Swarm Grinder News

We are continuing our tease from last week! These changes will be coming with the next major patch in a week or two. Let’s see what we have…

MENUS OVERHAUL

Main menu is changing completely. We wanted more authentic, fresher look while also improving the ease of use.

Workshop now has a dedicated menu with a more meaningful setting.

IN-GAME UX IMPROVEMENTS

Upgrade descriptions used to be too similar to the upgrade effects under them. This feels a little awkward, so we are changing it. Upgrade descriptions are less filled with text and are easier to read. Just sentences with upgrade numbers embedded in.



Also, now we show how stats will change in the upgrade selection window! Now you will see the before & after of an upgrade before selecting it. This was hard to implement because of so many ways stats might change, and so it was hard to detect the before and the after, but it is finally here.



Build display in the Pause Menu now reads directly from the upgrade, so it will be consistent and more thorough. It will be able to show previous levels of the upgrade as well. That will come in handy during build theory-crafting.

As mentioned in the last week, rerolls are coming!

Hey all. We have been silent on the news for a while, because we’ve been working on a lot of big things! In this announcement we will tease a part of it and tease the rest in the next announcement.


UPGRADES OVERHAUL

The previous upgrades were sometimes lacking in specific synergies, and some upgrades did not lead anywhere at all. Some were downright a debuff. Now, the old ones are reworked into a lot of synergistic upgrades. They will be a lot more satisfying to combine.



2 MORE SPECIALS FOR EACH SKILL

With the new builds coming around, we are TRIPLING the amount of specials! Many people did not like the single choice of special, this should fix that. These specials will allow for a lot crazier synergies, let’s see what you can cook with the new arsenal of choices!



REROLL

Sometimes, the game forces you to take some upgrades or skills that you don’t want, and that is neither fun nor fair, as many of you rightfully told so. We are implementing a novel, never heard before mechanic, REROLLS! Now you will be able to reroll your skill drops and upgrades drops.


COMBAT OVERHAUL

No more instant deaths, no more rapid health loss and healing back up! The enemy damages and healings in the game has been lowered, so the combat will be much more stable.


ENEMY REBALANCE

Enemy types did not offer enough of a difference before, so they all felt the same. Now they are much more impactful, tanks will not be stalled so easily, and dashers will be flanking you unless you know how to deal with them, and more!

v0.5.1

We have been cleaning up our code, optimizing older systems and incorporating new systems to make the game run smoother and more consistent. This should increase FPS and minimize FPS drops noticably.

v0.5.0

[h2]SUMMARY[/h2]

• An Endgame Boss has been added to the Mining Expedition mode.
  
• New types of enemies have been added.
  
• In-game events have been added.
  
• Small adjustments have been made to game balance.
  

[h2]CHANGES[/h2] Meet Lecronator!

• To complete the Mining Expedition mission, you now have to confront and defeat the Lecronator, who appears in the Final Mining Zone.
  
• The Lecronator currently has two types of attacks. In the first attack, when the character approaches, it strikes around itself, creating a rush wave. In the second attack, it generates tendrils that attack the character.
  

In future updates, we will be adding different attack types and phases to the Lecronator. Please share your feedback with us!


New Enemy Types

We are adding 5 different types of enemies to the game. We are distributing them across the maps and evolution levels. Now, the basic enemies on the maps are different, and a new enemy type is added to the maps every 3 evolution levels.

• Scorpion enemies spin around for a while before targeting the character and attacking. They have similar health and damage values to regular enemies but are much faster.
  
• Slime enemies move in random directions after emerging from cells. They have high health.
  
• Fly Thrower enemies take a certain distance from characters and throw fly enemies. Fly enemies follow the character, and if they collide with the character, disappear and deal damage.
  
• The Slowdown Explosive enemy type creates a slowing area where it explodes. If the character comes into contact with this area, they are slowed down.
  
• The Poisonous Explosive enemy type creates a poison area where it explodes. If characters and enemies come into contact with this area, they take damage.
  

We have designed the new enemies to be strong against different builds, so don't hesitate to try different builds if you encounter a difficulty you can't overcome!


In-game Events

We are introducing 4 types of in-game events that can strengthen your character in various ways. These are Upgrade Parts, Station Areas, Cursed Upgrades, and Temporary Buffs. All in-game events are scattered randomly across the map.

• When you collect 3 Upgrade Parts, you receive two upgrades for the ability that your character is closest to getting a special upgrade for.
  
• When you enter a Station Area, your character benefits from the buff of the Station Area they are in.
  
• Cursed Upgrades are available in the game starting from the 2nd Evolution Level. Cursed Upgrades greatly enhance some of the character's attributes while significantly reducing others. Discretion is advised. 🙂
  
• Temporary Buffs are available in the game starting from the 5th Evolution Level. To obtain temporary buffs, you need to destroy Crystal Enemies with buffs on them.
  

Balance Adjustments

• Early and mid-game damage dealt by enemies has been reduced.
  
• Health drop chance of enemies has been decreased.
  
• Awarded bioshard for every run has been increased for every evolution stage.
  
• Prices for Workshop upgrades have been raised.
  
• Knockback Distance upgrade of Project Lute in Workshop upgrades has been strengthened. Burn Duration upgrade in the same project has been changed to Burn Chance.
  
• The base penetration value of the Spiral Shot ability has been increased, and the cooldown time has been reduced.
  
• The quantity of the Vortex Blades ability has been increased by 1, but the cooldown time has also been slightly increased.
  

v0.4.1


SUMMARY

• 2 new maps
  
• 10 new evolution stages
  
• The range of skills that each character has access to has been updated
  
• Spaceship Artillery Updated
  
• Achievements Updated
  

CHANGES

New Maps

• Two new maps named "Labyrinth" and "Garden" have been added to the game. You can access the "Labyrinth" map by unlocking the "Devotion" achievement, and the "Garden" map by unlocking the "Pesticide" achievement.
  
• We built the Labyrinth map upon walls that serve as an impassable obstacle for both characters and enemies. These walls have transformed the map into a claustrophobic environment and introduced new dynamics to the gameplay.
  
• In the Garden map, we have introduced new cells referred to as "Allium", which can be described as poisonous cells. When triggered, these cells create a poison area that inflicts damage to both enemies and characters. Moreover, we have completely repositioned the enemies for this map. It offers a slightly higher level of difficulty compared to the Plateau and Labyrinth maps.
  

Evolution System

• The evolution system has been added to the game as a mechanism that allows players seeking a challenge to gradually increase the difficulty. Currently, this system features 10 different difficulty variables. Some of these variables increase the required number of excavation tools to unlock, some enhance the enemies' strength, while others accelerate the map's spread rate, as well as the number of drills required to win.
  
• Winning on any map while an evolution stage is turned on unlocks the next evolution level for all maps. This allows you to play each evolution level on every map.
  
• We are planning to increase the number of evolution levels and add different content to these levels. We have ideas such as introducing new events, bosses, and various enemy types as additional content. Stay tuned for updates and follow our progress!
  

Character Skills

• We have changed the accessible ability sets for characters. Now, each character has access to 5 active and 5 passive abilities that they can utilize.
  
• Characters will now have access to only two types of active abilities. For Bulletstorm, these are "Rapidfire" and "Blades," for Butcher, "Blades" and "Launcher", and for Bombard, "Launcher" and "Rapidfire" labeled abilities.
  
• The reason for this change is that we've observed stronger interactions between abilities with the same label, and players have been constructing builds using these shared label synergies. Now, you'll be able to select up to 3 abilities simultaneously from both "Rapidfire," "Blades," and "Launcher" categories, allowing for more diverse and powerful combinations. This change is somewhat experimental for us as well. Therefore, we eagerly await your feedback. You can reach out to us through the Steam community and our Last Bite Games Discord channel. Your comments and insights are highly valuable to us!
  

Spaceship Artillery

• The base damage of Spaceship Artillery has been increased from 15 to 30. It seems hitting the ability is a bit more challenging than we initially thought 😄
  
• We forgot to add fuel consumption to both using and upgrading Spaceship Artillery. This has now been fixed. 🧁
  

Achievements

• With the changes to the evolution system and the character ability sets, some achievements have been modified, and we had to remove one achievement from the game. Don't worry, more achievements are on the way, so stay tuned!
  
• The Labyrinth map is unlocked with the "Devotion" achievement, while the Garden map is unlocked with the "Pesticide" achievement.
  
• The "Omnivore" achievement has been removed from the game. Now, the "Fast Feet" achievement unlocks the Bombard character.
  
• The "Valiant Glory" achievement is now unlocked when you reach the 10th evolution level in the game.
  
• The "Ace Pilot" achievement is now unlocked when you win the game at the 5th evolution level without spending any points to Workshop upgrades.