Dear Tibians!

Please use this thread to give us feedback about the Soulpit, a part of the new additions included in the Summer Update 2024.

Vision:
The Soulpit turns a creature's soul core into a challenging encounter with its bolstered kin to test your fortitude. Succeed to unlock Animus Mastery, a permanent experience boost for this creature.

More Information:
You can learn more about the Soulpit in the teaser and its corresponding forum thread. Please note that some of the information you find there might be outdated by now.

How to get Soul Cores:
Fiendish monsters have a chance to drop a Soul Core corresponding to its own monster type. If a Soul Core is dropped, there is an even rarer chance to find an additional Soul Core of another monster of the same Bestiary class.
Using an exalted core with a Soul Core transforms the latter into one of a lower Bestiary difficulty, with any creature class and occurrence being possible. The exalted core is consumed in this process.
ONLY ON TEST SERVERS: There is a lever right in front of the Soulpit obelisk that provides random Soul Cores. Additionaly the Testserver Assistant has a small selection of Soul Cores.

Soulpit:
The Soulpit is located in Hrodmir. To enter the Soulpit, you need to use a Soul Core on the obelisk. This will initiate a fight with the soul of the monster provided through the Soul Core.

Animus Mastery:
When the final monster within the Soulpit is defeated, all players still in the Soulpit will unlock the Animus Mastery for this monster.
Animus Mastery is a permanent 0-3% XP bonus for this specific monster. For every unlocked Bestiary stage, the bonus is 1%.
The Bestiary has been updated to show an icon next to all monsters with unlocked Animus Mastery.


When giving feedback, please especially consider the following questions:

• Do you have enough time between Soulpit waves?
  
• How hard does the Soulpit feel for monsters you are very familiar with?
  
• When receiving your Animus Mastery, did clicking on the highlighted Cyclopedia button take you to the expected entry within the Cyclopedia?
  
• Did you get teleported out of the Soulpit unexpectedly? If so, do you remember where you were within the Soulpit and what layout (Enrage/Fire pit, Oppressor/Bones pit, Overpower/Flesh pit) was used?
  
• Could you interact with the Soulpit monsters in any way that you think should not be possible? e.g. Taming, Loot, ... If so, which monster was it?
  

If you have any suggestions or concerns, please help us understand them by explaining your point of view. We'll do our best to consider your feedback!

Official replies:
We will collect and update changes to the Soulpit in Fixes and Changes and list all replies below.

Thread replies:
FAQ (2024-05-28)
Answers #1 (2024-06-05)
What we are working on: More monsters in later waves, slightly scaling Animus Mastery bonus, more Soul Core Conversion methods (2024-06-05)
No Soul Cores in influenced monsters (2024-06-06)
Answers #2 (2024-06-06)
Answers #3 (2024-06-11)
Answers #4 (2024-06-13)
Answers #5 (2024-06-14)
Thank you for testing (2024-06-17)

Thank you for taking the time to explore and test the new features.
We are looking forward to your feedback.

Cheers,
Xolurr

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Where can I find the Soulpit?
  North-eastern part of Hrodmir.
  
• Where can I get Soul Cores?
  They drop from fiendish monsters.
  
• Can I change Soul Cores?
  Kind of. Using an exalted core with a Soul Core transforms the latter into one of a lower Bestiary difficulty, with any creature class and occurrence possible.
  The Testserver Assistant has a stock of exalted cores.
  
• Is there a time limit for the Soulpit?
  Yes, 10 minutes.
  
• How strong are the monsters in the Soulpit?
  The stacks on the Soulpit monsters scale the same as Sinister Embrace. They have different durations of high initial resilience depending on the wave.
  
• Final Foe Abilities:
  
  • Enrage (Fire pit)
    If the HP of a foe falls beneath a threshold, its damage increases as well as its resilience.
    
  • Oppressor (Bone pit)
    Foe gets an array of additional spells.
    
  • Overpower (Flesh pit)
    Critical hit chance with all attacks.
    

Hello everyone,
Thank you for the feedback.
We read all of your suggestions and will consider actions where we see them fit.

I was able to summon my familiar inside the Ssoulpit battle, not sure if it's expected behavior.

Yes, it is.

Cobra viziers (and the others, probably) are spawning with reduced health, as if affected by snake poison.

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of special situation we would like you to keep reporting.

One issue I've noticed is that the lever room is in sight range of the pit. If you take a monster all the way south in the pit, it can sometimes try to retarget onto a spectator and stop attacking you for a second, or take a step away from you.

Thank you, we will investigate this.

We see the point that it should be rewarding to have Animus Mastery for more creatures. Currently, we are investigating what kind of reward we deem appropriate. Also, we are considering if there should be an alternative source for Soul Cores.

Regarding the more detailed tooltip for Animus Mastery, we'll keep this in mind! As the reward might change during the test server, we will wait until we have more information on that front.

Please keep trying the Soulpit and give us first-hand feedback from your fights. This will help us greatly to adjust the challenge of the fights.

I'll also forward to our graphics department that you like the look of the Soul Cores and already plan to display them in your house.

Hello everyone,

I have the pleasure to share with you the first batch of changes we are currently working on:

Problem 1: The first wave is the hardest
Solution:
We will adjust the waves so that the later waves are harder. The final wave should be the hardest without making it much harder than the current first wave, which will get slightly easier.

• Wave 1: 7 monsters with 1 stack of sinister embrace
  
• Wave 2: 4 monsters with 1 stack and 3 monsters with 5 stacks
  
• Wave 3: 5 monsters with 1 stack and 2 monsters with 15 stacks
  
• Wave 4: 6 monsters with 1 stack as well as the unchanged final monster

The total experience gained will be adjusted to reflect the increased amount of monsters you'll need to beat (from 1500% to 2800%).

Problem 2: Not enough incentive for unlocking additional monsters
Solutions:
The XP-Bonus Animus Mastery grants will be adjusted.

• It will now grant 2% as a base value, independent of your unlocked bestiary stages. This value will be increased by 0.1% for every 10 monsters you unlock Animus Mastery for. This additional bonus is capped at 2%.
  
  • With this change your character can reach up to 4% bonus xp when having beaten 200 different Soul Core fights.
    
  • Your current value will be displayed in the tooltip
• We will add a title and an achievement based on unlocking Animus Mastery. More details at a later time.

Problem 3: Soul Cores can only be downgraded
Solution:
We will implement two additional interactions for Soul Cores:

• Using a Soul Core on another Soul Core will result in a random Soul Core of any Bestiary difficulty
  
• Fiendish monsters will have the chance to drop an additional item that can be used on a Soul Core to upgrade it to the next higher difficulty. If used on the highest difficulty it will create another one of that difficulty

It will take some time until these go live but we are happy to receive feedback on them beforehand. We will notify you when they will hit the testserver.

Greetings,
Niadus

Adding the Soul Core to influenced monsters currently does not match our vision for this feature. We do not want players to gain the Soul Core they need by doing the exact same thing they are doing anyway.

As for the second adjustment, specifically covering the Problem #3, could you consider adding the Exaltation cores to the equation? I believe right now in the game, we have a lot of slivers/cores just sitting there without having an extra usage for them. Maybe put the option to use this "new dropped" item or a decent amount of exaltation cores instead?

There is currently no elegant way of using multiple exalted cores without adding another UI or involving a complex NPC interaction. However, I'll put 'additional uses for exalted cores' on my list of things to consider when brewing up new stuff in the future.

Hello everybody,
thanks again for the ongoing feedback.
We read all of your suggestions and will consider actions where we see them fit.

One issue I've noticed is that the lever room is in sight range of the pit. If you take a monster all the way south in the pit, it can sometimes try to retarget onto a spectator and stop attacking you for a second, or take a step away from you.

We have not been able to recreate the described behaviour. Is the problem still there? If yes, please try to give us step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce it.

If you encounter things like taints in the Soulpit and so on, please keep on reporting so we do not miss any special creatures.

The wave composition Soulpit will be adjusted after the next test server update.
Check Fixes and Changes for details.

I've just tested these changes, and while they're an improvement, there are still problems.

Waves 2 and 3 are good now, having a mix of monsters with different stacks makes it quite fun.

The problem with wave 4 being too easy hasn't been solved - but it's only because the final monster spawns all the way to the far north. This means that you can just cheese the final wave by standing south, killing the 6 level 1 monsters first, then healing up and only going for the final monster when you are ready.

I just did Cobra Vizier solo and it was way too easy, I used no defense preys, 2 might rings and 0 ssa for the whole fight, and it took just 6 minutes.

My suggestion is to change the 4th wave so that the final monster spawns more centrally, with the 1 stack monsters surrounding it.

Thanks for the observation. We are looking into a way of having the final monster not be as lonely.

Greetings,
Niadus

Hello again,
I hope you had a relaxing weekend and a good start to the week.

Yesterday , when we check fight with hive overserer , we saw that their summons have same ammount stacks of sinister embrace as hive overserer who summoned them, but when I found fiendish monster like phantasm, his summons wasnt fiendish as this monster, so it was bug or monsters on soulpit have difrent summons mechanics?

The creatures in the Soulpit are the first to have mastered summoning minions in a way they can replicate their own power. TL: DR it's not a bug; it is a new Soulpit feature.

Thank you for reporting more instances of strange Soulpit creature behaviour. Each report helps us address the issues better.

Thank you for the video form the server crash. We are sorry for the inconvenience and are currently investigating the problem.


As listed in Fixes and Changes, some issues have been addressed.
The latest changes updated the last wave of the Soulpit. The final monster is now harder to separate from its friends and has adapted some new tricks that other bosses have – or is in the process of learning tricks, as I was not fast enough this morning

Hey everybody,
As always, we appreciate the feedback, so keep it coming.

Soul Cores would be listed as Uncommon drops within the Bestiary.

As some of you might have already seen in Fixes and Changes, new adjustments and fixes are now available on the test server:

• Animus Mastery adjustments: Now 2-4% XP bonus, which is also explained in detail as a tooltip.
  
• The final foe has learned another set of new tricks by imitating other bosses.
  
• Taint should no longer be active in the Soulpit. Please report any taint or other special mechanics still active!

Ways to exchange Soul Cores, which also provide a way to acquire Soul Cores from monsters that are not able to drop their own Soul Core:

• Exalted Core + Soul Core => Soul Core with decreased difficulty.
  
• (new) Soul Prism + Soul Core => Soul Core with higher difficulty.
  
• (new) Soul Core + Soul Core => any other Soul Core.

Soul Prisms are dropped from fiendish monsters as well.

Hello everybody,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to the newest adjustments.

But if I try it on a "truffle cook" (which is supposed to be harmless), it immediately gets converted into a challenging creature.

I tried this many times again and only got trivial Soul Cores when upgrading "truffle cook" Soul Cores.
If you find any irregularities, please list the combination here so we can investigate.

Any chance we could convince you to raise it from 3-5% instead of 2-4%?

Probably not

Reiterating our vision, already mentioned in No Soul Cores in influenced monsters.
We do not want Soul Cores for specific monsters to be acquired by doing regular hunts!
Not with a low drop chance. Not split over several drops. And not by any of the other ways directly or implicitly stated.
We are aware that this will not resonate with everyone.

Currently, we have the feeling that the Soulpit is rather under- than over-tuned. To spice things up, we made the last wave more dangerous.
Give it a try and tell us if it now feels like a challenge. And if it makes a difference which extra power was active for the final foe.

The current upper limit for XP bonus is achieved after unlocking 200 Animus Masteries. This is plenty of Soulpits to complete.
It also does not force players to depend on Soul Cores that are really hard to obtain. For example, creatures that are not around all the time or will never be fiendish.
For everyone still longing for more soul killing, there are now a new title and achievement as described in Fixes and Changes.
Also, I heard a rumour of Gnomadness mentioning something about a keepsake that might be available to adventurers daring to become "Mistress/Master of Souls".


Enjoy your weekends.

Another test nears its end.
And as always, we thank everyone for participating. Whether you just played or went the extra mile of giving us feedback, we appreciate it.
We see it as a privilege to have a player base that is willing to spend their free time to make sure the next major update is approved through and through before release.
Be assured that we read all your comments, even if we did not directly respond to each.

One problem is that this doesn't mention what the percentages mean. 2% of what?

Keen observation. It will be fixed on live servers.

Does this mean they will get the 3% exp bonus in Rookgaard as well?

You get extra exp on Rookgaard if it is the same creature you unlocked Animus Mastery for.

Some Soulpit fights are harder or easier than one might expect. Just to mention examples from this thread: "iks churrascan" despawn without the need to be killed and "cobra viziers" have less HP than expected.
Our take on that is, if it does not break the Soulpit, you just got lucky.
If something breaks, please keep reporting, also in the live system.

We want to clarify that we treat the Soulpit as any other boss fight room. It is a dangerous place with all the consequences. That also means we take no additional actions especially for the Soulpit when it comes to connection problems. Connection quality is something we monitor very strictly and try to improve wherever we can.

There is currently no plan for a Soulpit highscore. You can monitor your progress via the tooltip on any unlocked Animus Mastery.

We are still investigating the situation with the upgraded Soul Cores that ended up resulting in much higher difficulty than expected.

I'll try my best to be around during the Monster Rampage event and am looking forward to everyone pathfinder trying his or her luck.

Cheers,
Xolurr