Swarm Grinder News

Active skills now increase fuel consumption rate by 2/s instead of 3/s when first obtained.
Both active and passive skill upgrades now increase fuel consumption when first obtained, but they do not increase fuel consumption when the level of the upgrade is increased.



Spiral Shot now fires its bullets in smaller angular intervals to complete one full rotation.



Negative aspects have been removed from most skill upgrades, but to maintain balance, some upgrades that had their negative aspects removed have been slightly weakened.

The first level of upgrades is now much stronger compared to the second and third levels, due to the change related to fuel consumption.



The issue of the "Burn Duration" upgrade resetting the duration of the skill instead of increasing it when given points has been resolved.

The fuel reduction amount of the "Overcharge Consumption" upgrade has been reduced.

• The map's growth rate has been slowed down by 10%.
  
• The spread rate of cells has been reduced.
  
• The probability of empty cells transforming into full cells has been decreased by 25%.
  
• The attack speed of melee enemies has been reduced by 35%.
  
• There is now a higher probability of Bio Shards dropping enemies appearing in the early stage of the game.
  
• The Bio Shards mode bonus for normal difficulty has been removed.
  
• The amount of Bio Shards dropped by crystal enemies has been reduced.
  

• A "High Difficulty" mutator has been added to the Mining Expedition mode. You can experience the game at a higher difficulty by enabling this mutator.
  
• When High Difficulty mutator is on, you need to clear 30 Mining Zones instead of 25 to complete the mission.
  
• Enemy cells grow 15% faster compared to normal difficulty.
  
• Enemies have 40% more health compared to normal difficulty.
  
• Enemies deal 20% more damage compared to normal difficulty.
  
• Enemies are 30% faster compared to normal difficulty.
  
• The last Mining Zone grows 33% faster than the rest of the map.
  
• More Bio Shards dropping enemies appear compared to normal difficulty.
  
• You earn 2 Bio Shards per minute survived.
  
• When you play with High Difficulty mutator on, you receive a 30% Bio Shards bonus at the end of the run.
  
• Successfully completing the mission gives a 50% Bio Shards bonus.
  

• An achievement has been added for killing a certain number of enemies by dropping the Drilling Station on them during a run.
  
• An achievement has been added for completing the game with the "High Difficulty" mutator on.
  
• An achievement has been added for completing the game with the "High Difficulty" mutator on, without distributing points to any Workshop upgrades.
  

• The issue of the "Critical Explosion" upgrade description not appearing in the Build Display screen has been resolved.
  
• The description of the "Global Count" Workshop upgrade has been updated to be more understandable.
  
• The term "Attack Delay" has been changed as "Firing Interval" to make it more understandable.
  
• The Terms box that appears on the right when a new skill or skill upgrade is obtained can now be scrolled.
  
• The issue of some upgrade levels not appearing in the name on the skill upgrade obtaining screen has been resolved.
  
• On the game end screen, you can now see how many Workshop upgrades you can unlock with your total Bio Shards.
  
• A "Kills" counter has been added. You can enable this counter in the "Options/Interface" menu.
  
• The "wrap around" feature while navigating with a keyboard or controller in the Workshop screen has been removed.
  

The game's performance has been significantly improved.

Link to latest roadmap details that's arrived --> Roadmap with the changes

It's been four weeks since the launch of our game, Swarm Grinder, which we at Last Bite Games developed with our heart, soul, and many sleepless nights. It has been quite an exciting journey! We'd like to talk about what has happened, what we've experienced, what we're doing now, and what we're planning for the future.

Since the launch, we've been incredibly busy. One of the main reasons for this was that the day after the game was released, we had to send three of our team members to their mandatory military service. They were our art director, lead game developer, and senior game developer/designer. Having to send away three of our seven-person development team for a month meant we had to work even harder to fill in the gaps. This meant patches were a little later than we had planned.

Who would have guessed that resolution-related issues would turn out to be the real final boss? We spent an entire week of work on those. The third-party plugin we used for our save system caused some problems, but those issues should now be resolved. If anyone is still experiencing problems, please let us know!

You can read the patch notes related to the fixes and improvements we have made over the past four weeks from the following links:

v0.3.3 v0.3.3f1 v0.3.3f2 v0.3.3f3

[h2]WE HEAR YOU![/h2]

A big thank you to everyone who has played the game and shared their feedback with us! Rest assured that we are listening closely and working hard to improve the game for all our players.

[h2]WE'VE OPENED THE BETA BRANCH![/h2]

Before we release new content and features to all players, we want to make sure they are polished enough. Therefore, to be able to test these contents and features in advance with a smaller group of players who follow the game closely, we have opened a Beta branch on Steam. If you want to get early access to upcoming content, test it, and contribute directly to the development of the game through your feedback, you can switch to the Beta branch. You can access the Beta branch by right-clicking on Swarm Grinder in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and switching to the "beta - for testing new stuff" branch under the "Betas" section. All upcoming content will first come to this Beta branch, be tested for a while, and then will be made available to all players.

[h2]WHAT'S COMING TO THE BETA BRANCH SOON?[/h2]

Some of the mentioned changes will arrive to beta next week, some of them will arrive a bit later on!

Optimization:

We are aware that the game is not performing ideally on many computers and on the Steam Deck. We've addressed this issue and significantly improved performance. However, it's worth noting that optimization is not a task that will be completed with a single patch, but something to be done gradually over time. Even though we've achieved a noticeable increase in performance, we're not at the end of the road yet. We will continue to work on this issue in upcoming patches.

Fuel System Adjustment:

We've decided to make some adjustments to the fuel system to provide a more suitable difficulty curve throughout the game. In the current system, every active skill we acquired increased fuel consumption by 3 per second, causing the game to suddenly become difficult for new players, unintentionally or unwillingly. Likewise, in the later stages of the game, fuel was no longer a concern.

To balance this difficulty increase, we've reduced the initial fuel consumption brought about by active skills. In addition, we've introduced a small increase in fuel consumption for all skills, including passives, for each module added to a skill (main upgrades that consume large slots). This way, even if you take too many active skills at the beginning, it won't be overly punitive, but as you continue to acquire new upgrades in the game, fuel will remain as a concern.

Adjustment of Trade-offs in Upgrades:

Many upgrades came with a negative feature alongside the positive one(s) you gained. We had conceived this to better balance the game, but after receiving feedback, we've removed these trade-offs as much as possible. Now almost all upgrades will provide only positive features!

Difficulty Mutator Feature for Mining Expedition Mode:

We know there are players who have already beaten the game several times and are ready for a harder challenge. For you, we're bringing a "Hard Difficulty" option to our main map. Good luck!

For now, this mode comes as a modification of the main mode. However, in the future, it will become a separate mode with different enemies and dangers, its own special boss, and its own unique music!

"No Health Drops” Difficulty Mutator:

Is Hard Difficulty not enough? Try this mode, where enemies drop no health, requiring you to dodge enemy damage with crazy maneuvers and good planning! We should also mention that each of these two options will have its own achievement.

[h2]Replacing Two Skills for Bulletstorm:[/h2]

We decided to take the Torch and Vortex Blade skills from the Bulletstorm character. The reason behind this is that, according to player feedback and conclusions we drew from watching streamers, these two skills are very hard to use effectively. Since Bulletstorm is the first character we start the game with, we decided that the first character should provide a more comfortable and instructive gameplay.

Did you think these two skills were weak while playing? Are they both useless? Do they seem unbalanced compared to other skills? If you think so, you're definitely wrong! The reason you may think so is, as I just mentioned, these skills are very hard to use effectively, especially the Vortex Blade. This makes it hard to realize how powerful they are.

So, what will replace Torch? We'll be adding a passive skill called "Pacemaker". This will be a skill you can get to increase your chances of survival. Some upgrades from other skills will also be transferred to this skill. For example, the Max HP upgrade from Mortar and the Invulnerability upgrade from Detonator will be transferred to this skill.

What will replace Vortex Blade? A skill called "Feather Blades" will come. We won't talk about what this skill is for now, let it be a surprise! (Although, I would like to point out that our lead game designer is maining Xayah in LoL these days.)

[h2]Replacing a Skill for Butcher:[/h2]
We're replacing the Gatling Gun skill with a skill called “Railgun”. We believe that this new skill will better suit the Butcher gameplay we envision. Let this skill be a surprise for now!

[h2]New Upgrades for Torch, Arsenal, and Mortar:[/h2]
There will be one new upgrade each for Torch and Arsenal skills, and two new upgrades for Mortar!

[h2]New Achievements Coming:[/h2]

1. Complete the game with five active skills.
   
2. Complete the game in under four minutes.
   
3. Complete the game with “Hard Difficulty” mutator on.
   
4. Complete the game with "No Health Drops" mutator on.
   
5. Kill a total of a certain number of enemies by dropping the drilling station on them.
   
6. Kill the boss by dropping the drilling station on it.
   
7. Collect a certain amount of Bio Shards in a single run.
   And a few more surprise achievements!

[h2]New Workshop Upgrades Coming:[/h2]

We will add a Workshop Project aimed at increasing your Bio Shards gain.
A few more surprise Workshop Projects are also on the way!


[h2]WHAT WILL WE WORK ON IN THE FUTURE?[/h2]

New Upgrades:

Regarding the upgrades currently in the game, we heard your feedback that upgrades aren't diversified and significant enough! We're working to solve this problem, and we will be adding more significant upgrades to the skills in the future.

More Accurate Skills and Upgrade Drop Rates:

Right now, we have a deal with the RNG gods, and the skills and upgrades that appear are entirely at the mercy of these gods. We are rewriting the system to change this. When this system is ready, the game will do its best to give you the skills and upgrades you want or need!

More Special Upgrades for Each Skill:

Currently, there is only one special upgrade in each skill. In the future, we will increase this so that there are multiple special upgrades available for each skill. However, adding special upgrades is a time-consuming job, so it may take some time to add a new special upgrade to each one.

Third Character on the Way:

Those who played the demo version will remember, there was another hidden character there. That character will be our third character! We've started working on it. Stay tuned!


Interface and User Experience Improvements:

We are aware that some players are having problems understanding the game. In upcoming patches, we will work on making the game more understandable and the interfaces more user-friendly. In the meantime, if you keep accidentally taking skills, you can activate the "Pick Up Skills With Button" option from the Options/Gameplay menu!

In addition to these, we're also working on new modes, new types of enemies, and new bosses.

You can post your questions, ideas, and feedback to this thread, the Steam Discussion Hub, or our Discord server!

Once again, many thanks to everyone for all your support!

UI/UX Improvements and Fixes

- The text and duration of the "Incoming Wave" message now appear as an animation for better visibility.
- Fixed an issue where the information box at the end of the game displayed "24" instead of "25" for the cleared area count.
- Skills in the indicators now fill up from bottom to top for a more natural appearance.
- Resolved an issue about the information box would blink when navigating with the mouse on the Build Display screen.
- The headings in the "Perks" section of the character selection screen now appear in different color and bold for better emphasis.
- Added the option to adjust the visibility of enemy health bars in the Options/Interface section. Options include always show, never show, or only show if damaged (default).
- The game can now be switched between Fullscreen and Windowed modes. Hopefully, with this patch, resolution-related issues should be fixed too???
- Fixed an issue where the progress bar image in the icon before the boss appears in the mining area would not change.
- Added the information "Enemies evolve over time" to the description of the Mining Expedition mode.
- The issue where achievements would disappear and reappear upon entering and exiting runs should be resolved.
- The "Show Enemy Damage Numbers" option has been moved to the Options/Interface section.
- Fixed the "Damage" information in the Mortar/Nuke upgrade to be corrected as "Area."

Audio Improvements / Fixes

- The sound volume of the Wave music has been slightly lowered to achieve a better balance with the theme music.
- The sound of the Vortex Blades has been slightly lowered.
- Cleaver now repeats its sound with each turn.

Visual Improvements / Fixes

- Fixed an issue where the upper body of the Butcher character would appear in front of the drilling station when he moved behind it.
- Fixed the issue where the shadows of falling Bio Shards would stick to them. Now the shadow operates independently from the Bio Shards visuals.
- The animation speed of the Vortex Blades now changes according to the strike frequency.
- Enemies that drop Bio Shards now trigger cells around them in a graded manner, similar to how the waves trigger the cells.
- Fixed an issue where the visual of enemies that drop Bio Shards would teleport when attacking at the final level.
- Fixed an issue where the boss's surfacing animation doesn't appear.

Gameplay Improvements / Fixes

- The numerical increase in damage taken from enemies according to the level has been rebalanced.

Other

- Fixed the issue where the "Survive for 10 Minutes" achievement would sometimes be delayed in unlocking.

- Minor optimization improvements have been made.
- Mining zone icons now change to indicate incoming boss.
- Fixed some typos.