Major Swords of Ditto summer update totally changes the game

There’s a big summer update to The Swords of Ditto, and it makes a pretty significant change to one of the game’s key systems.

We loved The Swords of Ditto. Yes, it’s not as easy and accessible as its adorable aesthetic suggests, but as a modern mashup of roguelite and classic Zelda, it pretty much achieves everything it sets out to.

One of the major complaints from players – my wife included – was around the time limit, however. If you’re not au fait with roguelites, and don’t appreciate the vicious nod to Majora’s Mask, it can be a cruel and frustrating rebound. Even if you are OK with all those things, it can still be an incredibly frustrating, game at times.

The key change in the Swords of Ditto’s first major summer update, then, is the removal of the time limit. The game’s loop remains, but instead of just four days to prepare to face Mormo, there’s now a target level to aim for before taking on the witch. Additionally, you’ll start subsequent play-throughs at the grave, not in bed, to reduce the repetitive parts of the game’s core loop.

The time limit does still exist in some format, however. If you’ve beaten Mormo, subsequent plays will have the time limit applied, to increase the challenge. And if you prefer The Swords of Ditto in its rock hard original state, you can roll back to previous builds of the game using the Steam beta builds function.

Here’s the full list of changes in the first Swords of Ditto summer update:

• The time limit has been removed for most stories. Players instead have to reach a target Level before facing Mormo
• Updated the Level Up sequence to show Mormo’s level in relation to the player’s level
• The time limit now only comes into play for stories after players have defeated Mormo
• Players now start at the grave when they fail a story, instead of walking from the house every time
• Toy and Trial Dungeons are no longer marked on the player’s map
• Toy and Trial Dungeons no longer require the player to be a certain level before they can get into them
• Players permanently get the dash, charge and spin attacks as rewards for levelling up at key milestones
• Story Tablets are now always an additional reward from chests/NPCs
• After defeating Mormo, the player is now given a specific Quest to help them on their way to finish the game properly
• The player must now face a challenge when offering an Icon at the Henge
• Successful stories now see high level enemies spawn around the map, with rewards for defeating them
• Streamlined the start of a story after beating Mormo by awarding the Kazoo and unlocking Air Kazoo stops
• Enemies no longer scale along with completed dungeons, meaning more variety in enemy difficulty around the world
• Sticker Packs have become Sticker Codes, to better communicate why Lik only gives you one Sticker in return
• Added Screenshake menu option
• Increased the pickup collection radius for the player
• Various balancing changes
• Lots of bug fixes

The Swords of Ditto’s summer update is available now, and you can pick up the game (including a Steam key) from the Humble Store (and we may receive a small discount from purchases made from online stores).

More from Thumbsticks

• Minit will be released on Nintendo Switch “in a month or so”
• The Swords of Ditto review
• Minit review