Beacon is now released on Steam Early Access! With the release onto Steam comes patch 2.0, Depth Charge. Make your way into the cryptic Prism Vault where your beacon locator has been pointing you, face off against new Uncharted enemies, and when you eventually die recycle all that unused DNA into new item research!
Depth Charge
New Features
- DNA Research - Recycle your unused DNA into the new DNA Research bar at the end of each life, unlocking new items and weapons to spawn in the world for further lives.
New Items
- Weapon: Stygian Hunter - Fires lava rocks with a slow fire rate that increases over time, with hot homing lava rocks firing on critical shots
- Weapon: Stygian Hammer - Fires hot homing lava rocks, with a mega lava rock firing at the end of the clip that bursts into a cluster of hot lava rocks
- Weapon: Laser Refractor - A semi-automatic weapon composed of refracting glass, firing bursts of tightly refracted lasers
- Passive: Hailshard Drone - Befriend a hailshard drone that hovers around you, bursting on the first enemy it contacts
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Late Bloomer (Quill Revolver) - Fires explosive acid quill on critical shot
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Lance Keeper (Quill Gatling) - Fires penetrating acid quills, and a burst of explosive acid quills on critical shots
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Mjolnir (Tesla SFG) - Tesla SFG projectile fires tesla coils at nearby targets
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Illuminatus (Globule Lobber) - Globules explode on impact rather than sticking
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Rapture's Emissary (Globule Cannon) - Globule detonates in mid-air, bursting into a mega globule cluster
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: Death's Door (Chaingun) - Fires larger bullets that ricochet off of walls, with lower max ammo
- Tinkered Weapon Variant: High Roller (Magrail Launcher) - Fires a mega magrail ball
New Enemies
- Hexagoth - An interdimensional lifeform that was phased in during an off-world experiment, the Hexagoth spins in a whirlwind of tentacles that knocks back anything hit by it.
- Effigy - An amalgamation of crystalized organisms, anything that comes into contact with the effigy begins to crystalize and is stunned.
- Icosatron - A massive contraption of unknown origins, the Icosatron rolls towards its targets, occasionally toggling a series of high powered lasers from inside of its hull.
- Mega Embedded Tesla and Pyro turrets added - Fire extended bursts of Tesla Pulse and Pyro SMG rounds. Have high armor to all attacks other than explosives.
Levels
- Level 5 Added: Enter into the cryptic Prism Vault, clear the central chamber, and gain access to the central elevator to continue to the lowest depths of Prism's facilities.
- New Act 1 Prism Loot Zone: Laser Core Cache - Redirect the energy beams to gain access to the loot cache
- New Trap/Power Mechanic: Laser Redirect Beam - Redirect a high powered Prism beam through the level to complete objectives
- New Trap: Damaged Redirect Prism - When hit with an energy beam, the unstable prism will charge up and explode
- New Trap: Tesla Prong - Extends from a fortress wall, firing off 3 large Tesla Coils as it descends back inwards.
- New Trap: Flame Field - Covers an area in a Flame Field, igniting anything in contact with the holographic field.
- New Trap: Mining Eye - Fires a mining beam at random intervals from a static position.
- New Trap: Expunge Barrier - Sweeps over an area, instantly disintegrating anything that comes in contact with it.
- New Crate: Crystal Prism - Hit the crystal prism with an energy beam to release the items stuck inside
- Added 10 new Act 1 Connector tiles, making traveling between level 1 and 2 areas more randomized
- Increased size of Cavern entrance to make easier to enter
- Updated and improved various Act 1 tiles
- Updated Travel: Swamp Bubbles - Now pops and flings the player upwards, rather than carrying them slowly
- Added floor hologram enemy markers in many Prism arenas that display the amount of enemies left before the arena unlocks
Audio
- New Reconstitution sound effects added
- New Tutorial Screen sound effects added
- New Stormcell Incoming sound effect added
- Added player landing sounds
- Added new sounds for Flamethrower and Acid Blaster weapons
- Add new music for levels 2-5
Mementos
- Added new Level 4 and Level 5 Starting Mementos
- Added rare Prism comm mementos
- Added new deceased clone dog tag mementos
Balance
- Weapon: Magrail Launcher - Increased reload time per ball
- Weapon: Grenade Launcher and Copycat (Variant) - Increased reload time per grenade
- Weapon: Quill Cannon - Reduced max ammo and increased delay before ammo regen begins
- Weapon: Flak Revolver and Crowd Pleaser (Variant) - Increased bullet spread and decreased damage slightly
- Weapon: Flare Gun and Supernova (Variant) - Increased damage dealt by Blue and White flares on impact and updated effects
- Weapon: Impeder - Increased range and damage per shot, updated goo effects
- Weapon: Chaingun and Death's Door (Variant) - Reduced max ammo and slightly decreased max fire rate.
- Weapon: Laser Engine - Updated and re-enabled Prism's Laser Engine heavy weapon
- Auxiliary: Enflamed Heart - Improved reflectiveness of flame shield and updated effects
- Pickup: Bone Shield - Improved reflectiveness of bone shields and updated bone shield model
- Pickup: Repentant Daggers - Replaced old buff effect with 3 throwable daggers that lifesteal on hit.
- Enemy: Pyro Droid MK2 - Now throws pyro grenade instead of incendiary grenade
- Enemy: Tritoraptor Patriarch - Increased max movement speed and added AoE stun to pounce landing
- Enemy: Pyro Droid MK3 - Increased speed of flame dash and lowered ability cooldown times
- Enemy: Large Turret - Large embedded turrets are now damageable with any weapon instead of just explosives, but have high armor values.
- Mutation: Giant Appendage - Chance to fire acid bomb on dodge changed from 100% to 25%
- Mutation: Fallen Crown - Reduced lifesteal amount from 50% to 20%
- Mutation: Leeching Tentacle - Reduced lifesteal from 25% to 20% on melee
- Mutation: Aerodynamic Tail - Increased from +25 to +50 speed when stamina is empty and updated effects
- Increased the damage required to stun/flinch many large tier enemies
- Reduced stress bonus for DNA and health drops on many enemy types to prevent too much dropping in levels 4 and 5.
- DNA Mod: 50% Reduced Melee Stamina Cost - Changed to -5 Melee Stamina Cost
- DNA Mod: 50% Reduced Dodge Stamina Cost - Changed to -5 Dodge Stamina Cost
- DNA Mod: -50% Aux Cooldown - Changed to -10 Seconds Aux Cooldown
Bosses
- Hivemind - Acid Tails now descend at end of fight
- Excavation Spider - Laser impact position improved
- Aphelion - Added passive flame aura and increased speed of flame wave spread
Misc
- Added Credits Screen to Main Menu
- Updated reconstitution tooltip descriptions and effects
- Added Multi-Use ability to certain Pickup items, allowing them to be used 3 times before being discarded
- Updated many item statistics to better reflect their abilities and be consistent with the latest gameplay updates
- Updated and optimized many weapon and item particle effects
Fixes
- Improved performance of HUD waypoints
- Optimized weather particles on all weather types
- Fixed Mementos not being saved to Index Archive
- Fixed a few items causing Continue to break
- Fixed player and camera being mispositioned at Tutorial start
- Fixed Menhir stone pillar not bursting when shot
- Fixed Succulent Sanctuary fruit item unlock not triggering correctly in some cases
- Fixed laser beam impacts being mispositioned
- Fixed Stormcell Incoming UI not appearing after the first few storms
- Fixed DNA not becoming unstable when stat is below -100
- Fixed level seed not resetting after death on Continue if restarted at Level 1
- Fixed passive drones not saving on Continue
- Fixed vsync setting not saving
- Fixed items dropped from health behaviors landing on top of eachother often
- Fixed acid pools applying acid debuff while the pool was mostly faded away
- Fixed a few blurry icons on lower settings
- Fixed level load screen stats being displayed incorrectly on continue
- Fixed scroll bars being difficult to use on the Reconstitute screen
We'll be paying close attention the next few days to any feedback and bugs reported and should have an update with any important fixes out in the next few days!