Mining Operators!
Since launch, we've been reading your reviews and feedback, and one thing came through loud and clear: the later parts of Orebits needed more meaningful progression, more variation and more things to work towards.
We agree and since we want Orebits to be a great game, we've spent the time since launch working on exactly that.
Update 1.1 // Xeno Tech adds a whole new layer of alien technology to the later game, with new Upgrades, Xeno Mining Tools, a new Deployable, better idle progression and improvements throughout the game.
If you enjoyed Orebits but dropped off later, we'd love for you to give it another shot. With everything we've changed and added, we recommend starting a fresh game to experience Orebits 1.1 from the beginning.
Prefer to continue your existing save? No worries. All new progression and Xeno content will automatically unlock based on your current progress, even if you're already deep into the later Sectors or Interstellar.
And if you've already left a review, please consider revisiting it afterwards. Whether your opinion changes or not, we'd like your review to reflect the game as it is today.
So, let's dig in!
Xeno Technology
Things get weirder from Sector 07 onwards.
8 new Xeno Upgrade slots Fill 8 extra slots in the roguelite Upgrade Tree for extra mighty builds. The first upgrade is unlocked using a Xeno Chip. Further upgrades use common or rare ore.
7 new Xeno Upgrades Discover a new Xeno Upgrade in every Sector from Sector 07 onwards. We're not spoiling them in this post.
4 Xeno Mining Tools Every 25 Extraction Points, permanently transform another Mining Tool into its Xeno variant. Xeno Tools deal 2x base damage and charge your Xeno Meteor.
New Xeno Meteor Deployable Yes, you can now throw an asteroid into an asteroid! When you transform your first Xeno Tool, a completely new Deployable + meter unlocks that is charged by your Xeno Mining Tools.
Idle mining got better
For those of you who prefer watching the machines do the hard work:
Xeno Control (new upgrade) Let the Clickaxe take over when you stop moving your cursor.
Offline Gold (permanent) Unlock Offline Gold in the endless (interstellar) mode and come back to some extra Gold after you've been away.
You can still frantically click everything yourself. We would never take that away from you.
New ore clusters
Find large clusters of Ore, Rare Ore and Gold while mining. They're tougher to break, but much more rewarding, and become more common as you dig deeper.
They add more variation to your mining runs and give you another reason to think about where you send your Mining Tools.
More changes & improvements
Rare Ore Objectives Gold rewards from Objectives didn't scale well, so we have been replaced the rewards with Rare Ore.
Quality of life upgrades Upgrade multipliers are now 1x, 10x and MAX. And you can now hold space bar for active clicking.
Improved Belt Map See cleared Extraction Points and recovered Xeno Seeds for each Sector at a glance.
Bigger Depth Meter Better equipped for the increasingly stupid depths you can reach later in the game.
Minigame improvements Controls are more forgiving, and completing the minigame no longer skips the next Extraction Point.
More fixes and polish Improved camera movement, screenshake, Mining Tool behaviour, sound effects, particles and visual feedback throughout the game.
About the reviews
As we mentioned at the start, we'd love for you to give Orebits another shot if you dropped off during the later game. Orebits is currently sitting at Mixed reviews on Steam, which has a very real impact on a small game like ours. If you've tried Update 1.1 and feel we've addressed your concerns, updating your review to a thumbs up would help us enormously.
And if you're enjoying Orebits but haven't reviewed it yet, this is probably the best way you can help us right now. We're only a handful of positive reviews away from getting out of Mixed, so every thumbs up genuinely counts. It helps Orebits, and it helps Bob and me keep making games together.
Thanks for playing and for helping us make Orebits better. Now go find some alien technology.
Happy mining!
Maarten & Bob Upgraded Studio
