Update March 12, 2025 – Dealing with Death
This update addresses two of the major issues about Combat Complex – death being too punishing and the game being too harsh on new players.
We're addressing these issues via multiple changes. First, we're making death less punishing by letting players keep collected loot on death. Second, we're introducing Ultimate Abilities that would let players deal with situations that could otherwise kill them. And third, we're increasing the base survivability of new players via a new default passive ability. Here's the full list of changes:
[h3]You Keep Loot after Death[/h3]
[h3]Ultimate Abilities[/h3]
[h3]Replayable Missions[/h3]
[h3]New Survivability Passive – Safeguard[/h3]
[h3]Boom Barrels on Regular Missions[/h3]
[h3]Other Changes[/h3]
[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
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We're really satisfied with how all these changes have turned out – especially the Shredder ultimate, which feels great. Grab the update, give it a try and let us know what you think!
Thank you!
Combat Complex team.
We're addressing these issues via multiple changes. First, we're making death less punishing by letting players keep collected loot on death. Second, we're introducing Ultimate Abilities that would let players deal with situations that could otherwise kill them. And third, we're increasing the base survivability of new players via a new default passive ability. Here's the full list of changes:
[h3]You Keep Loot after Death[/h3]
- When you die on a mission, you now keep the loot you've collected before dying.
- Power-Ups are still lost on death, as before – no changes here.
- If you restart a mission after dying, all loot you've collected before dying and restarting will be stored in your Inventory.
- If you leave a mission via the Pause menu > Leave Mission, you'll lose all loot and all power-ups you've collected on this mission before leaving it. All loot and all power-ups that you had before starting the mission will remain intact.
[h3]Ultimate Abilities[/h3]
- Ultimate Abilities are very powerful abilities that let you deal with situations that could otherwise kill you. By default, the ultimate ability is activated by pressing Q on a keyboard or Y on a controller. Bindings can be changed in Options.
- The Shredder ultimate summons two attack drones with the same weapons as yours, resulting in your firepower being tripled for 10 seconds.
- The Salvation ultimate instantly heals you for half your HP, heals the rest over 10 seconds, and grants 10x drop chance of Health Orbs for 10 seconds.
- The Stoneskin ultimate stuns enemies, pushes them away, and grants damage reduction for 10 seconds, helping you survive a difficult encounter or safely disengage.
- Ultimate abilities are available as items that can be equipped into the new Ultimate Ability slot.
- Ultimate abilities are fully charged and usable immediately after the mission start.
- After use, ultimates must recharge, which takes 90 seconds of combat time by default.
[h3]Replayable Missions[/h3]
- All completed missions can now be replayed.
- This enables gear farming which can be helpful when your current gear is not enough for pushing through harder levels.
- Replayed missions have the same layout but enemies and loot are randomized for each replay.
- To prevent replay-farming, loot chests at the end of missions are now fixed rarity that depends only on mission difficulty.
- Loot chests were removed from Secret Areas to prevent replay-farming of missions with lucky secret chests.
[h3]New Survivability Passive – Safeguard[/h3]
- Originally we had Mistake Mitigator as a default Passive Ability. It's a good passive for experienced players, but it demands mechanical skill that new players don't yet have because they haven't yet learned how the game works.
- To increase the survivability of new (and existing) players we're introducing a new default Passive – Safeguard. It grants 50% incoming damage reduction if player health is below 30%, and 80% damage reduction if it's below 10%.
- As a result, player survivability is increased without demanding skills and game knowledge that new players haven't learned yet.
[h3]Boom Barrels on Regular Missions[/h3]
- Boom Barrels, which previously appeared only on missions with Explosives Everywhere modifier, can now spawn on regular missions.
- Barrels now have an explosion range indicator visible at all times.
- Barrels now flash white when taking damage.
- Barrel explosions are now 50% less lethal and have a 50% damage falloff.
- Barrels now cannot spawn in Secret Areas.
- Barrels now cannot spawn closer than 8m to a door.
[h3]Other Changes[/h3]
- The Shield Bot enemy now has a delay before it can use its proximity attack. This gives players time to react when a Shield Bot spawns nearby.
- The new game tutorial now indicates that breakable objects can be destroyed.
- Exiting the tutorial area now restores Ultimate Ability charge, resets ability cooldowns, restores health to full, and cools down all weapons.
- The hub area now shows a notification when you have new items in Inventory.
[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
- Fixed a bug that caused Boom Barrels to deal 2x the intended damage.
- Fixed a bug that prevented damage falloff on Boom Barrels.
- Fixed multiple bugs that could potentially occur on mission restart after death.
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We're really satisfied with how all these changes have turned out – especially the Shredder ultimate, which feels great. Grab the update, give it a try and let us know what you think!
Thank you!
Combat Complex team.
