Nightfall News: Cold Steel Is Headed Your Way
[p]![]()
[/p][p]Nightfall,[/p][p]
With our monitoring of the Antarctic Base well underway, the intelligence team has found more than just new mire creatures. They’ve been tracking what appears to be an increase in Zed lethality, akin to our records of older zed types. Oddly enough, this does seem to make them more vulnerable to most of your arsenal.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve made a sweeping combat balance pass aimed at making Killing Floor 3 feel faster, deadlier, and more in line with the pacing and lethality players remember from Killing Floor 2. Zed health has been reduced across the board to bring back that punchy, satisfying kill feel, while Zed damage and spawn rates have been increased to reward strong fundamentals and more heavily punish mistakes as players advance in difficulty. [/p][p]Killing Floor Design Team[/p][p]
Speaking of arsenal, the team down in R&D has reforged the Dragon’s Breath shotgun into something more punchy (It is now a Tier 3 weapon) and has been working to refine your explosives into more nuanced tools.[/p][p]
Explosive weapons have been further tuned to prevent them from dominating the meta and encourage greater perk and weapon diversity, such as: significant adjustments to the Engineer’s G33. It has been tuned to excel at crowd control, but is no longer something you can comfortably main. Especially against large, powerful Zeds where it now struggles. [/p][p]
At the same time, perk grenades have received a substantial damage boost to ensure they feel impactful and worth the investment. Overall, this update tightens the combat loop with faster kills, higher danger, and more meaningful decisions in every fight.[/p][p]Killing Floor Design Team[/p][p]
But that isn’t all specialists. We’ve got some new tools of your very gruesome trade headed your way. An older favored firearm, the M-97 Trenchgun and, since so many of you act like wild animals, the Tekko Kagi.[/p][p]
Answering the question of how quickly can you fire off a shotgun to make something just stop as fast as possible: The M-97 Trenchgun[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]Featuring the ability to pump or slam fire, the Trenchgun brings the burning rain to the nasties in the field. Specialists will find it in the price tier previously held by the Dragons Breath (Firebug: Tier 2). And if somehow those Zeds make it past that wall of flaming death, don’t forget to equip a bayonet to seal the deal.[/p][p]
The M-97 Trenchgun, inspired by the Winchester 1897 Shotgun, designed to allow it to be fired very quickly by holding down the trigger and feeding shells in with the pump action, which was known as slam-firing. We wanted to make a weapon with progressive reloading, and featuring this slam-firing capability, to help round out the Firebug perk's arsenal with a powerful and fun-to-use shotgun.[/p][p]Geoffrey Richards, Senior Gameplay Designer[/p][p]
And for those of you who like to keep things closer, and dare we say, personal, the Tekko Kagi. [/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]A pair of retractable 12-inch razor-sharp metal claws that extend from reinforced wristguards with ergonomic grips when equipped, turning skilled specialists into nigh unstoppable close combat predators. Featuring a built-in module to shock and stun your foes on heavy attacks, specialists will have no excuse not to fight their way into the thick of it like an enraged honey badger.[/p][p]
With the Tekko Kagi we wanted a devastating weapon that's the perfect mix of risk and reward. To use it effectively you need to get in close, really close, but once you do, Zed heads and limbs start flying as you tear through hordes with brutal lightning-fast attacks.[/p][p]For big Zeds, flip on the secondary fire mode and every strike delivers powerful affliction damage. [/p][p]
It comes standard with electrified shocking blades, but swap in the Thermal Edge to become a cauterizing machine, Frost Reaper to freeze Scrakes mid-charge, or Bone Claws to slice and dice with bleeding shocks that disable Zeds. The Energy Siphon guard built from Zed Tech can even return secondary fire ammo on kills, keeping you charged for extended rampages.[/p][p]Brent Caulfield, Senior Gameplay Designer[/p][p]
One more thing Nightfall, while we aren’t quite yet prepared for you to dedicate yourselves to the Gunslinger way, the R&D team is unlocking the ability to requisition dual Bloodhounds and Kraits in the field. [/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]Depending on how you have them specced out, you’ll find that you will hold them “akimbo” by default, but those who choose to option a scope will take a more aimed stance. Do let us know how these are working out for you specialists, as the R&D team is continuing to work on other sidearms, both old and new.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]We’ll have more notes to share with you about changing field conditions (Balance and Quality of Life improvements) in the coming days. And specialists, keep an ear out, someone broke into our comms this week and said “You lot are a bunch of muppets” and that they were “Getting too old for this shit”.[/p]
With our monitoring of the Antarctic Base well underway, the intelligence team has found more than just new mire creatures. They’ve been tracking what appears to be an increase in Zed lethality, akin to our records of older zed types. Oddly enough, this does seem to make them more vulnerable to most of your arsenal.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve made a sweeping combat balance pass aimed at making Killing Floor 3 feel faster, deadlier, and more in line with the pacing and lethality players remember from Killing Floor 2. Zed health has been reduced across the board to bring back that punchy, satisfying kill feel, while Zed damage and spawn rates have been increased to reward strong fundamentals and more heavily punish mistakes as players advance in difficulty. [/p][p]Killing Floor Design Team[/p][p]
Speaking of arsenal, the team down in R&D has reforged the Dragon’s Breath shotgun into something more punchy (It is now a Tier 3 weapon) and has been working to refine your explosives into more nuanced tools.[/p][p]
Explosive weapons have been further tuned to prevent them from dominating the meta and encourage greater perk and weapon diversity, such as: significant adjustments to the Engineer’s G33. It has been tuned to excel at crowd control, but is no longer something you can comfortably main. Especially against large, powerful Zeds where it now struggles. [/p][p]
At the same time, perk grenades have received a substantial damage boost to ensure they feel impactful and worth the investment. Overall, this update tightens the combat loop with faster kills, higher danger, and more meaningful decisions in every fight.[/p][p]Killing Floor Design Team[/p][p]
But that isn’t all specialists. We’ve got some new tools of your very gruesome trade headed your way. An older favored firearm, the M-97 Trenchgun and, since so many of you act like wild animals, the Tekko Kagi.[/p][p]
Answering the question of how quickly can you fire off a shotgun to make something just stop as fast as possible: The M-97 Trenchgun[/p][p][/p][p]
The M-97 Trenchgun, inspired by the Winchester 1897 Shotgun, designed to allow it to be fired very quickly by holding down the trigger and feeding shells in with the pump action, which was known as slam-firing. We wanted to make a weapon with progressive reloading, and featuring this slam-firing capability, to help round out the Firebug perk's arsenal with a powerful and fun-to-use shotgun.[/p][p]Geoffrey Richards, Senior Gameplay Designer[/p][p]
And for those of you who like to keep things closer, and dare we say, personal, the Tekko Kagi. [/p][p]
With the Tekko Kagi we wanted a devastating weapon that's the perfect mix of risk and reward. To use it effectively you need to get in close, really close, but once you do, Zed heads and limbs start flying as you tear through hordes with brutal lightning-fast attacks.[/p][p]For big Zeds, flip on the secondary fire mode and every strike delivers powerful affliction damage. [/p][p]
It comes standard with electrified shocking blades, but swap in the Thermal Edge to become a cauterizing machine, Frost Reaper to freeze Scrakes mid-charge, or Bone Claws to slice and dice with bleeding shocks that disable Zeds. The Energy Siphon guard built from Zed Tech can even return secondary fire ammo on kills, keeping you charged for extended rampages.[/p][p]Brent Caulfield, Senior Gameplay Designer[/p][p]
One more thing Nightfall, while we aren’t quite yet prepared for you to dedicate yourselves to the Gunslinger way, the R&D team is unlocking the ability to requisition dual Bloodhounds and Kraits in the field. [/p][p]