That's the bosses finally done for Sector 3 and balanced. I say they're balanced but with the amount of meta gaming and build customization going on by the time players get to this Sector it's hard to say. Let me know if anything seems crazy hard or easy.
This obviously comes with all the missions, achievements and story-line elements you'd expect making Sector 3 finally content complete and ready for launch.
Early Access In July 2025!
I'm now happy to say we'll be launching in to Early Access in July! The exact date will be announced near the start of the month.
It looks like it'll launch with Sector 1, 2 and 3 for now. I don't want to rush Sector 4 as it'll be the conclusion to the main storyline and set the stage for the end game systems. I'd love to have the full story concluded for the launch but at the same time I want the ending to be awesome and that takes time as a solo-developer.
Just to be clear about what you'll be getting. I expect there will still be around 20-30 hours of content depending how quickly you rush through it and you can hang out in Sector 3 and farm some things while you wait for Sector 4 to release or try some different builds / weapon combinations.
Other Highlights
Just to quickly run through some of the key changes besides the new content.
Early game (level 1 to 10) now has a gradual increase of enemy damage to give players more time to master dodging and setting up their build.
Enemy ships coming out of phase shift or hyperdrive jumping in now get a 1 second delay on weapon activations.
Bosses can no longer be spammed with electric debuffs to stop them attacking as they get the same diminished returns players get.
There are a few known bugs with this update that I found during my balance testing tonight so expect a hotfix in the next week, nothing major though. Have fun!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Flora bosses have arrived in Sector 3 along with storyline, missions and achievements.
Added a new storyline character who shows up for the first time in Sector 3.
Extra Echo encounters added to Sector 1 and Sector 2.
Echo is now hanging out in Sector 3 doing things.
Added 1 x new type of Secondary Weapon.
Added 1 x new type of Special Weapon.
Balance Changes
Early game enemy damage has been reduced slowly increasing up to level 10.
Bosses now have diminishing returns on disabled debuff the same as the player.
Reduced crazy long-range of Thorn Launcher compared to other weapons.
Reduced overall level of Sector 3 encounters, so there is more varied level content.
Other ships hyperdrive jumping in or unphasing now get their weapons disabled for 1 second.
Blight now has Leech Guns stolen from the Phantoms in Sector 2 and additional dialog.
Enemy lasers no longer damage before they're fully charged, player lasers are unchanged.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Added indicator to dialog to make it clearer if ESA / Player are speaking privately.
Rewrote all Junker dialog and some of the clunkier dialog around side factions.
Reduction of light intensity on player ships is now smarter and uses part distances.
Enemy ships no longer have their light intensity reduced.
Ship design now displays color names to help those with color blindness.
Removed 0.5 second delay on gaining control after hyperdrive jumping.
Performance
Improved performance of critical hit rolls on all weapons.
Bug Fixes
Core panel can no longer be opened while hyperdrive jump is in progress.
Fixed mirrored weapons doing slightly less damage since the last update.
Turrets now correctly stop shooting when the parent ship has boost invulnerability.
Shadows that show when dodging no longer flicker lights on the ship.
Fixed bug where hitting escape during Echo cutscenes would not pause them.
Instagib developer setting no longer causes extra loot to drop from enemies.
Animation on Identification Web no longer detaches from structure when it jumps in.
Fixed Overgrowth Flora template containing invalid slots.
Enemies will no longer boost after you if you're still in their weapon range.
Shards launched from seeds will now correctly increase their hull with weapon level.
Fixed some projectile previews showing in incorrect color in item stats.
Fixed music stopping at Eden when enemies attack the fleet.