Patch Notes

• Elemental weapon mods are now chance based instead of cooldown based. This has been a heavily requested feature and I will be moving from cooldowns to chance based on many other mods in upcoming updates to allow for even more insane build scaling! The general idea is that it’s boring for a powerful thing to fire only once every 5 seconds max and it’s much more fun for a weaker thing to fire potentially multiple times a second (scaling nicely with fire rate and chance build options).
  
  In order for this to be balanced and considering that a 20% chance to burn enemies would be constantly applied from the minigun (due to the fast fire rate) and would barely be applied at all from the sniper (due to the slow fire rate), the base trigger chance for the certain perks will change depending on the weapon used (with fast firing weapons having a lower base chance and slow firing weapons having a higher base chance).
  
  The following mods use this system and more will follow in the future:
  
  
  
  
  • Ice Shot
    
  • Fire Shot
    
  • Poison Shot
    
  • Lightning Shot
    
  • Random Shot
    
  • Ultra Shot
    
  • Time Bolt
    
  • Triple Shot
    
  • Arc Shot
    
  • X Shot
    
  • Square Shot
    
  • Mega Crit
    
  • Split Shot
    
  • Scatter Shot
    
  • Targeting Shot
    
  • Homing Shot
    
  
  
• Overhauled the save system- there are now multiple save backups and a separate save for user settings. This greatly reduces the chance of your save file becoming corrupt (some players were experiencing a NULL bug where they couldn't move after their PC lost power while an autosave was saving) as there are now 2 extra backup saves to try and prevent that from ever occurring
  
• Increased the maximum projectile limit from 300 to 400
  
• Time Shot can now crit which should make it much more interesting and useful
  
• Added new weapon mod: Ultra Shot: Chance to fire high damage bullets along with your shots
  
• Added new weapon mod: Time Bolt: Chance to fire bolts that deal damage over time
  
• Added new perk: Rigged Totems: Chance based totems are more likely to roll in your favor
  
• Added new perk: Streamer Loot: Higher rarity loot has a greater chance to spawn from chests
  
• Changed Green Dice: renamed to Gold Dice, buffed to Legendary rarity and has a more potent effect on chance based mods and perks but no longer provides the higher rarity loot benefit that it had before. A note about wording that may be confusing: it says +50% chance for chance based mods and perks to trigger- this does not mean adding a flat 50% to all chance based things (as this would quickly break many perks), it insteads multiplies the chance by 150%. So a base chance of 20% will be 30% with the 50% extra chance buff that Gold Dice provides
  
• Improved the Tropical biome parkour island layout to have a better and easier flow
  
• Replaced 6 placeholder skins with fresh new ones: Emerald, Glimmer, Jet Black, Ruby, Sapphire and Silver
  

• Reduced enemy damage scaling a bit on Nightmare difficulty especially when looping as it quickly turns into a “lose all your health on one hit” type of situation which I’m not a fan of. Don’t get me wrong- I still want enemies to be extremely damaging when looping on Nightmare but this should just make it feel like you can take an extra hit or two before the run is over
  
• Blocker Skull movement speed reduced by 25%
  
• The Unstoppable challenge (Get a win with over 10000 eliminations) elimination requirement has been reduced down to 7500 eliminations
  
• Regular melee crabs, ants and slugs are slightly larger to make them easier to hit
  
• Ice Shot is now unlocked by default
  

• Improved cases where enemies could shoot through walls on elite and boss islands
  
• Toned back some more overtuned FX such as on daggers
  

• Fixed many places where enemies could get stuck under the map. Any remaining enemies that do happen to spawn under the map should get picked up by the new anti-softlock mechanics and will get auto eliminated after a short period of time
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing the settings menu to stay active in a hidden state while the game was playing, resulting in frequent stutters as the game saved constantly
  
• Some mod and perk descriptions that were inaccurate have been updated (such as Money Is Power displaying a 1% increased in damage when it is actually a 10% increase)
  
• Fixed issue where enemies would stop spawning if players were far away from any spawn points
  

Beta Branch

1. Right click Crab Champions in your Steam library and click "properties"
   
2. Navigate down to the "Betas" tab
   
3. Select the beta branch from the dropdown
   

Patch Notes

• Due to popular demand, locked inventory slots have returned with a few caveats. No slots are locked on Easy difficulty, 12 slots are locked on Normal difficulty and 16 slots are locked on Nightmare difficulty. The cost to unlock each slot has been reduced as it was one of the main issues with locked slots on previous builds
  
  EDIT: There is a lot of community discussion regarding this topic- some people love the locked slots, others hate it and want to just build without having to manage inventory. I think the only real solution here is to add a difficulty modifier system that lets players choose if they want bonus modifiers on their run such as locked slots. Having all modifiers active at once would be virtually impossible but letting players mix and match them without forcing a specific mechanic on them sounds like the best option here. I'm monitoring all of the feedback that's rolling in- since the game is in Early Access there will be some trial and error to find the right balance on mechanics like this. For now, all slots will remain unlocked until I add this modifier mechanic.
  
  
• Added new enemy: Blocker Skull
  
• Added new Tropical island
  
  
• Reworked how Combo works (it was pretty invisible / meaningless before and only affected your final score which isn’t relevant until the top 10 runs update (coming soon btw), but it now has direct use in making new build options).
  
  In short, combo starts off at 1.0x and:
  
  
  
  
  • Increases to 2.0x after eliminating 25 enemies without getting hit
    
  • Increases to 3.0x after eliminating 100 enemies without getting hit
    
  • Increases to 4.0x after eliminating 250 enemies without getting hit
    
  • Increases to 5.0x after eliminating 500 enemies without getting hit
    
  
  Once you get hit, your combo resets back down to 1.0x. The newly added perks below are designed for those that enjoy the “don’t get hit” style of gameplay without forcing it on everyone as a required mechanic and instead introducing it as a build option
  
• Added new perk: Crystal Combo: Enemies drop more crystals depending on your current combo
  
• Added new perk: Damage Combo: Damage increased depending on your current combo
  
• Added new perk: Healthy Combo: Heal when increasing your combo
  
• Added physics crowns to parkour islands...
  

• Orb Launcher damage increased from 30 to 35
  
• Launcher Crabs now only fire 2 projectiles instead of 3 and also have more telegraphing before they are about to fire
  
• Playing With Power has been removed from the loot pool for now as it was causing a lot of accidental deaths. I’ll look into improving and reworking it in the future
  

• Added anti-softlock measures for enemies stuck in weird places on the islands that prevented being able to progress
  
• Fixed lightning FX being extremely bright and making it hard to see
  
• Toned back various bullet trail FX that made it hard to see when doing late game runs, this should also improve performance
  
• Touched up some of the more work in progress island visuals (like the one with all the vertical pillars)
  
• Added support for native Steam Deck resolution (1280 x 800) as well as some missing ultrawide configurations and 720p resolutions
  
• Fixed various out of map spots
  
• Improved hitboxes on many assets including trees and chests that you could get stuck in
  
• Fixed various spawn points that could make chests spawn on trees or rocks as well as some player spawn points that needed adjusting
  
• You can now no longer take damage from lava on Shop islands
  
• Fixed various difficult to understand UI descriptions to make things like the Spiked Chest cost more clear
  
• Spiked Chests now show the exact amount of health that they’ll take when opening instead of always “33” which was confusing
  
• If a Blessing is active, it’ll show up on the UI of the island (the same as a challenge modifier) instead of having to remember if you chose a flawless portal or not
  
• Homing Thorns are now red to not confuse them with the harmless crystal pickups that fly to the player
  

• Fixed an issue where aiming down on the ground beside you with certain weapons like the Rocket Launcher wouldn’t spawn projectiles
  
• Fixed an infinite key exploit (keys are no longer saved with an autosaved run)
  
• Fixed an infinite loot exploit (where laggy players could spam the drop button in inventory to drop multiple copies of the same loot)
  
• Fixed an exploit that could let players use spiked chests and damaging totems without taking damage (using the I-Frames when dashing to negate the damage)
  
• Fixed an issue where the blue collision border would persist back to the lobby after a run
  
• Fixed issue where falling off the edge of a completed parkour island that you had enabled a checkpoint for would spawn you back at the checkpoint, stranded
  
• The Target Dummy can no longer be broken in most cases (the most insane builds will still probably manage it)
  
• Bosses should no longer spawn keys under the map or inside cliffs
  
• Fixed issue where bosses would give more keys to certain players
  
• Fixed issue where you could evaporate if you swam too far into the sea in the lobby
  
• Fixed issue where it would be possible to die when spamming interact on totems with certain greed perks equipped
  

Patch Notes

• Added backwards sliding and being able to slightly move right or left while sliding (I tested being able to slide left and right at full speed but it was way too OP and made the movement far less skillful)
  
• Added 8 new songs! (most of them are demos but will give more variation to the existing playlists)
  
• Inventory slots are now all unlocked by default- the locked inventory slot mechanic was confusing to many players and was disrupting the flow of grabbing loot so for now you can just take as much loot as your inventory can hold without having to keep stopping to figure out what to drop. I want the game to move as fast as you want and this was a definite blow to the momentum. I'll monitor and see how this change affects gameplay and may introduce locked slots in some way again in the future (such as only the bottom row of each category being locked allowing for more early game freedom)
  
• Added checkpoints to Parkour islands so you don’t have to always start back at the very start when you fall
  
• Grenade Crabs and Sniper Crabs now telegraph their actions better so you have a bit more time to react
  
• Sniper Crabs shoot with a little bit of spread so they have a chance to miss
  
• Tweaked the Speedrun challenges to be actually challenging. Speedrun I is now island 20 in 16 minutes or less, Speedrun II is now island 50 in 40 minutes or less and Speedrun III is now island 100 in 60 minutes or less. I'll monitor to see if these times are too difficult or not!
  
• Fire Shot is now unlocked by default
  

• Reduced the amount of keys needed to use the Key Totem down to 3 but bosses now spawn 2 keys instead of 6 keys
  
• Auto Rifle damage increased from 24 to 28
  
• Grenade, Sniper and Launcher Crabs have had their health reduced from 800 to 700
  
• Reload Arc cooldown increased from 1 second to 5 seconds
  
• Bosses and Elites now have a 12 second cooldown in between each unique freeze applied (to prevent being able to easily cheese them with repeated freezing and them never thawing and attacking)
  
• Eagle Eye bonus damage distance threshold reduced by 50% (so it will now be far more useful especially on smaller islands)
  

• Fixed ant boss doing the same attack over and over
  
• Fixed ant boss homing projectiles bugging out and moving extremely fast if you were out of line of sight when they were fired
  
• Enemies can no longer be frozen while their spawn animation is playing as it could lead to situations where they’d slide away under the map and be impossible to eliminate
  
• Fixed portal that would spawn in a bush and be hard to find
  
• Fixed the Speedrun I challenge not being completable
  
• Stats pedestals now correctly update your progression when you unlock new weapons or loot with the key totem without having to leave and re-join the lobby
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur under specific circumstances when using a Random Totem
  
• Fixed various rare crashes
  
• Optimized the Boss Skull bullet hell attack so it should be much more performant
  
• Reduced the complexity of the lava splash FX which should increase performance / visual clarity when many projectiles and enemies are hitting the lava at once
  
• Fixed a launch pad that caused you to overshoot a Parkour jump
  
• I made a fix to Quickplay but there were numerous new bugs that appeared when enabling it so I need to revisit and make a proper fix in a future patch
  

New Visuals

• Weapon Model Preview
  
  While this is untextured, I think it gives a good idea of how the weapons will look in the game- clean, chunky and semi stylized.
  
  
  
• New Trees
  
  
  
  
• New Cliffs
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• New Materials
  New sand + ocean foam materials
  
  
  Improved snow and ice materials
  
  
  
• Honorable Mentions
  Here are a few islands that didn't make the final cut in terms of style or design but I still think are worth showing!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As a final bonus point, all cliffs were created procedurally which allowed me to generate many detailed assets with a consistent style and make broad changes without having to redo lots of work.
  
  

Level Design

Biome Changes

Totems

• Health Totem: 50% chance to double max health, 50% chance to halve max health
  
• Crystal Totem: Gain crystals but lose 33% of your health
  
• Loot Totem: Get a random pickup but lose 33% of your health
  
• Gold Totem: Get a random legendary pickup but lose 90% of your health
  
• Glass Totem: Get a random pickup (if not destroyed- any damage source destroys this totem)
  
• Fuse Totem: Get a random pickup (if interacted with before the fuse expires)
  
• Greed Totem: Get a random greed perk
  
• Chance Totem: Lose 10% of your health for a 25% chance to get a random pickup
  
• Gamble Totem: Costs crystals for a 25% chance to get a random pickup
  
• Reroll Totem: Costs crystals to reroll all pickups on the current island
  
• Random Totem: Randomize your entire inventory (explodes after 1 use)
  
• Life Totem: 33% chance to fully heal, 66% chance to take a small amount of damage
  
• Perk Totem: Takes one of your perks and has a 66% chance to increase the level and a 33% chance to consume it
  

New Enemies

• Grenade Crab
  
  Lobbing a slow but highly damaging grenade at players, it's best to keep your distance when facing these guys!
  
  
• Slammer Crab
  
  This Elite variant attacks only via ground slams so choose your moments to dodge wisely!
  

Even More Perks

• Double Vision: Chance to get an additional reward chest after clearing each island
  
• Crystal Asteroids: Chance for asteroids containing bonus loot to spawn on each island
  
• Care Package: Get additional reward chests after clearing every 4th island
  
• Big Chests: Reward chests have more options to choose from
  
• Shockwave: Reloading damages all visible enemies
  

Other Stuff

• Added Field Of View Slider
  A heavily requested feature across most games today, you can now change your FOV from a minimum of 60 to a maximum of 110.
  
  Low FOV (60)
  
  
  Default FOV (80)
  
  
  High FOV (110)
  
  
  
• Enemy Collision
  Enemies now have movement collision (meaning you can't dash through flying skulls as seen in the last update!). I tested being able to ride on top of big enemies but it led to some broken situations- maybe I'll revisit this in the future.
  
  
• New Elimination Hitmarker
  
  
  
• Enemy Attack Improvements
  I've tweaked many enemy attacks that felt unfair such as launch attacks happening very close to the player, not giving them enough time to react. Attack telegraph visuals have also been overhauled, matching the tint of the enemy and timing of the attack. Enemies can now also attack from multiple locations at the same time (such as skulls firing a stream of projectiles from both eyes at once).
  
  
• Foliage Wind
  
  Added wind logic to all foliage assets: it's subtle but really breathes life into each island.
  
  
• Updated Crab Materials
  
  The crab materials and skins are now more stylized to match the final look of the game. This just means more clean reads and less noisy details that no longer fit in.
  
  
• Challenge Crystal Improvements
  Challenge crystals now spawn a protected pickup for each teammate when playing multiplayer rather than just one for the damaging player.
  
  
• Improved Visibility
  
  When getting close to walls or your crab, you'll now be able to see through objects instead of having them frustratingly block your view.
  
  
• Loot Visibility Improvements
  Any non chest loot that spawns is now clearly marked with a location UI. This reduces situations where players would accidentally jump into a portal without first collecting some loot dropped by a challenge crystal or an enemy due to a perk.
  
  
• Improved Inventory UI Prompts
  
  
  
• Balancing And Adjustments
  Some outdated perk info was being discussed in the Crab Champions Discord server and it reminded me to mention that there are constant balance changes being made to weapons, mods and perks. It feels a bit fruitless to post these changes in detail here as the game is not out yet but expect detailed patch notes during the beta and beyond!
  

Beta Checklist

• Finish Remaining Environments
  Now that I've established the visual styles for each of the biomes and built a selection of islands that work well with the gameplay, I need to build out more islands so that there is enough variation per biome. I'll be making the bare minimum amount of islands (roughly 15 islands per biome) to start off the beta but many more will be added over time.
  
  
• Improve + Replace Animations
  As you could probably tell from some of the clips posted today, the animation side of things needs more refinement (make weapon recoil affect the crab properly, fix jarring transitions etc.).
  
  
• Make Final Weapon Models + Sounds
  Each weapon needs a unique finalized mesh and matching sounds as both of these elements have a huge impact on how satisfying it is to play the game.
  
  
• Make Final Enemy Models + Sounds + Animations
  Final versions of each of the non-crab enemy archetypes seen in previous updates have to be created. Some enemies (especially the Slugs) have been using very basic placeholder meshes for a long time and badly need new visuals. Keep in mind that the enemies are already fully designed: their behavior and attack patterns are all done, they just need new visuals.
  
  
• Make Final Sounds + Music
  Of course a huge part of the game are the sound effects and soundtrack. While I've been focused mainly on code and visuals over the last few months, I'm now getting back to finishing the soundtrack and making unique sounds effects for any elements that need it (I had been repurposing the same small set of sounds from the prototype for SO many different things so it'll be great to replace these with proper unique sounds).
  

New Visuals

• New FX / More Vibrant Colors
  
  
  
• Visual Style + Level Design
  
  
  Since there's so much going on and a lot of information to convey at any given time in the game, I've settled on a clean, lightly stylized visual style for the environment to give the player a clear read on enemies and projectiles. These images don't represent final assets but more the general feel I'm going for- spacious arenas with clear boundaries to keep all focus on the action. I designed many types of islands this month, some with fall hazards or traps but I kept coming back to simple open spaces, they just felt much better to play. When the game is all about high speed and intense action, having to navigate a complicated level is just not fun!
  
  
  
  
• Early Lava Biome Visuals
  
  
  Previous previews of the lava biome had tinted the whole scene red which made it a bit visually fatiguing to play in after a while. I went for a more striking look in this pass to try and make the lava pop while maintaining the clean and simple style mentioned above.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• New Pickup Visuals
  New distinct meshes for weapon mods, grenade mods and perks have been added to easily identify them at a glance.
  
  
  

New Enemies

• Shotgun Crab
  Deadly up close, these crabs fire a volley of shotgun shots your way.
  
  
  
  
• Launcher Crab
  These crabs wield triple shot rocket launchers and can leap high into the air. Luckily they knock themselves back when firing so it'll take a little while for them to catch up to you again after each shot!
  
  
  
  
• Mage Crab
  Specializing in mystical ranged attacks, these crabs fire dense formations of projectiles which can be tricky to dodge if backed into a corner.
  
  
  
  
• Poison Crab
  Inaccurate and with sporadic movement, these crabs can easily add some chaos to an otherwise manageable situation.
  
  
  
  
• Sniper Crab
  Excelling at long range, these crabs fire arcing sniper shots that soar over obstacles and meet their targets with devastating accuracy.
  
  
  
  
• King Ant Boss
  The visuals aren't final for the ant itself but I've made a full set of unique attack patterns worthy of a giant poisonous ant!
  
  
  

New Enemy Attacks

• Mage Crab Circular Attack
  
  
  
• Elite Skull Line Strike Attack
  
  
  
• Heavy Crab Weapon Attack
  
  
  
• Elite Skull Homing Attack
  
  

Cooldowns

More Weapon Mods

• Proximity Barrage: Shots that hit enemies spawn powerful missiles that seek out nearby enemies
  
• Hot Shot: Increased critical hit chance and damage but incoming damage is also increased
  
• Critical Blast: Critical shots that hit enemies create powerful explosions
  
  
• Critical Link: Critical shots that hit enemies spawn 5 new shots that target nearby enemies
  
• Critical Chain: 100% critical hit chance for a short time after landing a critical hit
  
• Critical Blades: Critical shots that hit enemies spawn 3 deadly spinning blades that seek out nearby enemies
  
• Spike Strike: Shots cause powerful spikes to erupt from the ground, damaging nearby enemies
  
• Ice Strike: Shots bring down powerful ice strikes that damage and freeze nearby enemies
  
• Fire Strike: Shots bring down powerful fire strikes that damage and burn nearby enemies
  
• Lightning Strike: Shots bring down powerful lightning strikes that damage and shock nearby enemies
  
  
• Poison Strike: Shots bring down powerful poison strikes that damage and poison nearby enemies
  
• Random Shot: Shots apply random debuffs to enemies
  
• Ice Storm: Shots create icy storms that deal damage over time
  
• Fire Storm: Shots create fiery storms that deal damage over time
  
• Lightning Storm: Shots create electric storms that deal damage over time
  
• Poison Storm: Shots create poisonous storms that deal damage over time
  
• Triple Shot: Chance to fire in a triple shot formation
  
• Arc Shot: Chance to fire in an arc shot formation
  
• X Shot: Chance to fire in an X shot formation
  
  
• Square Shot: Chance to fire in a square shot formation
  

More Perks

• Driller: Destroying destructible rocks has a greater chance to spawn loot
  
• Finishing Move: Enemies eliminated with critical hits drop more crystals
  
• Ice Aura: Freeze and damage nearby enemies every few seconds
  
• Fire Aura: Burn and damage nearby enemies every few seconds
  
• Lighting Aura: Shock and damage nearby enemies every few seconds
  
• Poison Aura: Poison and damage nearby enemies every few seconds
  

Biome Structure Changes

Island 1: Horde (Rare chest reward)
Island 2: Horde (Consumable (health, armor or crystals) chest reward)
Island 3: Challenge (Rare chest reward)
Island 4: Horde (Consumable chest reward)
Island 5: Elite (Epic chest reward)
Island 6: Horde (Consumable chest reward)
Island 7: Defense (Rare chest reward)
Island 8: Horde (Consumable chest reward)
Island 9: Shop
Island 10: Boss (Legendary chest reward)

Other Stuff

• Improved Inventory UI
  
  When hovering over individual inventory slots, you'll now see much more specific information than before: raw damage numbers along with a percentage increase. This makes it much easier to see which mods are doing the most damage without having to calculate it yourself based on percentages which was confusing especially if you didn't know the base damage that the percentages were based on! In addition, any mods that spawn damage areas (like the elemental Strike and Storm mods mentioned earlier) will now show the amount of damage + elemental damage stacks dealt over their lifetimes, making it much easier to understand their effectiveness. Many other mods have been updated to have better descriptions (like Splash Damage detailing the radius in addition to the damage dealt) because who likes playing games where you are forced to tab out and read a wiki every few minutes?
  
  
  
• Movement Improvements
  I've removed the dash, slide and land camera shakes, repositioned the camera and tightened up the movement heavily to make a much more focused movement experience- less bells and whistles actually keeps things feeling more grounded and responsive!
  
  
• Loot Balancing
  Generally Rare loot should be a "boring" stat up (often with downsides), Epic loot should be a "fun" stat up and Legendary loot should have much more unique and exciting effects. Because of this I've made a few adjustments to allow for Legendary loot to stand more clearly apart from the other rarities.
  
  Ice, fire, lightning and poison shot mods have been moved from Legendary to Epic rarity as the newly added elemental Strike and Storm mods take their place: the most powerful elemental mods in the game. Similarly with all the new more interesting critical hit based mods added this month, Sharpshooter (greater chance to critical hit) and Power Punch (increased critical hit damage) have been moved down to the Rare rarity.
  
  Finally both Growing Shot and Shrinking Shot have been removed as they were very hard to notice, generally weren't all too interesting and often resulted in confusing reductions in damage for players that had picked them up earlier in a run.
  
  
  
  
• General Balance Changes
  - Grenades now deal 50% more damage making Grenade Mods a more viable choice- previously Weapon Mods and Perks were by far the most popular when choosing loot.
  - Enemies have had their health increased across the board: it was easy to 2-3 shot most enemies which led to some islands being cleared very quickly. While I want to avoid bullet sponge enemies, this change allows more time for your mods to trigger and noticeably contribute to taking those beefier enemies down!
  - Shop prices have been adjusted so that Legendary loot now costs roughly 3x the price of Epic loot making boss fights the primary way to get Legendary drops.
  
  
• New Circular Lobby
  The lobby has been improved to have all interactable totems in an easy to reach circular layout: quickly change things between runs without having to spend time traveling.
  
  
• Fail Of The Month: Huge Slug Elimination FX
  I got a bit carried away with some of the early tests improving the FX that play when slugs are eliminated...
  
  
  
• Protected Chest Pickups
  Last month, protected chests were added (meaning each player is assigned a chest after clearing each island and only they can open it). To further this, the loot choices that each chest spawns are now also protected so other players can't grab your loot while you are deciding what to take. Players can still share loot by dropping mods and perks from their inventory.
  
  
• Improved UI Text Readability
  
  Shadows have been added to most important text UI elements for easier reading in bright lighting conditions.
  
  
• Ice Changes
  Enemies no longer instantly thaw from ice when taking damage, allowing you to keep enemies frozen while dealing damage. The only exceptions to this are if enemies slide into water while frozen or if they take burn damage.
  
  
• Removed Radial Damage Falloff
  It just felt better (and easier to gauge DPS) in playtests to deal full damage to enemies regardless of their position within an explosion radius!
  

Community Spotlight: TheeCRAB

New Lobby System

• New Run Portal: Jump in to instantly start a new run
  
• Autosave Portal: Resume your previous run (if an autosave exists)
  
• Cosmetics Totem: Equip crab and weapon skins as well as view all challenges to be completed in order to unlock more skins!
  
• Difficulty Totem: Choose one of the 4 difficulty options for your next run
  
• Leaderboards Totem: View friend and global leaderboards for the currently selected difficulty
  
• Multiplayer Totem: Join a random session with the Quickplay option or host your own game and invite friends
  
• Key Totem: Dispense keys (the currency that persists after runs end) to permanently unlock new weapons, weapon mods, grenade mods and perks, adding more content to the game over time
  
  
• Stats Pedestal: See stats for all players in the lobby including things like the current win streak or the percentage of challenges completed
  
• Tutorial Portal: Replay the tutorial as many times as you need to (you can set record times for completing it quickly)
  

Challenges And Progression

Crab Skin Challenges

• Flawless: Get a win on Normal difficulty without taking any damage
  
• Frugal: Get a win on Normal difficulty with 5 or less shop purchases
  
• Millionaire: Get a win with over 1M unspent crystals in your inventory
  
• Unstoppable: Get a win with over 1000 eliminations
  
• Speedrun I: Reach island 30 in 20 minutes or less
  
• Speedrun II: Reach island 50 in 40 minutes or less
  
• Speedrun III: Reach island 100 in 60 minutes or less
  
• Claws Of Fury I: Eliminate 500 enemies in a single run
  
• Claws Of Fury II: Eliminate 2500 enemies in a single run
  
• Claws Of Fury III: Eliminate 10000 enemies in a single run
  
• Outplayed: Defeat a boss on Ultra Chaos difficulty without taking any damage
  
• Bulletproof: Complete the first biome on Nightmare difficulty without taking any damage
  
• Big Spender: Make 100 purchases at shops in a single run
  
• Playing With Power: Level up a mod or perk to level 20 in a single run
  
• EZ: Defeat a boss in under 10 seconds
  
• Marathon: Survive until island 200
  
• Slice And Dice: Survive until island 15 without firing your weapon
  
• Close Call: Defeat a boss when you have 1 health remaining
  
• Ultra Damage: Deal over 100K damage in a single shot
  
• Maxed Out: Fill all mod and perk slots in your inventory during a single run
  
• Solid Gold: Fill all weapon mod slots with legendary weapon mods
  
• Recycler: Salvage 50 pickups in a single run
  
• Greedy: Defeat a boss with at least 5 greed perks in your inventory
  
• Crab Champion I: Get a win on any difficulty
  
• Crab Champion II: Get a win on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Crab Champion III: Get a win on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Skilled: Get 3 wins in a row on any difficulty
  
• Pro: Get 3 wins in a row on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Master: Get 3 wins in a row on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Looper: Get a win after looping at least once
  
• Crab Legend: Complete all challenges
  

Weapon Skin Challenges

• Auto Rifle Master I: Get a win with the Auto Rifle on any difficulty
  
• Auto Rifle Master II: Get a win with the Auto Rifle on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Auto Rifle Master III: Get a win with the Auto Rifle on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Pump Shotgun Master I: Get a win with the Pump Shotgun on any difficulty
  
• Pump Shotgun Master II: Get a win with the Pump Shotgun on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Pump Shotgun Master III: Get a win with the Pump Shotgun on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Burst Rifle Master I: Get a win with the Burst Rifle on any difficulty
  
• Burst Rifle Master II: Get a win with the Burst Rifle on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Burst Rifle Master III: Get a win with the Burst Rifle on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Sniper Master I: Get a win with the Sniper on any difficulty
  
• Sniper Master II: Get a win with the Sniper on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Sniper Master III: Get a win with the Sniper on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Crossbow Master I: Get a win with the Crossbow on any difficulty
  
• Crossbow Master II: Get a win with the Crossbow on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Crossbow Master III: Get a win with the Crossbow on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Rocket Launcher Master I: Get a win with the Rocket Launcher on any difficulty
  
• Rocket Launcher Master II: Get a win with the Rocket Launcher on Nightmare difficulty
  
• Rocket Launcher Master III: Get a win with the Rocket Launcher on Ultra Chaos difficulty
  
• Gunslinger: Get a win with all weapons in the game
  

Gameplay Improvements

• Better Rewards + More Variety
  After a lot of playtesting this month, I realized that some island rewards (mainly keys and armor plates) just didn't feel worth it after working hard to narrowly clear an island. Because of this, there will now always be a choice between 2 portals when moving to new islands: an easy portal with a much shorter and less intense wave of enemies for a lower tier reward (like a heart or a crystal bundle) and a hard portal with much more challenging encounters which guarantee a high value reward (like a weapon mod or perk). This creates a nice dynamic where you can get greedy and keep going for the better rewards (and harder portals) but end up ruining the run. The pacing and distribution of rewards is something that I'm always tweaking and will continue to do so during the beta.
  
  I've also focused on variety with multiple new types of Shop and Treasure islands that players can encounter on their runs. Health Shops / Key Shops allow players to purchase loot using health / keys rather than crystals. Treasure islands now have a wide variety of different layouts including some that are Greed focused (one of the only ways to get Greed perks), some that offer multiple pathways to choose from and some that are simply a huge area full of crystal rocks to destroy!
  
  
• Improved Loot FX:
  
  Loot now visually jumps out of chests with new FX and nice staggered timing before the loot is revealed: much more interesting than before. Unique sounds also play for each rarity.
  
  
• Flawless Island Clear Changes
  Previously, flawless island clears rewarded crystals which felt "invisible" a lot of the time when playtesting: if you weren't already looking out for the bonus, it was easy to miss it being awarded. In addition to this, simply getting more crystals after an island didn't feel rewarding enough.
  
  You now get an additional reward chest after each flawless island clear which really adds up if you manage to do it multiple times in a biome. This also scales with the Performance Bonus perk (a chance to get an ADDITIONAL reward chest when getting a flawless island clear) which can lead to crazy amounts of loot in the hands of a skilled player!
  
  
• Improved Pacing
  Entering a flow state of clearing islands with an "all gameplay no downtime" design is something that I've worked hard to try and achieve. Ideally there'll be a point where the game clicks for players and even a clearing the first island on a new run will feel skillful and satisfying.
  
  Rather than having to clear 15 islands per biome (which could take up to 20 minutes if playing slowly), I've reduced the number of islands per biome to 10 for a more focused experience. In addition, many issues with how enemies scale as you progress have been fixed to avoid tediously long islands when looping in the late game. Ideally each island is intense and action packed but never feels too long.
  
  
• More Ways For Enemies To Attack
  
  Enemies can now attack from multiple locations at once: like this skull firing projectiles from both eyes (the eyes even now light up when firing, very important feature!)
  
  
• Better Boss Loot:
  Bosses now physically drop loot pickups when defeated (in addition to the Epic rarity chests that are spawned), making the process of beating a boss much more rewarding.
  
  
• Challenge Crystal Loot
  Challenge Crystals (destructibles that spawn a bunch of hard enemies when destroyed) now drop a random pickup as a reward, making them much more worth the risk of losing health.
  
  
• Limitless Shop Pedestals
  Loot purchased from a shop pedestal can now be repeatedly purchased over and over (provided you can pay the price each time), allowing for some rapid scaling in late game loops where you have a lot of crystals at hand!
  
  
• Final Difficulty Options
  
  While there has been a lot of back and forth on how difficulty should be handled in the game, I've landed on the realization that it's best to let players learn the mechanics of the game on an easier difficulty and give them the option to up the challenge when ready rather than not having difficulty options and seeing people stop playing out of frustration. For the beta there will be 4 difficulties:
  - Easy: Fewer enemies with less health that deal less damage and attack slower. You start with 250 max health instead of 100.
  - Normal: All values are untouched, a well rounded experience for new players.
  - Nightmare: More enemies with more health that deal more damage and attack faster.
  - Ultra Chaos: Everything cranked up to insane values for the ultimate challenge. Only very experienced players that have mastered the mechanics will be able to survive here- a punishing difficulty for those looking for that kind of gameplay!
  
  
• Multiplayer Loot Ownership:
  A common question that has come up: "can other players steal my loot or does everyone get local loot?"
  
  Since players should be able to be able to view what others are getting from chests, I've made chest loot be protected until the owning player picks it up. They can then freely drop the loot from their inventory for others to pick up if they wish. This prevents people from stealing your loot while allowing them to still see what you got!
  
  
• Multiplayer Portal Voting:
  On a related note, rather than letting the first player to pick a portal determine what the next island will be (potentially while others are still choosing their loot), I've added a system that allows everyone to vote for the portal that they want to go next with a 10 second countdown to allow players to finish looting before moving on to the next island. If all players vote, the countdown ends instantly and the next island portal is chosen without wasting any more time.
  
  
• Loot Pool Improvements:
  Some loot is now unique to certain biomes, making it easier to target specific build options (choosing to go to the Snow biome while going for an ice build will greatly increase your chances of finding ice themed loot).
  
  
• New Chest Animations
  
  Reward chests now slam down after clearing an island, way cooler than just appearing!
  
  
• Consumable Loot Rarities
  As consumable loot is the least fun to get (hearts, armor, keys and crystal bundles), I've added the chance to get higher rarity variants (Quad Key, Large Crystal Bundle etc.) when opening a consumable chest.
  
  
• Homing Thorns Challenge Modifier
  A new challenge modifier has been added: enemies spawn homing thorns when eliminated that seek you out- keep your distance!
  
  
• Ultrawide Support
  
  Something that has been frequently asked is if ultrawide monitors will be supported properly: I've been working to ensure that all UI elements will be aligned correctly on ultrawide monitors with no black bars or cropped visuals! All future versions of the game will also be tested with an ultrawide monitor to ensure compatibility.
  
  
• Inventory Quality Of Life Improvements
  You now have the option to drop anything in your inventory to share with teammates or to salvage. Salvaging loot for crystals now requires a 1 second button hold time to prevent accidentally selling something that you didn't mean to.
  
  
• Weapon Movement Speed Changes
  Weapons now affect movement speed with -20% movement speed when using the LMG and Rocket Launcher and +20% movement speed when using the lightweight SMG.
  
  
• Fail Of The Month: First Person Sniper Scope
  
  Another frequently asked question is if snipers will have scopes: I tried it out but since the game is all about high mobility action, being so zoomed in with tunnel vision just didn't feel good! I may revisit this in the future but for now all weapons will aim in third person without scopes.
  
  
• Improved Armor UI Visuals
  
  Each armor plate is now represented by a separate blue segment above the main health bar.
  

Final Grenade Mods

• Bubble Grenade: Grenades are surrounded by bubbles that deal constant damage
  
• Spike Strike: Chance for grenades to explode into a delayed fiery spike strike
  
  
• Imploding Grenade: Grenades deal more damage but have a smaller explosion radius
  
• Firework Explosion: Chance for grenades to explode into a cluster of fireworks
  
• Thorn Explosion: Chance for grenades to explode into homing thorns that stick to enemies and deal damage over time
  
• Glue Grenade: Grenades stick to enemies and deal more damage but there is a short delay before damage is dealt
  
  
• Crystal Strike: Chance for grenades to explode into a delayed crystal strike
  
• Ultra Mushroom: Chance for grenades to grow a gigantic explosive mushroom when exploding
  
• Shotgun Explosion: Chance for grenades to explode into a huge shotgun blast
  
  
• Elemental Explosion: Chance for grenades to explode into a random elemental damage area
  
• Cluster Explosion: Chance for grenades to explode into a cluster of bombs
  
• Layered Grenade: Chance for grenades to explode twice
  
• Spore Explosion: Chance for grenades to grow explosive mushrooms nearby when exploding
  
  

Destruction Improvements

Evolved Enemies

AutoSave

New Weapon Mods

• Spore Shot: Chance to attach explosive mushrooms to enemies when hitting them
  
  
• Torpedo Shot: Chance to fire a powerful homing torpedo along with your shot
  
• Thorn Shot: Chance to fire a homing thorn along with your shot that sticks to enemies and deals damage over time
  
  

Other Stuff

• Projectile FX Improvements
  
  Projectiles now have much longer lasting visuals, allowing for players to create unique visual trails when combining weapon mods.
  
  
• Balance Changes
  After dozens of daily playtests, I've found a sweet spot in terms of enemy density, type, health, damage and more! There were many specific combinations of enemies that needed tuning, for example a high number of slugs on smaller islands were causing cascading explosions the cleared the islands instantly.
  
  I've also heavily tweaked how difficulty scales as runs progress, introducing big bumps in difficulty after each completed biome to allow the player to get extremely strong near the end of a biome but to expect a new challenge when moving forward. The pace of each island has been sped up also with the majority of islands being focused on a single intense wave rather than multiple waves in a row which could feel tedious and ruined clutch moments where you just barely cleared a wave but another began right after and you got eliminated.
  
  
• Temple Reward Improvements
  Temples now always offer a choice between keys, hearts and crystals locked behind one way gates- players can only choose one path!
  
  
• Enemy Improvements
  Enemies now have faster attack animations and also spawn more quickly depending on how far into a run you are! Extra elites spawn on Elite islands after each loop for an added challenge. Elites can also start appearing in regular islands on later loops.
  
  
• Quality Of Life Changes
  - Armor plates have been limited to a maximum of 10 at once as it was possible to get hundreds of plates in a single run which could extend the late game survivability in ways that weren't intended.
  
  - Crosshairs have been updated with a new design and black outlines to make them much easier to see in bright scenes.
  
  
  - The island progression shown last month has been slightly restructured for more action and less downtime choosing rewards. This preserves the flow state of moving from island to island without as much time spent reading loot descriptions. To compensate for this change, when you do reach a treasure island or a shop, there's more opportunity to make multiple improvements to your build at once.
  
  - The camera height has been adjusted to be lower which feels much better when aiming uphill. Aiming field of view has also been boosted for all weapons for a more distinct difference between aiming and hipfiring.
  
  - Destructible crystals now have a tiny chance to drop a random pickup when destroyed in addition to their usual guaranteed crystal bonus!
  
  - New FX have been added for many perks that were previously hard to notice such as all perks that trigger when armor is broken or when an enemy is eliminated.
  
  - The Rare Treasure perk (enemies have a very small chance to drop mods and perks when eliminated) now has FX! This makes it much harder to accidentally miss these rare drops in the chaotic action.
  
  
  - Grenades now have 10 mod slots- the same as weapon mods! They previously had only 6 slots but there are too many fun combos that are lost if sticking to that limit!
  
  - Bosses and other powerful enemies can now attack without requiring line of sight, countering tactics that previously made their fights easier!
  
  - The mod and perk interaction UI has been improved to show more information such as the level that you are upgrading to if the mod or perk is already in your inventory.
  
  - Perks that damage nearby enemies when dashing or sliding no longer affect nearby destructibles which could quickly ruin a run!
  
  - Players now get credit and the usual crystal reward for eliminating enemies by knocking them off cliffs or into hazards.
  
  - Players can now die to fall damage (previously it was possible to cheese certain islands by falling into a hazard on purpose during a tricky encounter with enemies and get respawned in a better position away from the enemies).
  
  - Secret chests (found rarely on combat islands) have had their loot pool weighted more towards lower rarity drops like health or keys and are now free to open if you can reach them.
  
  - The Weak Shot, Charm Shot and Confusion Shot weapon mods have been removed as I felt that they were underperforming even at the lowest rarity. The Weak, Charm and Confusion debuffs still exist however and can be applied to the player from enemy attacks.
  
  - Fixed all remaining bugs surrounding projectiles (not bouncing properly, homing being inaccurate and plenty of other edge case issues that had been on the list for quite a while).
  
  - Specific lighting presets have been added per biome, making it easier to give each biome a more distinct look.
  
  
  - Save files now have safeguards in place to allow for me to make changes in the future without breaking existing saves.
  
  - Underperforming weapons like the crossbow, cluster launcher and orb launcher have received large tweaks to allow them to compete with the stronger weapons and be much more fun to use. For example, the crossbow has been changed from a slow single firing shot to a dual burst shot which makes it much more powerful.
  
  

OK cool... but WHEN IS THE GAME COMING OUT????

Loot Overhaul

• Rare Chest - Costs 1 Key: Drops Rare loot with a very small chance of Epic or Legendary drops happening
  
• Epic Chest - Costs 3 Keys: Drops Epic loot with a small chance of a Legendary drop happening
  
• Legendary Chest - Costs 6 Keys: Drops guaranteed Legendary loot
  

Final Island Progression

• Island 1 + 2 - Horde Eliminate waves of easy enemies (1 key reward per cleared Horde island)
  
• Island 3 - Treasure: Choose one of two reward types to spend your keys on
  
• Island 4 - Horde
  
• Island 5 - Challenge: Face more difficult enemies with a randomly selected challenge modifier active (2 keys reward per cleared Challenge island)
  
• Island 6 - Shop: Spend your crystals (earned from eliminating enemies, getting island clear bonuses and destroying crystal rocks) on loot!
  
• Island 7 - Horde:
  
• Island 8 - Elite: Eliminate a powerful elite enemy (2 keys reward per cleared Elite island)
  
• Island 9 - Treasure:
  
• Island 10 - Horde:
  
• Island 11 - Defense: Hold an area down for 60 seconds against increasingly intense waves of enemies (2 keys reward per cleared Defense island)
  
• Island 12 - Treasure:
  
• Island 13 - Temple: Navigate through an ancient temple facing powerful enemies (3 keys OR a gold heart OR a large crystal bundle reward per cleared Temple: the player can choose)
  
• Island 14 - Shop:
  
• Island 15 - Boss: Fight a menacing boss before moving on to the next biome (6 keys, a large crystal bundle and a gold heart reward)
  

New Mechanic: Armor

New Perks

• Damage Aura: Deal constant damage to enemies near you
  
• Reinforced: Gain additional armor plates each time you pick up armor
  
• Vampire: Heal after each melee elimination
  
• Sentry Gun: A friendly sentry gun spawns at the start of each island
  
• Mortar: A friendly mortar spawns at the start of each island
  
  
• Explosive Armor: Create a large explosion whenever breaking enemy armor
  
• Flammable Armor: Ignite all nearby enemies whenever breaking enemy armor
  
• Regenerator: Health regenerates over time while in an active island
  
• Clearance: Random goods in shops are free of charge
  
• Power Armor: Damage increased for each equipped armor plate
  
• Regenerating Armor: Gain armor at the start of each island
  
• Double Vision: Chance for loot to be doubled
  
• Critical Thinking: Critical hits deal more damage but non critical hits deal less damage
  
• Red Fury: Damage increased for a short time after eliminating an enemy
  
• Silver Lining: Health and damage increased for each greed perk that you have
  
• FMJ: Damage increased to armored enemies
  
• Thrusters: Dash speed increased
  
• Sledgehammer: Regular enemies (not a boss or an elite) are instantly eliminated when at low health
  
• Damage Control: Incoming damage heavily reduced for a short time after taking damage
  
• Gold Coupon: Your first purchases in shops are free of charge
  
• Freezing Enemies: Enemies freeze all nearby enemies when eliminated
  
  
• Flammable Enemies: Enemies ignite all nearby enemies when eliminated
  
• Electric Enemies: Enemies shock all nearby enemies when eliminated
  
• Poisonous Enemies: Enemies poison all nearby enemies when eliminated
  
• Sharp Claws: Melee damage increased
  
• Ice Claws: Melee deals ice damage
  
  
• Fire Claws: Melee deals fire damage
  
• Bonus Keys: Gain additional keys each time you pick up a key
  
• Regenerating Keys: Gain keys at the start of each island
  
• Ice Cold: Increased ice debuff stacks
  
• Firestarter: Increased fire debuff stacks
  
• High Voltage: Increased lightning debuff stacks
  
• Toxic: Increased poison debuff stacks
  
• Dagger Dash: Dashing sends an arc of daggers wherever you are looking
  
  
• Layered Armor (Greed Perk): Gain 100 armor plates but max health is greatly reduced
  

Final Weapon Mods

• Glue Shot: Shots stick to enemies and deal more damage but there is a short delay before damage is dealt
  
  
• Bubble Shot: Shots are surrounded by bubbles that deal constant damage
  
• Bomb Shot: Chance to spawn bombs when hitting enemies
  
  
• Health Shot: Chance to heal when dealing damage
  
• Targeting Shot: Shots that hit enemies spawn new shots that target other nearby enemies
  
• Recoil Shot: Shots deal more damage but firing knocks you back
  
• Money Shot: Gain crystals when hitting enemies
  
• Piercing Shot: Shots pierce through enemies (allowing you to deal damage to multiple enemies with a single shot)
  
• Double Tap: Shots have a chance to deal damage twice
  
• Triangle Shot: Fire powerful triangle projectiles along with your shot that regenerate over time
  
  
• Aerial Shot: Damage increased when airborne
  
• Uppercut: Every fifth shot deals more damage
  

The Future Of Racing And Duel

Other Stuff

• New Temple Design
  
  Temples have had a big rework in terms of level design: they are much more tactical than before and offer a refreshing slower pace compared to the chaos of most other island types. Players slowly advance, peeking corners, checking sightlines and playing more carefully in temples- getting knocked off into one of the many pits of lava sends you right back to the temple entrance so skillful aim and movement is required!
  
  
• Survival Victory Crown
  The Survival game loop is now complete! Players can choose to go to Crab Island after beating the Lava biome boss (or choose to keep going endlessly) and end their run by picking up the new gold crown that awaits!
  
  
• New Salvage Feature
  
  You can now salvage loot directly from chests without having to make room for it in your inventory! This becomes especially useful in the late game when you have no free slots left in your inventory (previously you'd have to just leave loot behind which felt like a big waste).
  
  
• Difficulty Scaling Changes
  I've been making tweaks to how the game ramps up in difficulty after each playtest to try and find the sweet spot between too easy and too challenging while still feeling like you are able to make an overpowered build. I noticed that near the end of each biome, player builds started heavily outperforming enemies so there is now a hefty bump in difficulty when moving to the next biome in addition to the per island scaling.
  
  
• Stats Pedestal
  
  Some simple player stats have been added to the Survival lobby- nice to compare your own stats with the players that you have matched up with!
  
  
• Damage Area Improvements
  Previously only a single damage area (fire / acid / crystal barrage etc.) could spawn after a grenade explodes. With the changes made this month, any number of damage areas can spawn: this allows for more grenade mod synergies that create potent damage area combos.
  
  
• Jump Flip Animation Returns!
  
  While the feedback was very positive to the new animations showcased last month, it was clear that the classic front flip animation was missed so I created one with the new rig!
  
  
• Fast Island Clear Bonus
  In addition to the Flawless Clear Bonus (clearing an island without taking any damage), I've added a bonus for players that complete islands quickly. Ideally this is a tradeoff: players that like to play fast but are willing to take a few hits will be rewarded while others that prefer a slower and more careful approach can also get a reward. The most skilled players will be able to consistently get both bonuses!
  
  
• Healing Rocks
  
  This new rare type of rock creates a healing aura when destroyed, healing anything inside it- including enemies! When playtesting I realized that there was actually quite a bit of strategy around using these effectively: when spotting them on an island I tried to keep enemies away to save the rocks from being destroyed so that I could break them when needed after getting hit.
  
  
• Quality Of Life Changes
  - Enemies have had a huge balance pass, from health, damage and speed to the minimum and maximum islands that they can spawn on, giving a much more varied and balanced experience
  
  - Enemies now credit the player that damaged them last and award crystals as usual when they are eliminated due to fall damage
  
  - A restart run button has been added to the pause menu to prevent having to go back to the main menu each time
  
  - Confirmation prompts when pressing the restart or quit buttons when paused have been added (I ruined so many runs by accidentally clicking the wrong buttons before this was a thing!)
  
  - New Greed Totem type: Claw For A Claw: Lose 33% of your health but gain a key
  
  - Greed Totems are now free of charge as they all come with a hefty downside
  
  - Health bars are now only visible when you are looking at an enemy instead of all enemy health bars cluttering up the screen
  
  - Damage areas no longer propagate randomly which led to unfair situations, instead they spawn secondary projectiles which explode into matching mini damage areas (this gives you time to dodge before they reach the ground and explode)
  
  - You can no longer dash while shocked, making getting hit by lightning a bit more punishing
  
  - Knockbacks can now only be registered once every 0.1 seconds to prevent spam and to allow for more consistent knockback damage
  
  - Plenty of bugs fixed, new sounds, FX and other visual content added this month also