Patch Notes - Ice Lance Expansion, Knockback, Enemy Traversal, and Combat Feedback
New Gameplay & Progression
- Universal Weapon Knockback - Blood Spear, Chain Lightning, Energy Blade, Fireball, Ice Lance, Orb, and Rocket Launcher now apply a small amount of knockback.
- Ice Lance Perk Expansion - Added Cold Wave, Focused Frost, and Permafrost to the Ice Lance upgrade pool.
- Projectile Spread Upgrades - Ice Lance upgrades can now modify projectile spread.
- Ice Lance Balance - Removed default piercing and adjusted Ice Lance spread and damage tuning.
- Ice Vortex - Added a perk that can spawn an icy vortex when you land a critical hit.
- Jetpack Availability - The Jetpack can now appear in upgrade selections without requiring its previous prerequisite upgrades.
- Ice Sniper Balance - Ice Sniper now provides +10% critical chance on chilled enemies and can stack up to 3 times.
- Status Effect Tints - Enemies now visibly tint when affected by Burn or Chill, including a blended tint when both effects are active.
Enemy Movement & Encounters
- Faster Drop Traversal - Enemy A* drop traversal is now faster and uses a lower movement arc.
- Invalid Link Protection - Incorrect upward off-mesh links are rejected and disabled so enemies can choose a valid route.
- Pause-Aware Enemy AI - Enemies now stop and resume cleanly during upgrade phases and other enemy pause states.
- Authored Encounter Anchors - Special encounter nodes now prefer their configured anchors for more reliable enemy placement.
- High-Rank Portal Presentation - High-rank portals now use distinct visual states and dedicated VFX.
Combat Feedback
- Damage Flash Improvements - Enemy damage flashes now trigger consistently from direct hits, damage-over-time effects, pickup damage, and shield damage.
- Weakpoint Marker Improvements - Weakpoint markers now follow moving enemies, match the hit area more accurately, and sit correctly on enemy surfaces.
HUD, Audio & Settings
- Improved Combat HUD - Combat notification text and important HUD messaging are now larger and easier to read.
- High-Contrast Gameplay Alerts - Pickup and timeline-event alerts now use clearer alternating visual states during active warnings.
- Encounter Lighting Feedback - Gameplay event lights now flash in sync with encounter warnings and clear correctly afterward.
- Solo Settings Pause - Opening settings during a solo run now pauses gameplay and restores the previous pause state when settings are closed.
- Lobby Audio Transition - Lobby music now transitions out when gameplay loading begins.
Fixes & Polish
- Fixed tick-based magic projectiles advancing their lifetime or damage schedule while gameplay was paused.
- Fixed enemy traversal and grounding checks during A* off-mesh movement.
- Fixed rejected traversal links remaining available after being disabled.
- Fixed weakpoint markers floating inside irregular enemy models or using incorrect scaling.
- Fixed enemy damage presentation being skipped for some non-standard damage sources.
- Fixed upgrades and perks failing to appear correctly in the shop.