Crows Corner Q&A Recap: S3 10-12

Last Updated:August 23, 2023

Crows Corner is a podcast-like livestream that occurs every other Tuesday at 11 PM EST inside Torchlight Infinite's official Discord Server. The hosts are GG-Lawren (XD Community Manager) and our own Xtra37. Together, they answer questions submitted by the community, the livestream's audience, and even each other! If you'd like to ask XD developers a question about Torchlight Infinite, you can do so here.

For this Crows Corner Q&A Recap, we're covering everything that was asked, answered, and discussed during the 10th, 11th and 12th Crows Corners of Torchlight Infinite's 3rd Season: Cube of Rapacity. You can find our last recap which covered the 8th and 9th Crows Corners of Season 3 here!

Discussion Recap

Much of the best information to come out of Crows Corner is unplanned. Below, you'll find everything we've learned from the discussions between GG-Lawren and Xtra37.

Co-Op is Not Coming Soon!

Torchlight Infinite's most requested feature was projected to soon be upon us. This is no longer the case.

GG-Lawren announced that co-op - which was previously planned to release in SS2 / Season 4 - will be delayed due to technical challenges and the need for additional development time.
He promises that new information about co-op's release date will be provided as soon it's ready, and asks players to stay tuned for further announcements on the matter.

XD Soon to Present S4 / SS2, City of Aeterna

Mark your calendars for August 26th, as this is the date of XD's Season Preview Livestream.

This Livestream is slated to showcase tons of new things coming to Torchlight Infinite in SS2 / Season 4, now named The City of Aeterna. You can expect...

A deep-dive into Torchlight Infinite's newest character Iris: The Forsaken. We already know that she specializes in enhancing Spirit Magus (Magi?), allowing them to evolve into something greater.
A breakdown of a newly-enhanced Crafting System. This has been teased at for months and we hope that it meets the high expectations of the community, which has had its gripes with the current rendition of the system.
Heroes getting eviscerated by a brand new endgame boss.
Awesome cinematics showing off the new season mechanic, which we know to be very spooky. XD has promised that the new mechanic will be unlike the current 3 renditions of "killing colored monsters throughout the map in order to do something interesting after defeating the map boss".
Tons of new loot.
More information about Gemma's new incendiary alternative Hero Trait: Flame of Pleasure.
New Active and/or Support Skills.
Tons of other cool things we don't currently know about!

Community Q&A

Every week, Torchlight Infinite's community submits many questions to ask XD. Every week, XD presents answers on Crows Corner. This section of the article features content from the 10th, 11th, and 12th Crows Corners of Torchlight Infinite's 3rd Season: Cube of Rapacity. Below, you'll find:

The Community's questions
GG-Lawren's answers to those questions
Xtra37's live commentary
Editor's Notes that add context when needed.

Note that duplicate questions are not included and that all questions, answers, and discussions are paraphrased for your reading convenience.

Crows Corner Official Transcripts

I am considering spending money on the shop, but I notice that the game seems to be far more active in China than it is internationally (looking at the Steam Charts for PC player count), I fear the international servers could close next year. If that were to happen, would it be possible to merge the international servers with the Chinese servers?

GG-Lawren: There are no plans to close down the international servers, so there's no need for concern. You can confidently make purchases in the store. A decline in the number of players towards the latter parts of a seasonal game is expected, and many people will be playing at the start of the new season in September.

Editor's Note: Steam Charts should not be used to gauge Torchlight Infinite's player count, as the majority of players play on mobile devices, and the PC port itself is split between 3 different launchers.

How does Gemma: Ice-Fire Fusion's Extreme Fusion trait's damage transfer work? The Trait states that it allows Lightning Skills to generate Energy and for Lightning bonuses to apply to Cold / Fire damage, but it does not state that it allows Cold / Fire bonuses to also apply to Lightning damage. Is this a bug or poor wording?

GG-Lawren: Extreme Fusion's description does not suggest that Cold / Fire bonuses will also apply to Lightning damage. There is no error in this description; the confusion may stem from your own interpretation. This damage transference modifier is unidirectional.

Can you please check on Sage's Insight's description, - elemental resistance to what? The player or the enemy? What about Opening Heart's "+30% additional damage against nearby enemies", which says the opposite in Chinese.

GG-Lawren: Please report any translation-related issues you encounter in our Discord's translation-feedback channel.
Sage's Insight reduces the elemental resistances of enemies. Opening Heart's description has recently been revised and is now accurate, it is "+30% additional damage dealt by nearby enemies".

Xtra37: For the people in the audience who are shocked about Opening Heart being awful, just know that it has always done that and that it has always been a bad item that makes it far easier for you to die.

Hi, there is an affix for "-40% additional DoT Damage taken" on King's Boon. When elevated by corrosion, this bonus becomes "-20% additional DoT Damage taken", which would mean that this is worse. Aren't T0 affixes supposed to be an upgrade? Please check if this description is a mistake.

GG-Lawren: This was our mistake and it will be changed next season.

Xtra37: I've seen that a while ago, I think that's the only instance an elevation that is strictly worse than the original while not being a completely new modifier.

Hi! There are 2 bonuses replacing the base effect of Tenacity Blessing: Sacred Wall and Sacrifice. Which of these will work when the character has both?

GG-Lawren: It would be Sacrifice. There can only be one replacement bonus, the order of effect is determined by our configuration order, we will see if we can find a place to write this out in the future.

Xtra37: That's disappointing, I thought you'd be able to use both at the same time. Honestly a shame that one must override the other.

Hello! There are 2 medium talents in the Alchemist tree that modify Spirit Magi. First - Extra Regeneration, second - Extra damage to nearby enemies. However Extra Regeneration *after* losing Reconjuring reduces possible uptime of the second bonus.
1) Is the first talent worded correctly? I feel like this should provide Regeneration while Reconjuring.
2) What is "revived" in the second talent?
3) What is the idea behind the pair? Such talents should be a choice if they are intended as is.

GG-Lawren: 1. The first Talent's description is inaccurate; it should be Life Restoration during Reconjuring.
2. The second problem pertains to the translation of Reconjuring's tooltip.
3. Following point 1, the rationale is that Spirit Magus regenerates through Reconjuring more efficiently, and upon being fully restored, it increased the damage nearby monsters take.

Will you fix Spell Burst triggering off of Imbue Skills? Currently, some of those skills trigger their own Spell, and that eats my Spell Burst charge.

GG-Lawren: We will fix this next season by disabling Imbue-type Skills' ability to trigger Spell Burst. We will reevaluate this interaction at a later time.

Xtra37: I did not know that Imbues could trigger Spell Burst, that seems extremely annoying and I hope that never comes back.

Can Youga: Spacetime Illusion auto summon his clone when reaching 100 Energy? He is the only Hero who actually needs to click the trait button.

GG-Lawren: We will adjust this hero's usability and balance next season, enhancing the user experience.

Editor's Note: Xtra37 asked GG-Lawren to elaborate on these adjustments. Though at the time nothing was set in stone, Lawren was able to promise at least 1 change to Youga: Spacetime Illusion.

Hello, by the time this question is answered, the x5 Loot Event would have gone on for 2 weeks. I'm sure XD would have collected quite a lot of feedback on the event in that time, and I'm wondering about how XD feels about the event. I have 3 questions:
1. Is XD happy with how players responded to this event?
2. Is XD planning to make changes to Loot based on feedback from this event? If so, can you say what's being planned?
3. Can we expect fun events like this in the future with the previously described "Mid Season Mini Leagues" on the horizon?

Editor's Note: Xtra37 asked this question.

GG-Lawren: 1. We have received a lot of positive feedback from the community about this Event, and we are generally pleased with its reception.
2. The event does not appear to significantly affect overall loot. We are considering a one-click pick-up feature for items of the same type, but its implementation is dependent on our development schedule; and we may make some changes to item drop rate based on feedback from this event.
3. The "Mid-Season mini-league" is still in the works, players can expect new exciting events in the future.

Even with the whole Demolisher Charge mechanic, the support for slower-yet-hard-hitting gameplay seems quite weak when compared to the meta-very-fast-hitting playstyle. 2 Handed melee weapons are also mostly quite weak right now. Are there any plans to improve the overall support for players who want to hit slow but hard?

GG-Lawren: We aim to address the two-handed weapon issue first next season. We also want to improve the slow gameplay of Demolisher Skills, but time constraints prevent us from doing this until SS3 / Season 5.

Xtra37: Demolisher Skills ain't half bad if you use Dangerous Silence, though at that point it stops being a slower-yet-harder-hitting build. Hopefully this item is regarded as a "key item" next season and drops more often than it does now.

Will there be any updates for the Mobile version to increase the game's Frame rate? I have multiple devices that I played on which are capable of playing the game at 120fps. Ipad M1 (120Hz), Rog phone 7 ultimate (165Hz).

GG-Lawren: We currently have no plans to do this.

Will the Hunters Association (Guild System) carry over to next season, or do we need to create a new one every season?

GG-Lawren: The Hunters association is cross-season, so players do not need to create a new one.

Hi, please tell us the order in which damage reduction sources apply. For example, with an incoming hit for 1000 damage, the player has 20% Damage Reduction, 30% Injury Buffer, and a Barrier with 500 health and the base 50% absorption rate.

GG-Lawren: In the current version, the following sequence occurs: Take 1000 points of incoming damage. 20% damage mitigation leaves 800 points of incoming damage, Barrier absorbs 400 points of damage, leaving 400 points of incoming damage, Injury Buffer mitigates 30% of damage (120 points of damage taken over time), with 280 points of damage taken directly.

Will you make an event to increase Divinity Slate drop rates, like how you did for Legendary items?

GG-Lawren: We haven't thought about doing this yet.

Hi, the situation with early game caster weapons feels weird. Spring Resurrection and Sage's Foresight can carry you and be adequate for a long time. It may be nice for some players, but I think it hinders the learning curve. It's odd that you only really need to replace these items with rare things from the Trade House or crafted items at levels 80+. By comparison, ranged and melee weapons are far more diverse. Please consider adding a generic caster weapon for level 40+, or perhaps rework some common legendaries to be more generically useful?

GG-Lawren: Spells and Attacks differ. In the early stages, the primary source of a Spell Skill's damage stems from the Skill itself, which has a base damage. For Attacks Skills, the damage comes from the weapon, meaning that you need to replace weapons often to scale Attack Skills as you progress. We agree that the disparity is currently an issue and we will address the growth curve later on.

Accessing Path of the Brave is very confusing for newer players. They loot Proof of the Braves and don't know how to use it! What do you think about adding an introductory system for PoB? Perhaps integrate it into the Netherrealm, or put it into the Great Void, or have Zenoth the Lightless hand out a Side Quest to get players familiar with it.

GG-Lawren: Excellent Suggestions; we will discuss this.

Xtra37: Fun fact, there used to be a Side quest as you had described, I think in Season 1? Not sure why it was removed, to be entirely honest.

How does the damage buff from Rushed work? Do you get the damage for 4s after walking 5m, or does it last only for one cast and reset?

GG-Lawren: Neither. It checks every frame, and if you have moved over 5 meters within the past 4 seconds, you are awarded the damage buff.

Xtra37: There are definitely a lot of confusing things in this game that don't make much sense at a glance. Rushed is absolutely not one of them. I didn't think people could get confused by this one.

While the Crafting System changes this season have major upsides to them, there are also many disadvantages. Its been a while since the Dev team admitted over Crows Corner that this system is not up to expectations, and so much time has passed without any words on how the Crafting System will actually improve. Can you please at least give us some hints for how you plan to satisfy users and address the numerous complains that arose this season, so that people may look forward to the next season?

GG-Lawren: The new Crafting System will be shared with everyone during the Season preview. We are still working on optimizing and adjusting the system.

Editor's Note: GG-Lawren and Xtra37 had a discussion over the future Crafting System changes. We learned that XD plans to release a dedicated Crafting System dev-blog before SS2 / season 4 starts. Lawren was able to assure everyone that the upcoming changes make the system "better".

Only More From Us, at Maxroll

GG-Lawren is currently unsure about the date of the next Crows Corner, meaning it might be a while before another one of these recaps come out. If you haven't already, head over to our Discord and select the Torchlight Infinite role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Keep up the fight, Hunters!

Interested in the upcoming Torchlight Infinite Season City of Aeterna? Find out more about what's to come with these other articles.