Hi everyone,
We have a big patch coming up (including a run reset), so we wanted to share a preview before it goes live on Friday at 10:00 CET.
As the name suggests, this update is focused on a full Shield equipment redesign + balance pass.
This sort of redesign and rebalance will be applied to all equipment families over the course of the next months, making sure most cards are relevant picks, and the power level of cards is more equal, leading to higher build variety.
In between equipment revamps, we will focus on fixing bugs and improving the game's performance and stability.
What changed
We’ve tweaked most Shield cards as part of this pass. In general, many Shield cards now have higher cooldowns and adjusted costs to better match their power and role.
Shield equipment now goes up to Mk.II only (this will be the standard for any equipment once it receives its redesign/balance pass).
Equipment now comes in different power levels.
Shield equipment can be upgraded up to 6 card slots max — however, 8-slot Shield equipment can still appear as a rare late-game drop in some cases.
We’ve added shield equipment rarity:
- Barrier Shield is Common
- Burst and Pulse are Uncommon
- Charged and Cerberus are Rare
This also shifts with later sectors (for example, Charged and Cerberus become more common toward the end of Sector 3).
And that brings us to…
We have added the Charged Shield and the Cerberus Shield equipment!
Some of our older players may remember them from long ago, but for those who don’t:
Charged Shield focuses on shield duration — it reduces variance and RNG, and is built to guarantee a steadier shielded state.
Cerberus Shield lets you survive by manipulating Heat, and rewards risky play.
Equipment level differences
The Charged Shield and Cerberus are intended as late-game shields, so they start at Tier 3 (i.e. +2 levels compared to the Barrier Shield).
That means a T3 Charged will have the same card slot + subsystem progression as a T1 Barrier (it starts “behind” by two tiers), but its cards are more powerful and more specialized.
The Pulse and Burst shields start at Tier 2, and their cards are (on average) stronger than Barrier in the right circumstances.
It's been a while but added some new card art for the new shield cards, here are some of them:
Starting equipment updates
- The Marauder now starts with the Burst Shield
- The Avalanche now starts with the Charged Shield
- The Firebrand now starts with the Cerberus Shield
Detailed card changes will follow in the main patch announcement.
If you want to explore what this patch has to offer, it’s live right now on the Experimental Branch.
We’re looking forward to getting this patch in your hands and hearing feedback!
Edgeflow Studio