Major New Features

• Added a final boss(!). It will be encountered at wave 120, unless you start the game at this wave using Draft Mode. A stronger version of the boss will also be encountered at waves 240, and intervals of 240 after that
• Added the game ending sequence, which you will encounter if the Endless challenge mode is disabled
• Endless Mode can now be turned off, and unlocks when you first beat the game's final boss for the first time
• Added new boss and ending BGM: Alioth, Astrophagi, Alioth Redux, and Remnant
• Added the ability to override body and drone artwork with custom skins. Added 3 sets of custom skins. Players may also create and play with their own custom skins!
• Added German localization
• Implemented texture compression, significantly improving performance!

New Features

• Added a new setting: Assist Mode
• Added a new setting: High-Visibility Mode
• Added a new setting: Ataraxia Reminders
• Added a new menu option to join the Discord
• Added intro sound effects to many medium-to-large enemies

Player Balance Changes

• Assault body base thrust increased from 100 -> 110
• Research body gained a new power: Destroyed enemies have a small chance to drop power-ups
• Pulse's blasts now gain 50% of blast radius modifiers as damage
• Pulse now passively scales somewhat in radius as battlefield size increases (the same way shield effects do)
• Pulse Shards now passively gain some velocity as Pulse's radius increases so they can "keep up" with the Pulse better. This is mostly for aesthetic reasons but should make Pulse shards feel a bit better
• Swords now have hidden diminishing returns on their crash damage scaling after it exceeds +100% damage (realistically, this only affects Hullbreaker)
• Blades fired by the player now have a large damage reduction when they are fired that quickly decays (This is intended to help them punch through and survive fields of enemy projectiles)
• The shield radius and effect gained from Siphon is now multiplicative instead of additive, like other gear effects
• Rapid Reconstruction Base Hull bonus increased from 40 -> 50
• Rapid Reconstruction Plating bonus increased from 1 -> 2
• Deadly Wake burn damage increased from 120/s -> 300/s
• Deadly Wake duration increased from ~3s -> 5s
• Deadly Wake trails are slightly larger
• Snipe max damage bonus reduced from +120% -> +80% (the damage bonus per unit of distance travelled is also proportionally reduced)
• Reduced the effect of mobility reducing effects in the game:
  • Charged Shot, Vortex, Torrent, and Thermal Lance thrust penalty reduced from 30% -> 20%
  • Thermal Lance rotation penalty reduced from 50% -> 35%
  • Siege Weaponry thrust penalty reduced from 80% -> 60%
  • Rancor and Charged Shields now increase the mobility penalty of Charged Shot to 35% (50% if you have both)
  • Power Reserves mobility-reduction resistance reduced from 50% -> 40%
  • Assault body no longer grants-mobility reduction resistance
  • Overall, mobility reduction effects will be much easier to play with early on when you do not have resistance to them, and upgrading Power Reserves will leave you at roughly the same level that Power Reserves + Assault did previously
• Homing Strike now creates projectiles based on the main attack's projectile count
  • Accounts for the Engineer's increased Blade limit
  • Accounts extra projectiles from Charged Shot
  • Accounts for Sword spray from large enemy projectiles
• Mines can now fire Homing Strikes
• Mines now get the velocity benefit from Calibrate
• Allies now get the velocity benefit from Calibrate in addition to the spread reduction
• Ally Interceptors and Mines (with Loaded Mines) can now create Homing Strike Blades
• Architect with Blade, but also with either Loaded Mines or Interceptors, can now be offered Homing Strike and Firing Array
• Firing Array now applies size, blast, and damage modifiers halfway between center and edge to singular projectiles
  • It previously applied the edge modifiers, reducing the projectile size by 30%
• Homing Strike now applies the effects of Firing Array
• The amount of damage reduction that Armor Fragments from Reconstituion gain from the Defense Drone's damage taken now has diminishing returns, but always grants at least 15%
• Improved the balance of Armor Stacks
  • Armor Stacks are now spawned based on damage dealt after damage reductions instead of before
  • Adaptive Armor stack base duration increased from 2.0s -> 2.5s
  • Rebuke duration bonus reduced from 110% -> 80%
  • Adaptive Armor generates ~27% more stacks per point of damage
  • It was possible to gain very high damage reduction from Armor Stacks for too little cost by building into a lot of self-damage and self-damage resistance. This change should bring those outlying strategies more in line, and in exchange Armor Stacks have been buffed to make them better in general
• Slightly increased Charge Shot's charge rate, particularly it's initial ramp-up (does not affect Vortex or Thermal Lance)
• Skirmish works better with Overseer, Strafing Strikes, and Hidden Power:
  • Hides visual indicator when in weapon bonus mode and the weapon cannot fire
  • Triggering on-fire effects switches to crash bonus mode like firing a weapon
  • Swords use the shared skirmish state instead of their own private copy
• Mines now have a minimum rotation speed (it cannot be zero or near-zero). This is to make Thermal Lance + Loaded Mines feel better to use
• Flash Shielding shield malus reduced from 40% -> 25%
• Tempest Break shield malus increased from 10% -> 25%
• Warp Strike now reduces all targeting by 50%, instead of only after a projectile wraps
• Celestial Surge damage now scales much harder with its size (small surges will do less damage and large surges will do more)
• Celestial Surge now ignites enemies for 20% of the burn damage it deals (note that multiple ignites from the same source do not stack; a stronger Surge ignite will overwrite a weaker one)
• Celestial Surge's self damage increase was inaccurately reported as +25%, it was really +42%. It has been changed to +35%
• Charged Shields maximum Radius and Effect bonus reduced from 100% -> 80%
• Singular Strike no longer has a cap on the number of projectiles it can fuse
• Sanctuary has slightly higher acceleration and top speed
• Sanctuary now reads your velocity to try to predict where you will be in a short time, and move there. This makes Sanctuary track you better and be more responsive to your movements
• Saturation Fire now increases the thrust penalty of Siege Weaponry by +10% (But we decreased that penalty substantially, see above)
• Saturation Fire now increases the self-damage of Siege Weaponry by 25% instead of 15%
• Void Slice I-frames after blinking reduced from 0.5s to 0.33s (Note that this does not affect Void Slice during it's teleportation, it affects the grace period afterward)
• Dying Star self damage increased 11 -> 12/s
• Ataraxia is guaranteed to be offered as the next non-wild mod you roll if you meet its unlock condition (only works once; if you reroll it away, you have to find it again)
• Triggering strafe while you have a weapon cooldown of .5s or less will now remove the cooldown and Strafing Strikes will work normally
• Homing Strike Blades with Antimatter Rounds can now hit and degrade enemy projectiles
• Transmogrification now removes 1 reroll instead of all your rerolls
• Transmogrification now prevents you from spending rerolls (including banish w/ Research) during the 3 all-recursive rolls
• A Construct Specialist mod will only be offered if you have upgraded its corresponding construct, unless you have no such constructs in which case all 4 may be offered
• Galvanic Outburst Shield Effect Power bonus increased from 2% -> 5%
• Energized Shields provides 20% less Shield Effect Power per point of speed
• Improved Phantom Strike behavior with enemies in formations and with Glaucus
• Hyperboost rate of fire modifier appies to Interceptor integrated weaponry

Enemy Changes

• Asteroids and Comets have greatly reduced damage when they first spawn and are near the edge of the screen. This is to prevent deaths from unlucky Comet/Asteroid spawns where the player has little to no time to react
• Added three new enemy entry sound effects for larger / faster enemies that entered silently:
  • Enemy entry medium: Tracer, Celestial, Vanguard
  • Enemy entry large: Spitfire, Hive, Crab Nest,
  • Enemy entry huge: Scion, Warbringer, Seraph, Bulwark, Juggernaut
• Scion's Lance deals ~25% less damage
• Glaucus' hull increased ~9%
• Warbringer's hull, Warbringer segments, and the damage dealt by destroying Warbringer segments, has been increased by ~3-4%
• Warbringer's centering impulse now depends on the camera zoom
  • Makes it stay near the center of the screen under most conditions, but this relaxes as zoom increases
• Warbringer's segments area damage resistance 40% -> 50%
• Elite Bolt-Throwers now fire 3 pairs of bolts instead of 4, and fire them more slowly
• Champion Bolt-Throwers fire their bolts slightly earlier
• Elite Juggernauts rotate slower, charge less frequently, and have a lower top speed while charging
• Champion Hives now take progressively longer to spawn Wardens as they stay alive, up to a point
• Reverted the wave speed scaling change that was made in the Glistering update
  • This change was originally introduced as a form of 'compensation' for adjusting Strafe and Blink. However, in hindsight it has become clear that this was not necessary. The Strafe/Blink changes were not as impactful as was originally feared, and scores from our top players have only gotten higher. So, in the interest of curbing game length, at least by a little, we're rolling back this wave scaling change

Minor Improvements

• Comets now use a bigger, unique HUD warning
• The default control for WASD Blink is now "F"
• The in-game cursor now rotates to point away from the player ship
• Improved gamepad mouse emulation by using a radial deadzone
• Player Blink and Warp Shield now wrap around screen boundaries
• The game now validates the window position the save file and resets it to a safe position if off-screen
• Improved the readability and accuracy of the Pause display:
  • Better projectile counts
  • Shows burst fire and barrage count separate from projectile count
  • Accounts for Barrage velocity variance with Railgun damage
  • Weapon Blast Radius Modifier is now shown separately
  • Shows non-firing and firing values for Shield Regeneration and Shield Cooldown
  • Shows non-firing and firing values for Hull Regeneration
  • Rounded values to integers where displaying decimal values wasn't helpful
  • Shield damage reduction includes damage reduction from Tactical Link for Bastion shield
• Railgun now uses trail rendering to draw its sprite so it can bend along the flight path
• The "Serenity Now" achievement is easier to get in light of Ataraxia's previous changes
• Added "Toward the offender" to the Glossary, and more texts now use this term
• Improved menu navigation with keyboard and gamepad controls
• Enemy damage scaling from high waves no longer affects asteroids and comet damage
• The pause screen now shows base construct assembly speed and (in parentheses) the construct assembly speed with the Engineer assembly speed multiplier
• The pause screen now includes Construct Rate of Fire Modifier from Overclock and Burnout Reactors
• Made construct shield radii always remain larger than the constructs themselves and made them fit better at small sizes
• Lowered the volume of the player charge up sfxs so they don't drown out the other action so much
• Increased the volume of the background music
• Accessing debug mode now requires holding "SHIFT" in addition to pressing delete or F7, so that its harder to accidentally activate it and have your run marked as "cheating"
• The game tries to be smarter about gamepads:
  • Until you press a gamepad input anywhere, the game will not assume you're playing on gamepad. In this state, gamepad steering and also the gamepad cursor control will not work and gamepad tutorials will not appear. This hopefully fixes issues associated with gamemaker identifying things as gamepads that aren't, like steering wheels and pedals
  • Allowed gamepads other than the one in the "0" slot to be used. Anywhere that you can use the gamepad cursor, switching from one gamepad to another should work (just not in-game)
• Improved or clarified the text of many upgrades
• The Banished Mods list draws smaller when more than 50 mods been banished
• If the player has at least 60 mods, the background of the pause menu is dimmed for readability in case text overlaps the mod list
• Improved or clarified the text of many upgrades

Bug Fixes

• Switching audio sources now functions and no longer results in muted sound
• Fixed the Blade limit with Barrage
• Extra Blade projectiles from the Engineer body now get applied to the projectile count so they contribute to Barrage burst length
• Blade homing behavior now works more like other player projectiles
  • Smarter targeting logic
  • Only changes target when the previous target becomes invalid
• Fixed Homing Strike seeking bonus not applying to Blade projectiles
• Fixed Railgun with Antimatter Rounds sometimes skipping over targets
• Unlocks screen now shows padlock icons for locked mod trees
• Prevented comets from inflicting damage on objects obstructed by a hard shield or mine shield
  • Fixes hard-shielded Bulwark barriers getting charged up by hits from comets
• Fixed comet shards so they emit from the point of impact instead of the current position of the comet
• Blade projectile no longer ricochets if broken by Architect while in contact with an object
• Fixed Phantom Strike targeting the Seraph after colliding with a Seraph Zone Drone
• Comet shards now do less damage to Bulwark barriers, just like comets do
• We now skip joystick-based mouse cursor movement when a controller is not connected to avoid odd device behavior
• Fixed a few potential crashes with Swords
• Fixed a rare crash with enemies using celestial lances
• Fixed the fullscreen controller object being created on Steam Deck
• Antimatter Rounds color takes precedence over Hypercharge color for Charged Shot and Vortex
• Fixed some light fringes on the mouse cursor sprites
• Fixed Constructor healing pulse showing the sprite for the wrong unit rarity
• Attached effects now update their positions last so they don't lag behind by a frame
• Fixed attachment offsets for some jet trails
• Fixed Vortex discharge positions
• Fixed the shield cooldown bar "going negative" due to purchasing mods
• Fixed sound effects getting stopped when they shouldn't if you die with Last Stand
• Fixed Shielded Constructs with Gemini Protocol and Burnout Reactors turning the health bar white as if redirecting damage to your hull
• Self-damage from Antimatter Rounds now uses actual projectiles fired so it takes Blade reserve into account
• Fixed one of the shield break flash effects drawing in the wrong place at certain zooms
• Fixed the position offset of the Hammerhead explosion shockwave
• Fixed the position offset of the Eclipse wave firing effect when missing a chassis piece
• The player now properly enters (or re-enters) from outside the lower left corner of the screen at higher zoom factors
• Bolt Thrower charge effect scales times and rates based on enemy speed
• Fixed a number of random directions being very-slightly-not-entirely-random
• Some effects fade out faster when their emitter has been destroyed
• Fixed some effects from Eclipses persisting when they shouldn't
• Fixed a crash with Mine Drones
• Fixed the Mine Drone gun lagging behind the Drone by a frame
• Infuse can no longer create zero damage bolts
• Fixed an issue where Bulwarks would drift toward the bottom corner of the screen
• Fixed changes to the Constrained Mouse Aim setting not applying during a game session
• Fixed Bastion stored energy not getting cleared if switching to a different shield type or taking Shielded Drones
• Fixed Leviathan push resistance not getting applied
• Fixed pause display not factoring Antimatter Rounds velocity bonus into Railgun damage
• Fixed Barrage + Singular Strike showing an incorrect total damage per second in the pause screen
• Pause screen weapon display now accounts for Barrage power modifier range
• Pause screen weapon display now rounds the seeking value to the nearest integer
• Voids added by Evolutionary Niche count towards "Savor The Void" achievement
• Fixed some visual issues with Shockwave shield
• Enemy projectiles reflected by Reflect Shield target enemies within the shield effect radius even if the shooter is outside the radius
• Rupture does not count as weapon damage so it no longer triggers Blitz boost, Saturation Fire hit, Terminate cull, Incendiary ignite, or Infuse discharge
• Removed inconsistencies and artifacts in mod and gear hex artwork
• Practice Mode's damage reduction now works properly
• Removed "Weapon" tag from Corrosion
• Drones with Terminal Directive now become unshielded when destroyed
• Fixed some cases of Antimatter Rounds triggering on projectiles that should be ineligible
• Fixed Sword gear using the Blade unlock (rank 21) instead of Sword unlock (rank 25)
• "Reset Gamepad Controls" option now clears custom gamepad controls
• Fixed inconsistency between defining custom controls and resetting controls to defaults
  • Resetting controls to defaults does not save them immediately
  • Backing out of the menu without saving restores controls to last saved values
• Continuous damage from an attached Dart projectile now applies enemy weakness modifiers
• Vertically centered the text in the Upgrade Menu "Banish Mod" button so it is positioned correctly with large text
• Fixed inconsistent results, using Strafe, when holding multiple direction keys at once
• Fixed Crucible Burning Hoop projectile pushing constructs that aren't touching the area
• Fixed damaging bursts from Counterpulse, Terminal Directive, Mine Explosion, Mine Bomblet, and Self Destruction counting towards Essence Sap, when they shouldn't (because they're construct damage)
• Fixed Sword damage state sprites for shield hits to cover the case of hull damage from Gemini Protocol or Discharge with Shielded Constructs
• Added missing borders to the Gear icons on the Pause and Game Over screens
• Pause screen now includes damage bonus from Propulsive Munitions in weapon damage
• Fixed the +15% base projectile blast radius modifier that wasn't being calculated for Singular Strike
• Carrier Swarm Constructs with Shielded Constructs mod will now properly "enrage" while the shield is down
• Fixed the pause screen showing the wrong value for projectile size modifier
• Fixed player construct projectiles not damaging Station Omega when the hit wall segment has zero or less health
• Emergency Systems now properly prevents self-damage from Antimatter Rounds, Siege Weaponry, and Vortex
• Architect better enforces the single construct limit, retaining the first construct found in this order of priority: Swords > Bastion > Ally > Turret > Blade > Mine > Drone
• Ricochet now cannot reduce projectile count below the number of guns
• Fixed the pause screen not accounting for projectile scatter when reporting the spread arc (affects Grenade, Flak, and Torrent)
• Fixed the "I Regret Everything" achievement so that it checks when you actually die while using Vortex
• The "Joust" achievement should more reliably unlock, now
• Fixed the upgrade menu closing after spending the last upgrade point on a mod that grants more points
  • It now checks whether to return to the upgrade menu after mods apply their effects
• Singular Strike sets effective projectiles to the number of guns instead of one
  • Fixes Loaded Mines, Salvo, Blade, and Outrage Module getting penalized
• Fixed earleir adjustments to Salvo repeat fire time not also applying to Allies with Integrated Weaponry
• Unshielded drones (e.g. Terminal Directive) now don't contribute to shielded constructs count
• Fixed missing tutorial popup for Firefly body
• Tutorial pop-ups push existing instances up instead of overlapping them
• Fixed some issues with the Salvo counter disappearing when it shouldn't
• Fixed some cases of Purge instances initializing at the wrong size
• Fixed incorrect unlock condition for level-locked mods (Kinetic Boost, Stabilization, Candescence, Skirmish, Efficiency, and Adaptive Armor)
• Fixed being able to have more than the maximum number of Warpath Stacks if multiple enemies were killed on the same frame
• Fixed Warpath's bonuses becoming locked at their current value after picking Hidden Power instead of being removed
• Fixed Dart trails persisting if the projectile stuck too soon
• On Loaded Mines, Railgun muzzle effects are now centered, detached, and don't move
• Fixed Shredder Mines being unable to detonate, no matter how hard they tried, when being healed by a Cherub or Myrmidon
• Fixed player construct self-destruction with Burnout Reactors showing a hit damage indicator in addition to the burn damage indicator
• Highlighting a mod properly updates the flashing state of available mods
  • Fixes all mods flashing when Regression is highlighted after highlighting Winnow
• Fixed Vortex self-damage not showing damage indicators
• Fixed incorrect scaling of Self Destruction bursts
  • The multiplicative scaler value was being applied twice
• Prevented body spread multiplier from going negative at high body power multipliers
• Fixed the first wave of Draft getting skipped
• Fixed Sanctuary incorrectly reducing Shield Effect Power by 20%
• Fixed some vfx lagging a frame behind their targets
• Homing Strike projectiles now support fractional step offset like regular projectiles do
  • Mostly relevant with Salvo release (which fires continuously and quickly)
• Fixed tutorial notifications sometimes going missing when applying upgrades in a large batch
• Fixed tutorial notifications stacking on top of each other in some cases
• Fixed unset Vortex projectile tempest color and flash color with Hyperboost
• Fixed shield getting stuck below full if it takes enough damage during recovery
• Fixed Dart impact splash not being affected by blast damage multipliers
• Fixed Dying Drones with Terminal Directive incorrectly applying Corrosion on impact
• Fixed Challengers sometimes dropping no power-up if you have Quantum Decoherence
• Fixed Pulse getting Amp's bonus applied twice
• Fixed Hard Shields affecting enemy speed in some cases
• Fixed out-of-sync hex flashing when selecting both both Regression and Winnow
• Fixed Antimatter Rounds recoloring Firefly thrusters
• Fixed vanguards not properly adjusting their rotation speed during charge maneuvers
• Polish localization now uses the Roboto font for titles so it can have access to the characters it needs
• Fixed sprites that were drawn in the main menu causing several player shield texture sheets being loaded that didn't need to be
• Moved the purple and red celestial background object spawns further off-screen to prevent their "pop in"
• Fixed Carrier body jet trail positions
• Updated cooldown icons for Mines and Turret to match the current artworks
• Updated hexes that contain outdated turret or mine artwork
• Cargo trains now use the logic to follow eachother that other segmented objects use. Fixes them getting spread apart, too
• Fixed screenshotting with F12 not working on many menus
• Fixed several gamepad tutorials not showing up if you have a controller plugged in but have custom keyboard schemes: Blink, Strafe, and movement
• Fixed Vortex flash color being set when charged with Hyperboost, which created a crash
• Fixed a crash with projectile trails
• Fixed terminate not working on enemy segments
• Fixed the burst vfx for Antimatter-projectile collisions sometimes being larger than intended
• Fixed problems with overlapping text for large text mode in various languages
• Fixed wave delay timing not considering enemy doubling with pincer waves
• Last Stand now makes you release fire when you die, which fixes bugs with some charged weapons and maybe other things
• Prevented the creation of an "upgrade ready" pop-up if the upgrade menu already exists
• Prevented the follower code from overwriting enemy rotation, which was messing with Beamcasters in formation
• Fixed the "self-destruct construct" being unselectable for Architect on gamepad
• Fixed turn momentum inconsistently persisting when switching turn directions with key inputs
• Fixes sfx bugs with Halo and Siphon shields
• Fixed Beamcaster's beams not scaling with enemy speed, even though their firing time and beam charge time did
• The game will now clear inputs when confirming an upgrade or returning to the game from pause, so any bindings shared (like thrust or fire) don't also trigger when using those menu options
• Ceratotitan now won't summon adds if the player is dead
• Warden move speed easing is now much faster until it starts escaping
  • Fixes a bug with Wardens being "launched" if their leader is destroyed instantly
• Fixed Ceratotitan's projectile origin not being affected by enemy scale
• Fixed Pulsars failing to dodge at high waves. Enemy dodge speed no longer scales with enemy speed
• Prevented Strafe from being triggered more than once in a frame, using different inputs
  • Prevents two charges of Void Slice being used up at once
• Fixed Void Slice not displaying the correct reticle if you upgrade while you have 2 charges
• Fixed: Time spent in the settings menu delayed the next bgm track starting
• Fixed Bulwark counter projectiles and jet projectiles double-dipping enemy size modifiers
• Fixed Bulwark blast size not using enemy size modifiers
• Flak's projectile doubling now works with the +1 projectile from Barrage, as intended
• Fixed the end score screen displaying a "damage taken" score that can continue to change after you're a dead leviathan
• Fixed several crashes with the Swords weapon
• Fixed a crash after taking Shielded Constructs during a Death Blossom
• Fixed incorrect line wrapping of the description at the bottom of the Settings screen
• Fixed: Bastion now won't result in you getting Elegant Construction or Priority Zero in your mod pool if you also have Rapid Reconstruction
• Fixed Hullbreaker being able to treat Station Omega's walls like they've been penetrated if they've taken enough damage
• Made the high score system more robust, and less likely to lose data
• Fixed Settings descriptions not line breaking in large text mode in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese
• Fixed Outrage Module and Phantom Strike not ignoring burst count with Hidden Power
• Fixed Salvo launched from Outrage Module with multiple guns firing too few projectiles
• Fixed the draw order and visibility on several menus, especially in situations with very high amounts of upgrades
• Optimized the game by turning off the depth buffer and stencil buffer, which we don't need
• Made texture optimizations
• Made several improvements on different localizations with large text mode enabled
• Fixed several cases where the player could take damage while invulnerable
• Fixed enemy segments not contributing to Amp count
• Fixed it so that Calibrate only resets when the weapon actually fires
  • It now uses the same "firing" check as the regeneration firing modifier and shield cooldown multiplier
• Fixed Tracer split shots being off-center
• Fixed a crash with Architect + Shielded Constructs in Draft mode
• Prevented a rare crash caused by the singularity pull potentially dividing by zero