Hyper Light Breaker News

Hyper Light Breaker has been in a weird place since its early access launch in January: It's a great action game with a gorgeous neon sci-fi art style, but the hybrid roguelike/extraction shooter structure surrounding that core has been roundly criticized by players...
Read more.

It's been a few months since Hyper Light Breaker launched into early access, unfortunately arriving in a bit of a mess. The game just wasn't there, which obviously is what early access is for, but it was rough. Everything was just a bit too difficult, too unbalanced, and the loop wasn't strong enough to do over and over again, none of which you want in a roguelike. Developer Heart Machine have been tinkering away at it though, bringing in some much needed tweaks here and there, and now the game's first big update is coming next week.

Read more

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]We're thrilled to finally reveal the Buried Below update, the first major content update for Hyper Light Breaker in Early Access, will launch next Tuesday, April 29! [/h3]

This content update will be a game changer, as it’ll bring a slew of new content along with major quality of life changes, including run structure changes inspired by your all’s feedback that will change up the game in Early Access in multiple ways. In a new trailer that debuted today (check it out above!), Michael Clark, Hyper Light Breaker’s Lead Producer, covers everything you need to know about this major update and how it evolves the game in a whole new way.

[h3]New Content[/h3]

On the content front, Buried Below will bring a new Breaker, “Rondo” – a Breaker who comes from the same region as the recently-debuted Breaker, Ravona, and has a new SyCom with two SyCom perks – a new Crown, “Maw” – the biggest and most menacing Crown yet, two new melee weapons and new areas to explore, including caves. For the new Crown, you all have seen glimpses of her in a couple of ways-- as she’s shown as a Crown that’s possible to fight when readying up to enter the Overgrowth and you have even entered her arena in the hostile crystalscape of the Jeweled Spire. We've been working hard on getting Maw ready, and we’re thrilled the time has come for players to face her in just a few days!

[h3]Change in Run Structure [/h3]

Since Early Access launch, we’ve taken to heart all of the feedback we’ve received from the community across the board. Inspired by your feedback, the upcoming update will introduce the most significant feature overhaul yet with a complete rework of the game's run structure, as you will now have one life for each run and when you die, you will lose items in your inventory, and the Overgrowth will reset. This change was made to balance the game around a more traditional roguelike experience, turning each run into a more consistent and rewarding “zero to hero” adventure than before. This change also allows us to better adjust difficulty and make the game easier to get into, but harder to master, and addresses much of the feedback we’ve received from players since Early Access launch.

This shift in run structure will introduce a few gameplay loops and progression changes to make runs easier, better and ultimately more enjoyable for everyone, including veterans and newcomers alike, than before.

• Extraction - More Options for Players: Instead of only having one way to leave the Overgrowth (via the Telepad), players will be able to extract at any Shrine in the Overgrowth and there’ll be no waves of enemies to defeat like before. This change will make it so players can extract more often, making the game easier as a result, which was one of the main requests from players to change the game’s difficulty.
  
  
• SyComs - Follows a Class-Like System, More Loadout Potential: Character customization has been redesigned giving each Breaker one assigned SyCom with fixed stats, and players have the option to equip a perk to the SyCom that gives the Breaker a new passive ability. For instance, Rondo’s SyCom has an equippable perk called “Bladedancer” that increases Rondo’s damage and attack speed. You can upgrade your SyCom stats further at Shrines in the Overgrowth. This change, inspired by player feedback, will make it so each Breaker is similar to a “class” making each Breaker feel different from one another, and make it so you can come up with distinct builds per Breaker.
  
  
• Inventory & Vendors - More Streamlined: The Vault system will be changed as when you die, the inventory in your Vault will no longer carry over between runs except for Golden Rations, the main meta progression currency in the game. This will allow you to focus solely on acquiring new gear during your runs instead of having to focus on managing their inventory so often like before. Additionally, vendors in the Overgrowth and Cursed Outpost will also have new roles, with Bright Blood and Materials now used for purchases and upgrades. While gear sales have been removed from hub vendors, players can still use them to enhance equipped items.
  

[h3]Improved Onboarding[/h3]

The second major addition in the upcoming update is a brand-new onboarding tutorial that launches automatically the first-time players start the game after the update, regardless of save status. This guided experience introduces core mechanics through a structured level that leads to the Cursed Outpost hub. From there, you will gain access to a dedicated space for learning and practicing advanced combat techniques such as dash attacks and parries. Designed to align with the game’s reworked structure and expanded mechanics, this revamped introduction provides a smooth and informative entry point for both new and returning players.

[h3]Future of Breaker – Your Feedback Matters! [/h3]

Since Early Access launch, we’ve been working hard on evolving Breaker across the board every month, including but not limited to making performance updates and gameplay improvements, releasing a slew of new content, and implementing so many other changes based on your all’s feedback! As we continue our Early Access journey and set our sights for 1.0 launch, we want to thank all of you for feedback and support – you’re helping us make Breaker bigger and better every step of the way.

There’s still so much more to come for Breaker in Early Access, including our next major content update this summer that will be our biggest content update yet! Expect to fight double the trouble, embark on quests and go where no Breaker has gone before in our next major content drop.

For now, we can’t wait for you all to jump into the Buried Below update in just a few days and see how it evolves Breaker in a whole new way!

- The Heart Machine team

It's not exactly much of a secret that a lot of indie devs are struggling to stay afloat these days given the economic *gestures vaguely at a world map.* No one has an exact solution either, but last December, just before the release of its latest game Hyper Light Breaker, noted indie developer Heart Machine announced that they were opening a Patreon. I won't act like this is exactly a novel concept, I've seen a few other devs, typically on the smaller or solo size, try the same thing. But it still felt like a sign that Heart Machine needed a bit of a boost to keep things going.

Read more

Hello Breakers!

Welcome to our second monthly update! This update is a bit smaller than our last as much of the team is working on our April release - ‘Buried Below’ - which promises a whole new tutorial level and systems to better onboard new players, a new Crown to fight, big gameplay updates built on feedback from last month’s Experimental build, and more!

For more information on the experimental build, check out Monthly Update 1’s patch notes.

This March update focuses on adding a new Blade, new enemies, new mods, and a new Assassin.

[h3]Features[/h3]
New Affixes: Crystal Pommel - Increases damage to targets afflicted with Crystal.
ICE Breaker - Increases damage to targets afflicted with Hack.
Threaded Strands - Nearby status effect afflicted enemies take additional damage when attacked.
Charge Sync - Reduces charge time for the weapon.

New Holobytes: Spiral Muzzle - Rails have a chance to fire a projectile that bursts into mini-bullets.
Tremor Repeater - Knocking enemies into each other via knockback effects makes them explode.
Spiked Fallout - Explosions leave a hazard behind.

New Blade: Death Wheel Thrash enemies with a whirling blade.
New Blade Special: Blooming Corpse Seed

• Slain enemies grow an explosive bloom - Activate to detonate and damage nearby enemies.
  

New Assassin: Sword Master A deadly duelist with a bevy of blades at her disposal.

New Player EXEs: Wholesale License - Reduce prices on Vendors in the Overgrowth.
Bright Blood Attractor - Increase Bright Blood pickup range. Note - this upgrade does not require you to use a slot to equip it.

New Enemies: Wolf Mother - Breathes a flame attack that leaves flames burning on the ground.
Crystal Leaper - Slams the ground, causing crystal traps to burst up through the ground.
New Elite: Leaper

• A powerful Leaper that has multiple strong attacks.
  

COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fog of War! By default, the map is now obscured sans some critical locations.
In multiplayer, all players share the same revealed area.
Inspired by player feedback and mods that highlighted that too much information on the map was reducing the need to pay attention to your environment, which was hurting the feeling of exploration.
Expect this feature to grow more in the future, including Player EXEs that modify how Fog of War works.

Updated Elite Slime hazard spawns on leap attack.
Improved Wolf AI behaviors.
Improved Elite Dirk AI behaviors.
Improved Engineer AI behaviors.
Improved Croc Brute AI behaviors.
Improved Snail AI behaviors.

• Removed the flame trails from the basic Snails

Improved Dro AI behaviors when fighting her in the Crystal and Snow biomes.
Bleed Effect balance updates:

• Decreased DMG dealt by enemy bleed to the player from 6 to 3 DMG.
  
• Increased time between DMG ticks for players and enemy from 1 sec to 1.3 sec.
  
• Increased bleed DMG per tick by player inflicted bleed from 2 -> 3 DMG.
  
• Note: Bleed damage is triggered by movement and attacking - minimize movement and attacks while Bleed is active to minimize damage taken. Status Effects are also cleared immediately by using a medkit!
  

Reduced Auto Aim “stickiness”.
Rot status effect now lasts longer and increases the debuff when stacking.
Removed ‘Combat State’ behaviors (locking board and containers while in combat).
COMMUNITY REQUEST: Added “Invert Horizontal Axis" option to the controller settings menu.
In Multiplayer, each teammate can place a map marker, and map markers are now shared between all players in the session.

• We know players are looking for more in-game communication support, and while this is a start, we plan to dive deeper into expanding this over the summer. In the interim, we recommend players looking for like-minded players to voicechat with to join our discord - www.discord.gg/heartmachine
  

[h3]Bugs[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where player HUD would stay on screen during crown intro cutscenes.
  
• Fixed an issue where Missile Dirks would not properly pursue the player.
  
• Fixed an issue where Dirk Ranged Elite would not play voice lines when attacking.
  
• Rarity Chip now counts rarity correctly for clients in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed an issue where Engineer mines would continue to trigger UI alerts even after detonation.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed loot container spawns in several POIs that could not be looted in some seeds.
  
• Fixed an issue where ground enemies would appear to be falling for clients as they walked across the ground.
  
• Fixed an issue where Prisms that drop from Elites might spawn under the ground.
  
• Ghost Signal and Hollow Magazine Holobytes now show updated stats in the modify loadout screen.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Enemy loot drops should no longer sometimes spawn up in trees / etc above the enemy.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue with certain 3rd party controller brands that were causing input disruptions.
  
• Overgrowth vendors should now spawn more consistently and replicate correctly for all players.
  
• Explosive Hilt now correctly assigns explosions to all enemies affected.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed labs sometimes being generated under objects.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed several issues with locked POIs.
  
• COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed several clipping issues with procedural generation.
  
• Fixed several soft locks caused by using the “end run” function while transitioning zones or while an acceptance timer is counting down.
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the Crush Block Amp would get caught on a tall enemy it was slamming down on, preventing it from hitting all enemies.
  
• Fixed an issue where re-applying Crystal status to an enemy would reset the damage timer.
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• Improved performance of jump pad VFX.
  
• Tuned LoD settings for better visuals/performance.
  
• Improved Outpost performance.