Update: 0.9.11.0

Major Update
Written By Harry "Lethal" Thomas

Hey Fighters!

We've got it all in our upcoming update. The workshop is now available, introducing a new currency, a brand-new weapon, and the highly anticipated big balance patch. Plus, we're throwing in a speedrun challenge to help improve your movement combos, or just for some good old banter. Without further ado, let's get straight into the details:

Workshop

The Workshop is now live! You can finally put those spare components which you previously dismantled to good use!

Say goodbye to those duplicate weapons and fashion items cluttering your inventory! With our latest update, you can now dismantle them to create scrapped gun parts and synth threads, which you can use for crafting various blueprints (Note: Currently, only weapon crafting is available; fashion crafting is on its way in a future update).

Each blueprint has different crafting material costs and offers a list of potential items you can gain. Keep an eye out for “tokens,” a rare craft component that has a higher chance of dropping when you dismantle a classic version of a weapon.

Looking for a budget-friendly option? The “???” blueprint is the cheapest and gives you a random weapon from any category. We’ll be curious to see who gets lucky!

Crafting can reward you with weapons from your account progression, or you can craft unique weapons that won’t be found in weapon parcels. Speaking of parcels, they can drop either an account progression weapon or a unique one specific to parcels.

Select a weapon blueprint, mix in some components, and there you have it! Your new weapon is ready for action. Try any blueprint for a surprise creation!

New Currency & Rewards Rework

You can now claim a new type of currency from your battles known as “G-Cash.” You can collect G-Cash by grinding out your matches, but you can only collect a certain amount of G-Cash per day. More can be purchased by heading over to our shop.

We’ve also revamped rewards after your battles have concluded! Not only will you gain Valor, Exp and Hero Exp, but parcels drop rate have increased, you can bag some G-Cash and even a shot at keys and crafting materials!

The leaderboard rewards for the upcoming season will also be a tad different. Stay tuned as we reveal the details closer to the next season.

New Weapon - Radzone

We've got another weapon to add to your arsenal, the Radzone Sniper Rifle! Shoot your target, and they'll be taking damage for 4 seconds with the radioactive effect. Anyone else stepping into the radioactive zone around your fighter will catch the bug too. If the players are not attentive, they can easily wipe out their own team!

If you want to grab the Radzone, you’ll need to craft the weapon in the Workshop.

The Great Rebalance

We've been reading through your comments, analyzing match stats, and running internal playtests for the past few weeks. The goal? Tackle the game balance issues to enhance your overall SquadBlast experience. This update brings a slew of changes to weapons, effects, heroes, abilities, and yes, even a touch of mod magic!

You’ll need your spectacles for this one, as it’s quite a hefty list, but the changes will be very beneficial for the integrity of SquadBlast:

Weapons

First of all - damage and individual gun effects:

  • Kewler explosion damage 55 -> 35

  • Dynonova clip size 5 -> 1

  • Dynonova start ammo 5 -> 3

  • Dynonova projectile damage 40 -> 65

  • NumbRNine Damage 12 -> 13

  • Haymaker Damage 12 -> 8

  • Mule Damage 20 -> 18

  • Artemis Damage 110 -> 95

  • Swamphog Damage 70 -> 60

  • Avalanche Damage 30 -> 45, 25 -> 35, 20 -> 30

  • Gumball Damage 12 -> 10

  • Gattling Damage 18 -> 20

  • Lenus Damage 66 -> 60, Lifesteal 33% -> 50%

  • Kriegwerk Damage 35 -> 45

  • Bullfrog Damage 80 -> 60

Then, overall and elemental effects:

  • Weapon reload time and Time between shots per stack of Shock effect 10% -> 8%

  • Jump height reduction per stack of Slime effect 10% -> 7%

Hero changes

The biggest list is adjustments to hero parameters:

  • Hantu Max Armor 120 -> 100, Max HP 180 -> 100, Move Speed 1.2 -> 1.1, Max Stamina 100 -> 200, Stamina regen 15 -> 30 per second;

  • Dash Max Armor 120 -> 100, Max HP 180 -> 100, Move Speed 1 (unchanged), Max Stamina 100 -> 150, Stamina regen 15 -> 25 per second;

  • Arx Max Armor 60 -> 100, Max HP 150 -> 100, Move Speed 1 -> 0.97, Max Stamina 100 -> 150, Stamina regen 15 -> 20 per second;

  • Nigel Max Armor 120 -> 100, Max HP 150 -> 100, Move Speed 1.15 -> 0.97, Max Stamina 100 -> 150, Stamina regen 15 -> 20 per second;

  • Sonny Max Armor 50 -> 100, Max HP 200 -> 125, Move Speed 0.93 -> 0.9, Max Stamina 100 -> 120;

  • Paavo Max Armor 80 -> 100, Max HP 250 -> 150, Move Speed 0.9 (unchanged), Max Stamina remains 60, Stamina regen remains 10 per second;

  • Laika Max Armor 70 -> 100, Max HP 150 -> 100, Move Speed 0.95 -> 0.93, Max Stamina remains 100, Stamina regen remains 15 per second.

Some of the abilities have changes as well:

  • Nigel HealBeam ability can heal himself if there are no wounded allies nearby

  • Nigel HealBeam ability power reduced by 50% (40 hp per second -> 20 hp per second)

  • Paavo shield ability cooldown reduced 20 -> 12

And the last, but not least we’ve made changes on how armor works:

  • All Fighters will now have 100 Max Armor by default;

  • Armor no longer reduces incoming damage by 20%;

  • Armor will regenerate during 5 seconds when Fighter didn't shoot, deal or receive damage in the last 5 seconds;

  • Big Armor pickups will increase max Armor by 20 (stacks up to 3 times) and regenerate all current Armor;

  • Increased Armor effect will disappear on death;

While not being a change related to weapons or heroes directly, there is one more important thing that’s different to complement everything above - respawn time. For all maps and most modes, it is now consistent at 15 seconds instead of variable timers before. Team deathmatch game mode will feature 8 seconds respawn time to support dynamic flow!

SpeedRun Challenge Preview

A while back, some folks in our discord pondered if it was possible to speedrun SquadBlast. Our level artists spent some time and got a pretty quick prototype that is sort of similar to Sliding challenges known in the speedrun communities (You may even seen a preview in our discord a few weeks back). In this update, we are making the SpeedRun Challenge preview available in Custom Games for all.

The preview mode currently lacks automation and leaderboards, so the only way to share your high scores for now will be either by checking the replay section or posting screenshots of your reward screens in a newly created discord channel.

We’re looking at the community to give us feedback on this, if this is something you think we should do more of or add a proper coat of paint.

Sound improvements

  • Improved special positioning of sounds in battle

  • New character shoutouts in battles and more action sounds

  • New sound effects for black holes, gravity and poison barrels

  • New music in the Main menu, bringing in more upbeat and energy

UI Changes

  • Hero tooltips now show current Mastery level progress

  • When you browse the menus, scroll positions will be reset if you went to a different tab or menu and returned back

  • The weapon inspection screen is updated, so you can now see how your hero looks with the gun in his hands, but you still can open a full screen weapon preview and check out all the small details

  • There is now a dedicated language selection screen available from the “Pause Menu” while you are not in battle

  • Inactive buttons are hidden from quest tooltips

  • For Payload Extraction mode there are new and updated hints and announcements to provide more clarity on the current situation

  • Destructible objects in battle like boxes now have health bars

  • New artworks in game launch screen

Bug Fixes

  • In CTF mode when F.L.A.G is stolen and then returned by a member of you team, it respawns immediately

  • While in Payload Extraction mode defenders can’t get points from staying on the payload anymore

  • Various fixes for how player profile pictures and frames are shown in the game - they now will update properly and instantly when changed, plus there shouldn't be any situations where they are not visible

  • Replays filtering and search as well as Mission History in player profile are fixed and now show proper lists of played games to examine

  • You will now see a green dot notification when new profile customization options are unlocked like new frames or profile pictures

  • Fixed slow cursor with default speed on low-res screens including Steam Deck

  • Various issues fixed with players getting stuck or reconnecting

Harry "Lethal" Thomas
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