Early Access Update 2 — Story Mode, Night Raid Rebalance, and Bug Fixes

Hey everyone,

Early Access Update 2 is now live. This update adds Story
Mode, rebalances night raids across both difficulty modes,
and fixes several bugs reported by the community.

--- STORY MODE ---

A new difficulty option for players who want to focus on
exploration and narrative.

You can choose between Survival (the original difficulty) and
Story at the start of a new game, or switch at any time from
the in-game Options menu. Existing save files will prompt you
to choose when loaded.

Story Mode includes the following changes:
- Reduced damage taken from enemies (approximately 17%)
- Enemy levels scaled down
- No more instant-kill critical hits from enemies
- Gatekeeper and Ragnas no longer dodge your attacks
- Reduced stagger lock when hit by Exelg

Story Mode also introduces in-game guidance windows at key
moments to help players understand what to do next:
- Warnings before sleeping at the wrong time, explaining
what must be done first
- Guidance when respawning after being defeated by a strong
enemy
- An overview of defense rules when Serena wakes from
Prometheus for the first time

--- BALANCE CHANGES (ALL MODES) ---

Night Raids:
- Regular enemy count per night capped at 20 (previously
scaled from 30 to 90 over 7 nights)
- Regular enemies no longer respawn after being defeated
- Special Entities now appear after all regular enemies are
eliminated
- Special Entity count still increases each night (2 → 8)

Combat:
- Scorpion base damage increased, critical multiplier reduced
— overall damage in Survival remains similar, but critical
hits are no longer disproportionately lethal
- Trap damage increased (approximately 2-3x across all trap
types)
- Aria no longer takes damage from barbed wire and wooden
spikes (trap durability is no longer reduced by Aria)

--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed an issue where post-process effects (Scout Mode
danger visualization, Scan outline) stopped working after
the Anchor Record arrival event
- Fixed keyboard movement guide (WASD) not displaying when
using keyboard controls
- Fixed voice volume slider not applying changes
- Added keyboard binding for Scout Mode (T key)
- Fixed an issue where Lion and Aria were replaced by Serena
and Celestia when transitioning to certain maps

--- KNOWN ISSUE ---

- Enemies may occasionally pass through walls. This is caused
by the stuck-recovery teleport system and will be addressed
in a future update.

If you've been playing EXELIO, your honest review — positive
or negative — helps a small Early Access game get discovered.
We read every one.

See you on Exelio.
— The Dev Team, AI Frog Interactive