Soul Stalker Gets New Progression System and More in 'Hub Update'

(Photo : Radhood Advance/Photo taken from Steam)

A new patch for Soul Stalker is now available on Steam. The "Hub Update" brought massive improvements and a plethora of new content, so much so that the game looks and feels a lot different than before.

Soul Stalker is a survival roguelike game developed by Radhood Advance that takes inspiration from other similar titles, such as Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire.

New Progression System

In the newly released Hub Update, Soul Stalker now has a new hub world that players can explore. Gone are the days when players only interact with the game via menus! On top of that, the overworld now features NPCs that provide players with some useful gameplay tips and lore if they are into that kind of stuff.

After updating to the latest version, players will find that the overworld now has gates that block them from entering certain areas. To unlock these gates, players will have to complete a series of tasks in order to proceed. Some of the tasks include completing a two-star job, finishing a job in a couple of different locations, and accomplishing a job using two different characters, among many others!

To spice things up, the developer has implemented the new location system as well. Now, the jobs being offered in the game will have players complete them in various locations. The enemies they will face match the theme of the environment. For instance, if a player needs to complete a job in Routoxin, they will face enemies that can inflict poison. The Hub Update introduced seven unique locations and a total of 16 combat environments for players to explore.

Better Weapons

Using the same weapon over and over again can lead to boredom. So, the developer added a new evolution system where players can apply a one-time unique effect on each of the 27 weapons in the game.

The Shock Bracelet, for example, can be evolved to smite nearby enemies with three lightning strikes instead of one. Weapons can be upgraded at campfires.

The Hub Update also introduced a bunch of new weapons. The new Directblade can only slash enemies in the direction the player is facing. However, enemies that are unfortunate enough to get hit with the slash suffer from the new "Blue Fire" status effect, which allows melee attacks to deal damage twice.

Highlights

Added many more encounters to regular runs thanks to the extra work we did on job runs.
Added a "Mixed Shop" node in the map, which shows you both weapons and trinkets.
Reduced the game's RAM usage by as much as 90% at times (this one was insane, I might make a video for how it went down on my YouTube channel).
Added a new character, Gobble - Looking for someone who still owes her some money. Multihits triggered by blue fire can also multihit.
Added the Red Fursa enemy - a red panda that has incredibly long dash range.
Added the White Fursa enemy - a red panda that has incredibly long dash range.
Added the red, green, and white Leaja enemies - ghost leaves that have high health, and try to cut off escape routes.
Added a new weapon, Backguarder - Slashes enemies behind you to protect you.
Added a new weapon, Prime Fire - Shoots a blast at nearby enemies that applies blue fire, which allows melee attacks to multihit.
Added a new trinket, Animal Skull - Using melee attacks on enemies with bleed triggers multihit like blue fire half the time.
Added a new trinket, Blue Staff - Increases blue fire chance on attack by 15%, but reduces power by -10%.
Added a new trinket, Hot Rock - Increases blue fire duration by 0.5s.
Added variants of each playable character sprite without the white outline for the overworld.