Line Defense v1.0.20 — Mutations Update

The battlefield has evolved.

Version 1.0.20 introduces the new Mutation system, expanded status effects, major boss overhauls, Freeplay improvements, gameplay balancing, and 7 new Steam achievements. Harder difficulties are now significantly more dangerous as enemies gain access to powerful mutated variants with enhanced abilities and shadow-form visuals.

New Features

Enemy Mutations

• Enemies can now mutate into stronger variants on Hard difficulty and above

• Mutated enemies now appear in shadow form

• Increased mutation spawn chance

• Bosses can now mutate during regular rounds on harder difficulties

• Boss mutations are now restricted from appearing in invalid situations or early Freeplay rounds

Expanded Status Effect System

• Added Shocked status effect

• Added Crippled status effect

• Poison status effects expanded for both enemies and players

• Players can now be inflicted with Fire

• Multiple status effects can now stack simultaneously

• Status icons now display with level numerals

• Fire can now spread between nearby enemies

• Melt effects expanded to additional attacks and abilities

Boss & Enemy Overhauls

Sphere Boss

• Now fires energy waves

• Energy wave attacks now inflict Shocked

• Added charge animation before attacks

• Added new sound effect when struck by energy waves

• Now fires spikes in a 360-degree range

• Now chases players more aggressively

• Visual bobbing and size consistency improved

Noe

• Noe now hovers

• Added rocket attack

• Noe now bounces off walls

• Added visual indicators for rocket attacks

• Updated and overhauled spritework

• Fixed mutation graphical glitches

Additional Enemy Changes

• Various enemies now bob up and down

• Tank and Boss Tank projectiles no longer lose speed

• Tank enemies now fire tank shells

• Tank hurtboxes now more accurately match sprites

• Smaller enemies become immobilized while Shocked

Gameplay Changes & Balance

Character & Combat Changes

• Characters now decelerate naturally instead of stopping instantly

• Ron’s lightning attacks now inflict Shocked

• Parried energy waves now inflict Shocked on enemies

• Archy’s arrows inflict stronger Fire debuffs with perk levels

• Molotov sweetspots now inflict stronger Fire effects

• Poison damage now scales with damage perks

• Dead players can now dash

• Dead players can now parry using Essence

• Dead player visuals and optimization improved

Balance Adjustments

• Reduced Sparrow’s Flintlock damage

• Reduced Sward’s main attack damage

• Reduced Tank bullet damage

• Reduced Mechnoe laser damage

• Reduced Doc’s healing effectiveness in several abilities

• HP Generator Boost no longer grants tower invulnerability

Freeplay Improvements

• Enemy HP now scales deeper into Freeplay

• Enemy speed now scales deeper into Freeplay

• Freeplay money multiplier increased

• Certain bosses now appear later into Freeplay progression

Steam Achievements

Added 7 new Steam achievements:

• Ouch! That's Gotta Hurt!

• Look How They Massacred My Boy!

• Not Feeling So Well

• Freeplay Fiend

• Learning To Parry

• Traffic Redirected!

• Parry Master

UI, Visuals & Polish

• Updated difficulty descriptions

• Updated unlock condition wording on character select

• Added status effect sprites

• Improved bobbing and hovering animations

• Fixed several graphical glitches and visual inconsistencies

• Fixed damage/heal numbers appearing when disabled

• Fixed shop preview glitches

• Fixed crashes caused by invalid sprite drawing

Fixes

• Fixed bosses spawning before being defeated

• Fixed invalid boss spawning during Freeplay

• Fixed achievement triggering issues in Sandbox Mode

• Fixed multiple mutation and animation related bugs

• Removed hidden debug instant-kill switch

• General optimization and polish across the game