Survivor Mercs News

Commanders, report in for our first Early Access roadmap outlook.

With "Welcome to Waste Land" (0.9.7) we brought you our first content update for Survivor Mercs, including the new Waste Land map and its unique boss, GriftLift.

You reported a ton of great feedback and provided us with great insights into what you enjoy and don't enjoy about the game at the moment. Thanks a lot to everyone who reached out to us on our Discord, via the Steam forums, or in countless private messages. We really, really appreciate it and couldn't work on improvements without your valuable feedback! ❤

For the next updates (0.9.8 and beyond), we are currently working on these highlights and many smaller improvements we won't be listing explicitly:

[h3]Better Loot Distribution & Visualization[/h3]

We are improving the loot distribution, building costs, and visualization of rare & common building components.

Soon, you will find more and rare loot in Loot Crates and on mini-bosses in the later phases of your Operations (runs). Our goal is to remove some of the randomness when going on a loot run to find missing components for your building upgrades, and to make it more fun and rewarding to survive longer and extract later.

The rare building components will be highlighted both on the ground and in your inventories. This will be a first step to try and do more with item rarity.



Building costs for rooms will receive a major balancing pass to bring them in line with the new loot distribution and reduce the number of component types you need for each upgrade, so it's easier to keep track of them. We know there is more we can do to improve that, so please consider this a first step.

[h3]Treasury becomes more useful[/h3]

The Treasury room will work differently to become much more useful and desirable as a BD storage across multiple runs to save up for mid-to-later game upgrades and purchases. The individual upgrade levels will also become more impactful.

[h3]Recovery Runs[/h3]

We are currently testing a new feature to recover your lost loot from a previous Operation where your Commander was killed-in-action. You will get a second chance to grab your precious loot but if you fail, it will be lost for good.

[h3]Dash Ability & better Trait-given abilities[/h3]

Maybe one of the most requested features, a Dash ability, is currently being tested and refined. You should get the Dash as a default ability for all Commander clones. It's meant to be upgraded with more "charges" to chain dashes consecutively, and we want Traits to be able to modify it and add secondary effects like knock-back or damage.



Some Commander Talent Traits may override the dash in exchange for a different ability that provides a different way to evade enemies, defend against them, or clear a path ahead of you.

Generally, we're also working on allowing you to upgrade your Trait-given abilities with your level-ups, and potentially change some of them to give you more active control.

The new Dash ability and these other changes will have a big impact on the game experience. So please allow us some time to get it right and adjust the Operations, boss patterns, and enemy wave configurations to make it balanced and fun! Which leads us to...

[h3]Meta-Overhaul[/h3]

This may be our biggest and most impactful improvement for the game in the near future. And it creates the foundation for new maps, bosses, Mercs, and other content and mechanics after that.

We cannot share all the details, yet, because this is an ongoing work-in-progress at the moment of writing this blog post. But you should know that we hear and incorporate your feedback into the game.

Our goal for this overhaul is to create an even "deeper" game where meta-upgrades and level-ups matter more and feel more impactful, especially for the Mercs and the generic stat upgrades during a run.

Current and future maps shall offer more distinct challenges that encourage different squad builds and increase the usability for more situational Mercs. So one map may focus more on lesser, but tougher enemies countered by crit damage and movement speed, while another may be more about swarms and AoE damage, or shooty enemies vs. longer-range & tanky HP builds (illustrative examples).

To achieve this, we want to introduce more unique mini-bosses and scale the challenge more in the second half of your Operation, so meta-upgrades from Bunker rooms will have a more substantial impact on your runs.

Mercs, enemies, and the final bosses receive some love to improve their behaviors and patterns. You should have more control over the Mercs and see their unique patterns and strengths more clearly, although they still act autonomously. Few Mercs (*cough* Hail *cough*) may even see more drastic changes, laying the groundwork for more interesting skill tree choices and synergies in the future.

Please understand that this is a big chunk of work which requires a lot of testing. It may not be perfect from the start. But we strongly believe this will be a massive step for the game into the right direction for our Early Access development plans.

[h3]Gear & Trait Adjustments[/h3]

Last but not least, some Traits and Gear will be adjusted to align with the aforementioned improvements. We're already in the process of replacing some of the Traits that are widely disliked, e.g. "colorblind" or "deaf". Other Traits and some Gear items will see changes to become more interesting and helpful with better, less negative trade-offs.

[h3]Other notable things[/h3]

The following list of items is neither complete, nor final! They will most likely not be part of the immediate next updates, but build on top of them.

We still like to share it for additional context on WHY we are focusing on the stuff we mentioned above now.

• We want to add an Armor system for Commander and enemies to model more interesting challenges and add variety to your squad builds and future synergies.
  
• New and improved bunker rooms will add additional options to aid you in your runs, e.g. revive your Commander once, or store some loot in a Safe Box instead of extracting.
  
• The mechanics of researching Traits in the Genome Lab will be revamped to remove randomness and to make researching better Traits more rewarding. Also you'll be able to configure Commander traits in the Clone Bay to reduce randomness in the mid-to-late game.
  
• New Operation Types like Elite or Endless runs are planned to deepen the game further to get rare items and special achievements.
  

We can't promise exact dates for these updates, yet. They need thorough testing.

We're currently aiming to release them over the course of the next weeks in November & December.

Please join the discussion on our Discord server and let us know which of these new features or improvements you are most excited about.

Fixed an issue where Clank's turrets would no longer shoot

Welcome to Waste Land, Commanders!

Our first major Early Access update has arrived with a new map, new boss, and a ton of adjustments and improvements.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]New Map: Waste Land[/h2]

A giant landfill appeared as a target location in your Operations room. Intel says, it serves as an illegal dump for the mega-corp's waste. It is heavily guarded, so expect very strong resistance when trying to infiltrate the "recycling plant" that houses a new weaponized drone, codename GriftLift.



The operations report for Waste Land hint at new rare building components that can be looted from the map. This may finally enable you to further upgrade many rooms in your bunker HQ.

Of course, Waste Land also has spooky decorations during our Halloween special, and the map comes with a new, unique music theme.


[h2]New Boss: GriftLift[/h2]

If you survived long enough in Waste Land, you will encounter the newest boss, a flying drone that sends a small army of mini-drones to hunt you down while the mothership is evading you. But the reports on GriftLift say, there is a way to force it to the ground in order to attack it.



Defeating GriftLift will also grant a new Steam Achievement.

You will encounter the mini-drones already throughout your operation, so be prepared to take down fast moving, swarming targets.




[h2]All Additions, Fixes, Adjustments & Improvements[/h2]

Highlights:

• Unlock a new map "Waste Land" in the Operations Room.
  
• Encounter a new boss on the Waste Land map, GriftLift.
  
• Face a new enemy on the battlefield, Mini-Drone, currently exclusive to the Waste Land map.
  
• Every map has now its own enemy waves. This means Arctic Storm now becomes more challenging, and future maps will also offer different challenges and ways to play.
  
• Each map now has some special conditions that encourage different squad builds. This feature will be expanded with more interesting conditions in the future.
  
• Mercs received a first targeting overhaul and prioritize stronger enemies or groups of enemies, depending on their personal armament. You will find it easier to attack the objective sentries now, or find that you squad shoots more reliably at more dangerous enemies. Further improvements will follow.
  
• You will find new rare resources on Waste Land to further upgrade your rooms in the bunker HQ. This is also recommended to survive the stronger hordes in Arctic Storm or Waste Land.
  

Everything else:

• Bosses now drop more rare loot components.
  
• Mercs now contribute an individual amount to Carry Capacity.
  
• Hail deals slightly more damage per bullet.
  
• Screws no longer count as 1 capacity, but as 0.1
  
• Shooting Range now also provides a Crit Damage bonus.
  
• Magnetron increases your pickup range by 7.5% per level.
  
• Fixed an issue where, in the bunker, the clone pod in the Clone Bay was empty although you had selected a Commander.
  
• Researching new traits now immediately adds them to the random rotation. Until now, they were only added after the next run.
  
• New maps now cost 100 BD to fully unlock, as originally intended.
  
• Changed the display for the amount of loot you have recovered when dying in an operation.
  
• Fixed various instances where the amount of BD & DNA you recovered when dying was not correctly calculated based on your Commander traits or Gear items.
  
• Added various new enemy waves and patterns to make the maps feel more individual.
  
• Changed Health pickup to heal a fixed amount of HP and slightly increased its drop chance.
  
• Most ranged attack enemies now shoot a bit earlier.
  
• Arctic Storm and Waste Land have slightly stronger variants of the Minibosses.
  
• Increased prices for buying standard components.
  
• One-Man Army aura does knock-back enemies again. A major update for active abilities is currently in the works.
  
• Fixed multiple instances where Merc stats were displayed in a wrong format, or incorrectly.
  
• Increased the invulnerability timer when capturing objectives or during the Boss intro animation.
  
• Improved the camera behavior for Boss Intros.
  
• Objective sentries now drop XP and rarely HP pickups.
  
• Replaced the explosive barrel, slightly increased its activation radius, and shortened its time till exploding.
  
• Each map now has a unique wave that is defending the Extraction Point, instead of the elite Peashooter.
  

[h2]Moving Forward[/h2]

This update marks our first major update for the Early Access of Survivor Mercs.

We still have a lot more updates on our roadmap, and we are looking at also releasing this roadmap to the public very soon™.

We appreciate everyone of you who is already supporting us in this early stage of the Early Access. Please don't forget that the game is still under development. Even after this update there are still a lot of rough edges and potentially also some bugs you may encounter. The balancing may be off in some areas. And you may sometimes still find some things not really well-explained.

Please trust us that we are working on all of these things. And this is also a great chance for you to participate in the development of the game by providing us with your feedback, insights, and ideas.

So come and join us on our Discord server, and let's make a great game together!

Boo, Commanders, it's spooky time!

For a bit over a week, Survivor Mercs catches the Halloween fever. Join us for a scary-good time in the game and on our Discord server to prepare for our launch of the first major Early Access update in the coming days!



We are currently working on the last bits of a completely new map, including a scary new boss, a new music track, a new enemy type, and lots of balancing and gameplay improvements. We're also overhauling the maps to provide a progressive challenge, so get ready to mix up your favorite squad builds and try some new combinations to survive the onslaught!



To celebrate the spooky season, the Mercs converted your HQ into a Haunting Bunker and got scary masks for your Commanders. Take the horror to the battlefield and haunt the army hordes in the eerily-decorated maps.

This event marks the first one in a series seasonal celebrations. Starting with cosmetic content, we are going to introduce special challenges and game modes in the future. Join our community and let us know what you want to see for future events!

Of course, this update does not only come with a creepy theme but with some fixes & improvements:

• Your control is no longer interrupted when capturing an objective or another animation timeline plays.
  
• Added setting to confine your mouse cursor to the game window in Fullscreen mode.
  
• Fixed the issue that you couldn't unlock the Arctic Map if you had 0 BD.
  
• Fixed some display errors with the loot extraction penalty.
  
• Fixed an issue where Mercs didn't deal damage correctly to enemies.
  
• Changed Gym HP bonus in preparation for more upgrade levels with the coming Major Update #1.
  
• Improved UI for the Components Detail tab in Operations menu.
  
• Piercing stat for melee Mercs does work correctly in preparation for the upcoming Armor system update.
  
• Fixed a potential issue with animation timelines not working properly since the last update.
  

We also worked on a bunch of additional fixes, improvements, balancing adjustments, and QoL features which will be released with the upcoming major update.

Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!

PS: if you're a party boo-per, you can also turn off the seasonal content in the Settings menu 😉

Commanders, here comes another update for Survivor Mercs. Thanks a lot to all the fantastic players who helped us find and fix some of the more annoying issues, and provided inspiration for many quality-of-life improvements.

We're now focusing most of our efforts on the first major update. Stay tuned for the upcoming announcements and keep the feedback coming via the Steam forums and our Discord server!

• Fixed an issue where you could get stuck in the level after successfully defeating the boss or extracting at just the right time.
  
• Fixed an issue where you would be stuck in a powerup effect until the end of its animation when dying.
  
• Reaper's projectiles now correctly use the Piercing attribute and no longer penetrate everything by default.
  
• Increased the targeting distance for most Mercs and aligned their firing range accordingly. This should fix most issues with certain Mercs not attacking the bosses or shooting very late at enemies closing in on your Commander.
  
• English is now the default fallback language in case there are missing strings from a localized language.
  
• Added missing glyphs to the Chinese translations.
  
• The UI containers in the Storage menu should now be scrollable with the mouse wheel as intended.
  
• The Forcefield gear item is destroyed correctly when the Commander receives damage from any source and should no longer make you invulnerable against e.g. the Bosses' fire attacks.
  
• Reduced the risk of Mercs and enemies getting stuck in weird corners and edges.
  
• Clank's turrets should be able to lock onto bosses more easily and shoot them more reliably.
  
• Reduced the unlock requirements for many Mercs and multiple Gear items.
  
• Fixed an issue with oversized text in some in-game animations after switching languages.
  
• Increased Scorch's Inferno skill lane to receive a higher potential damage bonus.
  

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
We continue improving the game and work on fixing these issues soon:

• Nubetube & Curveball sometimes re-acquire different targets and deviate partially from their attack pattern
  
• When using a Gamepad, the button bindings may not show up correctly in the bunker menus.
  
• The progression of Room Upgrades is soft-locked at a certain upgrade level since some of the components required to upgrade the rooms are not yet dropping in the map. This will only become available once additional maps go into the game with the future Early Access updates.
  
• The Operations menu shows an active “Select” button while the Arctic map is still locked. Using it does not change the map, you will still play the Desert map until the Arctic map is unlocked.
  
• Sounds can stack when capturing objectives, spiking to uncomfortable volume levels.
  
• Some objective sentries can spawn inside of other buildings.
  
• You may not be able to select the Arctic Map when you have 0 BD (you need at least 1 BD.
  

Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!