The biggest Meatballs update yet is served. New ways to power up, coin-op contraptions and glowing shrines scattered across the arena, a legendary guest star, and a mountain of polish. Grab a fork.
No more silent auto-upgrades. Every level-up now pauses the action and deals you three upgrade cards to pick from — or a Skip if none tempt you. Each card shows exactly how your stat moves (e.g. 80 → 82). Twelve upgrades in the pool:
Hearty — Max Health
Fleet Feet — Move Speed
Tenderised — Armour
Magnetic — Pickup Range
Extra Spicy — Damage
Rapid Whisk — Fire Rate
Sharp Knife — Crit Chance
Slippery — Dodge
Slow Simmer — Health Regen
Quick Study — XP Gain
Lucky — Luck
Prosperous — Gold
A brand-new class of pickups that fire the instant you grab them — no inventory, no shop, pure chaos. At least 10 drop every level (bosses love handing them out). Anything you don't grab gets vacuumed up and cashed in for gold at wave's end.
Magnet Surge — sweeps in all gold & XP
Freeze Time — enemies frozen solid (you keep moving!)
Slow Time — bullet-time slow-mo
Nuke — wipes the screen. BOOM.
Max Ammo — every gun instantly reloaded
Mortar Strike — a telegraphed barrage… dodge the target rings or eat the blast yourself
Adrenaline — big speed & fire-rate surge
Feast — full heal + quick regen
Aegis Bubble — shield restored + brief immunity
Fixed contraptions roll onto the arena floor each wave. Pay up, get a one-off effect, and watch it spark out and fade away.
Meatball Meatball Machine — duplicates one item you own
The Reheater — full heal + shield top-up
Lucky Grinder — double-or-nothing on your stake
Sizzle Station — a random combat buff
Scrap Foundry — stamps out a random weapon
Marination Tank — a big shot of XP
Stand your ground on a shrine and a ring fills for a reward — but you have to survive the wait. 13 shrine types, including:
Shrine of the Simmer — heals while you rest
Gold Font & XP Well — coins and experience bubble up
Shield Ward — rebuilds your shield
Totem of Fury / Swift Totem — damage & speed surges
Cleansing Shrine — purges and repels enemies
Shrine of Plenty — a cache of loot
Glutton's Shrine — temporary lifesteal
Lodestone Shrine — draws in all loot
Shrine of Vigor — permanent max HP for the run
Time Font — bends time to your reflexes
Mystery Shrine — spins for heal, gold or XP
Kills now scatter gold coins and XP gems with their own little icons and a satisfying, varied pickup chime (so it never gets annoying). Miss some? A Brotato-style vacuum streams the whole floor into you before the shop opens — nothing is ever lost. Loot is also plotted on the minimap.
Melee weapons now throw out to deal damage — a full rework that makes close-quarters a real, aggressive playstyle.
Reach Wave 2 of Level 5… and meet Kyle. A full cinematic entrance. A menacing health bar. (He has, ah, exactly as much health as he needs.) Beat him and the game hands you a choice: let him live or let him end — a permanent ±5% Structural Integrity swing that rides with you for the rest of the run.
Shrine buffs, machine payouts and power-ups now slam in with a bold, boss-intro-style splash card so you always know exactly what you just got — plus clean "what does this do?" popovers when you walk up to a machine or shrine.
Clearer in-round shop — a bold, pulsing "⚠ LIVE — the fight goes on!" banner makes it unmistakable when the store isn't a pause screen. Prefer it paused? There's now a setting for that.
Time freeze fixed — freezes only enemies (never you), for a clean window, and only the actual time-based effects trigger it.
Health regen rebalanced — sources now contribute small amounts and hard-cap at 3 HP/sec, so regen stacking can't trivialise a run.
Loot lingers longer before despawning, and shows on the minimap (built to stay cheap even with a screen full of coins).
Richer arena art — livelier procedural ground with far more variation, plus that lived-in "dirty plate" grime.
Windowed / resolution handling improved.
Full control remapping for keyboard & controller.
Fresh HUD icons for score, gold and kills.
Held weapon now always matches your active slot.
Rock-solid pause — the pause menu and shops always freeze the game, no matter what overlay was on screen.
If you're enjoying Meatballs, a review genuinely helps a tiny team get seen — and tell a friend who loves a good bullet-heaven. More coming soon. Buon appetito! 🍝
— The Meatballs team