Undead West News

Howdy, gunslingers!



It’s already time for the second stop on the Undead West Year 1 Roadmap! How time flies by,., Strap in, as the Boss Rush Mode is here! Along with the brand new game mode we’ve also introduced the Bounty Board! Both additions are made available in the Hub with the pre-requisite that the final boss has been defeated at least once.

[h2]Boss Rush Mode[/h2]

There are two variations of Boss Rush added in the new update, each offering a unique challenge for even the most seasoned gunslingers.
[h3]Boss Rush Random[/h3]
Boss Rush Random takes you to a specially designed 6-room level where you face a random boss from each stage of the game. For example, the first room could have any Catacombs boss, those being the Mutant Rat, the Cube, or the Blob.


As you progress through this gauntlet of undead horrors, a boon reward drops upon each boss defeated to give you that much-needed power boost to keep going and face increasingly tougher bosses. Strategy will be key - choosing the right boons to complement your playstyle could mean the difference between victory and being another ghost haunting the West!
[h3]Boss Rush All[/h3]
Boss Rush All will truly test your mettle as you face each and every non-secret boss in the game, in order. That's right: 12 bosses all up! Starting with the Mutant Rat and ending with the final boss of the game, The Man in Red, this version will test your bullet dodging skills to the absolute limit.


Boon rewards will only drop from the last boss faced of each stage, however all the other bosses do give a little health and whiskey replenisher as a top-up. Can you take them all on?
[h2]Bounty Board[/h2]
The Bounty Board can be found in the top left corner of the Gunsmith's room in the Hub. To view the bounties, interact with the board and check out your 3 optional bounties. Each bounty will be for a specific Boss and have their own unique requirements: in order to be completed, you must use the specific weapon, outfit, and whiskey shown on the bounty during the boss fight.


You can accept all 3 bounties at the same time if you want, then head into a normal run to see if you face the boss you want to take down. These bounties add an exciting new layer of challenge and strategy to your regular runs.

After completing a bounty (or bounties), head back to the Bounty Board in the Hub and turn in your bounty to claim the cash reward. Use your hard-earned cash to purchase new items, weapons, and upgrades to help you survive the Undead West!

That’s all for this update, happy hunting and see you in the next Roadmap devlog!

Deathless Games and Retrovibe

Hello Gunslingers,

While we're working on the March update, we've prepared a small patch to address a couple of bugs and issues that popped up after previous update.

• Fixed an edge-case issue related to the Roadmap update where saving the game mid-run then updating the game would cause a save file reset
  
• Fixed Hub NPC dialogues using the wrong dialogue keys
  
• Fixed Merchant Shop item prices in Stage 3 from being $0 to the intended amount
  
• Fixed an issue with keybinds where binding the button for UI interaction (left click on mouse/keyboard, A button on most controllers) to another action would cause the player to be unable to select and interact with the UI
  
• Added a new short visual to the cutscene after defeating the final boss

Until next time!

Howdy, gunslingers!

Patch #3 is here, and it’s a first stop on our roadmap! This content update marks the completion of the first milestone we've planned for this year. From the highly requested Save & Quit feature through new challenges like armored enemies to The Ferryman NPC who will make add a new flair to your runs after beating the last boss at least once.



And here’s more good news!: Undead West is now 15% off as part of the Lunar New Year Sale!



[h2]Patch #3 Notes[/h2]

[h3]Highlights[/h3]

• Saving & Quitting has been added, accessible via a campfire in the first room of Stages 2-6. This will save your current run's progress and take you back to the main menu. You can safely quit the game and next you launch, just click 'Continue' to pick up from where you left off.
  
• A new character has been added to the Hub. The Ferryman room unlocks in the Hub after defeating the final boss at least once. The Ferryman can take you to the start of any stage, however in doing so you are passing up the opportunity of receiving boons from the bosses of stages you have skipped. The Ferryman is quite useful if you feel like practicing a certain stage or, potentially, a specific boss.
  
• Various enemies across stages 3-6 can now spawn with 'armor'. Each armor shield above the enemy's head takes two hits to break before you can deal damage to their regular healthpool.
  
• Enemy Spawners in stages 5 & 6 have been updated to have increased wave counts.
  
• A new alternate miniboss has also been added to Stage 5! The large Tumbleweed takes the place occasionally of the Billy & Ted wagon miniboss duo, and for player's running a fisticuffs build - feel free to take full advantage of the chainguns provided in the room of the Tumbleweed miniboss fight.
  
• The Merchant shop in Stages 3,4 & 6 now has increased cost for shop items offered for each later stage.

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Stage 2 Lantern Ghost miniboss attack patterns have been updated to have a faster projectile speed and alternate spirit summoning projectile directions
  
• Stage 2 Gravekeeper Boss now throws a small dagger aimed at the player during the 'Fan the Hammer' attack pattern
  
• Stage 2 Gravekeeper Boss also now aims in the player's direction when throwing rows of knives
  
• Stage 2 Lich Boss now has small runic projectiles coming out of the spinning spiky runes that rotate around the Lich as he moves towards the player

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Spacing between words for different languages in the Opening cutscene has been improved to avoid overlap visual issues
  
• Fixed a duplicate crosshair bug when running on Steam Deck
  
• Fixed Stage 1 Blob boss using the incorrect Boss intro portrait
  
• Fixed Stage 3 Large Bat enemy having no projectiles on ranged attack pattern
  
• Fixed an issue with the chainguns in the Stage 5 boss fight where both flame and bullet projectiles would fire at the same time when the Flamethrower is equipped, but the player is on the chaingun

Once again, thanks for playing, and hope to see you in the West!

Deathless Games and Retrovibe

Hello gunslingers!

Undead West has now been out for a month, and we’d like to thank everyone for their kind words, sharing feedback, and leaving reviews. We’re excited about the 93% positive reviews, and let us tell you, we’re just getting started!

We’ve been looking forward to sharing with you our upcoming plans for Undead West over the following year and here they are with the Undead West Year 1 Roadmap!

Our goal is to release a substantial content update every 3 months during 2025 each of which will add new content, bug fixes, and occasionally quality of life changes to the game. Furthermore, we will be releasing small updates between them, to tackle any reported bugs, balance issues, and anything that needs our immediate attention.



[h3]Month 1[/h3]
Starting with January, beating the final boss will unlock a new room in the hub where the Ferryman is located. This NPC will ferry the player to the start of Stages 1-6 at no cost or fee, however by starting a run this way you will have access to fewer boon opportunities from the previous stages you have skipped. If you want to practice a certain level or are looking to fight a particular boss though, this is perfect for you.



We are also adding in the ability to save your game mid-run at the start of each stage past the Catacombs with a handy optional campfire. Walking up to an interacting with the campfire will prompt the player with a ‘Save Game’ query which will save your run and take you back to the Main Menu. Now you can safely quit the game and next time on launch you can continue your run right from where you left off.



In the Month 1 Update we are also taking a look at the difficulty in Undead West and making some additions and changes that will challenge experienced roguelite players a bit more. Bosses such as the Gravekeeper are getting their attack patterns updated to target the player’s position and encourage players to reposition more often. We are also aiming to make mid-stage minibosses and end of stage bosses match player power scaling as the player gains boons that increase their damage output during a run.

In addition in this update a variety of enemies across the stages will be given the ability to spawn with armor. Armor on enemies will display as a small shield icon above their head. One hit from any damage source will ‘splinter’ the armor, changing the shield icon to a version that has visual cracks, a second hit will ‘break’ the armor, communicated with a unique sound effect and the armor sprite disappearing. After armor is destroyed then the player can now deal damage to the enemy’s normal health pool. As the player progresses further into the game they will encounter more and more types of enemies spawning in with 1-2 pieces of armor.

We also found that Stages 5 and 6 could be progressed through at a reasonably rapid pace and we’re encouraging challenge by increasing the number of waves of enemy spawners in both of these stages. On the bright side, each enemy killed gives money so that means more money by the end of a run!



We will post devlogs in the future that go into more detail on the content of the other roadmap updates closer to the time that they will be released, like the Boss Rush mode coming in March that will provide the opportunity to practice and test your skills by facing each boss in the game directly one after the other. Thanks for reading and playing, we hope you enjoy the upcoming update this month and look forward to the next devlog drop!

Hey everyone,

We're back with another Undead West patch to jump-start the holiday season. This time we're tackling some boss-related issues, as well as some other improvements. We're keeping this patch lighter than the previous one with a goal is to release more frequent, but smaller patches.

If you’re enjoying Undead West, we’d greatly appreciate it if you shared the game with your friends or left a Steam review to help us reach more players.

Check out full patch notes:

• Fixed stage 5 boss room static chainguns giving boss health instead of damage when Rifle, Hellfire, or Big Iron are equipped
  
• Fixed stage 6 Man In Red/Nightmare boss healthbar names not changing during phase swap-over
  
• Added post-final boss fight end text scene quick skip with button actions tied to 'Left Click' only
  
• Fixed merchant shop hearts not adding to max hearts if player had any empty hearts (and the same with shop whiskeys)
  
• Slightly improved Homing Bullets boon tracking effect to more often target enemies that the player is aiming towards instead of random enemies
  
• Added (not yet localized) Steam Rich Presence for when player enters a stage or is fighting a Boss
  

Once again, thanks for playing, and hope to see you in the West!

Deathless Games and Retrovibe