NeonXSZ News

Although we recently added joystick support, and gamepad support has been available for over two years, we feel it's important to inform potential buyers that neither of these control methods are optimal for playing NeonXSZ.

NeonXSZ was designed around the ability to turn and aim instantly. It's a high speed mouse-look shooter to it's very core where mouse/keyboard is by far the best control scheme and the only recommended way to experience the gameplay as intended.

If you would still like to try the game with a gamepad or joystick we recommend tweaking the gamespeed slider to slow things down. This can be found in the gameplay options.

With all that said, if you are familiar with using mouse and keyboard and would like to experience something new, then you are in the right place.

Feedback suggested that the very early game could benefit from additional combat variety so build 1.13 adds two completely new gadgets and significantly improves the Blink gadget to make it far more responsive and versatile.


Instead of blinking a relative distance based on a ship's current direction and speed, Blink now teleports a set distance in the direction that the ship is facing. Your ship's speed is retained after the Blink but the direction of movement after blinking is now changed to match the direction of the Blink.

Additionally, if you are already holding one or more thrust keys (Forward, backwards, and any of the four strafe directions), Blink will instead teleport in that direction.

For example:

• Left Strafe + Blink = Blink Left
  
• Right Strafe + Forward + Blink = Blink diagonally forwards and to the right.
  
• Reverse + Blink = Blink backwards
  

These changes make Blink instantly responsive and much more predictable, opening up far more versatility to the way Blink can be used during combat.



Rebound is the first totally new gadget. Once installed it causes projectiles from certain weapons to bounce off anything that doesn't take damage.

• Rebound is a level 1 gadget and can be unlocked soon after starting the game.
  
  
• Weapons affected : Main Guns, Inferno Gun, Flak Cannon
  
  
• Various versions of this upgrade unlock as you progress through the game.
  
  
• Version 1 allows one bounce, V2 allows two bounces, etc.
  
  
• Rebound is also stackable. Eg. Install two Version 1 upgrades and bullets will bounce twice.
  

The second new gadget added in this build, Time Warp, dynamically slows the passage of time once activated. Think of it as NeonXSZ's version of bullet time.

• The first version should be available to loot or buy at around level 5.
  
  
• Does not slow down turn/aiming speed.
  
  
• Stackable: Activating one Time Warp gadget, will activate all Time Warp gadgets currently installed with their time durations stacked together.
  
  
• With two high level versions of Time Warp installed, it's possible for the duration of the effect to last for more than 10 seconds.
  

• Fixed a new issue that caused 'visual' stutter (not framerate related stutter) when running the game significantly below 100% gamespeed.
  
  
• Added negative audio sound effect if trying to activate any gadget without sufficient energy.
  

Combined with the existing early game gadgets (Gyro Shield, Drones, and Electrocute) and the many other existing upgrades, the first few hours of gameplay now offer far more build diversity and combat variety.

Feedback suggested that the very early game could benefit from additional combat variety so build 1.13 adds two completely new gadgets and significantly improves the Blink gadget to make it far more responsive and versatile.


Instead of blinking a relative distance based on a ship's current direction and speed, Blink now teleports a set distance in the direction that the ship is facing. Your ship's speed is retained after the Blink but the direction of movement after blinking is now changed to match the direction of the Blink.

Additionally, if you are already holding one or more thrust keys (Forward, backwards, and any of the four strafe directions), Blink will instead teleport in that direction.

For example:

• Left Strafe + Blink = Blink Left
  
• Right Strafe + Forward + Blink = Blink diagonally forwards and to the right.
  
• Reverse + Blink = Blink backwards
  

These changes make Blink instantly responsive and much more predictable, opening up far more versatility to the way Blink can be used during combat.



Rebound is the first totally new gadget. Once installed it causes projectiles from certain weapons to bounce off anything that doesn't take damage.

• Rebound is a level 1 gadget and can be unlocked soon after starting the game.
  
  
• Weapons affected : Main Guns, Inferno Gun, Flak Cannon
  
  
• Various versions of this upgrade unlock as you progress through the game.
  
  
• Version 1 allows one bounce, V2 allows two bounces, etc.
  
  
• Rebound is also stackable. Eg. Install two Version 1 upgrades and bullets will bounce twice.
  

The second new gadget added in this build, Time Warp, dynamically slows the passage of time once activated. Think of it as NeonXSZ's version of bullet time.

• The first version should be available to loot or buy at around level 5.
  
  
• Does not slow down turn/aiming speed.
  
  
• Stackable: Activating one Time Warp gadget, will activate all Time Warp gadgets currently installed with their time durations stacked together.
  
  
• With two high level versions of Time Warp installed, it's possible for the duration of the effect to last for more than 10 seconds.
  

• Fixed a new issue that caused 'visual' stutter (not framerate related stutter) when running the game significantly below 100% gamespeed.
  
  
• Added negative audio sound effect if trying to activate any gadget without sufficient energy.
  

Combined with the existing early game gadgets (Gyro Shield, Drones, and Electrocute) and the many other existing upgrades, the first few hours of gameplay now offer far more build diversity and combat variety.

Since the 1.1 release, where Joystick support was added, it was discovered that high precision flight sticks suffered slightly with an overly large deadzone. This hotfix adds a 'Controller Deadzone' slider to the Controls window to allow for precise control of this setting.

It is advised that you don't alter this setting for Xbox Controllers. The default 0.19 deadzone setting is ideal for less sensitive gamepads. Lower values are best suited for precision flight sticks only.

We also took this opportunity to slightly increase the dodge ability for all enemies. Each enemy has unique AI and the dodge ability varies from one enemy to the next. For example, some enemies may never dodge. However, you should see many enemies jinking and jiving much more aggressively during heavy combat than in previous builds.

If you run into any problems with this hotfix, such as phantom movement due to the new deadzone settings, ensure that the new deadzone slider is not set too low. If the deadzone is too small, it can pick up unwanted movement from connected gamepads and joysticks.

Since the 1.1 release, where Joystick support was added, it was discovered that high precision flight sticks suffered slightly with an overly large deadzone. This hotfix adds a 'Controller Deadzone' slider to the Controls window to allow for precise control of this setting.

It is advised that you don't alter this setting for Xbox Controllers. The default 0.19 deadzone setting is ideal for less sensitive gamepads. Lower values are best suited for precision flight sticks only.

We also took this opportunity to slightly increase the dodge ability for all enemies. Each enemy has unique AI and the dodge ability varies from one enemy to the next. For example, some enemies may never dodge. However, you should see many enemies jinking and jiving much more aggressively during heavy combat than in previous builds.

If you run into any problems with this hotfix, such as phantom movement due to the new deadzone settings, ensure that the new deadzone slider is not set too low. If the deadzone is too small, it can pick up unwanted movement from connected gamepads and joysticks.