Patch Notes
For the first time, I was able to take a closer look at how Junkyard Saints: Scrapstorm is actually being played — and two things became very obvious:
The campaign was being completed too quickly, and somehow the final two chapters ended up being easier than Chapter 3.
Neither of those things fits the progression curve I want for the game, so I have adjusted the leveling, difficulty, and overall progression accordingly.
Another issue came up very clearly in your feedback: players are offered plenty of abilities during a run, but too often those abilities do not match the build they are actually trying to create.
That is changing with this update as well.
Before getting into the actual patch notes, I want to highlight something important:
Junkyard Saints: Scrapstorm is a one-person project.
I am developing the game on my own — from gameplay systems and balancing to UI, large parts of the audio work, VFX, and the technical implementation.
Over the years, I have created and released many smaller games, prototypes, and experiments for free.
Scrapstorm is my first commercial project.
Because of that, Early Access is also a learning process for me. For the first time, I am receiving this amount of real gameplay data, direct player feedback, and the opportunity to see how systems behave outside of my own testing environment.
And that is exactly what updates like this are for.
Progression and Levels
The level curve now matches the intended chapter progression more closely. Players were entering Chapters 4 and 5 significantly above the recommended level — in some cases by as much as nine levels. This removed a large part of the intended challenge.
The XP curve has been adjusted so that each chapter should now be reached at roughly the level it was originally designed for.
Endless now rewards Account XP. Endless was always intended to be the long-term route toward Account Level 100, but until now it did not reward Account XP at all.
This has been corrected. Level 100 should remain a meaningful long-term goal rather than something that can be reached within a few evenings.
Chapters you have heavily outleveled now reward less XP. Once you have progressed far beyond a chapter, repeatedly farming old campaign content should no longer be the most efficient way to level your account.
After completing the campaign, Endless is now the better path for continued progression.
Your existing levels remain untouched. No progress will be removed or reset.
These new rules only apply to XP earned from this update onward.
Difficulty
Chapters 4 and 5 are now noticeably harder. Enemies in these chapters have more health and deal more damage.
The gameplay data made the issue very clear: Chapter 4 was being completed on the first attempt roughly 80% of the time, while Chapter 5 reached approximately 93%.
Chapter 3, on the other hand, had a first-attempt completion rate of only around 18%.
The difficulty curve was effectively running backwards.
Bosses in later chapters now deal more damage. Previously, boss scaling mainly increased their health while leaving their damage largely unchanged.
This made later bosses durable, but not especially threatening. Their offensive scaling has now been adjusted as well.
Chapters 1 through 3 remain largely unchanged in strength. Chapter 3 is intended to be a meaningful difficulty spike in the campaign and should encourage players to engage more deeply with their gear and build.
The opening minutes of a run are more forgiving for new players. The data shows that newer accounts fail disproportionately often within the first three minutes of a run.
Enemy density during this early phase has therefore been reduced slightly for lower-level accounts.
From Account Level 40 onward, this adjustment no longer applies. Experienced players will continue to get the same opening pressure as before.
Builds and Abilities
Level-up choices now take your current build into account. If you are heavily investing into Corrosion, for example, you will be more likely to receive additional Corrosion-related abilities as the run progresses.
The more clearly your build develops, the stronger this weighting becomes.
Early choices intentionally remain more open, however. I do not want one early powerup to completely determine the direction of an entire run.
Every run now starts with one free Reroll. The Reroll system already existed, but it was previously locked entirely behind the Reroll Kit skill.
This meant that players below Account Level 25 could easily play for quite a while without ever realizing the system existed.
Every run now begins with one Reroll charge.
The skill tree remains the way to unlock additional Rerolls.
Economy
Endless now rewards Scrap. Endless previously did not provide Scrap at all.
Since the mode is meant to become the main long-term progression and farming environment after the campaign, it is now also the most rewarding Scrap source for advanced players.
Heavily outleveled campaign chapters now reward less Scrap. If you are far above a chapter's recommended level, its Scrap rewards will gradually be reduced.
This reduction only starts to become noticeable at a significant level difference and scales in slowly.
If you have only recently completed a chapter, you should barely notice any difference.
Instantly abandoned runs no longer generate rewards. Runs shorter than 20 seconds with zero kills will no longer award Scrap.
They also no longer count toward missions or challenges that require completed runs.
Fixed
Non-Steam leaderboard filtering has been corrected. Leaderboards used outside the Steam access path were filtering against the wrong internal value, which would have caused them to remain empty.
This has now been fixed.
Closing Notes
This update deliberately changes the pace of progression in several areas.
I do not want to artificially inflate playtime or stretch systems for the sake of it. At the same time, progression needs enough room to breathe so that equipment, skills, builds, and later game modes actually matter.
Early Access now gives me the opportunity to see what players really do — not just what I assume they will do during development.
For a solo project, that feedback is incredibly valuable.
Thank you to everyone who plays, leaves feedback, reports issues, or simply jumps in for a few runs.
It helps more than you might think.