Hi everyone,
First, thank you for your patience while we worked on this update. We know it’s been a while, and we apologize for the long wait.
This patch turned out to be more ambitious than we initially planned. As we dug into the game, we discovered more areas that needed attention, and we couldn’t resist tackling them to improve Breachway.
We want to start by presenting you with our latest ship:
Introducing: The Avalanche
Say hello to the Avalanche, a brand-new ship designed to dominate the battlefield with missile attacks. If you’ve ever wanted to overwhelm enemy point defenses and watch them crumble under a relentless barrage, this ship is for you.
The Avalanche’s playstyle revolves around deploying missile volleys to keep constant pressure on your enemies. It excels at bypassing enemy defenses through sheer volume, and its cards synergize with the new Blast damage mechanics (more on those later in the patch notes).
With the introduction of this ship, you’ll have more options to explore missile-based builds and strategies.
This update also includes a host of changes. We wanted to address some of the most common feedback from the community.
Core System Updates
- Stability Improvements, Especially in the Tutorial: Bugs have been resolved to enhance stability during the tutorial experience. Refined onboarding ensures clearer communication of game mechanics, enabling new players to get into the action more smoothly and quickly.
- Reducing Randomness in Combat: Flak functionality has been adjusted to minimize unpredictable damage swings. Combat is now more strategic and predictable, empowering players to plan counteractions against enemies effectively.
- More Variety in Runs: Weapon drafting options have been expanded, especially for starting equipment. This diversification allows players to experiment with unique builds and strategies during their runs, enhancing replayability.
- Improved Card Synergy: New damage types — Precision, Blast, and Ion — have been introduced. These additions foster deeper interactions between cards and equipment, promoting creative deck-building opportunities.
- Streamlined Mechanics and Gameplay Readability: Complex mechanics, such as persistent enemy beam attacks, have been simplified to give players clearer counterplay options. Card text has been revised for better readability, ensuring abilities and interactions are easier to understand.
Flak Rework: Flak mechanics have been completely redesigned to emphasize strategy and predictability over randomness.
- Shred Counters: Most Flak cards now apply Shred counters to enemies.
- Brittle Effect: When an enemy accumulates 10 Shred counters, they gain 1 Brittle, increasing the damage they take from Blast attacks.
- Controlled Impact: These changes maintain the destructive power of Flak weapons while making their effects easier to plan and utilize effectively.
Introducing Damage Types: To enhance card synergies and combat creativity, three new damage types have been added: Precision, Blast, and Ion.
- Cards now interact based on their damage type rather than their equipment type.
- This update allows greater synergy across weapon categories, encouraging diverse and innovative builds.
- Players can now explore previously unavailable combinations, making combat strategies more dynamic and meaningful.
Cards now interact based on their damage type rather than their equipment type. This opens up a lot of synergies between cards and weapons, encouraging more creative and varied builds. You’ll discover exciting combinations that weren’t possible before and find more meaningful ways to approach combat.
Ignite Mechanic Redesign
- Clearer Functionality: The Ignite mechanic has been simplified for better understanding, with each Ignite card now assigned a specific Ignite value tied to its Heat generation potential.
- How It Works: Each point of hull damage dealt by an Ignite card generates 1 Heat on the target up to the card's Ignite value.
- Expanded Design Opportunities: Existing Ignite cards have been updated to fit the new system, and new Ignite cards have been introduced to explore the design possibilities opened by this change.
Gameplay and System Changes
- General vs. Specialized Equipment: Early runs now feature more variety with Mk. I equipment becoming generic instead of specialized. This change encourages creative builds, making early drafting more engaging and synergistic with the newly introduced damage types.
- Subsystem Swapping: Players can now switch out subsystems at will, allowing for easier experimentation with strategies and reducing the penalty for changing equipment mid-run.
- Enemy Updates: Enemy behaviors have been updated to align with new mechanics. Their actions are now more predictable, providing clearer opportunities for counterplay and strategic planning.
- Save System Revamp: Significant improvements have been made to the save system for enhanced reliability and stability. Progress now saves at critical points:
- Entering combat.
- Entering the hangar or star map.
- Starting and ending events.
- This overhaul also addresses previous bugs and prevents exploits during runs.
Streamlined Space Station Menu
The initial space station implementation was a placeholder until we could fully integrate all the options. Most station services are now consolidated into the Hangar screen, creating a more intuitive layout with less back-and-forth between the hangar and the station. This update provides a smoother space station experience, reducing the time spent navigating menus.
Looking Ahead: Meta Game Progression and Loadout Customization
The ship starting loadout customization feature is still in development and has not been added to this update. While the groundwork is already in place, we focused on ensuring its quality before release. The next update will prioritize meta-game progression, one of the most requested additions from the community.
Here’s what to expect in the upcoming update:
- Unlockable Starting Loadout Options: Mix and match equipment variants to create multiple starting configurations tailored to different playstyles.
- Expanded Starting Perks: Unlock and experiment with new perks to add depth and variety to your runs.
- Achievements and Progression Features: A range of unlockable achievements, including alternate ship starting gear, will be introduced, making each run feel more rewarding and impactful.
- Quality of Life Improvements: Additional updates to improve the overall gameplay experience.
This update will aim to give players more choices and replayability, further fleshing out the meta-progression part of the game.
To the Community: Thank You
With this patch, we’ve worked to tackle some of our players' most frequent feedback and concerns. This is just the beginning of our journey toward improving the game, and we hope these updates will enhance your experience while unlocking more viable card and equipment combinations.
These foundational changes have delayed some of our planned content releases. We felt it was essential to address core gameplay mechanics first to ensure that the game’s foundation is solid before we start adding new features and content.
We can't stress how crucial your feedback is in identifying the game's issues, so please keep it coming. We're a small team, and progress is slower than we'd like, but we're here for the long haul and are determined to do our best to bring out the potential so many of you saw in the game.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts, so please keep the feedback coming — it truly makes all the difference.
