Killing Floor 2 Summer Opt-In Beta 1 (PC Build 1114) Is Now Available!

To opt into this beta on Steam, join the "preview" branch available in the Beta drop-down list. Admins will need to use the following SteamCMD flag:

• app_update 232130 -beta preview

To opt into this beta on EGS, the Beta will be accessible within KF2 owners’ game libraries as a separate install called “Killing Floor 2 Beta”. Users may need to restart their EGS launcher for the Beta to populate and be accessible to install. Progress for stats and inventory is shared between both versions on EGS so for users switching between Beta and Live be sure to sync your game data to use the latest timestamp to prevent any lost progress from participating in the Beta. The Beta on EGS also includes its own dedicated server within the install for your own personal hosting needs for this version.

Event
Interstellar Insanity

• You made it! The moon landing was performed without any complications! Well, almost... Anyway, this research station has gone quiet for a while so you must check if everything is going well. But considering that communications were cut off a few days ago, the situation does not look good, so don’t let your guard down. On top of that, there are also 2 alternative scenarios that you may experience that will imply an additional challenge level: Arachnophobia and Scavenger weekly modes. But there is some good news! At least you will be able to use the new fancy tools from Horzine Research Group, the HRG Bastion and HRG Blast Brawlers, that were being developed in this station. Final advice: it may take you some time to get used to the moon’s gravity.
• Beta 1 Start 6/2/2021, (Date are subject to change)

New Additions and Highlights

• 1 New Map
  • Moonbase
    • Compatible with Survival, Weekly, and Endless Game Modes.
    • Takes place on a secret Horzine research outpost on the Moon which you arrived into via the Steam Powered Rocket.
    • Features low gravity across the map.

  
  
• 2 New Weekly Modes
  • Arachnophobia
    • Custom Zed spawn composition, with more Crawlers than usual, which have much more HP than usual.
    • Stomping capacity has been improved and now it will cause devastating damage, so it's the recommended way to deal with the Crawlers. Stomping on them will also regenerate a portion of the player’s health.
    • Making several stomps in a row will grant the player a damage bonus for some seconds.

  • Scavenger
    • Traders will be empty of weapons. Armor and Grenades are the only available things to purchase.
    • The weapon pickups spawn rate is increased.
    • The weapon pickups pool will vary on each wave, including weapons of different tiers depending on the wave.

  
  
• 4 New Weapons
  • HRG Blast Brawlers for the Support
    • An alternative version of the Static Strikers for the Support Perk.
    • The default fire mode will shoot blasts out of each fist like if they were shotguns.
    • Some of the melee capacities are kept from the original weapon, like the block and the heavy attacks.
    • Trader price is 1600 Dosh.

  • HRG Bastion for the SWAT
    • An alternative version of the Stoner 63a LMG for the SWAT Perk.
    • It counts with an energy barrier that can be activated or deactivated with the alt-fire button.
    • Energy Barrier reduces incoming damage but will deplete if all energy is consumed. The energy automatically refills when the barrier is not active.
    • Trader price is 2000 Dosh.

  • FAMAS Masterkey for the Commando and Support (Not available for purchase individually during BETA)
    • This is a paid DLC weapon. This weapon can be shared amongst players through our weapon-sharing system.
    • It is a tier 3 assault rifle with an underbarrel shotgun attached. It’s also equipped with an ACOG Zoom Scope.
    • Default fire mode is 3-round-burst fire from the rifle. Alt-fire is pump-action from the underbarrel shotgun.
    • Primary and secondary ammo are managed with separated box-fed magazines.
    • Trader price is 1200 Dosh.

  • Thermite Bore for the Firebug (Not available for purchase individually during BETA)
    • This is a paid DLC weapon. This weapon can be shared amongst players through our weapon-sharing system.
    • It is a tier 4 weapon that launches thermite grenades that pin to enemies and to any surface. They explode after 4 seconds, creating residual fires all around.
    • Projectiles can be manually detonated with the alt-fire button.
    • Trader price is 1500 Dosh.

  
  

Special Note for Steam & EGS Armory Season Pass Holders:
During the start of Beta 1 for Summer 2021, the Inventory Weapon Skins tied to the new FAMAS Masterkey and Thermite Bore will be granted to all Armory Season Pass holders on Steam and EGS. This will unlock full access to these weapons and their associated variant skins for those Armory Season Pass holders that choose to opt-into the Beta update. As this new content is not present in the current non-beta live build, Armory Season Pass holders on Steam and EGS who don’t opt-in to the Beta will still receive these inventory skins but will appear with missing thumbnails, names, and descriptions that do not unlock anything in game or affect game behavior. Don’t be alarmed as these will appear as expected if you choose to opt-in Beta later, or wait until the Summer Update is released in the live branch for final release.

• New Steam Achievements
  • Moonbase related achievements

• Time-limited Objectives, Tickets, and Cosmetics (Not available during BETA)
  • Seasonal objectives related to Moonbase
  • Complete all seasonal objectives to earn the Astronaut Companion Backpack
  • Summer Sizeshow Prize Tickets
  • Summer Sizeshow Golden Prize Tickets

• Zedconomy (Not available for purchase during BETA)
  • FAMAS Masterkey Weapon Bundle
  • Thermite Bore Weapon Bundle
  • Interstellar Insanity Weapon Bundle
  • Interstellar Insanity Full Gear Bundle
  • Premium Summer Sideshow Ticket Bundles come in three sets of tiers:
    • Bronze - 5 Premium Seasonal Tickets
    • Silver - 10 Premium Seasonal Tickets and 1 Bonus Golden Seasonal Ticket
    • Gold - 20 Premium Seasonal Tickets and a 3 Bonus Golden Seasonal Tickets

  • Foundry Gear Cosmetic Bundle
    
  • Beyond Horizon MK II Weapon Skin Pack
  
  

Beta 1 for this update contains a lot of exciting new features! As such, feedback is going to be incredibly important. Stay tuned for a link to a survey where you, the community, will be able to provide your feedback directly to us! Thank you!

Addressed Community Feedback
As mentioned in the 2020 Killing Floor 2 ‘State of the Game’ our goal is to bring to the community a continued stream of QOL changes for each update throughout the year. Please continue to report any QOL changes you believe should be added to the game by submitting your feedback in the ‘general’ section on our official forums at: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forum/killing-floor-2

General

• Skip Trader for the Versus mode
  • Skip Trader vote system implemented only for Survivors team players.
  • Zeds team players will not be able to vote.

• Improve the reliability of Scrake stuns with Crossbow and Compound Bow.
  • Headshots with the crossbow arrows and the sharp compound bow arrows to the Scrakes will now apply the stun more consistently.

Balance

• Weapons
  • Compound Bow
    • Cryo arrow explosion damage increased from 25 to 75
    • Cryo arrow explosion radius increased from 200 to 250
    • Cryo arrow explosion adjusted to have damage exponential falloff rather than linear (less damage reduction).
    • Ammo pool increased from 30 to 35 arrows
    • Initial spare ammo increased from 10 to 11 arrows
    • Ammo pickup scale increased from 3 to 4 arrows.

  • Hemogoblin
    • Impact damage increased from 100 to 120
    • Dart healing amount increased from 20 to 25
    • Ammo pool increased from 98 to 112
    • Reload speed increased by 20%

• Perks
  • Berserker
    • Damage Resistance (passive skill)
      • Resistance bonus decreased from 3% every 5 levels (15% max) to 2% every 5 levels (10% max).

    • Skirmisher (level 5 skill)
      • Regeneration reduced from 2 to 1 health points each second.

    • Vampire (level 10 skill)
      • Healing for each kill reduced from 4 to 3 health points.

    • Resistance (level 15 skill)
      • Resistance to all damage decreased from 25% to 15%.
      • Additional resistance to Poison and Sonic damage decreased from 25% to 15%.

    • Parry (level 15 skill)
      • Incoming damage reduction decreased from 40% to 25%.
      • Duration decreased from 10 to 6 seconds.

    
    
  • Field Medic
    • Armor bonus (passive skill)
      • Armor bonus decreased from 3% per level (75% max) to 2% per level (50% max).

    • Symbiotic Health (level 5 skill)
      • Self healing decreased from 10% to 6% of total health.

    
    
  • Demolitionist
    • Extra Rounds (level 10 skill)
      • Extra ammo increased from 5 to 10.

    
    
  • Support
    • High Capacity Magazines (level 5 skill)
      • Extra magazine size increased from 50% to 75%.

    
    

Designer Notes :
We have integrated the skip trader vote system in the Versus game mode, that will make the process of skipping the trader easier and clearer for players. Only the Survivor players will vote.

We were aware of the stun reliability problems of the Crossbow and Compound Bow headshots against Scrakes, and the frustration that it may cause. We have worked on improving the system and now the headshots stun power should be applied correctly to the Scrakes, and stun them with more consistency.

The Compound bow was not in a bad spot but we think that one of their fire modes, the cryo arrow, was not performing as good as the other one, the sharp arrow. So we boosted the explosion of the cryo arrow to allow a higher damage capacity and more effective freeze effect against groups of Zeds. Finally, we increased the ammo capacity of the weapon to encourage the use of more cryo arrows to players that are usually conservative with ammo, regarding that this fire mode does not leave pickup as the sharp arrows.

We made some adjustments on the Hemogoblin to improve its viability as a medic weapon. Apart from the bleeding mechanic, the semi-automatic fire mode was a bit unbalanced, so we increased the damage of the primary fire, and speeded up the reload time. We also increased the healing of each dart to make it slightly more impactful, in a midpoint between the HMTech-401 and the HRG Incision.

We implemented several nerfs to the Berserker and Field Medic perks, mostly related to their surviving capacities, as we had a lot of community reports about both perks overperforming in that aspect, even more if their capacities were combined. We love to see the different synergies between perks and strategies that our community creates, but we would like to have every perk in a similar balance point, and each of the 10 perks to be equally relevant in the game.

Finally, we made some adjustments on Demolitionist’s Extra Rounds and Support’s High Capacity Magazines, to improve their viability, as they were underperforming compared to their counterpart skill and were less prefered by most players.

Bug Fixes
Also mentioned in the 2020 Killing Floor 2 ‘State of the Game’ our goal is to bring to the community a continued stream of community-reported bug fixes for each update throughout the year. Please continue to report any bugs you discover by visiting our official forums at: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forum/killing-floor-2 and posting in the ‘PC’ or ‘Console’ sections.

Top Community Issues:

• Fixed an issue where the only weapon pickups available was the varmint rifle when there were 4 or fewer spawns on a map.
• Fixed an issue where escort drones on any map could become unrepairable which forced an exit of the map to continue play.
• Fixed an outstanding issue where all players leaving servers before match end could result in the server not ending the match leaving it in a bad state requiring a restart.
• Fixed an issue where the weekly challenge UI would be out of sync from the current weekly cycle.

Map:

• Fixed an issue where the Trader Path would not path across the main street on Dystopia.

Localization:

• Altered the text string for the HRG Incendiary Rifle in the trader pod in Russian to allow it to fit within the UI.
• Altered the text string for the HMTech-501 in the trader pod in German to allow it to fit within the UI.
• Altered the text string for the Limit Results filter in the store in German to allow it to fit within the UI.

Cosmetics:

• Fixed an issue where the Conquest variation of the Reaper Outfit did not apply to Anton Strasser.
• Fixed an issue where the Witch Hunter body did not apply the correct colors to Hayato Tanaka.

Store:

• Fixed the spelling of the HMTech-001 Scalpel in the Neon MKVII Weapon Skin Pack.

As always, thank you for your continued support!