30XX News

Hello! 30XX Patch 0.38 is ready to roll, and it's got a mountain of new Entropy Conditions and new Memory Index rewards for pushing your skills to the limit via the Entropy Cluster.

It also introduces a few new Prototypes and fixes some long-standing bugs.

NOTE: Patch 0.38 fixes the age-old "eventually some textures load as black boxes" bug. To accomplish this, we've retired the 32-bit build of 30XX in favor of a 64-bit only build (which almost every game under the sun already uses!). According to Steam's most recent hardware survey, 0.17% of players on Steam may not have 64-bit operating systems - if this is you, reach out to me at chris AT batterystaplegames DOT com and we'll sort something out. This note should mean nothing to the overwhelming majority of players, but I'm mentioning it since it's a substantial technical under-the-hood change.

Thanks for playing!

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GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

• Added a new control feature we're calling "Autocombo", unlocked alongside Autocharge.
  
  • While active, Autocombo causes Nina to fire three times in rapid succession, instead of just once. Pressing the button again during her combo will queue up two additional shots, so the player can fire rapidly without having to mash the button hard.
    
  • Autocombo causes Ace to complete a full combo with his currently equipped weapon (3 attacks for the Saber, Lucavi, and Grandmaster, 2 for Tonbokiri and 1 for Lara). In Lucavi's case, Autocombo works just like Nina's.
    
  • Autocombo's designed to make the game require less mashing to input attacks. It can be turned off independently of Autocharge in the Pause menu.
    
  • Activating a Power will cancel the currently active combo. (An exception to this is triggering one of Nina's Echo effects.)
    
  • This change also limits Nina's fire rate to roughly 11 shots a second. Changes to Nina's number-of-shots on screen are likely coming next patch.
    
• Added a whole bunch of new Entropy Conditions, bringing the total to 15.
  
• Added a new metacurrency, awarded for your first-time completion at a given Entropy Level (starting at 0, with your first no-entropy game completion). We'll leave out exactly what this currency does for spoiler reasons, but you can spend it at the Memory Index. More info:
  
  • You'll receive this reward for your first completion at a given Entropy Level, and you can only earn one reward per run. So if your best run so far is Entropy 2, you'll need to play on Entropy 3 or higher to receive another reward - and no matter how high you go, your next success after that will require Entropy 4+, and so on.
    
  • Pilgrimage does not contribute to Entropy Level (since it doesn't really make the game harder, and we don't want players to feel like they have to pick it because it's "easy" while pushing Entropy).
    
  • Zealot's Wrath is likely overtuned - we have plans to convert HP to a more continuous measure the same way we did with NRG a few patches ago, and when we do, we'll likely tone it down a bit.
    
  • The reward received scales up the higher you push Entropy (up to a cap).
    
• Added 3 new Prototypes. Added icons for 0.37's small mountain of new Prototypes, too.
  
• Fixed a long-standing bug where long gameplay sessions could eventually lead to black-boxed textures (usually level tilesets and Ace's spritesheet failing to load). This is still theoretically possible, but should only happen on very memory-constrained systems (instead of all systems, given enough time).
  
• Fixed a bug where Gauntlets could repeat minibosses, resulting in multiple Resonant Armor pieces of the same type.
  
• Slightly adjusted Tonbokiri hitbox to properly hit certain low-standing targets.
  
• 30XX now runs in a 64-bit executable, which should lead to better overall stability when the game's been running for a long time.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Clockzone's Waterfall Platforms to occasionally take their time spawning when first entering a room.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Glory Zone conditions to sometimes desync in online co-op.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Dally to sometimes fail to show up at game start in online co-op.
  
• Suck effects no longer affect Capital Punishment's fists.
  
• NRG costs in the Pause screen now round up in cases where Power Efficiency result in fractional costs. (A Power that costs 5.5 NRG will display as "6" in the Pause screen, but it'll still accurately take 5.5 from the player.)
  
• Fixed a buggy interaction where having Blue Streak and either Gears of Industry or Market Fluctuations would make you more or less invulnerable, until the game crashes because you spawn a million nuts at once.
  
• Fixed a potential cause of the Rolly-Miniboss-Attacking-Weirdly issue.
  
• Wincing Clover's damage taken now ignores the invulnerability you normally have after defeating a boss. (No more infinite free rerolls on the Nutstack.)
  
• Fixed a sound issue with Reboot attacking.
  
• Fixed Crystal Wave and Jagged Bolt not properly disrespecting power/support ordering.
  
• Fixed a placement/collision issue with Burning Temple's Bridge tiles.
  

Hello! 30XX Patch 0.37 begins iterations on our Prototype and Metaprogression systems that we're aiming to complete by 0.38-0.39. It's here a day early - I'm out of the office tomorrow.

Prototypes are now offered early in the game more often, and are hand-designed with a few potential drawbacks for most blessings (instead of being fully random). In general, our design hope for Prototypes is that they offer the player a way to really shake up their current run -- or set the tone for a unique kind of run -- in a fun, flavorful way that doesn't (usually) instantly end the run (by making you too powerful or too weak).

Memoria and Potentia have been collapsed into a single currency, and Potentia will no longer drop. We've updated a number of Memory Index entries and added the Dealer (available via a new MI unlock) who can sling you a few Augs in exchange for that extra Memoria you've got lying around. More to come here in the near future - we've got more to do here alongside our planned Entropy Cluster changes.

Full notes below - thanks for playing!

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GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

• Updated design, function, and acquisition for Prototypes.
  
  • Prototype Lab spawn chance increased early in runs, and decreased late. The chance used to be a flat 25% per level - it's now 25-50-50-38-25-10-10-10 at levels 1-8 - we'll likely iterate on this further. This should increase the chance that the player sees at least one Prototype offered by the end of level 3 from ~58% to ~82%.
    
  • Some effects previously found on standard Augs have been moved to Prototypes, and their base items no longer drop. (Advanced Repair Kit, Burn for Glory)
    
  • Added a boatload of new Prototypes. (More will likely be coming next patch, too.)
    
  • Fixed an issue where Edges of Madness could continue to display items you no longer have.
    
• Memoria and Potentia have been collapsed into one currency. Existing unspent Potentia has been converted to Memoria (3 Memoria per Potentia).
  
• Added the Smuggler's Beacon, a new Memory Index entry that calls the mysterious Dealer to HQ. The Dealer will trade you Augs that apply to your next run in exchange for some of the extra Memoria you have lying around.
  
• Core Blessing reworked into Dally's Blessing:
  
  • Instead of a Core Chest on level 1, Dally shows up to offer you a choice of starting blessings.
    
  • Now has 3 ranks (up from 1).
    
  • Each rank unlocks more items that can show up in the Blessing choice. At rank 1, the player is offered basic health, NRG, armor, nuts, or a low-tier Aug. At rank 2, Cores and Weapons join the offer. At rank 3, Powers, Remnants, and even Prototypes join the offer.
    
• Choicebooster (Memory Index) reduced to 2 ranks (from 3). Players who had rank 3 unlocked have been refunded its cost (600 Memoria).
  
• Autocharge can now be toggled on and off both in the Pause menu (by selecting your Primary Weapon) and in the Memory Index itself.
  
• Added text prompts in the Pause screen for moving Powers, equipping Cores, and toggling Autocharge.
  
• Repro attacks now ignore boss invulnerability frames by default.
  
• Remnant of Sorrow (Watergrav) now removes Health directly, leaving Armor intact. It no longer counts as "damage" taken.
  
• Damage Prevention effects now work against more damage sources.
  
• Remnant of Determination no longer triggers on hidden dead enemies, or enemies that can't be harmed by it.
  
• Damage Prevention now only applies positive on-damage-taken effects for the player. (Blocking damage with Remnant of Flame won't remove buff stacks granted by Remnant of Spirit.)
  
• Rolly, Frog, Worker, Twin Sparker, and Drillface are now properly affected by the Disable status. (Rolly won't start a charge attack, Frogs won't spit or jump, Workers/Twin Sparkers won't launch projectiles, and Drillface won't retaliate - it'll still fly back and forth.)
  
• Fixed an error sometimes preventing Wild Mortar from restoring NRG on Split kill.
  
• Fixed an animation issue with Ace's Echo Shell.
  
• Fixed Unyielding Wave (Boss Freeze Power Aug).
  
• Adding/removing Entropy Condition ranks is now bound to Accept/Back. This menu now has a separate Back button when you're done.
  
• Fixed an error causing Echobeast's bouncing summons to sometimes start moving in the wrong direction (often causing them to overlap).
  

Hello! 30XX Patch 0.36 is here a day early, and it's packed with new Power Augs, giving players a say in how their kit develops over the course of a run.

0.36 also contains a small mountain of balance changes and fixes, including several smoothness changes for Watergrav mechanics, changes to some of Ace's abilities, and changes to effects that reduce NRG cost of your abilities.

Full notes below - thanks for playing!

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GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

• Added 40 new Augs in the form of Power Augs, special rewards the player can find at the end of a level as an alternative to a Boss Power.
  
  • Bosses now drop up to 3 items to choose between - the Boss's Power, a special Power Aug that modifies a Power the player already has, or a few nuts.
    
  • If the Power Aug that would be generated applies to a Power the player doesn't have, a special Remnant Aug will spawn instead, offering a unique passive bonus. For example, if the game wants to spawn a Power Aug for Zen Mortar, but Nina doesn't have Zen Mortar, a Remnant of Flame will spawn instead.
    
  • Each Power has 2 Power Augs. There's one Remnant of each type. (16 + 16 + 8 = 40 new Augs!)
    
  • In a future patch, these will likely be part of a Memory Index unlock. For now, they're unlocked by default.
    
• Slightly reduced Watergrav level generation difficulty.
  
• Adjusted Beta Frog's attack behavior. The initial shot now has a lower cap on how quickly it can move, and the acid shrapnel doesn't pop up as far when the main shot bursts. Time in between attacks also increased by 1 sec.
  
• Both Frog types now have an oval-shaped aggro radius instead of circular - the top and bottom of their aggro radius have been squished in, so they're less likely to be attacking while on the fringes of the screen, especially when the player is directly above/below them. (This is mostly to help smoothen out encounters where Beta Frogs rain death from super far away vertically.)
  
• Updated several behaviors of Watergrav's Anchor Mines:
  
  • Anchor Mines now open their eyes from slightly farther away and close their eyes again from slightly farther than that.
    
  • Anchor Mines' explosion radius is now lower for players (it'll better match the visual - it's less likely to hurt you), and a little more dangerous for nearby enemies.
    
  • Anchor Mines are now vulnerable to charged attacks, which will break their chain and send them flying (perhaps into nearby enemies).
    
  • Anchor Mines now chain their explosions - having a closed eye won't protect a Mine from its exploding friend.
    
  • Fixed an issue where firing a large bullet at an Anchor Mine's eye would occasionally trigger the "chain" part of the hit first, incorrectly blocking the attack. This frequently happened when hitting an eye from point blank range with Nina's charged shot.
    
  • Shield Turtle shields are now vulnerable to Anchor Mine explosions.
    
• Added a whole bunch (~60) of additional sound effects for enemies, repros, and interactions.
  
• Void Double (Ace's Penumbra Power) reworked. Void Double now projects a shadow clone in front of Ace that mimics all of his melee abilities (including other Powers) while active, and drains NRG over time until deactivated. When Void Double deactivates, the Double will throw two scythes upwards & diagonally, dealing damage based on the number of successful hits dealt by Ace while the Double was active.
  
• Leviathan (Ace's Watergrav Power) now scales with Ace's Power stat, as well as Sacred Defender, Rage Circuit, and Coup de Grace.
  
• Osafune (Ace's Deepverse Power) can now be canceled at any time during the animation by activating Osafune again.
  
• Dolomite Link (Ace's Clockzone Power) can also now grapple onto walls, in addition to enemies.
  
• Dolomite Link enemy hits now refresh Zen Ascent by default.
  
• Fixed a bug causing Dolomite Link to occasionally not boost Ace upwards when ending near the ground or near walls.
  
• Dolomite Link now recognizes when Ace grapples onto something he can't reach, and ends accordingly.
  
• Reworked sources of modified NRG cost and chance-to-cast-for-free into Power Efficiency, which increases how many Powers you can use for a given amount of NRG. This also brings some outlier items in line a bit - many items/abilities that provided "free" NRG were wildly powerful, sometimes trivializing the game by themselves.
  
  • Power Efficiency lets you cast more Powers for less NRG. +50% lets you cast 50% more Powers for a given amount of NRG - +100% lets you use twice as many - and so on. (The NRG Cost of your abilities is (1 / (1 + PE%)).
    
  • Owlhawk's Head Core now grants +33% Power Efficiency (50% when Resonated).
    
  • Vagrant's Sonata now grants +50% Power Efficiency while in green Corruption (any Corruption when Resonated).
    
  • Crisis Clarity now grants +100% Power Efficiency while in red HP.
    
  • Completing the Owlhawk Set now grants a bonus 67% Power Efficiency (totalling +100 with the Head part).
    
  • Heavy Juice (Nina Aug) now reduces Power Efficiency by 50% (additively).
    
  • The Powerless Curse now reduces Power Efficiency by half (multiplicatively), doubling your Power costs.
    
• Items that modify the NRG cost of an ability are now reflected in the cost shown in the Pause menu. This includes temporary cost reductions (like Vagrant's Sonata and Crisis Clarity). (Also, fixed Ace's Energy costs in the Pause screen displaying incorrectly.)
  
• Void Orbs (Penumbra enemy) now aim slightly higher when approaching players. This should cause them to get caught on low ground less often, and float closer to Nina's base firing height.
  
• Contractor Omega and Shopsmasher are now somewhat rarer.
  
• Unleash Blade now costs 5 NRG for non-Lucavi weapons. It can be activated even if Ace doesn't have enough NRG, but will deal minimal damage.
  
• Renewal Pod nerfed directly into the dirt. Now requires 3 kills per petal (up from 1). No longer rarely spawns Tokens.
  
  • Renewal Pod was wildly overpowered, and has been since its introduction. There's a chance that, even at these numbers, it's still too powerful. We'll keep an eye on it.
    
  • From its new home, deep in Terra's old dirt, Renewal Pod grumbles softly to no one in particular, plotting an unthinkable and elaborate revenge.
    
• Repro attacks and Dashbolt no longer damage or move Dustria's Exploding Barrels or Ace's Leviathan Technique. (This is a buff.)
  
• A few Repro attacks weren't correctly tagged as Repro attacks, causing them to trigger switches. This has been fixed. (No more will Reboot be the scourge of your Penumbra climb.) Repro attacks will continue to hit switches if the player is affected by Zookeeper's Burden.
  
• Fixed an error that could cause crashes in Clockzone.
  
• Updated tooltips of a few items to properly reflect post-0.35 NRG numbers.
  
• Aiming Gear now has a 0.25 second cooldown (up from 37.5ms).
  
• Rending Whirl + Crushing Void's Mega Whirl duration reduced (3 seconds, from 5).
  
• Jagged Bolt + Rending Whirl's enemy debuff effect increased to 2 seconds (from 1).
  
• Aiming Gear + Crushing Void is now only usable once in between landings (by default).
  
• Reduced enemy density somewhat in Gauntlet sections. Enemies in Gauntlets drop pickups less frequently. The reward for battling through a Gauntlet should be a resonant armor piece. Prior to this change, Gauntlets also served as nut & health fountains.
  
• Dustria Workers that find their way into Grinders will now be properly ground up.
  
• Level 8 of a run in Standard is now always guaranteed to spawn a Shop.
  
• Slightly reduced the number of nuts generated in mid/lategame levels.
  
  • 30XX's shops result in too much player power, even without any Entropy Conditions on. We'll continue to examine the game's economy over the next few patches - in general, the sweet spot is "most players will be able to afford one shop Aug per level - two if they're lucky or find a sale".
    
• Soul Scrapper (Challenge Flavor) now reduces Max HP by 1 per Aug/Power (down from 2).
  
• Solution Gambler and Greased Fate now each cost 20 nuts to use (up from 10).
  
• Tweaked Crusher's detection zone vs. Dustria Workers - they'll now be arbitrarily destroyed by Crushers less often.
  
• Increased Watergrav Fish's vertical hitbox (so attacks are now less likely to miss).
  
• Fixed an issue where Autodrone's Zen Mortar fire could injure players.
  
• Fixed an issue where Deepverse's background could display incorrectly.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the character's dash echoes to partially draw over the base player sprite.
  
• Advanced Repair Kit value set to 35 (from 25). It'll probably become a Prototype benefit eventually.
  
• L'il Hoot's damage reduced by 60%.
  
  • Seriously, what was I thinking on this one?
    
• Zookeeper's Phalanx damage block chance cap reduced to 30% (10% + 4% per Repro), down from 50% (10% + 8% per Repro).
  
• Fixed a bug causing Ultracharged shots (via Dracopent's Claw) to deal more damage than intended. The reduction is about 33%. (Normal, half-charged, charged, and ultracharged shots should deal 10, 15, 25, and 40 base damage, respectively. Prior to this patch, Ultracharged shots were dealing 60 base.)
  
• Fixed a bug causing persistent player effects to drain NRG if left on in between levels.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur in Clockzone, usually lategame.
  
• Acid Mist (Watergrav effect when Acid shots hit water) lifetime reduced to 1 sec (from 1.5).
  

Hello! Today's 30XX 0.35 patch starts an iteration wave on player Powers. We've got some exciting new stuff coming in the next few weeks, but for today, we've revised almost all of Nina's Power Fusions, changed up the way she and Ace recover Energy, and made Energy itself more granular for the player, allowing finer control over character Energy usage and recovery.

NOTE: Players playing in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Russian may notice longer first-load loading times on the first game launch post-patch. We've fixed a longstanding bug causing some characters to fail to render properly in these languages, but it requires the game to regenerate some font files. (It'll do this automatically.)

Thanks for playing!

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GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

• NRG has been converted into a continuous bar on the HUD. Existing NRG values have all been multiplied by 10, so NRG use/recovery is more granular than it was prior to 0.35.
  
• Ace now recovers 5 NRG when an enemy is killed by a Weapon Attack, and 10 NRG when collecting a health pickup. (In old numbers, this is 0.5 and 1 NRG.)
  
• Nina now recovers 2 NRG when an enemy is killed by a Weapon Attack, and 20 NRG when collecting a health pickup.
  
• Owlhawk's Talon (Arm Core) now doubles NRG restored via primary kill instead of its previous effect.
  
• Jagged Bolt's base damage reduced to 35 (from 50).
  
• Crushing Void's keyword is now "Amplify" instead of "Charge". It no longer needs to be charged before being fired - the basic use of the Power functions like the first-level-charge equivalent of the previous version.
  
• Nina's Power Fusions are now symmetrical. (Zen Mortar + Aiming Gear == Aiming Gear + Zen Mortar.) We've adjusted the effects, numbers, and costs on almost all of Nina's fusions to be more interesting, unique, and useful.
  
  • This reduces the number of actual Powers & Fusions Nina has access to from 64 to 36 - we're confident this is a "less is more" approach. Under the previous system, many of Nina's fusions behaved very similarly - lots of effect & utility overlap.
    
• Many of Nina's Powers and Fusions have had their NRG costs adjusted.
  
• Crystal Wave no longer goes through walls by default.
  
• Dash duration per button press extended to one second while on the ground (up from 1/3 of a second). Air dash time is unaffected. (This doesn't really affect player mobility, since dashing doesn't have a cooldown in 30XX. Just saves some button presses.)
  
• The NRG cost of a Power is now displayed as part of its tooltip in the Pause screen. This updates to account for any currently-equipped Fusions.
  
• Fixed a long-standing localization bug that could cause some characters not to render when playing in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Russian. This may cause long first-time game load times after this patch while playing in those languages, but it should only affect the first time starting 30XX, and the first time swapping to a new resolution.
  
• Fixed a bug causing Angle Bolter Beta and Gamma forms to have swapped health values (so the Beta had more HP than the Gamma.)
  
• Fixed an issue where jump inputs could get eaten if entered while wall sliding within 0.15 seconds of starting a Hover or Fly.
  
• Inputting a jump immediately before making wall contact with Hover or Fly available or active will now use the same jump buffer logic as not having Hover or Fly. (This means slightly mistiming a Jump input while near a wall no longer punishes you for having Hover or Fly.)
  
• The "double jump" action now takes priority over the "stop Flying" action when pressing Jump. Since Double Jump normally happens before Hover/Fly, this really only matters in Highvault - hovering into a Highvault Wingzone, then pressing Jump while still hovering will cause you to use the extra jump, instead of just ending your Hover.
  
• Fixed an error causing Gapminder to sometimes not work on the level you find it in.
  

Hello! Today's 30XX 0.34 introduces powerful new Gamma enemies in 30XX's lategame and scales up lategame Boss health by a modest amount.

30XX's game difficulty hasn't kept pace with increases in player power since we launched 30XX in Early Access, often resulting in runs where if you can make it past level 3-4, you'll probably win - which isn't super fun. It feels great to be an unstoppable crushing machine once in awhile, but we want these runs to feel special.

Our design intent here is that, on an average run, the game's threats should scale slightly more than the player's average power gain - so you'll find the game get tougher the deeper you go most of the time, while still allowing for variance that makes for easier and harder runs. Today's changes are a first step - we'll be overhauling 30XX's enemy designs in the coming months, too.

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GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

• Added Gamma enemies! These are a new tier of challenging foe that you'll only see late in the game, joining our Alpha and Beta enemies.
  
  • Today's patch is our first step in this direction, and is far from final. Today's changes add stronger versions of foes, but we're still working on more unique movesets for 30XX's enemy cast (and more enemy types in general!), which we'll be introducing over the next several patches.
    
  • In general, Beta enemy types are slightly weaker than they were prior to this patch, but the new Gamma types are significantly stronger.
    
  • When we shipped Early Access last Spring, lategame player power was significantly lower than it is today - the introduction of powerful new Augs, new Cores, the Resonant Armor, and Set Bonuses make the player very powerful - so as we begin work on our Big Enemy Iteration Pass, we're also making lategame enemies more powerful to better keep up with powerful players.
    
  • Beta enemies will spawn earlier in runs, before being gradually replaced with Gamma foes.
    
  • Some new enemy behaviors use placeholder visuals while we make sure they're fun & well-tuned.
    
  • In addition to Beta/Gamma moveset balancing, some enemies have also had their behaviors tweaked.
    
  • Watergrav doesn't have new Gamma enemies yet. (This patch will technically make Watergrav slightly easier, as the current Beta enemies will spawn later into runs than before.)
    
• Updated lategame Boss HP scaling:
  
  • Bosses now have 8-30% more HP when fought on levels 4-8. (This means if you fight a boss on Level 5, for example, it has roughly 14% more HP than it had before this patch. At level 8, it's a full 30%.)
    
  • We're pretty sure this is a conservative take - we don't want to push it too far at once.
    
  • We'll keep a close eye on this as we continue to iterate on the game. A few of our bosses are due for mechanical iteration updates, too - we haven't forgotten about that.
    
  
  
• Fixed Experiment 9's Divekick behavior so it'll no longer get stuck for a moment sometimes.
  
• Fixed Ace's interactions with Li'l Hoot and Forgotten Memento.
  
• Fixed Ace's Victory animation not playing properly.
  
• Fixed a scenario where Dracopent's Fang might not store an Ultracharge generated by Dracopent's Claw.
  
• Fixed an issue where a Miniboss Choice Machine might be usable before defeating the Miniboss.
  
• Watergrav's Beeg Frog miniboss' mini-frog spawns no longer drop loot or power up Renewal Pod (since it's terrible to feel like you have to farm them, like any infinitely-spawning enemy).
  
• Fixed Singleton Prototypes also giving the player a blank item.
  
• Fixed Mega Mode rarely spawning more than four Gauntlet pieces (so they'd reward duplicate Resonant Armor pieces).
  
• Updated Powerless Void's description to indicate that it reduces Powers gained over the course of the run by -3, -5, and -8 (instead of 2, 4, 6).
  
• Resonant Armor (other than Arm) pieces now slowly float toward the ground like Memoria and Potentia do.
  
• Chaser Fish (Watergrav enemy) is now a little more discriminate about when it starts flopping toward players when out of water.
  
• Fixed Zookeeper's Burden applying bonus Repros when reloading the game.
  
• Fixed an issue where Save and Quit would negate Zookeeper's Burden's penalty.