PLANNED CONTENT IN 1.0

• [p]New mission locations[/p]
• [p]Final survivor, plus new assignments for existing survivors[/p]
• [p]Major rework of the area intel points system[/p]
• [p]10 new music tracks for camp and combat[/p]
• [p]Game difficulty rebalance (especially for higher modes)[/p]
• [p]Region progression lore and a victory screen[/p]
• [p]Improvements to existing accessories and gadgets[/p]
• [p]Additional achievements[/p]
• [p]Bug fixes[/p]

PRICE INCREASE NOTICE

GENERAL CHANGES

• Hovering over trader items now displays a count of owned duplicates next to the item description. This message is only shown when duplicates are found in the arsenal or items equipped on mercs.
  
• Pressing "T" while in camp opens the Camp Trader interface.
  
• Added extra card details for a few early-game weapons (2x4, Bone Club) that cannot be upgraded to Pristine.
  
• Flamethrower lab upgrade cards now drop when attacking a target with a Flamethrower. Lab points have a 5% chance to drop for all weapon types, with other weapon types requiring a kill. Previously, the chance was only triggered on a killing blow, and Flamethrowers were more frequently used to set enemies on fire instead of dealing a killing blow.
  
• Jack's assignment "Elite Sniper" has been renamed to "Hard Target". The requirements have been changed to snipe enemy types labeled as Hard, Elite, or Boss. Previously, only Elite targets counted toward the goal, which was very unrealistic to complete.
  
• The AP cost to stash cards from hand was removed in CU04 (after continuous feedback), but it caused some UI confusion. If the player has no AP to play a card, it fades out and can no longer be dragged to stash. A new tooltip has been added to state that the card must be playable to be stashed or dragged to the bottom. The stash event box has also been slightly increased to make it easier to stash cards.
  
• Added an outline around the new survivor greeting dialog to make it easier to read.
  

SKILL CHANGES

• Enforcer skill Pummel now ignores enemy stun resistance. Skill details have been updated to reflect this change.
  
• Tactician skill Firebug has been adjusted to no longer require a Tactician merc in the squad or in combat. The skill now passively increases the damage and fuel capacity of all Flamethrowers in combat when trained. The details for the skill have also been adjusted to reflect this change.
  

BUG FIXES

• Tooltip for the combat overflow deck shows an error (INVALID STAT).
  
• Selling unique weapons does not put them back into the future loot pool to be dropped at a higher level.
  
• Event Precognition is not drawing a random skill as indicated in the description.
  
• Incorrect placement of flamethrowers equipped on Nobu while in combat (visual glitch).
  
• Firebug does not increase the fuel capacity of Flamethrowers when a Tactician is played last. The skill has been reworked to no longer require a Tactician in play.
  

DEAD GRID - BUILD 0.9.0

NEW WEAPON MECHANIC: FLAMETHROWER

• Flamethrowers are designed for mid to late game enemies with high health pools, dealing damage to the percent of total HP instead of a flat number.
  
• Flamethrowers set enemies on fire, offering a defensive layer by blinding the enemy.
  
• Flamethrowers use a new ammo type, called Fuel.
  
• Just like other firearms, flamethrowers can be further trained in or upgraded in the Armory.
  
• Flamethrowers come in multiple unique variants with special abilities.
  
  
  
  
  

NEW UPGRADE CONDITION: PRISTINE

• A new item condition (color) has been added to allow upgrades beyond Exceptional (purple).
  
• Pristine items can be upgraded in the Armory, but unique items are still excluded.
  
• The upgrade path of the 6 conditions is as follows:
  DEGRADED -> STANDARD -> IMPROVED -> FINE-TUNED -> EXCEPTIONAL -> PRISTINE
  
  

NEW SKILL TOOL TIPS

• Many skills now have additional tool tips to further explain the associated mechanics.
  
• These extra tool tips can be disabled in Game Settings, under the Camp tab.
  
  

SKILL CHANGES

• LEADER - Combat Medic: Now removes poisoned.
  
• LEADER - Replenishment: Now removes bleeding.
  
• COMMANDO - Flanking Maneuver: Increased the trigger chance by 5% for all ranks.
  
• COMMANDO - Grenadier: all new skill, replacing Viper.
  
• ENFORCER - Closure: Increased the trigger chance by 5% for all ranks.
  
• TACTICIAN - Recalibration: Reworked to offer improved benefits on failed Recalibraiton procs.
  
• TACTICIAN - Lead Them Away: Slightly reworked the original skill to offer multiple benefits.
  
• TACTICIAN - Weak Point: Reworked the secondary mechanics of the skill, it can now also stack.
  
• TACTICIAN - Dynamite: reduced turns to explode from 2 to 1.
  
• TACTICIAN - Inferno: completely reworked the skill mechanic.
  
• TACTICIAN - Flare Gun: reworked draw and noise mechanics.
  
• TACTICIAN - Jenny: all new skill, replacing Meat Decoy.
  
• TACTICIAN - Firebug: new skill, replacing Siphoned Petrol
  
• TACTICIAN - Lure: completely reworked the skill mechanic (no change to achievements).
  
• TACTICIAN - Observer (reworked old skill Quick Learner) now remembers the last drawn skill from a a past encounter allowing for an early combo setup.
  
  
  
  
  

ARMORY

• Added 2 new sections for Revenant and Flamethrower weapons.
  
• Added all new weapon icons for a cleaner look.
  
• Armory upgrade points no longer drop a static value of +5, +10, +15, etc.
  
• Points are now generated with a range, based on the rarity of the armory drop.
  
  
  

GEAR MANAGEMENT

• Added a new SELL ALL AMMO button, above the SELL VALUABLES button.
  
• Trader always resets cards to the BUY list when changing between tabs with SELL or BUY BACK selected. This was a frequently requested feature in feedback.
  
• Last selected gear sorting option is now restored when returning to camp from a mission, another frequent feedback item.
  
• Added an additional option to change the upgrade animation to help players who are not aware this
  option exists in Game Settings.
  
• All mercs now have a variety of different idle animations, depending on the gear.
  
  
  

NEW SURVIVOR GREETINGS

All survivors joining your camp come with a short greeting message.

NEW ASSIGNMENT PROGRESSION

• Assignments progression has been completely reworked.
  
• Survivors no longer offer the same assignments twice, but assignments cost reputation to start.
  
• Survivors offer a chained sequence of assignments with appropriate rewards.
  
• A new Personal Log has been added to show the lore of completed assignments for each survivor.
  
• All previously completed assignments (on older saves) have been reset to take advantage of the new progression.
  
  
  

NEW MISSION CONTENT

• New Mission: Bunker of Rot with 2 new boss enemies.
  
• Existing saves can unlock this mission by completing Roadblock.
  
• New enemy type - zombie clowns with multiple variations.
  
  
  
  

BOSS LOOT

• Eliminated boss enemies no longer auto-drop rewards, drawn into hand.
  
• Bosses with rolled loot become lootable containers with a selection of rewards.
  
• This change makes it easier to spot dropped rewards when the hand is full of cards or the player needs to pick up a unique item for an assignment.
  

REVENANT BALANCE CHANGES AND PERKS

• Added 8 Elite Perks for the Revenant class.
  
• Increased base HP at rank 1 from 80 to 100.
  
• Increased HP per rank from 30 to 50.
  
• Increased noise made by Revenants at the end of turn from 22 to 25.
  
• Renamed FITNESS skill attribute to PRESERVATION for the Revenant class.
  
• Increased the HP bonuses of all PRESERVATION nodes by about 80%. This is only for the Revenant class nodes.
  
• Reworked durability scaling of all Revenant weapons, offering higher values across upgrades.
  

TURN ALERT

• Added a new alert when ending a turn with mercs pending attacks.
  
• Mercs skipping a first turn to prepare Total Focus/Aimed Shot are not covered by this alert.
  
• The alert can be disabled in Game Settings, under the Combat tab.
  
  

VICTORY SCREEN - COMBAT STATS

• A new combat stats UI is available on the mission victory screen.
  
• This is an additional dialog toggled by the STATS button, not replacing the original victory screen,
  
• I'm experimenting with this feature and may expand on it further in 1.0.
  
  

FAME

* Added 15 new achievements for a total of 332.
* Many minor wording tweaks and fixes to existing achievements.

COMBAT TRAINING

• A new card modifier has been added to every merc, called Prior Training.
  
• Each merc now comes with a set of Prior Training points in different weapon types.
  
• Max training points for each weapon have been increased from 30 to 35.
  
• Improved UI and font scaling with all new icons and larger tool tips.
  
  

NEW OPTIONS WHEN STARTING A NEW GAME

• Hovering over cards in character create shows additional merc details.
  
• Added a new UI step for selecting lab progression when starting a new game.
  
• Shared lab continues to work the way it did before this update, shraing progression for all replays.
  
• Fresh lab allows you to start collecting lab progression from the start.
  
• Points earned with a fresh lab are also collected by the shared lab and can used in your other saves.
  
  
  

BALANCE: PISTOLS

• Base damage increased by 8%.
  
• Dev notes: Pistols are already powerful when upgraded to multiple shots, especially on the Leader class. I will continue to look for ways to make pistols more attractive through bonus abilities, but for now they received a minor damage boost.
  

BALANCE: SHOTGUNS

• Base damage increased by 5%.
  
• Dev note: Shotguns are in a decent spot at the moment, benefiting greatly from the Pump Action skill to fire multiple shots. In addition, they offer a chance to stun, making them useful for setting up stun related combos. They also recently got a major accuracy buff in CU06.
  

BALANCE: SNIPER RIFLES, BOWS, CROSSBOWS

• A new weapon mechanic has been added to all bows, called Overdraw, emulating the scopes of sniper rifles for a chance to deal 2x damage on every shot.
  
• All crossbows now come with a scope for a chance to deal 2x damage.
  
• All non-scope crossbows had their 3D models modified to show the attached scopes.
  
• Bows and crossbows no longer have a chance to cripple (their previous advantage).
  
• Rebalanced base damage scaling across the different conditions (colors) and item levels wich should significantly raise the damage of sniper rifles, bows and crossbows to make them comparable to the other firearms, while also factoring in the single shot and scope mechanics.
  
  

AIMED SHOT REWORK

• Aimed Shot mechanic has been reworked due to the many new ways to distract the enemy, allowing you to crit very often.
  
• Damage scaling is now improved through item condition (color) and item level upgrades.
  
• Aimed Shot damage is now a rolled value from a stat range on the weapon.
  
• The HV Sniper Rounds gadget has been reworked to increase the base damage of Aimed Shots on sniper rifles.
  
• The Quiver accessory is now a gadget, increasing the base damage of Aimed Shots for bows and crossbows.
  
• Tactician skill Recalibration now also boosts the base damage of Aimed Shot.
  

SHIELD DAMAGE REFLECT

• Completely reworked the shield damage reflect mechanic.
  
• Spiked shields now have a chance to reflect all melee damage back to the attacker, on every hit.
  
• The chance goes up with item quality (color) upgrades.
  
• Crit damage is now also reflected.
  
• WARNING:
  The warehouse boss Chunk also benefits from this change, so watch those melee strikes.
  Attacking Chunk with a shield slam will reflect the damage back to your shield.
  

NEW WEAPONS AND GADGETS

• Blunt weapon: Monkey Wrench
  
• 5 unique variants of Monkey Wrench
  
• Brain Juice: new gadget to support the Lure rework.
  
• Extra Flares: reworked to compliment the new Flare Gun mechanics.
  
  

EXPLOSION DAMAGE REWORK

• Points spent in explosion training now grant +2% damage per point instead of +1%.
  
• Mercs no longer have a separate class-passive bonus to explosion damage. This is now consolidated into the Prior Training system, introduced in this update. Mercs offer slightly different pre-trained explosives for a more dynamic squad assembly.
  
• Previously, skills dealing explosion damage would not show the correct scaled damage from mercs in squad and their training in explosives. This has been adjusted and will change as you add/remove mercs from the squad. In addition, the total consolidated bonus is now seen in the Squad Power tool tip while in camp.
  
• During combat, explosion damage boost goes up after mercs get played on board.
  
  

ENEMY FRENZY BALANCE CHANGES

• EASY: no change
  
• NORMAL: no change
  
• VETERAN: chance increased by 5%
  
• APOCALYPSE: chance increased by 10%
  
• EXTINCTION: chance increased by 20%
  

RANDOM EVENTS

• New random event, Relentless Pursuit - All enemies cannot be distracted for 5 turns.
  
• Old Tactician skill Meat Decoy is now a random event.
  
• Old Commando skill Viper is now a random event.
  
• 5 older random events were removed from the shuffle in CU06 and have been added back.
  

COMBAT TUNING

• Many performance optimization of damage particle effects shown on cards when firing rapid automatic weapons, such as machine guns or SMGs.
  
• Added a new blood impact animation with 20 variations, shown on cards taking damage. The new impact animations should be more efficient.
  

MUSIC

• Added 2 more camp music tracks for a total of 14.
  
• Remastered a couple of existing tracks to sound more crisp.
  

GENERAL BUG FIXES

• Music restarts when toggling the challenges dialog on the title screen.
  
• Loading message for combat encounters (grid cells) is not showing on slower computers.
  
• Ramon plays his greeting emote when visiting the Recruit gear tab before Ramon is discovered.
  
• Mission Logbook gadget is missing the gadget icon in card details, making it harder to spot.
  
• 5 new random events added in CU06 are not being included in the random shuffle.
  
• Fixes to multiple achievements, spelling, wrong icons.
  
• Fixed a rare game error caused by explosions while removing particle effects.
  
• Respeccing training points with controller is spending points instead.
  
• ESC button does not close assignment deatils, opens Game Settings instead.
  
• Sorting ranged weapons by damage is not factoring in the number of shots.
  
• Revenant weapon cards load incorrect melee weapon backgrounds, when viewed in camp.
  
• Revenant spawn with left hand modification (weapon) only when using the same weapon name and color in both hands.
  
• Revenant auto-consumes repair item when using a single weapon equipped in left hand only.
  
• Enforcer class trait is not repairing durability of weapons equipped on Revenant's left hand/
  
• Armory point upgrade cards dropped from kills are brought back to camp and incorrectly show up as consumables.
  
• Various spelling fixes, reported in Discord and Steam forums.
  

WHAT'S NEXT?

FLAMETHROWER

NEW ITEM TIER - PRISTINE

• A new item tier (color) has been added to the game to allow upgrades beyond purple.
  
• This was a popular request and I also enjoy collecting these upgrades myself.
  
• Pristine items come with better accuracy, damage, durability, the full 9 yards.
  
• Pristine items can be upgraded in the Armory, but unique items are still excluded.
  
• The quality upgrade path is as follows:
  DEGRADED -> STANDARD -> IMPROVED -> FINE-TUNED -> EXCEPTIONAL -> PRISTINE
  
  

SNIPERS, BOWS, CROSSBOWS

• I've been aware of sniper rifles dealing sub-optimal base damage for a while, but needed to experiment with ideas on improving the damage while factoring in the Aimed Shot mechanic as well. The new scaling across the different tiers (colors) and item levels should significantly raise the damage of sniper rifles, bows and crossbows to make them comparable to the other firearms, while also factoring in the single shot and scope mechanics. As the result of this change, Aimed Shot damage had to be reduced.
  
• All crossbows now come with a scope.
  
• A new scope like mechanic has been added to all bows, called Overdraw.
  
• Aimed Shot was added to the game in CU03 before distracted and the Armory mechanics were introduced. The game now has a lot of distract mechanics allowing you crit very often.
  
  

SKILL CHANGES

• Commando skill Viper is now a random event. Viper was simply too inconsistent with how it scaled in damage and hit points, making him not a reliable source of fun. I've decided to lean more on the support aspect of this Commando tree and added a new skill, Grenadier.
  
• Tacticians are getting a ton of love in this update with a slew of new skills and improvements.
  
• A bunch of other skills got slight balance changes, more info in full patch notes.
  
  
  
• Deployed Jennies come in a 3 varieties - because why not?
  
  

NEW ITEMS

NEW GAME MODE

• New UI step for selecting how you prefer to progress you lab when starting a new game.
  
• Shared lab continues to work the way it did before this update.
  
• Fresh lab allows you to start collecting lab points from 0, which includes Survival, Armory and Mortuary labs. Your fresh lab effort is not lost as all collected points carry over to the shared lab and can used by your other saves or another playthrough later.
  
  

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Gear sorting will now be restored when returning from a mission.
  
• Trader will no longer keep switching to the BUY tab when switching between Gear tabs.
  
• Trader now has a "Sell All Ammo" button.
  
• Quick access to accelerate those upgrade animations.
  
  
• Added keyword tooltips to help new players understand the various skill mechanics. These can be disabled in game settings by experienced players.
  
  

SHIELD DAMAGE REFLECT

• Completely reworked the shield damage reflect mechanic.
  
• Spiked shields now have a chance to reflect all melee damage back to the attacker, on every hit.
  
• The chance goes up with item quality (color) upgrades.
  
• Crit damage is now also reflected.
  
• WARNING: The warehouse boss, Chunk also benefits from this change, so watch those melee strikes. Slamming Chunk with a shield will reflect the damage back to your shield's durability.
  

ETA

MISC CHANGES

• Added a new visual effect for Leader's skill Advance spawning enemies from the threat. I noticed this was frequently mistaken with distant enemies pulled by noise even though the skill triggers at the start of your turn.
  
  
• Reduced the frequency of mercs idle-talking when changing gear tabs.
  
• Reworked the sound effect of hovering over cards in combat.
  
• Reworked the sound effect of discarding armory cards from hand.
  
• Improved music transition from combat track 1 to 2.
  
• Increased the Initiative tooltip font and window size for consistency.
  
• Added a note on deployed Lure objects to indicate that duplicates are auto-removed.
  

SKILL BALANCE

• The ranked damage of Commando skill Breach has been increased.
  OLD: 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%
  NEW: 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%
  This skill suits longer encounters with a slew of enemies, causing a flurry of blocks, parries, and dodges.
  
• The ranked damage of Enforcer skill Skull Crush has been increased.
  OLD: 130%, 160%, 190%, 220%, 250%
  NEW: 150%, 200%, 250%, 300%, 350%
  This skill requires some setup to be effective, so its damage reward has been increased.
  
• Viper has been reworked to spawns with hit points much closer to the primary merc (1st merc in squad).
  

WEAPON ACCURACY BALANCE

• After reviewing feedback, watching videos, and spending a lot of time playing myself, I've decided to adjust the base minimum and maximum accuracy values for several ranged weapons.
  
• Note: All minimum values correspond to the lowest (red) quality of the item and can be increased through upgrades and mercenary training. Additionally, the game provides numerous in-combat buffs to help you quickly reach the accuracy cap, and the recently added elite perks can potentially raise these caps even further.
  
  1. Pistol
  - min 80% (no change)
  - max 95% (increased from 90%)
  2. SMG
  - min 70% (no change)
  - max 90% (increased from 88%)
  3. AR
  - min 75% (increased from 65%)
  - max 90% (increased from 88%)
  4. MG
  - min 60% (no change)
  - min 75% (no change)
  5. Sniper Rifle
  - min 85% (no change)
  - max 99% (increased from 98%)
  6. Shotgun
  - min 80% (increased from 65%, the biggest complaint in feedback)
  - max 95% (no change)
  7. Bow / Crossbow
  - max 85% (increased from 82%, to match sniper rifles)
  - max 99% (increased from 98%, to match sniper rifles)
  

BUG FIXES

• Adjacent enemies killed by buckshot damage remain standing or walking (animation bug).
  
• Adjusted 3D model scaling of a few ARs and sniper rifles appearing too small in gear management.
  
• Adjusted 3D model scaling of all bows and crossbows to appear larger in gear management.
  
• Mission victory screen still indicates rep can be used to refresh trader's stock. No longer the case.
  
• Achievement "Every Drop Counts" is awarded upon completing the wrong mission.
  
• If a merc dies in combat, consumable icons get repopulated with duplicates (visual bug only).
  
• Leader skill Advance is pulling distant enemies with no remaining threat, should be only from threat.
  
• Leader skill Advance adds distant distant enemies to threat with a full board of enemies in play.
  
• Leader skill Advance can sometimes trigger on multiple Leaders in play.
  
• Leader skill Advance can sometimes spawn an extra enemy on area clear.
  
• Discounted items purchased from the camp vendor return with the same discount on a stock refresh.
  
• Leader can occasionally drop to 0% stamina (rare case).
  
• Boosted unarmed damage by consumables or Black Belt is lost after toggling to a ranged weapon and back.
  

MINOR VISUAL BUG FIXES

• Fixed duplicate MISSED effects, sometimes seen on enemy cards after a single missed shot.
  
• Fixed duplicate attack noise, shown in MODIFIERS (already available CORE STATS).
  
• Fixed enemies floating above ground on mission Army Truck.
  
• Fixed various typos in enemy card details and skills reported in Discord.
  
• Updated wording in several skills to enhance the clarity of mechanics.
  

CONTROLLER FIXES

• Fixed a gamepad error when rapidly toggling skills on cooldown at the start of turn.
  
• Fixed a gamepad issue where pressing END TURN while targeting an enemy would leave the green targeting arrow visible during the enemy's turn.
  

ACCESSIBILITY

• Increased the size of card details in combat for LARGE and VERY LARGE options.
  
• This change benefits Steam Deck players the most with more UI tuning to follow.
  

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Achievements tied to Armory unique upgrades have been phased out.
  These were introduced a year ago and the Armory has since changed.
  The 3 phased out achievements are:
  -- Unique Collector
  -- Epic Armament
  -- Legendary Luminary
  
• 5 new achievements have been added focusing on a similar goal.
  -- Treasure Hunter
  -- Proud Collector
  -- Deadly Hoarder
  -- Greedy Goblin
  -- Mine! Mine! Mine!
  

RAGE & FRENZY

• Since the release of Update 6, I’ve noticed that the presentation of enemy Rage and Frenzy mechanics feels underwhelming. These mechanics play a crucial role in defining enemy difficulty, so I’m working to make this information more accessible. This patch enhances the core stats of non-tutorial enemies, placing greater emphasis on Rage and Frenzy. The goal is to help players better identify and prioritize targets in combat.
  
  
• Rage (top of the card, similar to the radial stamina bar on your mercs)
  - Higher Rage means higher hit chance.
  - Higher Rage means more attacks per turn, up to 3.
  - Higher Rage also increases the noise caused by attacks.
  
• Frenzy
  - Chance to grant +DAMAGE at the end of every turn.
  - Frenzy buffs decreases with each proc to a minimum of 1.
  
• The Leader class has multiple abilities to calm both Rage and Frenzy, frequently overlooked.
  

BUG FIXES

- Supplies in assignment rewards are not scaling to +10% of the highest item value from the first 2 rewards.
- Weapons granted by assignment rewards are not properly increase in item level to match the rank of your primary merc (1st merc in squad).
- Muzori Replica and Tachi katanas are using wrong card images, not matching their 3D models.
- ESC key pressed on the mission details screen opens Game Settings, should return region map instead.
- Enforcer skill Stunburst can be triggered by another class, should be restricted to Enforcers only.
- Missed pistol shots in a 3D cutscene are not showing the MISS purple visual effect.
- Sniper rifle upgrade preview says +0 PROJECTILES on upgrade preview, they are always 1 projectile.
- Enemy status Study of Decay is occasionally being applied before the Virology Lab is discovered.
- Attack noise in combat card details is not factoring in multiple shots (display bug).
- First Sashimi crit strike causes all consecutive stikes to crit as well, they should roll individual chances per skill description.
- Aimed Shot damage achievements to score 1k, 5, 10k, 20k are only triggering on a kill.
Should be triggering on a non-kill shot as well. Included achievements:
Devastating Shot, High Caliber, Massive Impact, Longshot Legend
- Minor grammatical fixes, reported by players.

CHANGES

- Updated the Rage icon in card details to match the one on every enemy card.
- Updated the Frenzy icon in card details to match CORE STATS and MODIFIERS.
- Added 2 more camp music tracks, these needed additional remastering and are now ready.
- Improved performance of entering (loading into) a new mission.
- Adjusted various buffs in consumable details for less text and easier readability.
- Reduced the requirements of gathered items for Slade's assignment "Gas Up".
- Reduced the requirements of gathered items for Slade's assignment "No One Starves".
- Improved the quality of AR from a locked container on mission "Army Truck".
- Improved the quality of BR-X from a police car on mission "Roadblock".
- Stone Clubs can now be upgraded to blue and purple quality.
- Skill ranks for Viper have been swapped around for 1. shield, 2. heavy pipe, 3. machete.
- Reworked the "Target Practice" gadget to gain XP for mercs in camp up to 99% of their current rank. The gadget no longer gains ranks with a single skill point. Single skill points have been removed from the game with CU06 (such as bosses dropping point rewards) and this gadget was mistakenly left out. It's still very useful as you only need to bring the merc with 99% XP to any short mission, finish it and return to camp and to claim your new rank along with 5 skill points.

BUG FIXES

• Unique weapons Master Plumber and Concrete Kiss have incorrect backgrounds.
  
• Accessory Quiver says +5% chance in upgrade preview, should be damage.
  
• Reported damage gains by Frenzy are slightly off (visual bug in card details).
  
• Achievement "Blade Banshee" should say 30 enemies instead of 10 (in-game only).
  
• Achievement "I'm Just Getting Started" is missing its name on steam.
  
• ESC key opens Game Settings when pressed on the Skills, Survivors and Lab interfaces, should return to Region Map as it does with the Gear UI.
  
• Card details window of skills in the draw dialog at the start of every turn is not scaling based on Game Settings. It should now be about 10% larger for default settings.
  
• Card details of cards in play using VERY SMALL and SMALL UI scaling options is horizontally too far from the card it describes.
  
• The final encounter of Supermarket is using wrong 3D scenery (inside the store).
  
• Player is unable to complete their current mission on the final kill. (rare case)
  
• Typos in various skills and tool tips.
  

CHANGES

• Changed the Concussion status to indicate accuracy instead of hit chance for consistency.
  
• Increased the size of the SELL VALUABLES button on the trader tab.
  
• Event Disastrous Mutation, 3X HP and full heal of all enemies in play no longer applies to bosses.
  
• Survivor greeting emote will only play once when hovering over their profile in mission details, and reset reset when returning to camp from a mission or reloading a save.
  

DEAD GRID - CU06 - PATCH NOTES

GEAR MANAGEMENT

• Larger fonts, cleaner frames, reduced clutter, more consistent look.
  
  
• New weapon sorting options by Ammo and Durability (requested in feedback).
  
• Items of no value can now be sold to the trader (as a way to get rid of them).
  
• Equipped shields on mercs now show a durability instead of shield damage.
  

MERC TRAINING

• The UI for merc training has been reworked to offer a cleaner look.
  
  
• Increased the ammo gain per per training for the following weapons:
  -- PISTOL: from 2 to 3
  -- SMG: from 3 to 5
  -- AR: from 2 to 4
  -- MG: from 2 to 5
  -- SHOTGUN: from 1 to 2
  
• Points spent in unarmed combat now restore percent of HP instead of 1, 2, 3, single points of HP.
  
• Training respec cost has been greatly reduced and is now calculated on a per merc basis (2 rep per point spent).
  

SKILL CHANGES

• Leader passive trait has been completely reworked and now removes summoning sickness from mercs coming into play. This means with a leader as your primary merc, you no longer have to wait a turn to attack on any encounter. This was a frequently requested feature and I finally had a chance to implement it.
  
• Enforcer and Commando mercs now grant passive benfits on adjacent mercs only. You'll have to reposition mercs in combat (using the arrow keys) to gain the benefit of those passives.
  
• 16 new skills have been introduced, phasing out some older (less interesting) skills. Leaders received the largest overhaul of skill changes, primarily due to their complete rework of the passive trait.
  
• Some of the phased out skills are now random events, so they are still in the game.
  
• Many skills received updated art.
  
• Skill details UI has been improved to show better fonts and larger icons.
  
  

NEW PROGRESSION: ELITE PERKS

• Elite Perks start unlocking from the first mission Meet Slade and can be found in the skills UI.
  
  
• Many of the perks buff the existing skills and some focus on weapon types.
  
• Each class currently comes with 8 perks, unlocked on a per save basis (unlike the Lab).
  
• Revenant perks are still in development.
  
  

NEW CARDS

• 10 new random events.
  
• 15+ new consumables, randomly found as loot.
  
• Seasonal items such as Mad Scientist and Warm Brains are now offered by the Slade off-season.
  They will also cost supplies and the effects have been re-balanced.
  
• Around 40 new unique weapons added to the game.
  
  
• Close to 50 uniques from past releases have been buffed and re-balanced to utilized various skills.
  
  

MISSION DETAILS

• Recommended squad power has been reworked for the new enemy scaling and different difficulty modes.
  
• Hovering over the recommended squad power gives you quick preview of the approximate enemy health pool at the location based on the repeats of this mission.
  
  
• Small tutorial for unspent location intel points to help new players unfamiliar with this mechanic.
  
  

ALL NEW SCENERY

• Completely reworked all outdoor locations with new scenery. This covers all missions with outdoor environments, aiming for a more consistent theme across the Pine Valley region.
  
• In total, this rework covers around 30 locations, most focusing on the outdoor scenery and a few indoor locations, such as the final encounter of Warehouse.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• All hordes now come in unique outdoor environments, no longer borrowed from existing missions.
  

COMBAT BOARD UI

• Improved many tool tips to explain the noise bar, threat cards, unaware cards and killing spree.
  
• These can be disabled in Game Settings by seasoned players.
  
• Killing spree now tracks the total consecutive kill count, going up even at max spree.
  
  
• Added a new animation when alerting distant enemies for a more impactful effect.
  
  

COMBAT NOISE

• A portion of the remaining noise on area clear is now carried to the next encounter, depending on the difficulty of the game. The actual number is shown in a tool tip over the noise bar at the top.
  
• Playing on the Easy game mode still offers the traditional mechanic where all noise is removed on area clear.
  
  

CARD UI

• Completely reworked card details with a fixed scrollable window to reduce screen clutter.
  
• Use the mouse wheel to scroll through the details.
  
  

ENEMY CHANGES

• All eliminated zombies now include a short bio of their recent activity in Pine Valley and what put them to their final rest. This activity is generated through an in game algorithm which I can improve upon further feedback.
  
  
• Loot bags and area objects spawned on board from the enemy threat are now always followed by a random minion card, from the enemy threat pool. This should reduce many turns where an item (such as a loot bag) was drawn leaving the player with nothing to attack, unless they trigger Initiative. Played event cards should not be affected by this change.
  
• A completely new enemy scaling algorithm was added in this update. The goal is to offer a more consistent curve for increasing the enemy difficulty and their rank. The game is now 1 major update away from 1.0, so I need to use this opportunity test more scaling changes, which have been long overdue. Here is a quick peak at the scaling curves of 5 difficulty levels.
  
  
• Enemy Frenzy (granting damage per turn) mechanic has been drastically reworked to proc on a chance, based on the type of enemy and the difficulty mode. A visual effect was added to spot Frenzy procs much easier on every enemy in play. As before, it's encouraged to replay easier locations to improve your squad, more relevant on the harder difficulty modes.
  
  
• The game is tuned around the NORMAL mode with EASY offering a big drop in HP scaling as well as a lower base damage and proc chance on Frenzy.
  

MISSION COMPLETE

MERC CHANGES

• Reworked 3D models for characters Hudson, Don, Max and Grave.
  
  
• Hudson is now fully voiced (previously using a generated voice).
  
• At this point all 15 available mercs are human voiced.
  

WEAPON RE-BALANCE AND ARMORY CHANGES

• Slightly increased the the noise caused by all firearms, excluding all weapons with silencers.
  
• Since the introduction of the Armory in content update 5, I overlooked the damage scaling of shields. Shields could be upgraded to a point where they deal damage comparable to, or even greater than, many blunt weapons of the same item level, while still providing defensive benefits. This made many non-shield weapons less advantageous, so shield damage has been significantly reduced—roughly to half of their sharp or blunt counterparts. However, shields continue to remain viable in combat, particularly due to their high chance to stun.
  
• Unique items can no longer be upgraded in the Armory. One of the primary purposes of the Armory is not only to upgrade the level of items but also to increase the item level of new drops within the same category, which includes new unique items that could be useful for your squad. The ability to upgrade unique weapons had made finding and upgrading non-unique items less appealing. The goal of this change is to make discovering new uniques with a higher item level than your current best weapon more exciting. Keep in mind that many exceptional-quality (purple) weapons are nearly as powerful as uniques, so upgrading them remains a viable and effective option.
  
• All uniques now drop with the highest Armory rank upgrade of the same weapon type, so you should no longer find low level uniques which never feels good.
  
• Armory now shows the item level of drops for each weapon type, so you no longer have to click through each weapon to see this info.
  

TRADER STOCK REFRESH REWORK

• Reputation is no longer used to refresh Slade's stock.
  
• Purchasing an item with a value of 50 supplies or more grants 1 trader favor.
  
  
• Completing any mission now grants favor points with Slade, used to refresh his stock.
  
• Intel points spent on Slade can increase the favor points by completed missions for a total of 6.
  
• Intel points spent on Slade no longer increase the unique item chance appearing for sale.
  
• Slade offers new special items which grant addition favor points when purchased.
  
  

ALL NEW CHARACTER CREATE FLOW

DIFFICULTY MODES

• HARD mode has been renamed to Veteran.
  
• New difficulty mode, called Extinction.
  
• Starting on Apocalypse or Extinction will now bypass the initial tutorial mission, you arrive in camp with the following:
  -- 30 supplies
  -- 0 reputation
  -- Standard 2x4
  -- Degraded Snubbie
  -- 1 Bandage
  -- 1 Trader Favor
  -- Vendor stock is shown on day 0
  NOTE: Challenge modes have individual starting loadouts and not affected.
  

NEW CHALLENGE MODE - LONE WOLF

NEW TITLE SCREEN

GRID MAP

• Increased the speed of movement across multiple empty tiles.
  
• Noise remaining after a combat encounter is now displayed on the grid map.
  
  

IN-GAME XP PROGRESSION REFERENCE

• Added a reference table of XP gain to reach different ranks, available on the Training gear tab.
  
• Note, XP is consistent for all enemy ranks by design, allowing you to replay earlier missions to rank up if needed.
  
• The actual XP you gain depends on various buffs from gadgets, consumables and region bonuses. This is just a baseline reference for the curious eyes.
  
  

MISSION CHANGES

• Two new late-game hordes added to the game.
  
• 2 new bosses on the 5th horde mission.
  
• A new boss on the Prison Transfer mission.
  
• Added an additional small encounter to mission Lost Convoy for a total of 3.
  
• Reworked the mission lore of many locations to prepare the game for the final story.
  

MUSIC

• 12 new combat music tracks for a total of 35, some older tracks were phased out.
  
• 2 new camp music tracks a total of 10.
  
• New title screen track (old one phased out).
  
• New Audio Settings option to toggle between different music themes in camp.
  

FAME

• 20 new achievements a total of 315.
  
• A few existing achievements received fixes.
  

FULL LIST OF NEW SKILLS

• Combat Medic - new support skill, similar to Commando's ammo box but focusing on HP.
  
• Replenishment - new passive focusing on self healing.
  
• Tai Chi - slightly reworked mechanic from Retaliation.
  
• Black Belt - slightly reworked mechanic.
  
• Optimize Loadout - returned mechanic from Apocalyptic Pet (which is now an event)
  
• Advance - new passive skill.
  
• Leadership - completely reworked the original passive of the same name.
  
• Firestarter - new passive skill replacing Fire Blade.
  
• Firefighter - new passive skill replacing Razor Sharp.
  
• Sashimi - converted to a passive skill.
  
• Urban Gunslinger - completely reworked the old mechanic.
  
• Full Auto - reworked mechanic.
  
• Iron Grip - reworked mechanic.
  
• Stunburst - new passive skill.
  
• Calibration - new passive skill focusing on sniper rifles, bows and crossbows.
  
• Weak Point - new target debuff offering high damage on critical hits.
  

GAME PERFORMANCE

• Game engine upgraded from Unity 2019 to Unity 6, this was long overdue and required a lot of small changes causing this long gap between updates.
  
• Performance optimization was a big focus of all the scenery rework, which now includes new video options to disable dynamic shadows. You should see much better performance slower GPUs while maintaining a similar visual quality.
  

CONTROLLER / STEAM DECK

• FIXED: Game error when rapidly selecting skills at the start of turn.
  
• FIXED: Card details are automatically turned on for player cards in hand/play, should be hidden by default, toggled by (Y).
  
• Left Trigger (LT) button now lets you toggle between melee/ranged without having to deselect the current target. Button (B) continues to work as before, but does deselect the current target. Left Trigger (LT) still lets you draw ammo if the hand area is selected using the D-PAD.
  
• Reworked the indication of the selected hand/play zone while playing with a controller.
  
• Performance of all missions on Steam Deck should be greatly improved, especially with the dynamic shadows option off.
  

GAME SETTINGS

• Added new options to toggle 3D cutscenes for attacks at melee, range or both.
  
• Added new music options for Combat and Camp, letting you fine-tune your music tracks.
  
• The last used saved games page is now remembered when returning from a mission.
  
• There were many tweaks to Game Settings in this update, so your old settings should be reset to default.
  

GENERAL BUG FIXES

• Mission "Prison Map" is not unlocked after completing "County Jail".
  
• Camp hotkeys are triggered while renaming mercs with characters matching those hotkeys.
  
• Silenced firearms weapons still indicate noise in card details, instead of their silenced effect.
  
• Silenced sniper rifles play a loud shot instead of silenced, audio bug only.
  
• Cannot get rid of (sell) free cards that ended up in inventory from random loot drops.
  
• One HP attribute the middle Commando skill spec is granting incorrect HP values.
  
• Dialog for skills on cooldown ("C" key) is sometimes not working.
  
• Exhausted merc on area clear cannot loot area objects, even if stamina is restored with consumables.
  
• Entering a blank value in min item level sorting options causes a game error.
  
• Explosion damage boost from legacy Lab progression (phased out in CU05) still gets applied.
  
• Flanking Maneuver triggers Frag Out which should only work on a ranged attack.
  
• Flanking Maneuver reduces killing spree stacks by 1 when triggered during enemy's turn.
  
• Flanking Maneuver and Assist sometimes trigger gas looters to explode after a melee strike.
  
• SMGs and Assault Rifles continue to shoot their full payload at eliminated targes, wasting ammo.
  
• MG attacks continue to shoot at eliminated targets causing animation issues, sound clipping and ammo waste.
  
• MG attacks do not properly switch targets when the primary target is eliminated.
  
• Region mod "High Ground" is not granting bonus XP on kills with a sniper rifle.
  
• Region mod "Silent Elimination" is not granting bonus XP on a melee killing blow.
  
• Region mod "Palms of Death" is granting bonus XP on a ranged attack, should be unarmed only.
  
• Grid map toggles on/off multiple times on mission start causing a screen flicker when starting a mission.
  
• Fixes of typos and triggers for various reported achievements and throughout the game.
  
• 2 undead enraged idle animations slowly sink the model into the ground.
  
• Enraged undead continue attacking the mercs after a fatal strike, occasionally causing death animations to break. The intended mechanic is for the enemy to stop attacking after a fatal strike, allowing the merc to either die or instantly heal using a consumable from their bag. This adjustment should also prevent scenarios where the instant heal occurs, but a subsequent attack still kills the merc.
  
• The display order of mercs added to the squad in gear management is not restored when loading a saved game. Note, the preserved squad display order will only work on new saves going forward.
  
• Removed the ability to damage and explode lootable vehicles. This was specifically causing confusion with Slade's Truck on the first mission, making new players think they must destroy the truck. Blowing up vehicles also caused some issues with achievements and killing spree.
  
• Revenant skill Vicious Bite is not being applied, leaving the chance at base 5%.
  
• Revenant bite attack is missing 3D damage numbers during a 3D cutscene.
  
• Eliminated enemy by a Revenant bite remains standing (animation bug).
  
• Video settings are missing support for the common 1440p resolution (2560x1440).
  
• Launching a game on an ultrawide resolution causes Game Settings elements to be off-screen.
  
  The game will now attempt to detect a supported resolution on the first launch and revert to 1080p as a fall back. Non-supported resolutions would need to be played in Windowed mode until more resolutions are added. If your monitor changes to a lower resolution since the last time you played and you're unable to change the resolution directly from the game's settings, you can use the following console command to force a resolution of 1920x1080.
  
  1. Make sure you're not in Game Settings (hit ESC to close).
  2. Activate the console with the "`" (tilde) key.
  3. Enter the following command: 1080p
  4. Return to Game Settings, adjust your actual resolution and press Apply to save.
  

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