Development Updates

**Development Updates** are a series of monthly changes and new content announcements that can be found via the game's official Steam page. Noisestorm announced his first dev update as a way to share his progress and to be transparent about the game's progression as makeup since its first delay. These posts usually contain new mechanics, features, weapons, and multiple GIFs of gameplay.

## First Development Update

Development Update #1 was released on the 1st of November, 2020.

Things confirmed:

* New weapons were announced: the Blade Launcher, Orb Launcher, and the Crossbow.
* Elemental damage was added, which is split into 4 categories: Ice, Fire, Lightning, and Acid.
* Legendary variants of weapons have some type of elemental damage applied to them.
* The water physics and graphics have been updated.

## Second Development Update

Development Update #2 was released on the 1st of December, 2020.

Things confirmed:

* Perks were announced. They're passive upgrades found in each Survival chest, that can be opened in exchange of crystals. A list of them were announced, including common ones, rare ones, epic ones, and legendary ones.
* A Survival Gameplay Loop was added. This makes it so that Survival always has an order in which Islands play out: Island 1-2: Standard Waves, Island 3: Challenge Islands (Islands with a different kind of condition that switch up the gameplay in a challenging way), Island 4: Horde Island (enemies come at a much faster pace in one long intense wave), Island 5: Boss Island (defeat the boss to complete the biome, and move on to the next one).
* New weapons were announced, including the Flamethrower, a Gravity Cannon, a Boomerang Gun, and more.
* A new Survival Lobby was shown.
* Abilities were mentioned; they're basically some type of power-ups that can be chosen at the beginning of a Survival match.
* The soundtrack continues to add more tracks; there are 15 songs announced.

## Third Development Update

Development Update #3 was published on January 1st, 2021.

Things that were confirmed:

* Procedural level generation was confirmed. This makes it so that every single playthrough will be a new one, every time a player starts a new match, along with a GIF showing it.
* Fire now interacts with the environment, like burning trees.
* New enemies were announced: these include new variants of skulls that shoot explosive skulls, fire ants that leave a trail of fire every time they move, giant armored crabs, and explosive coral creatures.
* Noise saying that Duel mode is "pretty much complete at this point" and only needs more maps for variety.

## Fourth Development Update

Development Update #4 was released on February 1st, 2021.

Things that were confirmed:

* Lighting improvements, were shown in a GIF.
* Tony the Shopkeeper was announced. He's an NPC that sells various items, such as weapons, keys(?), and healing items. There's a new achievement called "Heartless": it involves the player killing the shopkeeper (it's not easy!).
* The Pufferfish enemy was announced.
* New weapons were announced: a Firework Launcher, and an Acid Launcher.
* 100K wishlists were celebrated!
* Some new improvements to the UI.
* Two new Perks were announced: Splash Damage and Firepower.

Various other things:

* Health regeneration was disabled.
* Chests are now opened with keys.
* Crystals are now solely used for the shop.
* Chests come in three sizes and drop more than one piece of loot.
* Two new consumables: Health potions (refills % of your health) and Health (increases max HP).
* Core game loop has been changed: now, 3 intensity hordes need to be beaten to move on to the next island. The player is confined in the island they're playing on until they've beaten it. After completing each horde, a chest is dropped.

## Fifth Development Update

Development Update #5 was released on March 1st, 2021.

Things that were confirmed:

* A new weapon category was announced: melee weapons. The only weapon out of this category for now is a simple sword.
* The main menu was shown. (WIP)
* A new mechanic was added: Knockback damage. This sends your enemies flying against something.
* The Gravity Cannon was shown: it freezes enemies and pushes them back.
* More player choices have been added to influence a match. These include multiple chest choices and multiple choice portals.
* A new item was added; the Greed Totem. This gives the player a several amount of buffs, but also debuffs.
* A new enemy category was added: Elites. These are between the Boss and Normal type of enemies' difficulty.
* In the GIF showing the Elite, it was shown that when the player dies it says "YOU ARE GONE", referencing the Crab Rave meme.
* New Perks were announced, bringing the total number of them to 60.
* New entrance level: it's shown with a cinematic before starting the match.
* A new Duels map was shown called Crust.

Various updates to Survival mode (*sic*):

* The combo meter from the gameplay trailer has been re-added to the game. The higher your combo, the more crystals enemies drop when eliminated. If you take damage, your combo is lost.
* Nightmare difficulty can now only be played when the game has been beaten on Normal or Hard difficulties.
* Elemental enemies now take more damage from the opposite element (for example ice enemies take 2x damage from fire based attacks). Conversely, they are immune to damage matching their element (for example fire shotguns will still deal base damage but won't ignite fire enemies).
* Load times have been improved dramatically between each level.
* Secret areas have been added to many levels with collectables that count towards challenges.
* Enemy attack speed now increases alongside health and movement speed after each level is completed.
* Added a slo-mo effect when the last enemy in a level is eliminated.

In addition to all of this, a beta was announced.

## Sixth Development Update

Development Update #6 was released on April 1st, or April Fool's, marking the game's second anniversary since it was announced.

Things that were confirmed:

* A beta signup is now available! You can find it here.
* A new ability was announced: Grenades. Various types of them exist, mostly comprising of elemental grenades (i.e Fire Grenades, Ice Grenades, etc.).
* Various improvements to the FX and visuals were made. Bullet trails, Enemy effects, Water reflections, etc.
* New Duel map called Snow Caves. Slippy ice floors cover the entire map.
* Modifiers to Duel custom/private games were created. A list of them are:
	+ Low Gravity
	+ Instagib
	+ Low Friction (floors behave like ice)
	+ Speed Up Time
	+ Tiny Players
	+ Tanky Health (5x health for every player)

Lots of Survival Mode updates:

* Improved enemy aiming.
* New Perks:
	+ (Common) **Anchor**: Deal 100% more damage to enemies that are in water
	+ (Common) **Collector**: Get a damage bonus for each perk you have
	+ (Common) **Paycheck**: Get crystals after clearing each level
	+ (Common) **Sharp Wings**: Deal 50% more damage while you are in the air
	+ (Rare) **Scary Mask**: Elites and bosses start with 20% less health (renamed and nerfed from the previous version)
	+ (Rare) **Sledgehammer**: Single shot damage over 85 gets increased by 50% (works well on slow firing, high damage weapons)
	+ (Rare) **Checklist**: After every 10 eliminations, get a damage bonus
	+ (Rare) **Bullseye**: Increases max health by 1 for each enemy that is eliminated in 1 shot
	+ (Rare) **Water Balloon**: Increases damage dealt to wet enemies
	+ (Epic) **Gemstone**: Get a damage bonus after clearing each level
	+ (Epic) **Stacker**: Increases elemental damage stacks applied by 50%

* New Element type: Water. There's also new destructible Water rocks in biomes/levels that don't contain normal-flowing Water in case the player needs to extinguish themselves.
* New Challenge Level conditions; enemies that fire a random spread of projectiles, spawn other enemies, or explode into a damage area when eliminated.
* At the end of the first level, a weapon Chest is now always guaranteed to spawn.
* Starting HP has been bumped from 100 to 250 for balance.
* After each boss, a health Chest is always guaranteed along with a legendary Chest.
* Critical hit numbers that pop up to indicate damage are now red.
* Enemies now don't spawn too close to the player, and "have clear FX and sounds when spawning".
* Greed Totems have been removed; they've been remade as a new Perk rarity, which is Red. Special Greed chests will spawn occasionally through each run and offer a very tempting perk that comes with a cost.
* A shop is now always guaranteed after each Boss.
* Healthbar added for enemies. It shows up when dealing damage to them.

## Seventh Development Update

Development Update #7 was released on the 1st of May, 2021.

Things that were confirmed:

* Lots of visual improvements showcased; main showcases include the Beach biome.
* A Steam beta signup was put on the Store Page: check it out!
* Aiming down sights has been re-added to the game after being removed; now known as Aiming 2.0, when aiming the player will be slowed down by 50%.
* Since Aiming has been reintroduced, sniper scopes were confirmed to be added to the game sometime in the future.
* Various FX improvements, such as explosions, chest loot gives proper lighting, underwater FX, portals, and water impacts.
* Improvements to the movement. Most of them are subtle camera tweaks depending on the player's speed.
* A Biome Roadmap was released. Each biome will have its own final boss, along with several new maps for Racing and Duels. The current biome lineup is:
	+ **Beta:** Sand Biome, Snow Biome, Lava Biome
	+ **Early Access:** Jungle Biome, Desert Biome, Crystal Biome
	+ **1.0:** Swamp Biome, Storm Biome
* Various Survival updates:
	+ You can now sell unwanted perks back to Tony in the shop which is a great way to get some crystals towards the perk or weapon that you really wanted!
	+ New level type: Defense. You must defend a point for 60 seconds without getting overwhelmed. Leaving the defense area will pause the timer and enemies will continue to spawn
	+ There are now far more slow moving but high volume types of enemies in Horde and Defense level types which make AOE weapons and abilities much more viable
	+ Elemental grenades have all been buffed to deal flat damage over time in the damage radius as well as applying elemental damage stacks to enemies. This makes it much more effective to lead enemies into damage areas so timing and positioning your grenades is a lot more valuable
	+ Collecting or spending crystals now plays a UI animation to better communicate when it is happening and to show how much was gained or spent
	+ Many more close quarters maps have been added with cave corridors and narrow cliff walls, both allowing you to utilize bouncing projectiles and for encounters with enemies to feel more dangerous (it's very different to fight certain enemies in a narrow space than it is out in the open where their attacks can be easily dodged)
	+ Keys are now used to gain access to secret locked areas (with various random rewards inside such as chests, mini shops, slot machines and more!)
* Weapons modifiers considered as a revamp for Perks.

## Ninth Development Update

Focus was put towards creating gameplay content for survival mode looping.

Added Survival Mode Temples:

* Temple Of Light: Spawns an epic or legendary chest
* Temple Of Greed: Spawns a greed chest
* Temple Of Evil: Interacting with the altar gives you random pickups for 25% of your health
* Temple Of Doom: Spawns elite enemies and locks the doors when the player opens the spawned chest
* Temple Of Joy: Spawns a penguin companion perk
* Temple Of Fortune: A large amount of crystal pickups randomly spawn around the temple when entering and the player can try to pick up as many as possible before they disappear
* Temple Of Time: Interacting with the altar sends the player back in time, starting a new run but retaining all weapons, weapon mods and perks
* Temple Of Chance: Interacting with the altar takes one of your weapon mods or perks, with a 60% chance to duplicate it and a 40% chance to consume it
* Temple Of Health: Spawns a gold heart
* Temple Of Wisdom: Interacting with the altar levels up 3 random perks by 1 tier each
* Temple Of Identity: Interacting with the altar randomizes weapons, weapon mods and perks
* Temple Of Strength: Spawns 3 random damage based weapon mods / perks
* Temple Of Sacrifice: Interacting with the altar takes 3 random weapon mods (of the lowest rarity possible) and spawns a legendary weapon mod in return

* Temple Of Wealth: Interacting with the altar costs crystals but has a high chance to drop a random pickup (costs double each time)

* Temple Of Keys: Interacting with the altar costs a key but has a high chance to drop an epic or legendary pickup

* Temple Of Peril: The temple is filled with hazards but contains a random legendary pickup in the center of the temple: most players will take damage in order to get the pickup
* Temple Of Arms: Spawns 3 random weapons
* Temple Of Love: Spawns a random companion perk
* Temple Of Purity: Interacting with the altar removes all negative effects of greed perks
* Temple Of Protection: Spawns a gold armor pickup
* Temple Of Hope: Spawns a Lil Roller companion perk (a tiny puffer fish friend that rolls around and deals melee damage to enemies, growing larger over time)

With the addition of Temple and Defense island types, there are now the following potential island types per biome:

* Shop: Purchase loot from Tony the shopkeeper
* Temple (requires a key to enter): Get a reward matching the temple type
* Wave (Common Reward): Clear a wave of standard enemies
* Horde (Rare Reward): Clear 2 hordes of enemies (each horde being a big wave of a single enemy type)
* Defense (Rare Reward): Defend an area against incoming enemies for 60 seconds
* Challenge (Epic Reward): Clear 3 waves of enemies with a random challenge modifier active
* Elite (Epic Reward): Defeat an elite enemy
* Boss (Legendary Reward): Defeat the boss to move to the next biome

Noisestorm has overhauled many of the perks and added a lot of new ones, bringing the total to over 60 at this point in the game's development. The list of perks as of this update:

**Common Perks**

* Fortitude: Max health increased after clearing each island
* Endurance: Heal after clearing each island
* Scavenger: Heal when collecting crystals
* Valued Customer: Heal when entering shops
* Potent Potions: Heal more from potions
* Vitality: Damage increased when at full health
* Second Wind: Damage increased when at low health
* Collector: Damage increased for each perk that you have
* Autoloader: Chance to instantly reload when swapping weapons
* Adrenaline: Fire rate increased for a short time after eliminating an enemy
* Haste: Grenade and ability cooldown times reduced
* Lockpick: Chance for keys to not be consumed when using temple portals
* Time Is Money: Gain crystals over time
* Paycheck: Gain crystals after clearing each island
* Charged Crystals: Crystal pickups take longer to disappear
* Tony's Black Card: Shop prices are discounted
* Special Delivery: Shops contain more items for sale
* Shark Fin: Chance for enemies to retreat when spawning
* First Impressions: Chance for the first enemies on each island to have 1 health

**Rare Perks**

* Personal Space: Max health increased after each close range elimination
* Medic: Max health increased after each one shot elimination
* Grim Reaper: Heal after eliminating enemies
* Hard Target: Incoming damage reduced
* Sharp Wings: Damage increased when airborne
* Checklist: Damage increased after every 10 eliminations
* Assassin: Damage increased after each one shot elimination
* Life Savings: Damage increased when collecting crystals
* Money Is Power: Damage increased for every 100 crystals you have
* Tasty Orange: Damage increased for each enemy eliminated in an island (resets for each island)
* Speed Demon: Movement speed and jump height increased
* Stopwatch: Chance to reset grenade cooldowns after every elimination
* Reroll: Reroll chest loot (up to 3 times per island if the perk is Tier 3)
* Blood Money: Gain crystals when healing
* Scary Mask: Elites and bosses have less health

**Epic Perks**

* Big Hearts: Gain more max health from hearts
* Grave Dodger: Invulnerable for a short time when at 1 health
* Bulletproof: Chance to block incoming damage
* Torn Safety Net: Chance to cheat death and get 25% health back
* Gemstone: Damage increased after clearing each island
* Grenadier: Gain extra uses of your grenade
* Strength In Numbers: Gain extra uses of your ability
* Green Dice: Luck increased
* Good Omen: Chance to not be affected negatively by Greed totems while retaining the benefit
* Restock: Reroll the contents of the entire shop (up to 3 times per shop if the perk is Tier 3)
* Repelling Flip: Flipping repels nearby enemy projectiles
* Bonus Crystals: More crystals drop when eliminating enemies
* Bonus Loot: A random consumable drops after every island (mainly potions or armor, a very low chance for others)
* Bargain Hunter: Random pickups in the shop are free
* Gold Coupon: Chance for a purchase in the shop to be free
* Snatcher: Enemies eliminated at close range drop more crystals

Rare Treasure: Enemies have a small chance to drop a random pickup when eliminated

**Legendary Perks**

* Divine Blessing: Damage and health substantially increased
* Ground Slam: Gain a large speed boost when flipping in mid air, dealing AOE damage and knocking back any nearby enemies if connecting with the ground during this time
* Powerslide: Sliding shoots out fiery sparks that damage and ignite nearby enemies
* Ice Flip: Flipping freezes and knocks back nearby enemies
* Level Up: Duplicate weapon mods spawn nearby after every boss fight
* Duplicator: Chance for pickups to drop twice
* Faulty Chests: Chance for unchosen chest loot to not disappear
* Care Package: An asteroid containing bonus loot drops after clearing each island
* Storm Cloud: A lightning bolt periodically strikes low health enemies, dealing AOE shock damage