Saleblazers News

Hello shopkeepers!

This is a small update to fix a few bugs and adjust some settings based on player feedback.

[h2]New Difficulty[/h2]
Many of you have told us you liked the Hardcore Airstrafer difficulty introduced in 14.9.5, which we're happy to hear. Some players have also said that they wish for some more difficulty options between Easy and Normal and between Hard and Hardcore Airstrafer.

So, in today's update, we're introducing the Veteran Shopkeeper difficulty.



This difficulty lands somewhere between Hard and Hardcore Airstrafer, where enemies will be pretty challenging, research is expensive, but you still have access to teleportation.



We also slightly tuned down the Normal and Hard difficulties to better fill the gap between Easy and the new Veteran Shopkeeper difficulty.

If you already have your difficulty configured, it won't change, even on Normal or Hard. But if you change your difficulty preset it will use the new values. If you liked the Normal difficulty previously, the new Hard difficulty will be around what feels comfortable to you.

Remember, you can always configure a custom difficulty if you would like to from the lobby settings menu at any time.

[h2]Blood Settings[/h2]
This is a feature many of you have requested for some time so you can play with or around younger shopkeepers, or just from personal preference.



You can toggle the Show Blood setting in the gameplay settings.



With this setting disabled, blood VFX are hidden, and the blood splatters are replaced with footprints from the scuttle of your fight.



[h2]Improved Rune Race Checkpoint Visuals[/h2]
We got some feedback that some of the rune races could be frustrating because the race checkpoints were too hard to see.
I went ahead and updated the VFX for these checkpoints to make them a little friendlier to find and run through.



I also improved the collision detection for these checkpoints while I was here, so they should feel even more fair and responsive.

If you like the rune races and the new checkpoints, please let me know!



[h2]➡️ Changes[/h2]

• Added Show Blood setting to gameplay settings that will hide blood VFX and replace blood messes with footprint messes
  
• Added a new difficulty setting: Veteran Shopkeeper that is harder than Normal and Hard but less punishing than Hardcore Airstrafer
  
• Adjusted the difficulty of the Normal and Hard difficulties to be a little more forgiving
  
• Improved the visual clarity of the rune racing mini-game checkpoints
  
• Adjusted kill VFX/SFX to be more subtle
  
• Slightly reduced the HP of boars
  

[h2]🛠️ General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with Mayor Yori's quest where having multiple players working on the quest could mess up quest progression. If this happened to your group, speaking with Mayor Yori again after this patch should fix your issues
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to lag when rejoining a lobby after getting kicked out
  
• Cleaned up the Start game button in the lobby for clients
  
• Corrected an issue with the high player count warning message
  
• Adjusted some of the wording and details for Mayor Yori's quest log
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC quest markers would not show up properly for clients if the NPC was already loaded
  
• Fixed an issue where the difficulty preset setting did not match the actual difficulty settings
  

[h2]🗣️ Localization[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where some settings labels were cut off for certain languages in the menu
  

This is a small update to improve the flow of loading autosaves to minimize rolling back progress and reduce the friction of the autosave system. We hope this improves your experience and makes it easier to have confidence in the save system.
Thanks to everyone who gave us feedback on the way autosaves work!

Happy shopkeeping!



[h2]➡️ Changes[/h2]

• You can now see and change your difficulty preset from the main menu lobby screen instead of having to open the lobby settings menu
  
• Moved some options such as friendly fire and peaceful shop to only exist in the lobby settings screen instead of also being shown on the right side of the lobby view to reduce confusion
  
• Visual clarity improvements to the lobby screen
  
• There is now a toggle on the lobby screen to load your autosave for the selected world instead of the world save instead of having to load in and then reload the autosave from the ESC > Save menu
  

[h2]🛠️ General Fixes[/h2]

• If previous save is not working, the Continue option will use the last autosave or backup save instead
  
• Resolved a rare issue where the game would fail to recognize your save when using the Load Game or Continue buttons
  
• Potentially resolved an issue where having multiple controllers plugged in could mess up the game's ability to listen to controller inputs properly
  
• Fixed dialogue continue button sometimes being hovered by controller when it shouldn't
  
• Controller now defaults to hovering first response instead of last response in dialogue
  
• Fixed an issue where rice seeds were planting trees when planted
  
• Fixed an issue where M4 models could sometimes be duplicated when loading the mesh
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause launching in Steam Offline mode not to work properly
  
• Fixed clients joining a lobby loading an existing save not seeing the lobby background scene properly
  
• Fixed clients seeing the autosave toggle when they shouldn't
  
• Adjusted some hint text to remove changeable keybindings from the text
  
• Adjusted the wording on the non-normal quit message
  
• Fixed an issue where switching to offline mode while already in-game could cause the game to lag heavily
  
• Fixed various disconnect exceptions
  

[h2]🗣️ Localization[/h2]

• Fixed some issues with Korean translations using the wrong localization key
  
• Improved the quality of some Korean translations
  

Here is a small hotfix to respond to some player feedback and resolve some minor issues. Have fun shopkeepers!

(Edit April 17th, 2025: We will be releasing another followup build shortly that will resolve some issues regarding Steam Deck or laptop game suspension.)

[h3]🛠️ General Changes and Fixes[/h3]

• Updated dedicated servers to use the live branch instead of the experimental branch
  
• Fixed prologue turrets not shooting
  
• Fixed Lobby UI being too large on some resolutions
  
• Added controller camera rotation support to character creation UI (right thumbstick)
  
• Fixed kick to menu that occurred due to a null reference exception from a new world enemy spawner optimization
  
• Added Save and Apply button to main menu settings UI
  
• Fixed controller virtual cursor compressing too much when lowering texture settings
  
• Fixed backwards door in Pop Pop's house
  
• Fixed craft from storage not working for new containers
  
• Fixed employee UI toggle not working properly on controllers
  
• Added controller support for employee UI toggle on containers and crafting tables
  
• Fixed some toggles not re-selecting properly on controller
  
• Fixed rare scenario where new optimizations caused enemies to be unable to see players
  
• Controller indicator now centers on UI elements differently
  
• Fixed quest HUD and journal not displaying in the correct localized language
  
• Fixed controller cursor not selecting NPC shop item list properly when it should
  
• Fixed controller virtual cursor resetting sometimes when it shouldn't
  
• Initial tutorial UI should now display below most UI elements
  
• Virtual controller cursor is now properly hidden when loading screen is up
  
• Fixed place object text not being localized
  
• Fixed kitchen shelves not having collision in the Kazai Village grocery store
  
• Removed wrist watches from Kazai Village grocery store stock
  
• Fixed not being able to submit chat on mouse and keyboard
  
• Fixed NPC shop item quantity increment getting stuck on mouse and keyboard
  
• Server admins should now be able to change lobby settings as well for dedicated servers
  
• Fixed skip prologue text not aligned properly on non-English languages
  
• Fixed being able to pick up items through Silver Tongue minigame (or any other minigame)
  
• Possibly fixed a case where research costs were $0
  
• Fixed a case where clicking a Totem when Totems are disabled in lobby settings would show a negative cost instead of showing that it's disabled
  
• Fixed prologue not progressing properly in dedicated servers
  
• Admin can now change lobby settings in dedicated servers in-game as a client in the ESC menu
  
• Wind audio adjusted to not play at sprinting movement speeds based on player feedback
  
• Removed and adjusted drinking/eating SFX based on player feedback
  
• Fixed LOD issue with Sun Hat
  
• Fixed missing door in McQuillan Ranch
  
• Added "Cancel" action glyph prompt when placing items
  
• Lobby should now properly start as "Friends Only" privacy
  

[h3]⚙️ Optimizations[/h3]

• Optimized performance when opening containers inside the shop plot
  

Greetings shopkeepers!

This is a patch that we've been working on for a long time over the last few months, and we're excited to finally bring it to you!

All of the changes and additions below were thanks to player feedback on Steam and in-game via the ESC report menu, so thank you all very much for voicing your opinions to us.

• Full Controller Support
  
• Peaceful Invasions: World Visit
  
• New Main Menu
  
• Pacifist Mode
  
• Lots Of New Difficulty Settings
  
• Optimizations
  

After months of development, we're happy to announce that full support for Xbox, Playstation, and Switch controllers is now finally available for Saleblazers!

We're planning to earn the Steam Deck Verified status soon, but support for mixed use with the Steam Deck trackpad is already working!

Keep in mind that if you want to use the Steam on-screen keyboard, you should launch the game in Big Picture Mode.


If you want the social benefits of questing together or trading items without the painful repercussions of a random player totally destroying everything you hold dear, you can now participate in Peaceful World Visits!



All world visits can be started at the Invasion Island west of the starting area.

During a Peaceful World Visit, players cannot steal or damage your belongings.



You can toggle your Accepted World Visit setting in the lobby or in-game via the ESC game settings menu.
This way, you can accept peaceful visits, hostile visits, or both!

We'll be adding more to the invasion system soon, so keep an eye out for our upcoming update!


You'll now be able to customize your Saleblazers experience exactly how you want with a myriad of new options when starting a new lobby.



You can now also change these settings in-game via the ESC menu!

We've also included presets for different difficulty settings to get you started faster.

This menu includes all of the existing options, such as the ability to keep items on death or turn off attacks on your shop with the peaceful shop mode. However, it also introduces some exciting new options to tune:

[h3]Exploration and Combat[/h3]

• Enemy Damage: Tunes how deadly enemy attacks are
  
• Enemy Survivability: Tunes how much HP enemies have
  
• Resource Density: Changes how many items spawn in containers on your adventures. Keep this on traditional for a loot goblin experience or change it to hardcore if you want to really scavenge for your goods
  
• Teleportation Totem Unlocks: Change the price of unlocking teleportation totems to alter the difficulty of exploring or disable unlocking new teleportation totems completely for the most hardcore experience
  
• Telemed Rebirth Cost: Tune how much money you lose when rebirthing
  
• Individual Map Discovery: Players no longer share map fog of war discovery
  

[h3]Shopkeeping[/h3]

• Invincible Shop Items: Items and decorations placed in your shop will no longer be damaged or destroyed when fighting in the shop
  
• Customer Budget: Tune the maximum budget of your customers and the need for ATMs
  
• Customer Needs: Adjust how quickly your customer's needs deplete
  
• Customer Ratings: Configure how harsh your customers are when giving your shop a review
  

[h3]Survival[/h3]

• Hunger and Thirst Rate: Adjust the speed at which you become hungry or dehydrated, or disable this system entirely for a cozier playthrough
  
• Lethal Hunger and Thirst: For the more hardcore survival players, you can enable this to make dehydration and hunger kill you instead of leaving you at 1 HP
  
• Lethal Cold: Similarly to lethal hunger and thirst, you can make adventuring in the cold areas of the game deadlier instead of leaving you at 1 HP
  
• Building Integrity: You can now disable the building integrity system if you want to build to your heart's content without worrying about support beams
  
• Research Cost: Tune the amount of money you need to research new recipes
  
• Item Durability: You can now disable items breaking through use
  
• Armor Durability: You can now disable armor degrading on death
  

We hope that these new settings allow you to fine-tune the difficulty of the game and the experience you want to have, whether that is tougher shopkeeping with a longer progression for recipes and fast travel or a peaceful, cozier experience without some of the survival mechanics.

[h2]Pacifist Mode[/h2]
Another new setting in the Exploration and Combat section that deserves a special shoutout is Pacifist Mode. With this setting enabled, enemies will no longer attack you unless you attack them first.



This is a great option for players who want the coziest experience or just want to explore and shopkeep without engaging in much combat. We've found that it can be really fun to use to go watch enemies and definitely changes the feel of the game. if you're interested, try it out the next time you want to chill.

[h2]Hardcore Airstrafer Difficulty[/h2]
On the flip side, the newest difficulty preset to try if you're looking for the most challenging Saleblazers experience is Hardcore Airstrafer.



On this difficulty, the above settings are configured so that you have to constantly look for food and water with the sparsest loot spawns, no teleportation, difficult enemies, and high research costs.



If you're the type of player who likes difficult survival games, give this difficulty a go and let us know if there are any other challenges you want to see added to it.



Moving around items in your shop is now super easy with the all-new Move action! Simply look at the item you want to move and press T (or Dpad Down on controller) to start moving the item.

Note: If you have some custom keybindings set up, you may want to check them if T or Dpad Down is already bound to something else.



We've changed how placing items works to improve the Saleblazers experience for controllers and new players.



Instead of placing items by opening the inventory, you'll have to press Q (Dpad Up on controller) to begin placing your hovered hotkey slot.

Clicking an inventory slot and moving it into the world will still work on Mouse and Keyboard.



We reworked the crafting UI to be more intuitive and only show you what's necessary. You no longer have to press craft to initiate the item, just select the recipe and watch it go! Canceling items will also now refund your ingredients back to your inventory.



If you enable the repeat toggle, you'll be able to view the crafting table's input inventory and view the current recipe's ingredient information.



We've heard tons of feedback regarding melee mechanics, so we've spent a good amount of time refining melee combat. Here are just a few of our changes:

• Melee lunge reworked to magnetize to the target properly right when the hitbox begins
  
• Melee lunge now uses your movement input to target enemies
  
• Enemies are pushed farther back when staggered, allowing you to create distance in crowded fights
  
• Camera pulls out a little bit during combat to help you fight in all 360 degrees
  
• Faster dodges
  
• Rebalanced enemy behavior
  

With these changes, we hope that you'll be able to enjoy taking the fight up close to your enemies!



Haggling for a few extra dollars didn't feel rewarding or fun enough. We want players to sometimes risk it for the biscuit, so we've taken another balance pass at the haggling mechanic.

Now, you'll be able to haggle up to 20X the value of an item -- but be careful! It still may not be worth it to push your luck all the time. That is, unless you're an expert at the Silver Tongue shop policy minigame...

ATMs will now expand customer wallets a lot more, so if you're a gambler it might be worth it to look into installing some more ATMs in your shop.


We've revamped the main menu to offer a better experience that gets you ready for adventuring and shopkeeping.



You'll be able to see how many North Star components you've collected in your latest save file directly in the main menu!



An updated lobby UI will allow you to view the map you're about to enter as well as modify all game settings.



For returning players, you can now click the "Continue" button to effortlessly resume your previous adventure. This will apply all of your old lobby settings as well!


We believe that it's a lot more fun to jump straight into Saleblazers without tutorials of any kind, so this patch brings many changes towards that vision.



We've reduced the length of Pop Pop's starting cutscene and polished its camera movements to get gameplay started as quick as possible.



We've added a mini-tutorial to get new players acquainted with basic controls.

The new glyph button prompts added throughout the game should explain the rest without needing a full tutorial anymore!

Of course we still love our prologue -- this is just our way of getting new players into the game faster.


There's a ton of small changes as well to enhance overall gameplay experience based on overwhelming player feedback.

For example, many players were accidentally attacking customers in the shop -- now, you will no longer magnetize to friendly NPCs unless they are engaged in combat with you.



You also won't damage your shop anymore by default, since many players were accidentally destroying all of their belongings!

(Remember, you can now change this in the new full advanced game settings in the lobby or via the ESC menu).


We've brought RAM usage down from ~9GB to ~7GB and removed many memory spikes that could have occurred. The game should run a lot smoother now and the chance for crashes should be reduced greatly.

We've also optimized miscellaneous hitches and systems throughout the game.


This patch, we want to highlight this incredible illustration done by user Karat over on the Saleblazers Discord!



Absolutely amazing work. We were so impressed by the original sketch they shared that we knew we wanted to feature it here so more of you could see it. And after we reached out about sharing it, they decided to fully ink and colorize their work.
It looks fantastic and definitely embodies what it feels like to play Saleblazers. Great work, Karat!



[h3]➡️ Changes[/h3]

• Added control glyph support throughout the game for keyboard, mouse, Xbox (Steam Deck), Playstation, and Switch controllers
  
• Added placement mode (default is Q or Dpad Up) that you can enable when the hotkey bar highlights a weapon (you can also still drag entire stacks from your inventory)
  
• Added a "Move Item" operation that is now available when you look at valid items in the world which allows you to nudge items without having to pick them up (default button is T or Dpad Down)
  
• Holding down the block button while placing will allow you to ignore placing into containers
  
• Added many advanced game lobby settings to the lobby and in game ESC menu
  
• Greatly reduced the beginning cutscene when Pop Pop finds you so that new players can get into the action much faster and absorb more useful information
  
• Added tutorial button prompts for moving, looking, sprinting, and dashing for new players when they first join a fresh game
  
• Added new cutscene animations to Pop Pop beginning quest intro
  
• Added scroll bar scrolling support (right thumb stuck) when virtual cursor is available
  
• Added support for controller navigation mode to automatically move the scroll bar when relevant (inventory UI, shop item UI, crafting UI)
  
• Added controller support to fishing minigame
  
• Added controller support to haggling (left thumb stick will change the price)
  
• Added controller support for inventory UI shortcuts
  
• Added controller support LB/RB navigation for the pause menu
  
• Added controller support for map menu, including pinging, adding/removing markers, and zooming in/out
  
• Added controller support for Silver Tongue shop policy
  
• Added controller support for crafting UI
  
• Reworked crafting UI to be more intuitive and simplified
  
• Crafting UI no longer requires you to click a craft button and will start immediately
  
• Crafting UI will now refund canceled recipes' ingredients into your inventory if auto-repeat toggle is not turned on
  
• Crafting UI inventory is now only accessible if auto-craft is toggled on
  
• Added controller support for NPC shop UI
  
• Reworked NPC shop UI to be more intuitive
  
• Added controller support for employee table UI (clicking on an item slot will quick move the item to your employee's inventory and vice versa)
  
• Added controller support for Anvil UI and Coloring Bench UI
  
• Key binding glyph prompts are now shown by default (you can still turn them off in the settings menu)
  
• The left and right Dpad buttons will now switch weapons on controller
  
• When using a controller and opening inventory UI, it will automatically select the most relevant item slot UI
  
• Quick moving inventory slots (shift click or LT) from containers will now prioritize the main inventory instead of the hotkey bar inventory
  
• Added support for mixed input (for example, if you want to use the Steam Deck right trackpad as a mouse while using controller for everything else)
  
• Added Steam Big Picture and Steam Deck virtual keyboard support for text and chat input (launch the game in Steam Big Picture mode to access this virtual keyboard)
  
• Improved virtual cursor appearance
  
• Improved virtual cursor behavior so that it does not reset position so often
  
• You can now haggle up to 20X the value of an item by default, up from 2X from before
  
• ATMs now offer 15X budget increases, up from 5X from before
  
• Melee magnetization fully reworked to be more consistent
  
• Melee magnetization is now aimed through relative movement input instead of camera forward facing
  
• Melee magnetization will no longer affect friendly NPCs not in combat with the player (customers, Pop Pop, friendly turrets) but will reactivate if they engage in combat with the player
  
• Melee attacks now cause the player to rotate towards their magnetized target instead of facing forward
  
• Melee attack speeds throughout the game adjusted for better combat feel
  
• Adjusted many melee attacks throughout the game for more favorable lunges and hitboxes
  
• Stamina-less melee attacks will still cause stagger effects and deal more damage than before
  
• Dodging is now much faster
  
• Melee attack staggers cause enemies to be pushed back much farther
  
• Camera now slightly pulls back farther when in combat
  
• Camera is slightly farther back to account for new combat magnetization and stagger knockback changes
  
• Brutes no longer have stagger resist
  
• Fall damage is now more lenient
  
• Adjusted door audio in tutorial map
  
• Added shop containers to tutorial map's coffee shop
  
• Guns have reduced recoil on controllers
  
• Added hover sounds to item slot UI
  
• Removed VFX from equipment falling off enemies for better visual clarity
  
• Removed item information UI from mouse movement mode for better visual clarity
  
• Pick up and place VFX adjusted for better clarity
  
• Added a vignette effect when crouching to better communicate that crouching will mask your footsteps from enemy NPCs
  
• Removed global recipe icon from crafting UI because it wasn't really useful
  
• Ghost indicator when placing items with queues switched from a capsule to a smaller sphere model
  
• Reworked main menu and lobby UI for a smoother experience
  
• Changed main menu music
  
• Main menu now displays North Star components that you have completed in your latest save
  
• Added a continue button in the main menu to automatically start a new lobby with previous settings
  
• Added loading screen animation
  
• Added loading screen image for prologue
  
• Adjusted teleport and place VFX/SFX to be more subtle
  
• Players in lobbies will now be able to view the state of the lobby (waiting for host)
  
• Players in lobbies will auto-join when the host starts the game
  
• Added peaceful invasion mechanic where you can visit other players but cannot harm them or their structures
  
• Improved invasion UI to show status of invasion better
  
• Added ability to end invasion
  
• Enemy invaders cannot damage items inside the shop
  
• Rotating items in placement mode will interpolate the rotation instead of snapping it
  
• Lights, extension rods, and generators are now immune to damage from the scythe to smooth out farming with sprinklers
  
• When overwriting a backup save that has been given a custom name, the name will now default to the existing name of the file
  
• Players in a lobby will now auto join the world after 3 seconds when the host starts it and loads in to improve the flow of starting a game. Players who join a lobby that is already loaded and running will still have to manually press join
  

[h3]⚙️ Optimizations[/h3]

• Removed some unnecessary hidden UI elements
  
• Significant ~250MB RAM reduction from unused terrain texture atlases
  
• Fixed a significant ~100ms lag hitch that occurred frequently from an unused localization related script
  
• Fixed a slight hitch that could occur when going up Pop Pop's hill on some computers
  
• Fixed a memory leak that could cause some computers to crash when playing the game in a certain flow
  

[h3]🛠️ General Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a few binding text displays that did not reflect actual key binds
  
• Fixed being able to step on ragdolls, which would cause the player to fly up sometimes
  
• Fixed a case where some Ronin enemy types would block forever
  
• Fixed 1 frame lag of building ghost item that can be very noticeable when moving the mouse around quickly
  
• Fixed dialogue SFX playing when characters talk when it shouldn't
  
• Fixed button prompt for dialogue sometimes showing when it shouldn't
  
• Fixed level up and quest completion sound effects playing during loading screens
  
• Cat tail gulpers in the canyon no longer spawn with more and more health and damage every time they are killed
  

[h3]📜 Known Issues[/h3]
There is currently a compatibility issue with dedicated servers on this patch.
Right now, you cannot host a dedicated server on 14.9.5. If you would like to play on a dedicated server right now, please set your beta branch on Steam to Experimental for both the server tool and the main game.

• The new lobby difficulty settings screen is somewhat off center when playing on 16:10 or other non-standard resolutions
• Enemy turrets in the prologue are not shooting properly right now
• Craft from storage will sometimes not work from a newly created container until you reload the save file
• There is an issue with medium and hard night enemy raids that can cause an error quit to title if wolves spawn as the raid enemy (25% chance). If this happens to you, please consider turning on the Peaceful Shop setting temporarily to avoid it

These issues are now fixed in hotfix 14.9.7. Thank you for your patience.

This is a bug fix update to resolve some save data issues, some important dedicated server bugs, and improve the flow for headless server setups.

Thank you to everyone who reported these issues and gave us information to help resolve them!

If you experienced a save data loss issue and still have not had it recovered, please reach out in the Steam forums and our designer Statue can look into it for you.



[h2]➡️ Changes[/h2]

• Added back the "Recover My World" button back to the Help menu. This can be used if you ever run into an issue of missing shop save data. It will now save an auto-recovered backup of the world data into the autosave slot which you can load from the save menu.
  

[h2]🛠️ General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue that could cause shop save data not to load properly when teleporting back to the shop
  
• Fixed an issue that could generate a blank save file when disconnecting from a new game in the prologue
  
• Fixed a rare exception that could cause the fist weapon not to hit enemies until players switched weapons
  
• Fixed an issue causing the gulpers in the canyon to increase their HP and damage every time they spawned
  
• Adjusted the colliders on spawned iron ore nodes in the Snowville caves to improve hit detection on them
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause employees to get stuck in training
  
• Resolved various disconnect exceptions
  

[h2]🖥️ Dedicated Server[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where dedicated servers were sometimes not autosaving properly
  
• Server config files now automatically change to the load save mode after creating a new save and default to the save index of the save you just created. You will no longer have to reopen the config to load your save in between sessions
  
• Headless dedicated servers now write their console logs in the ..\Airstrafe Interactive\Saleblazers\ServerConsoleLogs folder