Solo dev here -- and that’s a wrap on Season 1 of Katanaut! Get a head start on Season 2 ending at the end of April!
This patch comes in hot with sweeping balance changes across the board, and yes, it is a full meta shakeup. What does that mean?
BUFFS. Buffs everywhere.
Every category has been brought up to make more builds viable, more playstyles rewarding, and more weapons worth experimenting with.
Season 1 competitors, if you placed Top 10 on any leaderboard, you will find a reward waiting in your homebase.
On top of all that, one of the most requested features is finally here:
👉 The Training Room
Located beneath the homebase, you can now test your gear and upgrades against enemies in a controlled environment.
Bosses did not quite fit into hologram form... maybe next time 😉
Core:
- Added training room to the homebase so users can test items that they have unlocked! Training room is available once you beat the final boss at least once.
- Added the 9th Katana! There is a chance for it to drop from all enemies in "The Aether" level.
- Leaderboards are completely wiped! Anyone in the top 10 of any leaderboard will get a reward in the home base!
- Season 2 for leaderboards start now!
Offhand Buffs:
- PLASMA PISTOL: Got a big make-over. Doubled damage, now fires two rounds at once that spiral through each other.
- BALLISTA: Got a big make-over with a spiraling arrow effect to help aim. +38% damage. 5 piercing arrows for 2 ammo had the worst effective damage-per-ammo among multi-projectile weapons. Was outclassed by Shotgun at half the ammo cost.
- RAIL GUN: +20% damage. New shooting effect.
- ENERGY CHAKRAM: +30% damage. Boomerang return and 10 bounces give it identity but raw numbers were identical to generic weapons. Now rewards landing both outbound and return hits.
- SHURIKEN: +30% damage. Wall bouncing is situational. Was barely above the starter Pistol despite being a found weapon.
- NINJATO: +20% damage. Dash melee for 2 ammo puts you in danger. Small buff rewards the close-range risk.
- SPORE LAUNCHER: +30% damage. 3 ammo cost gave it the worst damage-per-ammo in the game. Poison gas AoE helps but didn't justify how bad the numbers were.
- DRONE: +50% damage. 3 ammo to deploy, auto-targets but dies when you take a hit. Damage was so low it was essentially decorative.
- ECLIPSE CANNON: +30% damage. 3 ammo with 5s blind is strong CC, but the damage was worse than many 1-ammo weapons with no utility.
- WARP THORNES: +35% damage. All-direction melee for 1 ammo is a cool crowd-clearer, but each individual thorn hit for almost nothing.
- SOOTFORGE CANNON: +50% damage. 6-bullet burst with AoE burn, but per-projectile damage was absurdly low. Still relies on burn stacking, just less invisible now.
- CHARGER SMG: +25% damage. Explosive bullets usable while moving is its niche, but damage was below the Plasma Minigun which also fires bursts.
- GRAVITY GUN: +15% damage. 3 ammo for a gravity well with its current base damage was still low. The gravity pull CC is its strength but the damage-per-ammo needed help.
- VORTEX RIFLE: +15% damage. 3 ammo slow projectile with gravity well and shock. Great utility but at 10.33 damage-per-ammo it underperformed for a 3-ammo investment.
- MINI GUN: +25% damage. Added recoil pushback. 6-round burst for 1 ammo was decent but damage per bullet was too low for a weapon that roots you in place.
- PLASMA MINIGUN: +25% damage. Added recoil pushback. Same rooted-burst identity as Mini Gun but with bouncing plasma rounds. Damage didn't justify the slower projectile speed and stationary requirement.
Summon Buffs:
- SUMMONED MINION (Ground): +25% damage (0.4 to 0.5). Faster chase speed, quicker bite cooldown (1.0s to 0.7s), and more frequent target acquisition. Minions felt sluggish and passive, but now they hunt more aggressively.
- SUMMONED MINION (Flying): +25% damage (0.4 to 0.5). Faster flight speed, quicker bite cooldown (0.7-1.0s to 0.5-0.75s), faster stuck detection, and more responsive targeting. Flying minions had the mobility but weren't using it aggressively enough.
Skill Buffs:
- FROSTBITE BLAST: +35% damage, stamina cost reduced from 50 to 40 (-20%). Tiny AoE with single hit and freeze. At the same 50 stamina as Time Dilation which hits the entire screen, which is probably why nobody picked it. Lower cost and higher damage reward precision aiming of the small hitbox.
- SIPHON STRIKE: +15% damage. 40 stamina with health drain on hit. The heal is the utility but the base damage at that cost made the strike feel like it did nothing.
- PHANTOM BLADES: +35% damage. 40 stamina for sustained spinning blades around you. Base damage was too low to compete with 20-stamina skills.
- UNSTABLE TETHER: +25% damage. 25 stamina to mark multiple enemies for shared Aether damage. Mark mechanic is useful but base damage underperformed Impulse Wave which does more for 20 stamina.
- INFERNO RING: +20% damage. 45 stamina expanding fire ring with burn DoT. The per-level scaling was almost flat. Now rewards upgrading with steeper progression.
- ELDRITCH INFERNO: +40% damage. 45 stamina to ignite all nearby enemies. Despite full AoE coverage, base damage was lower than single-target skills at half the stamina cost.
- COSMIC PACT: +25% damage. 45 stamina, must kill the marked enemy to spawn a cosmic rift. Two-step payoff demands meaningful rift damage to be worth the setup.
- ELDRITCH STORM: +18% damage. 60 stamina with dual-hit chain lightning and random status effects. Chain mechanic and status are powerful but 60 stamina is the highest cost tier and the base felt punishing.
Status Effect Buffs:
- Sootflame burn (Sootforge Cannon's DoT): +60% tick damage. Was dealing one-third of standard burn damage despite the weapon already having the lowest base damage in the game.
- Freeze duration: +25% (4.0s to 5.0s). Freeze was shorter than blind (5.0s) despite being harder to apply. Extra second makes freeze builds more viable and differentiates Frostbite Blast from cheaper CC options.
Season 1 Winners -- top 10 on any leaderboard:
* Geeni
* luixa
* Manaく くYne
* Peegwah
* Mychi
* Tenebris
* gmomofunky
* Spidey
* smyt
* Undieman
* GoodOmens
* ♍Tiesti™
* 2CB 🐝
* Omni
* daniel.r.martin
* HurtinForASquirtin
* Rorroconter
* lucky31491
* wabbiT
* Vandud
* Numot
* SolarPons
* glider521al (Aura of Worlds dev)
* Itzhexen
* sonof_david
* Owlbear
* ossan87
* Poptart
* Hazman_Yahya
* wubba lubba dub dub
* 1xbrogan_
* PaxGladeus
* 2282117787
* Phuadro Gutisberg
* Toro148
* Athetos
* Дутый Чайник
* Mewalk
* whoiam
* Don Weaso
* HFgddZdy
* LegendaryFailure
* DuckJibe
* Hikigane
* Evil Santa
* Tateomuro
* Ебоboy
* Xx_Giggleshittertron3000_xX
* Metamorphosis
Thanks to everyone that participated!
- Eugene | Solo dev | Katanaut