Hi, everyone! Today, we’re excited to release our first full patch for Lynked: Banner of the Spark! While we’ve rolled out a few hotfixes since launching into Early Access on October 22, this patch is significantly larger (and just the first of many—check out our latest Development Update to learn more.)
Read on to find out what’s new and what’s changed!
HIGHLIGHTS
➤ NEW FEATURE: Offline Mode
Offline Mode is now available for testing! Please note that if you’d like to sync any progress made in Offline Mode to the cloud, you must first log in. Because of this, we advise against using Offline Mode on multiple devices simultaneously, as this could lead to issues when reconciling save files, potentially causing a loss of progress made during that session. (Offline Mode is still in development, so we're actively working on additional features to improve cloud and local save file management options.)
➤ NOW AVAILABLE: Early Access Freebies
We intended to release these appreciation rewards at our Early Access launch, so we're happy to announce that they're now available in-game. Thank you for your patience and apologies for the delay!
WHAT'S NEW
- Expanded Bot-o-Pedia: Now includes a new session about the Combots!
- Shared resources in co-op: Combot materials, Heartdrives, and Soulsparks collected in combat are now shared between all players at the end of a multiplayer mission.
- New Sprint options: A toggle option has been added for the “Sprint” button in the Settings menu, and can be configured separately for each input scheme (controller vs. keyboard). Additionally, holding the “Dodge” button will now only keep Sprint active while it’s held.
- Updated character customization screen: Will now better showcase unique outfit variants.
- The Smeats have evolved: These quirky little protein analogs can now talk!
- Performance and optimization improvements: We’ve made several updates that should significantly improve how well the game runs on more machines.
- Plus, tons of bug fixes: See below!
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
COMBAT
- Sludge (Status Effect): Sludge-affected players experience a 50% reduction in movement speed, and NPC actions are also significantly slowed under its effects.
- Gunner Hound (Cyberus): Increased damage of minigun bullets.
- Hits taken while Overshield (Spark Power) is active no longer reset the player’s K.O. streak.
MINIBOSSES
- We’ve adjusted the behavior of all Minibosses in Lynked, increasing their aggression, introducing new moves and combos, and rebalancing their health.
- Miniboss Armor is now adjusted based on player count and threat level. For example, Minibosses in 1-Star single player missions have less Armor compared to those in 4-Star multiplayer missions.
TOWN
- The daily seed count in Ivy's Shop has been significantly reduced.
- Fruit sell prices have been increased.
- Tree seeds prices have been increased.
- Tehra's Town Passive "Seed Sale" upgrade now increases seed counts at a much lower rate.
- Increased the pricing for some of Tehra and Ghust's Banner of the Spark Town Passive upgrades.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed the framing on some Unibot icons.
- Fixed the Strawberry grow time to match other crops.
- Fixed issues with certain decor items being placed against walls.
- Fixed the “Splash Bomb” Weapon Mod (Basher) in multiplayer.
- Fixed an exploit with “Crit of the Spark,” “Core of the Spark,” and similar Weapon Mods that allowed two guaranteed procs instead of one.
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to refund Friendchips or Soulsparks, regardless of the number of Heartdrives they had.
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to select a “Support-Lynk” in the loadout cart during contracts with the “No Spark Powers” mutator.
- Reduced texture memory usage and shader instruction count, improving performance in town and several Logwood Pines combat levels.
- Plus several other small fixes and optimization/performance improvements.
Thank you once again for supporting Lynked: Banner of the Spark during Early Access! If you haven’t already, we encourage you to join our official Discord server—it’s the best place to share feedback, report bugs, and hear directly from the developers.
See you in the game!