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
Added 10th campaign level: Breakpoint Reservoir. Help defend Sentinel Dam and stop General Zharos from seizing control of the reservoir and its vital energy infrastructure
Item drops and Supply drop crates now interact with water and float on the surface instead of sinking
Decorative boats in water environments now move naturally with the waves
🔧 Improvements
Improved the wording of several loading screen tips to make them clearer and more natural
Increased the LOD distance for Humvees to improve their visual appearance at range
Default camera pan sensitivity increased slightly for smoother navigation
The Quit confirmation popup in the game menu now properly returns focus to the mission panel when closed
Improved stability and responsiveness when a large number of enemies are active
Updated the main UI font for improved readability
⚖️ Balance Changes
Critical hit multiplier reduced for military sites
Reduced from 300% → 200%
Deep Impact skill adjusted
Reduced effect from 15% → 5%
Brute Force skill adjusted
Damage bonus reduced from 15% → 10%
Difficulty scaling adjusted
Enemy hitpoints scaling on Hard and Impossible difficulties has been reduced
Enemy balance adjustments
IFV
Hitpoints increased from 3500 → 3800
Armor increased from 45% → 60%
Tank
Hitpoints increased from 4000 → 7500
Armor increased from 50% → 70%
Mission objective changes
Sunflare Dunes oil objective increased from 6000 → 8000
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where enemy vessel scale could reset incorrectly
Fixed incorrect critical chance values appearing in the site upgrade menu
Fixed an issue where map mission paths displayed incorrectly for Breakpoint Reservoir
Fixed several issues affecting map mission flags in the demo version
Fixed an issue where Landmarks were not properly registered by the mission manager
Development is now focused on the upcoming demo, with new features, improvements, and balance updates planned for that release.
Full patch notes and development details are available on the Empyrean Defense wiki: