Patch #18 - Drafting table rework, card buffs and a new event
Hi everyone, In this update, we've taken a look at equipment drafting tables, what works, and what doesn't.
After some player feedback and internal testing, we have removed instances where drafting libraries would have both upgraded and un-upgraded versions of cards in the same library. This made drafting un-upgraded versions of cards be a sub-optimal choice, potentially causing frustration and effectively reducing an equipment's viable drafting library.
As a result, Mk.I equipment now has only un-upgraded cards, while Mk.II has their upgraded versions, in addition to a few un-upgraded versions of some more powerful cards. This change so far affects the following equipment pieces: Light Laser, Pulse Laser, Beam Laser, Quad Flak, Shredder Flak, Rail-gun , Coil-gun.
The power level of most cards has been increased and/or cost and cooldown has been decreased. This is so adding a card to your deck feels more like a meaningful power increase, and it's an attempt to make more cards be viable picks in the right circumstances.
We have also decided to have the Arbalest start with the Pulse Laser instead of the Light Laser. This makes the early game a bit easier and has players start with more simple and straightforward cards.
We have also decreased the cost and/or increased the power of some cards that were outclassed by other cards, again leading to an effective reduction of viable drafting options.
You can read the full change-log for this patch below:
Modified the Mk.I and Mk.II drafting libraries for the Light Laser, Pulse Laser, Beam Laser, Quad Flak, Shredder Flak, Rail-gun , Coil-gun, Pulse Shield, Burst shield
Lowered cooldown and/or cost to a lot of cards from the Light Laser, Pulse Laser, Beam Laser, Quad Flak, Shredder Flak, Rail-gun , Coil-gun, Pulse Shield, Burst shield
Increased the odds of getting higher level equipment from enemy equipment drops
Changed the starting weapon on the Arbalest from a Light Laser to a Pulse Laser.
You will now start with an unlocked Pulse Laser, and have to unlock the Light Laser instead
Fixed the drafting library on the Mk.II Light Laser, it mistakenly had some cards from the Beam and Pulse Laser
Added a new card to the Mk.II Light Laser, Blanket Fire (Fire 1 Blink at every active enemy Equipment)
Added Pre-emptive Pulse to the Pulse Laser Mk.II drafting library (Deal 4 damage, plus another 2 for every attack in the enemy's hand)
Cutting Beam and Drilling Beam have now been added to the Beam Laser Mk.I drafting library
Beam sweep Ignite increased from 1 to 2
Energy spike and Energy Spike+ no longer disables 1 energy production unit
Surgical strike extra equipment damage increased from 3 to 4
Surgical strike+ damage increased from 2 to 4, plus 4 extra equipment damage. Cooldown reduced from 5 turns to 4 turns
Added a new event: drifting Cargo Container (still needs localized text)
Thank you for your bug reports and for sharing your thoughts through Steam reviews, your feedback is invaluable and your encouragement means a lot!
- The Breachway Team
Dev Update #3 – Sector 3 in Progress, Early Game Rework Incoming
Hi everyone,
After a couple of weeks of time off due to a variety of issues (including one of our team members getting married!), the team is back and fully focused on the next big milestone: Sector 3.
First off, we want to say thank you for all the feedback, reviews, and discussion following the last major update. We've been reading everything, and one thing is clear: Breachway has always been a challenging game, but the recent changes may have pushed that challenge a bit too far, especially for new players.
To help ease that early-game curve, we’re making some key adjustments:
The first sector is being split into two smaller sectors, each around 70% the size of the current one.
We’re introducing a new set of simpler boss enemies for this early stage of the game.
We're putting more emphasis on the escalation system as a way to ramp up difficulty
This change should give new players more space to build up their ships and strategies, while also creating a smoother and more rewarding progression.
We plan to have this update out as soon as possible, as it addresses multiple issues related to difficulty and power scaling throughout a run. We're aiming to have something on the experimental branch in a couple of weeks, and then on the main branch two weeks after that.
We haven’t forgotten about veteran players however. For experienced captains and those looking for a tougher ride, the reworked escalation system will make higher difficulty levels more meaningful, with new modifiers and scaling that provide a proper challenge for well-optimized builds.
As always, thanks for your continued support and feedback—it’s what helps us shape Breachway into the best experience it can be.
More updates coming soon.
—The Breachway Team
Patch #17 - Bug fixes, addressing performance,
Hi everyone, time for another update, addressing some of the bugs and localization issues reported recently, as well as some achievement and event changes. As some of you rightly pointed out, faction standing needs to have more of an impact on events, and we're starting to address that this patch, and future patches going forward.
We’re also actively investigating a performance issue that can occur after playing for extended periods. In some cases, this may lead to memory-related crashes. This bug has been tricky to reproduce, but we’ll be testing a range of fixes in this update and in the coming weeks to isolate and resolve the root cause.
In parallel, we’re working on a larger content update focused on addressing balance concerns and adding more variety to events and enemies. We aim to release the first batch of this new content in the coming weeks.
Localization for some of the new content added in this update is still in the works, and will be added as soon as it's ready.
Changelog 1.92.0.0
Fixed possible soft-lock when fighting an Elite on a neutral node,
Fixed a bug that made Equivalence give Ordnance instead of Mass for every 2 Energy spent,
Changed the conditions for the "Upstanding citizen" achievement, you can now turn wolf in at any station
Increased chances of the Smuggler event showing up in the second sector,
Modified the Hacked ship event to no longer remove morale, but only command points,
Added a chance for beneficial outcomes to allied combat nodes for the Solarii, Starkin and Free-roamers,
Possible fix for video card memory loss, that could cause the game to crash on entering combat (needs to be tested)
Fixed minor localization issues and added missing localization entries in multiple places (more to come)
Your continued feedback is essential to improving Breachway. The last major update revealed some rough spots in balance, especially for new players. We’re actively working to smooth those out and won’t stop until the game is where it needs to be.
Thank you for your support!
- The Breachway team
HOTFIX #13 - Bug fixes and minor card changes
Hey everyone, we're back with some more fixes based on your latest bug reports, as well as some minor balance changes on a few Coilgun cards (also based on your reports)
Change-log:
Bug fixes
Fixed credit reward in the sector start missions (regular/elite fights, or waypoints visited)
Fixed possible soft lock if the player encountered a neutral conflict node
Fixed Starkin transponder post event reward if choosing to attack the Starkin ship
Fixed Eutectic armor value display
Fixed tracking on charged shield unlock condition
Balance changes:
Removed the Ordnance cost from Energy Spike (both versions)
Modified Severing Shot to deal 3 base damage, and 3 bonus per disabled equipment
Modified Conduction Amplifier to deal 150% of the attack's energy cost as bonus damage for both upgraded and base versions of the card. The upgraded version now buffs 2 attacks
Thank you for your bug reports and for sharing your thoughts through Steam reviews, your feedback is invaluable and your encouragement means a lot!
- The Breachway Team
Patch #15 - Hacking Arrays, achievements and balance changes
Hi everyone, This update brings a few exciting additions and important improvements:
The Hacking Array equipment is now back in the game.
We've added nearly a dozen new achievements for you to discover and unlock.
Alongside these updates, we've also addressed a number of bugs (thank you all for your detailed reports!)
We're also beginning to dig deeper into your feedback on game balance. Whether you're a new or returning player, your experiences help us pinpoint where things need adjustment. This marks the first step in a longer process to fine-tune and improve Breachway’s balance and gameplay experience.
Changelog 1.91.0.0
Added the Aux Hacking Array equipment, unlocked by playing 500 tactical cards (tracking started when the update went live, so some of you might unlock it automatically),
Added 10 new achievements (achievement icons are still placeholder),
Modified the starting Avalanche missile pods to start with 2 tracker missiles instead of Starflare missiles,
Equalized credit distribution a bit between the first and second sectors (first sector enemies now award more credits, while second sector enemies award slightly less),
Fixed bug where combat would not start in the Starkin Espionage mission if you were allied with the Solarii and you picked the "I do not betray my own" option,
Fixed a bug where combat would not start in the neutral gunship combat event even if you selected a combat option,
Combat support missiles are no longer affected by any damage modifiers,
Slit now correctly buffs damage by indicated amount,
Fixed Charged shield unlock requirement tracking,
Fixed bug that caused overflow recycler to not work in certain conditions,
Fixed some card and event typos,
Roughly half of the map nodes on critical paths are now revealed on entering the map,
Increased credit reward for most missions,
Increased "Savings" quirk credit bonus from 40 to 60 credits,
The repair station event now gives you the following options: Gain 1 Salvage , Repair your ship, Add a card, Remove a card,
Increased Salvage selling price from 35 to 40,
Added an additional trigger for defense protocol, to help it detect when you are unshielded as a result of your shield decaying
Thanks for being part of the journey, your feedback is invaluable in improving Breachway.
- The Breachway team
HOTFIX #12 - More bug fixes
Hey everyone, here are some more fixes based on your latest bug reports.
Change-log:
Fixed bug that would in some cases not display the correct values for meta-progression unlocks
Fixed issue where in some cases a user's data folder would not get created properly, leading to an inability to play the game
Fixed a bug that could cause shops and elite fights to soft lock the game
Fixed the weapon score check when trying to access Free-roamer stations while allied with the Deadweight faction (still has some edge case issue to be solved)
Some small typo and card effect fixes
Thank you for your bug reports and for sharing your thoughts through Steam reviews, your feedback is invaluable and your encouragement means a lot!
- The Breachway Team
HOTFIX #11 - Bug fixes and Firebrand buff
Hey everyone, here are some fixes and balance changes based on your latest bug reports.
Change-log:
Fixed bug causing ship perks to be lost on continuing a game in progress
Fixed bug causing you to enter combat even when selecting options to avoid combat
Added a check that should avoid edge-case situations where you have a ship locked, even if the unlock conditions for it are met
Made the logic for Lacerate more robust, making for more consistent triggering of its effect
Buffed the base Firestrike card from 4 damage to 6 damage, and from 1 to 2 shred, the upgraded Firestrike from 6 to 8 damage, and base shred from 2 to 3.
Modified the starting Pyroclast weapon so it starts with 2 firestrike cards, as that is meant to be the main damage dealer of that equipment.
Added a subsystem to its starting radiator that increases its heat capacity by 2, and replaced the thermal buffer starting card with Heat convertor.
Added a new achievement "Blot out the sun" for unlocking the Avalanche (it was previously missing an unlock condition, and thus also an achievement
More achievements to be added soon.
Thank you for your bug reports and for sharing your thoughts through Steam reviews, your feedback is invaluable.
- The Breachway Team
Biggest Update Yet – Card Upgrades, New Equipment system, and More
Hey everyone, We are happy to announce that the update we've been working on for the last four months is finally live on the main branch!
This is by far our biggest update yet. It completely overhauls some of the game's systems, progression, adds dozens of new cards, and more than doubles the number of cards in the game through card upgrades.
Let's go over the main features we've added since the last update on the main branch:
Card upgrades
This is a big one. Every card now has an upgraded version you can draft on higher-tier equipment, effectively doubling the amount of cards in the game.
New cards
We've added more than 40 new cards and redesigned dozens of existing cards for more impact and synergy
Equipment variety
We've added a wide variety of equipment variations, where before you could only find a couple of variations on each equipment, we now have more than 30 versions of each equipment type, each with a different number of card slots, subsystem slots, and drafting library level.
Equipment rewards
Where before you would mostly finish a run with the gear you started, you now have a good chance to find new equipment dropped on defeating enemies, making for a more varied loadout and thus more interesting choices throughout a run.
Equipment upgrades
You can now upgrade any equipment you encounter or start with. Whether you're aiming for a specific build or adapting to new synergies, this feature adds flexibility and more strategic decision-making.
Lifetime and run stats
You can now view your stats at the end of each run, as well as what progress you made towards unlocking new ships, perks and equipment. Additionally, you can also view your lifetime stats, and have a general overview on your meta-progression unlocks from the main menu.
More meaningful meta progression for new players
We’ve reworked the early-game experience to offer a more gradual and guided introduction to the game’s core systems and card mechanics, making progression more rewarding and the game easier to get into.
Alternate starting loadouts
As you unlock equipment through meta-progression, most of it becomes available for use at the start of a run. This adds more variety and lets you mix and match different starting strategies. This is just the beginning, as we plan to expand this system with more unique starting options in future updates.
Revamped UI
A cleaner and easier-to-use interface on the map and in shops, greatly streamlining the station experience.
Player profiles
You can now set up multiple player profiles, each with their own level of progression.
Kinetic weapons
Point defense, flak, and railguns have been grouped into a new Kinetic weapon family, enabling more synergies and interactions between these weapon types.
Faction-based drops and store content
What items you see in stores and drop off enemies is now based on what faction those enemies and stores belong to. This leads to more control over your loadout in a run, and helps differentiate the factions more.
Bug fixes
We have fixed dozens of bugs since the last major update on the main branch, There will undoubtedly be some new bugs added, as is the case when you add so much new content and code to the game, so keep those reports coming, and we'll do our best to squash all of them!
Thanks for sticking with us while we worked on this major overhaul. Our goal with this update was to address two of the biggest issues you've raised: lack of variety in runs and a weak progression system for new players. We hope these improvements make your runs more dynamic, your builds more interesting, and your time in Breachway more rewarding overall.
What’s Next?
Now that we’ve laid the groundwork, we’re shifting focus to balance and content. With so many new systems in place, we want to make sure everything feels tight and fair. Expect regular balance passes, along with new content, every two weeks—including new achievements, enemies, perks, and subsystems.
Additionally, we also still have to create new images for all the new cards, that is an ongoing process, so please bear with us.
Steam Reviews Matter
If you’ve been playing the new update, we’d love to hear what’s working for you—and what still feels off. Steam reviews help surface the patterns we might miss when we’re deep in interconnected systems, and they’re also a big help with visibility. Whether it’s a quick note or something more detailed, it gives us a better sense of how the game’s landing now that the foundations have shifted.
Thanks again—and enjoy the update!
- The Breachway Team
Hotfix #10 - Experimental branch
Hi everyone, thank you for all the bug reports, we have identified and fixed the following issues:
Fixed a soft-lock on one of the Starkin early game enemies
Added the correct drafting library to the burst shield (was using the pulse shield one by mistake)
Fixed a bug that would cause ship perks to disappear on continuing a run
Fixed a bug that would prevent modification of card cooldowns for cards like Snap Fire
Fixed a bug where some ship and equipment unlock conditions would not display in the ship selection screen
Fixed a bug where the Deadweight station could appear on the node after the second sector boss, thus making it unreachable
Thanks, and keep those bug reports coming!
– The Breachway Team
Experimental Branch Update #4 – Alternate equipment and player profiles
Hi everyone, it’s finally here — the meta-progression update is done and up on the experimental branch!
Read on how to access the experimental branch here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2118810/view/536594572115968105?l=english
And with that out of the way, let's dive straight into the main things we added:
Alternate starting gear: You can unlock alternate starting equipment for your ships. In the first pass of this implementation, as you unlock equipment, you can also select it as a starting option on specific ships. In the near future, we plan to add more interesting and unique starting equipment you can unlock. Stay tuned!
Equipment unlocks: This is a main part of the meta-progression update, meant to give new players a more guided experience as they go through the game for the first few hours, letting them gradually unlock and play with more equipment and mechanics, rather than overwhelming them with too much complexity out of the gate.
Player profiles: We now support multiple player profiles, so whether you want to see the new meta-progression with a new player profile, or you have someone else who wants to play Breachway from your PC, just create a new profile in the main menu and you're ready to go.
New subsystem drop logic: Paired with the equipment unlocks, subsystems will only appear for equipment pieces you have unlocked. Additionally, each faction now has chances of dropping subsystems from specific categories, rather than all elite units being able to drop any subsystem. This gives you more control if you are looking to make a specific build work.
Reworked ship unlock conditions: This goes hand in hand with the new equipment unlock conditions and gives players access to more ships as they play the game, rather than gate them behind reaching a particular location or boss.
Besides this, we did the usual bug-fixing pass, trying to reproduce and fix all of the reported bugs, and we've gotten through most of the cases.
Once this has had a few days of testing, we will finally roll it out on the main branch, complete with some new achievements and perks, with more on the way soon after!
We’re very grateful for your continued support — it means a lot. Whether you’re leaving feedback, testing out new features, reporting bugs, or just enjoying the game, you’re helping us improve Breachway every day. Most changes in the meta-progression update are a direct result of your feedback.
