Tactical Draft: every boss clear now asks a question
The biggest addition in this build is Tactical Draft. After defeating a boss, you choose one permanent augment from three offers. This is not a vending machine for tiny percentages. The choices are meant to steer the run: damage routes, mobility tricks, survival tools, pickup control, combo pressure, and builds that get pleasantly strange after a few good decisions.
There are now 32 Tactical Augments across Offense, Mobility, Defense, and Utility. They are curated around distinct play styles, with stacks that remain useful without turning the screen into a tax form. You also get a rescan when the swarm offers three things that simply do not speak to your soul.
Your build is finally visible
- Active augments now sit in a compact 2x4 HUD tray, with overflow shown cleanly after the eighth item.
- Pause shows the full Tactical loadout, and the Run Report now records every pick in a readable build summary.
- Click any augment in Tactical Upgrades or How To Play for its proper field manual entry. Newly used augments also join the Codex, because Mission Control has apparently started filing the fun things.
- One-shot augments such as Nano Patch are marked Consumed after use: remembered in the report, removed from the active HUD, no longer pretending they are still on payroll.
More payoff between the explosions
- Sector milestone celebrations have been rebuilt with bigger reward moments and more distinct escalation as the run gets deeper.
- Combo milestones are more visible and more satisfying again without returning to the old wall-of-text behaviour.
- Gameplay backdrops now travel through space instead of standing perfectly still and considering their options.
- The Longship Protocol has a new, louder Viking Row ritual. It has opinions about your posture.
Important small fixes
- Boss support refuel numbers now round cleanly instead of revealing the decimal horrors beneath the universe.
- Permanent Drone and Magnet augments no longer display enormous fake countdowns.
- The +2 life jackpot now truly has to be caught: it dodges, moves, expires, and cannot be vacuumed up with Magnet. It is still fair, but it is no longer waiting at the curb with the engine running.
- How To Play has been expanded so the new systems have somewhere useful to live besides your instincts.
This has been a very busy pass. The goal was simple: a good run should become more yours as it goes on, and when Nova Swarm hands you something powerful, you should be able to understand it, enjoy it, and make questionable plans around it.
Tiny Foundry