead of uncommon.
• Dragon default accent colors have been changed to have higher contrast. The old colors are unlocked for all players for free.

Bug Fixes

• You can no longer restart a stage you’re playing if the week resets while playing it.
• Music no longer stops if you switch audio devices while playing.
• The main menu now has a larger margin at the top to avoid overlaps with the iPhone notch.
• Powers which protect you from negative items now correctly prevent Thunderbolt from resetting when hitting those items.
• Evil Spirits now always move at a consistent speed. Previously they could get out of sync when at high speeds or when time was slowed.
• Top Speed stat at the end of a stage is now accurate.
• The popup that appears after buying a shop item no longer allows text to overflow the container.
• Shop now refreshes if it was open when the day or week resets.
• Thrillseeker now correctly gives points when using Pocket Ring.
• Fixed several edge cases which could cause the timer “danger sound” to continue playing after the stage had finished.
• Fixed a bug which caused music to restart when the cursed status effect’s sound ended.
• Fixed Slate Gray Dye not having a cost (if you already unlocked it for free, it’s yours to keep).
• Fixed bug where pressing outside a menu to close it too many times in succession could cause multiple menus to close.
• Fixed an issue where sounds could get stuck in queue after returning to the main menu from a stage, only to play all at once when going to a new stage.
• Fixed multiple bugs related to UI open and close animations.
• Many elements of the game have been optimized for more screen sizes than before.
• The unspent XP prompt now closes itself if you click the power button while it’s open.
• The unspent XP prompt no longer appears if you have no powers which can have XP deposited into them.
• Dragons now stay in their stunned animation after losing a stage, instead of it going away after a couple seconds.
• Fixed an edge case that could allow powers to be used after the stage had ended.
• Fixed being able to buy the same power slot twice if you spam clicked the buy button.
• While offline, the Google Play Games avatar will no longer be a transparent placeholder but rather the game controller logo instead.
• All shaders are now 16-bit compatible, allowing older/slower phones to play with less lag, and without any visual artifacts.
• Our homemade Random Number Generator, which governs our consistent daily/weekly stage/shop generation, underwent rigorous regression testing. It has been revamped  and now feels very random and very good.

Thanks for Trying 2.0

We’re so happy to be sharing this with you after all this time. We hope you enjoy Duple Dragon 2.0!

– Ian, Lucian, and Souren