The Tower Defense Fest starts tomorrow — and we are participating! To celebrate the occasion, we are releasing a fresh update packed with new content, improvements, and fixes. This patch introduces a brand new Level 7 – The Golden Cave, a complete overhaul of Level 2, major camera improvements, visual upgrades, balance adjustments, performance optimizations, and many bug fixes. Thank you to everyone who has been playtesting the game and sending feedback!
Highlights
New Level 7 — The Golden Cave
Excavation 2 completely reworked
Overhauled camera system
New environmental interactions — rocks!
Visual improvements across all levels
Performance optimizations
Balance adjustments
Many bug fixes
New Excavation — The Golden Cave
Travel to a long-forgotten Constructium-filled cave on the distant desert planet Sha’Korr — the ancient homeland of the Crymz.
Use the new Crossroad terrain piece and adapt your strategy, Capitano. This new level will challenge you in a very unique way.
Level Changes
Bouncer Valley is now Excavation 8 (previously 7).
Excavation 2 has been completely redesigned:
Level layout updated to encourage building the Rocket Tower
Enemy waves rebalanced
Max Winnium increased from 250 → 400
Max Constructium increased from 250 → 400
Starting Constructium increased depending on difficulty
Winnium required for evacuation increased by 50
The infamous arch was moved further away and visually updated
Environment Updates
All levels received environmental improvements:
Updated lighting
New decorations and mountains
Weather effects
Hidden easter eggs
Improved camera setups
Rocks can now spawn on environmental pieces and physically interact with enemies and W.A.R.D. equipment.
Features, Systems & Quality of Life
Camera System Overhaul
Camera system completely rewritten
Improved tilt, FOV and camera distance
Smoother controls
Press F to focus and follow a selected object
Depth of field adapts dynamically when zooming
Camera cannot be controlled during loading screens
Post-Excavation Camera After winning or failing an excavation you can now freely explore the map and take screenshots of your operation. Planetary Gravity System
Gravity in Levels 1–6 set to 1.62
Gravity in Levels 7–8 set to 4.2
Slime jump forces rebalanced accordingly
Incinerate Skill Improvements
Build Core now dashes downward before firing
Skill radius now visible when hovering over the ability
Game Balance
Difficulty Settings Updated
Chill (previously Dumb) – Excavator HP increased from 10 → 20
Fair (previously Smart)
Unfai
Most excavations have also had their enemy waves rebalanced.
Rocket Tower Improvements
Projectiles are now faster
Acceleration limit removed
Physics interpolation improved
Maximum and minimum range reduced by 2 meters
Graphics, Art & VFX
Ambient Occlusion added
Shadow resolution increased
Natives received new materials and color variations
Frost damage now visually covers enemies in snow
Improved particle effects
Ore veins now use precise colliders
Ground Drill particles updated with new models
Improved materials for better contrast
Audio & SFX
New sound when starting an excavation
New UI hover and click sounds
New block selection sounds
Unit-specific selection sounds
Improved sound balancing
UI Improvements
New W.A.R.D. color-coded text system
Cooldown text added to Incinerate skill
Narration transcripts now fade out
Pause menu improved for ultrawide resolutions
Tooltip size increased and standardized
Tooltip delay reduced
Performance
Enemy hit particle count now capped
Rocket Tower targeting heavily optimized
Rocket impact particles converted to pooled systems
Enemy hit particles converted to pooled systems
Bug Fixes
Fixed narration transcript sometimes persisting
Fixed missing colliders on environmental tiles
Fixed enemies spawning after excavation ended
Fixed crashes related to Incinerate after failure
Fixed selection issues with towers and Excavator
Fixed incorrect enemy hit type display
Fixed multiple particle and animation issues
Thank you for playing and supporting the game during the Steam Tower Defense Fest!