Nova Swarm Patch Notes: Nova Command, Viking Flagships & Better Boss Fights

Nova Swarm has received a major combat-readability, ship-identity, build-quality, and presentation update.

The goal is still the same: keep the swarm fast, dangerous, and spectacular—but make sure the warnings tell the truth, controls remain responsive, rewards arrive safely, and every ship feels worth mastering.

A New Nova Command HUD

Combat messages have been rebuilt into one coherent Nova Command presentation system.

• Wave Start, Wave Cleared, Sector Clear, Boss Defeated, boss warnings, reinforcements, Side Directives, Near Miss, powerups, repairs, discoveries, and other combat notices now share a consistent visual language.
• Important events receive clear space while routine information moves into compact side or tactical lanes.
• Wave Cleared now hands off cleanly to Wave Start.
• Boss Defeated now follows the actual boss explosion before handing off to Sector Clear.
• Sector Clear transitions cleanly into the next boss signal and dossier.
• Mission Status yields during major events instead of competing with them.
• Queued messages now resume in the correct order instead of overlapping, duplicating, or hiding one another.
• Routine reinforcement warnings are smaller and calmer, while real danger keeps the stronger presentation.
• Neutral information uses cyan, reinforcement caution uses amber, and boss danger uses coral instead of reward gold.

Several older oversized effects have also been restrained. Storm Survived, giant combo feedback, Bonus Drone Down, Chrono Anchor, constellation art, and other routine moments now preserve the spectacle without covering the fight.

Damage feedback is stronger at the screen edges and lighter in the centre, helping the impact read without hiding incoming bullets.

Clearer, Fairer Boss Fights

• Aimed boss attacks now lock their aim from warning through release, so the warning continues to describe the real shot.
• Split attacks now show two warning lanes that match the two projectiles actually fired.
• Boss attack names appear during windup and are localized across all supported languages.
• Boss fuel ships now have a genuine warning-only lead-in before they become active targets.
• Boss phase, refuel, fuel-ship, and reinforcement warnings now use clearer priority and cleanup rules.
• Boss Defeated removes stale phase, refuel, support, and reinforcement warnings.
• The boss dossier is more concise: larger useful information, less tiny text, and no redundant second nameplate.
• Boss health now has one dominant presentation instead of competing displays.
• Danger telegraphs use warning colors consistently, while important bosses receive a restrained visual edge over routine friendly fire.

Control and Autofire Continuity

• Keyboard, controller, and touch movement now resume correctly through pause and Tactical Draft transitions.
• Pause intent is preserved, while stale confirm inputs can no longer leak into the resumed game.
• Autofire now transitions cleanly from the final enemy of a wave into the next wave or boss fight.
• Old no-target friendly projectiles are retired during wave transitions instead of drifting into the next encounter.
• Graze Break no longer has a hidden reacquisition delay after use.
• Tactical Fusion unlocks wait behind Overrun, Game Over, pause, and other important presentations instead of interrupting them.

Better Tactical Builds and Pickups

• Compatible timed powerups can now coexist with independent timers and HUD rows.
• Rapid Fire works alongside Double Shot.
• Pierce works alongside Damage Up.
• Magnet works alongside Score x2.
• Side Directive powerup rewards now choose a safer reachable position and receive a brief collection grace period.
• Tactical Draft avoids repeating the previous three offer sets when fresh alternatives are available.
• Held offers, fixed routes, catch-up choices, and Fusion requirements still retain priority.
• Permanent movement augments now use hull-aware scaling, keeping slow and fast ships useful without allowing excessive speed stacking.
• Focus Lens remains armed through Ghost and Phase.
• During Phase, Focus temporarily releases its movement slowdown while preserving the focused weapon state.
• Focus spread correction now adapts to the ship’s weapon profile: broad batteries receive more correction than already-precise cannons.
• Magnet has a more dependable useful range, a compact near-ship core, and a faint truthful outer boundary.
• Sky Verdict now shows a clear READY or SPENT emergency state.
• When normal orbital charges are empty, Sky Verdict can provide one smaller, reduced-damage emergency beam per sector.
• Direct-damage cap previews are clearer and remain consistent across the full Hangar.

Clearer Defensive and Fusion Feedback

• Ghost now has a player-local countdown arc and timer.
• Ghost visibility remains consistent instead of being overwritten by the ordinary invulnerability strobe.
• Dodge, Phase Wake, and Rift Reprisal feedback better explains which bullets were cleared and which return shards were created.
• Rare Fusion rewards use one concise presentation instead of stacking several upgrade confirmations.

Thirty Ships With Stronger Identities

Every ship now has a more distinct Hangar presence.

• All 30 hulls receive individual animated Hangar signatures.
• Aegis Comet, Railbreaker, Drone Sovereign, Phase Seraph, and Eirik the Viking now use dedicated Ascendant artwork instead of recolored or temporary fallback identities.
• Eirik the Viking has been rebuilt as the Hangar’s apex flagship, with a detailed Viking silhouette, shields, ornamentation, and visible runic inscriptions.
• Eirik remains the most elaborate Hangar showcase while using a normal, readable combat footprint during gameplay.
• Fixed a rank-up animation bug that could repeatedly multiply Eirik’s gameplay size until the ship covered a large part of the battlefield.
• Gameplay ship scale now has a safety guard that repairs invalid or oversized rendering automatically.
• The Hangar recommendation is clearer, respects manual ship selection, and remembers when it has been dismissed.
• Hangar and cockpit displays now surface each ship’s mastery medals and clear count more clearly.
• Compact and lower-resolution Hangar layouts have improved spacing and restrained flagship sizing.

Hangar, Codex, and Cabinet Improvements

• Starting from either Hangar launch path now opens one shared chooser for Mayhem Tactical, Mayhem Pure, Daily Cabinet Signal, Scout Run, Sector Run, Overrun Tactical, and Overrun Pure.
• Long Threat Codex stories are divided into more readable paragraph groups.
• Cabinet Wonders remain visible longer, giving their artwork and field reports more time to be read.
• The Hull Surplus Cabinet Log can now be discovered correctly when a life pickup carries the run above the normal three-hull reserve.

Audio and Performance

• Enemy fire, pickups, kills, and major powerup moments now have more distinct sound variations.
• Combat-audio priorities were adjusted so important enemy threats remain readable during busy fights.
• Added a Chatter Frequency setting with Full, Reduced, and Minimal options.
• Critical warnings are always protected; the setting only reduces optional chatter.
• Reinforcement-wave construction is now spread more smoothly across frames, reducing the arrival spike without changing enemy counts, encounter timing, or balance.
• Dense routine-friendly effects can temporarily compress when the screen becomes overloaded, while charged and trait-significant attacks retain their identity.
• Fixed a Mayhem reinforcement-notification crash.

Scout Run and Interface Fixes

• Equal-score Scout Run local-best ties now resolve consistently.
• Fixed spacing on compact result cards.
• Improved Settings, Hangar, HUD, Tactical Draft, and result-screen layouts across standard, compact, mobile-style, 4K, and ultrawide displays.
• Corrected remaining Overrun localization placeholder issues.
• Side Directive Complete now has a consistent readable duration, including after interruption and resume.
• All new player-facing text is supported in English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.

What Has Not Changed

This update does not change score or XP formulas, leaderboard identity, achievement IDs, save identity, or Steam Cloud profile paths.

Thank you to everyone who has posted screenshots, recordings, bug reports, and detailed feedback. Several of these improvements came from players describing the exact moment where a warning, transition, control, or reward stopped feeling trustworthy.

The swarm is louder, stranger, and much easier to read because of it.

Tiny Foundry