Hello Hackers!
As we teased on social media, we have every intention to enter the Bullet Heaven Festival 3.0 with a bang 💣
Maybe the –25% discount is the perfect opportunity to grab a copy for yourself or a friend before Early Access ends early next year?
On top of that, our Steam page has been re-written and adorned with new media assets. The last time we did that was for version 2.0 of this exact event! May the changes do the game’s growth justice.
Most importantly, it’s time for the big Content Update you have been waiting for. Let’s dive in:
New feature: Modifications
Modifications are the newest way to bring some variety to your runs. At first glance, the boons they offer seem too great to pass up on, but beware: everything comes at a cost ⚖️
Blow up the capacitor by over-charging it and weigh your options carefully before proceeding.
New character: 7UR7ING
Let there be fire 🔥
Named after the “father of computer science”, this tanky turtle packs some serious heat. Pick between shooting flames, placing HeatLinks as protection, or casting fireball.
New region: Glacia
As the name might suggest, this region took inspiration from the colder climates.
The map may be the hardest one yet, due to its increased size and tight passages. On top of that, your robotic enemies seem to adapt better to the freezing temperatures than the vulnerable flesh you pilot, making them stronger.
Glacia comes with a new soundtrack for you to enjoy, too 🎧
New character: GU$$
This speedy snake has learned to use the Observer pattern to his advantage. Slow enemies down, drop mines, or coil yourself up protectively.
Developer side quest: With the right combination of nodes, you can properly recreate the Snake experience! Show us what you got.
New nodes
This update adds a plethora of new nodes into the pool of available code-snippets. Have a look at some of our favorites:
SpawnHeatLink()
Press Q to spawn a HeatLink tower at your current position. Between instances, a wall of fire will be raised. On top of that, they are programmable to support whatever strategy you come up with.
HeatCast()
Your character casts out a beam of heat and delivers massive damage to all enemies inside that zone.
VoidBomb()
Spawn a black hole that draws enemies in and continuously doles out AOE damage.
Discover these nodes and many more in your upcoming runs!
New character: M4RRY
While our new shark is not actually a hammerhead, she does pack quite a punch 🔨
Designed to be the team’s hardest hitter, her damage output is higher than average by +10%. Throw ginormous packages, become a sharpshooter on mouse click, or stand still to increase your menacing power even further.
New enemies
Wild enemy appeared! Three different types can now be encountered in all regions.
The Artillery
Keeps its distance from the player to make long-range attacks, and teleports away when hit. Their explosive projectiles don’t differentiate between friend and foe.
The Warden
Makes sure there are no gaps left in the wave formation and will give you a run for personal space.
The Surfer
The downside of a certain Modification. All ByteCoins remaining on the field will be converted into these pursuit units.
General improvements:
Pay close attention: enemies can now drop Node & New Upgrade pick-ups
Don’t worry if an enemy moves out of level bounds; we have ensured that loot drops on accessible ground
Strong enemy waves now appear at certain intervals in your runs
QoL changes
Nodes can now be sold 💸
We sorted the nodes into new, themed sets. While every character (other than ROS!E) starts out with a specific one, you now have the option to unlock one or two additional sets in your runs. To do so, choose a Premium node that is marked as being part of a different set.
How many identical nodes you can have is limited; for transparency that amount is now displayed inside the tooltip
Character & Region unlocks are now done via ШFiles, giving you more flexibility in your meta progression
Upgrades chosen during a run are now displayed on the lefthand side of your screen; this new HUD element can be folded away for your convenience
Other changes
Only 30 nodes can be active at a time
Recursion is no longer possible (we are already working on a fix to bring it back) ♾️
Overclocking has been split into two separate buffs:
Overclock affects the vulnerability of enemies
Strength modifies a player's damage output
Destroyed Observers now drop onto the map and need to be picked up again
For balancing purposes of the new multiplicative nodes, the time cost calculation has been modified
Daily Challenge and 30-Minute-Mode are shortened to 20 minutes
Performance improvements
You made it!
Hopefully this wall of changes and new features excites you as much as it was fun to prepare for us. We cannot wait to see your creativity let loose on the new nodes and inevitably uncover new edge cases.
To brag about breaking the game (and support us in fixing it), simply join our Community Discord! This game wouldn’t be what it is now without your incredible feedback and consistent playtesting, thank you all.
Keep on hacking,
Your Net.Attack() team