Hi pilots,
This minor update adds a permanent long-term climb and continues the work on making Nova Swarm easier to understand without lowering the pressure.
Endless Career Rank
- Career Rank no longer stops at Rank 40. Earned XP can now keep raising it indefinitely.
- Rank 40 remains the final unlock, reward and combat-power milestone. Higher ranks are status-only and provide no gameplay advantage.
- Endless Career Rank is preserved through saves and Steam Cloud and appears across career, run-result and leaderboard displays.
A clearer first flight
- New pilots now learn movement and firing in context instead of receiving a wall of instructions.
- Phase and Focus coaching appears when those controls become relevant.
- The first-run HUD has been simplified so survival information gets priority.
- Rival-board pressure waits until the second run, giving the first attempt room to teach the game.
- Game Over and retry presentation now keep the next action clear and restore control promptly.
Top 50 leaderboards
- Leaderboard decks now present the Top 50 with clearer paging and correct range labels.
- Pilot names, medals, titles, scores and Career Ranks are larger and easier to compare.
- Fixed leaderboard clipping and incorrect entry-range presentation.
- Steam pilots and CPU rival presentation entries are identified separately.
Combat and run-flow clarity
- Dense projectile fields and boss warnings now gently suppress decorative backdrop intensity so threats remain easier to track.
- Critical combat warnings take priority over lower-priority messages, reducing unreadable notification stacking.
- Life-loss feedback now preserves the direction of the incoming hit.
- Wave-clear presentation clears before ordinary combat resumes.
- Compact Tactical Drafts have clearer content spacing and cleaner return-to-combat handoffs.
- Timed powerups now use separate HUD bands so timers do not collide.
- Overrun reaches its intended opening pressure more consistently.
More interface clearance
- Removed additional text, frame and focus-state overlaps from the main menu, Settings, Hangar and responsive layouts.
- Improved controller focus containment and stabilized first-pilot menu typography.
These changes do not reset scores, achievements, unlocks or save data.
Thank you for the reports, screenshots and blunt feedback. They continue to make Nova Swarm clearer, faster to learn and easier to trust.
Tiny Foundry