Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

[p][/p][p]Knights and mercs, you knew it in your heart of heisty-hearts that the milspec factions were not going to sit long the on the side lines while the megacorps got to play with their Hover Tanks! Now, milspec factions are adding Lance VTOLs to their ranks of reinforcements and starting patrollers at higher Power Levels. These VTOLs are fast and easier to kill but ... still packing powerful heavy machine gun on their hardpoint. [/p][p]With Mecha Infantry, Turrets, Hover Tanks and now VTOLs in the game, the heat is getting turned up on your squad's ability to handle drones by mid game (Team Power Level 4+). Considering doing a few strategic respecs to get some drone jamming or other anti-drone Talents - they can really help save a heist as the tension rises.[/p][p][/p][h2]Our Save Game Policy and Updates[/h2][p]Since you'll always be seeing a lot of updates around here, we want to reiterate our saved game policy so everyone understands our commitment to your games. No saved game will ever be invalidated by an update. All new content and features will be added immediately to all saved games (with the reasonable exception of New Game options). You never have to restart if you don't want to. This is a studio commitment that we have made and kept for many years and games. We stand by it. So do not stress about the deluge of updates that is coming your way - heist on my good heisters.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Enemy: Lance VTOLs[/h2][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Lance VTOLs are faster and lighter drones employed by the milsec companies - Brave Star and Arrowhead - compared to the megacorporate Hover Tanks. The Lances still represent the arrival of powerful, rapid-response elite reinforcements instead of regular milsec soldiery, as they can more rapidly pin down or neutralize threats. As the Security Level rises and the Sec AI calls upon more and more powerful reinforcements on your heist team, a pod of reinforcements (typically 3 soldiers) will instead contain soldiers and one or more Lance VTOLs. The specific criteria for arriving as reinforcements are as follows:[/p]

• [p]In a mission against a milsec faction[/p]
• [p]Your team is Power Level 4+[/p]
• [p]The Sec Level on your mission has reached 4+[/p]

[p]Additionally, once your team is above Power Level 6, Lance VTOLs may appear as part of the starting-enemy patrols set on missions against milsec factions.[/p][p]Today, there is a single type of Lance VTOL used by both milsec companies which has access to Full Auto, Overwatch and an energy field for temporary invulnerability. As we continue to expand the drone offerings, we will be separating these VTOLs, their look and their abilities per company.[/p][p]Unlike most other enemies, Lance VTOLs will not be stopped in their tracks by overwatch shots against them and they have a 75%+ chance to break Stun effects applied to them. Unfeeling, nothing but metal, armor and guns - these VTOLs swoop in for the kill relentlessly.[/p][p]VTOLs are expensive assets and a milsec company can only commit so many to a single facility or battle at a time, so don't expect to see more than 2 at a time.[/p][p]Watch out - like Hover Tanks before them, VTOLs explode when they go down and cause damage to anyone nearby.[/p][p][/p][h2]How to take on Lance VTOLS?[/h2][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]The standard Leverage to block reinforcements also blocks the arrival of Lance VTOLs. Keeping a leverage like this in reserve for Sec Level 4+ can buy you valuable time to avoid their arrival or get distance from their likely arrival points.[/p][p]Unlike Turrets and Hover Tanks, Lance VTOLs are built for speed and firepower over heavy armor. You will be less likely to be able to outrun a VTOL and may need to consider the best position from which to fight one instead of trying to outright flee.[/p][p][/p][p]Lance VTOL have less over all Hit Points but Armor-shredding is still key for attacks against any drones; while less of an damage sponge than a Hover Tank, the VTOLs still have high HP and are easier to wear down with E-Rifles, Shotguns and other high Shred weapons (or weapon mods). [/p][p]The Cyber Knight and Cybersword have the most anti-drone talents, with Hacker and Agent EX characters also having several available. Check any of the character classes on the Cyber Knights Wiki to easily see a full list of their available talents and CTRL+F for "drone" to review.[/p][p][/p][h2]Other Drone Improvements[/h2][p][/p][p]With Update #57, we've also improved a number of other areas for drones. We've completed a rebalance of Hover Tank armor to make it weaker against melee (watch out, they explode!). We've fixed a number of missing animations like aiming up, aiming down, hitting and missing.[/p][p]Also, we resolved some mistakes in the flight path generator for Hover Tanks that were ignore intervening cover. This could lead to the tanks flying through things like fences where the medical stretcher and VTOL would fly over them. Now, everyone goes over everything they should![/p][p][/p][h2]Enemy Skip Turn Bugs[/h2][p]We fixed a number of bugs with far away enemies skipping their turns and therefore skipping some important event - like spotting a corpse or walking into a laser fence that has been turned yellow by Kill Switch. These are now resolved and an enemy - no matter how far away - will always simulate their path correctly and check for any events before skipping.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Update Size Note (now 3 GB)[/h2][p]We've made some good progress on the last series of updates for the maximum update size. While some of the updates we have been pushing are still large the regular "max size" that will now be pushed has come down from the high 5 GB to 3 GB. This is a big improvement and we're excited to have completed this re-org but we know we have more to do.[/p][p]We are dedicated to trying to keep update size small and would prefer updates to stay under 1 GB on average. Here's to smaller updates in the future![/p][p][/p][h2]v2.3.15 - #57: Milspec Lance VTOL[/h2][p] - Added new faster and lighter hovering drone - the VTOL Lance low-flying jet rigged with a machine gun and lighter armor[/p][p] - VTOL Lances may now appear in milsec and Brave Star as reinforcements at Power Level 4+ and Sec Level 4+[/p][p] - VTOL Lances may now appear as starting patrollers at start of any milsec mission at Power Level 6+[/p][p] - Less hard to kill, VTOLs are offensive focused and capable of swooping in fast, flying over most obstacles and unleashing deadly firepower[/p][p] - Rebalanced Hover Tank armor stats (weaker protection against melee)[/p][p] - Improved animation for Hover Tank when aiming up or down at a target[/p][p] - Fixed bugs where skipping a far away enemy's turn might lead to missing events (find body, Overwatch, Kill Switch Laser Fence)[/p][p] - Fixed issues with Hover Tank gliding through low types of cover like fences or edges of crates[/p][p] - Fixed issue with missions where you could walk "behind" the large red walls along the map edge[/p]

[p][/p][p]Knights and mercs, the fun with drones continues with Update #56 improving and fixing issues with the recently released hover tank, adding another big community-based UI request with colored bookmarks for rapid filtering for Contacts & mercs, and working through this weeks' F10s from the community to keep improving the game at every turn.[/p][p]If you are enjoying the improvements and free expansions to the game, please take a minute to thank our small team and leave a review![/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]With the addition of the colored bookmarks, we are now one more UI update away from completing the Roadmap list of goals we had set for "Player-Driven UX Improvements" - for which we've made over 80 enhancements big and small. If you want to see what else we've got cooking - check out the full Post-Launch Roadmap![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Our Save Game Policy and Updates[/h2][p]Since you'll always be seeing a lot of updates around here, we want to reiterate our saved game policy so everyone understands our commitment to your games. No saved game will ever be invalidated by an update. All new content and features will be added immediately to all saved games (with the reasonable exception of New Game options). You never have to restart if you don't want to. This is a studio commitment that we have made and kept for many years and games. We stand by it. So do not stress about the deluge of updates that is coming your way - heist on my good heisters.[/p][p][/p][h2]Bookmarks for Contact & Mercs[/h2][p][/p][p]With Update #56, we've completed a common request for improvement from players, especially those who have played Star Traders: Frontiers. We've now added the colored bookmark system, which allows you to mark any contact or character with a bookmark - one of 6 colors - and then rapidly filter later by those bookmark colors.[/p][p]The nicest thing about this system is there are 6 colors and you can do whatever you like with them. And you can change them all the time. Bookmark mercs who need equipment upgrades in Red and when they get them, set them back to gray. Bookmark all the Contacts you like to Co-Conspire with in Blue and all those with Cybernetic Services in Yellow. Or ... just however you like to do it! [/p][p]Then filter by selecting all Bookmarks or specific colors.[/p][p]Oh and tell us how you use them too![/p][p][/p][h2]"More than 1" Hover Tank[/h2][p](this shouldn't happen anymore ^^^)[/p][p]With this update, we've fixed a problem that was occurring in high Power Level games where you might start a map with more than 1 Hover Tank already on patrol. We saw F10s where there were 4 somehow appearing! Bad! Bad! Run now! We've resolved the bug for patrollers and reinforcements, now keeping the tank count to a nice far "one" all the time.[/p][p]We've also reduced the overall chance that a Hover Tank will appear as a patroller at the start of a mission. As they were set, it was basically guaranteed (as you often have 10+ patrollers at start). We've cut the rate by over half, so hover tanks appearing is a "sometimes" event and not an "always" event above Power Level 8+ when facing a megacorp.[/p][p][/p][h2]Hover Tank Improvements[/h2][p]With the first big release of flying drones, we've worked on a lot of little minor improvements and fixed a couple of critical bugs as well with Update #56.[/p]

• [p]The flight path that a drone plots no longer has so much required vertical (up-move-down) unless it has something it needs to get over. If the drone is traversing open ground, it will just quickly hover to its destination without such an awkward and immediate "up" phase of flight. [/p]
• [p]Rotation after attacking and after Overwatch are now corrected, preventing the hover tank from "snapping" back and forth between rotations during a series of attacks or after Overwatch.[/p]
• [p]Further improved movement destinations and enemy arrival locations so that there is less visual change to overlap between characters and tanks.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Other F10 Fixes![/h2][p][/p][p]We fixed a bug in Forward Op (the start scav mission) where sometimes the Loot objective (Loot 7/10 Lootboxes) was not appearing. We fixed issues with weapon mods that added Pure Dmg displaying that as Kinetic Dmg instead.[/p][p]Also, while it is invisible to you our players, we fixed a number of minor warnings and errors (about 100) that could be spewed at different times when loading different maps or during new game and when trying to find hotkeys. These were all invisible and had no actual negative consequence to the game play, but they continued to clog up the F10 logs we receive, so we've taken the time to put them all to bed.[/p][p][/p][h2]v2.3.11 - #56: Bookmark the Future 12/5/2025[/h2][p] - Added bookmarking capability for Contacts and Characters - sort them by up to 5 bookmark colors[/p][p] - Added filtering by bookmark color - first organize, then filter to get your personal quick pick lists[/p][p] - Improved drone movement animation to only rise vertically when needed - smoother, more natural now[/p][p] - Improved Hover Tank rotation between shots, overwatch and how it tucks in against cover/walls[/p][p] - Reduced % chance that Hover Tank can appear as a patroller at the start of mission (PL 8+)[/p][p] - Improved rules for moving too close to other characters, turrets or drones to reduce overlap[/p][p] - Fixed bug when switching weapons while hover is up was not correctly updating reload AP[/p][p] - Fixed bug where weapon mods that added Pure Dmg would incorrectly display in some UIs as having Physical Dmg[/p][p] - Fixed bug with Forward Op Scav raid missing lootbox count objective[/p][p] - Fixed new game and loading map issues invisible to play but choking up F10 logs [/p]

[p][/p][p]Knights, we are excited to follow up the Turret release a few days ago with the newest type of major threat - the Hover Tank! This low-flying drone enemy is heavily armored, equipped with a deadly cannon hardpoint and ready for battle. [/p][p]Both turrets and tanks are new tools in the arsenal of the the devious Sec AI that you battle throughout your heists. It may drop Hover Tanks in with reinforcement groups coming through its Sec Escalations. Once a Hover Tank has landed in the field, it might be "Time to goooooo..." 💥 "Go go go go go!"[/p][p][/p][p]We're glad Hover Tanks could follow closely on the heels of Turrets, as their preparation has gone hand in hand. We are continuing to work our way through our ambitious post-launch roadmap - each big update chipping away at it. New types of enemies and especially drones are a very exciting area of expansion to reward more varied character builds, new tactics, and put your squads up against new high-powered and late-game enemy options.[/p][p]If you want to see what else we've got cooking - check out the full Post-Launch Roadmap![/p][p][/p][h2]Our Save Game Policy and Updates[/h2][p]Since you'll always be seeing a lot of updates around here, we want to reiterate our saved game policy so everyone understands our commitment to your games. No saved game will ever be invalidated by an update. All new content and features will be added immediately to all saved games (with the reasonable exception of New Game options). You never have to restart if you don't want to. This is a studio commitment that we have made and kept for many years and games. We stand by it. So do not stress about the deluge of updates that is coming your way - heist on my good heisters.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Enemies: Hover Tanks[/h2][p][/p][p]Hover Tanks are powerful new drones available only to megacorporate armies (different types of drones will be more or less locked by faction); they represent the arrival of heavy-elite off-site reinforcements instead of the run-of-the-mill regular soldiery. As the Security Level rises and the Sec AI calls upon more and more powerful reinforcements to try to face the threat they discover you are, it is possible that a pod of reinforcements (typically 3 soldiers) will instead contain 2 soldiers and a Hover Tank. The specific criteria for arriving as reinforcements are as follows:[/p]

• [p]In a mission against a megacorporate faction[/p]
• [p]Your team is Power Level 4+[/p]
• [p]The Sec Level on your mission has reached 5+[/p]

[p]Additionally, once your team is above Power Level 8, Hover Tanks may appear as part of the starting-enemy patrols set on missions against megacorp factions.[/p][p]Today, there is a single type of hover tank used by all 6 megacorps. It has powerful Talents that allow for Full Auto, Overwatch, a directed energy invulnerability field and a shock field that can reorganize its adaptive armor after it has suffered an Armor Critical (making the Hover Tank capable of repairing 1 Protection Point).[/p][p][/p][p]Their cannon has a max range of 30m, and does suffer accuracy penalties against enemies too close for them to quickly adjust targeting against. If you have effective short-range weaponry, look for areas you can use this difference against them. Or use a fast-moving character to break their armor and run to safety, while squad mates with long-range weaponry assault it from afar.[/p][p]Unlike most other enemies, Hover Tanks will not be stopped in their tracks by overwatch shots against them. They also have a 75% chance to break Stun effects applied to them. These tanks are juggernauts, and will require different tactics than other enemies to deal with.[/p][p]Hover tanks are expensive assets and a megacorp can only commit so many to a single facility or battle at a time, so don't expect to see more than one at a time.[/p][p][/p][h2]How to take on Hover Tanks?[/h2][p]The standard Leverage to block reinforcements also blocks the arrival of Hover Tanks. Keeping a leverage like this in reserve for Sec Level 5+ can buy you valuable time to avoid their arrival or get distance from their likely arrival points.[/p][p]Like turrets, hover tanks are heavy weapon platforms and are built to be layered with thick plating and mounted with major weaponry. The tradeoff to the hover tank's thick armor is its ponderous speed; it can be outrun! (But be careful what you might be running into.)[/p][p][/p][p]Armor-shredding is key for attacks against any drones; these are high HP enemies and much harder to wear down if you don't crack their armor. E-Rifles in particular are an excellent weapon to take them on, but other weapons with a high chance to shred armor (possibly extended by weapon mods) can be effective as well.[/p][p]The Cyber Knight and Cybersword have the most anti-drone talents, with Hacker and Agent EX characters also having several available. Check any of the character classes on the Cyber Knights Wiki to easily see a full list of their available talents and CTRL+F for "drone" to review.[/p][p][/p][h2]Turrets in Even More Maps[/h2][p][/p][p]We are working toward a point where turrets have a chance to show in up in any map, if the heist matches all of the other criteria (Power Level, faction, objective type). Toward that end, we added another 6 maps to the group that can support Turrets, now covering almost every corporate and data lab themed map.[/p][p]We also fixed a bug where Turrets could be included (10% chance) at any Power Level including 0. Now, the minimum of 3+ Power Level is being properly enforced.[/p][p][/p][h2]Tutorial Objectives[/h2][p][/p][p]With Update #55, we've taken another spin through the objectives shown during the first stage of the tutorial. We have made sure that they use clear and simple language and verbs that indicate the type of game choices you can make ("Kill or sneak past second guard"). This also includes explicitly calling out the glowing blue area as your target zone to move your team into for extraction.[/p][p][/p][h2]Update Size Note (5 GB)[/h2][p]Many of the recent updates have been nearly 5 GB which is the maximum size really, when all of the map files in the game have been adjusted. This has been necessary due to the nature of adding turrets to the game (all the navigation paths had to be rebaked multiple times which touches every level in the game) ... and then again to correct some mistakes for large hovering drones. And likely again for some things for small high-flying drones (coming soon).[/p][p]However, we are dedicated to trying to keep update size small and would prefer updates to stay under 1 GB on average. With that goal in mind, we have completed a reorg of the internal asset structure to help make our update packages more granular and hopefully therefore smaller. That also means with this update, we changed all the files again, which means a 5 GB. [/p][p]Here's to smaller updates in the future![/p][p][/p][h2]Many, Many Maps Bugs[/h2][p]With Update #55, we took a tour of the map bugs that were most commonly reported and have resolved them.[/p]

• [p]We fixed issues in the Cascade Precision Power Play where you could automatically win by being deployed in the extraction zone.[/p]
• [p]The Trucker HQ Kill Hardened Target was showing all wrong objectives (kill 3 captain objectives...)[/p]
• [p]We fixed the bug with the Truck Job Part 2's secondary objective about arriving with below Sec Level 2 failing after it was successfully completed.[/p]
• [p]We fixed an issue where Taylor Strizek would appear in the laser injector even after you had boosted her when you reloaded the level.[/p]
• [p]The Cyber Knight no longer needs to be in the active mercs for the Truck Job part 1 heists.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]v2.3.9 - #55: Hover TANK - 12/1/2025[/h2][p] - Added first of the powerful hover drones - a Hover Tank is a mobile armored platform, rigged with a deadly cannon and heavy armor[/p][p] - Hover Tanks may now appear in megacorporate forces as reinforcements at Power Level 4+ and Sec Level 5+ ("it is time to go ...")[/p][p] - Hard to kill and able to fly over many obstacles, Hover Tanks will close-in on your team with deadly armaments at the ready[/p][p] - Added Turret support to +6 proc-gen maps across different objectives (more readily available)[/p][p] - Fixed bug allowing Turrets to start appearing too early (missions at Power Level 0-2) [/p][p] - Improved all objective clarity and completed objective text for Tutorial Stage 1[/p][p] - Fixed bug in Trucker HQ with Kill Hardened Target proc-gen missions incorrectly showing Kill 3 Captains objectives[/p][p] - Fixed bug with certain map options in Cascade Precision Power Play that could result in an automatic victory when deployed into extraction zone[/p][p] - Fixed bugs with Truck Job part 2 with secondary objective failing after 2nd turn[/p][p] - Cyber Knight is no longer required to come along on the Truck Job part 1 main mission[/p][p] - Fixed issues with Lookahead and Anticipate not working on simple rotation patrols[/p][p] - Fixed bug preventing regular walking humans from completing rotation patrol points (dang ye, turrets!)[/p][p] - Fixed rare bug where Turret could spawn in a regular Brave Star reinforcement group[/p]

[p][/p][p]Knights, we are back with a follow up to the H4RDPOINTS update. After a few days of gathering feedback, talking to players about their brushes, near death experience and all out battles with Turrets, we've made some balance chances, some improvements and made everything just look and sound better! We've also fixed reported F10 bugs and issues, so thank you, as always, for sending those in.[/p][p]We're excited to keep expanding the game as we work on our ambitious post-launch roadmap. With Turrets now joining the heist-scape, we are excited to have other new types of drones just around the corner to swing in and once again change the tactical playing field. Stay tuned![/p][p]If you want to see what else we've got cooking - check out the full Post-Launch Roadmap![/p][p][/p][h2]Our Save Game Policy and Updates[/h2][p]Since you'll always be seeing a lot of updates around here, we want to reiterate our saved game policy so everyone understands our commitment to your games. No saved game will ever be invalidated by an update. All new content and features will be added immediately to all saved games (with the reasonable exception of New Game options). You never have to restart if you don't want to. This is a studio commitment that we have made and kept for many years and games. We stand by it. So do not stress about the deluge of updates that is coming your way - heist on my good heisters.[/p][p][/p][h2]More Turrets, More Maps[/h2][p]What we've heard from our heisters is that they want to see more Turrets. This is natural for a new feature, so we haven't cranked this up to 11 but we have expanded the maps on which Turrets can appear by about 33% and also increased their general rate of appearance in maps across the Power Level spectrum.[/p][p][/p][h2]E-Turrets by Faction[/h2][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]The dreaded E-Turret ...[/p][p]We've improved the deployment rules and faction matching for the direction energy weapon Turrets. These beasts will melt armor like butter on a hot day and can raise their own energy shields to make them temporarily invulnerable to attack. They are now most commonly appearing with Jupiter, UltraTek and Rook factions.[/p][p][/p][h2]Railgun and E-Rifle Attack VFX[/h2][p][/p][p]With Update #54, we've come back to the attack animation and VFX for E-Rifles and Railguns to make them look even cooler and fill in some missing pieces. Your railgun's barrel will now smoke dramatically after firing a shot and the flare of the muzzle is cooler, correctly pointed directly at the target and more on point for style.[/p][p]In addition, we've improved the E-Rifle firing VFX to include a gathering charge of plasma that crackles into life at the end of the barrel before spewing forth its directed energy attack.[/p][p]We're just excited to have these two powerful and unique weapon types looking even cooler![/p][p][/p][h2]Turret SFX/VFX and Animation[/h2][p][/p][p]In addition, we've done a full pass on all of the animation, VFX and SFX for Turrets. [/p][p]There were places where we were missing SFX, like that threatening moment when the Turret spins up through the floor from its encasement to join the battle. Also, if you are able to destroy a turret, it would explode and possibly cause deadly damage without the SFX running correctly. Now its a nice loud BOOM.[/p][p]The barrels of both types of turrets now correctly kick as they fire and especially the machine gun Turret has a much cooler look as we've made the muzzle flares dramatically bigger, better timed and ensure that they appear on both sides of the Turret.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, we fixed some ugly rotation skips that a Turret might make. Like after firing its final Overwatch shot, it used to skip back to an ugly rotation off into nowhere. Now, it keeps itself rotated toward its last target nicely.[/p][p][/p][h2]Moving Near or Onto Turrets[/h2][p]We've fixed a bevy of issues around moving near, through or onto turrets. Now they nicely carve out a space all the time around themselves, forcing everyone to move around them and keep enough distance that clipping is avoided or at least greatly reduced.[/p][p][/p][h2]Double-Up Turret Bug[/h2][p][/p][p]We fixed a bug that could allow one Turret to activate on the same hardpoint that another turret had previously activated on. Whether the first Turret was alive or dead, if a Sec AI activates the turret in the underground encasement, then that hardpoint is used and cannot activate another Turret.[/p][p][/p][h2]More Drones Coming Soon[/h2][p]We're excited to be expanding the scope of drones within the game with the release of Turrets. As we've worked on these, we simultaneously completed the recent major rebuild of the game's unit-navigation layers across all levels, in preparation for further new enemy drone types with different movement capabilities. Get ready, these are coming soon.[/p][p][/p][h2]v2.3.3 - #54: Turret Rising - 11/29/2025[/h2][p] - Improved weighting for Activating Turrets by Sec AI Escalation (significantly more likely to be picked when available now)[/p][p] - Improved faction and Power Level thresholds for Energy Turrets (Jupiter, UltraTek, Rook)[/p][p] - Fixed bug where Sec AI Escalation could activate a second Turret right on top of another Turret[/p][p] - Added explosion SFX for turrets when they are destroyed[/p][p] - Added mechanical SFX for turrets rising out of their encasements[/p][p] - Improved animation for turret hit and dodge reactions[/p][p] - Improved Turret rotation during and after use of Overwatch, improved Turret up/down rotation when aiming[/p][p] - Fixed issue where you might move too close to a Turret and start to clip into it, or run straight through a Turret while moving[/p][p] - Fixed bugs with enemies sometimes starting inside barricades and therefore being stuck[/p][p] - Fixed bugs with some VIP not moving when they should get scooting[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p]Knights, we have a huge update for you this week which adds a whole new class of drones to the game - Turrets! The devious Sec AI that you battle throughout your heists has a new ace up its sleeve - activating turrets from their underground encasements and bringing these powerful, stationary and hard-to-kill drones into the battle.[/p][p]We're excited to keep expanding the game as we work on our ambitious post-launch roadmap. New types of enemies and especially drones are a very exciting area of expansion to reward more varied character builds, new tactics, and put your squads up against new high-powered and late-game enemy options.[/p][p]If you want to see what else we've got cooking - check out the full Post-Launch Roadmap![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]Our Save Game Policy and Updates[/h2][p]Since you'll always be seeing a lot of updates around here, we want to reiterate our saved game policy so everyone understands our commitment to your games. No saved game will ever be invalidated by an update. All new content and features will be added immediately to all saved games (with the reasonable exception of New Game options). You never have to restart if you don't want to. This is a studio commitment that we have made and kept for many years and games. We stand by it. So do not stress about the deluge of updates that is coming your way - heist on my good heisters.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Enemies: Turrets[/h2][p]Turrets are stationary weapon platforms that can be activated by any SIGMA series Sec AI. These new enemies are drones (a category describing all mechanized enemies) so they can be targeted by your drone Talents and instantly report their death like all drones. Further, turrets will explode when they are destroyed, causing potentially deadly damage to anyone nearby![/p][p]Turrets can appear:[/p]

• [p]Once your team reaches Power Level 3+[/p]
• [p]Only in certain objectives (Alpha Strike, Exfiltrate VIP etc do not include Turrets)[/p]
• [p]On Larger maps that have space for them[/p]
• [p]Only on 15-33% of heists - when they do, they generally force you to plan and approach the heist differently, so they are not a constant threat but a spicey spice.[/p]

[p]There are two types of turrets today - the heavy machine gun turret and the directed energy weapon turret ("E-turret"). Each have their own set of stats, weapons, armor and talents. Turrets can appear in different missions from Power Level 3+. The challenge they present will start low but scale aggressively into the end game by PL 10. Watch out, Turrets love to use Overwatch! [/p][p][/p][p]You are able to see in advance if a heist has the potential to have turrets by checking its mission flags for the highlighted "Turrets" warning. Also, once you are on the ground in the heist, the locations that Turrets might appear are shown clearly to you, each one marked by a large and threatening looking turret spawning location.[/p][p]With this pre-knowledge in hand, you'll be pushed to make new choices about how you approach a heist if turrets are present. Do you really want to go down that route to reach those lootboxes if a Turret might pop out of the floor at any Escalation?[/p][p][/p][h2]Sec AI: "Activate Turret!"[/h2][p][/p][p]The Sec AI - your overarching enemy during most heists - now has the power to activate turrets from their underground encasements. Until the Turret is activated from its underground lair, it is invulnerable and cannot be targeted. This new and dangerous type of Escalation is available to the entire SIGMA line of Sec AI - including Sigma 5, Sigma 7, Sigma 9 and Sigma BLACK. [/p][p]The more dangerous the security AI you're facing, the lower the minimum Sec Level required to activate Turrets. In a facility with a Sigma 5 Sec AI, Turrets become a risk at Sec Level 4+; whereas one with Sigma BLACK, they can be summoned as early as Sec Level 2.[/p][p]These Escalations do count as a type of reinforcement which can be blocked by some Leverages, at least until we've added more drone-and turret-specific Leverages that are competitive.[/p][p][/p][h2]How to Take on Turrets[/h2][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Turrets are heavy weapons platforms with no need to move which allows them to be built with heavy plating and stacked with massive weaponry. Armor-shredding is key for any attacks against drones; these are high HP enemies. E-rifles in particular are an excellent weapon to take them on, but other weapons with a high chance to shred armor (possibly extended by weapon mods) can be effective as well.[/p][p]The Cyber Knight and Cybersword have the most anti-drone talents, with Hacker and Agent EX characters also having several available. Check any of the character classes on the Cyber Knights Wiki to easily see a full list of their available talents and CTRL+F for "drone" to review.[/p][p]Most importantly, keep in mind that turrets are stationary. Using hard cover where you can step out, shoot them, then step back to where they can't target you is a significant advantage. Any class's talents that can cancel enemy overwatch or move through overwatch without triggering it can be helpful, as turrets have a wide field of fire and can lock down a significant area with overwatch.[/p][p][/p][h2]More Drones Coming Soon[/h2][p]We're excited to be expanding the scope of drones within the game with the release of Turrets. As we've worked on these, we simultaneously completed the recent major rebuild of the game's unit-navigation layers across all levels, in preparation for further new enemy drone types with different movement capabilities. Get ready, these are coming soon.[/p][p][/p][h2]Hacking Juice Bugs Fixed[/h2][p]We fixed a number of bugs with Hacking Juice and other Items and Talents that add Tokens with Update #53 that will make these more powerful. [/p][p]Sometimes these tokens were being incorrectly consumed by passive IC that should not qualify to take a token. This is now resolved and only IC with proper reactions that need to be canceled will cost a token.[/p][p]In addition, we found an issue if you reused one of these Items or Talents while the buff was up and some Tokens were still unused. This was replacing Tokens (there was 1, it is replaced with 3) instead of adding Tokens (there was 1 and 3 new are added, resulting in 4). This is a less central use case but just as important.[/p][p][/p][h2]VIPs Unmoving Mostly Fixed[/h2][p]We've fixed a number of issues with VIPs and their bodyguards where they might not register the correct set of enemies and targets during their turn, causing them to stay oddly stationary at the worst times. [/p][p]This should help some cases with frozen VIPs once they are combat engaged but doesn't fix any of the map-related issues with non-combat engaged VIPs still standing around. That is up next, we have those F10s and are looking at the Trucker HQ as the one map where this is happening basically.[/p][p][/p][h2]v2.3.1 - #53: H4RDPOINT - 11/26/2025[/h2][p] - Added new powerful drone type to missions: Turrets! Stationary hardpoints, hard to kill and packing heavy weaponry [/p][p] - Turrets can appear in different missions from Power Level 3+[/p][p] - Turret challenge starts low but scales aggressively into the end game by PL 10[/p][p] - Missions that can feature Turrets include a new tag in the mission stage description[/p][p] - Turret hardpoints are shown on the map in advance and a Sec AI Escalation may activate a Turret at that point[/p][p] - Different Sec AI feature different thresholds to start activating Turrets (Sigma 5 is Sec Level 4+, Sigma Black is Sec Level 2+)[/p][p] - When Turrets are destroyed, the exploding causing damage to any nearby characters or enemies[/p][p] - Prevented Juice Tokens from being used too quickly due to passive IC in the node[/p][p] - Fixed bugs with matrix Talents or Items that include Tokens, ensuring that re-use of Talent or Item adds Tokens, not replaces Tokens[/p][p] - Improved bodyguard and VIP intelligence once in fighting stance, more aware of last engaged characters[/p][p] - Fixed matrix controller bug where using a Talent might move you to an adjacent node[/p][p] - Improved AI response to skipping forward in their turn, fixed cases they might skip an event like spotting player[/p]