Hello Mercs!

This update focuses on adding more quality of life features and a bit of new content. With the Spring Sale approaching, I also wanted to improve the intro tutorial to provide a better experience for new players coming into the game.

I’ve decided to split my originally planned larger update into two releases to avoid a long gap between updates. The next update will focus more on new juicy content.

• Modifies the Burning mechanic so it no longer deals damage at the end of turns.

• Enemies take increased damage from all sources.

• The damage bonus scales with their Burning percentage.

• After watching various streams of people playing the game, I noticed repeated requests for a way to skip the three major tutorials on subsequent playthroughs.

• Introduced a new step to the new game setup that allows players to skip tutorials.

• First-time players will not see this screen, just as they don't see settings for Shared Lab.

• Damage is now based on the highest damaging weapon in squad, similar to Jack.

• The chosen weapon is calculated at the start of mission and is shown in Shadow's details.

• Shadow Sniper now always targets an enemy with the lowest remaining hit points.

• If no enemies are present, Shadow Sniper no longer fires and generates noise.

• Reputation gained now increases with mission repeats.

• The base value is still 5 reputation on the first play of any mission.

• Playing Street Cred now shows a visual indicator on each merc in play with how much rep was gained.

• Increased total HP gain from 10% to 15%.

• This ability now also removes active bleeding on all mercs in play.

• Playing Toughness now shows a visual indicator on each merc and how much HP was gained.

• Klaus with invested Intel distracts enemies at any non-horde location, not just the locations he is assigned to. This was incorrectly stated in his ability details and has been adjusted.

• Distracted enemies are now a range instead of a constant number based on the Intel upgrades.

• This range increases with Intel spent on Klaus and is rolled on each individual encounter.

• Dev Note: The main reason for this balance change is that Klaus provides a powerful ability that can trivialize late-game locations by removing much of the enemy threat caused by noise. This is especially apparent in horde missions with only a single encounter, where players are meant to choose between going silent or loud, without noise carrying over from another encounter.

• Propane Tank is now redrawn into hand if played on a full board of enemies.

• Dynamite is now redrawn into hand if played on a full board of enemies.

• AP is still consumed, but the abilities are not wasted.

• The intro mission (which can now be skipped) has been reworked with a more consistent look.

• The mission now also contains fewer enemies so it's even faster to complete.

• 2 achievements for the new challenge mode.

• 2 achievements for the turn ability Shadow Sniper.

• 3 achievements for the turn ability Street Cred.

• 1 achievement for Pristine quality upgrades.

• Added unique shield variants of Barbed Fence, Metal Fence and Plated Fence shields.

• Enemy status "Group Endurance" now only applies to Rank 10+ enemies. This status effect can cause some unlucky early encounters before the player has a chance to gear up. Rank 10+ enemies begin appearing at Roadblock.

• During combat, the red number in brackets before the location now indicates the total mission repeats instead of the enemy threat. This number is not shown on the first visit to the location.

• Playing Surprise Attack now shows a visual indicator on the merc performing the attack.

• Playing Quick Break now shows a visual indicator on all the mercs in play.

• Small game performance optimizations during combat.

• Flipped DLC card frames in Game Settings so by default the original art is used.

• Improved the terminal-style location list to indicate mission unlock requirements.

• Fixed merc frames not being set to a darker tone at the end of turn (visual bug).

• Fixed merc cards with pending actions not showing a blue glow around the card frame (visual bug).

• Fixed enemy cards not showing a red glow when attacking or being targeted (visual bug).

• Fixed blue glow occasionally remaining on mercs during the enemy turn (visaul bug).

• Random event spawning barricades can sometimes block the game from showing Area Cleared with no enemies remaining. Phased out this random event for a future rework.

• Fixed Barbed Fence Shield cannot be upgraded from Fine-Tuned (blue) to Exceptional (purple) due to invalid game data.

• Fixed Metal Fence Shield showing an incorrect 3D model (Plated Fence Shield).

• Achievements "Shopper's Paradise" and "Tools of the Trade" are not unlocked for some players with full upgrades to the rooms. This was an issue in earlier 1.0 builds where the achievements were not configured correctly on Steam. Added an extra check to unlock these achievements when visiting the related rooms.

• Player could bypass the new character selection screen before the UI finished loading, resulting in no merc spawning during the tutorial. Adjusted the UI to block input until the character selection is fully loaded.

• Fixed an issue preventing ammo from being drawn while using a controller during the tutorial mission that teaches the ammo stash draw.

• Mouse cursor was not hidden while using a controller on non-steam deck devices. When controller input is detected, the cursor should be auto-hidden, recentered to the middle with hovered over elements deselected. Moving the mouse again should reveal the cursor back.

• Reputation gain from gadget German Phrases was not granted when Klaus distracted unaware undead. This should now be fixed and combat log should also indicate how much reputation was gained.

• Improved save storage validation for first-time players. This sometimes caused errors tied to achievements not being correctly stored before completing the initial tutorial where the first save is created.

• Fixed small typos in card details.

Thanks for all the reports! Please continue to submit feedback on the forums or in Discord.

--Paul