Genome Guardian News

Update 5.2.0: Steam Community Items!

[h3]🆕 STEAM COMMUNITY ITEMS[/h3]
[h2]Trading cards, badges, emoticons and profile backgrounds are now available for Genome Guardian![/h2]

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

(microbe) ːcdnaːːtdnaːːtdnaː Barreola: Offspring Health +100%.
(microbe) ːadnaːːadnaːːcdnaːːtdnaː Plantaray: Offspring Health +300%.
(microbe) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːtdnaːːtdnaː Craystructor: Offspring Health +100%.
(microbe) ːcdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaːːtdnaː Freightslimer: Offspring Health +100%.
(weapon mod) Damage +20%, Range +20%: Damage +20% → +25%, Range +20% → +25%, ːbiomassː20 → ːbiomassː25.
(weapon mod) Homing +50%, Size -50%: Size -50% → -30%.
(weapon mod) Firerate +30%, Speed +50%: Speed +50% → +75%.
(weapon mod) Firerate +20%, Knockback +40%: Firerate +20% → +25%, Knockback +40% → +50%, ːbiomassː20 → ːbiomassː25.
(weapon mod) Pierce: ːbiomassː35 → ːbiomassː30.
(weapon mod) Accuracy +60%, Speed +100%: ːbiomassː20 → ːbiomassː15.
(weapon mod) Damage +30%, Knockback +30%: Knockback +30% → +50%.
(weapon mod) Knockback +60%, Speed +200%: Knockback +60% → +75%.
(turret mod) Eliminate a random microbe every 5s: ːbiomassː25 → ːbiomassː20.
(turret mod) Cooling Rate +50%: Cooling Rate +50% → +60%.
(Turret Trial) Bearclaw: Health Max -50% → Range +50%.

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

(turret) Boomerang: Description now mentions that projectiles with homing will ignore the returning projectile behaviour if they have a target.

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

Touching the screen (if you have a touchscreen, or via Steamdeck's touchscreen) would hide the cursor until you move your mouse. This was especially bad for Steamdeck users, considering their lack of a mouse 😅. (let me know if you're still having problems related to cursors dissappearing, on PC or Steamdeck!)
(perk) Hemostat: (Hopefully) fixed the bug where it would cause you to lose a bunch of Health seemingly out of nowhere for no reason.
The hover-over turret description would sometimes overlap with the hover-over description for the third or fourth weapon. Also some other hover weirdness fixed.
(turret) Dragoon: No longer occasionally fires projectiles that just sit in front of the barrel without moving (unless they're supposed to, like if you have 0% Range).
It's now much less common (if possible at all, even) for point-blank shots to not deal Knockback.
(perk) Burner: Now fades in/out during play based on when it's active.
(perk) Emerald: Now fades in/out during play based on when it's active.
There were still some cases where multiple microbes could be marked or stamped - hopefully I've put those to bed now in this update.
(turret) Boomerang: Conditional Speed changes (ex. from the Capacitor, Leaf or Aloe perk) no longer result in reduced Range.

[h3]🎨 FAN ART[/h3]
"Commander, Surge and Bearclaw" by @true_boxed.in (Discord)

ːjasonmicrobeː ːjasonmicrobeː ːjasonmicrobeː ːjasonmicrobeː ːjasonmicrobeː

Update 5.1.6

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

(turret) Boombox: Projectile scale dynamically changes with music, but will now only have half as much of an effect on explosions and areas.
The especially rare weapon mods are significantly less rare now.
(weapon mod) Damage +40%, Speed -50%: Speed -50% → Speed -60%.
(weapon mod) Size +100%, Speed -30%: Speed -30% → Speed -70%.
(weapon mod) Size +150%, Firerate -15%: Size +150% → +200%, Firerate -15% → -25%, $20 → $30.
(weapon mod) Size +200%, Speed -70%: Size +200% → +150%, Speed -70% → Range -30%, $40 → $25.
(weapon mod) Firerate +30%: Added Speed +50%.
(weapon mod) Damage +30%: Added Knockback +30%.
(weapon mod) Critical Chance +30%: Added Speed -30%.

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

Various Weapon Mod icons have changed based on the above balance changes.
Gonna do something crazy here… Instead of having 2 Banishes per mode cleared at Depth 5… I'll let you have 3. This means that, if you've cleared all of the current modes at Depth 5 at least once, you'll have 18 Banishes at your disposal. I think this is fair, because
- Weapon & Turret Mod colour still need to be compatible anyways.
- Even if you used all your Banishes on Weapon Mods, 58% of them will still be unbanished.
- It takes time to actually get all these Banishes.
The # of the current daily dive is shown in the menu title (this provides a clear way to refer to daily dives).
Added a few more Daily Dive modifiers.

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

(turret) Dragoon: Fixed explosives ricochetting towards a microbe, then dissappearing right before hitting and not exploding. This is arguably a balance change too, because this is essentially me saying that ricochet doesn't work the same way a Pierce or Bounce (Explosives that have pierced or bounced at least once don't explode on expiry).
(turret) Tower, (perk) Stamp:
- Marks & Stamps would be abnormally large relative to the microbe they're attached to if you had a mutation that increased Microbe Size. These indicator also have a minimum size now, so they won't be impossible to see on tiny microbes.
- Fixed multiple of each existing at the same time.
- Microbes simply touching the edges of the visible area won't cause the mark or stamp to move.
The Abyss' rotation speed was ignoring the current timescale, which is relevant to turrets like Avarice and Chrono.

Update 5.1.5

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

(turret) Commander: Cooling Rate 100/s → 75/s.
(turret) Bouncer: Cooling Rate 100/s → 125/s, Cooling Delay 1s → 1.25s.
(turret) Daisy: Cooling Rate 100/s → 75/s, Cooling Delay 1s → 0.75s.
(turret) Hotdog: Accuracy +40% → +50%.
(turret) Psyker:
- Projectiles now orbit much closer.
- Range +500% → +600%.
- Firerate -70% → -60%.
- Hitscan weapons now have 360° Accuracy (like Saturn).
- Description now mentions that it has +100% Knockback (it's always had this modifier).
(turret) Kaleido:
- For each A Submachine Gun: Firerate +10% → +15%.
- For each C Pistol: Accuracy/Range/Speed +25% → +30%.
- For each G Shotgun: Size/Knockback +50% → +70%.
- For each T Bomb: Damage +10% → +15%.
(turret) Colossus:
- Heat Max 100 → 125.
- Cooling Rate 100/s → 75/s.
(turret) Boombox:
- Cooling Rate 75/s → 100/s.
- Cooling Delay 1s → 1.25/s.
(perk) Glue: Also prevents microbes from spewing offspring when eliminated.

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

There's now a little pop-up on the weapon evolution and ARSENAL menu that points out the filter buttons (If you've already played a bit, there's a chance it may not show for you).

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

(turret) Dragoon: Projectiles with Bounce weren't able to bounce. (fair warning though: ricocheting bounce projectiles can be a bit weird sometimes).
(turret) Crane: Would face instant destruction if you start a run with the Scalpel + Hemostat perks.
(perk) Saline, Hemostat: These can now work together.
Forgot to add a song to CREDITS: "Artificial Emotions" by Timothy Kulig (menu music).
(mode) Abyss Mode: The Abyss would occasionally remain invincible for longer than it should be.
Changed the old Briefcase-related SETUP tip to match its current function.
Projectiles with bounce that grew to be the size of the visible area could cause the game to chug - I thought I had fixed this before but there some holes in the way I tried to do so.
Low Knockback values would sometimes deal no Knockback when applied to enemies.

[h3]🎨 FAN ART[/h3]
"The Microbes" by @true_boxed.in:

[h3]P.S. Steam Community Items coming soon![/h3]

Update 5.1.4

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

(weapon) GGGG Wakequake: I think (after much discussion with expert players) that Wavequake's innate 360 Accuracy is genuinely a huge advantage, so I'm increasing the amount that that trait of the weapon decreases its stats. Thus: Damage 13.4 → 12.5 (DPS 160/s → 150/s). Now the second highest DPS tier-4 weapon (which is pretty darn good).
(weapon) AACT Burst Anti-Air Missile: I've felt this weapon was lacking for quite some time - I've given it a new trait that should help immensely, based on a suggestion in the Discord: Now, each missile produces 3 explosions in a row. I think it's on-theme with the whole '3-burst' aspect of it.
(weapon) AGGG Wavespread Repeater: Actually just made a typo when setting its Damage. Fixing it brings its DPS from 148/s → 144/s.
(turret) Crane, (perk) Shell: If you have 0 Health Max at the start of a run or any time during a run, you won't be destroyed by having -100% (or lower) Health Max. If, however, you used turret mods or something else to go above 0 Health Max and Health hits 0, you will be destroyed.
(perk) Tweezers: Accuracy +75% → +80%.
(weapon mod) Size +200%, Speed -70%: $30 → $35.
(weapon mod) Range +100%, Damage -25%: $30 → $25.
(weapon mod) Damage +90%, Range -60%: $35 → $30.
(weapon mod) Homing +100%, Firerate -20%: $30 → $35.
(weapon mod) Damage +90%, Firerate -30%: $25 → $30.
(weapon mod) Firerate +90%, Damage -30%: $25 → $30.
(weapon mod) Speed +200%: $15 → $10.
(weapon mod) Projectiles +100%, Accuracy -100%: $35 → $40.
(weapon mod) Projectiles +100%, Range -35%: $35 → $40.
(weapon mod) Burn: $35 → $40.
(weapon mod) Sticky: $25 → $30.
(turret mod) Heat -10% per elimination, Heat Max -20%: $35 → $40.
(turret mod) Firerate +50% for 1s on elimination: $35 → $40.
(turret mod) Power-up Duration +100%: $15 → $10.

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

Let's face it: It's always optimal to banish all 4 weapons once you've filled all weapon slots. This means that, even after clearing all 6 currently live modes at Depth 5, you're left with only 2 Banishes to use on weapon or turret mods. This kind of defeats the purpose of the system, it's not just supposed to be a means of removing weapons. Thus, I'm now granting 2 Banishes per mode first cleared at Depth 5 instead of just 1! That'll mean you'll have 8 Banishes to use after banishing 4 weapon letters - in other words, you'll actually be able to engage with the system in the way that I originally intended.
The Biomass price for opening slots now doubles with each subsequent slot opened in a row instead of simply increasing by 5. This is primarily to address how quickly turrets with few weapon mounts (like Focus, which only has 1) can attain a completed build (before this update, it would take a lot longer to have all slots filled on, say, Guardian, than on Focus, if you're not playing Classic Mode).
The "you have 0% Heat Max" and "you have 0% Health Max" popups will no longer only be shown once - they'll appear each time they're triggered.
The shield visual on the turret is now slightly less pronounced, because its opacity scales between 1-16 Shield now instead of 1-10 Shield.
When about to add the "Bounce, Range +50%" weapon mod to a weapon that already has Bounce, the warning that appears in top left will say "MOD WILL ONLY ADD RANGE" instead of "MOD WILL DO NOTHING".
(mode) Extract: Reduced microbe stat scaling when trying to approach The Abyss.

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

The recently-added shield visual would display underneath some turrets.
Arsenal Accuracy stats for Hitscan weapons would be incorrect if you had Saturn selected.
(mode) Gameshow: Having Skip Shop enabled and 3 Targets with more than 1 wave remaining at the time of achieving victory would completely skip the victory screen.
(Hopefully) fixed a rare bug that would cause your total runs in a mode to increment by more than 1 per run.
(mode) Shmup: (Hopefully) fixed a rare bug that would cause 1 extinct microbe to appear at some point during a wave.
UI elements will no longer dissappear while the game is out of focus (if you were experiencing that).
(turret) Tower: Fixed instances of hitting a marked microbe and it not being eliminated. This includes cases where this was a genuine bug and allows for eliminating a marked microbe with a projectile that already hit the microbe before it became marked. (the only time that a marked microbe won't be eliminated when it seemingly should is if it gets marked while inside of a projectile - the collision can't occur again until it leaves it...)

Update 5.1.3

[h3]Super small update, but still includes some nice QoL.[/h3]

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

Perk icons during gameplay for perks that fade in and out will expand+contract quickly when their status changes (so that it's more noticeable).
There's now a visual indicator on the turret for when you have Shield.
(Turret Trial) Superstar: Calculator → Blubber. It'll still be fairly challenging, but I recommend that Health Max increasing turret mod if you can get it.

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

Hover-over stats when you have a DNA letter selected from the shop and ready to place it onto an empty mount would display the stats of your top mount's weapon, not the weapon you're about to place.
(turret) Avarice: Fixed growing explosions bug again.