Hello, testers!
PT6 is now live. This update focuses on making combat effects that were already active—but difficult to see—clear and readable. It also continues our work on the Standard Core, early-game pacing, enemy feedback, and build inspection. Thank you for the detailed reproduction steps and playtest feedback.
Highlights
- Status HUD overhaul: all 33 status slots have been reviewed, five dedicated status icons were added, and 15 previously hard-to-see triggered effects now appear on the HUD.
- Standard Core improvements: base stats, visuals, Wall Shockwave behavior, and inspection portraits have all been updated.
- Two major feedback fixes: incorrect HP shown at battle entry and core identity changing after Continue have been resolved.
- Enemy and early-game polish: the first five stages are smoother, with updates to hit checks, healing behavior, distance rules, and hit feedback across several enemies.
■ Status HUD & Combat Readability
- Dedicated icons were added for enemy pin, unified slow, armed Buffer Foam, Cover Retreat charges, and the Rearguard window. Colors across the status family were separated further to reduce misreads.
- Fifteen previously hard-to-notice triggered effects now appear on the HUD, including device damage-reduction and damage-boost windows, Post-Op Guard, Nano Repair, Rebound Edge, Chain Protocol, Chain Harvest, and Core Command.
- Related effects are merged into shared slots, with combined values shown on hover, preventing duplicate icons from crowding the HUD.
- Pinned and slowed enemies are now clearly marked, including the number of affected enemies.
- Buffer Foam, Cover Retreat, and Rearguard now show their armed, charged, or active states directly.
- Damage dealt to an enemy core's shield now produces blue damage numbers, removing the “I hit it, but nothing happened” feeling during the first half of shielded fights.
- Primer overload progress now appears on the enemy status bar.
■ Standard Core & Build Readability
- Standard Core base stats are now 55 Max HP / 4 ATK.
- The Standard Core now uses a consistent white shell, matching its item-track icon. Its main-menu description has been updated accordingly.
- Wall Shockwave has been reworked: every enemy unit and the enemy core inside the radius can be hit, once per target for each wave.
- Missing portraits in shop inspection, the ESC equipment page, and core-related views have been fixed.
- The Kinetic Governor's first cooldown after entering battle is halved (T1: 12s → 6s). Its repeating cooldown is unchanged.
- A sixth Damage Reduction row has been added to the shop and ESC stat panels. During battle, ESC shows your current total damage reduction.
- HP / ATK and other stat labels are now localized. Tooltips for Cluster Charge, Gun Drone, and several other items now display tier-scaled values.
■ Early Pacing & Enemy Updates
- The first five stages now use a smoother enemy damage ramp, reducing sudden early-run deaths.
- Fury scaling by act is now 5 / 10 / 15 / 15 stacks.
- Piston hit detection and knockback timing have been adjusted to reduce early-stage chain pressure.
- Shackle, Razor, and Virus hit rules have been standardized, and Lightning spawn distance has been rechecked.
- Healer enemies now have a healing budget, preventing fights from becoming indefinite stalemates.
- Echo landing-distance logic has been corrected. Super-armor enemies now flash and compress when hit for clearer impact feedback.
- Opposite Poles now reduces damage dealt by magnetized enemies—including damage over time—by 50%.
- Wall Guard now grants 50% damage reduction for one second after triggering and is shown on the status HUD.
- Primer has been reworked: dead targets no longer receive damage or play leftover effects, and retained stacks now resolve on the new damage curve.
■ Playtest Feedback Fixes
- Fixed the battle HUD briefly showing placeholder HP before jumping to the real value. Both sides now show correct HP from the moment the battle loads.
- Fixed a saved run's core name, skill, or shell changing after visiting the Core Select screen. With an active save, Core Select is now browse-only; a new choice applies only when starting a new run, while Continue always preserves that run's original core.
- Portal landings no longer place units inside restricted areas.
- The opening idle travel time in Blockade arenas has been greatly reduced.
- Chamfer arena icons now match the actual chamfered-rectangle layout.
- Chain-reaction and core-explosion effects now use clearer acid-green collapse rings and a three-stage core blast sequence.
■ Tester Tools
- In Steam, right-click BALLRENA → Properties → Launch Options, then enter
-console
. - Press
~
in game to open or close the console. Opening it automatically pauses the game. - Read-only commands work immediately. Commands that change game state require
command on
, which must be enabled again after each launch. - Use
help
for the full command list, or help <command>
for parameters and usage. - When reporting a randomization or build issue, record the output of
seed
, then run command on
followed by dumpbuild
. This creates a replayable dev_build_dump.cfg
; use exec dev_build_dump.cfg
to reconstruct the build.
Please keep sharing balance feedback and bugs in the discussion board. Every report helps shape the next tuning and repair pass.
Have fun!
— vampireblackcat