Update 3 Out Now!

16 Jul 2024Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Hey Everyone,

Hope you're all doing well. We just want to apologise for the huge wait between this and the last patch and for the inactivity as well. We had to take a bit of a step back from development due to some unforseen issues, but we're back on track now and we'll be able to focus much more on development and communication.

Update 3 is now live, featuring tons of changes/additions to the skill tree and threat level, with a new progression system. We've introduced new ships/weapons/upgrades alongside this, and included loads of balance changes to help buff up some of the existing ones. You can find the full patch notes below.

Thanks so much for your patience, we hope you enjoy!
As always don't hesitate to let us know your thoughts.

Castec

Key Features

Skill Tree Overhaul (New Progression System, New Skill Additions, New Mechanics etc.)
Threat Level Overhaul (New Enemies, More Rewards, New Modifiers etc.)
New Boss/Arena
2 New Ships
2 New Weapons
15 New Upgrades (Some reworked from old skill tree skills)
5 New Artifacts

Additions/Changes

Threat Level Rework - Threat level has now been overhauled to contain better/more rewards such as increasing legendary/artifact drop rates at higher levels, more unlocks for beating the threat tiers, and more changes to the game as you advance the tiers such as new elite enemy types being added. Some old modifiers such as health and damage have been reduced and rolled into the base threat level system, to give a smoother difficulty curve.
Mastery Rank - After beating max threat, mastery rank is unlocked. This is an additional difficulty modifier meant to scale the health and damage of enemies infinitely. There are no explicit content/unlocks tied to mastery rank, just bonus skill tree XP and Paragon Cores. This way there is a grind there for players that want it, but its completely optional and not tied to any new content.
Skill Tree Rework - We've aimed to move away from having tons of plain stat increases while making the stats that remain more impactful, and instead focus on giving the player power via more ways to control their build and mitigate RNG during the run. Stat upgrades are now used to a lesser extent in the paragon level system.
XP System - To go alongside the skill tree rework, XP is now earned as you play and kill enemies, and a single core is rewarded per level up to spend on the skill tree. All previously earned cores have been converted into xp, so you won't need to start from scratch.
Paragon Level System - After reaching level 35, you now start gaining paragon cores, which are used to gain passive stat buffs in three different trees. The infinite stat boosts we had before are now found here, for players that like to have something to progress after maxing out other skills.
New Boss/Arena/Enemy added. This arena is unlocked by defeating the Hexagunner 3 times. After being unlocked, it will be randomly selected each run as an alternate to the hexagon arena. This arena has its own unique boss and enemy type.
New Ship - BINARY - Active: Duplication - Summons a clone of your ship and weapon which mirrors movement and attacks with reduced damage. Passive: Exploit - Increases the chance of upgrades being glitched.
New Ship - MOBIUS - Active: Time Warp - Places down a field which slows all non-boss enemies and projectiles that enter. Passive: Echo - Periodically triggers all "On Ability" effects.
New Weapon - Flaming Chakrams - Fires spinning blades which travel a short distance and hit all enemies in their path, rapidly dealing damage and applying burn.
New Weapon - Volt Hammer - Slow melee weapon which causes large explosions with every hit, dealing massive damage and applying shock.
New Threat Modifier - Increased enemy explosion range.
New Threat Modifier - Enemy Projectile Speed.
New Threat Modifier - Early Phase Change - Bosses enter phase 2 at 75% health.
New Threat Modifier - Infused Primes - Prime enemies can spawn with an elemental infusion, gaining resistances and applying status effects on contact.
Reworked Threat Modifier - Alternate Primes - Now unlocked after beating the game once and then permanently integrated into the game.
New Artifact - Evocation - Small chance on fire to activate your ability with no cooldown at 50% strength. Chance scales inversely with fire rate.
New Artifact - Deluge - Chance on status to cause an explosion of that status
New Artifact - Potency - Gives a massive ability damage bonus at the cost of cooldown rate.
New Artifact - Execution - Small chance on hit to instantly kill any non-boss enemy. Chance scales inversely with base fire rate.
New Artifact - Bloodlust - Activates all on kill effects with their respective chances every second.
New Upgrade - Frostfire {Epic} - Applying burn now deals instant damage based on your current frostbite strength.
New Upgrade - Chemical Energy {Epic} - Overloading an enemy now applies corrosion equal to a portion of your current max corrosion bonus.
New Upgrade - Frostlash {Epic} - Freezing an enemy now strikes them with lightning.
New Upgrade - Caustic Burn {Epic} - Applying corrosion has a chance to also apply burn.
New Upgrade - Heavy Artillery {Epic} - Increases missile damage by a flat amount and an additional multiplier.
New Upgrade - Elemental Assault {Uncommon} - Increases ability damage, status strength, status duration but reduces critical hit chance.
New Upgrade - Shattering Cold {Legendary} - Chance when freezing an enemy to fire an ice spike.
New Upgrade - Permafrost {Rare} - Frozen enemies take more damage.
New Upgrade - Proliferation (Legendary) - Burning an enemy for more that a percentage of your max health now spreads burn to nearby enemies.
Some skills from the old skill tree have been reworked and added to the item pool as rewards for beating certain threat tiers.
Reworked Skill - Cryo Healing {Common} - Provides healing when taking damage and applies frost to enemies.
Reworked Skill - Rapid Ignition {Common} - Provides a stacking buff to burn tick rate as you burn enemies.
Reworked Skill - Speed of Lightning {Uncommon} - Provides a stacking buff to movement speed as you shock enemies.
Reworked Skill - Biohazard {Uncommon} - Chance when applying corrosion to spread it to a nearby enemy.
Reworked Skill - Inferno Projector {Rare} - Chance when applying burn to fire out a ring of burning projectiles. Also increases pierce chance.
Reworked Skill - Cloudkill {Epic} - Formerly Poisonous Purge - Now has a chance to execute low health enemies when applying corrosion and leaves a corrosive AOE for a short duration.
Added Vanguard Mode - This is an optional modifier in the settings that provides a stacking armor and damage buff for each consecutive unsuccessful run, for those that prefer a more casual experience
When using an ability with a duration, a new bar is displayed to show how much time is remaining. This is also shown on the on character HUD.
Added some stock common upgrades that can't be banished and only appear if there are no more items in the pool, so that there's always something for you to choose when levelling up.
Added tooltips on the threat menu to explain how some modifiers function.
Added the guide back to the main menu, now called "Codex" explaining various mechanics.
Added a new indicator to show when you have cores to spend on skills/artifacts
Added a small chance for the gambling machine to payout a jackpot of 5 items.
Added the ability to revive players in coop by standing close to where they died for a short while.
Prime bosses now have an alternate BGM
New UI for: Prime Health Bars, On Character HUD
New VFX for: Status Effects. Homing Projectile Trails, Elemental Pools
New Skill - Transmutation - You now start the game with 5 alters. Alters can be used to reroll a single upgrade, retaining its rarity and glitch.
New Skill - Dual Selection - Allows you to select 2 upgrades in a single level up once per game.
New Skill - Targeted Bounty - Increases the chance of tagged items being dropped from bosses.
New Skill - The Bigger They Are - Prime bosses now drop an additional item.
New Skill - Big Game Hunter - Defeating a boss without taking damage now provides a flat bonus to base health.
New Skill - Specialization - Provides a small stat boost based on starting tags
New Skill - Glitch Detector - Give you a chance to find glitched upgrades when levelling. Glitched upgrades count as 2 upgrade when selected
New Skill - Glitch Amplifier - Increases the chance of finding glitched upgrades
New Skill - Glitch Catalyst - When receiving tagged level ups, guarantees at least one glitched upgrade
New Skill - Interest - Gain a percentage of your current shards when advancing to the next arena
New Skill - Shard Reserves - Start each run with a small amount of shards
New Skill - Paid For In Blood - You can now use health to gamble at the Gambling Machine
New Skill - Jackpot - Gambling Machine has a small chance to give double rewards
New Skill - Enhanced Fabrication - The Fabricator has a chance to increase the rarity of an upgrade
New Skill - Premium Supplies - Increases the chances of higher rarities when using the tagged item shop
New Skill - Bonus Cargo - Tagged item shop gives an additional item but costs slightly more
New Skill - Reprocess - For a cost you can reroll the upgrade shown in the Recycler
New Skill - Everything's For Sale - Allows all shop types to appear at once
New Skill - On The House - The first reroll in each shop is free
New Skill - Scrapper - You can scrap unwanted upgrades for fragments. Fragments are prioritised before upgrades when using the Recycler and Fabricator
New Skill - Break 'Em Down - Prime enemies have a small chance to drop a fragment. Bosses drop a small amount of fragments
New Skill - Dimensional Gateway - When advancing to the next arena, you now have a choice of 2 portals. Portals can now sometimes provide rewards, or a buff for the next level only. (More Shards, Lower Enemy Health, Additional Rerolls etc.)
New Skill - Rift Amplifier - Unlocks portal choices with increased benefits but with downsides
New Skill - Nexus - You now have a choice of 3 portals between levels
New Skill - Fuel Cells - Reduces dodge cooldown by 1 second
New Skill - Energy Spike - When Fortuitous Recharge triggers (instant ability cooldown), your next ability gains bonus damage and duration
New Skill - System Reboot - Restore health when advancing to the next arena
New Skill - In Formation - Gain bonus stats when near your partner in co-op
New Skill - Last Stand - Gain formation bonus when your partner is dead in co-op
New Skill - Urgent Backup - Your partner is revived when the boss is spawned in co-op
New Skill - Speed Module - Increases movement speed
New Skill - Ability Module - Increase ability damage, duration and cooldown rate
New Skill - Weapon Module - Increases weapon damage, extra shot chance, fire rate and pierce chance
New Skill - Status Module - Increases status strength and duration
New Skill - Defence Module - Increases max health and armor
New Elite Enemy - Snakers - Unlocked by playing at threat level 5 or higher - Snakes with a long trail, function similarly to a mini version of the Serpentagon.
New Elite Enemy - Beamers - Unlocked by playing at threat level 15 or higher - Stationary enemies that spin with laser beams on each side.
New Elite Enemy - Drillers - Unlocked by playing at threat level 25 or higher - Stationary enemies that slowly slam and spawn explosions underneath you.
New Elite Enemy - Buffers - Unlocked by playing at threat level 35 or higher - Slow moving enemies that can provide various buffs to other enemies in range.
New Elite Enemy - Cloners - Unlocked by playing at threat level 45 or higher - Spawns clones of random enemy types that provide no shards when killed.
New Elite Enemy - Black Holes - Unlocked by playing at threat level 50 - Slow moving enemies that pull you in with more force the closer you are to them.
The recycler now shows the given items description when within interact range of the machine.
Dodge and ability charges on the bars under the character are now greyed out when not cooled down for better visibility
Added a slight slowdown when opening and closing the level up menu, just to help avoid getting hit directly after you pick your upgrade. This is optional and can be disabled in the Settings->Gameplay menu.
Adjusted default threat beaten icons to reduce clutter. Now just changes colour to show when a run is completed, and every 10 threat levels after.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where the gambling machine could not pay out artifacts.
Fixed an issue where the Brain Freeze (Rare) passive was not scaling its damage along with your damage stat.
Fixed an issue where you could earn more cores in endless mode by saving and continuing a run.
Fixed a bug where the correct health value wasn't saved when continuing a run using the Salvager upgrade.
Fixed an issue where portals could spawn at incorrect locations on levels with an uneven number of corners.
Fixed an issue where explosions could not hit bosses with multiple segments correctly.
Fixed an issue where Homers (Green triangle enemies) could potentially fire no matter where its facing when playing in coop.
Fixed an issue that can cause overlapping text between buttons
Fixed a bug which causes the health shards dropped by Salvager to provide score and multiplier.
Fixed an issue where the electrified walls modifier was not taking into account your threat level damage modifiers. Lowered the base damage to compensate for this.
Fixed an issue where various upgrades, particularly missiles, were receiving incorrect stat buffs.
Fixed an issue where Homers (Green Triangle Enemies) could massively increase their speed when affected by frost.
Fixed an issue that could cause multi-projectile weapons like the Scattergun's and Flux Cannon's projectiles to all be destroyed on one enemy regardless of whether or not the enemy died before they all hit.
Fixed an issue where certain AoE effects such as elemental pools or the new Flaming Chakrams could rapidly damage certain bosses.
Fixed multiple bosses that were not correctly scaling their attack speeds in endless mode. (This turned out to be a longstanding bug that was affecting multiple attacks on pretty much every boss.)
Fixed a bug that caused some stats to have worse effects when negative (Armor and Ability Cooldown in particular.). For example, 100% armor = -50% but -100% armor = +100% damage. Now -100% armor would equal +50% damage taken instead.
Fixed a bug where weapons that attack in cones such as the Flamethrower or some melee weapons, could not hit enemies with multiple segments unless you were facing the first segment.
Fixed a bug where Explosive Rounds was not correctly scaling with explosion strength/radius.
Fixed a bug where your health bar wouldn't update if you were healed while in the shop.
Fixed a bug where shards dropped by salvager would not benefit from life support if picked up during the shop phase.
Fixed an issue where refunding skills on the end of run screen could cause the incorrect cores earned to be displayed.
Fixed an issue that was causing Rotators to not spawn out of spawners.
Fixed an issue where your level ups available were not saved if you quit your run with some remaining.
Fixed an issue where Skill/Ship/Weapon titles could randomly be displayed as lowercase.
Fixed an issue where Swarm's ability was scaling damage incorrectly
Added a check to the Wrecktangle that causes it to pick a new attack if it gets stuck rolling.
Fixed an issue where it was possible for start the game with Esc on the threat menu.

Balance Changes

Agility Module (Common) - No longer reduces weapon damage. Ability damage reduced from 8%->7%
Reckless Fire (Common) - No longer reduces movement speed.
Vital Rush (Common) - Ability Cooldown Rate reduction reduced from 10%->5%
Power Shot (Common) - No longer reduces crit damage.
Power Surge (Common) - Duration increased from 15s->30s
Reactive Hull (Common) - Armor reduced from 10%->8%
Toxic Blitz (Uncommon) - Armor reduction reduced from 8%->5%
Ion Cannon (Uncommon) - Ability Damage reduction reduced from 10%->5%
Assimilation (Uncommon) - Now increases both damage at duration per stack at a rate of 10% and 1 second. Base damage and duration changed to 20% and 2 seconds
Spark Drive (Uncommon) - Damage increased from 35->40
Reinforcement (Uncommon) - Armor reduced from 15%->10%
Elemental Plating (Uncommon) - Armor reduced from 15%->10%
Brute Force (Uncommon) - Damage increased from 4%->8%
Fusion Power (Uncommon) - Damage increased from 2.5% per status to 3%.
Deadly Aim (Rare) - Crit Chance reduced from 7%->5%.
Lethal Strike (Rare) - Crit Damage reduced from 35%->25%, weapon damage reduction reduced from 9%->5%.
Plasma Bolts (Rare) - Crit Chance reduction reduced from 4%->2%, Crit Damage reduction reduced from 7%->5%.
Status Accretion (Rare) - No longer reduces max health.
Burst Module (Rare) - Damage reduction changed to only weapon damage reduction.
Seraph Shielding (Epic) - Crit Chance reduction reduced from 10%->5%, Crit Damage reduction reduced from 20%->10%
Overflowing Energy (Epic) - Increased ability damage gained per second from 1%->2%.
Frozen Orbs (Epic) - Damage increased from 20->25
Exploit Weakness (Epic) - Crit Chance reduced from 10%->8%, Crit Damage reduced from 25%->20%, Fire Rate reduction reduced from 5%->3%
Starforged Alloy (Legendary) - Removed the tags associated with the upgrade.
Temporal Modulator (Legendary) - Trigger Chance reduced from 10%->7.5%
Explosive Rounds (Legendary) - Damage increased from 50%->75%
Tesla Coil (Legendary) - Increased base damage from 10->15. Now also increases in damage per stack at a rate of 7.5, and increases duration at a rate of 2.5s.
Blaze of Glory (Legendary) - You now retain the bonus burn stats after the effect triggers.
Corrosive Bolter (Weapon) - Damage increased from 15->18.
Flux Cannon (Weapon) - Damage per projectile increased from 12->14. Status application chance increased from 30%->50%. Burn damage is now based on weapon damage rather than a flat value.
STORM (Ship) - Base ability damage increased from 50->65, Passive damage multiplier increased from 25%->35%
BORE (Ship) - Passive fire rate reduction reduced from 25%->15%.
Fixed a bug where the HELIOS ship's passive was using your ability damage multiplier incorrectly, causing much lower damage than intended. Now deals damage equal to your ability damage. Base ability damage increased from 30->35.
BLIGHT (Ship) - Base ability damage increased from 8->10.
IMPULSE (Ship) - Ability health drain reduced from 25%->20%. Added passive health regen while at low health.
Energy Blade (Weapon) - Damage increased from 30->35.
Frost Spear (Weapon) - Damage increased from 25->30.
Slightly lowered base legendary drop rates to account for the increase granted by the new threat levels. (This way you'll be getting more legendries than before while at higher threat levels but slightly less with no modifiers on.)
Slightly lowered the base effectiveness of missile upgrades, but added a missile strength stat to most of them. This way they start a little weaker but end up stronger to encourage more investment into them.
Heatseeker {Uncommon} - Lowered damage from 20->15 and added 3% missile strength
Ship-To-Shape Missile {Rare} - Lowered damage from 25->20 and added 4.5% missile strength
Seeking Missile {Epic} - Lowered damage from 100%->75%, lowered chance per stack from 10% - 5% and added 6% missile strength
Fission Missiles {Legendary} - Added 7.5% missile strength
Yaka Missiles {Legendary} - Added 7.5% missile strength
Acidic Barrage {Legendary} - Lowered chance from 25 - 15%
Homing Missiles (Weapon) - Base damage lowered from 50->35 to account for the increased scaling provided by missile strength.
Added Overload Strength to all shock upgrades, as it was falling behind compared to other status effect builds.
Lightning Stake, Spark Drive, Speed of Lightning {Uncommon} - Added 5% overload strength
Electrified Rounds, High Voltage {Rare} - Added 10% overload strength
Lightning Bolt, Thunderstep {Epic} - Added 15% Overload Strength
Unstable Orb, Tesla Coil {Legendary} - Added 20% Overload Strength
Machine Gun (Weapon) - Damage increased from 40 -> 44.
Railgun (Weapon) - Damage increased from 70 -> 77.
Cheat Death {Legendary} - Now has a chance to trigger based on current cooldown, lowered recharge rate for multiple stacks
Reworked pierce to function like extra shot where every 100% guarantees an additional pierce. We've also added pierce chance as a stat to multiple upgrades. This way its less all or nothing whether you get pierce or not and you can build upon it throughout the run.
Penetrating Shot {Epic} - Changed to now have 50% pierce chance
Ballistic Processor {Epic} - Changed to now have 50% pierce chance
Laser Sight {Common} - Removed 3% damage and added 5% pierce
Ricochet {Common} - Added 3% pierce chance
Shatter {Epic} - Added 10% pierce chance
Evasive Volley (Legendary) - Added 10% pierce chance.
Orbital Defence {Uncommon} - Orbit radius now increases slowly after 6 stacks, as before it was too easy to complete negate all projectiles after a certain point.
Mini Blank {Uncommon} - Now increases in size rather than trigger count, again to prevent it from being too easy to negate all projectiles in a run.
Slightly lowered the number of enemies spawned per edge on arenas with more sides.
Lowered the hitbox of Darters (Purple arrow enemies) to better match their size as they could hit you from too far away.
Salvager {Epic} - Now increases health multiplier rather that base health.
Increased base tag item chance but lowered the amount on the skill tree. Its the same total value now as before but now you don't need as much investment to see it.
Greatly increased enemy health and damage scaling in endless mode. Previously it was too easy to completely outscale all enemies, we want there to still be a challenge in endless mode and for you to have a good build to successfully beat multiple loops.
Great Pools of Fire {Epic} - Halved the chance but doubled the damage, to reduce screen clutter.
Crisis Nova {Epic} - Now repeatedly triggers explosions when below the health threshold.
Counterfeit Shards {Legendary} - Now increases the number of shards given as the run progresses, in order to keep up with shop prices.
HMG {Weapon} - Now affects base movement speed instead of your movement speed multiplier stat.
Viral Shot {Rare} - Chance reduced from 20%->15%, damage reduced from 50%->40%.
Singularity {Uncommon} - Damage bonus increased from 5%->10%
Brain Freeze {Rare} - Now triggers on freeze and no longer removes the status effect.
Twist of Fate {Artifact} - Now also provides 5 item alters.
Exothermic Blast {Legendary} - Now deals a flat amount of damage and scales with the players max health. This way its a more unique upgrade, and also it was too powerful no matter the difficulty the way it was previously.
Homing Missiles / Corrosive Bolter {Weapon} - Can now hit walls and are affected by bounces. We made this change to keep them more in line with the other weapons.
Increased the enemies health scaling when playing in coop.
Homers (Green triangle enemies) - Reduced movement speed, limited the distance they can fire from, and reduced their firing angle. Also added a short delay between bursts of shots.
Rotators (Blue rectangle enemies) - Increased their delay between movements slightly to reduce their difficulty. Lowered their movement speed and also reduced their bias that they would move towards the player instead of randomly. Adjusted their hitbox/model to be much more accurate.
Bounty Hunter {Skill Tree} - Now provides a random number of upgrades from 1->3 (Can now be manipulated using the new portal upgrades)
Strategic Synergy {Skill Tree} - Now provides tagged level ups on the first and every 7 levels instead of just the first 5 of the run, to keep it useful throughout.
Prime bosses now only start spawning after beating threat level 10, unless one is guaranteed through the new portal mechanic.
Artifacts cost is now reduced to 1 prime core, and increases with each purchase up to a maximum of 5 prime cores, to allow you to unlock your first few easier.
Lowered the number of enemies spawn initially at the start of each loop in endless mode. This is just to ease into the level, the enemies should catch up to the usual amount within the first minute or so.
Lowered the max number of enemies contributed by threat level.
Increased the gap size on the Wreck-Tangle's row of projectiles when firing vertically.
Lowered the wave spawn rate threat modifier.
Lowered the shop price threat modifier.
Chain Lightning now triggers on fire effects with its per shot total damage rather than their individual tick damage.
Lowered the number of darters spawned by the Pyramind, and added a cap to how many can be controlled at any one time by the boss. Also, the health bonus darters receive when controlled has been lowered.
The Octagonopus is now un-targetable by homing missiles, and projectiles bounce off whilst they are immune in phase 1.
Lowered the threat requirement for the Electric Boogaloo achievement down to 25.