MILESTONE UPDATE: Starter Animations, New Features, Music & More!

This is the first Milestone Update out of 10 planned.

🖼️ Beastie Art Updates

Bongus: Animation COMPLETE!
Surgus: Animation COMPLETE! (Marked as complete without making any changes)
Illugus: Animation COMPLETE!
Ostrisigh: Animation COMPLETE!
Kassaleet: Animation COMPLETE!
Hopra: Animation COMPLETE!
Handicoot: Animation COMPLETE!
Bandicraft: Animation COMPLETE!
Shloom: Animation COMPLETE!

The number of Beasties marked as complete has gone from 18 to 27.

✨New Stuff

WAY MORE unlockable Team Titles!
- The number of Title words in the game have expanded from 200 to 440. Yes, we have more than doubled the number of Titles available in the game now!
- There a few ways to unlock new Team Titles now:
  - Defeating a boss in Super Tower Tourney (every 10 rounds)
  - Clearing a 5-round streak in the Draft Challenge
  - Reaching Flag 9 in the Mountain Expedition
    
    And, most notably...
  - Defeating another team using an unlockable title, typically via an Away Team or during a Bigmoon Bash!
- Players who have previous records in post-game challenges will be gifted a bundle of new Team Titles upon loading the game. The number of Titles you unlock will be based on your existing records.
- Titles have also been retroactively added for clearing a certain story encounter. Players who have already passed this story encounter will unlock the new Titles upon loading the game.
New treats for your Beasties!
- You can now find Ice Cream stands in certain game areas! Buy a stack of ice cream cones and throw them at your Beasties to give them a sweet little treat.
- Daredillo Energy Vending Machines are now found in every populous area of the game. Check these out for some overpriced and unsatisfying drinks for your Beasties!
Environmental improvements
- Additional environmental details have been added to Jasper and Beryl
- The moon now appears in the sky during Bigmoon Bashes
New SFX
- Added a few sounds which were missing for field effects like Rally, Dread, Trap, and Build
New Languages!
- The game is now fully playable in Simplified Chinese and Russian.
- More translations are still on the way! We prioritized these ones during Early Access for the largest potential expansion of our audience.
New music: SPORTS MATCH AGAINST GOD (Spoiler warning!)
- This track was added for a certain lategame story encounter
- Players who have already passed this point in the story will have the new song available in Music Setup.
- The new track has also been added to the OST on Bandcamp!

📰 Other News

BEASTIEBALL x BUGSNAX!

Bugsnax! Both our games are now available in a discounted bundle. If you're a Beastieball fan, we can't recommend Bugsnax enough to you... it's got great creatures, characters and story that have stuck with us for a long time.

BIGMOON BASH!

An Open Bigmoon Bash is coming next weekend! All Beasties and coaches are invited to jump in and challenge players all around the world.

🔧 Balance Changes

(NEW!) Confident: Gets +1 Body POW and +1 Body DEF boost when TAGGING IN
- 🔄 Given to Supilero in place of Fearless
(NEW!) Forager: Restores 50 STAMINA when TAGGING OUT
- 🔼 Given to Supilero in place of Scavenger
(NEW!) Thrasher: POW x1.3 when any Beastie on the opponent team is WIPED
- 🔄 Given to Maraptor instead of Echo
  Echo made sense on Maraptor before the introduction of Quake, when instead it spread damage to both opponents. In general, we try to give Beasties a more offense-oriented trait and a more support-oriented trait; however, with splash damage changed to Quake, Echo became more like a support Trait, and one which was notably inferior to Clamor, so Maraptor was lacking in interesting build variety. The intention of Thrasher is to give Maraptor more of an effective aggressive role option again. This Trait is less tested than other changes in this patch and may require more testing and feedback to solidify.
Slippery:
- 🔻 New effect: This Beastie's damage is reduced 25%. Adjacent allies receive attacks in their place.
  This reduces ALL damage dealt, including via Nettle. Gremlur has strong offensive potential which they can invest in heavily since Slippery makes their defense stats irrelevant. Slippery also guarantees the option to double-use high value support plays. This trait adjustment means Gremlur gets less free value from this easy utility, but still can function as an annoying and sustainable field presence as intended.
(NEW!) Adaptation: Copies their ally's Trait when they TAG IN
- 🔼 Given to Gremlur as a recessive Trait
  Since Slippery now reduces Gremlur's damage output, and has basically always obsoleted their defensive stat spread, we wanted to give them an alternative mode which allows them to actually leverage their stats and offensive potential.
Rumpus:
- 🔼 Now triggers after every offense and defense turn, not just after offense.
Agile:
- 🔻 No longer confers a bonus for play effects with the "if ball is hittable" condition, ie. Juggle and Set.
Flee:
- 🔼 Triggers starting on 50 STAMINA rather than 49
Precise:
- 🔼 Given to Conjarr as a recessive Trait
[h3]🏃 Plays[/h3]
- (NEW!) Exert - Spirit attack, 65 POW. User feels 2TOUGH. -30 STAMINA.
  - Via level up
    - 🔼 Daredillo, Opposur
  - Via friendship
    - 🔼 Supilero, Grazada, Skiffrig, Squimage, Xiphosaur, Yamyth
    This attack combines well with other spirit options and gives spirit-focused offense teams a unique serving option that fits their unique strengths.
- (NEW!) Echo Strike - Mind attack, 70 POW. Sets target's Trait to user's Trait.
  - Via level up
    - 🔼 Plumask
  - Via friendship
    - 🔼 Platypulse, Mistic, Trat, Magpike, Bindiva
- Finisher:
  - 🔄 Updated text to reflect damage bonus starting on 50 STAMINA
- Demolish
  - 🔼 80 POW (from 70)
  - 🔻 No longer gets a POW bonus when it clears field effects
- Rocket
  - 🔼 Now always goes where it is targeted
- Cook
  - 🔻 55 POW (from 60)
- Grit
  - 🔻 60 POW (from 65)
- Scream
  - 🔻 90 POW (from 95)
- Contest
  - 🔻 Can now only be used at the net
- Thriller
  - 🔼 65 POW (from 60)
- Relentless
  - 🔼 70 POW (from 50)
  - 🔼 Can now use when WIPED
- Challenge
  - 🔼 95 POW (from 85)
  - 🔻 No longer makes the target ANGRY
    Our experimental change to Challenge to make the target ANGRY was effective at giving Spirit offense better disruption options, but at too great a cost. Challenge offered too much value and interaction potential and became a very centralizing play that bolstered the effectiveness of Rally teams. In the past, players have voiced that they felt Spirit and Rally offense was lacking in strong disruption options. This experiment has showed us that Spirit probably doesn't need to have the best disruption options in addition to its offensive potential.
- Doze
  - 🔄 New name: Exhaust
  - 🔄 New effect: Feel 4 WIPED
- Torch Pass
  - 🔻 Lowers the user's Max STAMINA by 10
- Team Chant
  - 🔄 New name: Chant
  - 🔼 Now only cures negative feelings, not positive ones
  - 🔻 Targets a single allied Beastie (self, ally, or benched ally)
- Shield
  - 🔼 Applies 2 TOUGH (from 1) + 2 ANGRY
[h3]👹 Beasties[/h3]
- Collarva/Wormask/Plumask
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Challenge, Supercommit, Sneak Attack, Call Out, Teleport
    Plumask is a Beastie that has been with us for a very long time, and from very early on in development was given new plays frequently as we added them. They were long overdue for a re-examination for what was actually uniquely relevant to them.
- Shooga/Supassum/Supilero
  - 🔼 Plays Added: Demolish, Thunder
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Energized
- Platenna/Platypulse/etc
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Prepared Attack
- Noizard
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Forward Pass
    Noizard has continued to dominate usage since we reduced its defensive capabilities. Although this play isn't their flashiest option, it has enabled Noizard to serve a critical function as a support for hyper offensive partners. Removing this passing option pigeon-holes them more into their intended disruption role. We're curious to step back and assess their power level after this change, along with the various nerfs made to spirit offense that tends to pair with them. Further nerfs may be made if this hasn't pushed them far enough.
- Gastic/Wisper/Mistic
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Prepared Attack
- Armantis
  - 🔼 Plays Added: Sneak Attack (As a level-up play)
- Grazada
  - 🔼 Plays Added: Challenge
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Supercommit
- Hydrolm
  - 🔼 85 BPOW (from 75)
  - 🔼 Plays Added: Rocket
- Heliath
  - 🔼 Plays Added: Thriller
  - 🔻 Plays Removed: Challenge
- Maraptor
  - 🔼 89 BPOW (from 87)
  - 🔼 87 MPOW (from 85)
  - 🔻 81 BDEF (from 83)
  - 🔻 86 MDEF (from 88)

🚧Other Fixes and Changes

Significantly optimized the map menu, particularly when zoomed out
- From experimental: Fixed an issue preventing the map cursor from selecting icons near the world edges
Re-increased the text size for the "MATCH SCHEDULED" UI event
Fixed collision on large trees in Mythwood
Fixed an issue where editing a saved team would list their equipped plays twice in the list of available plays
Made Conjarr "Cryptic" trait pop up less often in reaction to certain attacks which didn't have relevant side effects
Fixed a crash that occured when two Adaptation Gremlurs were fielded against two Mimicry Squimage
Fixed some potential softlock issues around cutscene triggers for encounters against Jack
Fixed an issue with loading Visual Studies in the Beastiepedia on MacOS
Updated playbooks for post-game challenge Beasties to make use of new balance patch features. Also improved automated team building logic around Dreadful Mist.