Buckle up because we’ve got an exciting update for you that's gonna shake things up. We've worked hard to fine-tune the balance and synergy of our Fighter crew, and we're also giving you a sneak peek of a brand new map. And that's not all! We're making it easier for you to score weapons and cool cosmetic items from battles and quests. Finally we’re spicing up the game play with BARRELS! So get your game faces on, let’s do this!

Arx rework

Arx got a major upgrade! His go-to weapon now is Assault Rifles instead of Rocket Launchers. His abilities and stats have been overhauled to make him faster, stronger, and more resilient. The Mecha-suit he wears now has a higher HP and can move faster, but the damage caused by its projectiles has been toned down. Ability duration has been increased and Xavier now packs a 30% stun effect with more powerful knockback from Siegebreaker shots. However, there's a downside to his new robot form as it can catch fire or freeze.

Arx changes:

Weapon family was changed from Rocket Launchers to Assault Rifles.
Movement speed was increased from 0.95 to 1.10 (slightly below Nigel which is 1.15 and Hantu 1.2).
Max Armor was increased from 50 to 80.
Max HP was increased from 150 to 180.

Xavier Mecha-suit changes:

HP increased from 300 to 400.
Projectile damage was decreased from 18 to 7.
Added slow effect on hit of the Xavier projectile (-50% movement speed).
Added 30% stun effect on hit (4 hits required to stun a target for 0.65 seconds).
Ability Duration increased from 8sec to 10sec.
Speed increased by 30%.
Increased KnockBack from Siegebreaker shots from 25 to 150.
While piloting Xavier Arx is now susceptible to catching fire and being frozen.

So basically, we felt like Arx needed a makeover because he wasn't cutting it as a hero, both in and outside of his exo-suit. Also, we want Assault Rifles to be more of a viable option when you're playing the game.

We're currently trying out Arx's fresh new formula and seeing how it goes. We're open to hearing what the community thinks about it, so feel free to share your feedback with us. We want to make sure this change is a good fit for everyone.

Account linking between platforms

Guess what? You can now play SquadBlast on multiple devices using just one account! It's super easy too. No more hassle of juggling multiple accounts. All you gotta do is go to the Settings menu and link your profile with your iPad, or your Android device for some home playtime. You can even mix and match devices however you want! Best of all, you can use the same account on all the different platforms out there - Steam, Apple AppStore on iOS and Google Play on Android.

IMPORTANT: It’s not possible to disconnect the devices. Also, players should be careful with their account codes and avoid sharing them with others.

New Beta Map

You can now try the new map with codename "Serpentine." It's a super early beta version of a potentially new location and environment for King of the Hill mode in Custom lobbies. This sweet spot is located in the stormy Sea of Cortez down south of California, where an undersea Lithium mining platform has been fiercely fought over by various cartels for a while now. And get this, something crazy just happened! A sudden occurrence of Erythrium has put UltraHorse interests right smack in the middle of all this chaos.

Battle Modifiers

We just updated our battle system and added a new twist to it! Now battles can have some special conditions applied to them. We've introduced the first-ever environmental hazard - barrels! So, during matchmaking, you might come across a map with barrels spawning all over the battlefield. And here's the fun part: there are two types of barrels - exploding and freezing! You can use them to your advantage by either shooting from a distance or punching them towards your enemies. It's totally up to you! So, get ready to bring on some explosive action and freeze out your opponents!

At the start of the game, you might see a few barrels pop up here and there, but as you go further, get ready to deal with more of 'em.

Oh, and just a heads up, you can't mess with the modifiers yet when creating your own custom lobby, but they should be coming in the next update.

Weapon and balance changes

The beast mode doesn’t restore your armor and health on pick up.
For weapons we’ve updated the Traits section to focus on what makes each gun unique and why you may want to play with it. No more Compared to Rl-88 there.
Numb-R-Nine projectile damage was decreased by 25% (20 → 15).

User interface changes

Fixed animations for multiple jumps between walls.
Interface doesn’t disappear before match start in the Main Menu.
New indication with huge red cross when you do eliminations in battle.
Quest reward tooltips now have a text description of a reward in addition to the icon.
Match ID is shown for replays same way as for actual matches on Scoreboard and in Post-battle.

Other changes

There are two new platforms added to the Underfoot map.

Improved anti-toxicity chat moderation.
Improved Arx Robot form behavior on platform edges and during wall sliding.
New moderation system in the text chat.
We have updated the distribution of Valor and Mastery points, as well as the requirements to reach new levels. With this update, you will keep the level you reached in the previous version, as well as the percentage of progress towards the next level. However, the amount of Valor or Mastery required to reach it has changed.
There is now a bigger starting roster of heroes, consisting of five characters: Arx, Hantu, Paavo, Sonny, and Nigel. The last two were previously locked from the start and only available through account progression.

Bug fixes

Fixed animations for multiple jumps between walls.
Fixed claiming Quest rewards while in Party.
Removed wrong information about Bullfrog and carrying objectives.
Fixed blank pictures for King of the Hill maps in Mission History replay list in Player’s Profile.
Other minor fixes.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! You can leave us feedback, suggestions, ideas, report bugs and check the list of known issues over on our discord server: https://discord.gg/squadblast