The megacorps may want you to think the whole world is nothing but corporate mooks, but that is a lie. Sadly, nor is everyone a top class specialist in the employ of a cutting edge federal agency. In this minor update we are adding more characters that will expand the world of Deadlink and serve as some faces from outside CSA who you don’t have to hold at gunpoint. You will be able to meet them in the passageways leading from one combat room to the next.
Read on to find out all about them and other changes in Deadlink!
What’s new?
"📢" marks the changes suggested by the Deadlink community
From the streets...
They may not be the first people you’d consider an alliance with, but hear them out. In the neon-lit future these independent thinkers have worked out a niche for themselves. Even the poor and downtrodden can afford to add some metal to their bodies. And seeing as you could always use new metal for your bodies, the expertise of these two might prove unexpectedly useful.
Chuck (The Maker)
Take a 3D printing enthusiast. Now give him possibilities that match his enthusiasm. All that he owns he makes by himself, be it food or somewhat amateurish biohacked implants. Still, that's the price to pay to live on the outskirt of the general corporate society. These days this tinkerer and lifehacker is dedicated to the hobby of producing counterfeit matter with cracked C-Balls. Despite C-Ball lockdown procedures introduced in order to stop the likes of him from causing a grey goo event, he finds a way to make use of them and will help you reap some of the benefits.
Rutger (The Collector)
"Cyberhobo" isn't a very flattering name. He prefers Collector, vintage tech enthusiast at the point of being a tech pariah, unable to integrate with “modern” society. His insistence that newer doesn’t mean better dooms him to live a life disconnected from most existing comforts. Corporate anti-consumer practices make it impossible for you to log into the net without only the latest hardware and software, (regardless of the worsening user experience, missing features or blatant invasion of user privacy). Thus the Collector is without a bank account, a job or even an ability to buy groceries at most chains. He roams the streets of the CORE, looking for discarded tech, disassembling it for his own needs and sometimes reselling jailbroken computers, implants and phones to likeminded, yet more fortunate individuals. Sometimes he finds an odd modern implant that’s useless to him that he’ll happily gift to you.
... And from corporate confines
These two may be employed by Watts, but are not on CSA’s target list. That said, either one would love for you to target the other. Talk about a lab rivalry gone sour. Hear them out and see what you can obtain from these brilliant minds locked in conflict.
Irène & Carl (The Rivals)
Both are geniuses in the fields of gene splicing, protein design and piezoelectric interfaces, their work bringing millions to the company, and the small trickle of knowledge making it into scientific journals deemed as nothing but revolutionary. Doesn’t stop them from being petty and sabotaging each other’s research. Neither one seems especially concerned about the long term ramifications of trusting an outside party to destroy the property of the very corporation that pays them.
📢 Heavy Weapons Leveling and Rarities
Gun enthusiasts, rejoice! We heard your feedback, and we've implemented a new feature that takes heavy weapons to the next level, literally. With the leveling and rarities of heavy weapons, your arsenal just got a whole lot more powerful.
Our team has been paying close attention to the community's ideas and feedback about the weapons in the game. We drew a lot of conclusions and came up with a new system that we think you'll love. Each heavy weapon can now be leveled up to the max level 4. As you level up your weapon, you'll gain stat boosts, making it even more lethal in battle.
But that's not all. Each heavy weapon can also be of Common, Rare, or Legendary rarity. The Rare and Legendary weapons come with special affixes that significantly improve their viability in combat. These weapons are truly one of a kind and will give you a real edge on the battlefield.
When you receive a heavy weapon as a reward, you'll be presented with a choice. You can either level up your current secondary weapon or swap to one of two different, already leveled-up weapons. The choice is yours, and it'll help you customize your arsenal to suit your playstyle.
Please note that this system is still evolving, and we may change it in the future. But for now, we're excited to see how our community will use this new feature to dominate their opponents. Level up your heavy weapons, increase their rarity, and become a true force to be reckoned with.
Implants
- Airburst Catalyst, Ora Empathy Inhibitor, and Myoactuator Enhancer stacks will persist between biomes
- Units changed to meters in implant descriptions and Deadlink upgrades
- Static Inference Generator - fixed leveling description, fixed Shock not taking effect on multiple enemies
- Thermite Cartridge Coating - changed passive from "Extra 25 Fire Damage on both weapons" to "Both weapons have 25% chance to Ignite enemies hit"
- Tooltip window updated to the new card view
- 📢 Added implant rarity sections in Codex Library
- Implants are locked by default and must be found during the run to get their preview in the Codex Library
- Implants sold in the shop will no longer appear on implant level-up selection
Defibrillator
This Deadlink upgrade proved to be more problematic than we thought. This is why it got a complete overhaul. The Defibrillator upgrade will now:
- Clamp the player’s HP to 1
- Refresh all ability cooldowns
- Refill ammo in both weapons
- Grant complete damage immunity for a short duration
- Work only once per run
📢 Trinary Iskra iteration
- Destroying electric pylons in Stage 1 damages the boss
- Stage 4 will be activated automatically if all C-Balls are corrupted in Stage 3
- Added various laser patterns for Stage 4
Other Changes
- Additional optimization works for the whole game with a focus on the Interport performance
- Added ability for Hound to grant armour for nearby enemies
- 📢 Prevented duplicates in the Starting Pack selection
- 📢 Added automatic inventory window display after selecting a Starting Pack
- Apex intro reworked
- Added new combat numbers system for better readability of the damage caused
- Additional improvements for gamepad handling. Deadlink now has Full controller support.
- Electric Grenade description now matches its mechanic.
- Added unique crosshairs for all available weapons
- Added ambiance sounds for combat arenas
- Added enemy stun effect diminishing returns, so it won’t be that easy to stunlock enemies anymore
- Intel XeSS version updated to 1.2.6
- 📢 Fixed the game timer not displaying the correct time when entering a new biome
- Fixed elemental damage boost that was applied to any damage type
- 📢 Defibrillator post-process changed to not obfuscate the screen that much
Share your thoughts on our official Discord Server and social media. We’re keeping our eyes open and combing through your feedback! 👀