Patch #32: Memory Leak Fix, Flak Overhaul, and Card Upgrades

Hey everyone, Patch #32 is now live on the main branch!

This one folds together everything we tested across three rounds on the experimental branch — Patch #32, Patch #32.1, and Patch #32.2 , over the last few weeks.
Thank you to everyone who played those builds, reported bugs, and gave feedback; it was absolutely crucial in getting this ready for everyone.
As mentioned in the preview, this patch includes a run reset. The new seeded-random system, individual card upgrades, and the Flak/Resource Bay changes all change how a run's data is structured, so old saves aren't compatible with this update. Any run in progress will need to restart.
Let's get into it.

The Memory Leak Fix

This is one we've been looking forward to posting for months: this patch finally includes the memory leak fix we've been working on since the end of last year. Once we started digging in, we uncovered a lot of cascading issues, which led us to revamp the entire Addressables system. Long story short, this fix should get rid of the slowdowns many of you ran into during longer play sessions, and eliminate the crashes caused by the game running out of memory.

The Flak Revamp

We've overhauled the Flak weapons, giving each subtype a clearer identity through a trimmed-down drafting library, and added a brand-new Flak weapon to the family. This is part of our shift to pull some focus away from the drafting phase and make your ship loadout matter more.

Quad-Flak

The multi-barrel workhorse. Lots of small attacks plus utility: Suppression, missile interception, and tricks like Double Tap (your next Flak attack resolves twice) and Lock and Load (fills your hand with cheap Flak Shells). It builds Shred slowly, but it's flexible and always has something to do.

• Light Barrage — 2O 1M, CD 4 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. Add 1 Flak Shell to your hand.
• Suppressive Fire — 2O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage. Apply 2 Suppression.
• Spread Shot — 2O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. If an enemy missile is in flight: destroy the closest enemy missile.
• Lock and Load — 3M, CD 5 — Add 3 Flak Shell cards to your hand. Deplete.
• Charged Shot — 2O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage. If the enemy is Shielded, deal +4 damage.
• Mark — 2O 2M, CD 5 — Deal 5 damage, Shred 3. If the enemy is Suppressed: your next Kinetic attack this turn deals +3 damage.
• Double Tap — 3M 1E, CD 5 — This turn, the next Flak attack you play resolves twice (pay its costs once). Each extra copy affects +1 attack.
• Broadside (Mk.II only) — 3O 2M, CD 6 — Deal 6 damage, Shred 3. This turn, each Kinetic attack you play gives your Kinetic attacks +1 damage.
• Flak Shell (token) — Free, CD 4 — Deal 2 damage. Deplete.

Shredder

The setup engine. It applies high Shred fast and stacks tools that amplify it. Shaped Charge, Probing Shot and Titanium Shells all crank your Shred numbers turn over turn. On its own its raw damage is modest; its job is to get Brittle online quickly so a payoff weapon can take over.

• Shredding Barrage — 2O 1M, CD 4 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. Your next attack this turn gains +2 Shred.
• Opening Shot — 2O 1M, CD 4 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. Double the Shred this attack applies. Deplete.
• Chain Shot — 2O 2M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 3. If this attack applies Brittle: your next Flak attack this turn has its Ordnance cost set to 0.
• Twin Barrel — 3O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 3 damage, Shred 1, twice.
• Probing Shot — 2O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. Your attacks gain +1 Shred this turn (stacks up to 2).
• Titanium Shells — 4O, CD 5 — Deal 5 damage, Shred 5. When this card's Shred is increased, increase its damage by the same amount.
• Shaped Charge — 2M, CD 5 — This turn, double the Shred value of your next attack.
• Hull Ripper — 3O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 4. If this attack deals Hull damage: the enemy needs 1 less Shred to become Brittle this combat. Deplete.

Bruiser

The payoff weapon that cashes in everything your Shred has been building. Its cards hit hard and scale off the Brittle already on the enemy, but it can't comfortably build that Brittle on its own. Bruiser is at its best as the finisher on top of a setup weapon.

• Hullbreaker — 3O, CD 5 — Deal 7 damage. If the enemy is Shielded, deal -3 damage.
• Sunder — 3O, CD 6 — Deal 5 damage, Shred 2. If the enemy has Brittle, deal +2 damage.
• Honed Shot — 4O, CD 6 — Deal 7 damage, Shred 2. For every 2 Brittle on the enemy: costs 1 less O (min 2O) and 1 less Cooldown (min 4).
• Rending Salvo — 3O, CD 6 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 4.
• Overwhelming Barrage — 4O, CD 6 — Deal 12 damage, Shred 4. Remove 2 random cards from your hand for the rest of the fight. Must have at least 2 other cards in hand to play.
• Concussive Shells — 4O, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage. This attack gains double the bonus damage from Brittle.
• Predictive Aim — 3M, CD 5 — Your next Flak attack deals +50% damage.
• Reckless Assault — CD 5 — Lose 4 Hull. Return 2 random attacks from this equipment's cooldown to your hand.

Pyroclast

The risk-for-power weapon. Pyroclast already had a clear niche, so it's mostly unchanged. Cards like Blazing Barrage and Firestrike scale their Shred and damage off your current Heat, while Igniter hits hard but pushes you toward Overheating. Heated Shells are now free to play.

• Heat Shift — 2O 1M, CD 5 — Deal 4 damage, Shred 2. If Overheated: dissipate 2 Heat.
• Blazing Barrage — 3O, CD 5 — Deal 6 damage. Shred equal to 2 + half your Heat (rounded down). Gain 2 Heat.
• Firestrike — 3O, CD 5 — Deal 6 damage. Deal +1 damage for every 2 Heat on your ship.
• Igniter — 2O, CD 4 — Deal 6 damage, Shred 2. Gain 2 Heat. If Overheated, increase this card's cooldown by +2.
• Melting Clip — 2O, CD 4 — Deal 4 damage. If Overheated: apply 1 Heat to the enemy for every 2 Hull damage dealt.
• Redline — 3M, CD 8 — On turn start: gain 2 Heat. On turn end: fire 1 Heated Shell. Upgrade.
• Hotswap — 2M, CD 5 — Shuffle up to 3 random cards from your hand into your draw pile. Add 1 Heated Shell to your hand for each card shuffled this way.
• Heated Shell (token) — Free, CD 4 — Deal 2 damage. If Overheated: dissipate 1 Heat. Deplete.

You might notice some cards didn't make the cut, some of the more powerful upgrades like Quad-Fire, Immolation, Hellfire, and Firestorm. They'll make a comeback in an upcoming update as subsystems, so you can add them to any Flak weapon for greater build variety.

We've also started giving the game's subsystems their own images, to make each one easier to recognize and give it a bit more character. About 50 subsystem images are in so far, with a placeholder used for the rest until we've made their art.

A first look at some of the new subsystem art.

Area Damage Change

As a balance pass alongside the Flak overhaul, Area damage (Missiles and Flak) now deals 50% of its hull damage value to enemy equipment, and only gains its Brittle damage bonus against unshielded targets. Missiles and Flak are meant for rushing your opponent down while taking their hits; precision weapons are the slower, more control-focused option. Full hull-value damage to equipment was letting Area damage knock out enemy gear far too easily, and Brittle represents hull that's been softened up, so it shouldn't be paying out while the enemy's shields are still absorbing the hit. Break the shields first, then let Brittle do its work.
One caveat for now: a launched missile keeps the damage it had at launch, so it won't recalculate its Brittle bonus mid-flight if the target's shield state changes. That's temporary behavior, we'll revisit it during an upcoming missile design pass.

Individual Card Upgrades

This is a big one: you can now upgrade cards individually on your Mk.II equipment. Instead of having to remove and redraft an upgraded version of cards, you pick which cards to upgrade, one at a time. You no longer have to avoid drafting cards on equipment you want to upgrade, since already-drafted cards can be upgraded too.
For now this is enabled on five equipment families: Resource Bays, Shields, Flak, Railguns, and Beam Lasers. The rest are coming as we roll upgrades out family by family. Cards that can be upgraded now play a slight animation when you inspect them in the hangar, so you can tell exactly which ones you can upgrade at a glance.

Cards that support upgrading play a small animation in the hangar.

Resource Bay Fix

The Smelter and Centrifuge Resource Bays are now correctly added to the game. If you've been wanting to try the high-card-volume Centrifuge or the run-hot Smelter build, they're properly in the drop pool now.

Seeded Random, Weighted Draw, and Map Performance

Waypoint events and stations are now faster to load, reducing or eliminating the hiccups experienced moving around the map.

Card drawing and drafting options now use a seeded random instead of generating a new random seed every time. This means that quitting and re-entering combat will now always draw you the same cards in combat, and offer the same drafting options, similar to how other deck-builders work. Events are also affected by the same random seed, so quitting and re-entering the game on the map will load the same event (there are still some edge cases here that we need to take care of). Together, these changes mean that soon we'll be able to support seeded runs, similar to other deck-builders, opening the door to daily challenges and other things down the road.
We've also added a weighted card draw system: cards that have been in your draw pile longer have a higher chance to get drawn. This should eliminate cases where you never see some cards from your draw pile because other cards keep coming off cooldown and getting drawn instead. Currently, a card that sits in your draw pile for 4 turns is three times more likely to be drawn than a card that just entered your draw pile at the end of last turn.

Reactor Tweak

You can now un-assign reactor power while Overheated, to increase your Heat dissipation. You still can't reassign that power elsewhere until you've cooled back down to your Heat Tolerance, so the Reactor Lock introduced in Patch #30 still applies, you're just no longer fully stuck with your allocation while you ride it out.

Upstanding citizen achievement

This is a smaller one, but very important for some :)
We have re-introduced the event that results in the Upstanding citizen achievement, there's a chance for it to run in an escape pod node.

Bug Fixes and other changes

• You can now skip the hangar entry and exit animation by clicking while they are playing.
• The first node now offers a wider variety of weapons to pick from, leading to more run variety.
• Fixed the meta-progression unlock display, locked/unlocked states are now shown correctly.
• Meta-progression unlocks no longer keep counting damage dealt (and similar stats) toward things you've already unlocked.
• Fixed some enemy cards not updating and displaying their damage properly when playing cards like Suppressive Fire.
• Fixed a soft-lock that could happen when fighting an Elite if no fitting subsystem could be awarded. For now the game simply awards nothing, a stopgap while we track down why the engine sometimes finds no relevant subsystem to hand out.
• Updated localization for the new cards and card effects.

What's Next

• Controller support planned for patch #33.
• Further improvement to combat performance.
• A rework of the smuggling events/smuggling missions
• Rolling individual card upgrades out to the remaining equipment families.
• Bringing back Quad-Fire, Immolation, Hellfire, and Firestorm as subsystems, so any Flak weapon can use them.
• A missile design pass, including how the Brittle bonus recalculates mid-flight.
• Continued focus on enemy balance and variety, with a lot of new enemies planned.
• A way to transfer cards between equipment pieces belonging to the same equipment family.
• An option in the hangar to start with a random ship and ship loadout.
• A Roadmap giving you an idea of the work still ahead of us, and a timeline on when we expect to finish each milestone, and launch the full 1.0 version.

As always, your Steam reviews, bug reports, and feedback on Discord are what point us in the right direction. If you take the new Flak lineup for a spin or try out individual card upgrades, we'd love to hear which subtype pairings are working for you, and how the new upgrade flow feels.

Thanks for playing and supporting us. o7

The Breachway Team