Greetings, Station Managers.
Version 1.5.2 is a stability hotfix that addresses critical performance issues causing game freezes during the inspection boss fight and the black hole prestige animation. If you've experienced crashes or freezing during these sequences, this update is for you.
Boss Fight Performance Fixes
We've identified and fixed the root cause of boss fight freezes reported by players.
The Problem
When many fighters attack simultaneously (especially with attack speed upgrades), the game was creating hundreds of objects per second - projectiles, damage labels, particle effects, and sound effects. This overwhelmed the CPU on lower-end systems and caused the game to freeze.
The Fix
Damage Number Batching - Instead of showing individual damage numbers for every attack, damage is now accumulated and displayed as a single combined number every 0.15 seconds
Particle Effect Throttling - Visual effects now spawn at controlled intervals (max every 0.3 seconds) instead of flooding the screen
Attack Effect Cooldown - Each fighter's projectiles now only spawn every 0.5 seconds, reducing visual clutter
Sound Spam Prevention - Attack sounds are now throttled to prevent audio overload
DPS Caching - DPS calculations are now cached and updated every 0.5 seconds instead of every frame
Performance Impact
Before: 50 fighters could create 50+ new nodes/particles per second
After: 50 fighters now create ~7 damage labels + ~3 particle bursts per second
With high attack speed builds, the improvement is even more dramatic
Black Hole Animation Crash Fix
We've fixed critical bugs in the prestige black hole animation that were causing game freezes after defeating the boss.
The Problem
The black hole animation had a bug where it continuously triggered redraws every single frame, creating an infinite loop that eventually froze the game. Additionally, there was an unsafe memory operation when objects were being consumed.
The Fix
Fixed Infinite Redraw Loop - The black hole no longer triggers unnecessary redraws
Fixed Memory Safety Issue - Objects are now safely removed during the animation
Frame Budget Limit - Maximum of 20 objects processed per frame to prevent CPU spikes
Reduced Visual Detail - Spiral arm complexity reduced for smoother rendering
Fewer Victory Particles - Reduced from 5 waves of 50 particles to 3 waves of 25 particles
Boss Balance Adjustments
Boss HP adjusted to 750,000 (was 1,000,000) - Provides a more reasonable fight duration while still being challenging
Prestige Scaling Increased - Late-game prestige scaling slightly increased (1.01x to 1.02x per prestige) to maintain challenge for veteran players
Botanical Garden Improvements
Click Feedback - Plots now display messages when clicked showing planting or progress status
Improved Visuals - Empty plots now have visible borders and hover effects
Clearer Labels - "PLANT" button renamed to "HARVEST" for clarity
Fixed Persistence - Plot states now properly save and restore
Save Compatibility
Full backward compatibility with v1.5.0 and v1.5.1 saves
No save data migration required
Progress made before this update will be preserved
Thank You
Thank you to everyone who reported these crashes with detailed information about their system specs and when the freezes occurred. This helped us identify and fix the root causes. If you're still experiencing performance issues after updating, please let us know on Discord or in the Steam discussions - include your system specs and the number of fighters you had active.
--- HeartCoded and the Starbrew Station Team
Community Links
Discord: discord.gg/lostrabbits
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