July 24, 2026
I am moving towards patches going out roughly every Friday. Eventually that’ll likely reduce to every other Friday.
This one is a big one, with an exhaustive balance pass for missions, traits, and tech!
New Content
Two new Tech options, buffing structures! Lightweight Materials and Rapid Turret Deployment.
Mission Balance
The focus here was:
Fix major outliers, including missions that rarely do damage as well as missions that do far more damage than others of the same type and tier.
At Rank 2 and up, optional missions should be hard enough that you are sometimes forced to skip them.
Continue to make Rank 1 a bit easier.
Note that I am not (yet) super focused on mission balance at Ranks 8+.
Lower Rank Mission Balance
| Mission Type | Made Easier | Made Harder |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Missions |
Act 1 Missions Anarch Captain, Titan Rush, Base Raiders, Duskwing Operation, Lancer Swarm Act 2 Missions Byte Swarm, Plasmite Buildup, Nauth Patrol, Persistent Neurode, Protostore Complex, Exode Surge Act 3 Missions Mounted Multi-Cannon, Pirate Base, Covetous Neurode, Cytorin Demolishers |
Act 1: Destroyer Armada, Turret Perimeter Act 2: Histabyte Response Act 3: Energy Complex, Prognite Perimeter |
| Mini-Boss Missions | None |
Act 1: Anarch Bombardier Act 3: Laser Cruiser |
| Optional Challenge Missions |
Act 2: Resource Extraction |
Act 1: Forward Base Act 2: Ashna Flaregate, Isolated Imperials Act 3: Advanced Defense System |
| Boss Missions |
Act 3: The Red Soulcore |
Act 1: The Pirate King |
Higher Rank Mission Balance
| Mission Type | Made Easier | Made Harder |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Missions |
Act 1: Anarch Captain, Titan Rush, Base Raiders, Anarch Assault Act 2: Crevite Rush, Protostore Complex Act 3: Mounted Multi-Cannon |
Act 1: Turret Perimeter, Tormean Shipyards Act 2: Plasmite Buildup, Cytorin Miners, Nauth Patrol, Persistent Neurode, Imperial Assault, Histabyte Response Act 3: Energy Complex, Prognite Perimeter, Adaptive Flitterbytes |
| Mini-Boss Missions |
Act 1: Imperial Titan |
Act 1: Anarch Bombardier Act 3: Exode Protostores |
| Optional Challenge Missions |
None |
Act 1: Forward Base, Pirate Bait, Bomb Haulers Act 2: Resource Extraction, Ashna Flaregate Act 3: Advanced Defense System, Static Response |
| Boss Missions |
Act 3: The Red Soulcore |
Act 1: Rebel Leader Act 2: Royal Cruiser Act 3: Triple Cruiser |
Other Changes
When there are two missions of the same Tier, and only one gives an upgrade reward, the other now gives more money. This amounts to a total of 30k more across the full run.
Moved Cytorin Miners and Plasmite Buildup to Tier 4 (down from Tier 5).
Moved Protostore Complex to Tier 5 (up from Tier 4).
Tech Balance
A bunch of Tech options are now cheaper!
Opening Salvo costs 50k (down from 100k).
Rapid Loading System costs 75k (down from 100k).
Improved Interceptor Hulls costs 75k (down from 100k).
Impenetrable Battleship Hulls costs 75k (down from 100k).
Constructive Absorption costs 50k (down from 75k).
Shipbreaker Turrets costs 100k (down from 125k).
Trait Balance
Three traits were nerfed:
Station Builder only gives structures with total cost of up to 6 (down from 7). Destroyer Factory removed from the pool, as it makes it impossible to get a second structure.
Notorious Pirate starts with 15k money (down from 35k).
Solar Farmer starts with 40k money (down from 75k).
And a whole bunch were buffed:
Solon Settler reduces the cost of your starting cards by 2 Titanium (up from 1 Titanium), but does not affect Signature Strategies.
Master Tactician starts with 40k money (up from 30k).
Persuasive Recruiter starts with 50k money (up from 40k).
Reactor Technician starts with 40k money (up from 30k).
Rigid Planner starts with 15k money (up from 5k).
Titanium Miner starts with 40k money (up from 25k).
Logistics Expert reduces cost of Transfer cards by 1 Titanium.
Deilos Magnate starts with 300k money (up from 200k).
Funded Scientist starts with 150k money (up from 100k).
Card Balance
Hijana's Avengers now costs 5/1 (down from 7/1).
Hijana's Avengers now sends a max of 15 Lancers (down from 30).
Hijana's Avengers now has Rush.
Changed the wording of Lawless Marauders and Deilos Patrol to match Hijana's Avengers and Full-Scale Invasion.
This has an important side effect, where the X effects of Deilos Patrol and Lawless Marauders can no longer be increased by Might of the Empire.
Lawless Marauders now sends 2 Destroyers per Pirate (up from 1).
Gravwave Scanner now costs 0/0 (down from 0/1).
Bug Fixes and Improvements
An exclamation icon appears over the Tech button when you have enough money to purchase 1 of the options. The icon turns red when you have a lot of unspent money, relative to what's available.
Fixed an issue where the "Enabled with Slowdown" Auto-Retreat Warning option slowed the game down even if you chose to retreat.
Fixed an issue where roguelike tutorial tooltips could keep repeating.
Fixed language on missions with enemy reinforcements to say "enemy reinforcements" instead of just "reinforcements".
Black Site Security renamed to Narrena Security, to emphasize its Deilos origins better.
Fixed an issue where certain enemy units with Defender wouldn't move out when their flagship attacked.