Hey NIMRODS!
We’ve been heads down working on a massive amount of changes over the last few months and we’re thrilled to finally be able to share the Beta with you all!
TLDR: Endless Mode is now in beta, alongside a new biome (Violet Forest). A new character (Bubba), a major overhaul to augments, systems, and balance. New guns, and a heap of QoL upgrades like save slots and rebindable keys (yes, finally). We need your feedback to shape where it goes next!
What Took So Long?
Short answer: Endless Mode broke the game. Not literally. It's been one of our most-requested features for ages, but the moment we started building it, cracks showed up everywhere. Player power scaling became difficult to feel, especially over longer sessions. In addition to game balance & pacing issues, many gun upgrades had become convoluted with mechanics that didn’t synergize or often failed to cleanly communicate their identity.
So we stopped and asked the uncomfortable questions:
Are players feeling progression, or just grind?
Can we adjust scaling so power growth feels amazing?
Can we cut unnecessary complexity without losing depth?
Spoiler: yes.
So we tore it open. Overhauled the augments, rebuilt balance scaling from the ground up. Months of work. It's why this post exists, and why the changelog is so long. We're still in the feedback phase, and going forward you'll see beta updates land more often. We read every piece of feedback. Truly.
Now let’s dig into what you can find in the new beta.
Guns & Augments
A large number of augments have been redesigned. Some still retain their original identity, while others are more experimental and a work in progress. Many augments currently only have up to Tier 2 enabled. This is simply because we’re still implementing and polishing the rest of their upgrade paths.
In addition to augment redesigns, we have added some new guns and we have removed most Stat caps in favor of diminishing returns. We are also planning to introduce more unique boss trophies and expand the default pool dramatically. We have added a couple of experimental boss trophies to try: The Tenderizer, Juice Box, and Sticky Bomb
Endless Mode
Endless Mode is now available in the beta!
We’re still actively balancing it, but the foundational structure is now in place and we plan to continue iterating on it heavily during the beta phase. Long term, we’d also like to expand this system further with features like leaderboards.
It's currently calibrated to absolutely murder you, but we're aiming for merely brutal. We’d love feedback on the overall pacing, difficulty curve, and how satisfying progression feels over time.
Biomes & Difficulty
Final bosses now spawn at 20 minutes. Each biome has been tweaked and miniboss rosters changed. Our balance goal for Chaos Grove is for Malphor to be defeatable with Tier 1 and Tier 2 augments alongside a similarly powered drone setup. We want the earlier biomes to feel approachable and enjoyable for all players, while difficulty ramps up as you progress into later biomes.
The southern section of the map is now a brand-new biome: Violet Forest. This biome introduces new enemies, minibosses, bosses, map interactions, and some of the most advanced encounters currently in the game.
Long term, we also want to experiment with separate difficulty systems and additional challenge options, though that is outside the scope of this beta and the upcoming update.
Characters & Genes
We've reworked characters and the gene system to scale cleanly. Adding new characters and genes in future updates no longer carries the enormous overhead it used to. Each character now has a single ability that doesn't need upgrading, and genome layouts are more compact and streamlined so we can add more genes easily. This beta also introduces a new character: Bubba, who specializes in overheal.
Quality of Life & More
There's also a ton of quality-of-life packed in: save slots, rebindable keys, and a new meta upgrade store in the Homeship. Missions, the economy, and XP progression have all been overhauled. Expect new guns, new and reworked Airdrop pods, major UI/UX improvements, and significant performance gains across the board.
Why a Beta and Not a Full Release?
We thought hard about how to get these changes into your hands. The scale of what we've reworked - Endless Mode, the augment overhaul, rebuilt balance scaling, a new biome, and more - touches nearly every part of the game. Pushing all of that straight to the public release branch would risk disrupting the player experience that's already in Early Access. We want the released version of the game to stay stable for everyone playing it right now, while we finish polishing and balancing this next chapter. A separate beta branch lets us do both: keep what's live intact, and give this new content the time and feedback it needs to be completed properly before it becomes the definitive experience. This isn't done yet - and that's exactly the point. We'd rather get it right with your help than rush it and break what's working.
The Real MVPs
To everyone who has helped us reach this point and especially to those still helping us reach v1.0: thank you. Your feedback, testing, ideas, and support genuinely help shape the future of the game. As a small team, this level of community involvement really means so much to us.
We also want to recognize any extraordinary contributors during this beta phase. If your feedback or contributions stand out, we will reach out about including you in the game's credits.
Steam Beta Branch
You can opt into the Beta Role by heading to Channels & Roles and assigning yourself the NIMRODS Beta role.
Once you’re in, head over to open-beta-announcements for all the details and to see what’s currently available in the Open Beta.
Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/DYuFdGQGJ5