Axon TD: Uprising News

Endless Survival is finally here, and with it, a bevy of fixes and improvements, some new maps, and quite possibly the longest balance list we've ever done. And with it comes not only a leaderboard reset, but a Leaderboard Competition! Scroll to the bottom of this post for the full details.

Below is a video summary of what the patch entails. And beneath that, enjoy reading our lengthy patch notes of doom!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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[h3]Endless Survival[/h3]

• Survival is now Endless! Instead of capping at Wave 30, it'll keep going and get increasingly more difficult over time.
  
• Survival Upgrades have been replaced by the Meta Tech Tree.
  -- With each run, you'll gain points that can be spent in this tree. These are permanent upgrades that do not affect your score.
  -- However, you can only select one of two upgrades at each junction. By the time you max it out, you will have 18 out of 33 possible upgrades.
  -- You are also able to respec your points.
  -- In-game, under your Active Techs, your Meta Techs will also be listed.
  
• Islands Map adjustments:
  -- Free Adds per wave reduced from 2 to 1, but instead, the end of wave reward that gives Adds has been increased by 1.
  -- The Warden Boss now moves faster in later waves of Endless.
  
• Wave Lists in both maps have had their lists adjusted to be generally more difficult. Wave 30 in particular is no longer 3x the length of the previous wave.
  
• End of Wave Rewards now cap at 120 Credits, 6 Adds or 3 Recycles, 60 Power
  
• Mine/Trap Techs will no longer show up in the reward pool if you have neither of those.
  

[h3]Quickplay[/h3]

• Added 3 new Quickplay maps: Exodus, Contingency and Interwoven that are 20 waves each.
  
• Minor adjustments to several Quickplay maps.
  

[h3]Co-op[/h3]

• Added 3 new Co-op maps: Tower, Expanse and Scattered that are 20 waves each.
  
• Two Fronts has been updated to feature 4 more waves and a bigger layout.
  
• Implemented player scaling to Co-op, meaning you can now play the Co-op maps with less players than intended.
  -- This is done by rotating the rewards over the waves between the existing players, or granting them several times, in the case of a solo player, along with scaling up the passive rewards.
  

[h3]Improvements[/h3]

• Hard Difficulty has been added! The Difficulty Options are as follows:
  -- Easy: 150 Lives. 80% HP. Score Multiplier x0.5. Playable in all modes except Survival.
  -- Normal: 100 Lives. 100% HP. Score Multiplier x1. Playable in all modes.
  -- Hard: 100 Lives. 120% HP. Score Mutliplier x1.5. Playable in all modes except Campaign.
  
• The Difficulty is now displayed when hovering over a replay on the leaderboard.
  
• You will now always see your current leaderboard standing at the bottom of the leaderboard, regardless of what rank you're viewing.
  
• Basic Hotkey Support has been added!
  -- 1 through 8 on the Numrow will access your Towers.
  -- 9 and 0 on the Numrow will access your two Overloads.
  -- Shift + 1-3 can be used to Upgrade your Towers.
  
• "Show Damage Numbers" can now be toggled in-game.
  
• Increased the size of Axon selection boxes so they're easier to click.
  
• You can now see the Damage Amp value on an Axon that is selected.
  
• Added a prompt to the Restart button in the in-game menu.
  
• Updated our Survival save system.
  
• You can now toggle the path indicator by pressing F11.
  
• Seeker Drone is no longer static when not moving.
  
• Replaced World Engine with Arc Reactor in Tutorial 5.
  
• Mission 15 in the Campaign has been updated in its design:
  -- It's a little easier to "connect the paths" now
  -- Boss spawns on Wave 5 instead of Wave 4
  -- Preplaced Link Blasters are all active now, platform distance has been tweaked to require 4 Adds in total to connect them to the main path
  
• A bunch of new icons have been added
  

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• Added two new music tracks.
  
• Each track will now loop twice before transitioning to the next.
  
• There is now a 60 second pause between music tracks.
  
• Added environmental ambience tracks based on the current map biome that will play constantly in the background. These go under SFX in Settings.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a Checkpoint abuse with Pre-placed Techs.
  
• Fixed Plasma Vent and World Engine firing when nothing was nearby.
  
• Fixed the overlapping paths on a rotator breaking valid placements on Quickplay map "Interwoven".
  
• Fixed "Front targeting" not prioritizing Teleporters in the front.
  
• Fixed the Wave preview not accounting for Mk II Axons in newer maps.
  
• Fixed the Infector ability not disabling Gravity Driver and Gravity Generator.
  
• Fixed a stacking bug with Link Blaster U2.
  
• Fixed an issue where Drilling Laser U3 could trigger rapid-fire explosions on the edge of its range.
  
• Fixed "Shield Break" effects not actually breaking Shields.
  
• Fixed Orbital Cannon U3 sabotaging itself (none of its attacks actually fired) when the cooldown got really low.
  
• Fixed "Wave End Blocker" not rewarding any Blockers beyond the initial pickup.
  
• Fixed "Gain a Recycle when placing a Deployment within 3 range of the Exit" counting Blockers.
  
• Fixed Sniper range indicator being incorrect. Adjusted the visual on this a bit, probably more tweaking to come.
  
• Fixed Command Link U1 counting Blockers, Traps, Mines and Pre-placed towers.
  
• Fixed Radiation Vent U2 erroneously listing a damage value.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Marked Tiles give Damage Amp" Tech was giving Nullreference Errors, and it is now reenabled in Survival.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Life Insurance" Meta Tech also prevented you from losing more than 50 lives to the Bosses in Survival.
  
• Fixed the Meta Tech "Attrition" starting with full damage amp and decreasing rather than the opposite.
  
• Fixed the "Overload Cost" Meta Tech increasing the cost by 2 instead of reducing it.
  
• Fixed the Survival Meta Tech "Freebies" giving Techs that did nothing, or Techs from the lategame pool.
  
• Fixed the Damage Graphs not being hidden when you toggled the UI.
  
• Fixed the "No Adjacent Damage Bonus" Tech also applying to Mines and Traps.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Active Techs" button would disappear after being minimized in Replays.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Jump to Wave" functionality would display an incorrect wave count in Replays.
  
• Fixed Gravity Generator U1 not applying EMP properly.
  
• Fixed not being able to Start a new wave with Space Bar.
  
• Fixed Replicants granting Score.
  
• Fixed an issue that could give you an Argument Out of Range Exception in Co-op.
  
• Fixed a typo in Mission 2
  

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Balance[/h2]

[h3]Score Multipliers[/h3]

• Life Multiplier no longer exists
  
• Perfection Multiplier added:
  -- If you get a Perfect Wave, congrats, you gain 10% of the amount of Score you earned that wave!
  
• Path Multiplier has been severely reduced:
  -- Before, it'd go up by a flat amount per X amount of tiles.
  -- Now, it's based on the difference between your current path length and the starting path length. Additionally, the higher it goes, the more that diminishing returns affects it.
  -- In a nutshell, most maps will let you to get to x1.5. Beyond that, it gets increasingly more difficult, and in most cases, it won't exceed past x2.
  -- An entry has been added to the Codex, explaining exactly how this works.
  
• Speed Multiplier reduced:
  -- Old: Starts at x2. Starts declining after 100% of the Wave Length + 10 seconds.
  -- New: Starts at x1.25. Starts declining after 130% of the Wave Length.
  -- This still decays over the same period of time as before. In general, killing fast is still rewarding, but not by as silly of an amount.
  
• Easy Difficulty Multiplier increased from x0.25 to x0.5
  -- The reason it was so low before was because the Speed Multiplier was super high. Now with it not as inflated, Easy doesn't need to suffer as big a penalty.
  
• Axons spawned during a wave no longer give any score.
  

[h3]Effects[/h3]

• Damage Amps & Damage Buffs now stack additively instead of multiplicatively. So for example, if you had 20%, 25%, and 30% Damage Amps...
  -- Old: 1.2
• 1.25
• 1.3 = 1.95 = 95% Damage Amp
  -- New: 1 + 0.2 + 0.25 + 0.3 = 1.75 = 75% Damage Amp
  -- The reason this was applied was because stacking them was outright silly. Individual Amps, in most cases, weren't a problem. But when you stacked them, you could very well reach x2 or even x3 damage and delete Axons at the spawn. Now with them stacking additively, we can safely buff weaker ones without them stacking together so dangerously.
  

[h3]Overload Balance[/h3]

• Boost Range Overload range boost multiplier from x2 to x3
  
• Nuke Overload flat damage increased from 40 to 50
  
• Amplify Damage Overload duration increased from 4s to 5s
  

[h3]Smart Targeting[/h3]
Most single-target towers will now focus down Support Axons and Spawners, provided nothing is close to leaking. This affects the following towers:

• Pulseray
  
• Link Blaster
  
• Plasma Cannon
  
• Sniper
  
• Inertia Blaster
  
• Seeker Drone
  
• Arc Reactor
  
• Orbital Cannon
  
• Drilling Laser

And these towers will now prioritize the following Axons:

• Mass Teleporters
  
• Mass Cloakers
  
• All healing support units: Repairer, Adv. Repairer, Supply Tank and Medivac
  
• Protectors
  
• Purgers
  
• Spawners: Carriers & Replicators
  

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[h3]MegaCorp Towers[/h3]

Pulseray:

• Damage increased from 14 to 16
  
• U1 adjusted:
  -- Damage reduced from 16 to 12
  -- Power cost from 25 to 30
  -- Instead of increasing damage per consecutive attack, it increases attack rate by x1.15, up to a max of x4
  -- DPS wise, this is about 25% higher than the previous version. Additionally, since Pulseray has a 0.1s mini-stun, this upgrade now takes advantage of it.
  
• U2 adjusted:
  -- Damage increased from 16 to 20
  -- No longer increases attack rate
  -- Now has a global cap of 10 Power per wave, no matter how many Pulserays you have. This makes it usable in all modes without being outright silly in Survival.
  
• U3 replaced:
  -- Old: Upon killing an Axon, attack rate is drastically increased for the next few attacks.
  -- New: Ignores Shields, and deals massive bonus damage to Shielded Axons.
  -- The old upgrade was stupidly good early, and then fell off a cliff, making it useless. Now it's, well, useless early, but becomes incredibly powerful vs. Shields.
  
• Tech adjusted:
  -- No longer ignores Shields
  -- Attack rate increased by 30%
  
• For Pulseray, we decided to adjust its Upgrades to scale much stronger than before. This does come at the cost of them being near useless early (except U2). However, the tower should no longer be considered a "wasted pick" in your Loadout.
  

Blast Cannon:

• Damage increased from 10 to 12
  
• U1 stack damage increased from 4 to 6
  

Link Blaster:

• Attack rate increased from 1.5s to 1.2s
  
• U1 now Ignores Shields instead of reducing 2 Shield Charges per attack
  -- There's not much point in it reducing Shields when U3 does that job but infinitely better.
  
• U2 power cost from 35 to 30
  

Portable Generator:

• Credit cost increased from 25 to 30
  -- For what it does, it's too convenient, so we bumped the cost.
  
• Tech adjusted to increase damage of MegaCorp Deployments from +5 to +25%
  -- Also tooltip wording now states Deployments instead of Towers. This was technically true before, now it's properly clarified. Enjoy putting them next to Plasma Vents & Proximity Mines!
  

Plasma Vent:

• Damage increased from 5 to 6
  
• U2 Damage Amp reduced from 40% to 20%
  -- This one was an oversight on our part. At one point, it didn't have any linger duration, so 40% made sense. After we added the linger duration, we forgot to dial the actual Amp % down.
  -- Additionally, power cost from 25 to 30
  
• Tech, damage bonus per adjacent empty tile reduced from +2 to +1
  -- It's one thing to power up from a tech; it's another thing entirely to potentially more than double in power
  
• Now only triggers when an Axon is nearby. This doesn't affect its balance, but it should reduce its performance cost when used en masse, especially in late-game.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed its attack rate to be affected by the Mine Recharge Rate tech
  

Gravity Trap:

• U1 power cost from 30 to 25
  
• U3 pull range from 1 to 1.5
  

Target Marker:

• U2 mega buffed:
  -- Cooldown reduced from 20s to 10s
  -- Damage Amp increased from 10% to 30%
  -- Damage Amp Increment increased from +2% to +10% per bounce
  -- Effect Duration increased from 4s to 5s
  -- Effect Bounce Range from 2 to 5
  

Proximity Mine:

• Now has unlimited charges
  
• U2 AoE increased from 0.5 to 0.6
  -- This shouldn't affect its actual balance much. However, this does mean when a Replicant passes by, the explosion will actually hit the darn thing.
  
• Tech no longer increases charge count by +1
  

[h3]Vex Industries Towers[/h3]

Plasma Cannon:

• Damage increased from 24 to 32
  
• Attack rate reduced from 1.7s to 2s
  
• U1 damage over time increased from 12 over 6s to 16 over 8s
  
• U2 adjusted:
  -- EMP duration from 6s to 5s
  -- EMP cooldown from 10s to 8s
  
• Tech has been replaced:
  -- Old: Ignores Shields
  -- New: Attacks periodically bounce once, 8s cooldown
  
• It now shoots a bit slower, but hits harder. Plus its attack rate lines up with U2's EMP cooldown and the Tech's bounce cooldown better than before. The tower has crazy utility, and as thus, the tech has been adjusted so that it no longer ignores one of its only weaknesses.
  

Reaper:

• Damage increased from 6 to 7
  
• U1 has been replaced:
  -- Old: Range increased by 1
  -- New: If the target is below 50% HP, this tower applies a 50% slow for 2s.
  
• U2 has been replaced:
  -- Old: Applies an EMP periodically. Was identical to Plasma Cannon U2's EMP effect.
  -- New: When it kills an Axon, buff the attack rate of this tower and adjacent towers by 30% for 5s.
  -- This effect was on the Tech, now it's an Upgrade and more powerful
  
• Tech replace, range increased by 1
  

Sniper:

• Damage increased from 50 to 55
  
• Range increased from 3-5 to 3-6
  
• U1 adjusted:
  -- Damage increased from 36 to 40
  -- No longer removes minimum range, range adjusted from 0-6 to 2-7
  
• U3 AoE increased from 1.5 to 2
  
• On the whole, Sniper was a bit on the weak side, and somehow, it got outranged by World Engine, so now that's fixed.
  

Missile Launcher:

• Damage increased from 18 to 20
  
• U3 damage from 12 to 15
  -- Targeting has also been adjusted. If there's an Axon in range that has Armor, it'll switch to that; otherwise it'll continue to shoot the same target.
  

Mass Driver:

• U3 adjusted:
  -- Damage reduced from 45 to 40
  -- Power cost increased from 35 to 40
  -- Even with these nerfs, as long as you can get 8+ Tiles with it, this upgrade is still worth it. And there's numerous maps where you can pull off 12 or even 15+ Tiles.
  

Gravity Driver:

• U3 adjusted:
  -- Range increased from 6 to Global
  -- Slow reduced from 50% to 45%
  

Command Link:

• U1 replaced:
  -- Old: Connected Towers gain 15% Damage
  -- New: If connected to only 1 or 2 Towers, increase their Range by 2.
  -- This used to be a no-brainer upgrade. Now, it has utility to work in tighter locations.
  
• U2 replaced:
  -- Old: Recovers lives equal to the number of towers connected, but only lives that were lost this wave.
  -- New: Gain 1 Life for every 2 Towers connected. Global cap of 6 Lives per wave.
  -- Old version was really confusing, and kind of mediocre. This one does have less "recovery" power, but it means you can go over your max lives.
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- Power cost from 20 to 25
  -- Power bonus per connected tower reduced from +3 to +2
  
• Tech replaced:
  -- Old: Connected Towers gain an additional 1 Range
  -- New: Connected Towers gain 10% Damage
  -- Hooray, you still get your damage upgrade! It's just on the Tech, and it's less powerful.
  
• In general, Command Link was a "staple tower" that was strictly too powerful before. Now it's been dialed back but also given more flexibility.
  

EMP Mine:

• Now has unlimited charges
  
• EMP duration from 6s to 7s
  
• EMP cooldown from 10s to 15s
  
• U1 replaced:
  -- Old: +2 Charges
  -- New: --5s Cooldown
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- AoE increased from 2 to 3
  -- No longer deals % Current HP damage
  -- Now properly Breaks Shields
  
• Tech now triggers an aftershock with a 3s delay
  
• In general, EMP Mine shouldn't expend itself as fast anymore, and it's been powered up in some departments
  

[h3]Astrosys Labs Towers[/h3]

Inertia Blaster:

• U3 will now recover to max damage if it doesn't attack for 15s
  
• Tech replaced:
  -- Old: Ignores Shields
  -- New: Max damage increased by 10
  -- This is already a powerful tower. Its Tech should not let it bypass one of its only weaknesses.
  

Seeker Drone:

• Damage increased from 7 to 8
  
• U1 bonus damage increased from +7 to +8
  

EMP Gatling:

• U1 attack rate reduced from 0.4s to 0.5s
  
• U3 Damage Amp from 20% to 30%
  -- For an Amp that's both single-target and conditional, it was pretty weak, hence the large buff.
  

Gravity Generator:

• Slow increased from 30% to 35%
  
• U3 bonus slow increased from 20% to 30%
  

Network:

• Damage increased from 4 to 5
  
• Damage cap increased from 30 to 40
  

Temporal Mine:

• Now has unlimited charges
  
• "Cannot be teleported again" debuff duration reduced from Infinite to 30s
  
• U2 slow duration increased from 3s to 5s
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- No longer reduces range
  -- Damage Amp reduced from 25% to 20%
  
• Tech replaced:
  -- Old: Instead teleports Axons forward, applying a Damage Amp, only applied to Unupgraded Temporal Mines
  -- New: Gains 2 Teleport Range for each adjacent walkable tile
  -- Now it's useful on all Upgrades, and it encourages you to avoid clumping a bunch in one spot
  

[h3]New Frontier Towers[/h3]

Artillery:

• U1 replaced:
  -- Old: Range increased by 2, minimum range removed, attack rate increased
  -- New: No longer deals impact damage, instead deals drastically increased damage-over-time
  
• U3 now deals Plasma Damage
  
• Tech adjusted:
  -- Old: +6 Damage
  -- New: Range increased by 2
  
• Overall, it has more utility, and with the Tech, it can reach some fun locations, regardless of the Upgrade
  

Cryobeam:

• Tooltip has been adjusted to list an attack cap instead of "60% Max Slow", because due to the Slow Formula in this game, 60% was false anyways. Its Max Slow is actually 0.8
• 0.8
• 0.8 = 0.512 = 51.2%
  
• U2 now has a global cap of 10 Power per wave, just like Pulseray U2
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- Old: Target instead receives a speed boost and has a Damage Amp applied to it for a short duration.
  -- New: Applies a stacking speed boost and Damage Amp to the target, up to a cap. Each stack has its own duration.
  -- Damage Amp from 50% in one attack to 15% per attack
  -- Speed Boost from 30% in one attack to 10% per attack
  -- Attack cap increased from 1 to 3, effectively
  -- Before, this one was way too strong, particularly in a single shot. Now it requires stacking for it to reach the equivalent strength.
  
• Tech adjusted:
  -- Old: Attacks bounce, but Slow reduced to 15% per stack
  -- New: Attacks bounce, but Slow/Amp duration reduced from 3s to 2s
  -- Now it applies properly to both the Slow & Amp effects, and in a much cleaner way
  

Drilling Laser:

• U1 adjusted:
  -- Old: Retains 35% of its damage when switching targets
  -- New: Base damage increased, now deals Plasma Damage
  -- The old upgrade wasn't bad, but it's the type of thing that should be applied to all Upgrades, so we moved it to the Tech.
  
• Tech replaced:
  -- Old: Ignores Armor
  -- New: Retains 25% of its damage when switching targets
  

Plasmathrower:

• Damage increased from 5 to 6
  
• Targeting priority changed from Nearest Target to Furthest Target
  -- This means it will no longer sabotage itself and consistently hit everything in a line while still having the flexibility to be able to hit two lanes, if set up properly.
  
• U1 now also increases firing arc from 60 to 90
  
• U2 adjusted:
  -- Damage increased from 2 to 3
  -- DoT increased from 3 over 3s to 5 over 5s
  

Frag Hammer:

• U1 replaced:
  -- Old: Side nodes deal 80% damage.
  -- New: If it strikes an isolated target, it deals x4 Damage.
  -- U1 was super redundant with its Upgrades, it now should serve a decent purpose as a hybrid finisher
  
• U2 stun from 0.75s to 0.6s
  -- This was somehow outdamaging U3 because it would manage to hit the same target twice, and U3 is supposed to be the raw DPS option
  
• Tech adjusted to gain the attack rate bonus if there are no adjacent deployments, instead of "nothing in a 3x3 area"
  

Nuclear:

• U2 replaced:
  -- Old: Deals additional damage if there's less than 4 Axons in range
  -- New: Axon Shields do not recharge while in range
  -- Nuclear doesn't need three damage upgrades. This was the least used one, so we replaced it with a support effect.
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- Debuff can no longer stack and now only refreshes inside the range of another Nuclear U3
  -- Debuff damage increased from 8 over 4s to 30 over 10s
  

World Engine:

• Damage increased from 9 to 11
  
• Attack rate reduced from 3s to 4s
  
• Tech replaced:
  -- Old: Ignores Armor
  -- New: Attack rate increased by 1s
  -- Lategame, being able to Ignore Armor is a very powerful effect, and World Engine is already a strong tower. It's a buff to mid-game, nerf to late-game.
  
• Will now wait for an Axon to enter its range before attacking, instead of all of them attacking at the same time
  
• Now ignores Shields
  -- This is actually a nerf, because this means grabbing a bunch of World Engines no longer negates Shields in a massive radius
  

Radiation Vent:

• U1 replaced:
  -- No longer deals % Current HP damage or slows
  -- Now the damage over time it deals to the Axon is also applied equally to its Armor
  
• U2 slow increased from 25% to 30%
  
• U3 adjusted:
  -- Damage increased from 45 over 15s to 80 over 20s
  -- Bounce range increased from 3 to 5
  

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Tech Balance[/h3]

• In Survival, there were many Techs that had a max wave. With Endless being a thing, the majority of these techs no longer have a max wave.
  -- There are a handful that stop showing up from Wave 30 onwards, and they're specific to the Islands Survival map, which has a limited number of islands and preplaced towers
  
• +12 Credits each wave increased to +16 Credits
  
• +6 Power each wave increased to +8 Power
  
• +1 Add every 2 Waves increased to +2 Adds every 3 Waves
  
• +1 Blocker every 2 Waves increased to +2 Blockers every 3 Waves
  
• +1 Recycle every 4 Waves increased to +1 Recycle every 3 Waves
  
• There's two sets of techs that reduce Credit Costs on Towers, and another that reduces it for Traps & Mines. These have been rolled together and now affect all Deployments.
  -- Credit Cost Tech 1 from -4 to -5
  -- Credit Cost Tech 2 from -15% to -10%
  
• Likewise, there's two sets of techs that reduce Power on Towers, and another that reduces it for Traps & Mines. These have been rolled into one and now affect all Deployments.
  
• Tech that reduces Credit Costs by up to -10 now only affects Towers instead of all Deployments
  
• Tech that gives Increased Mine Charges no longer does so
  -- This is because all Mines now have Unlimited Charges
  
• Boost on Leak Attack Rate increased from 15% to 25% for 8s
  
• Tower Initial Bonus Damage increased from 10% to 30%
  
• Lives at end Length Threshold increased from 10% to 20%
  
• Damage Amp at end increased from 10% to 20%
  
• Marked Tile Damage Amp increased from 10% to 20%
  
• Interest Tech Credit gain based on unspent Credits increased from 10% to 15%
  
• +1 Blocker when Selling a Tower no longer shows up in Survival
  

[h3]Axon Balance[/h3]
As listed in the massive list above, many towers received buffs, including ones intended for early game. However, we don't want to make that phase of the game easier, so as a result, numerous early game Axons (and a few underwhelming late-game Axons) are receiving a minor HP bump. Early game, it should feel about the same as before.

• Scout HP increased from 36 to 40
  
• Sentinel HP increased from 90 to 100
  
• Juggernaut HP increased from 270 to 300
  
• Transport HP increased from 60 to 70
  
• Squadron HP increased from 18 to 20
  -- Squadrons now have 4 Shield Charges, up from 1
  
• Berserker HP increased from 60 to 70
  
• Booster adjusted:
  -- HP increased from 90 to 100
  -- Boost duration increased from 0.25s to 0.3s
  
• Regenerator HP increased from 100 to 110
  
• Cloaker adjusted:
  -- HP increased from 70 to 90
  -- Cloak cooldown increased from 2s to 3s
  
• Infector HP increased from 90 to 100
  
• Avenger Squadron HP increased from 42 to 50 per unit
  
• Linked Squadron HP increased from 50 to 60 per unit
  
• Purger adjusted:
  -- HP increased from 100 to 120
  -- Can no longer be shut down by EMP. To counterbalance, we've nerfed its effect values a bit.
  -- Cleanse effect duration reduced from 2s to 1.5s
  -- Cleanse cooldown increased from 5s to 6s
  
• Overcharge Tank adjusted:
  -- HP increased from 100 to 110
  -- Boost speed increased from x1.75 to x3.2
  -- Boost duration reduced from 4s to 2s
  -- While the net distance is nerfed, the effect is way more noticeable. For a more mid-to-lategame Axon, its effect was considerably underwhelming before.
  
• Mass Cloaker HP increased from 120 to 130
  
• Colossus HP reduced from 450 to 400
  
• Hoverjets now move 50% slower when jumping over Towers
  

Additionally, any Axons with Healing effects have been adjusted so they recover a small amount of % HP. This is overall a slight nerf in most modes except Survival. As the HP Multiplier cranks up over time, these healing effects will no longer get outscaled.

• Repairer heal from 30 to 28 + 2% of targets' Max HP
  
• Adv. Repairer heal from 100 to 95 + 2% of targets' Max HP
  
• Medivac heal from 40 to 40 + 1% of targets' Max HP
  
• Supply Tank heal from 5 to 3 + 0.5% of targets' Max HP
  
• Regenerator heal from 4 to 3 + 1% of its Max HP per second
  
• Linked Squadron heal from 20 to 20 + 0.5% of its Max HP per second
  

[hr][/hr]
And that's everything for Version 0.2! With that many changes, Score Leaderboards have been reset. Enjoy climbing the ranks again! Speaking of which...

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Survival Leaderboard Competition[/h2]
Do you have what it takes to reach the top of the Survival leaderboards? Well, in a week, look forward to our first ever leaderboard competition!

• Be the top person on the Survival Leaderboards for the First Map!
  
• To prove this, stream your run, and provide a link to the VOD (and timestamp, if it's a longer video).
  -- Once the competition begins, we'll have a dedicated channel/thread for this on our Discord).
  
• This'll run from October 20th to 27th.
  -- Start and cutoff times will be 10am PST / 1pm EST / 7pm CET.
  

Winner of the competition will get $200! We'll post a Steam Event reiterating this info when the time officially starts.

A few weeks ago, we ran an Open Beta for Endless Survival, and we received a lot of positive feedback on it. We also saw folks "break the game". That said, while we work on polishing up this version, we want to clarify how we're intending on approaching this.

[h2]Balance Philosophy[/h2]
Our approach to balance in this game is much more lax than it was in Element TD 2. As many builds as possible should work. If something is little strong, that's fine. If something is weak, buff it. Only nerf something if it stands out.

However, with the introduction of Endless Survival, certain effects and upgrades are scaling way stronger in that mode, to the extent that it's breaking the mode itself. We don't want to adjust everything else to be Endless either (which, doing so would arguably homogenize the rest of the game). At the same time, we can't just hard nerf those upgrades because, well, they'd be terrible everywhere else.

As a result, there's a lot of changes. Just about every Tower, Trap, Mine, & Upgrade is being adjusted. This includes:

• Boring upgrades.
  -- We have a few too many upgrades that are just "increased range", and we want to reduce those.
  
• Redundant upgrades.
  -- Ie, Nuclear has three upgrades that increase how much damage it deals, just in different ways. One of them will be replaced with a support effect of some kind.
  
• And then upgrades that are only good in a specific mode.
  -- % HP damage, for example, is going out the window
  -- Certain upgrades let you accrue silly amounts of Power and Lives, especially in longer modes
  

On top of that, numerous Axons got some buffs. Some buffed so that the relative balance in early game is about the same. Some buffed so they scale stronger later in the game. At the same time, we've improved Smart Targeting so that towers will focus particularly dangerous Axons better (ie, Mass Teleporter).

We also found numerous bugs that rendered certain towers either useless (Orbital Cannon U3 stunlocking itself) or way more powerful than intended (Drilling Laser U3 triggering rapid-fire explosions at the edge of its range).

On the whole, there should be far more options and build variety than before. Experiment at will, and form tons of fun new builds!

That's odd, I don't recall Pulseray having a continuous beam...

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[h3]Endless Survival[/h3]
For those of you that tried the Open Beta, whether you hardcore broke the mode or not, we are bumping the HP scaling on it. Numerous folks were reaching way further than intended, and that's without Meta Techs accounted for. Of course, we're working on rebalancing some of those as well.

Additionally, many in-game Techs have been buffed, and they no longer disappear after certain waves. We're looking into adding some sort of weight so you can't see the same one that you've passed over and over again.

We can confirm that 16,000 Lives is no longer possible to achieve.

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[h2]Patch Release Date[/h2]
We plan to release Version 0.2 on Friday, October 13th. Included in it will be:

• Endless Survival
  
• Survival Meta Tech Tree
  
• 3 New Quickplay Maps
  
• 3 New Co-op Maps
  
• Hard Difficulty
  
• A ton of balance changes
  
• Quality-of-life and bug fixes
  

[h2]Open Beta Details[/h2]
In a few weeks, we're aiming to release Version 0.2.0! Included in it is Endless Survival, the Meta Tech Tree, new Quickplay & Co-op Maps, a boatload of balance changes, and of course, QoL updates and bug fixes.

And right now, you can try it out early! Version 0.2.0.preview is available this weekend! To do so:

• Right-click Axon TD: Uprising in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the Betas tab
  
• In the Private Betas textbox, enter ReachTheEndless
• Click Check Code
  
• Click Opt into: endless

This beta will remain open until Monday, September 18th, @ 3pm CST. This won't include any of the new maps, but it will include everything else.

Below is an overview of the changes and features in this version. Check it out below!

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[h2]Endless Survival[/h2]
Survival is going Endless! Instead of ending on Wave 30, it will now go on... forever! Starting from Wave 31 onwards, the waves will get even longer, and the Axons will get increasingly tougher! This is somewhat exponential.

While you are intended to be able to hit the 40s and 50s, eventually, even with the Meta Tech Tree, you're intended to die somewhere around Wave 60 to 70.

Though, if you do get further than that, then congratulations! Speaking of that new Tech Tree...

[h3]Survival Meta Tech Tree[/h3]
You know that useless Meta Progression Tree that reduces your Score Multiplier? We've thrown it out the window and replaced it with something way better and more thought out:

Icons are a bit placeholder, but it should communicate the point!

As seen above, you have two choices at any given junction, and you get to select one of them at a time. You get points to unlock Meta Techs after each Survival run. By the time you unlock everything, you'll have a max of 18 Upgrades out of a total of 33 Possible Upgrades. Oh, and these don't ruin your Score Multiplier.

Some of these increase your starting resources. Some affect your Lives. Some buff the damage of your Towers, with some caveats. Some give you benefits when you inevitably leak. There's a ton of possibilities. Choose what fits your playstyle!

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[h2]New Maps[/h2]
We also have new maps incoming as well! This includes 3 Quickplay Maps & 3 Co-op Maps! All of these maps will include more waves than the existing maps, offering a longer gameplay experience.

There's some pretty wild maps coming...

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[h2]Score Multipliers[/h2]
The idea behind the Path Multiplier is to reward you for making a long maze. That's fine, but also, it's cranked way too high. Going foward, it'll have diminishing returns, so instead of hitting upwards of a x10 Multiplier, you're getting more like x1.5, and upwards of x2 at the absolute cap.

The Speed Multiplier is also higher than intended. While you should be rewarded for clearing out the wave quickly and efficiently, it shouldn't be as much as x2. We've dialed down the cap to x1.25, and it decays at a slower rate, giving more leeway time to clear the wave with a max multiplier. This should let slower killing builds have a chance at getting a decent score still.

Up next, we're getting rid of the Lives Multiplier for a few reasons:

• If you make a mistake, it penalizes you for the whole game.
  
• It gives Life Recovery, or worse yet, anything that gives you lives over the cap too much value.
  

In its place, you'll get a Perfection Bonus. Should you clear the wave without losing any lives, you'll gain a score bonus equal to 10% of the score you got that wave.

There's also Difficulty Options, which are as follows:

• Easy: 150 Lives. 80% HP. Score Multiplier x0.5
  
• Normal: 100 Lives. 100% HP. Score Multiplier x1
  
• Hard: 100 Lives. 120% HP. Score Mutliplier x1.5
  

Extending off this, Easy will become available for the Campaign, and Hard will become available in all other modes.

How long of a maze can you make on this map?

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[h2]Balance[/h2]

[h3]Stacking Effects[/h3]
When it comes to individual effects, like Slows and Damage Amps, having just one of each is pretty good, but nothing more than that. But when you start stacking these effects, they start getting out of control. For Slows, it's not as big of a problem, because so many effects in the game counter Slows. Which, in of itself, might be considered a problem, but we'll revisit that in a later version.

Damage Amps & Damage Buffs, however, if stacked, can result in upwards of a x3 Damage Multiplier, possibly higher. So to fix that, we're adjusting them to be Additive instead of Multiplicative. For example, if you had 20%, 25%, and 30% Damage Amps...

• Before: 1.2
• 1.25
• 1.3 = 1.95 = 95% Damage Amp
  
• After: 1 + 0.2 + 0.25 + 0.3 = 1.75 = 75% Damage Amp
  

With them stacking additively, we can safely buff weaker ones without them stacking together so dangerously.

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[h3]Mines[/h3]
Mines will no longer have limited charges! This means, especially in longer waves, they'll no longer fizzle out well before everything else. Any Upgrade or Tech that previously increased charges will instead buff something else.

[h3]Towers & Traps[/h3]
A lot of towers have received buffs, like Pulseray, Blast Cannon, & Sniper. Numerous bad, boring, or redundant Upgrades & Tower Techs have been adjusted or replaced outright.

On the flipside, many outliers have been dialed back, like Plasma Vent U2's Damage Amp, which was mistakenly way higher than intended.

Overall, there are more buffs than nerfs, and build variety should be improved.

[h3]Axons[/h3]
The early game was already at a fair balance, and we don't want to make that easier. In order to maintain relative early game balance, we're also buffing the HP of most early game Axons, including Scout, Sentinel, Juggernaut, Berserker, and a few more.

A few Axons in particular are receiving nerfs, namely Colossus, and the cursed Hoverjet. It will be moving considerably slower when jumping over Towers.

[h3]Other Balance[/h3]
Lastly, several underwhelming Overloads (like Boost Range) and Techs (like Tower Initial Bonus Damage and Attack Rate on Leak) are receiving buffs. This should help reduce the chance of frustratingly bad choices when they appear as choices in-game.

For the record, that wave number and those resources are no longer possible to reach.

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[h2]Release[/h2]
Since this update includes more than we initially anticipated, it will take a little longer to actually release. Instead of releasing late this month, it should instead release within the first two weeks of October. Overall, it's roughly a two to three week delay from what was originally planned.

If you want to see patch notes of every change so far, we have a Changelog available on our Discord). We'll post full patch notes to here on Steam when Version 0.2.0 releases officially and things are finalized.

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[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
First up, Replays on the Quick Play & Co-op Leaderboards will not display correctly. This is due to the large number of balance and mechanics changes between the main and beta versions. Survival Leaderboards will temporarily make use of new leaderboards.

Next up, we have a list of issues we're aware of. We're working on fixing them, but in the meantime, the game is still fully playable. Here they are:

• We're aware that unlocking Starting Towers/Overloads in Survival "costs 0 Points". This is temporary; later, we'll remove the need to unlock them at all.
  
• Sniper's range indicator is incorrect.
  
• Pressing "Space" no longer starts the next wave.
  
• Gravity Generator U1 does not consistently EMP targets within range.
  
• The Meta Tech "Life Insurance" also prevent you from dying to a Boss when leaked above 50 life.
  
• The "Marked Tile" tech can result in a Null Reference Exception, and is currently disabled from Survival.
  
• "No Adjacent Tower" bonus damage tech also applies to Mines and Traps.
  
• In replays, once you've closed down the "Active Techs" menu, it won't come back. This can be fixed by jumping to a different wave.
  
• In replays, spawned Obstacles often appear in the wrong tile, leading to towers seemingly being placed on top of Obstacles, or the path being erroneously blocked.
  
• In replays, Credits and Power will sometimes display negative values.
  
• Hiding the UI does not hide the Damage Graphs or Paths.
  
• Replicants (Replicator spawns) still give 1 score. Spawned units should no longer give score.
  
• If you Hide the UI when the level is completed, it cannot be turned back on.
  
• n the off chance you reach and beat Wave 120 in Endless Survival, the game will break. This is a temporary limitation that we'll be addressing by release.
  
• Command Link can connect to a Blocker.
  

Sadly, this does absolutely nothing.

First up, we'd like to thank everyone that's played Axon TD! We released into Early Access last week, and we've gotten Very Positive Reviews so far! Of course, we've also gotten lots of feedback (especially on our Discord).

[h2]Roadmap[/h2]

Yes, Workshop Support is actually planned for this game.

We're planning to be in Early Access for roughly 12 months. In that time, you'll see New Levels, Towers, Axons, and numerous other features!

Of course, over time, we'll also be doing balance updates, quality of life improvements, adding new music, and fixing bugs.


[h2]Update Frequency[/h2]
We plan on doing larger updates once every two months. These can include any of the major features listed on the Roadmap above, as well as lists of smaller changes. Anyone that's seen our extensive patch notes for Element TD 2 knows what to expect here.

Balance changes will also happen on these larger updates, along with Leaderboard Resets.

Between the large updates, we expect there'll be smaller updates focused on hotfixes and minor Quality-of-Life adjustments.


[h2]September 2023 Update[/h2]
For our first large update, we are intending on releasing it near the end of September, right before the quarter finishes. Included in this update will be:

• New Levels
  
• Hard Difficulty
  
• Graphics Options & Performance Improvements
  
• Balance and Quality-of-Life
  
• Bug Fixes