Buried Below Update Now Live - Patch Notes

[h3]A Note from Heart Machine[/h3]
Hello Breakers! Welcome to our first major update - Buried Below.

Since launch, one of the most consistent pieces of feedback we’ve received is that the game is difficult to learn. With that in mind, we adjusted our development schedule to bring a robust tutorial to the game. Expect that this tutorial and other training features will continue to evolve over the course of Early Access.

If you’ve been playing since Launch, you may be aware that in February we put out a public, experimental beta branch with some radical changes to the way the game plays. Dubbed “the evil build” by our community on discord, even in its rough state, players were enjoying the changes - built around the core of shifting to a more traditional, one-life, one-run roguelite experience.

For a more detailed version of today's patch notes, or to look back through the Early Access evolution of Breaker, check out this new site we've spun up intended to consolidate patch notes and more: https://www.notion.so/1bc3d53d664c805d8c7ff6eda77e79a5?v=1bc3d53d664c80029339000cdb9f4bd4

*Today’s update introduces this radical shift in gameplay. You’ll find a variety of major changes detailed below, but it’s important to note that these changes will automatically update your save data when you launch for the first time. *****

If you have an existing save game, you will see your Player EXEs and SyComs reset, and your vault will be melted down into materials. You will receive meta progression currencies (Cores, Golden Rations, Abyss Stones) alongside the reset, so take the opportunity to check out the new Player EXEs and SyCom rework and upgrade your Breaker before playing!

For our veteran players, we wanted to let you know that the resources you get via the Vault conversion process may not be enough to get back to where you were at before this update. To ensure that all players were rewarded equally and due to technical limitations, we decided for the process to give a flat amount of Golden Rations, Cores and Abyss Stones per player. We apologize for the inconvenience, but know for a fact that you all will be able to get where you were at quickly!

[h3]TODAY’S PATCH NOTES[/h3]
Note: Anything listed as a “COMMUNITY ASSIST” and “COMMUNITY SUGGESTION” are fixes made thanks to our awesome community of players! We really appreciate all of your support and feedback – so please keep it coming!
[h3]Features:[/h3]

Save File Conversion
- If you have a save file from a previous version when you launch this update, your save data will be converted to support the major changes in this patch.
- Your progress for SyComs and EXEs will be reset, and your vault will be melted down.
- You will receive meta progression currencies (Cores, Golden Rations, Abyss Stones) and can immediately use these to upgrade your characters.
- Note - some previous features, including Enemy Executions are now gated behind Player EXEs.
New In-Game Tutorial System, including:
- Intro Cinematic
  - This is work in progress, expect it to improve in future updates!
- Tutorial Level
  - Learn the basics of how to play Hyper Light Breaker - including some of the new features in this update!
- VR Room
  - Learn advanced combat maneuvers in this tutorial space.
  - Expect to see this expanded in future updates, including an area to test out new weapons and builds!
- Skippable Tutorials
- Existing tutorial cards have been updated to reflect changes to currencies, pickups/resources, and run flow.

[h3]A New Crown Battle:[/h3]

Fight The Maw - our largest Crown yet!
- Found in the Jeweled Spire, she lurks deep below the surface.
- Fight new enemies - the Hatchlings - in this crown fight.
  - Hatchlings are adorable, and deadly. Watch out for their self-destructive attacks.
- Note - Maw memory fragments will appear in future updates.
Maw Intro Cinematic
- COMMUNITY REQUEST: Clients can now also skip Crown cutscenes.

[h3]New Player Character: Rondo[/h3]

Rondo can be unlocked from the loadout menu, like all other Breakers.
Rondo prefers Dual and Balanced Blades.
Rondo’s Bladedancer Perk will Mark enemies when you Flash Step into them, causing subsequent attacks to inflict more damage.
Rondo’s Reaper Perk will inflict Bleed on nearby enemies whenever they Parry an attack.

[h3]New Environmental Points of Interest:[/h3]

Tundra Training Ground
Ruined Outskirts (Forest) Corner Store
Jeweled Spire (Crystal) Lighthouse

[h3]New Blades:[/h3]

Gloom Shiv (Skill Glaive)
- A whirling polearm meant for closing gaps, flash steps deal additional damage and stagger damage, and the Shiv’s blade special dashes into enemies for fast multi-hit finishes.
Dreamblade (Balanced Saber)
- A curved sword focusing on strong, rapid attacks. Charge it to deal multi-hit bursts and use its blade special to slice every enemy near you.

[h3]Enemy Improvements[/h3]

Reduced leashing distance and improving leashing behavior - enemies will aggro players at shorter ranges than before.
Enemies can now have multiple attack targets and better coordinate in multiplayer.
White Dirk explosions now damage surrounding enemies.

[h3]Major Run Structure Changes[/h3]

There is now only 1 life per Cycle
- When you die, you will lose all of your loadout. Extract or buy medkits to stay alive!
Players now are locked to a single Sycom/Character per run
- Players can still browse other characters while mid-run but cannot select them.
At the start of a cycle players will always begin in either the Ruined Outskirts or Arid Wastes.
Health & Healing Updates
- Players start with 1 health kit
  - Health kits now trigger automatically once you reach 0 HP (players can still manually heal).
  - Players can no longer revive teammates with health kits .
    - Teammates can be revived in the following ways:
      - Paying BB at a Shrine
      - Entering a Crown Arena
      - Defeating a Crown
      - Extracting
  - Medigems now heal +10 HP.
  - One of the In-Run Vendors will sell health refills.
  - Players can refill their medkits at Shrines for Bright Blood.
Brightblood is now only an in-run currency .
- Brightblood no longer comes back to the hub with the player. It resets to zero when they extract or die. Spend it before you leave The Overgrowth!
Shrine Updates
- You can now level up your Sycom at Shrines.
  - These stat upgrades will only last the duration of a cycle, resets upon new world seed.
- Players now extract at shrines, they no longer travel to extraction pads and complete a wave encounter.
  - Extraction is instantaneous.
  - Players can only extract from each shrine once!
Holobyte Updates
- Players can now equip up to 9 Holobytes (10 with Goro’s Scavenger Perk).
- Holobytes are now acquired at Shrines after leveling up your Sycom.
- Holobytes no longer drop from enemies or chests.
- Holobytes are no longer available for purchase in the hub.
Successful Cycle Updates
- Once all bosses are defeated, players must find the extraction pad and complete an extraction wave encounter.
  - Completing the extraction pad waves is now the only way to successfully complete a Cycle.
Multiplayer Updates
- Now when starting a Multiplayer run, the host will need to be on a new cycle for players to be able to join their lobby.
  - The Multiplayer robot will ask if you’d like to end your current run and complete the cycle, breaking down everything as per normal before starting a new world cycle.
    - Once the new world cycle has been set, friends can join your lobby.

[h3]Game Balance Updates[/h3]

The changes to the game structure required a full re-balance of all game systems. These balance updates are made with the following goals in mind:
- Provide a consistent “zero to hero” experience in each cycle, which means giving players better gear, more often, better paced against the increasing difficulty of the world.
- Keep the game difficult while reducing unfairness.
- Provide more meaningful choice and less broad-range randomness.
All gameplay systems have had balance and tuning passes, including but not limited to:
- Enemy Stats (damage, health, sp/mp scaling, etc)
- Enemy Encounter Compositions
- Player Character / SyCom Stats
- Player Gear
  - Note - Blades and Rails now show their final damage value. Previously, weapons would show their bonus damage values only.
- Holobytes
- Gear Affixes
- Boss Stats
- Player EXEs
- Currencies
- Vendors
- Loot Drop Tables for enemies, containers, etc.

[h3]World Rank, Danger Meter, Events:[/h3]

The danger meter has been removed.
- Previously, this would tick up as players accumulated World Rank, triggering Events, and resetting when players Extracted.
World Rank is now displayed in the HUD
- As players perform game actions (killing, looting, etc) this meter will fill. As World Rank increases, enemies and bosses grow in power - but so does the available loot.
- Previously this was only visible on the end-of-cycle screen.
Radiation Meteor Events have been removed.
Enemy Meteor and Assassin events will happen periodically as players explore the world.

[h3]Gear Pickup Updates[/h3]

Players can now compare their currently equipped gear with gear drops.
Gear no longer has durability.
All Gear is broken down into Materials on both successful and failed cycles.
Gear drops now offer an “Equip” or “Break” option .
- Breaking down gear gives players materials and bright blood.
- "Break" functionality is not available for gear drops if you have nothing equipped in that slot.
Removed Vault and Cache functionality.
You must now interact with loot on the ground to open the loot picker (previously this popped up automatically when you got near the gear drop.

[h3]Vendor Updates[/h3]

Overgrowth (In-Run) Vendors
- In Run Vendors now only require Brightblood for purchase.
- In Run Vendors now have a refresh inventory option.
- New vendor affinity rewards added.
Cursed Outpost (Hub) Vendors:
- No longer sell gear.
- They sell upgrades and now allow you to re-roll affixes on specific gear.
- Skesis has stepped out for now - they’ll be back in a future update!

[h3]Player Character / Sycom Updates[/h3]

[h3]Each Character now has one SyCom with multiple Perks.[/h3]
- Previously they had unique SyComs with one Perk.
Each Character now has preferred Blades and Rails.
- All Blade/Rail drops for a character will only be these weapons - with a rare chance of dropping something outside of their preferred pool.
Character Changes include:
- Lapis:
  - Preferred Blades
    - Soldier's Light
    - Dreamblade
    - Vector Hammer
    - Zero Edge
  - Preferred Rails
    - DZR
    - Soldier's Sidearm
    - Diamond Shot
  - Soldier SyCom Perk
    - Emptying your Rail’s magazine causes your next melee attack to shoot a lightwave projectile.
  - Rifler SyCom Perk
    - Rails increase their fire rate when you have more battery.
- Vermillion:
  - Preferred Blades
    - Soldier's Light
    - Dreamblade
    - Giant's Needle
  - Preferred Rails
    - Zaliska
    - Soldier's Sidearm
    - Shredder
  - Contractor SyCom Perk
    - Charged attacks restore battery
  - Gunslinger Ricochet
    - Your next shot after a critical hit will ricochet to a nearby enemy
- Goro:
  - Preferred Blades
    - Gloom Shiv
    - Giant's Needle
    - Breaker's Buster
  - Preferred Rails
    - DZR
    - Diamond Shot
  - Joker SyCom Perk
    - +10% more DMG per 1 OPS
  - Scavenger SyCom Perk
    - Free Holobyte at the start of a Cycle
- Ravona:
  - Preferred Blades
    - Solar Bolters
    - Soldier's Light
    - Gamma Claws
  - Preferred Rails
    - Magrex
    - DZR
  - Assassin SyCom Perk
    - Bonus Crit Chance when fighting isolated enemies
  - Rogue SyCom Perk
    - Executions spread enemy’s status afflictions to nearby enemies.
- Rondo:
  - Preferred Blades
    - Solar Bolters
    - Gamma Claws
    - Dreamblade
  - Preferred Rails
    - Magrex
    - Soldier's Sidearm
    - Diamond Shot
  - Bladedancer SyCom Perk
    - Flash Step Marks enemies, causing them to take more damage.
  - Reaper SyCom Perk
    - Perfect Parry inflicts Bleed on nearby enemies and refills more red HP.

[h3]EXE Updates[/h3]
EXE’s are persistent player mods that can be purchased from Protobreaker in the Hub.

Added or modified the following EXEs:
- Lvl 1 - Shrine HP, Bright Blood Bank, Executive Function, Flashstep Boost
- Lvl 2 - Reflector, Board Energy, Rail Extension
- Lvl 3 - Synergy
- Lvl 4 - Prism Health, Skeleton Key
- Lvl 5 - Healthkit Capacity
3 max upgrades per EXE structure
Note: Executions are now gated behind an EXE upgrade (Executive Function).

[h3]Caves[/h3]

Caves are now discoverable in Pangaea!
- Find these elusive areas to get rare loot like Golden Rations, Abyss Stones and Fragmented Memories.
  - Currently there is one cave per map.
  - Expect more caves in future updates!

[h3]Other Polish Items, Updates and Improvements[/h3]

Enemies can now jump down from most structures and ledges.
Enemy stagger bar is now more visible.
Traversability Polish: Some landing stability for slopes when walking.
Optimized most text boxes for Steam Deck in preparation for future Verified status.
- We are currently Playable on Steam Deck - some in-game text may be difficult to read. All other requirements for Verified have been met, including:
  - Full controller support
  - Performance optimization and settings
  - On-screen keyboard support for text entry
Improved Acid Pool hazard behavior and effects.
VFX polish for Crystal and Fire ground hazards.
Implemented a new Character Voice System.
- Added new fields for controlling pain voice cooldowns so enemies will no longer spam their pain SFX in combat.
New “Materials” mesh pick up now in game.
Various menus have been updated to show relevant currencies needed for purchase (For ex. Abyss Stones and Cores now display in the loadout menu).
Improved the loot feed on the right side of the HUD to better stack and consolidate picking up multiples of the same item at once.

[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]

Fixed an issue with Holobyte drop menus not populating correctly.
Force Hammer - Fixed an issue where the player could be able to left-stick cancel out of the charge attack too early.
Fix entities without a stagger animation not properly firing stagger events (yet still saying they're staggered).
Fixed issue with screen state when interacting with holobyte vendor.
Fixed issue where some procedural worlds could have a small hole in them.
Fixed issue where the Arid Wastes Observatory POI was not unlocking fully.
Fixed issue with the Engineer’s Mines persisting / getting stuck in the air.
Minor hitbox update / cleanup for Dro melee attacks.
Fixed issue with in-run vendor menus not properly displaying.
Fixed bad collision on Arid Wastes Bivouac Site POI.
Submitted a fix for telepad screen focus state & action button containers re-initializing.
Fixed an issue with in-run vendor (Chemist) menu displaying an extra empty slot.
Fixed issue where the cycle fails to be reset after successfully completing the game in multiplayer.
Fixed Burst Capsule referencing Efficient Sole's gameplay tag instead of Burst Capsule's, causing it to appear as "Dash Soles" in-game.
COMMUNITY ASSIST: Lowering enemy spawn max enemies from 90 to 60.
- Potential fix for Community Report: Repeated "Fatal Error" Crashes persisting across versions.
COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed Outskirts Overgrown Building POI that contained a Jump Pad that did not function.
Fixed a floating SyCom near Skeksis’ shop when Skesis was not unlocked.
Fixed bug where players were still taking damage upon drowning.
Fixed bug where acid pools weren't inflicting damage consistently.
Fixed bug where jump pads fail to give enough height to reach the structure of one of the Fortresses in the Tundra.
Fixed issue with inputs when the map automatically opens for the first time in the bunker.
All status effect visuals for bosses have been turned off - They’re now visible on their health bar instead.
Fixed issue where projectiles were not chaining properly with ricochet effects.
Fix for bridges not properly decking into the procedural world.
Fixed an issue where Missile Dirks weren't playing their 'KnockUp' animation.
COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where sometimes when an enemy variant is hit while teleporting, it would change colors to its base version.
Improved clarity on UI for Boss Gates.
Fixed an issue where the loot picker window would stay open if players transitioned levels.
Procedural World Generation fixes, including
- Numerous cosmetic fixes to specific POIs.
- Numerous collision fixes to specific POIs.
- Numerous fixes to procedural placement of terrain, foliage, and POIs.
- Fixed several z-fighting (flickering) issues on specific POIs.
- Fixed several collision instances that could trap players unwittingly.
Improved clarity of hit boxes for Dro’s wave attacks.
Fixed an issue where charge attacks would not combo out of Flash Steps.
COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed several crashes reported by our community.

[h3]Performance Improvements:[/h3]

Miscellaneous performance optimizations and changes to level loading.

[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]

Two multiplayer gear exploits are known to us at this time.
- We expect to be able to hotfix these this week and will share the details of these issues with the hotfix.