Skillshot City News

The game that was called Geneshift is now known as Gene Shift Auto. As Nik Nak Studios, which is to say solo developer Ben Johnson, explains, it's changed dramatically enough during development and early access to warrant a new name...
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After 5 years in Early Access, Geneshift (now called Gene Shift Auto) is going Free to Play! This will happen on the 28th of November, 2022 (in about 2 weeks).

This move to F2P will bring far more players into our community. We will have fuller servers, more members in the discord, and you can invite your friends to play for free!

What will happen to you? Well, there are 2 main groups of players right now - those who own the Deluxe Edition and those who do not. Anyone who has ever spent real money on the game already owns the Deluxe Edition, and will continue to own it after we go F2P, which will still be valued at $15 USD. Anyone who got the game for free during a giveaway in the past will continue to be able to play for free.

Additionally, to thank everyone for playing during this early phase, you will be given an exclusive cosmetic not available to accounts created after we go F2P. Also +2000 kill coins will be instantly added to your account on the F2P date.

Make sure to follow and wishlist the game to get a reminder from Steam in 2 weeks!





As you may have noticed, Geneshift is now called Gene Shift Auto. This is to help rebrand the game for the new F2P experience.

The name has changed because the game *itself* has changed so much over the years.

"Geneshift" was released as a story-based campaign. It didn't have cops, missions, the megamap, skill drafting, vendors or even the BR game mode! We're playing a completely different game, more of a sequel really, and a new name will help communicate to all the old fans just how much has changed.

Alongside the name change, we also have a sick new trailer. Check it out here!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Several neat features have been patched out to the game over the last 2 months, but they haven't been discussed here on Steam yet. So I'll summarise each of them now!

Kill Contracts
The way we earn cash and XP has been replaced with a new Kill Contract system. All players now have a "Kill Contract" which is displayed under the minimap, and shows how much XP and cash you will earn on your next kill. This number ticks up over time, capping out at $3000 after a few minutes. When you kill your next victim, you are awarded the amount of accumulated cash and XP, and then the contract resets to $0. If you die the contract also resets to $0.

This change has plenty of benefits. First of all, it creates moments of high tension when you go for too long without getting a kill. The contract gets bigger and bigger and the stakes grow as well, and it feels super satisfying to secure that kill and redeem the contract.

Also, it fundamentally changes the pacing of the game. Under the old system, we were incentivized to grind kills non-stop to farm XP and cash as fast as possible. But kill contracts change that. You will now passively earn your XP and cash regardless, and as long as you successfully claim the contract (get a kill and don't die) you'll earn farm just as fast as anyone else. This frees you up to do all the other things in the game, like missions, shopping, placing chemicals, exploring for loot etc.



Better Skill Drafting
Skill drafting has been improved in various ways. Firstly, our max health is now tied to your level. You get +5 max hp whenever you level up, and random health kits have been removed from the game. This reduces RNG from looting, makes leveling up more significant, and creates better overall pacing.

Secondly, the skill draft is made a lot more interesting with BONUS skill points. At key milestones you will be offered a super-charged skill that comes with bonus free skill points. For example when you hit level 5 you might be offered a choice of Plasma Ball, Force Field, or Invisibility (+2 points). And if you take Invisibility, you'll level it by 2 skill points instead of 1 - effectively giving you an extra level if and only if you choose Invis. This expands the roguelikeyness of the game as you are now incentivized to experiment with various skills you might not normally have taken.



Bigger Cop Wave Dynamics
Police waves are now bigger and badder, but less frequent. I was finding them a bit too grindy before. Now they will only swarm after you every 90s or so, but when they do they come in hard. More explosions, more XP, but then more downtime to focus on the rest of the game without being swamped.



PVP Hardcore Mode
In preparation for all the newbies arriving after F2P, a new "Hardcore Mode" has been added to PvP. This is optional, but if you enable this mode you will deal 25% less damage to new accounts under level 20. This will help them compete and have a chance. In exchange for your sacrifice, you'll earn +50% XP at the end of the match and will also get to run around with a sexy golden healthbar.

Improved Art Style
The Art Style has also improved, going for a slight catoony toon-shader effect. All players, vehicles, crates and the map now have a thin black outline around them. You can see the effect in the trailer and screenshots above!





Here are all the changes shown in the in-game changelog, made for all the minor versions since the latest Steam announcement.


Version 1.474

--- BIGGEST CHANGES ---

- Killing enemies no longer gives you $100 x killstreak. Instead it uses a new KILL CONTRACT system explained above.

- You no longer lose cash on death, but rather your kill contract resets.

- Removed regular health kits from the game. Instead, players get +5 max hp whenever they level up (capping at 200hp total).

- Perks for weapons now apply to ALL weapons, and no longer lock you into a specific subtype.


--- OTHER GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Reduced the power of a number of kill streak bonuses, so they're not as OP and snowbally.

- When a chemical is captured, its expiry time is set to 60s, so you're no longer feeding your enemies by placing chems.

- Reduced the number of crates that spawn in the map by bundling more loot per crate.

- Cop kills now give more xp based on your wanted level: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 at max level.

- Survival bot health is now 100/120/140/160/180 instead of 80/100/120/140/160.

- Vendors are now much less likely to see perk tier upgrades, while missions are now more likely to upgrade as opposed to giving something new.

- Selling a perk gives $2000 per tier instead of $500 per tier.

- The loot crate at the end of survival is now sharable with all players.


--- VEHICLE CHANGES ---

- Vehicles now have a small amount of damage passthrough, ranging from 20% on weak cars (buggie, loafer) to 10% on strong cars (camper, flatbed).

- For 1s after you first enter a car, you will continue to take full passthrough damage.

- Vehicle regen delay is now 2.0s intead of 1.2s.

- When a player exits a car their gun is only disabled for 0.5 instead of 1.0s.

- Vehicle explosion cash is now $200 instead of $100.

- Radar Truck now has 100m vision range.

- Hornet stinger missiles now have 50% faster seeking.


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Manic Mechanic no longer provides additional healing to passengers.

- Parasites have a slightly larger hitbox.


Version 1.477

--- BIGGEST CHANGES ---

- Changed the guaranteed skills system. Instead of being able to guarantee 3 skills, we can now only do 2 skills. But they are stronger because:

- DLC owners can make a skill appear at level 1 instead of 3

- The other skill appears at level 10. This skill will begin at max level. If you don't select a skill, a random skill will get the bonus points at level 10.

- At levels 2/5/15 one of the 3 skills in the draft will be randomly chosen to come with +1 free skill point if you choose it.



--- SKILL TREE AND DRAFT CHANGES ---

- Level 4 skills now become available at levels 12/16/20/24/28/30 instead of 10/15/20/25/30. (plus we'll get one at level 10 for our skill build)

- Active skills now come out at fixed points, on levels 1, 5 and 10. It is impossible to get 3 actives before level 10.

- You can now sell skill points for $500 instead of having to level them

- Skill Builds now require at least 8 active skills (as well as 8 passive skills). Add-on skills aren't counted.

- Improved the functionality of the skill tree, making it easier to equip skills (try click on the big button up top)

- The stats tracking requirements for various skills have been reduced significantly, as it took too long to make progress

- Skill stats tracking no longer works against survival zombies, as they are too easy and spammable


--- OTHER GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Tier 2 guns now cost $10000 instead of $8000

- Superweapons now cost $20000 instead of $15000

- All chemicals now cost $5000

- The BR circle now shrinks to nothingness if rounds go on too long

- Health Stimulant now gives +10hp/s instead of +5hp/s

- The server now announces when a player breaks someones kill streak

- The HUD now shows the round number next to the timer

- The mission arrow reappears at the start of each round, but disables for the rest of the round once you have a mission active

- End of round XP rewards are now 150/200/250/300/350/400 instead of 100/200/300/400/500/600


--- VEHICLE CHANGES ---

- Vehicles take 8s to fully regenerate instead of 5s, and regen is disabled for 2.5 instead of 2.0s after taking damage

- You take full damage passthrough for 1.5s after entering a car, instead of 1.0s


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Plasma Ball no longer gets a damage perk

- Parasite Swarm no longer gets a damage perk

- Parasite Swarm DPS is now 60/70/80/90 instead of 80/90/100/120

- Blood Leech healing is now 30/60/70/100% instead of 50/75/100/150%

- Invisibility loses the move speed perk and move speed is now +10/20/30/50 instead of +20/35/50/80

- Arcane Power skill damage mult is now +5/10/15/25 instead of +10/15/20/30

- Arcane Power bullet damage mult is now 10/13/16/20 instead of 10/12/14/16

- Mirror Image now heads towards your target at the time of casting

- Illicit Income healing is now 10/20/30/50 per kill instead of 10/15/20/30, but this is not affected by wanted level


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug with mirror image not showing supporters medallion

- Fixed the bug where the end of round XP summary wasn't showing


Version 1.481

--- OTHER GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Ammo is now bought in $500 increments instead of $1000

- The unharmed challenge has been replaced with a requirement to land in the helicopter


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Self Repair duration is now 1.5 instead of 2.5s

- Soul Drop victim ROF is 10% faster at all levels

- Counter Spell lasts 2s instead of 1s and no longer triggers vs civs/cops

- Force Field duration is now 3.5 instead of 3.0s

- Smoke Bomb fadeout time is now 0.2 instead of 0.5s

- Frenzy duration is now 2.5/3.0/3.5/4.0 instead of 3/3.5/4/5

- Frenzy cooldown is now 20/18/16/14 instead of fixed at 20

- Clusterbomb nades is now 3/4/5/7 and it no longer benefits from skill shot charges

- Skill Shot has been reworked. It no longer gains charges. Instead, it reduces your skill cooldowns whenever you get a kill. The reduction is a percentage of the remaining time.

- Skill Shot Cooldown Time %: -25/-40/-55/-80

- Skill Shot Against Civs/Cops %: -5/-10/-15/-25


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug where Shockwave would cause bullets to stay permanently frozen in the air


Version 1.483

--- OTHER GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Players completing daily challenges are no longer announced to the server.

- Players ranking up their skill tracking is no longer anounced to the server except at key milestones (lvl 5/10/15/20).


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Ignition Orb duration is now 10s instead of 6s

- Manic mechanic no longer heals your car faster, but instead increases your cars max speed by +10/20/30/40%

- Manic Mechanic added recoil is now 30/20/10/0 instead of 25/20/15/10

- Phase drifting now continues to work when you shift

- Chemical Boost makes chemicals appear on discount


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug where borderless fullscreen mode would glitch when alt-tabbing


Version 1.484

--- BIGGEST CHANGES ---

- Default number of BR rounds is 3 instead of 4

- Increased the speed that kill contracts grow by +30% to compensate for the above


--- GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- The bonus skill at level 15 comes with +2 free skill points instead of +1

- Max recoil on guns is 7 instead of 10 degrees

- Arrows for supply/heart crates continue to display until the crate it actually destroyed, not just when it lands

- 33% of the time, the heart crate will drop a phaser shift instead of +10 max hp

- When vendors are created, they are more likely to spawn with (and thus sell) a weapon tier that matches the round number (T1 in R1, T2 in R2, Supers in R3)

- Loot Spawners no longer guarantee a bonus +200xp


--- GENERAL CHANGES ---

- The Deluxe Edition DLC gives an additional +1000 kill coins

- Increased the kill coin rewards for placement at the end of a match (plus matches are faster)

- Increased the cost of unlocking skills at higher levels

- New players can now begin using the guaranteed skills feature when they get 12 instead of 18 skills


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Self Repair duration is now 2.0 instead of 1.5s


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a server performance issue


Version 1.486

--- BIGGEST CHANGES ---

- The wanted circle is smaller, but it now moves towards you at all times, getting faster based on your wanted level.



--- GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Cops now deal 60% instead of 50% damage.

- Leveling up in survival mode gives +3 max hp instead of +5 max hp

- If you already own a chemical, you are less likely to see that same chemical in vendors

- Laser Tripwire damage shaves off 35% instead of 50% of remaining hp (to account for the recent increase in max hp)

- The Heart crate now gives +10 score.

- Loot Spawners now drop more frequently in later rounds.


--- GENERAL CHANGES ---

- The Deluxe Edition now gives 2x as many kill coins whenever you level up or complete a daily challenge.

- Supply drops are more likely to drop +10 kill coins (50% of the time).

- Added a message to let players know they have joined mid-game with average cash and XP.


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Increased plasma speed from 44 to 47 m/s, but reduced damage to 0.6/0.7/0.8/1.0 instead of 0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug where rare loot crates were putting out 200 cash instead of 200xp.

This version raises the stakes by adding kill streaks! If you kill 4 players in a row without dying, the server will announce to everyone that you are, as they say.. "owning". It sounds much cooler in game. At 6 kills you are wicked sick, 8 kills unstoppable, 10 kills on a m-m-m-monster kill and 12 kills you are GODLIKE!

Additionally on each of these stages you will be rewarded with a randomly generated buff, that lasts until you die. Here is the full list of perks you can randomly get when you hit a kill streak milestone:

• +1000 cash
  
• +100 xp
  
• ammo & hp restored
  
• +20% skill damage
  
• +10% gun damage
  
• +15% bullet speed
  
• -30% recoil
  
• -35% shift cooldown
  
• -35% chemical cooldown
  
• +50% regen rate
  
• 200% civ/cop XP
  
• vendor discounts
  
• extra jump height
  
• 20 global map vision
  
• bigger car explosions
  

Finally, the amount of cash and XP you earn now increases with your streak as well. All of this makes you really not want to die and raises the stakes in combat. It also affects how you farm, as the previous strategy of "charge blindly into battle chasing kills" now pays out less than the new strategy of "selectively engage in fights you know you can win, and stay alive at all costs. This is very important because of another major change this version...




The rules for winning have changed. Previously you needed to reach 100 score and then win the following round. There were 2 issues with this. Firstly, it was confusing. Secondly is that if your score was very far behind, you would feel a bit hopeless, like you could never catch up. But that's all fixed now.

Now, to win the game all you need to do is this - win round 4. It doesn't matter what your score is. You can mess about in a casual GTA-style way in the first 3 rounds and still have a chance at victory. Everyone now has hope of winning right up until the final showdown, and players in the lead must stay on their toes or else they'll have their victory snatched from them.

The core focus of the game therefore has now changed. The point of the first 3 rounds now is to get as FARMED as you can, with as much cash and XP as possible. When you start round 4 you want to be an OP juggernaut with the highest chances of winning possible. And how to get you get farmed fast? Kill streaks. Focusing on quality engagments and putting your skills to the test.




Survival Mode has gained a huge amount of replayabilty with the addition of Difficulty Modifers. When you start a survival run you can enable 1 or more modifiers, which will make the game more challenging in various ways. If you manage to win the game with a modifier enabled, you will complete it, like a challenge. And you will also gain bonus score, XP and kill coins.

There are 18 modifiers at the moment and they are designed to get you to play in various ways. Some are much harder than others, and give bonus score and XP to compensate. Here are some example:

Minefield: Covers the map in hidden Fission Mines that will detonate shortly after you step on them (protip: use a car).
Super Swarm: Spawns 3x as many zombies in the zombie phase (protip: get some AoE skills).
Spellcaster: Your weapons deal -25% damage, but skills +50% damage (protip: get Plasma Ball).
Explosive Retaliation: When you kill an enemy, they will toss a final nade at you (protip: have some shifts saved up to dodge it).




This version improves the graphics with bigger car and player explosions. It also improves performance and netcode stability too. Skills and weapons have been rebalanced. The economy of cash and XP is far steadier - providing more interesting decision making opportunities. There's a new skill called Arcane power, which makes your next shot extra powerful immediately after casting a skill.

In survival mode, there is a new sandbox stage after the zombie swarm. This stage lets you free-roam the map with no time pressure, fighting cops in true GTA style. There is also a new staging area before the game starts so all co-op players can ready up before starting. Scoring for the leaderboard has also been streamlined, and is now a measure of who can survive with the most difficulty modifers enabled. Read the changelog for the full list!




We're getting closer to going F2P. It's looking like early December, but I'll make an official announcement once Valve confirms. I'm very excited to see our playerbase grow!

Reminder: Anyone who has already bought the game, or buys the game now, will be given the Deluxe Edition DLC, which is the same price as the game at the moment. So whether you buy now or after going F2P doesn't really matter. But if you want to try the F2P multiplayer first that's fine, just wishlist the game now and hop online in December!


Geneshift is 45% off. Hooray!




Note: Some of these have already been patched in the last few weeks, so you may have read them already in-game. This is the complete list of changes since the last major Steam announcement.


--- NEW VICTORY CONDITION ---

- Players no longer need to reach 100 score to be able to win the round in PvP BR modes.

- Instead, each match will always run for exactly 4 rounds. And whoever has the highest score at the end of the fourth round will win.

- In practice, the winner is the player who wins the final round. Because the final round gives +300 score (other rounds give +30).

- The placement scoring for the final 6 players is now only awarded on round 4 and gives out +10/20/30/40/50/60 score instead of +10/14/18/22/26/30.

- In earlier rounds, the final 6 leaderboard now awards bonus XP instead. Giving +300/400/500/600/700/800 xp.

- Rounds 1, 2 and 3 now give special rewards to the winner. Round 1 gives +$3000. Round 2 gives +20 max hp. Round 3 gives +1 life (and a bonus life container). Hold TAB to see this in-game.


--- SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY MODIFIERS ---

- Players can now enable "difficulty modifiers" before starting a survival game. These make the game harder in interesting ways, and award bonus XP.

- If you manage to beat the survival run then you will "complete" that modifier, like a challenge. This will award you +100 kill coins the first time you do this.

- You can only attempt one new modifier at a time. But you can stack as many completed modifiers as you like, for more total XP gain.


--- GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Tier 2 weapons now cost $8000 instead of $5000

- Rare loot crates now put out an extra 300xp

- Max hp overheal is now 200 instead of 150

- When you consume a life you only come back with 100hp, not max hp

- Police bounty goes back to $500 per star instead of $1000

- Made cops more forgiving and avoid you in combat

- All missions give +200xp now, even the ones that give a random perk. So it's either 200xp + a perk, or 200xp + $3000

- The cutoff time to get combo kills is now 3s instead of 2.5s

- Electrified a few rooftop to prevent camping them in final showdowns. They deal 20hp/s damage

- Civilians will always drop a bit of loot now, either cash or XP

- Cash and XP for player kills is completely changed, and now uses the formula $100 x Kill Streak. Don't die or you'll lose your streak!

- Special bonuses are given at key milestones during your streak, as well as a epic voiceovers announcing your awesomeness to the server.

- You will lose 10% of your current cash when you die.

- Added a new XP breakdown when you hold TAB, similar to the score breakdown, which shows all your various sources of XP

- Added a new skill called Arcane Power, which replaces Vapor Slide (an add-on to Plasma Ball)

- Arcane Power increases the damage of all your skills. Also whenever you cast a skill, the very next bullet you shoot with be enchanted with extra damage

- In PvP BR modes you now get +5 score whenever you level up

- The biggest kill streak leaderboard in the main menu now only applies to PvP BR modes

- In the skill tree, left clicking the same skill again will toggle its enabled/disable status if allowed

- You only get +20 max hp instead of +30 max hp for winning the 2nd round

- Flattened the XP leveling curve a bit, making it easier to hit higher levels

- Made vehicle explosions look cooler

- Guaranteed skills for drafting are back to 3/6/9 instead of 2/5/8

- Players now deal 2x damage vs cars when they are empty or filled with cops/civs. Previously this only applied to knives

- Increased the amount of driveby missions in the map at once, from 3 to 5.

- Slightly increased default weapon zoom range.

- Superweapons now cost $15k instead of $12k.

- Increaesd the sized of the wanted circle at lower levels.

- Standard survival requires 1 less assassination per round.

- Zombie betting now gives XP instead of cash (eg: instead of $1000 cash it'll give 100xp).

- Zombies will now only spawn into the red zone during overtime in round 4 only. Not in earlier rounds.

- Vendors are slightly more likely to carry upgrades of the guns you already hold.

- Reduced the damage of grenades and bazookas by 10hp each. Moltov DPS is now 10hp/s instead of 15hp/s.

- Grenades now do 2x damage vs civs and cops, like bazookas already do

- Players must reach level 20 before they are able to play Conquest or CTF modes

- Fixed some glitches with vertical auto aiming prioritizing civilians

- Non-DLC players now get 10 free attempts at survival instead of 5

- Increased the rate you level up in survival mode by 20%

- Slightly reduced enemy accuracy and reflexes in hardcore mode (still harder than standard though)

- Winstreak bonus is now +5% XP instead of +10%, and is capped at +50% instead of 100%.

- The referral system no longer requires recruits to be level 10 or to be your Steam friend

- Once you get 5 recruits you will get a free Steam key as well as a bonus +1000 kill coins

- Players now show off their skills and skill medallions when they win a BR round

- The supporters medallion now shows next to your name in-game

- You now only get 1% XP for each skill enabled, instead of 2%. This is more friendly to ppl making custom skill builds.

- Made zombie bots spawn closer to the red zone in overtime, in case they wanna go bet

- Chemical Boost cooldown speed buffed to 150/200/250/300% instead of 125/150/175/200%

- Reduced required nade kills for the spagetti quest by 1

- Missions give $3000 and 300xp instead of $2000 and 200xp

- Loot Spawners give $3000 and 300xp instead of $2000 and 200xp

- Passive healing is now 10hp/s instead of 15hp/s

- Emergency shifts gradually get smaller and smaller as you become exhausted. Shifts normally move you 22m/s. Then the first emergency shift moves 17, then 12, then 7.

- Emergency shift damage penalty starts counting at -1hp then -2hp, then -3hp and so on.

- Supply Drops no longer include a +10 max hp kit. This now appears in the heart crate instead.

- Max wanted level no longer stops you from buying from vendors.

- Cops no longer give score.

- Missions no longer give score.

- Loot spawners no longer give score.

- Half as much XP is given for zombie betting.

- Tier1 guns will appear in vendors if you don't own any primary/secondary weapons at all.

- The kill combo duration is now 2.5s instead of 2.0s .

- Superweapon ammo costs $1500 instead of $2000 to fully refill.

- Superweapons start with +30% DMG instead of +20%.


--- WEAPON & CHEMICAL CHANGES ---

- M60 damage is now 10 instead of 11

- SMGS range is now 40 instead of 35

- Spas & Blast Cannon range is now 35 instead of 30

- M3 spread is now 18 instead of 15

- Minigun spread is now 4 instead of 6

- Flamethrower bullet speed is now 60 instead of 45

- Barrett now does 60hp damage instead of 70hp, but has RPM of 60 instead of 40

- All snipers now deal x1.5 damage vs civs/cops

- Skill Stimulant only gives +10% XP, not +20% passively. But is now multiplied with the full kill combo


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- You can no longer throw nades behind a forcefield. Tossing a nade will explode the shield instead

- Force Field no longer does shatter damage. This has been moved to Bouncing Bullets, dealing 10/15/20/25hp

- Force Field now has health of 50/65/80/100hp. If it runs out of health it will explode prematurely. Cops/civs don't damage the force field however

- Skill Shot reduces cooldowns by 8% instead of 10% per charge. However charges are no longer lost on death

- Levelling Plasma Ball now increases its size as well: 10/12/14/16 (previous size was 14)

- Plasma now does 150% damage vs civs/cops

- Force Field duration is now 3s instead of 5s.

- Force Field move speed is now 60/75/90/110% instead of 60/80/100/130%.

- Soul Drop ROF reduction is now 65/60/55/50 instead of 60/50/40/30.

- Sonar Cells no longer reveals invisibility.

- Invis duration is now 8/12/16/20 instead of 8/16/24/32, and cooldown is now 15 instead of 12s.

- Spike Trap cooldown is now 20/18/16/12s instead of fixed at 20s.

- Plasma damage is now 0.7/0.8/0.9/1.1 instead of 0.5/0.7/0.9/1.2 and cooldown is now 20/16/12/8 instead of fixed at 10s

- Regeneration delay time is now 3/2.5/2/1.5 instead of 3/2.6/2.2/1.8 (default is 3.5)

- Venom can now kill civilians (still caps at 1hp vs players)

- Skill Shots no longer triggers from knife kills, but has 30% chance to trigger vs civs/cops instead of a 20%

- Chemical Boost cooldown speed buffed to 150/200/250/300% instead of 125/150/175/200%

- Chemical Boost jump heights buffed to 6/9/12/18 instead of 4/7/10/15

- Soul Drop no longer triggers if you spawn in the air

- Spike Trap no longer returns to the owner. Spike Trap duration is now 8s instead of 5s.

- Spike Trap damage is now 30/40/50/60hp instead of 20/30/40/50

- Vampirism healing is now 8/12/16/24% instead of 10/15/20/30%

- Critical Shifting damage boost is now 20/25/30/40% instead of 10/15/20/30%

- Critical Shifting duration is now 0.6/0.7/0.8/1.0 instead of 0.8

- Illicit Income no longer works on the end of round zombie swarm in survival

- Invis move speed is now 1.2/1.4/1.6/2.0 instead of 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.5

- Invis duration is now 6/8/10/12 instead of 8/12/16/20

- Increased smoke bomb vertical range slightly

- Venom dps is now 12 instead of 10 and seeking is now 40 instead of 30

- Nerfed the cash rate for Illicit Income at higher wanted levels

- Buffed Xray damage linger duration to 2/4/6/10s instead of 1/2/3/4.

- Arcane power bullet damage is now 10/12/14/16 instead of 5/10/15/20

- Venom Shot duration is now 2.5/3/3.5/5s instead of 2/3/4/5, and total damage output is now 30/40/50/70 instead of 24/36/48/60

- Plasma Ball does 5hp less damage at all ranges


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug where you could rejoin after the warmup round with warmup guns

- Fixed a bug where the end of round XP bonus for not dying in survival wasn't being applied

- Fixed a bug where bonus civilian kill combo XP wasn't counting towards our out of game progression

- Fixed a bug where you could jump over a car to avoid taking damage

Have you ever played Magic: The Gathering? Well my favourite part of the game isn't playing the game, but rather designing my deck. And now you can do that with the skills in Geneshift!

This version gives you the ability to create and save skill builds. You can now disable skills from appearing in-game, giving you control over the skill draft. This has huge strategic potential as you can choose to only enable skills that synergize well together, and disable the rest.

For example, you might choose to only enable long-ranged skills and create a sniper build. Then in-game you won't have close-range skills appear and diluting the skill draft. There are countless skill combinations to explore, and designing a synergistic build might make the difference between victory or defeat.

After designing your build you can easily give it a name and save it. You can have multiple custom-made builds saved and conveniently switch between them via a dropdown menu on the skills page. This not only lets you enjoy the theorycrafting of build creation, but it also makes it quick and easy to toggle between playstyles between matches, increasing variety and replayability!




The fast-paced gameplay of Geneshift is ultimately designed to give you one thing above all others - a rush of adrenaline. And nothing affects our feels more powerfully than music. Which is why I've started redoing some of the old tunes, cranking up the beat and the intensity.

I'm also designing this new music in a special way. The rounds in Geneshift are exactly 5 minutes long, with supply drops appearing at the 4:00, 2:00 and 0:00 marks. So I have designed the music to sync up perfectly with these key action moments, and crank the intensity just as the supply drops land and the big high-stakes fights break out all across Subvein City.




Conquest mode now works on a ticket system, similar to the Battlefield games. Each team starts with 500 tickets and you win by removing all the enemy team's tickets. There are 2 ways to remove enemy tickets. Kills will reduce their count by 1. But so will holding more control points than the enemy team, which causes their tickets to slowly bleed down as well. This change ensures that each Conquest match lasts a reasonable duration, and doesn't drag on for hours like the old mode allowed.




The role of zombie revivals has been rethought and it is now easier than ever to revive. As a zombie you simply need to get just 1 kill vs a survivor to come back to life. Not only that, but there are now THREE heart crates that land when the round timer hits 0:00, tripling your chances of coming back.

Due to these changes it is extremely easy to revive during the first 5 minutes of each round. This lets you roam the map freely, take risks, fight cops and generally enjoying the sandboxy GTA vibes without fear of dying. Geneshift is moving in the GTA direction and that means the rules need to support chaos and action and the occassional death. This is now possible with easy revivals.

But Geneshift is still a BR right? Yes! For starters, there is a new $5000 reward for players who survive the full round and make it to overtime without dying. Secondly, once overtime begins it becomes very difficult to revive. So the true BR survival experience begins during overtime. At this point you don't want to die, because you won't be able to revive, and the best way to get score is still to place as high as possible in the round.




In other news, Geneshift will go Free to Play some time later this year! This will do wonders for our playerbase, and make it easier than ever to play with friends.

The multiplayer will go F2P, and the Supporter's Edition DLC will continue to exist for those who want to support development. Anyone who has ever spent money on the game (and therefore owns the Supporter's Edition) will continue to keep the DLC. Anyone who buys the game before we go F2P will also get the DLC (as it is included in the base package) for the same price as it'll be after going F2P.

It will take a few months to prepare for the launch. I need to make new trailers, completely redo the Steam page, and even slightly change the name of the game! Geneshift has changed a lot over the years! It doesn't look or play anything like it did when it first hit Early Access in 2017, and so it needs a new look to reflect that before it's made available to the F2P audience on Steam.

Anyway, exciting times ahead! I'll make an announcement with details closer to the date. Stay tuned and have fun!



- Added the ability to save and load skill builds, allowing players to theorycraft fun skill combos and instantly apply them between rounds.

- This saves the skill choices at levels 2, 5 and 8, as well as all the skills you've enabled and disabled. You can give builds a name and easily select them from a dropdown menu.

- Basic/Free accounts can have a maximum of 3 builds saved. DLC accounts are unlimited.

- In the skill tree you now have the ability to toggle your skills between enabled or disabled. Only enabled skills will show up in the skill draft in-game.

- This means you can now create skill builds that synergize well together. You could make a sniper build by only enabling long range skills like Energize and Plasma Ball, and disabling close range skills like Blade Fury.

- To ensure enough variety, you must have at least 16 skills enabled at all times, 10 of which must be passives.

- Removed the ability to reroll for skills in-game. Players must now adapt to what their custom-made build gives them.

- The guaranteed skills feature now lets you guarantee skills at level 2/5/8 instead of 3/6/9 and is enabled once you have 18 skills unlocked.

- Updated the main menu music a bit.

- Updated some of the songs in-game in an experimental way, where the music syncs up with the 5 minute structure of the BR round. So the high-adrenaline beats kick in just as overtime begins.

- Created a whole new type of mission that isn't activated by civilians, but rather, by cars. This will give you 60s to kill 2 civilians on opposite sides of the map. Drive fast!

- Reduced cash and XP earned from player kills back to $400 + 20xLevel.

- Bots in survival mode can no longer gain bonus lives. They can still deny hearts though.

- Zoomed the camera in a tad, and reduced bullet ranges slightly to compensate.

- Doubled the amount of loot that comes out of helicopters.

- The passive regen delay on cars is now only 1s instead of 2s when you deal self car damage (making it less punishing when noobs drive into a wall).

- Cops only do 40% instead of 50% damage.

- Made it slightly faster to progress to wanted level 2.

- Fixed a few issues in the tutorial, where cops spawned before they were explained.

- Reduced the damage of burst weapons when fired by cops, such as m3, grenade and barrett.

- Added an stage in the tutorial that requires you to explode a civilian with a grenade.

- Force Field duration is now 4s instead of 5s.

- Force Field damage is now 10/20/30/40 instead of 20/30/40/50, and cooldown is now 20s instead of 15s.

- X-Ray Vison now additionally affects how long you keep vision on an enemy after you damage them. After damaging an enemy you'll be able to see them through walls for 1.0/1.5/2.0/3.0s. Default is now 0.5 instead of 1.5.

- Vampirism no longer has overheal abilities

- Energy Vortex cooldown is now 20s for all levels

- Energy Vortex range is now 24/26/28/30 instead of 24/28/32/46

- Self Repair takes 2.5 instead of 1.5s to heal you up

- Regen out of combat time is now 3/2.6/2.2/1.8 instead of 3/2.7/2.4/2.0

- Rapid Refill free bullet chance is now 45/60/75/90% instead of 30/50/70/90%

- Spike Trap damage is now 20/30/40/50 and cooldown is now 20/18/16/14 instead of flat 20

- Cluster Bomb no longer removes a skill shot charge (it still benefits from the charges aquired though)

- Cluster Bomb is now less random in its targeting, and will prioritise players more

- Skill Shot charges now expire after 3 minutes (each charge has its own timer)

- Ignition Orb cooldown is now 10/9/8/6 instead of 12/11/10/9 and size is now 8/12/16/20 instead of 8/10/12/16

- Removed the damage penalty on Invisibility

- Parasites now have a shorter firing delay penalty of approx 0.5 instead of 0.8s. They also fire out faster so that DPS is now 80/90/100/120 hp/s

- - Non supporters get 5 free attempts to play the full survival mode. After that it goes back to the first round only.

- The "players left" element above the minimap now shows in yellow and black to make it easier to glance at quickly.

- Improved framerate smoothness when using vsync (make sure it's enabled).

- Improved netcode hit detection when firing up or down vertically.

- Updated some musical tracks. Will update the rest soon!

- Improved the look of the text in the tutorial.

- Cops and civs no longer shoot at players in the red zone after 0:00 (unless you shoot them first).

- When you hold ALT in survival mode, time won't slow down immediately. It only slows down after 5s (to prevent exploits).

- Reduced Minigun DPS from 150 down to 120.

- Reduced the chargeup time on Blast Cannon from 1.0s to 0.8s.

- Fixed a bug where you could revive while dead.

- Fixed a bug where clusterbomb and energy vortex would interact with spectating zombies.

- Fixed a bug where supply drops would spawn in weird locations.

- Fixed a bug where hardcore survival mode would appear to unlock (but not really) when you killed yourself in round 1 of survival.

- Updated the map with some new areas.

- Improved the visual look of the red zone.

- Zombies inside the red zone no longer make sounds, so cannot distract the remaining players.

- Simplified the tutorial, and added the option to replay it. Check it out! (It's to the left of Survival Standard Difficulty mode).

- The revival mechanic for zombies has changed. To revive you simple need to get 1 kill against a survivor. You no longer need to collect 4 heart pieces.

- Supply Drops and hearts now spawn at the same time again, landing at 4:00, 2:00 and 0:00 on the round timer. 4 drops spawn at a time.

- Vendors show more personalized perks, and will try to only show you perks for the weapons you currently hold.

- Removed the passive $600/minute income for survivors in BR mode.

- Instead, when the timer hits 0:00 players will be instantly given a cash reward based on how many times they died. If you don't die at all you get +$5000.

- Zombies will now respawn inside the red zone if they die after 0:00. This makes them spectators by default (but are free to run outside again).

- Killing players now gives more cash and XP. $500 + $50 per level.

- You can now carry a max of 3 nades at a time instead of 4.

- Photon Beam no longer penetrates skills like Force Field or Bullet Time.

- Supply Drop chem now takes 20s instead of 30s to land. It will also be guaranteed to drop a +10 max hp every time (before it was 33%).

- Counter Spell has been reworked: "Whenever you are damaged by an enemy, Counter Spell will automatically trigger and reduce that incoming damage. It provides extra strong protection against non-bullet damage. After triggering it must recharge."

- Fade time in Smoke bomb is now 0.5s instead of 0.1s.

- Moved the button to the campaign into the custom server lobby. The campaign is simply too outdated at this point, so it's hidden away. Taking its place is a more convenient way to toggle survival difficulty modes.

- Players now receive +10% XP at the end of each survival run multiplied by their win streak (eg if you have a winstreak of 4 you'll get +40% XP).

- Players now receive +2% XP at the end of each match for each skill they have enabled.

- Skills in the outer rings of the skill tree now become available based on skills unlocked, not player level. You need 18 and then 24 skills to unlock each tier.

- When you revive you will now respawn somewhere within the red zone, but not at the very center.

- As a zombie trying to revive, hearts now drop every 2nd kill. Survivors no longer drop a heart every kill (this was causing too many revives).

- Default BR round duration is now 5 instead of 6 minutes.

- Heart and supply drops now alternate every minute like so: Heart (4:00), Supplies (3:00), Heart (2:00), Supplies (1:00), Heart (0:00).

- In solos the final 5 players get 10/15/20/25/50 points. But now in squad based modes the final 6 players get 10/12/14/16/18/30 points.

- Kill combo cash payouts are now capped at 400% instead of going up to 1000%.

- Buffed USP speed and range by 5 each.

- Bazooka player damage is now 50 instead of 60 (vehicle damage remains at 300).

- Chemicals are now pseudorandom when bought from vendors. If you go a long time without seeing chem X you become more likely to see it.

- Chem vendors are more likely to sell multiple chemicals.

- Synthetic Shop now only has 1 charge, but it refills every 2 mins instead of every 3mins.

- Shops/Vendors now carry a max of 4 nades each, after that they will display sold out.

- Chemicals stop recharging after you've been in overtime for 2+ minutes.

- Skill Shot nerfed slightly so that it reduces your cooldown by -20/30/40/50%.

- Neutral cops won't reveal you in Invisibility.

- Illicit Income no longer works on civilians, but the base cash gain vs cops is doubled to +40/60/80/100 per kill.

- Force Field cooldown is now 15s vs 12s.

- Toxic Blood now triggers when you kill someone inside a car.

- Clusterbomb now alternates between throwing nades and molotovs.

- Toxic blood duration to 3/4/5/7s instead of 3/5/7/10s.

- Fixed a bug where players would get their hp restored when they ranked up a skill.

- Fixed a bug where cops weren't using grenades.

- Fixed a bug where your heart pieces would display in the HUD as empty when dead.

- Fixed the exploit where you could leave a game, reconfigure your skills and rejoin to change your build.

- Players are now invulnernable when they respawn in BR modes. This gives new players a chance to read their skills in peace.

- This spawn invulnerability disables after 120s. It will also disable instantly as soon as you move or shoot.

- Removed movement recoil on snipers.

- Super cops now give $200 + 20xp instead of $150 + 15xp.

- Reduced the size of the wanted circle at wanted level 1, making it much easier to escape the cops.

- Players now only take 40hp damage in a car explosion instead of 80hp.

- Bazooka car damage is now 300 instead of 480.

- The fade-out time in Smoke Bomb is now only 0.1s instead of 0.5s.

- Shockwave no longer slows enemy movement speed, instead it will slow their bullet's travel speed.

- Cop and Zombie kills now give +0.5 instead of +0.2 score. Civ kills no longer give score.

- As a zombie trying to revive, killing a survivor now gives +1 quarter heart, while killing a zombie continues to give +0.5.

- Clusterbomb cooldown is now 20s instead of 40s.

- Venom duration is now 2/3/4/5 instead of 2.0/2.5/3.0/4.0.

- Fixed various bugs, including a game crashing bug and one which made our progress not be saved.

This version completely reworks the skill tree and the progression system. Kill coins are the main way to unlock content in the game, but they are now only used to unlock skills. This means that all other content that was previously unlocked via coins is now free. All players now have access to every weapon, chemical, and vehicle in the game.

Important: Because of this drastic change, I have refunded everyone's kill coins. This way no one will have wasted their coins unlocking weapons which are now given for free. With all your coins refunded, you can start unlocking some of the new skills in the new skill tree!




The skills have been rearranged into a groovy new skill tree. This tree not only looks cooler than the old hex grid, but is far more flexible. If you see someone use a certain skill in-game, you are only a few steps away from unlocking it. This is far nicer than the old system, where you simply had to grind through the hex grid until you reached a certain skill. Players now get to decide what skill to get next, and whether they should focus more on damage, healing, or utility. A well diversified selection of skills gives you more versatility in the battle field!


Wanna play with your favorite skill? Well now you can! Up the top of the skills page is a new Skill Builds feature. This lets players force skills appear at specific moments in the skill draft. For example, you can guarantee that the Self Repair skill will show up when you hit level 9 in-game. If you own the Supporter's Edition DLC you can configure a skill to show up at level 3 and level 6 as well.




You may notice in the screenshot above some little badges on the skills. These are skill medallions. They are purely cosmetic, but you can rank them up by completing skill specific challenges. For example, you need to get 5 Plasma Ball kills to rank Plasma up to level 2. When you do your main account will gain experience, and your badge will improve in appearance. These badges go all the way up to level 20 and are visible for other players to see at the end of each match. A great way to show off your skills.


- ILLICIT INCOME: Increases the cash and health you gain from killing enemies. This increases further based on your wanted level. By default, player kills give +50 health.

- MANIC MECHANIC: Allows you to shoot out the window of your car while driving (with worse accuracy). Also continuously restores the health of the vehicle and all passengers inside it.

- CHEMICAL BOOST: Makes you jump higher when standing in your chemicals. Also makes your chemicals restore charges faster.

- CLUSTER BOMB: Spawns grenades that spin around you. These grenades will be randomly tossed at nearby enemies over time. If you have Skill Shot charges you will throw 1 extra grenade per charge, and then lose a charge.

- SOUL DROP: Whenever you fall onto the ground near an enemy you will reduce their rate of fire. Enemies killed in this state will drop an extra heart piece on death.

- TOXIC BLOOD: Whenever you kill an enemy they will leave a pool of toxic blood on the ground. Any enemies who step in this will become poisoned and take damage over time.




Cosmetics used to be unlocked with kill coins. Now they are given to players for free, but based on your player level. Every 5 levels a new cosmetic will be unlocked. This finally gives your account level a purpose. It actually does something now. It makes you look pretty.

There are also new cosmetics. There are 7 head types to choose from. You can stick with the original Dragonball Z style hair, or go for something a little less extreme. Eventually you'll unlock a police helmet and an assassin's hood. There are other cosmetics too. The Supporter's Medallion now changes in appearance as you level up, glowing gold once you reach level 100.




Geneshift now has helicopters! Why? Because they're damn cool that's why. They also create a much needed "point of interest" in the map. They shoot out free bits of loot every few seconds and slowly travel across the map. This creates a natural hot-zone that players flock to. Free loot and a guaranteed place to get some kills. Zombies are coded to spawn next to these helicopters to further increase the action.


Rare loot crates now fall into these things called Loot Spawners. A loot spawner will sit on the ground and display a 60 second countdown. When the timer hits 0, a rare loot crate will fall into it. Destroy the crate and you'll get +3 score, a heart fragment, and some high value loot. A tier2 weapon, chemical, perk, or phase shift. Half of these loot spawners are hidden on rooftops only accessible via parkour puzzlery. The other half are out in the open, making high stakes zones to fight over.




The scoring system has been reworked to place a much larger emphasis on survival. Specifically making it to the final 6. Of course winning the entire round gives more points, but making it to the final 6 is now a well-rewarded achievement. You'll get +10 score once you hit the final 6, plus your name will display in a mini-leaderboard above the mini-map showing all the remaining survivors.




To heighten the stakes of being in the final 6, there is a cool new feature - zombie betting. When zombies walk into the red zone they now become spectators. They cannot shoot or be shot at. But they can watch and they can also click on a survivor to place a bet that that player will win. If they guess correctly they will receive a cash reward!


A simple change but a very important one - zombies no longer lose their hearts fragments on death. This means that to resurrect you no longer need to kill 4 players in a row without dying. This was far too difficult for new players and needelessly frustrating. Now you can simply collect heart pieces at your own pace and death isn't as punishing. Every second player you kill drops a heart piece, and there are plenty of zombies at the helicopters. So get to the choppa to farm hearts quick!




There's so much crime in Geneshift the the cops have gotten a little lenient. It is now much easier to escape the cops and lose your wanted level. All you need to do is leave the blue circle. You no longer need to wait an extra 30s for the timer to fade away. Also, you will only get a wanted level when you KILL a cop, not when one of your stray bullets hits one. The cop AI has also been coded to go easier on players who are currently fighting other players, simply taking cover and waiting till the fight is over.




A few weeks also went towards just making the game FEEL better. Netcode has been recoded to be as responsive and steady as possible. The lighting engine got reworked with more realistic and softer shadows. Shaders now give dynamic contrast and more overall colour. Bullets are easier to see and have more OOPH when hitting enemies. A lot of QoL features were added to the HUD to help new players as well. You can now see vendors in the minimap. Weapons will display their tier next to their name, and you can toggle the zoom of the minimap.



- Removed fall damage from the game.

- Survivors now receive a passive income of $600 per minute. Zombies do not get this.

- Tweaked the cop spawning algorithm to no longer spawn cops on you when you're mid-combat against players.

- Improvements to pathfinding and AI. Cops are smarter at taking cover and will do so to avoid overwhelming you in big fights.

- Players now display their level above their heads, and the amount of cash and XP you get for a kill scales up based on their player level

- There is a now a $1000 bounty for killing a player who has gotten a quad kill (4 kills in a row without dying).

- The scoring in BR is now a first to 100 instead of 50, and you get a lot more score from supply drops, missions and making it to the final 6 survivors. More interesting objectives.

- In PvP modes zombies no longer give +1 score. They are treated like cops and civs and give score every 4th kill.

- Big reworks to various areas of the map, improving both the gameplay and the graphics. Other improvements to graphics and bullet feedback to make the game just FEEL better.

- A big focus on netcode stability, which should minimise warpiness while increasing responsiveness.

- Removed the Genetic Heart and replaced it with a new supply drop that pops out 6 heart fragments.

- Supply crates now burst loot out into a larger area, up to 12m in all directions. This makes it harder to shift through and steal all the loot at once.

- At the end of a round you can hover over other people's names to see their score breakdown and what skills/weapons they used.

- Superweapons have 2x as much reserve ammo in them, but ammo cost has doubled ($2000 instead of $1000 to fully refill).

- Vendors are now shown on the minimap, as are the new loot spawners. Your allies are shown more clearly when off the edge of the map.

- Zombies are now shown in purple instead of yellow (to avoid confusion with the yellow buy zones on the minimap).

- The circle of death is now green instead of yellow. Looks better and matches the thematic "toxic goo" colour in the map.

- Added an option in the menu and a new hotkey to toggle the minimap zoom. Default is Z. Useful for escaping the cops.

- Reworked the default controls for gamepad.

- Improved vertical auto-aim by making it prioritise whoever is closest to your crosshair.

- In the buy menu it now says the tier after the weapon name, like MP5 (TIER 2). Helping new players upgrade their guns properly.

- Reworked a bunch of the civilian missions as well as the daily challenges. Making sure everything is fun and achieveable.

- Removed the critical damage after shifting, and put this into a skill instead (called Critical Shifting).

- Synthetic Shop now ensures discounts on any chems that appear, and makes it more likely to provide chemical buy options.

- The word "active" now shows in hot pink when you see it in the skill draft.

- Changed the colour of bullets to make them easier to see against the map.

- Countless bug and balance fixes.

- Invisibility now increases your move speed by +10/20/30/40%, in addition to increasing the invis duration.

- Spike Trap has been given a new feature. After 5s, instead of the spikes expring, they will slide back along the ground towards you, damaging enemies they touch.

- Shockwave no longer dispels enemies, but instead slows them to 70/65/60/50% speed.

- Frenzy ROF is now 120/125/130/140% but the cooldown is now 20/18/16/14s.

- Self Repair cooldown is now 15s instead of 10s, but healing amount has been buffed to 20/35/50/70hp.

- The damage of Force Field now increases the longer you keep them active, instead of being 50% and then suddenly 100% if exploded in the final second.

- Radiate now deals an initial burst of damage the moment it hits the ground, dealing an instant 10/15/20/30hp.

- Plasma Ball speed is now fixed at 54 instead of 50/52/54/58.

- Energize bullet speed and range are both now 115/120/125/135%, whereas before bullet speed was 120/130/140/160% and range was 110/115/120/130%.

- Black Hole renamed to Energy Vortex and the lifedrain is now 4/6/8/10 instead of 3/4/5/7.

- Added vertical auto aim on Parasites and Venom.