Crashlands 2 News

OH HI THERE! It’s been a few weeks since the launch of Crashlands 2, and it has been a REAL WHIRLWIND! Tons of players have gotten their hands on the game, and they’ve left us LOTS of feedback. We've read nearly every comment and review, everywhere people are talking about the game, and found a bunch of fair critiques (and some super mean ones 😭... some of y'all need a stress ball or pile of kittens or something). After all of this time working on Crashlands 2 we'd be silly not to take some additional time to address those, and so we are!

In this post we'll talk about two things: the huge patch we just dropped (1.1), and what's coming next!

[h2]TL;DR Patch 1.1[/h2]

Before we get too deep in the weeds, here's the concise(ish) list of ALL of the things that are in this Patch. For full details, read the whole post!

[h3]Major Additions[/h3]

• The Compendium. Like in the original Crashlands, there is now a sort of in-game encyclopedia for all the stuff you find in the world. Plus game stats!
  
• Praise RNGesus! Armor now rolls random stats when crafted, and you can salvage old armor pieces!
  
• Pet redesign! Pets now constantly attack in combat, and have a 20-second cooldown “Special Ability.”
  
• Funner, quicker. You now unlock 3 kinds of weapons right away instead of just one, and there are a bunch of new trinkets and gadgets you can get VERY early on.
  
• There's any place like Home. You can now set any teleporter as your "Home".
  
• Legend Mode! Some people said that Challenge Mode was too easy. Time to put your money where your mouth is.
  
• Exploration Mode! It turns out that "Chill Mode" wasn't all that chill. Instead of making it chiller, we just added an Exploration Mode for people who want combat to be almost completely stress-free!
  
• Boneless terrain. Tired of building around bones, ship debris, and other stuff in the way of the base of your dreams? Now you can BLAST that crap out of existence with your Space Wrench!
  
• Underfoot Pets, GONE. Tired of your pets getting in the way while you're trying to pull up docks or place workstations? They'll now teleport out of the way.
  
• Right Triggered. Some players REALLY didn't like how Right Trigger was set as the keybind for default interactions throughout the game. We swear it's better that way. But now you can decide for yourself: choose A or RT as your default action button!
  

[h3]New Settings[/h3]

• Added a Graphics setting to allow the user to cap their FPS to save battery. This defaults to 60 on mobile and "Highest Possible" on other platforms.
  
• Added a graphics setting to modify how dark the game gets at night.
  

[h3]Improvements[/h3]

• Later-game nets can now be used to capture critters from prior biomes.
  
• All small versions of creatures now drop loot.
  
• The Ice Hook can now grapple onto your DED Dummy, pulling you to it.
  
• Special fish, such as the Boops fish or quest rewards, will now drop from any type of fishing (Whopper or Open Water).
  
• Rephrased Kleewik's Spicy Cabinet comfort to reliably convey that you have already crafted one and that it just needs to be moved into his room.
  
• Updated the Missing Scout storyline to use a Hook Point as its icon, and to have the quest text explain that you'll need to craft a Hook Point to get across.
  
• Updated the Shmu's embiggening quest to explicitly state to use a Shmuma Compressor.
  
• Added additional weak lighting to all withered objects to somewhat enhance navigability at night time.
  
• The buttons along the top of the in-game menu are now aqua-colored when selected, to make it easier to tell which tab you have selected.
  
• Added light emitters to a bunch of projectiles, which should make fighting in the dark more exciting!
  
• Most pet ability telegraphs are now larger.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Volbab no longer shows as a source for Volb Cables until you have researched them.
  
• Acquiring the Ripper Shard in the Obelisk room now closes the quest to clear the bots.
  
• The bots in the Ripper Shard Obelisk room will no longer despawn immediately upon picking up the Ripper Shard.
  
• Speaking with GUY-D on the second Landing Pad in the Nexus Shipping area will now close the quest to clear the bots on the first Landing Pad if you haven't cleared them out by then.
  
• Graal should no longer care if you give them MORE than one Clay Planter for the Cultivator Comfort.
  
• Fixed an issue where abilities that fire multiple projectiles in different directions would show their arrow telegraphs slightly offset from the true projectile path.
  
• Polari Grand Firepit is now hidden when under closed roofs so it doesn't clip through them.
  
• Extended Shattered Shelf area near the Globbone schematic to remove a gap in music/fishing.
  
• Fixed an issue where the quest log was only scrollable with a controller if your mouse cursor was hovering over that location on the screen prior to using the controller.
  
• Forced-movement effects now fully stop updating when the game is paused, which should resolve an issue where pausing the game in the same frame as a Shmu's leap attack ending would cause the camera to vibrate nonstop.
  
• Fixed an issue where if you are holding the attack button and then initiate movement and then juke and then release movement during the juke while still holding the attack button, Flux wouldn't resume attacking.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused crazy camera behaviors when talking to the Acolyte in the Aquadunes under certain conditions.
  
• The game will no longer crash if you stand in the projectile of a gardened Volbab and destroy the Volbab while the projectile is in the air.
  
• Added FPS rounding to reduce stuttering on certain displays that have non-integer refresh rates.
  

[h2]Patch 1.2 and beyond[/h2]

Patch 1.1 was all about addressing the most common player requests that affect the whole game. As we start work on patch 1.2 and beyond, we’ll be focusing on the next major points of player feedback, which is a desire for more pets, more stuff in the Aquadunes, and more base building options.

We also acknowledge players wanting more bosses to fight as well as some kind of endgame or postgame stuff to do, and we intend to shore that up as well! We’ll revisit that stuff after we finish patch 1.2. We can only do one thing at a time, so you’ll have to be patient as we work our way through the list! Now... On to patch 1.1!

[h2]Patch 1.1 DETAILS[/h2]

If you made it this far then we're going to assume you like words and reading them. So prepare to experience the Patch Notes of a lifetime!

[h3]The Compendium[/h3]

In patch 1.1 you’ll find a new tab in your in-game menu for THE COMPENDIUM!



Now, as you explore Woanope you’ll unlock new knowledge about the wild things you encounter, so you can use your Compendium as a handy reference for what things are called, what they look like, and what loot they drop. We also added a bunch of new stats that you can track, such as how many times you’ve died, how many plants you’ve farmed, and how many lives you’ve mercilessly ended!

Aside from all that, the Compendium also gives you a way to see how much of the game you’ve completed. Did you find all the Jems? Hatch and embiggen every pet? Discover all recipes? Find all special combat items? Now you'll be able to find out!

[h3]Randomized Armor[/h3]

One of the core parts of the Crashlands 1 experience was crafting items and having random qualities and stats pop in. Whenever you crafted armor or weapons, you were never quite sure what you were going to get, and every now and then you’d get a surprise turbo powerful item.

Because of the huge number of changes in how items function in Crashlands 2, we didn’t think we could make random stats work in a balanced way. So up until now, all items in Crashlands 2 had specific, fixed stats on them.

But after hearing from so many players that they loved the random stats system, and that they were bummed out by no longer having it in Crashlands 2, we decided to revisit that decision and find a way to bring it back. So in patch 1.1, all crafted armor pieces will get random qualities and stats assigned to them. There’s even a small chance to craft a LEGENDARY armor piece with bonus stats!



To accommodate this change, we’ve added a few other tweaks as well.

• Armor crafting costs have been reduced by about 1/3, since most players will want to craft the same armor piece multiple times and fish for good stats.
  
• To allow crafting the same armor piece multiple times, armor pieces no longer require the prior tier of armor as a crafting ingredient.
  
• We’ve added a Salvaging mechanism in the Equipment page, so you can get some materials back from armor pieces that you no longer care about.
  
• Armor is now part of the Loadouts system, so you can use different pieces of armor that have different stats for your various builds.
  
• We rebalanced the stat breakdown on armor pieces so there isn’t quite as big of a difference between the stat values of each piece.
  
• When you load into patch 1.1 on an older save, your existing armor will get random stats assigned to it, so you won’t need to craft new armor to start seeing this system.
  

Thanks to everyone who spoke up about wanting this feature! When we hear that lots of people want something, it gives us a nice nudge to take a step back and try to find ways to make something happen, even if we hadn’t originally planned on doing it.

[h3]Home Sweet Home[/h3]

We’ve got a lot of players who are going ABSOLUTELY NUTS on the base-building side of things. But there were a few things standing in the way of maximum base-building enjoyment, so we set out to correct those.



Lots of people wanted to move their base somewhere besides the starting location. But that pesky "Home" button on the map would only take them to the crash pod, so it was annoying finding their actual home on the map and teleporting to it. No more! Now you can set your Home to any teleporter on the map! To change your home location, simply interact with any teleporter and click the button to set your home. Have fun setting up shop in the Spark Flats and getting absolutely annihilated by Ampy Chargers every time you go home.



We expanded the capabilities of the Zapper, so you can now blast more things out of the way to make room for your base. Like the debris from your ship, bones, and a few other odds-and-ends. This will let you clear out a lot more space so you can build the base OF YOUR DREAMS! We also made a few tweaks to the world map layout in a few areas to make it easier to build a contiguous base across some bodies of water.

Last, we updated Build Mode so your pet no longer gets in the way of whatever you’re trying to do. You can build RIGHT on top of your pet, and if you put it into an impossible situation, it’ll just teleport to you. No more worrying about awkwardly shuffling your pet around so you can pick up the docks from under its feet!

[h3]New Early-Game Items![/h3]

In the early game, riding the line between giving people enough interesting stuff to do while keeping new players from getting overwhelmed is a huge design challenge. Based on the feedback we've gotten so far, it looks like we leaned too hard on the "not getting overwhelmed" side of things. So lots of people found that the early game just felt too slow. WHOOPS.

This was particularly true for combat, since you didn't really have any choices about how to approach combat until you'd unlocked a bunch of stuff over the first few hours of gameplay. This prolonged lack of options made early-game combat more difficult, clunky, and gave the impression that combat just wasn't as interesting as the original. So we added a whole bunch of new items to plug that early-game hole!



First, we added new Injector and Capacitor weapons throughout the crafting tiers all the way down to the very start of the game. You now unlock them at the same time as you unlock the Rayblade Shanker (the very first weapon), giving you multiple choices for your preferred playstyle INSTANTLY.



We also added two new super-early craftable gadgets and a new craftable trinket for the Slinger and Chemist sets. We rolled them into existing Insights, so you’ll probably already have them in your existing save, and you’ll be able to build them very soon after starting a new game.

And last, we added a rare Firebrand gadget, the Hot Hive, that has a chance to drop from Explungus. What does it do, you ask? You’ll have to BEE patient and find out for yourself!

All of these new items are available before you even reach the Stoneworks, so the early-game now feels much more fun and alive, with lots of cool combat options opening up very quickly.

[h3]Pet Overhaul![/h3]

Crashlands 2 brought some big changes to pets -- how you get eggs, how you hatch them, how you embiggen them, and the passive bonuses they provide to the player. Each pet is unique and brings interesting ways to affect how you build out your character.



We’ve gotten great responses from players about all these changes, but there’s one pet change that NOBODY LIKES: The way your pet fights. In Crashlands 2, pets have been more of a “support” system, where they don’t do a whole lot of fighting. Instead, they hang back, and deploy a big damage attack on a 20-second cooldown. When we were designing pets in Crashlands 2, we wanted them to be more of a “nuke” than a “chip away at stuff slowly” type of mechanic. However, this hasn’t panned out -- we miscalculated what players found fun about the combat aspect of pets. Players have given lots of feedback that they want it to feel like they’re fighting alongside their pet, and not just being occasionally supported by the pet.

To us, the only thing that matters is that our players are having a good time. Sometimes our design ideas just don’t translate into giving players the experience they want, and this was one of them.

So in patch 1.1, we’ve fully rebuilt how pets work. Now they fight alongside you in combat, dealing constant damage with one or more basic attacks that have no cooldowns. But we still wanted to have the fun “nuke” concept, so each pet now has a “Special Ability” on a 20-second cooldown, which it will use to deliver big damage. After playtesting with this new pet system, we can confirm that THIS IS INDEED MORE FUN! Thanks to everyone who spoke up about this feature!

[h3]The Right Button[/h3]



When some of our players learned that they had to press the Right Trigger to do stuff in Crashlands 2 when playing with a controller, many of them began vomiting profusely and then died of broken hearts. As it turns out, some players really really like using the A button instead. We violated that trust, and although we can never undo the horrific damage we caused by defaulting the game to Right Trigger, we hope we can at least prevent such tragedies in the future. So Patch 1.1 adds an alternate controller configuration that lets you use the A button instead.

For those with particularly adaptable brains, you can even use the A button in menus and RT for in-game stuff (or vice versa). We tried every combination ourselves and then had to take a mental health day to recover. We're still team RT-for-everything over here, but to each their own!

[h3]New Difficulties![/h3]



Get Out There!

For players who felt that Chill Mode was most certainly NOT chill, we’ve added a new difficulty: EXPLORATION MODE! Exploration Mode is designed for players who are seeking to simply enjoy the story, build bases, and explore the world of Crashlands 2 without being stressed out by the imminent fear of death. In this game mode, we’ve slowed down the combat aspects of the game even further, and we gave the player so much health that you are effectively an immortal god who can never die.

You call THAT a Challenge?

On the flip side, we had a bunch of players who beat the game on Challenge Mode, and then said, “BUT CAN IT BE... EVEN HARDER?” The answer, of course, is YERP.

Patch 1.1 brings a new top-tier difficulty called LEGEND MODE. This mode makes enemies attack faster and move faster, it reduces your health even further than Challenge Mode, and it gives enemies a significant HP boost. This new mode is only recommended for players who have quick reflexes, a strong sense of how to utilize every aspect of your gadgets and trinkets in combat, and a good understanding of how to assemble equipment loadouts that do extremely high amounts of damage.

Legend Mode has no achievements associated with it, but beating Legend Mode will give you all the other achievements for beating the game on the lower difficulties. Because at that point you’ve earned it!

[h3]Other Stuff![/h3]

This patch also has a lot of other stuff, but we don't need to get into the weeds on those. It's all in the TL;DR above!

With version 1.0.10-rc.8, we implemented a save recovery system that should address the save loss issue that some players have run into. If you are one of them, check out the Saves button on the main menu and you might spot a long lost save that has been waiting for you like a homesick puppy. You can embrace them with joyful tears, nurse them back to full health, or rocket launch them into the garbage dumpster because you have already started another save that has slightly more progression. Anyway, we won't judge!

[h2]What was the problem?[/h2]

Crashlands 2's saves are typically stored at “C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\Crashlands2\YOURSTEAMID". In that folder, we use a index file "Game\global.json" to keep track of all the saves that you created in the "Game\Saves" folder. Due to various reasons such as power outage or anti-virus software restrictions, some players' index files would get corrupted and the game will boot without being able to discover their saves, even though they are sitting perfectly fine in the "Game\Saves" folder.

[h2]How does this patch address the problem?[/h2]

The game now will scan the files in the "Game\Saves" folder and add the saves back into the index file, and these saves will become accessible again in the in-game saves menu.

[h2]How do I protect my saves in the future?[/h2]

The game supports Steam Cloud, so make sure you have that turned on so your saves are backed up by Steam.

We also have the in-game "Log In" button where you can sign in to our cross-platform save syncing service called Rumpus. Rumpus will back up your saves in our cloud as well, so you have another layer of insurance. Plus, if you ever decide to play Crashlands 2 on other platforms, you will get to continue your progress!



Once you are logged in, you can copy the saves you have into your Rumpus account.



[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

The hammer-type weapon attack animation is slightly borked in this patch. We will address this in the next update.
We are still investigating game crashes that either serve an error message or silently kill the game. If you are experiencing those issues, please share your PC setup information with us at this mega thread.
1.0.10-rc.8 includes a fix for users with 60 Hz monitors that experience rhythmic stuttering if their actual refresh rate is 59.94Hz. However, if you own a 60 Hz monitor and are still experiencing this issue, please share your PC setup information with us at this other mega thread.

[h2]FIN[/h2]

You can check out the other miscellaneous changes at this link.
As always, please use the in-game Feedback button to contact us should you run into issues or have feedbacks for us.

💖 Happy Gaming!

P.S. The Discord is poppin' off with people helping each other out, sharing tips on loadouts, sharing their fancy home bases, etc. It's a great place to hang out!

Hey there, my favorite Pen Pal (Keyboard Pal?)!

We got Crashlands 2 out the door a week ago, so it's time for an update on how that went and what comes next.

[h2]Week 1 of Crashlands 2[/h2]

The game really exploded out of the gate, climbing to the top of nearly every chart. We hit a peak concurrency of 8500 players, with 1000 reviews, all just on Steam! For a moment there we were even ahead of the mega-hit Blue Prince (a huge congrats to that team for their stellar launch).

Things went fairly smoothly, with only one significant bug falling through the cracks (which we got fixed up a day after launch). Well, and also on Saturday morning our servers totally fell over. I was looking around like, "Who let this happen!?" and then remembered that I'm the only web developer on the team. WHOOPS. That's on me.

Otherwise we've just been handling an absolute flood of feedback, trying to sort out bugs versus suggestions versus people just being confused. While the overall response has been very positive, we have seen a bunch of totally valid critiques. So we've planned out our roadmap for the first two major patches to address a bunch of those. We don't have an ETA, but it'll be a matter of weeks instead of months.

[h2]Flux is just a Big Softie[/h2]

Now, the most fun bit: for the next three weeks (depending on when you read this), and the next two weeks only, you can get your very own (and first ever) Flux + Juicebox (+ Wrenchy) cuddly plushie!



I don't even have one of these myself yet because we only got one prototype to share amongst the team, and that, of course, had to go to my niece. So you better believe I'll be first in line, and no HUMAN CHILD will take it from me! Unless that child is willing to DUEL. I'm a man of principles, after all.

It's one of those enough-people-have-to-order-it-or-it-doesn't-happen things, though. So if you don't get one I might not get one either. And then we'll both be sad.

If all goes well, maybe I can convince the team to let us do a Sluggabun plushie next. I want one SO BAD. If you think something else would be a better next plushie, come fight me in the Discord 🥊🥊.

[h2]Crashlands 2 Community[/h2]

If you’ve got Crashlands 2 on the brain and you’re looking for some like-minded people, the Discord has been absolutely poppin' — people helping each other out, sharing strategies, and showing off some incredibly elaborate home bases (like the tiny corner of BowNilver's base in the screenshot below). It really warms my heart to see so many people excited about this game we made.



Thanks to all of you for making this first week a success!

💖,

Adam Coster

Webslinger @Butterscotch Shenanigans

We've gotten a lot of feedback from players that essentially boils down to the feeling that the game opens up too slowly at the beginning. And you know what? That's fair! Also there are some things from the original game that players are bummed about not having in Crashlands 2 (the Compendium in particular). And, well, that's ALSO fair!

We just released Patch 1.0.9, which helps out with a bunch of stuff people were running into in the early game, and we're also ready to announce our plans for the next couple of major patches 👀

[h2]Patch 1.0.9[/h2]

✅ Available now!

[h3]Gameplay & Progression[/h3]

• Rayblade Shanker is now part of the Rascal set, applies bleeds, and has had its overall damage increased. That should make early combat a lot more fun!
  
• Baarli's letter will no longer end up in your DED dummy when you die. WHOOPS.
  
• Butterpads insight has been sped up a bit. Don't waste the 20 seconds of your life we gave back to you!
  
• Removed Impaala's Staff as a component of the Stalking Stick, so if you never found it, THAT'S OKAY! (This was the only weapon you found on the map instead of crafting, but since it was previously required to craft the next staff then players could only play with staffs if they found the first one.)
  
• Added an additional dock to the abandoned Haarlipol cabin to make it easier to get in from the back.
  

[h3]User Interface[/h3]

• Added a 6th loadout slot, for those who really like to experiment with equipment
  
• Buddies will now show an icon over their head if they have available Insights but aren't researching them. Previously there was no way to know they had unresearched Insights unless you opened that menu, so people would sometimes go a long time without pushing their research forwards.
  
• If you open the home UI and there are buddies who aren't researching, the home UI will default to the Insights tab. This also helps keep your research flowing!
  
• The low-health fullscreen effect will now show more visibly as soon as you drop below 40% health. Early players often didn't notice this, so they wouldn't realize they needed to heal to STAY SAFE.
  
• Fixed an issue where placing a nest would sometimes show items in your build mode selector that you normally wouldn't be able to use in Build Mode.
  

[h3]Map Improvements[/h3]

• Jems on the world map are now represented by a Jem icon instead of a yellow circle. A point for THEMATIC CONSISTENCY!
  
• A Space Wok map marker will now show up once you've placed Graal's floors, and it will go away when you pick up the Wok. That should help the newcomers realize it's there in the first place.
  
• There is now a marker on the world map to direct you where to find Jak in the first JEF once you've spoken with Snak. If that sentence made sense to you then you're ON YOUR GAME.
  
• Juicebox is now marked on the map after getting the Raychete until freed. A lot of people forgot why they were supposed to make the Raychete in the first place and wandered off. Poor Juicebox. Trapped in the bushes forever.
  
• Eenid and Meervyn are now shown on the map before you've made your choice of whom to apprentice with.
  
• A map marker for the cabin has been added for placing Graal's floors. Some new players were just sorta wandering off, so this should get them back on track.
  
• Emblaa is now map marked if Matt tells you about her. What, you don't want to just RANDOMLY SEARCH the ENTIRE WORLD? Back in my day we didn't even have maps! Kids these days, I tell ya.
  
• Additional map markers for the cabin have been added after freeing Juicebox. Again with the wandering off.
  
• Soon's planters are now map marked in Threshold.
  
• Oowee is now marked on the map as soon as you enter Haarlipol. Did I mentioned the wandering?
  

[h3]Quests[/h3]

• Moved Oowee's Hearth quest to start after giving Emblaa overpowering stinkbait instead of after fishing up the box.
  
• Emblaa should no longer leave Maarla's Mantle until after you've completed her 'Fishing up the Box' quest, and should fire her Mantle quests only within the mantle.
  

Whew, 1.0.9 had a bunch of things! But those were all just to make improvements with what is already in the game. We've got some big plans for upcoming patches that we're starting work on RIGHT NOW! We don't have an ETA on these, but we'll keep you informed as we progress.

[h2]Patch 1.1: The Enslickening![/h2]

🚀 In progress!

We've heard you that some stuff in the game is just too hard, or slow, or annoying, or confusing... So we're making some big improvements!

[h3]The Compendium[/h3]

Back by popular demand, we will be adding a new tab to the in-game menu that shows you a list of all the creatures, critters, robots, and resources you've encountered on your adventures. With the power of THE COMPENDIUM, you'll go from being confused and lost to just lost!

[h3]Cozy Mode[/h3]

Some of our players want an EVEN MORE chill experience than what Chill Mode offers. We'll be adding another difficulty mode that is designed to tone down combat encounters dramatically, allowing you to just vibe and never feel a sense of impending doom.

[h3]Earlier Versatility[/h3]

We got a variety of feedback that all pointed to one thing: early game combat doesn't have enough variety. Once you get into the end of Act 1 and beyond you have tons of ways to mix and match items for different playstyles, but at the beginning there's really just one. So, to open up more build variety earlier in the game and give more choices right off the hop, we'll be backfilling some weapons and items so players can access them much sooner.

[h3]Nighttime Visibility Boost[/h3]

A bunch of people noted that nighttime is AWFULLY DARK, especially in Withered areas and in the darker parts of Marlaa's Mantle. Depending on a person's device it could be a lot darker than we even intended, and depending on a person's eyeballs what we intended was often just too dark anyway! So we'll be tweaking some things to make that less of a problem.

[h3]Controller Tweaks[/h3]

We'll be looking at ways to allow more flexibility in controller keybinds so people can finally use the exalted and holy "A" button instead of the disgusting and evil Right Trigger, for certain interfaces.



❌ Not yet started. After 1.1!

Patch 1.2 will add a CUSTOM GAME MODE that allows for customizable difficulty by playing with a whole bunch of different aspects of game balance. Turn knobs, flip dials, and curate your perfect Crashlands 2 experience!

Also other stuff, probably. But we don't want to commit to anything specific until 1.1 goes out.



Thanks so much for you feedback and patience as we get these final coats of paint slapped onto the game. Keep it coming!

💖 Happy Gaming!

P.S. The Discord is poppin' off with people helping each other out, sharing tips on loadouts, sharing their fancy home bases, etc. It's a great place to hang out!