The new season is live!
If you've been enjoying Katanaut and want to support me, please consider leaving a review on Steam. I know I keep mentioning it, but every review really does mean a lot for a small game like this, and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who's taken the time to leave one. <3
The leaderboards have officially been cleared, everyone is starting fresh, and the winners from last season have received their prizes in-game. Here are the stats of all of the unique players that submitted this season!
A massive congratulations to everyone who earned a seasonal chest for topping the leaderboards:
- << toidi m'i <<
- [NoL]kripos
- allenkoholic
- Athop
- Behyaaleee
- Bot-krzychu
- CHEL
- Comrade Chtulhu 🐙
- CurlyShiip
- D3vilBull
- DapperJ
- Darkoz
- Duke
- elliottruls
- Fenix
- foxy_is_cute
- FSRM1
- Geeni
- g x x d l x v e
- glider521al (Aura of Worlds dev)
- Glauber Junior
- Jingizu
- Kate_Hoshimiya
- leowo
- LokiLyar
- luixa
- LVENdead
- Lycan31
- Manaく くYne
- MattMAN
- Midknight
- Minet
- Mordicus
- Mr.Broken
- Mr.Tibs
- Mrallonezii
- mrpeon01
- N1ppy
- Nero
- Ningen
- Nodindo
- NoobyGentleman
- NullVoid
- PANIC
- Pantasaurus
- pehakaa
- pisimist
- Ramhawk
- Ritic33
- Scoundrel
- Shady Russian
- StinkyCheese
- SUNNY DADDY
- Syuriix
- Thomas the Hank Engine
- trianglekitty
- TRONCOCRACKXD
- Tristmegitus
- trousers
- Victor Blade
- wabbiT
- XamFess
- xpl0d3r^
- XyloVore
- yeez
- Zephyr
- zerimas
- ⸸ KIRKA ⸸
- 『终极鱿鱼香蕉船』
- 共腿阿平（共产断供，现卖特色奴隶主义）
- 呱zzz
- 此人忠誠竟在我等之上
- 黑涩会sss
Congrats everyone :)
With a new season starting, I wanted this patch to feel like more than just a leaderboard reset. I've been keeping an eye on what people are using, what has been falling behind, and where some builds have been getting a little too comfortable.
There are a lot of balance changes in this one, with some pretty huge buffs to things that needed the help, a few nerfs to the bigger outliers, and some larger changes to status effects, enemies, and a handful of skills. I'm really curious to see what everyone ends up finding with a completely fresh leaderboard :)
Core:
- Runs now recover at the start of the last level after an unexpected disconnect or crash.
- Added four new home base leaderboards: Top Elite Kills, Top Single Hit Damage, Top Kills In One Second, and Top Barrel Kills.
- Their first-place trophies sit on two new platforms above the existing trophy row.
- Skills can now be locked from the pause menu, preventing Tech Modules from replacing them. Locks persist when saving and exiting mid-run.
- The weapon info panel now shows one current damage value with applicable perks, syringes, and combos included. For example, if you pick up a syringe that increases damage on a specific type of item, you'll now see that reflected when looking at it in the pause menu.
- Plasma and Void Crystals now accelerate until they catch the player.
- Added a new Katana skill called Slipstream which accelerates the speed of sliding.
Balance:
- Slow Time still slows the world as before, but the run clock now ticks much closer to real speed while it is active.
- Bosses gain a ten-second damage shield once per fight at 50% health.
Gun Damage Buffs:
- Laser Rifle beams now have a 75% chance to pierce each enemy and knock back non-boss enemies.
- Protean Gun: +300%.
- Eclipse Cannon: +300%.
- Time Warp Cannon: +300%.
- Gravity Gun: +250%.
- Vortex Rifle: +200%.
- Crowbar: +200%.
- Personal Teleporter: +200%.
- Kinetic Baton: +160%.
- Reaper Blade: +160%.
- Redrive Pistol: +100%.
- Railgun, Teleport Dagger, Grapple Gun, Warp Thornes, Deagle, Chain Lightning Gun, Spectral Dagger, Parry Blade, Impulse Wave Launcher, Ion Surge Rifle, and Drone: +50% each.
- Plasmagun: +40%.
- Arc Rifle: +35%.
- Ninjato: +30%.
- Pistol: +30%.
- Vorpal Pistol: +25%.
- Assault Shotgun: +25%.
- Laser Rifle: +20% at top rarity.
- Corruption Launcher: +50% through its minions.
- Overload Cannon has been reworked around charging. Uncharged shots deal 25% more damage, while fully charged shots deal about nine times more damage than before.
- Arc Rifle's chain lightning now scales with the gun's rarity instead of using a fixed value.
- Personal Teleporter damage now increases consistently with rarity.
Gun Damage Nerfs:
- Sootforge Cannon: -79%. Its burn now scales with rarity.
- Flare Gun: -68%.
- Napalm Rifle: -46%.
- Charger SMG: -30%.
- Spore Launcher: -25%.
Katana Damage Buffs:
- Leedra's Scale attacks: +100%.
- Ironfang: +118%.
- Chronocide: +74%.
- Endvow: +10%.
- Chronocide's Timequake ruptures now trigger twice as often.
- Voidthorn: +25% before stacks build. It no longer starts weakened, with the difference tapering off at higher stacks.
Katana Stamina Cost Cuts:
- Leedra's Scale: -47%.
- Chronocide: -43%.
- Emberlash: -27%.
- Echofang: -25%.
- Ironfang: -22%.
- Voidthorn: -17%.
Katana Special Cooldown Cuts:
- Chronocide Temporal Strike: -65%.
- Ironfang Counter: -56%.
- Echofang Spectral Slash: -30%.
- Leedra's Scale charge delay: -25%.
Katana Nerfs:
- Echofang orb damage: -40%. Swings and everything else are untouched.
Skill Buffs:
The following skills now deal 50% more damage and cost 50% less stamina:
- Shadow Cut
- Fox Claw
- Siphon Strike
- Murderous Intent
- Wallop
- Shuriken Shower
- Void Impalement
- Aether Drain
- Magnetic Collapse
- Eldritch Grasp
- Kinetic Reflection
Additional changes:
- Cyclone Strike's tornado now travels three times faster.
- Ion Storm orbs now remain active when the skill is recast or the player enters Stealth.
Skill Nerfs:
- Pulse Barrier stamina cost: +60%.
- Pulse Barrier re-arm time: +150%. Weaverfang can no longer cycle it nearly as quickly.
- Eldritch Inferno damage: -33%.
- Ion Storm damage: -40%.
Minion Damage Buffs:
- All summoned minions: +50%.
- Loyal Minions: +50%.
- Void Summoner: +50%.
Perk Damage Buffs:
- Explosive Rounds: +100% at top rarity.
- Corpse Detonation: +100% at top rarity.
- Astral Echo: +100% at top rarity.
- Necrotic Burst: +100% at top rarity.
- Rotburst: +58% at top rarity.
Perk Damage Nerfs:
- Relentless Assault: -70%.
- Bleeding Edge: -65%.
- Aura of Pain: -33%.
Implant Buffs:
- Overheat damage: +500%.
- Void Shield duration: +300%.
Katana Skill Tree Changes:
- Thousand Cuts damage: -50%.
- Boss Tech damage: +150%.
- All katana damage roads: +100%.
- All flat swing damage nodes: -20%.
- Chronocide's Timequake damage: +100%.
- Chronocide's Echo Strike damage: +67%.
- Vengeful Mark duration: -33%.
- Thousand Winds now strikes at least ten times, cycling through targets when fewer than ten enemies are on screen. Each strike also deals 60% more damage.
Enemy and Status Changes:
- Cultists appear far less often on Warp 3 and 4, and their pods now hatch into Abominations half as often. Other enemies fill the gap, so later Warps have more variety.
- Damage over time effects no longer stagger enemies.
- Regular enemies have 4% more health.
- Elites have 15% more health.
- Boss health is unchanged.
- Bleeds last roughly twice as long and deal less damage per tick. Each active bleed slightly increases the damage of every other bleed on that target, up to double damage.
- Fire now deals larger ticks over a much shorter duration and spreads to nearby units that are not already on fire.
- Poison now creates lingering ground clouds. Enemies take increased damage while standing inside them.
Echoes:
- Naut, Nox, and Carver have new abilities, stronger attacks, and clearer warning telegraphs.
Bugs:
- Moving left or right now cancels the Doctor's Syringe vomiting animation.
- Flashbang now hits creatures anywhere inside its blast radius. Walls still block it, but nearby props do not.
- Fixed climber zombies becoming stuck in a frozen pose after landing from a ceiling pounce.
- Fixed overlapping shops purchasing multiple items with one button press. Thanks Desenkei!
- Weaverfang's strikes now register together reliably, including at lower frame rates.
- Fixed upward water jets not pushing you up while Slow Time is active.
- Emergency Cloak now stuns nearby regular enemies without pulling enemies, bosses, or portals toward the player.
I'm going to be watching this season pretty closely to see where everything lands after all of these changes, so please keep the feedback coming.
Happy hunting! See you soon.
* Eugene | Solo dev
