Survivor Mercs News

Commanders, we fixed an important issue: You now get the level-ups that you deserve!

A detailed discussion with one Commander revealed an error with the XP progression and the "soft" level cap, giving you much fewer level-ups than intended.

We fixed that issue with this patch, meaning you will now get about 10-15 more levels on average in any Operation. Of course, this had a major impact on the difficulty progression and some other systems. So we will be balancing some of the XP drops and bonuses to XP gain over the course of the next updates.

But we didn't want to delay this fix and managed to run a first balancing pass with these changes:

• The Academy room provides up to 50% XP bonus now (was 35% at max. level).
  
• Generic Upgrades for XP bonus give 4% per level instead of 2%.
  
• The drop rates for XP were adjusted for mini-bosses and Supply Drop objectives. Both drop more golden dogtags now, particularly in Elite Ops.
  
• The XP progression curve was adjusted slightly to climb at a more linear rate, offering some more frequent level-ups in the mid-to-late stages of operations.
  

These values and rates will be adjusted in the future, alongside other improvements and additions of synergies.

We fixed and improved some other things, too:

• Added some missing translations for DE & ZH.
  
• Disabled the Film Grain post-processing effect, as players reported issues with it. We will reintroduce it as a setting in a future update.
  
• Scorch's Lv3 Corrosive Fuel skill shows stat improvements correctly.
  
• Nubetube's Multi-Launcher skill should apply the additional grenades correctly.
  
• Fixes some instances where the "tag icons" for Gear and Mercs were not behaving as intended.
  
• Added a "tag icon" legend to the Armory menu.
  
• If enemies get reset to a valid position, their VFX should no longer flash across the screen.
  
• Fixed some underlying animation controls for various menus that caused unnecessary workload.
  
• PhenX homing missiles should be destroyed more reliably when PhenX is defeated.
  
• Increased Storage Room buff to Carry Capacity.
  
• Fixed an instance with PhenX not behaving correctly when preparing to dash around.
  

Some known issues remain that we are already working on:

• The "Charger" enemies may leave an invisible knockback zone on the ground when dying or moving away after a dash attack.
  
• Curveball's Ambidextrous Pitch and Forkball skill trees mess up the grenade targeting and force them to all land in one spot.
  
• PhenX can in some cases shove you out of the arena in the Elite Ops bossfight when you get squeezed between him and the walls.
  
• Automatic input recognition is still causing some nuisance with the mouse cursor sometimes interfering with controller input and vice-versa.
  
• A few stats remain not showing up correctly in some menus or popups, or may be labeled ambiguously.
  
• When configuring your clone with mouse controls, you have to click a Trait in the list once to activate the stats popup.
  
• Gear items sometimes show the same "utility" icon twice. They also don't show any damage type icon that may be affected negatively, e.g. Napalm buffing fire but nerfing other damage types.
  

As always, join our Discord or post to the Steam forums if you encounter any issues or want to leave some feedback!



Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!

Commanders, this became more than a patch: this is a medium-sized update to the game!

We are introducing some experimental synergies and would love to hear your feedback! We are working on more while expanding and finetuning our underlying systems for that. Any reports we receive from you will help us improve these game mechanics to make the game more interesting, varied, and fun!

Some of these new synergies include:

• Panzer Chocolates grant additional movement speed if your maximum HP is below 100.
  
• Chemtrail can grant a critical hit chance bonus to the whole squad based on your XP gain bonus.
  
• Kevlar Vest grants a flat armor bonus and multiplies other bonuses to Armor.
  
• Silverback scales his damage with other Melee Mercs on the squad.
  
• Nerd Glasses scale their XP bonus with the number of Tech Mercs on the squad.
  
• and some more...
  

There are also other changes to Gear, mainly that they use only 3 level-ups to max, taking some pressure off the XP progression in a run. But their trade-off kicks in also much earlier, in exchange for most of the bonuses already being granted from level 1.

Traits haven't changed a lot, yet. New synergies and more effects for Traits will go into the game in the next updates, mainly based on the feedback and data we can collect from the current experiments.

Without further ado, here are the detailed patch notes:

[h2]BOSS IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

• Added improved miniboss & boss variants for the Elite Ops to offer a slightly more different challenge than the Standard Ops.
  
• Adjusted nearly all minibosses & bosses in general to offer a more interesting challenge.
  
• Minibosses are no longer 100% immune to knockback.
  

[h2]BALANCING ADJUSTMENTS[/h2]

• The initial level-ups require fewer XP to make it easier to upgrade your squad in the early phase of an Operation.
  
• Rebalanced all room upgrade requirements to reduce the grind for BD and components, particularly for the early build and upgrade levels.
  
• Reduced research prices for most Traits, particularly higher-tier ones, to reduce BD grind and the impact of Trait research blocking other unlocks.
  
• Mercs' skill trees now offer a mix of flat damage increases and multipliers. Multiple Mercs received major adjustments to fix some imbalances with some of their different skill trees.
  
• New experimental synergy effects for selected Mercs, Traits, and Gear introduce dynamic stats that are scaling with different variables.
  
• Introduced a new stat "attack range" in some skill trees.
  
• Multiple Mercs grant bonuses to parts or everyone on your squad.
  
• Added a "Loot Goblin" enemy that is carrying some BD and may also drop some components.
  
• The final upgrade for the Storage adds an additional stack for each item.
  
• The initial armored enemies and first minibosses have slightly less armor.
  
• Lightning attacks now also benefit from Piercing to become more effective against armored targets.
  
• Increased bonus from Generic Upgrades to BD gains to 5%.
  
• Reduced re-roll cost multiplier for consecutive re-rolls to x1.5 instead of x2.
  
• Rare components now drop with a more even distribution in each map.
  
• Gym no longer provides an Armor bonus.
  
• Luck provides a tiny bonus to critical hit chance for your whole squad.
  

[h2]BUGFIXES & PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

• Fixed the issue with the "Re-roll" option not becoming available after building the Procurement room.
  
• Fixed the Boss details tab not revealing the information about Mammoth on the Bootcamp map.
  
• Improved the performance of target acquisition for Lightning Projectiles.
  
• Lightning Projectiles continue jumping between targets and are not "consumed" by armored enemies as easily.
  
• Hogsheads' barrels deal explosion damage instead of fire damage by default.
  
• Priest now correctly enables her Shield effect on the Commander after reaching the final skill in the Crusader skill tree.
  
• Fixed multiple issues with stats for Gear, Traits, and Mercs not displaying correctly in various menus & popups.
  
• Removed some "ghost colliders" on Mercs causing rare issues with collision detection.
  
• Fixed various instances of minor UI element offsets and removed unnecessary animation components to improve UI performance.
  
• Improved performance of health bars.
  
• Fixed various instances of strings not updating correctly to the selected language if set to anything but EN.
  
• Fixed an issue where the end-of-run statistics screen was not showing the dead Commander but the next one that would be generated as a new clone.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Armor Workshop referencing the wrong upgrade values.
  
• Fixed various typos in DE & EN translations.
  
• Improved physics collider setup to prevent PhenX from pushing your Commander out of the arena.
  
• Forcefield no longer shatters from enemies and projectiles you are just evading.
  
• Treasury is giving the correct BD gain bonus.
  
• Gene Synthesizer correctly allows configuring all 3 Traits at max level.
  
• Napalm, Neurotoxins and Tesla Ring should correctly apply their bonus and trade-offs.
  

[h2]UI IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

• You can now view the individual stat modifiers for each Trait in the Clone Bay, also for existing Commanders and not only during clone configuration.
  
• Bunker Rooms now show a little marker if they can be upgraded or hold a new item for purchasing or researching.
  
• New color schemes for certain enemy types help them stand out more from the horde.
  
• Heavier enemies have their own animation now.
  
• Added HP bar segmentation for bosses to communicate more clearly when bosses transition between different phases.
  
• The end-of-run inventory shows some placeholders instead of empty panels when dying or extracting without any loot, especially in the early game phases.
  
• Mercs & Gear now show their current level in the Pause Menu and ingame HUD.
  
• Gear now shows its stats at the current level in the Pause Menu.
  
• Ranged enemies show an effect when shooting, making their attacks a bit easier to spot.
  
• Status Effect visual effects were tweaked to be slightly more noticeable.
  
• Fixed some gaps in the selection outlines for Awards.
  
• Adjusted the Twitch integration setting strings to be less ambiguous.
  
• Removed line from aiming direction indicator.
  
• Tweaked hitbox for the Defender shield to reduce tunneling. Please note that enemies have a small invulnerability window, too, and can still tunnel through your shield if you try to use it like a bulldozer.
  

[h2]KNOWN ISSUES[/h2]
We are currently investigating a few Known Issues that we plan to fix as quickly as possible with a hotfix patch:

• PhenX can in some cases shove you out of the arena in the Elite Ops bossfight when you get squeezed between him and the walls. We are already working on a solution, until then please be cautious as you currently have to abort the run if this happens to you!
  
• Automatic input recognition is still causing some nuisance with the mouse cursor sometimes interfering with controller input and vice-versa.
  
• Some stats may still not show up correctly in each menu or popup, or may be labeled ambiguously. Specifically the stats list in the Clone Bay is still showing too many and sometimes not all stats from modifiers.
  
• When configuring your clone with mouse controls, you have to click a Trait in the list once to activate the stats popup.
  
• Gear items sometimes show the same "utility" icon twice. They also don't show any damage type icon that may be affected negatively, e.g. Napalm buffing fire but nerfing other damage types.
  
• "Carry Capacity per Merc" is ambiguous when choosing a Merc for your squad: this stat is only showing the Carry Capacity for the specific Merc.
  
• Nubetube's Multi-Launcher skill does not spread the shots in a wide arc but concentrates them into a smaller-than-intended area.
  
• If an enemy gets stuck and teleported back into play, you may sometimes see parts of their VFX flash across the screen.
  

Commanders, we want to hear your opinions! Join us on Discord or in the Steam forums and let us know what you think of the experimental synergies, and - as always - if you encounter any issues.



Please help us refine the game experience!

Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!

Commanders, the next patch is about to be released in these days!

This briefing is for all you new Commanders joining the battle and our veterans returning to the game after the last big update.

With the last major update, "Bootcamp" the progression and balancing changed a lot. Some areas in the game turned out a bit too difficult or grindy.

We apologize to all Commanders who are held back in their fight against M.E.G.A. Corp. by this!

The next patch (0.9.10f2) for the game is nearly ready for release but requires a tiny bit more testing and tweaking. Here's an overview of the main changes & improvements coming with this patch:

At the moment, the re-roll option is not appearing correctly after building the Procurement room. This was confirmed fixed with the last patch already but there's an issue where our test builds of the game can differ from the release builds. This should be fixed now and is one of the reasons the patch is still being tested and wasn't release by this weekend already.

We intended to make the Elite Ops a tough challenge compared to the Standard Ops in exchange for a much higher chance at rare building components to get advanced upgrades for your Bunker. Many reports have us assume that the difficulty ramp is a bit too steep, resulting in a mid-game phase that feels very grindy. We are making slight adjustments to the drop rates for Blood Diamonds and rare components, as well as the requirements for some Bunker rooms. This should allow you to progress at a more regular pace.

The introduction of the new Merc skill trees changed a lot of the damage scaling. We also discovered an issue with the underlying system that was stacking multipliers in ways that weren't intended, skewing all of our insights and data. You either figured out how to exploit this for massive damage, or struggled to make your squad builds work. We fixed this issue and are rearranging and changing a lot of the stats to align with our intentions and allow you to play the variety of squad builds that we wanted to offer, with many synergies emerging from the combination of stat modifiers and different effects.

The boss fights between Standard Ops and Elite Ops are going to differ more, offering the challenge we intended for them. Expect a few adjustments to their attack patterns and be prepared that the encounters will be more of a test for your squad builds and upgrades.

Last but not least there will be various improvements to the UI. Issues with falsely displayed stat upgrades will be fixed, e.g. Gear showing "Overall Damage" instead of the specific damage types like "Fire Damage". Some stats also appear broken because they aren't clarifying how they work, e.g. "Armor Decay" missing a hint at it being a proc effect on critical hits.

We will post a full list of changes and improvements with the patch notes for this update, as always.

Thanks a lot for your patience and understanding, Commanders.

In the meantime, please join the discussions on the Steam Forums or on our Community Discord Server.

We want your feedback to improve the game. You don't want Reaper come knocking on your door to get it.

Enjoy your weekend, Commanders!

Commanders, thanks to your reports we were able to fix various issues and adjust the game's balancing and unlocks!

As we're shipping this patch, we already prepare another one with some more drastic balancing adjustments. We identified a problem that made various bonuses scale too much. With the fix, we will also adjust the balancing to make the Mercs' combat effectiveness align more as originally intended.

Here's the list of improvements and fixes that into the game with this patch:

• Mercs target GriftLift correctly when you are standing very close to it.
  
• Re-rolls should be available correctly after unlocking them after building the Procurement room.
  
• Re-rolls work correctly with the different level-up choice types (squad vs. generic upgrades).
  
• Priest's skill trees reflect correctly what they do, but Paladin skill is currently not working as expected (see below).
  
• Various Mercs had their damage and skill trees adjusted to fall more in line with each other.
  
• Some instances of missing or wrongly displayed stats have been fixed with Merc skill trees.
  
• Merc skill tree choices are correctly handled with the Survivor Bonus.
  
• The XP curve was adjusted to make it easier to get initial level-ups.
  
• Fixed low Piercing values having too much impact on Armor.
  
• The Dig Detour award and achievement can be unlocked correctly.
  
• GriftLifts laser spinner has more interesting variation.
  
• Laserstar's lasers turn off immediately after it is defeated.
  
• Peashooter miniboss has a secondary SMG attack.
  
• Fixed an issue where Deathball enemies were still able to shoot after dying.
  
• Peashooter enemies have some more HP.
  
• Speedy enemies signal their dash to make them more noticeable in the crowd.
  
• Toasty enemies fire slightly faster projectiles.
  
• Level-up popups open quicker.
  
• Your HUD shows the Commander's armor and the exact number of HP lost when being hit.
  
• Shredder's Dragon Breath elite skill correctly applies Fire DoT instead of Bleed DoT.
  
• Hogshead's skill tree can be fully leveled-up again.
  
• Environmental obstacles reduce projectiles' piercing and may block them correctly again.
  
• Various improvements for animations, layouts, and font sizes on HUD & UI.
  
• A custom cursor for the game has been added.
  
• Mixed the button select sound to be less annoying.
  
• Fixed various instances of error log spam.
  
• Fixed an issue with the extraction animation conflicting with the boss spawn when both play at exactly the same time.
  

We are currently investigating other Known Issues and aim to fix them as quickly as possible:

• Priest's "holy shield" meant for the Paladin elite skill is currently not working as intended.
  
• Multiple DoT and armor decay skills scale too strongly on their own - these will be adjusted with the coming balancing update in favor of better synergies with Traits and Gear.
  
• Automatic input recognition is still causing some nuisance with the mouse cursor sometimes interfering with controller input and vice-versa.
  
• The end-of-run inventory screen does not show any items when extracting empty-handed and without any items in storage.
  

We are currently running a poll on our Discord server. We want to hear your opinions on "how grindy is the game":



Please join us and drop your vote and feedback to help us refine the game experience!

Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!

D-Day is the largest seaborne invasion in history, and in honor of that auspicious day we wanted to hold a very special Commander Challenge.

What’s a better dopamine rush than taking down an evil M.E.G.A. Corps in a standard operation? Successfully taking down the Evil M.E.G.A. Corps in an ELITE OPERATION! Play in our newly released Elite Operations and show us a screenshot or short video of you successfully taking down one of our bosses to earn an Elite Commander role in the Wandering Wizard Discord!

The trial is tough, but not impossible. We want your successful hard fought victory to ring throughout history, so while you’re at it, give your victory an Elite Title so powerful and noteworthy the world of Survivor Mercs will never forget it.

[h3]Submission Rules:[/h3]

• Submit a screenshot or short video of you successfully taking down one of our bosses in our new Elite Operations Mode to the Survivor Mercs Community Events Forum in the Wandering Wizard Discord
• Use the forum tag “Operation D-Day” in your submission
  
• Give a creative Epic Title to your successful Elite Operation, glorifying it for all of history
  
• React to other submissions to support your fellow Commanders
  
• One submission per user
  

[h3]Submission Details:[/h3]

• You can submit your screenshot or short video by creating a post in the Survivor Mercs Community Events Submission Forum
  
• In the upper right corner click “New Post”
  
• Select the tag Operation D-Day
  
• Title Your Submission something cool and awesome, add a description for more flavor
  
• Click on the photo icon in the top right corner of the message submission box to upload your photo or video file
  
• Click Submit and watch the reactions roll in
  

[h3]Rewards:[/h3]

• The honor of earning the “Elite Commander” role in the Wandering Wizard Discord
  

If you can’t tell we’re very excited about this most recent update! If you would like to see the patch notes please check here.

As we continue to roll our major updates and balancing fixes toward 1.0 your feedback is invaluable to us. Whether it’s chatting with you on the Discord or reading your threads in the Steam Forum, please know we want to hear from you. We actively take your thoughts into consideration when developing this game, Early Access serves the purpose of just that, so please keep it coming! Share with your friends, talk about your favorite roguelite mechanics, gloat about your most impressive runs, and above all - have fun!

We salute you Commanders.
- The Survivor Mercs Community Team