Hi prospectors,
Thank you so much for your feedback on the Survive mode changes. After further review, we have come to the conclusion that these changes need a bit more time in the oven, so we are going to remove them from this release and spend more time on getting them right. Stay tuned for future updates!
Instead, after much consideration, we have decided to add something that a lot of you have been asking for – XP is now shared between characters! You will now be able to earn and invest your XP on any character you choose. We have also seen some players struggling to find corrupted blocks, so we have added a temporary buff pickup that will show you their location for a brief period of time. We have also greatly improved the odds of getting rare and legendary blocks the further you get into a run, and last but not least, we have given Mikela a new skill that adds the repair pickup healing to re-roll pickups; this should increase her long-term survivability during your runs.
We are also investigating plans to further address the loot pool dilution, and we still have plans to balance Cepheid, too, so keep an eye out for future updates – we still have a lot in store.
Survive
Rolled back the Survive mode improvements.
They need some more time in the oven.
Changed how early the Triarch Warden can show up so you are more powerful when it makes its first appearance.
Characters
XP is now shared across all characters.
It can now be generated by any character you want to play, and freely spent on whichever character you wish to invest in.
Refunding skill tree nodes can now cause you to lose the “skill tier” stars
This is to fix a potential exploit of earning all Mikela’s skill stars, then refunding and spending the same XP to earn all JP’s skill stars.
Losing stars won’t re-lock any characters or planets
New tier 2 skill for Mikela, which makes re-roll pickups also count as repair pickups
Changed the way the Repair Drop Chance skill works and now increases the chance by 40% per level.
General
Added an “Exploration” temporary buff to help you find enemy bases and corrupted blocks.
It zooms out the mini map and shows enemy bases and corrupted block locations on the map for a short period of time.
Also gives a speed and acceleration boost.
Balanced our i-frame system to be a bit more lenient when you are taking multiple hits. Hopefully, it will address that feeling of dying unfairly.
Planet Challenges
Reduced the difficulty of some planet challenges.
Changed some planet challenges around specific stat requirements to more straightforward goals.
Removed character-specific requirements on all planet challenges.
Added increased chance of corrupted block locations on Magma Hellscape difficulty 2 and 3
Block Balance
Our block biasing system is now driven from the blocks you attach to your Tech, not by the ones you pick from a crate.
Greatly increased the chances of getting rare blocks as you get further into a run.
Add functionality to Precision Weapon Mounts to prioritise enemies with the Vulnerable status effect
Gatchatron is now unique, so you can only have one. Previously, stacking these gave many re-rolls without further penalties.
Removed Massive tag from the Massdrive Core, so adding lots of them is less overpowered.
Quality of Life
Added an ‘Emergency health bar’ above the Tech that only shows when you take damage.
Tweaked some of the Tech damage visuals to help notify you when you take big hits / damage in general.
Removed red effects from the edge of the screen when on low health; these effects are now only used briefly when you take damage.
Added visual progress to the planet challenges on the pause menu.
Bugs
Fixed not being able to skip the win/lose screens on controller
Fixed a bug where JP's skill to reduce penalties from wheels and boosters wasn't working on negative flat numbers, only percentages.
Fixed a bug where Bombsaw Charger enemies could damage Sam while he was phasing.
Fixed an issue where players could fall off the edge of the map. We have added some rocks to stop you.
Fixed an issue where Sam's self-destruct icon was permanently active.
Fixed being able to be damaged by your own mines in certain situations.
Fixed some weapons aiming at structures and certain enemies when they’re slightly out of range.
The Dark Eye in Survive mode was broken, removed temporarily until we can get it fixed up and working again