Backpack Battles News

Hello, everyone!

Backpack Battles will take part in the 2025 Steam Chinese New Year Sale from January 27th to February 10th, 2025.

During the event, you can purchase Backpack Battles with a discount of -10%. We hope you enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2427700/_Backpack_Battles/

[h3]Hi everyone![/h3]

Here is a small round of balance adjustments, mostly catching up on some of the Pyromancer subclasses that fall behind in higher rankings. Unless something needs immediate action, the next adjustments will probably be with the next content patch. Stay tuned for the next beta branch coming soon(-ish)!

[h2]Changelog for 0.9.31[/h2]
Neutral

• Holdall: Block 5 -> 6
  
• Poison Spear: Damage +2
  
• Hammer: Damage +1
  
• Investment Opportunity: Maximum health 2.5 -> 3
  
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cooldown 2.1s -> 1.9s
  
• Cubert: Chances 50% -> 55%
  

Pyromancer

• Burning Blade: Damage +2
  
• Friendly Fire: Cooldown 3s -> 2.9s
  
• Frozen Flame: Block 17 -> 19
  
• Sapphire Whelp: Mana Cost 2 -> 1
  
• Solaris: Heat chance 50% -> 60%, Block 15 -> 18
  

Reaper

• The Fool: Cost 4g -> 3g
  
• Darkest Lotus: Cost 7g -> 6g
  

[h3]Hi everyone![/h3]

Last week, we changed the Hero Sword recipe to include only a single Whetstone. Our first impression it that the changes have landed quite nicely and that they are here to stay.

We will let y’all experiment for at least another week and keep a close eye on everything Hero Sword-based in particular.

We are having a new poll on our Discord server, by the way - so come by and let us know what you think.

[h2]Changelog for 0.9.30[/h2]
Neutral

• Poison Dagger: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.2s
  
• Bloody Dagger: Cooldown 2.8s -> 2.5s
  
• Spectral Dagger: Bonus damage 5 -> 6
  
• Shepherd’s Crook: Buff protection 25% -> 35%
  
• Stone Armor: Empower removal 1 -> 2
  
• Shelly: Cleanse increase 35% -> 30%
  
• Snow Stick: Cooldown 1.9s -> 2.1s, damage +1
  
• Knife to Meet You: Speed boost by daggers 10% -> 15%
  
• Mana Mastery: Cooldown 5s -> 4.7s
  
• Smelly Wall: Block needed 20 -> 18
  
• Pop: Speed per Mana 3% -> 4%
  
• Cthulhu: Cooldown 5s -> 4.5s
  

Pyromancer

• Chili Pepper: Cooldown 5s -> 4.8s
  
• Chili Goobert: Heal 12 -> 14
  
• Frozen Flame: Block 14 -> 17
  

Berserker

• Cheese: Cooldown 4s -> 3.8s
  
• Cheese Goobert: Maximum health 18 -> 20
  
• Deerwood Guardian: Heal 12 -> 15
  
• Brass Knuckles: Stun chance 40% -> 50%, stun duration 0.4s -> 0.3s
  

Reaper

• Demonic Flask: Damage 0.4 -> 0.35
  
• Strong Demonic Flask: Damage 0.75 -> 0.7
  
• Death Scythe: Stamina cost 1.0 -> 0.8
  
• Mr. Struggles: Debuff chance 30% -> 25%
  
• Mrs. Struggles: Cooldown 3.7s -> 4.0s
  

[h3]Hi everyone and Happy New Year![/h3]

This balance patch will be more experimental than usual, with adjustments to the crafting paths of Spectral Dagger, all Rainbow Gooberts, and the Hero Sword (also impacting all its crafts).

We will be closely watching to see if these things are too strong, too weak and if they flow well and will adjust accordingly next week.


[h2]Change Notes for 0.9.29[/h2]
Neutral

• Poison Spear: Damage +2, Block removal 5 -> 6
  
• Spectral Dagger: Recipe changed to Dagger + catalyst Mana Orb (it will not be consumed). Damage 3 - 6 -> 1 - 3, cooldown 2.1s -> 3.0s, bonus damage 7 -> 5. This is an experimental change.
  
• Poison Dagger: Cooldown 2.7s -> 2.5s
  
• Bloody Dagger: Cooldown 3s -> 2.8s
  
• Hero Sword: Recipe is changed to Wooden Sword + Whetstone. Damage bonus 2 -> 1. This is an experimental change.
  
• Steel Goobert: Activations 5 -> 6
  
• Hero Longsword: Damage bonus 4 -> 3, damage -2
  
• Falcon Blade: Damage -2
  
• Crossblades: Damage -8, speed bonus 75% -> 60%
  
• All Rainbow Gooberts are now crafted without a (basic) Goobert. Activations needed 6 -> 9, Blind 4 -> 3. This is an experimental change.
  
• Shelly: Cleanse increase 40% -> 35%
  
• Lightsaber: Damage +2
  
• Darksaber: Damage +2
  
• Jynx torquilla: Speed buff limit 40% -> 50%
  
• Prismatic Orb: Cost 13 -> 14
  
• Stone Shoes: Block 40 -> 45
  
• Holdall: Block 4 -> 5
  
• Shepherd’s Crook: Blind/Cold resistance 40% -> 50%
  
• Ice Armor: Start of battle Block 60 -> 75
  
• Frozen Buckler: Damage blocked 10 -> 12
  
• Smithing for Dummies: Stamina reduction 18% -> 22%
  
• Stoned: Block generation 70% -> 75%
  
• Hardwood: Block bonus 15 -> 16
  
• Slime Time: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.0s
  
• Superspacious: Trigger speed bonus 5% -> 7%
  
• Spicy Banana: Heat chance 30% -> 40%
  
• Investment Opportunity: Health gain 2 -> 2.5
  
• Girl Power: Cooldown 6.2s -> 6.7s
  
• Blood Manipulation: Unhealing 20% -> 15%
  
• Heavy Drinking: Cooldown 8.5s -> 10s, Speed bonus 40% -> 50%
  
• Snowcake: Cooldown 3.0s -> 2.8s
  
• Pop: Damage +1
  

Pyromancer

• Solaris: Sun Shield Heat chance 40% -> 50%, Sun Armor Block bonus 13 -> 15
  
• Frozen Flame: Block 12 -> 14
  
• Burning Sword: Heat needed 5 -> 7
  
• Burning Blade: Heat needed 4 -> 6. Damage -1
  

Berserker

• Extra Angy: Duration 50% -> 60%
  
• Brass Knuckles: Stun chance 30% -> 40%, duration 0.5s -> 0.4s
  
• Deerwood Guardian: Mana gain 2 -> 3
  
• Hawk Rune (Weapon): Critical Hit chance 15% -> 12%
  
• Hawk Rune (Inventory): Cooldown 4s -> 3.3s
  

Ranger

• Markswoman: Damage 15% -> 20%
  
• Acorn Ace: Stamina reduction 10% -> 12%
  
• Ranger Bag: Baseline crit chance 10% -> 12%
  
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 17 -> 15
  
• Fortuna’s Hope: Chance 70% -> 75%
  

Reaper

• Mr. Struggles: Debuff chance 35% -> 30%
  
• Mrs. Struggles: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.7s
  
• Demonic Flask: Damage per debuff 0.45 -> 0.4
  
• Death Scythe: Stamina cost 1.2 -> 1.0
  

[h3]Hi everyone,[/h3]

We hope you had wonderful holidays so far!

With 2024 coming to an end, it's time for a quick look back and a glimpse into the future of Backpack Battles.

For the development team (meaning Doro and Mario), this year was without a doubt one of the most exciting and wild ones ever.

We entered Early Access in early March and it was without exaggeration an overwhelming once-in-a-lifetime success. Collectively, all Backpack Battles players have a total of 30 million hours (or around 3500 years), which is mindboggling.

Thank you so much, everybody!

Since then, we did everything in our power to make this game as good as it can be.

We added many features, many of which were planned and part of the roadmap - and many of which came up over the last nine months.

So here are some highlights of things we added during the year:

• We had the honor to work with the devs of other indie games we know and love on crossover content, such as Balatro, Claws & Chaos, Magicraft, and Wildfrost!
  
• We added class badges, so accessing the items of multiple classes at once became possible
  
• We added loadouts, enabling more playstyles for each class as well as the option to start with a random selection of items
  
• We added a history where you can see your previous runs and do more fights with them!
  
• We added skills to make runs more varied and dynamic
  
• And just now, we added lobbies so you can play with your friends and Custom rules (both for lobbies and unranked games) for whacky fun runs.
  
• …And of course there also were the Rainbow Goobert and Ranger plushies :)
  

With the 0.9 update and during Early Access, we added a total of 173 different items! (15 of them being Treasure uniques) - 90 of them coming with the 28 major updates during the EA.

[h2]…Towards the launch[/h2]

Originally, we planned to leave early access within 3-6 months. Looking back - well, we didn't.
As it typically goes, cool ideas pop up during development. And after checking back with you guys on Discord, we decided that taking our time and not closing ourselves off to cool stuff is the better way. This allowed us to implement features like the History, Skills, and Loadout options that we would not want to miss from the game anymore.

One thing you can be sure of is that we are going to fully release in 2025 though! (Stay tuned for an actual announcement)
We have been working on both the Mage and the Adventurer in the background the whole time, and lot of progress has been made.

There is also one thing from the original roadmap that is still untouched: At the start of 2025, we plan to check back with y’all to find out what you want from a ranking system as well as some improvements we have in the back of our heads.



[h2]So, everybody…[/h2]

[h2]Thanks again for everything - for recommending Backpack Battles to friends and streamers or streaming it yourself, for leaving reviews, reporting bugs, making our plushies a reality, and simply enjoying the game! ❤[/h2]

[h2]We wish you a Happy New Year 2025! [/h2]

We are now taking a short break and will be back with a very experimental balancing update on January 3rd. 😉