WELL HELLO, Crashlands 2 players! Long time no PATCH! But that comes to an end today, because today we're releasing Update 1.3: The Overflow!
With this update we tackled the question, "What if this game just had... more... of everything? WAAAAAAY more." So we did that. And then we kept going, and honestly we might have overshot a bit. So now the game is just OVERFLOWING with new stuff.
And you know what? That's our bad. That's on us. But now it's too late, and all this new stuff is just in there now. You can't stir the cream out of the coffee, as they say.
The TL;DR
Five new side bosses, complete with new storylines and new loot
A new "Juiceforging" system to customize and upgrade your armor and weapons
Hunt down Strange Creature minibosses to get powerful new items and Juice Shards for Juiceforging
Two new playstyles: Beastmaster and Frostbiter, bringing dozens of new combat items
More gadgets and trinkets to round out the existing playstyles
A new secret pet. WHAT COULD IT BE?
New FANCY building kits
QOL updates and more!
New Side Bosses
One of our goals in Update 1.3 was to give players lots of new fun and weird things to fight. So naturally, that means MORE BOSSES! This update adds FIVE new side bosses, more than doubling the total number of boss fights in the game. Since these bosses are optional, the game won’t just throw them at you. You’ll need to do some exploring and questing to find them all and uncover their weird stories! Those aren't nipples. They're eyes! Totally safe for work!
Each of these bosses also drops a brand new gadget or trinket, so get ready to expand your combat kit with these new powerful items!
Juiceforging
We didn’t want to throw you into the deep end to fight a whole bunch of crazy new bosses without giving you a chance to get properly kitted out. So this update brings back a reimagined JUICEFORGE from the original Crashlands.
The Juiceforge allows you to upgrade your equipment to make it stronger, fully reroll its stats, and even fine-tune its stats through the brand-new “Refining” system.
We also got a lot of requests from players to have random stats on weapons, so we went ahead and added that, too! Although we took special care to make sure the stats still make sense for a given weapon. You don't want a Burner that boosts cold damage, you know? And you can even Juiceforge your weapons, so you can customize your loadout to your heart’s content!
Strange Creatures
The creatures of Woanope have stumbled upon powerful Juiceflows, gaining abilities many would consider to be... STRANGE.
At the start of each day, Strange Creatures will appear in each major region of the world -- Maarla’s Mantle, the Husk, and the Aquadunes. These creatures will be marked on your map by a paw-print icon, and defeating them will yield a bounty of Juice Shards that you can use to Juiceforge your equipment, as well as a chance to get new trinkets and gadgets to augment your playstyle.
These Strange Creatures are repeatable minibosses, each with their own unique bonus moves, faster attacks, and just the right amount of weird shenanigans to make them threatening and fun to fight no matter when you come across them. Unlike normal boss fights, Strange Creatures are out in the wilderness, which means you’re likely to end up getting other creatures, enemies, and environmental hazards roped into the battle as you fight them. So be ready for absolute chaos!
New Beastmaster Set
Ever since the launch of Crashlands 2, our players have been asking for a playstyle that focuses on pets. WELL NOW IT’S HERE! Update 1.3 introduces the BEASTMASTER set, which is all about boosting your pet and teaming up. Using the new “Crook” weapon type, the Beastmaster builds up a bond with their pet, causing the pet to use its special attack more frequently. And when that happens, both the Beastmaster and the pet go into a berserking frenzy, becoming an unstoppable duo of destruction that becomes more powerful based on the strength of their bond. The
Beastmaster set comes with a variety of new gadgets, such as the Spiked Collar, Thunder Vest, Water Bowl, and Squeaky Ball. Plus a spray bottle of pheromones that’s definitely not pee. What do these items do? OH YOU’LL SEE.
New Frostbiter Set
While we were in the neighborhood adding a new equipment set, we thought, “why not add TWO?” And then we did. Introducing the FROSTBITER set! This set is focused on two things: making stuff really cold, and then hitting it really hard. The Frostbiter uses a special “Scepter” weapon type that hurls exploding snowballs a short distance, making things cold by applying “Shiver” to them, and then landing enormous critical hits.
The Frostbiter playstyle also makes use of a brand-new “damage absorption” mechanic, allowing you to protect yourself from damage temporarily through the use of certain special items. Within the Frostbiter set you can play a few different ways, as well -- you can focus on delivering huge bursts of damage with the Coldy Spinpopper, or you can turn into a walking storm using the Blizzard Bottle. Or just do it all at once!
New Items for Other Sets
Last, we went through the existing equipment sets and fleshed them out just a bit more, resulting in a new special item for each of the the Chemist, Capacitor, and Rascal sets, and TWO new items for the Firebrand and Slinger sets.
All in all, Update 1.3 brings the total number of Special Items from 65 to 96, resulting in an explosion of possible playstyle combinations and weird, overpowered synergies!
New Secret Pet
Somewhere, somehow, a new pet snuck its way into this update. We don’t know how it got there, or even what it is. But it’s here now, and I guess we’re all just going to have to deal with it.
We tried to get some screenshots of it, but they all turned out blurry. Maybe it’s a hoax?
New Fancy Buildings
We didn’t want to leave BASE BUILDERS out in the cold this update, so we added a whole new set of FANCY building items! Every Woanopian building item (walls, pillars, doors, and floors) now has a “Fancy” version with a unique color scheme. The recipes for these Fancy structures are found out in the world as drops from creatures and resources.
With all these new recipes to collect, you might be saying, “BUT... HOW CAN I KEEP TRACK OF IT ALL?” First off, please calm down and stop shouting.
Second, we’ve got it covered. We updated the Compendium to show recipe drops you’ve collected (or missed), so you’ll be able to easily peruse the list of creatures and resources and figure out what to go after.
Get the Free Crashlands 2 Art Book DLC on Steam!
Want to see how the SAUSAGE is made? Hop over to Steam and grab the free Crashlands 2 Art Book DLC that's releasing alongside this update! We combed back through all the old files and documents from the development of Crashlands 2 and compiled it all in one place, so you can see how the game's visuals evolved over time. This book is packed full of commentary about the design philosophies we used, concept art, sketches, technical examples of how certain effects were done, and more!
We considered selling this thing since it took so much time to make, but then we decided... nah. It's a gift from us to you!
Join the Update 1.3 Hardcore Scramble Challenge!
To celebrate the launch of this update, we’re kicking off a Hardcore Scramble challenge in our Discord server to see who can get the most Hardcore Points in the first week of the update going live, using a scramble seed we'll announce on the day the update releases! Pop into our Discord server at discord.gg/bscotch and join the fun!
Full Patch Notes
Not everything in Update 1.3 is included in this post, because otherwise it would take YEARS just to write it! But if you want to dig deeper, the full patch notes are available at https://www.bscotch.net/games/crashlands-2/patchnotes. There are a lot of them, though, so... good luck with that!