Genome Guardian News

[h3]I'm aware of a critical bug preventing players from add a mod to a slot that you clearly should be able to (which can lead to a softlock during Classic Mode). I haven't been able to solve this yet, so I figured I'd get this update out there in the meantime. Fixing this is my current top priority though!

After I handle that, I have even more cool QoL stuff coming your way too![/h3]

[h3]NEW STUFF:[/h3]

• ARSENAL: There are now filter buttons that let you toggle what weapons are shown in the Arsenal. The "1/2/3/4" buttons toggle weapons based on tier (DNA letter count, and the others should be self-explanatory. You can reset your filters with the grey button on the right.
  
• Click on a mounted weapon's name during a run (while the game is paused or the wave isn't actively occurring, so it's clickable while in the shop) to bring up a new evolution menu, which is essentially an abridged ARSENAL menu that shows you exactly which weapons it could potentially evolve into if you add more DNA letters. You can also use those ARSENAL filters on this menu! (NOTE: I needed to rush this update out to fix some critical bugs, so I didn't have time to add proper in-game explanation of this mechanic - that will be present in the next update. Honestly don't be surprised if there's bugs with this currently.)
• When you have a weapon DNA letter selected in the shop and hover it over a weapon with a slot, the weapon's name will temporarily change to indicate what the weapon would become if you add that DNA letter.
  

[h3]BALANCE:[/h3]

• (turret) Tower: Heat Max 10 → 25, Cooling Rate 10 → 25, and eliminating microbes now causes cooling to occur 1s sooner (so if there was 1.5s before it would trigger and you eliminated a microbe, it would then be 0.5s).
  

[h3]CHANGES:[/h3]

• The "MOD WILL DO NOTHING" warning now mentions that you can still click to add the mod anyways (you always could - there's just a short delay, depending on certain conditions such as Beginner Tips still being enabled).
  

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]

• "NEW!" could appear twice above Mirror in the PERKS menu.
  
• The count of perks unlocked on the CHECKLIST was using the value for turrets unlocked instead!
  
• (perk) Poison: It would stop reducing your Health once you reached half Health, letting you have indefinite double Firerate (which was not intended).
  
• Being defeated via running out of Health while in the shop (which seems to be a Jester-exclusive occurrence) will no longer cause the gameplay UI to linger after returning to SETUP (you'd have to restart your game for it to function properly again when this occurred).
  
• (turret) Maw: Can now trigger power-ups by consuming them.
  

🚨 I've checked myself as best I can, but if this update causes you to be unable to reach the main menu or some other major bug, please LET ME KNOW in the Discord and I will fix it ASAP! 🚨

EDIT 1: Perk menu fixed!

EDIT 2: I'm aware of a bug preventing players from adding weapon mods when they should be able to sometimes, as well as a bug that can freeze the game - I'll have these fixed as soon as I can!


[h3]I've been VERY hard at work setting things up for turret & perk variants, which I would say is "half ready". That required putting the game into a fairly broken state that I needed to "put back together" before I could do another update.

Also, I'm aware of some FPS-related issues (animations playing quicker than they should + FPS not being capped for some people). Working through people's reports best I can! Remember, I'm just one guy doin' his best (while trying to mentally process the recent explosion of the game's popularity).

My next big priorities are (not necessarily in order):

• Improving the early-game experience.
  
• Performance optimization (both during gameplay and getting rid of the delay when opening some menus).
  
• Various QoL improvements.
  
• Maybe getting some turret & perk variants actually ready for release.
  

For now, you can have:[/h3]

[h3]NEW STUFF:[/h3]

• 8 New Cosmetics:
• Research → Miscellaneous: "Reveal Unknown Unlock Conditions" (6000 Research) will show the unlock conditions for everything in the CHECKLIST that says "UNLOCK CONDITIONS UNKNOWN". Note that it stops saying that after you unlock that thing regardless, and don't be surprised if some of the game is spoiled to you when those hidden ones are revealed.
  

[h3]CHANGES:[/h3]

• You'll notice the layout has changed in Research → Miscellaneous - I've made room for future cursor / crosshair / heat style / barrel light additions.
  
• You'll now receive +500 Research when you obtain an Award (this applies retroactively, so if you've completed 10 Awards, you'll start the game after this update with +5000 Research).
  
• +5000 Research when you discover your true purpose (also applies retroactively).
• I plan on improving performance where I can a lot more in the future - currently I have it so that projectiles get deleted based on your current framerate. It's a sucky way of handling it that many thought was a bug, so I adjusted the threshold so that there will be more of a performance hit, but much less likelihood that you witness your shots vanishing.
  
• (new players only) It's now more clear that your first victory is simply completion of the introductory sequence, and it's stated clearly that the goal initially is just to reach wave 30.
  
• (turret) Demon: Can now use the Tire perk without instantly being destroyed.
  

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]

• If you only owned one of the new cosmetics, the Cosmetics button wouldn't appear in the TURRETS menu.
  
• Fixed another bug with the highest wave (survived) being incorrect in RECORDS (anyone that's never proceeded past the VICTORY screen would have only saw 29).
  
• Various achievement descriptions have been updated (unlock conditions for many things have changed since they were defined).
  
• Turret descriptions would be based on the heat type of your selected turret instead of the turret you're hovering over (for example, having the Surge turret selected would make the Scorch turret's description make reference to electricity).
  
• Victory stars weren't displaying on perks in the CHECKLIST menu for roughly half of the perks.
  
• (weapon) AGGT Stardust Mortar: Now has the Flak icon.
  
• If you were in a state that you could begin the story ending sequence but reached wave 100, there was a chance you got into a situation where microbes stopped spawning after that point.
  

[h3]FAN ART:[/h3]
More from @fisch in the Genome Guardian Discord: (note that the above pic is the greatest thing I've ever seen)

[h3]First of all, WELCOME to all the new players that joined today (thanks to Wanderbots' YouTube video)!

Genome Guardian is really starting to pick up steam now, so expect lots of cool stuff later!

(in other words, this patch seems fairly small, but I'm doing a lot of work on things behind the scenes, including work on the 6th game mode, 24 new cosmetics, and lots more)[/h3]

[h3]CHANGES:[/h3]

• After Intro Research is complete, your Research value is now rounded up to the nearest 10 (just looks nicer).
  
• The Research cost of most "Miscellaneous" items has been reduced.
  
• Faded out weapon mods in the shop and in slots were being faded out in a way that made the black part of them almost disappear, making it nearly impossible to make out what the mod is visually, but this won't be a problem anymore.
  
• Shop item icons won't be faded out while you're selecting one to banish.
  

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]

• The research bonus pop-up when completing a Turret Trial was saying "BONUS DAILY" instead of "BONUS TRIAL".
  
• Purchasing "Angelic Heat Style" or "Triple Heat Style" with Research was causing strange things to occur on the unlock pop-up.
  
• The "highest wave" value in RECORDS now reflects highest wave survived, not reached (and thus now matches what highest wave represents per turret).
  
• Wonky Heat Circle behaviour would occur if you had "Crosshair Heat Circle" toggled on in SETTINGS while using a gamepad.
  

[h3]FAN ART:[/h3]
By @fisch in the Genome Guardian Discord!

[h3]Last update before the Steam Summer Sale![/h3]



[h3]COSMETICS:[/h3]
Since players really appreciated the addition of cosmetics, I've added support for 32 more, which will release over time. On that note, here's a few new ones to start:

• Heart Pattern
  
• Detector
  
• Dish
  
• Blower
  
• Fuel
  
• Finials
  
• Rover
  
• Moon
  

[h3]RESEARCH:[/h3]
Since the number of things to buy with Research has grown (and will continue to do so), it now seems fit to take a look at how Research is obtained. There could definitely be more Research changes/increases in the future.

• You always received bonus Research upon victory, but that amount will now scale with what Depth you won at, and there will be a pop-up informing you that you've received it. Here's a before-and-after for victory Research bonus (assuming you've maxed out "Research Rate" in INTRO RESEARCH):
  
  • Surface: 180 → 0
    
  • Depth 1: 180 → 100
    
  • Depth 2: 180 → 200
    
  • Depth 3: 180 → 300
    
  • Depth 4: 180 → 400
    
  • Depth 5: 180 → 500
    
• The above values are doubled for Abyss Mode. if only you knew how to unlock it, eh?
• You'll get +1000 Research instead of +500 when you complete a Turret Trial for the first time. This will also be the case for "Daily Dive" if/when that's implemented.
  
• Note that these values are on top of the wave clear bonus you'd get at wave 30, which is +60.
  

[h3]BALANCE:[/h3]

• (perk) Pot: Size +25% → +30%. (this may still seem small, but consider that this is a multiplicative Size increase - if you have +200% Size from mods on a weapon and this perk equipped, for example, it would actually have +290% Size.)
  

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]

• (perk) Amaryllis: Icon would fade out when something came into contact with you even if you "ignored" the hit.
  
• (perk) Capacitor, Taser: These would ALWAYS be active if you used these with a weapon that has Burst Fire. They will, however, apply to all 3 shots of the burst!
  

Wishlisters: This is the one.

There may never be a greater discount than this - even if there was, it would be after a base price increase from $11.99 USD → $15.99 USD (but when & if this occurs is unconfirmed).