After wrapping up the Swirl W@tch release I finally found some time to put together the next content update for ---Red---Tether-->. This is the big one, adding a ton of stuff that I had been considering and planning since launch.
Ship B Variants
The star of the show will be the new B variants for all player ships, featuring starting upgrades that try to add a fresh spin on the original ship’s play style. Some highlights:
Puppy Renegade B gets Crash Hammer, amplifying Speed-Crashes even more than Crash-Saw, but also causing you to bounce back from colliding with large things.
Shackles Flora B does something quirky with tether connections again, starting with a Multi Projector that allows you to charge up and fire additional harpoons, which are then all tethered to the next one you fire. This allows to quickly concentrate a lot of rip or pull force on a single object, but also has a lot of unexpected synergy-potential.
Knife Diva B again gets an alternate means of offense: Hardlight Arms allow you to yield any weapon attachment that you have ripped from enemy ships. Fire them till their ammunition is depleted, then throw them at whatever is left for a final burst of damage.
Chunk Sacred and Plush Revolver where in a bit of a tough spot for getting an alternate play style. There is only so much you can do with tanky ship and glass cannon ship, so I opted for them to stray much further from their A variant. In the end they both got things that invite you to pretty drastically change how you play a run.
The B variants will require looting ship design data from a new boss that is only sent against ships that have already managed to win an interception run. Getting the new ships can be considered the new late game.
New Upgrads, New Zone Variants
But there is a lot to find for new players too. Many more upgrades will make it into to the loot pool, about 30 new ones total, a third more of what the game previously had. Further more, Zone 2, 3 and 4 are all getting a rework. The goal there is to make their two zone variants much more distinct. The Refinery Complex is still the fuel zone, but Chemical Spill now focuses on a new acid hazard for example. There will be three new hazard mechanics for you to counter and exploit in these reworked zones. As with the existing hazards, they can affect both you and the enemy fleet. New enemy variants and wave modifiers will also make use of these new systems. And you can probably guess what the B variants of the hazard squad ships are all about.
Additional Tweaks
Alongside the new content the game will also get some minor bug fixed, additions to the training area, quality of life tweaks, new lore and balance changes. Most noticeably you will get additional loot choices on cargo ships if you haven’t taken heart damage during the entire run/the current zone respectively. The zone rework will also aim to even out the zone 3 difficulty spike.
---Red---Tether--> 1.2 Hazard Zone was a blast to make and is already feature complete. I’m doing some final additions and testing during the next weeks. The update will then release on June 29. As with my previous content updates, it will be free of charge.
Cheers and stay tethered!
Stefan – Sleeper Games