Welcome, Survivor!
We're introducing another update to the game in the form of version 0.8.1.
This update focuses on delivering a few of the new things we've promised to add, as well as adding a new gameplay event to the game to shake things up a bit before the main course arrives (in terms of a major version update).
New Gameplay Event: Research Pod
To enable this event, you will need to spend points on the new General Skill Tree node, available at rank 3.
At certain intervals, depending on the game mode, you'll receive an SOS-like signal telling you that the Research Pod has appeared somewhere in the current area. By following the new purple virus notification icon, you'll find the pod, which you can interact with by standing near it to start the event.
You'll have one minute to find and collect the research samples scattered throughout the playable area, which contain valuable data about the zombie virus mutations. The more you collect within the time limit, the greater your reward, but don't stress yourself too much as you'll be rewarded anyway.
When you return to the original location of the capsule, you'll be able to choose from a random pool of damage type tags, which will give you bonus points based on the number of samples you've collected. We hope you'll enjoy this side quest, and we look forward to adding or improving other events in future updates.
Save Slots (Player Profiles) & Per-Device Settings
You'll now be able to have several different save profiles, which you can switch through at will from the main menu screen. You can now try a fun challenge on a separate slot, or share one or two with your siblings!
You can have up to 5 profiles, either by creating new ones or by copying your current ones to new slots. Speaking of copies and backups, each save slot creates up to 10 backup files in case you want or need to revert to an older save (file recovery still requires manual intervention).
Gone are the days of having to constantly toggle graphics options when swapping your desktop for a laptop or Steam Deck. These settings are now stored locally, so each device you play on will have its own configuration without overwriting each other.
Other Quality of Life & Balance Improvements
We've also added other tweaks and fixes along the way. For example, the new accessibility setting - Daylight Mode - switches the game's night setting to a cloudy afternoon, improving the experience for those of you who found the game a little too dark.
We're also replacing the "Quit to Main Menu" option with the "Conclude Run" option, so you can always "gracefully" end your current run and reap your rewards. Quitting (and dying) will now collect all cash pickups that are currently on the level, so you don't have to worry about missing any of them when you take a break from the game!
We've also taken another look at the most overused and underused options in terms of the game balance. While we're happy to report that the overall situation is now much better after the changes introduced in recent updates, we're continuing our work to improve the underdogs and reduce the overpowered "only right choices" with a few quick tweaks.
Patch notes / Changelog
GAMEPLAY & QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES
- New gameplay event: Field Research:
- Unlocked by a rank 3 node in the general skill-tree.
- Activate the event by standing near the Research Pod area when it spawns at random location in approximate time intervals.
- Find and collect Research Samples before the time runs out, the more you get, the higher the reward!
- After the collection phase ends, deposit the Samples into the Pod to receive bonus tag points from randomized pool (rerollable).
BALANCE CHANGES
- Burn: Base damage is now 30 per damage tick (from 25).
- Pyro: Molotov Cocktail: Ice: The Ice portion of this ability now guarantees Freeze status.
- Mechanic: Chainsaw: Now has wider range and better character rotation.
- Mechanic: Remote Control Car: RC cars have longer pause between uses & targetting AI improved.
- Items: Devil’s Deal: Now deals 10% damage every 5s, and activates most on-hit effects.
- Items: Scented Candle: Status effect duration debuff reduced to -20% (from -25%).
- Items: Zugzwang Hypergaster XD: Now adds +4 points to tags (from +3).
- Items: Pills: Damage boost duration increased to 30s (from 20s).
- Military Training: Luck bonuses increased to 2/5/10/20 (from 2/5/10/15).
- Military Training: Ability Area bonuses increased to 2,5/10/20/30 (from 2,5/5/10/20).
- Badges: All damage type badges had their damage and tag amount increased to max +6 & 40% (from +5 & 25%).
- Badges: Tough Badge: Stat bonuses decreased to max 400 & 25 (from 500 & 50).
- Badges: Speed Badge: Stat bonuses decreased to max 25% & 40% (from 30% & 50%).
- Damage Against Elites & Bosses skill tree nodes and badge nerfed (25% → 20%).
- Achievements: “Explosion!” range requirements lowered.
BUGFIXES:
- Potential fixes for game crashes, especially ones related to the Extermination mode on Green Hell.
- F8 Feedback Form should no longer allow the game to be unpaused in the background when it’s in use.
- Items: “Zugzwang Hypergaster XD” should once again work correctly.
- Items: Improved the synergy between “Ultra Instinct” and “Omnigeode”.
- SWAT: Ricochet: Slashing variant now counts to total Slashing damage done.
- TANK: Bombing Strike: Electric variant fixed to deal electric damage when it’s under 10 tags.
- Medic: Syringer: Description now correctly displays “Magazine Size” stat instead of “Projectiles fired”.
- Engineer: Energy Shield: Particle effects position corrected.
- Huntress: Arrow Rain: Visuals now better coincide with its actual range. Indicators removed for clarity.
- Other minor fixes (e.g. localization).
What's next?
We'll be sure to post hotfixes as needed, but we'll be switching gears to work on the remaining content for version 1.0, specifically the new Survivor and two remaining maps. We haven't decided yet if the next version will be 0.9 or if we'll go straight to the full release, but we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we do (be sure to "follow" the game on Steam to see the latest news!)
For the near future, we plan to work on the things listed below:
- Ninth Survivor & two missing maps (new map is a priority).
- Team leader's passives and/or perks for even more run customization.
- At least one main boss encounter (one main boss for each map planned).
- More synergies between Survivors, possible item upgrades and/or combinations.
- Additional column (fifth rank) for the general & Survivors' skill trees (more meta-progression).
- New endless-like game mode (non-ranked) focused on fun, instead of the fight for survival.
- Full release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One/Series & PlayStation 4/5.
- Steam Deck support improvements / verification.
- Support for more languages (translations).
PS Don't worry about the missing features, as we plan to support the game after its full release, so we can add more fun content and improvements along the way!
In case you missed it, we've also created an Official Troubleshooting Guide that we hope will help any of you who encounter any kind of problem with the game (we hope you don't, of course), so take a quick look at it if you have a moment.
Thanks again for sticking with us! We hope you have a great time with the game, and we ask for your patience as we work on the final stretch before the full release - it'll be worth it!
Cheers!
ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio
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