This update is now live on the Empyrean Defense Steam Playtest. Thanks to everyone who’s been testing and sending feedback, many of the updates below came directly from your reports.
✨ New Features
New Ability: Teleport - Displaces a group of enemies, instantly teleporting them back along their advance and disrupting their push.
Path Indicators: Added ground and naval path indicators during the setup phase
Water Improvements: Updated water shader to include Gerstner swells and CPU wave sampling for vessel rotation
🔧 Improvements
Updated ability icons for:
Firestorm
Lightning Storm
Added tabbed containers in the Market to make browsing and navigation easier
Allow tooltips in menu pages to be hidden when using controller
Updated UI Scale setting info text and reordered it within the settings list
Updated wave overlay countdown to use mm:ss format
⚖️ Balance Changes
Landmines Ability
Cooldown increased from 30s → 80s
Set all mission countdown timers to 90 seconds
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed pause menu reliability on Steam Deck when application not focused
Fixed main menu flicker when returning from gameplay menu
Fixed Nyra popup triggering incorrectly for deployment checklist items that aren't completed after Verdant Anchorage
Development is now focused on the upcoming demo, with the tenth campaign mission, Breakpoint Reservoir, planned for the next release.
Full patch notes and development details are available on the Empyrean Defense wiki: