1. Hyper Light Breaker
  2. News

Hyper Light Breaker News

Announcing this Month’s Monthly Update

Breakers!

We’re thrilled to reveal our next Monthly Update will launch next Tuesday, March 25! As we’ve shared in our Spring Edition roadmap, this update is our second monthly update before our first major content drop, Buried Below, releasing next month. Soon, we’ll have details to share about the first major content drop and what you can expect from it, but for now, we’d like to cover what you’ll find in next week’s update.

March – Monthly Update Details

This month's update, like the previous update, will bring a slew of new content to Hyper Light Breaker in Early Access. This update will bring a new Assassin, the Sword Master, a new weapon, Death Wheel, and with it a new special attack, multiple new enemies, new Holobytes, new Affixes, and last but certainly not least a new gameplay feature we like to call “Fog of War” that was inspired by community feedback!

  • We’re thrilled to bring both the Assassin and weapon into this update – it's been a lot of work getting them ready, and we know they've been heavily requested for a while now, but now we feel that they’re finally ready! Expect to check out a mini video clip on our social channels of the Assassin and the weapon in action before the update launches.
  • Let's explain the "Fog of War" gameplay feature a bit! "Fog of War" means that initially, your map will be obscured except for a few key locations. As you (and your friends) explore, more of the map will be revealed. While we were experimenting with this internally, we saw player feedback indicating that they were having a better experience ignoring the map - in fact, one player - Refractor - even modded it out entirely. While we will be continuing to expand the map's functionality in future updates, we wanted to get this into our player's hands quickly to get initial feedback to better shape those plans.
Additional Updates from Heart Machine

The Experimental Branch that we put out alongside February's update was a huge success! It fostered a lot of discussion both within the community and inside Heart Machine, and expect to see our takeaways manifest in future updates. Being able to experiment and engage with the community this way is one of the key reasons we wanted to release Hyper Light Breaker into Early Access, and our wonderful community has repeatedly proven that it was the right choice.

As a final celebration of the benefits player and developer relationship - as a creator, your audience is there because they trust your tastes, even if they are eclectic or challenging. But sometimes, no matter how right or wrong it might be (no judgment!) - like pineapple on pizza, it isn't right for the majority. To everyone who enjoyed the "in-combat" state, we are sorry to disappoint all (three?) of you. For everyone else - the "in-combat" state system will be gone when we release next week's update!

The Overgrowth is about to get a whole lot more exciting, and we can’t wait for you all to jump in next week once the update is live! Your feedback has already been invaluable in shaping the future of Hyper Light Breaker, so please keep it coming!

- Heart Machine Team

A month into early access, Hyper Light Breaker has already added a new playable character, with a perk designed for players who like to 'shoot fast and shoot a lot'




Hyper Light Breaker may not have enjoyed the smoothest early access launch, but developer Heart Machine has been diligent in listening to feedback and striving to update the game since its initial release last month. The studio issued numerous hotfixes in the wake of launch, addressing players' most grievous complaints, and provided a more thorough roadmap of its future plans for the action roguelike last week. Now, it has debuted the first "monthly update" for the game, which among other things introduces a whole new playable character...
Read more.

Hotfix Patch Notes - v0.5.2.110871

We hope you all are enjoying our first-ever monthly content update! It's been great to see you all playing as the new Breaker, Ravona, and seeing you all tinkering with new builds.

We've released a Hotfix today to address a few bugs, and made some fixes based on community feedback. Below are the patch notes for today's Hotfix.

Reminder to keep the feedback coming as we set out to make Hyper Light Breaker the best it can be throughout the course of Early Access! The best way to ensure we see your feedback and concerns is to post in the #hlb-bugs-feedback channel on our Discord: www.discord.gg/heartmachine.


- Heart Machine Team

[h2]BUG FIXES:[/h2]
  • Fixed an issue where Rails would not display properly in multiplayer until a new Rail was equipped
  • Fixed a crash in cloth sim that would rarely show up for users swapping between Ravona and other characters in the loadout select rapidly.
  • Fixed improperly scaled Drop Down Labs.
  • Updated Zero Edge Blade Special text to reflect actual function
  • Fixed an issue where the Spark Seeker was triggering 100% of the time instead of the stated 25% of the time.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where password input window focus could be lost when pressing gamepad buttons (most notably, this made it difficult to enter passwords on Steam Deck)
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Reduced the volume of the Hoverboard Boost from Elite Gyroscope
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where materials chests looted in previous runs would display their “unlooted glow” on future runs within the same cycle, rather than appearing dark as intended.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where drowning on the edge of a beach could spawn the player on the sloped edge of the beach, dropping them back into the water until they died.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where consecutive perfect parries could cause the parry vfx player glow to stack until you became too awesome looking (and also could negatively affect performance).

[h2]KNOWN ISSUES:[/h2]
  • With the February monthly update, we received reports from folks that the holobyte replacement selector does not function when you have a full loadout of holobytes, instead replacing a random one. This error corrects itself if you restart the game - it only happens during the first play session on the new update. We will not be hotfixing this issue at this time - instead putting our efforts into a more robust effort at preventing future issues, which will be incorporated into our March update.

Hyper Light Breaker gets lots of fixes and a new character in its latest update

When Hyper Light Breaker launched into early access last month, almost ten years after the much beloved Hyper Light Drifter, it did so less with a bang, and more of a wet thud. The game, even in early access, just wasn't quite ready yet, which is a real shame considering there's some serious promise there. Still, there's the potential for improvements, and Heart Machine has been hard at work deploying hotfixes post-launch. Even better than that, the first big update for the game is here, and it's accompanied by a whole bunch of additions, fixes, and tweaks.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Struggling Hyper Light Breaker reveals impressive roadmap packed with updates

Hyper Light Breaker early access review - extraction roguelike needs more time

Hyper Light Breaker dev promises to fix gameplay and performance issues

February Monthly Update – Patch Notes - v0.5.2.110690

[h3]Gameplay Updates:[/h3]
COMMUNITY DEMAND: Added Player Character “Ravona”
  • Ravona can be unlocked from the character selection in the loadout screen.
  • Ravona’s Reaper SyCom
    • A high risk, high reward SyCom that has high damage potential for both Rails and Blades and high mobility but low health and armor. Synergizes well with holobytes that increase invincibility frames on dashes like (Flicker Burst and Flicker Shadow) and damage.
    • Perk: 25% higher crit chance on low-health enemies.
  • Ravona’s Ranger SyCom
    • For Breakers who want to shoot fast and shoot a lot with their Rails. This perk synergizes well with Rails with high fire rate and ammo capacity like the SR2 Radiant and the Magrex.
    • Perk: Rails gain 5% fire rate for every 10 points of Battery.
  • Community member Eska spent 133 days of requesting Crow Gameplay in our discord!
Added new Holobytes:
  • Hunter’s Mark - Shooting an enemy with a Rail Marks it. Marked enemies take +20% Melee DMG.
  • Spark Seeker - 25% chance to fire a heat-seeking bullet any time you shoot your Rail.
  • Impact Implosion - Charged Attacks release an energy pulse around the player dealing 25 DMG and afflicts your Blade’s Status Effect on enemies.
Added new Weapon Affixes:
  • Necrotic Cutter
    • Rare Blade Affix
    • Increases DMG to Rot afflicted targets by 10%/15%/20%/25%/30%.
  • Plasma Heater
    • Rare Blade Affix
    • Increases DMG to Burn afflicted targets by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
  • Anemic Edge
    • Uncommon Blade Affix
    • Increases Stagger DMG to targets afflicted with Bleed by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
Added New Enemies:
  • Bullet Leaper variant.
  • Croc Brute Elite.
Rebalanced the Danger Meter:
  • The Danger Meter now triggers less regularly but drops more powerful compositions with more waves.
Added New Crystal Beach Research Pods POI.
Improved VFX for Shrines, Jump Pads, interactables and breakables.
Improved VFXs on executions to make it more rewarding.
Tuned Attack Magnetism to more often choose enemies in front of you, rather than enemies that are much closer but behind you.
Executes are now input-buffered to improve combat flow.
Updated the Parry
  • New VFX to make it clearer that the parry is omni-directional (it will parry attacks coming from all directions).
  • Fixed wrong rotation on successful parry VFXs to match where the hit happened.
  • Parrying an enemy will now flinch/interrupt the other nearby enemies.
    • Perfect parries will flinch/interrupt nearby enemies harder.
  • Adjusting parry timing windows and cancel-into-parry timing windows.
In-Combat Status
  • Looting, using keys, and using your hoverboard are now disabled if you are in active combat.
Changed the Golden Rations calculations at the end of Cycle.
  • Golden Ration meter progress will now carry over to the next Cycle.
  • Added diminishing returns to meter progress after earning the first three Rations in a Cycle.
Gear economy overhaul:
  • Reduced the chance for rare items in Outpost (Hub) vendors.
  • Increased the chance for rare items in Overgrowth (Run) vendors.
  • Increased the chance for rare items in Overgrowth chests and corpses.
  • Added ability to unequip gear in loadout.
Gear balance overhaul:
  • Nerfed the Breaker Buster’s Blade Special.
  • Buffed the Radiant SG2 Rail to have longer range and more damage.
  • Buffed the Magrex Rail to have longer range.
  • Increased the charge time for the Solar Bolter’s charge attack.
  • Warrior SyCom perk changed to “Deal 25% more DMG when your HP is above 75%.”
  • Warrior SyCom stats re-balanced.
    • Note - if you had previously maxed out the Warrior SyCom, you will still have it maxed out, but you will not be refunded any “over-spend”.
  • Nerfed Blitz Blade’s bonus damage to 150% from 200%.
  • Critical Cuffs now are a chance to heal on crit, rather than always healing.
    • Note - due to localization deadlines, the in-game text does not mention the 25% chance. This text will be updated in our March monthly update.
  • Maximum armor capped at 150, from 200.
  • Capped bonus damage for Materials Processor, Plasma Edge and Plasma Powered to 40%.
  • Nerfed the Corundum Holobyte armor bonus.
  • Nerfed the Crude Whetstone Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed Barrel Vents Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed Tracker Shot Affix’s chance to trigger.
  • Reduced the cooldown on all shot triggers from 3 seconds to one second.
  • Nerfed the Charged Ammo Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed the Overvoltage Affix’s damage bonus.
  • Rebalanced the Thrombosis Injector Affix.
  • Buffed Executions for most Blades.
Enemy balance overhaul:
  • Changed AI Choreographer to reduce enemy collaboration/coordination at the beginning of a Cycle.
  • Melee Dirks taunt less.
  • Wheel Snail dash attacks are shorter, no longer re-orient to the player midway through the dash, and have a longer cooldown between attacks.
  • Albino Wolf projectiles move slower but now have modest homing ability.
  • Reduced AI sensing range.
  • Improved Croc Brute’s hitboxes.
  • Wolves now have a taunt / alert animation and sound when aggro’d by the player.
  • Improved Adept’s hitboxes.
  • Leapers no longer attempt to intercept aerial players.
  • Added an arming delay to the Rifle Dirk’s mines.
Players now always face Dro upon the start of battle when fighting her in Arenas where her cutscene does not play.
Changed Dro’s leap target VFX to make it more distinct from Leaper’s one.
Replaced all wolf boss minions with melee dirk boss minions.
Reduced attack types for melee dirk boss minions (Dirks elsewhere retain their full attack set).
Improved hoverboard VFX while hoverboarding over water.
The collision trap failsafe now accelerates over time to push players out of world geometry more quickly.
Sped up the equipment loss portion of the Death/Rez screen.
Cutscenes can now be skipped.
Expanded Key bindings - All keyboard keys EXCEPT Print Screen and Menu can be bound.
Updated text localization.
Regional pricing updated in some regions to better match current markets.

[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed several loot spawns in various POIs that were inaccessible.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where getting interrupted while hitting enemies with the Force Gauntlet Amp could cause you to continuously drag them along with the gauntlet.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed a Multiplayer sync issue that caused a variety of subsequent multiplayer issues.
    • This bug had a large number of symptoms within runs, but in the Outpost, you would see a player count mismatch (i.e., votes would show only requiring 2 players when 3 players were in, etc.).
    • Most community reports of abnormal gameplay in multiplayer are tied to this global fix.
  • Enemies now always wait to attack the player until the enemy has fully spawned in.
  • Fixed a bug where the player could shift through extraction walls when attacking enemies outside / nearby.
  • Fixed some prism spawns that could be acquired without unlocking their door first.
  • Fixed several issues with the Radiant SG2 Rail not displaying the correct animation or VFX for clients in multiplayer.
  • Fixed an issue where swapping Holobytes with a full vault would cause them to be destroyed instead.
  • Fixed an issue where the Leaper’s ground slam attack could damage players outside of the VFX indicator.
  • Fixed an issue where switching characters using a combination of keyboard controls and mouse hover could cause weapons to become unequipped.
  • Fixed an issue where the HUD wouldn’t fade out correctly when transitioning to the death screen.
  • Fixed a number of crystal and tree clipping issues in the Jeweled Spire (purple/crystal) biome.
  • Fixed explosion VFX not working on some projectiles for clients in multiplayer.
  • Fixed the loading screen background for ultrawide resolutions.
  • Other players are now hidden in the loadout menu to avoid blocking your view of your character.
  • Minor updates to terrain generation to fix irregularities that could trap players.
  • Fixed mouse controls being impacted by framerate.
  • Fixed an issue where the Stun Recharger holobyte would not restore battery if you staggered an enemy in a single hit.
  • Low health screen effects now play when spectating a player at low health.
  • Improved Point of Interest detection for the Point of Interest highlight function.
  • Disabled the resolution setting when running the game in fullscreen-windowed (your windows resolution overrides this setting).
  • Fixed an issue with the background blur on the loadout screen.
  • Fixed an issue where the map preview at the beginning of a Cycle would not show for subsequent cycles in the same session.
  • Stat adjusting gear now properly displays adjusted stats in the Outpost.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes Elites could die in/over water and drop their Prisms into the water rather than spawning the prism at the nearest shore location.
  • Fixed a potential item duplication exploit.
  • Fixed an issue with Marathon Pin’s stacking buff that was causing it to not stack properly.
  • Fixed an issue where radiation meteors could land on the extraction pad.
  • Improved aim assist, particularly when aiming down towards enemies.
  • Mouse Wheel now works in Shrine menus (previously only controller or keyboard could control this menu).
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes locked POIs would not have any loot behind the locked door.
  • Improved Elite Bat behavior when grounded (attacking flying enemies will ground them briefly).
  • Improved a variety of music transitions for our dynamic music system.
  • Fixed an issue where the Elite Ranged Dirk couldn’t hit players that were pressing up against it consistently.
  • Fixed an issue where your hoverboard jump would not be counted against your number of jumps, allowing you to triple jump.
  • Fixed an issue where dying would apply your Blade’s status effect to your character.
  • Fixed an issue where Lapis’ Warrior SyCom Blast stat could not be maxed.
  • Fixed an issue where Lapis’ Lightweaver SyCom Armor stat could not be maxed.
  • Fixed an issue where resurrections would not always play the resurrection VFX or animation.
  • Fixed an issue where resetting controls to default could cause you to lose mouse input.
  • Fixed an issue where meteor warning audio would not play.
  • Fixed an issue where swapping characters in the loadout would not refresh all panels correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood Battery was not providing the correct amount of Battery.
  • Fixed an issue where the Chrome Golem would walk in place instead of idling.
  • Updated collision across a large number of environmental assets.
  • Fixed shell meshes not working properly on skeletal meshes with physics on them.
  • Fixed an issue where Dro’s slam attack was placing the AoE VFXs wrongly (if spawned on debris placed around the map).
  • Fixed status effect shells on Slimes. These have translucent material, and it caused sorting issue with translucent shell meshes.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed many crashes reported by our community members.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed the “Error: Line 729” Crash and added additional safeguards to save data protection and corrupt save data handling.
  • Flash Step’s magnetism no longer locks onto Engineer mines.
  • Flash Step’s magnetism no longer locks onto enemies that are actively teleporting.
  • Player icons should now correctly show in the Overgrowth.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where multiple players using the same SyCom would be missing the Blade Special on their default Blade.
  • Blade Specials no longer trigger their cool down if they’re interrupted during charge.
  • Blade Specials no longer trigger their cooldown if the player attempts to use them in the air.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Elite Bat no longer gets stuck moving backwards if hit by a specific sequence (2 basic combo hits cancelled into Flash Step).
  • When selling gear, ALL equipped gear, not just equipped gear for the current character, is marked as equipped.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where the first client’s health bar would stick around after they disconnected.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where in-run vendors would not be synced between players.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where being revived would cause your SyCom to vanish.
  • Fixed an issue with the Flaming Cascade Affix not functioning correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes slimes would not appear on the minimap/radar.

[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]
  • In multiplayer, clients may see hosts A-posing when aiming a rail if the host has not equipped a new rail during that session. Hosts may see clients aiming an invisible rail until the client equips a new rail in that session. This is a visual issue only.
  • In few random seeds, Drop Down Labs may be incorrectly scaled.
  • In multiplayer, sometimes glider or hoverboard vfx will not display correctly for players.
  • We expect to hotfix these later this week, but wanted to get this major update in front of players today to start collecting feedback on this update and the Experimental Beta mentioned below.

[h3]Performance Improvements:[/h3]
  • Capped the global number of enemy spawns.
  • Fixed a number of camera and character hitches, pops, etc. that could feel like low framerate gameplay even when framerate was high.
  • Fixed a major hitch when the Engineer would use its mine attack.
  • Fixed a large number of hitches related to the spawning/streaming of assets.
  • Improved LODs for a large number of environmental assets, to improve performance and reduce pop-in.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where some players were experiencing extreme hitching when picking up Bright Blood.
    • COMMUNITY CHAMPION: This bug could not be reproduced internally, even after receiving detailed information from our community. Thank you to everyone who provided detailed information, and special thanks to community member Starbos for working with one of our engineers and even testing a special build to confirm we fixed the issue.
[h3]Experimental Branch Instructions:[/h3]
Read everything below carefully to receive the Steam beta branch password to our public experimental build. Please do not share the beta branch password with others - instead direct them to this page and have them read these instructions for themselves.

The Hyper Light Breaker team is looking for your feedback on an early potential change to the core game loop. This experimental build is extremely rough - it was forked from the live version of the game and does not contain any of the bug fixes, features, or content available in the February branch. It does not represent the full scope of changes we want to make - rather it is the very beginning of prototyping out that change.

Instructions for accessing this beta will also be available in our discord - https://discord.com/channels/900489750224466081/1340848981181206538 - and we ask that you keep all feedback related to the experimental branch in the #f33dback and #d15cu551on channels only.

Do not use other channels outside the 13R34K3R channel category to discuss or provide feedback!!! Please do not report bugs from this beta in any location in discord - we will not be addressing bugs in this one-time experimental build. We ask that you keep discussion isolated to this discord channel category so that we can avoid causing false bug reports or confusion, and appreciate your assistance.
This build is experimenting with changes to our core loop.
  • Players have a single life. Death will result in failing a Cycle and having your loadout melted down into materials.
  • Players have two medkits. These will automatically trigger on reaching 0 health. They can be refilled by extracting to the Outpost.
  • You can extract from any Shrine on the map. Extraction points do not exist. Extraction at Shrines is immediate after confirmation - it does not require you to fight enemies.
  • Gear cannot be vaulted - when picking up gear, you can either equip it or break it down into materials.
  • Bright Blood is only usable in the Overgrowth. It is wiped upon returning to the Outpost.
  • Materials are used to purchase items in the Outpost.
  • After defeating all of the Crowns, a teleporter (extraction pad) to the Abyss King will become available.
    • Use this to Win the Cycle.
This build does not change up our gear economy, has no enemy or gear balance changes, etc. However, the intention behind this experiment is to shift into a more traditional roguelite looting loop, which in turn allows us to radically change the gear economy and gear balance.

To access the Experimental Beta, right click Hyper Light Breaker in your Steam Library, select “Properties…”, then choose the “Betas” tab, and enter the Experimental Beta password into the “Private Betas” text box, then press “Check Code.” Afterwards, select the “experimental” beta and wait for it to download. The Experimental Beta password is the first word of the first three paragraphs in these instructions, together in order, without spaces, so that it LooksLikeThis.

This experimental beta will save and load its own unique save file, it will not touch your regular save data. To switch back to the regular version of the game, simply select “none” from the betas tab in steam.