Development Update: Meta-Progression Rework & UI Overhaul
Hi everyone
It’s time for another update post.
As you might know, the meta-progression update turned into a pretty hefty rework, focused on addressing one of the most frequent pieces of feedback: improving replayability by reducing run similarity. This required a significant refactor of several systems tied to equipment progression and variety.
To the Community
Before we get into it, we'd like to take a moment to thank you for all of your Steam reviews and feedback. Steam reviews and community feedback are the compass guiding the future of Breachway. They’re not just a way for new players to find the game — they provide us with the insights we need to deliver impactful updates. Every review, comment, and suggestion so far has helped shape the journey.
Now let’s break it down:
Equipment Overhaul: More Loot, More Choices
To add some much needed variety to your equipment loadout, enemies will drop equipment as loot. The type of equipment each enemy drops is based on the faction they belong to, so Starkin might drop Laser weapons more often, while Solarii ships are more likely to drop Flak weapons. This means your loadout will evolve differently depending on who you’re fighting.
Variable Equipment Quality
Our new equipment quality system now varies items by card slots, subsystem slots, and drafting library tiers (from Mk.I to Mk.III). No longer is all Mk.I equipment 4 card slots and 1 subsystem slot, all equipment can range from 2 to 8 card slots, from 0 to 3 subsystem slots, based on the equipment quality level. Quality level is marked by a colored bar on the right side of the equipment UI, as seen in the mockup below (We have 6 different levels at the moment, with more to come).
For example: An early-game Mk.II weapon drop might offer powerful cards but only 2 card slots. So while this may be useful power spike in the short term, eventually you will want to sell it and get something more powerful.
Card Upgrades & Drafting Libraries
In order do differentiate Mk I, II and III equipment more, we added card upgrades. While Mk.I equipment has weaker, basic cards, it can also roll upgraded versions of those cards as rare drafting options, creating more interesting and exciting drafting choices.
Besides more powerful cards, a Mk.II version of an equipment comes with upgraded versions of the Mk.I as the default common picks, creating a clear power progression.
This will also synergize with the Crew leveling system coming out soon after this update, higher crew levels means improved chances to draft rare/uncommon cards on their equipped gear.
Drafting Library Visibility
To handle all of these new cards and equipment drops, you can now click any equipment to preview its draftable cards, no more guesswork required! (This update just got done yesterday, so excuse the placeholder UI art)
Station and ship status UI polish
We have updated the Ship Status and Station/Store UI to a cleaner look, doing away with the oversized station action buttons, and adding more compact buttons with icons under the "Store" category. Soon we'll fill that empty spot in the station services with a button for hiring a crewmember! (The image is quite large, click to expand)
Starting loadout and enemy rebalancing
All of these changes also meant we took a closer look at balancing, something what was long overdue. The player now starts with weaker equipment, but will have a lot more opportunities to swap that equipment out for more powerful options as the run progresses. This leads to a more noticeable power increase for players, the further into a run they get.
There’s a lot of exciting content coming soon. This update is a massive undertaking—we’ve more than doubled our card count with upgraded versions, not to mention all the new cards and dozens of new equipment drops enabled by the equipment quality system. We really want to share this with you for feedback as soon as possible.
We’re testing the update internally and refining it this week, then rolling it out to our beta testers, and eventually to a public testing branch as we integrate all the content for this major update.
We'll keep you updated on when the public testing branch will go live.
Thank you We’ve been heads-down making these changes (sorry for the quiet Discord and Steam Forums!), but your feedback directly shaped this upcoming update. Keep it coming—we’re listening!
—The Breachway Team
Patch #15 - Bug Fixes, Meta-Progression Update, and Third Sector Teaser
Hi everyone,
We're happy to report we’ve got this bi-weekly update ready to go, addressing some of the issues many of you have brought up on the Steam forums and our Discord. Your feedback has been invaluable and keeps us pushing to make Breachway the best it can be—thank you for that!
An Update on Meta-Progression
We know a lot of you are excited about the meta-progression update we’ve been teasing, and we wanted to give you a quick update. After taking some much-needed time to recharge over the holidays, we’ve made solid progress, and it’s almost ready to head into internal testing. This update is shaping up to bring a lot to the table—better balance and power scaling, new cards, upgraded cards, more meaningful progression and ways to track it, and plenty of reasons to dive back in for another run. It's turning into our biggest update yet!
A Peek at the Third Sector
While we’ve been working on meta-progression, we’ve also been adding more content in preparation for the game’s third sector. We’re really excited about the powerful ships you’ll encounter there, and we wanted to share a little sneak peek of one of our latest designs: the Starkin Heavy Cruiser. Check it out!
Patch Notes for This Week
Here’s what’s new and improved in this patch:
Fixed some Deadweight enemies always starting with missile fire support.
Fixed Force Optimization card disabling specified productions for the rest of the fight instead of 1 turn
Fixed Force Optimization card disabling wrong amount of resource production
Fixed Force Optimization depleting despite not saying so
Fixed Force Equivalence card disabling specified productions for the rest of the fight instead of 1 turn
Fixed Force Equivalence card disabling wrong amount of resource production
Fixed Force Equivalence depleting despite not saying so
Fixed Forced Conservation card disabling specified productions for the rest of the fight instead of 1 turn
Fixed Forced Conservation card disabling wrong amount of resource production
Fixed Forced Conservation depleting despite not saying so
Fixed Drilling Beam depleting despite not saying so
Fixed Uranium Slug sometimes not dealing additional equipment damage
Fixed Uranium Slug only dealing damage to the first enemy equipment when working
Thermal blockade: card effect now reads "Apply 1 Coolant Loss to the enemy ship for every 3 shield points it currently has."
We’re very grateful for your continued support—it means a lot. Whether you’re leaving feedback, reporting bugs, or just enjoying the game, you’re helping us improve Breachway every day. We can’t wait to get the meta-progression update out there and hear what you think!
– The Breachway Team
Hotfix #9 - Addressing white backgrounds in combat
Hi everyone, We got some reports in the past couple of days about a white screen in combat, we found and addressed the issue in this hotfix. The issue was a result of us cleaning out the project of unnecessary files, and some settings were lost in the process.
We really appreciate all of your bug reports, they are invaluable in detecting and fixing issues in a timely manner.
Thank you for your patience and support, The Breachway Team
Hotfix #8 - Addressing the inability to start a new run
Hi everyone,
We’ve been hard at work addressing the recent reports of players being unable to start a new run or continue a run in progress. After investigating the issue further yesterday, we identified the root cause of the issue and implemented a fix late last night.
This hotfix specifically targets the issue affecting players who were unable to start a new run. Additionally, we’ve identified steps to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.
If you were affected by this issue, please try again and let us know if the hotfix resolves the problem.
Thank you for your patience and support, The Breachway Team
HOTFIX #7 - Addressing soft-locks
Hi everyone,
After yesterday's build, several issues were reported that impacted gameplay. To prevent further disruption, we temporarily rolled back to the last stable version. Unfortunately, this caused additional complications for those who attempted to play yesterday’s build, as the game detected an outdated version. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we worked to resolve these issues quickly.
This Hotfix addresses the following:
Resolved a critical issue causing the game to soft-lock when hacks were played, whether by the player or the enemy.
Attempted to fix various issues reported by some players that made them unable to start the game.
Please note: Due to the necessary rebuilding of addressable data, ongoing runs may no longer be playable. However, starting a new run should function as expected.
We regret the disruption this has caused and thank you for your patience and support as we worked to resolve it. Your feedback remains invaluable in helping us improve the game.
If you encounter further issues, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Thank you, The Breachway Team
Patch #14 -Happy New Year + Key Fixes and Updates for Breachway
Happy New Year, everyone!
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.
Over the past two weeks, we took some time off to recharge and spend quality time with our loved ones. 2024 was a whirlwind year for us — releasing Breachway and addressing the many challenges and surprises that came with it was incredibly rewarding but also exhausting. Toward the end of the year, we recognized the signs of burnout and knew it was time to step back, rest, and reconnect with why we started this journey: our love for games.
We’re back, re-energized, and excited to continue developing Breachway. Taking a break gave us the perspective we needed, and playing some games did a lot for rekindling our passion and reminding us why we chose this path. The fire in our bellies is back, and we’re genuinely thrilled about what 2025 has in store.
You’ve already seen part of our vision in the shared roadmap, but there are so many exciting directions that Breachway can grow in beyond that.
We’re deeply grateful for your trust in supporting the game during its early stages — it means the world to us and fuels our commitment to making Breachway the best it can be.
As mentioned in our last update, we’re aiming for a more regular update schedule.
Expect new content and bug fixes every two weeks, alongside larger updates every few months, to add the missing elements needed to unlock the game’s full potential.
We already have our first patch of the year ready to go right now, the contents of which you can read in the change log below. Most of these fixes are a direct consequence of bug reports by our players.
Patch #14 Change log:
Set the Focused Fire attack reticle to display its status as a non-precision attack correctly
Superposition is now correctly removed from your deck on play to be consistent with the way upgrade cards work
Fixed display value on Force Multiplier to consistently display the correct cost (4)
Added a potential fix for the Lock and Load perk, sometimes not correctly awarding subsystems that were compatible with a player's loadout
Addressed an edge case where perk slots that had their unlock conditions already met before the previous fix would not be unlocked
Made Coolant Loss stack correctly even above a ship's max dissipation
Updated Coolant Loss icon
Fixed issue with Overload triggering heat even if the effect is not fired on the turn end
Fixed bug where playing Shimmer Strike twice in a turn would cause the game to freeze. The effect now stacks correctly (and is quite powerful).
Fixed text for the Overload subsystem and card to display correct values
Made some changes to reduce possible crashes and performance issues on the combat end
Cut down a lot of needless logging to make detecting bugs from player logs easier
Eliminated performance hiccup on first equipment hover in ship selector.
Here’s to an amazing 2025!
Launching in Early Access has been a fantastic experience for us. Your feedback has been invaluable—seeing Breachway through your eyes has taught us so much and helped us grow as game developers. We can’t wait to share more with you and hear your thoughts as Breachway evolves. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.
Save 30% on Breachway
Take on tactical space battles in Breachway, now 30% off. Breachway combines deck-building strategy with turn-based combat, letting you customize your ship, manage resources, and face challenging encounters across the galaxy.
Take on tactical space battles in Breachway, now 30% off as part of the Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale.
Breachway combines deck-building strategy with turn-based combat, letting you customize your ship, manage resources, and face challenging encounters across the galaxy.
Latest Update: The Avalanche and Core System Changes
We're hard at work on future updates, and the latest patch introduces the Avalanche, a new missile-focused ship built to overwhelm enemy defenses. Combat has been rebalanced with redesigned Flak mechanics, Blast damage synergies, and improved card interactions to encourage creative builds.
Patch #13 - Missiles and Hacking Arrive in Breachway
Hi everyone,
We’ve added some new equipment to Breachway, designed to expand the options for viable builds across the different ships.
While we’re still hard at work on the Meta-Progression update, which we’re confident will be a great addition to the game, it just needs a bit more time to fully come together.
Looking ahead, we plan to shift to a more regular patch release cycle. Instead of waiting for one large patch every couple of months, you can expect more frequent updates that introduce fixes and fresh content, like new enemies, cards, subsystems, and events. Larger updates—like the Meta-Progression patch—will still happen every couple of months, but smaller updates will keep things moving at a steady pace.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy experimenting with the new Missile Launcher and Hacking Array equipment, and let us know what you think!
Changelog:
New Equipment type: Missile Launcher. This allows players to install a missile equipment on a Weapon Mount slot, there's never too many missiles!
New Equipment type: Hacking Array. A "lite" version of the hacking module that can be installed on a ship's Aux Mount, allowing ships to use hacking cards without swapping out their Shield Generator.
Made a balance pass to first sector Starkin and Free-roamer enemies, to reduce the attrition damage they could cause in the early game.
Fixed a bug that would result in players being blocked in the Buy/Sell dialog in hangars
Fixed a bug that would not unlock the third and fourth perk meta-progression slots
Hack Heatsinks: the card now reduces enemy heat tolerance to 0 for 1 turn, instead of reducing it by 1 + your Security counter for multiple turns.
Removed Launch bay Equipment appearing in stores when playing as the Marauder (as the ship did not have a Launch bay)
Fixed a display issue where the Pinpoint card would not correctly display the damage it did based on damaged or disabled equipment
To the Community
As always, we want to thank you for your patience and support for Breachway. Please keep sharing your thoughts and opinions with us—every review and suggestion is hugely appreciated, and the game will only get better because of them.