Equipment -> Gears
Sub-weapons and Armor modules used to be collectively called "Equipment" up to now. But we decided that term was too broad and changed it to "Gears". Doesn't that sound a lot cooler?
At a glance, you might not recognize any of the above gear. That's because all the gear got a new face now (for UI displays like this) but more importantly, "armor modules" are now more apparent as something that enhances the character's armor rather than being a generic icon.
2 Sub-Weapons, 1 Armor module per run
Now, you can only obtain a maximum of 2 sub-weapons and 1 armor module during a run. This might confuse some of you since most great bullet-heavens are better with more weapons. But we don't want to follow the same formula as every other bullet-heaven out there, and decided to give more power and more customizability to the few gears you obtain instead.
As the first step in this change, we gave you the full accessibility to each sub-upgrade on each gear, whenever you enter the upgrade pod. You can either unlock a new gear or upgrade a single gear as much as you want*, from a single upgrade pod. The upgrades are still limited however, by an added Fabrium cost per upgrade and a limit of 3 upgrades per sub-stat. You still get a lot more freedom that you previously didn't have though, so we consider it an overall positive.
Gear levels, Modifications & Evolutions
Each gear can now be upgraded up to level 10, and at level 5 and 10, you get a bonus upgrade.
The level 10 is the usual "Evolution" tier upgrade that you previously had. Level 5 gives you a new type of upgrade we currently call "Modifications".
Modification upgrades change some aspect of the gear that gives you more control over how the gear performs. While the evolutions are primarily focused on leaning into a single strength of the gear while abandoning others, modifications simply give you some extra overall control.
For example, the Seeker Missile can be modified to target burning targets rather than the highest HP targets (there's only one modification for now, but with more added later, this will become a control choice made by you, based on your build).
Final remarks
The new gear system is meant to give you, the player more freedom on how you build your equipment during a run and give more emphasis to the customizability of the build rather than the amount of equipment you have. Part of the reason is because of the upcoming Elemental Reaction System. This system will essentially give more power to using 2 different elements in the entire build kit, and upgrading them to maximize the power output of getting reactions out of these 2 elements as much as possible. Having way too many gears at the arsenal made it too easy to mix elements and get these reactions... reacting all the time.
We will continue to improve the new upgrade system to try and keep the rogueliteness of the game intact without giving you 100% of choice all the time. But that's for later.
What's Next?
We want to release the game to Early Access before the end of September 2026. But we still have a lot to do. On the list are:
Elemental Reactions
Enemy variety and counter-building
Biome POIs, encounters, events
Better boss fights
First titan boss reveal
Leena improvements
Permanent unlocks, rewards and achievements
Full keyboard and controller usability/customizability
Localization support for more languages
We hope we get to cover all of these in this short time period. Thank you for your support!
See you again soon in the next devlog!