Buckle up, Turbo - This is a pretty big round of updates, with lots of new things to play around with, and even Steam Leaderboards to compete in!
If you encounter any bugs while playing, please report them to me on Discord!
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Art Contest Results - Heal Snail Upgrades
Many moons ago, the Discord server began a lengthy discussion about possible ideas for Heal Snail's elixir forms.
This is why an Art Contest happened, so that Frosty & Hollow snails are fully designed by the community!
(Next thing you know, Imma get pressured into making Hollow Mussel smh)
🔮 Hollow Snail
When a nearby turret dies, spawn explosive mines on all surrounding tiles that drain enemy health upon explosion
Art Contest winning entries:
🧊 Frosty Snail
Converts all connecting mucus tiles into Ice Mucus
Ice Mucus "over-heals" turrets by granting them an ice shield
Art Contest winning entries:
btw: Frosty Snail had a very fiery birth. A fire truck paid my place a visit on the day I made Frosty Snail. No kidding. Oh my word. I wish you could smell the house right now as I'm typing this.
🎖️ Honorable Mentions
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Speedrun Mode!
Speedrun Mode is a new "challenge option" that gives you ways to speed up enemy spawns and get through levels super fast.
(Enabling Speedrun Mode also makes the game harder, for this reason.)
Each level comes with its own Steam Leaderboard for completion times! You can now compete with other players for the most efficient way of beating each level!
Operation Octo is normally not speedrunnable, due to the enemy waves spawning on set timers. However, in Speedrun Mode, enemy spawns follow “The 50% Rule”:
When 50% of the current wave enemies’ HP has been taken, the next wave spawns immediately.
(This feature was suggested by TylazerMK, who speedruns PvZ)
To enable Speedrun Mode, go to the new “Gameplay” section of your settings, and scroll down:
(Note: In order to submit your scores, you must be playing on Steam, and have active internet connection!)
Here is a guide on the intricacies of speedrunning OO.
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Gameplay Settings
The settings menu has just gotten a new "Gameplay" category:
General
Minimalist UI
Mouse Click to Move
Highlight Placeable Tiles
Display Stats in Manual
Accessibility
Disable Clam Damage Share
Infinite Enemy Spawn Delays
When you’re not doing well, further skeleton spawns are prevented indefinitely
You can still produce Pearls while enemy spawn is paused
Pause Game when Placing Turret
Infinite Placement Range
Disable Auto Camera Zoom
Allow Hammering Anything
Challenge
Deck Randomization Button
Turn off Odin Regen
Prevent Healing Odin
Lethal Clam Laser
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Level Reworks
In Level 3-5 "Graveyard Shift", spawns now gradually speed up if you have not been hit / stunned during the current & previous waves, to that point that multiple blue jellies could spawn in each row
Fossil spawns also speed up depending on how many non-fossil items you have picked up recently
If you collect the initial introduction fossils fast enough, fossils will spawn faster during the first wave of jellies
In Level 3-5 "Graveyard Shift", Jellyfish carrying fossils are now beaconed when inside illumination
When a fossil-carrying Jellyfish is about to exit the map, it now flashes red and illuminates itself
If you missed a fossil-carrying Jellyfish, the next fossil spawn will be sped up
Jellyfish now spawn a distance away from the map borders, and would not immediately disappear upon exiting the map borders
Starting Elixirs are no longer allowed inside 3-5
Fixed a glitch where the reward chest does not spawn at the large skull in 3-5
Most players hate the Archeologist achievement. It has been suggested that if each run of the level was shorter, the achievement that requires a perfect playthrough of the level would feel much less tiresome to get. (Just to be clear, Tylazer beat the achievement in one hour before. Archeologist wasn't toooo bad if you're good ;) )
To address the player frustrations, and make the level speedrunnable, I've done a lot of reworks inspired by Creeps' original suggestion that the level should speed up if you're doing hitless. A speedrunner could finish the level in half the amount of time now.
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Russian Localization
Thank you to TheStimerGames for translating Operation Octo into Russian!
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Balance Changes
When a Potion Factory deploys, it now passes its status conditions onto its deployed form
When a Potion Factory deploys, it now slides to the tile it is deployed onto, rather than snapping directly to it
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Misc Changes
Starting Elixirs are now limited to one per level, to be selected before the level starts
Added the option to play without a starting Elixir, after you've bought one
Suggested by LameGamerTime
This change has been planned since before the game's release, but I never got around to making it during the pre-release crunch :( Being able to start a level with 3 Elixirs is way too OP, and completely destroys the early game balance; Besides, selecting only one of the elixirs solves the problem of how the eventual 4th starting Elixir would be added ;) Now that Speedrun Leaderboards are going up, I finally made this happen.
(Challenge players have wanted the ability to play without starting Elixirs for a long time now. That also got taken care of by the Elixir Selection panel.)
If you still want to play with multiple starting Elixirs, use the "/GiveElixir 2" dev console command! (Change the number for which Elixir you want granted)
Spiky Urchin's manual entry now displays "Speed" as a stat
Watchdog's manual entry now allows switching to its mobile form
Adjusted Spiky Urchin's manual entry so that Timmy was placed "in" the toilet, not just "on" the toilet
This command tries to select the last deck you used, instead of the latest deck you won a level with. This is mainly to help challenge players who need to restart a level over and over. If you haven't started a level since launching the current game session, the command does nothing.
Using this command alone would not disqualify your speedrun score.
No, I will never add a button that does this. PvZ2 devs might have eventually relented, but I shall not 🗿
Added 7 new achievements (related Everywhere Eel, new Snail upgrades, etc.)
Gamepad placement cursor can now be moved all the way to the edges of the screen while the camera is zoomed out (instead of always being confined within a rhombus shape at the screen center)
Steam Deck now gets enlarged info panel & pause menu UI
When the Steam Overlay is enabled during a level, the game now properly auto-pauses
Turret Clams now function properly inside Graveyards
Added bubble VFX for Argonaut, Frogfish, and Everywhere Eel
An ejected Leviathan battery no longer displays full-bars unless it is completely fully charged
Enemy spawns will no longer be delayed if Odin is dying / too many Clams have died, but there are no skeletons on the field except Reapers
Adjusted range displays for Hermit, Urchin, Mutant Shooting Star
"Healing soul" trails now vary in size depending on the heal amount delivered to their targets
After finishing a level, if you have no new levels unlocked, the camera would now go to the latest level you just played, instead of the last level of the biome
Scroll bar UI no longer blocks attempts to scroll a page via mouse scroll
Some performance optimizations for VRAM
Serious performance optimizations for when you're attempting to place turrets
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Bug Fixes
Fixed a glitch where environmental decoration light beams are not always positioned near the top of your screen
Fixed a glitch where Disorientation Star VFX's violent shaking (when disorientation is about to wear off) can appear barely noticeable depending on the screen resolution
Scene transition fades no longer get paused by (and remain on top of) the pause menu
Fixed UI issues when creating a new profile via the profile window using gamepad
Fixed a glitch where boss characters appear instantly, without fading in
Fixed a glitch where the player could zoom out & place turrets before a boss level officially starts
Spiky Urchin, Diver Skeleton, and Smoke Sprayer now stop their attacks after you've failed a level
Fixed a glitch where while placing Imitation Crab, the imitated turret's radius line does not display
Fixed a glitch where Mutant Pleco could heal Odin from an infinite distance away
Attempted fix for a glitch where Leviathan could fail to glitch out
Fixed a glitch where the "Quick Reflex or Dumb Luck" achievement could be unlocked by Crab Trap instead of Zappy Jelly
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Tutorial Changes
The "Pistol Shrimp in your starting hand" warning message no longer shows if you have other high-DPS turrets in your starting hand, such as Argonaut (which didn't exist in the past)
Rephrased the aforementioned warning message so that it's more likely to be interpreted as a suggestion
The aforementioned warning message no longer shows on Level 2-11
Arrows now point at the Gadget swap buttons if you have a new gadget, but have never performed a gadget swap
Gadget buttons now flash red for new players if an unaddressed skeleton is attacking a clam while no combat turret can be afforded
Level 1-3 now reminds the player to place down Urchins via an arrow
Blobby vs. Mortar tutorials no longer pop up if you killed 3 or more skeletons using the Blobfish
