Sweet Surrender News

[p]We released a hotfix for Update 15.1 (details on Update 15.1 here). This hotfix addresses:[/p]

• [p]Sound not working over Steam Link - this is now fixed. We use the default audio output. Previously we were locking onto the Oculus virtual audio device.[/p]
• [p]Dropping into the lava should work reliably even when you have fall type = Teleport. Previously was doing weird teleport back to the last known safe spot.[/p]
• [p]Fixed exploit regarding Hired Assassin chip.[/p]

[p]We just pushed a hotfix to the Beta branch. It now defaults the audio output to your Windows Default, which should address an issue some players were seeing with Update 15.1.[/p][p][/p][p]If you had audio issues, please try the Beta and let us know if if it helped. [/p]

[p]Dear Sweet Surrender community,[/p][p]If you recall, our previous major update, Update 15, was released as a beta only. Since then, we’ve completed testing on Valve Index headsets and Knuckles controllers, and we’re now comfortable rolling it out as a full release. This full release is included as part of Update 15.1, alongside a smaller set of new additions and quality-of-life improvements detailed below.[/p][p]As part of our move to OpenXR (details here), we unfortunately haven’t been able to restore finger curl tracking. This feature relied on a very specific OpenVR input setup, and we haven’t yet found a reliable replacement. We’d still like to bring this back in the future, but for now it has no gameplay impact.[/p][p]For this update, we’ve tested on Quest devices and Valve Index hardware. We haven’t yet been able to test on all other VR headsets. If you encounter any issues, you have a couple of options:[/p]

• [p]Let us know and, if possible, send us your in-game logs[/p]
• [p]Switch back to the Update 14 branch via Properties → Game Versions and Betas[/p]

[p]Below are the details for Update 15.1. For the full list of changes introduced in Update 15, please refer to our previous post.[/p][p]====[/p][p]A short but sweet Update 15.1 to celebrate the rise of our lord, St. Valentine. We’ve expanded our seasonal theme system to support the Valentine celebration. Our robots are sporting adorable, love-filled attire for you to blast apart. Gears and gear particles are also subtly modified. [/p][p][/p][p]You can now configure “Seasons” directly in the UI menu. Leave it on Default, turn seasons off entirely, or manually select your favorite theme at any time. By default, the Valentine’s celebration season will last for roughly two weeks.[/p][p][/p][p]The rest of the update is focused on Quality of Life improvements:[/p]

• [p]We’ve added a Crouch button. This is disabled by default, but in the Movement menu, you can bind to your preferred primary face button or left/right stick click[/p]
• [p]Chips Statuses have been expanded to dynamically show their effects. For example, the Mighty Mech chip (which scales up your damage based on the amount of gears you currently have) now shows the exact damage bonus.[/p]
• [p][/p]
• [p]Added an option (in the Comfort menu) to lock your health bar’s horizontal movement. Previously this would gently lag behind your head turns, which some players found uncomfortable. You can now have it synced to your head.[/p]
• [p]The Chips UI has finally been improved so you can CLEARLY see which info belongs to the left chip and which to the right. A ground-breaking achievement four years in the making[/p]
• [p][/p]
• [p]Improved Grenade Launcher usability; it’s now easier to land shots on the final boss and the small grenade launcher now reloads instantly. Be careful with it![/p]
• [p]Fixed a hole in the floor under a broken wall in Industrial area[/p]

[p]Love hurts. Especially when it explodes. Enjoy![/p]

[p]Dear Sweet Surrender Community,[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve just released a Beta Preview of our upcoming Quality of Life - Update 15. Due to a major SDK upgrade we had to do, it currently only works well with Quest controllers. Other controllers should work, but sensitivity and things like finger tracking are currently broken. We’re still working on full support, it’s just not trivial with an Engine upgrade this big and will need more attention from us in the future.[/p][p][/p][p]We would greatly appreciate any testing feedback for various controllers. Please let us know what issues you run into, you can reach us on Discord (or by email). You can also send us your (super helpful) logs from within the game by Reporting an Issue. To access the Beta:[/p]

• [p]Go to your library and right-click Sweet Surrender[/p]
• [p][c]Properties > Betas > Beta Participation[/c][/p]
• [p]Select [c]beta - Beta Branch[/c] in the dropdown[/p]

[p]This update is heavily focused on Quality of Life Improvements. We’ve spent the last 8 months listening to your feedback and addressing reported bugs. Thank you to everyone who reported in Discord or in-game, especially those who took the time to share video footage.[/p][p]
There are a few new things in this update, but we have mostly focused on bug fixes. We also spent several months performing major upgrades on our core engine (Unity) + VR SDK. These upgrades were a bit painful and time-consuming but were extremely overdue and set us up for longer-term support of the game.[/p][p]
Probably our biggest improvement to the game in this update is a 2nd Weapon Shoulder Slot, along with reworked UI feedback for your back weapons. We hope you enjoy it![/p][p][/p][p]Please check out our full changelog below.[/p][h2]2026[/h2][p][/p][p]We’re still hard at work on our (as-of-yet-unannounced) new game, which is taking up most of our focus. Please check our roadmap for further details on our plans for Sweet Surrender. After four+ years of updates, we would love to continue to support Sweet Surrender for many years to come but it might become difficult due to financial reasons and limited resources. Fingers crossed![/p][p][/p][p]Thanks to each and every one of you for your support over the years![/p][p][/p][h2]Improvements[/h2]

• [p]Two over-the-shoulder weapon slots (with UI feedback and improved haptics)[/p]
• [p]20 new chip variations based on existing chips[/p]
• [p]Progression unlock/restore based on your achievements[/p]
• [p]Increased throwing knife damage[/p]
• [p]Improved rotational recoil[/p]
• [p]Usability: new weapon/hand settings for horizontal angle and x, y, z offsets[/p]
• [p]Usability: improved chip pop-up behavior to be less annoying. New UI option to disable tutorial text.[/p]
• [p]Humor: Save&Quit station is physically destroyed when you leave the start room[/p]

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• [p]Classes: fixed Grenadier progression (can progress again on the “Kill X enemies with a grenade launcher”)[/p]
• [p]Balance: doubled self-damage from explosions[/p]
• [p]Usability: improved grabbing robot parts and holding them. Currently uses Tomato Presence mode (no hands)[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed robot part jitter[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed broken occlusion of spider parts[/p]
• [p]Usability: Back slot icons now work for all weapons, even when transitioning to new level[/p]
• [p]Usability: improved teleportation into acid pools. Prevent teleporting if acid is still up[/p]
• [p]Usability: improved behavior of teleporting into jump pads[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed weapon tier visuals on a couple weapons[/p]
• [p]Usability: trophies can be picked up[/p]
• [p]Usability: improved floor, lava and teleport detection - should hopefully address the height issues some players have reported[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed tutorial handgun not being throwable[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed a number of chip descriptions Explosive Returns, Blood Frenzy, Vigorous Vitality, Fuller Auto)[/p]
• [p]Usability: fixed missing Tunnel Man, and tweaked some confirmation text[/p]
• [p]Usability: Improved grappling hook behavior to avoid permanent fly mode when used in combination with jump pad[/p]
• [p]Achievements: fix for “no shortcut” achievement when using Save&Quit[/p]
• [p]Stims: nano stims no longer applied twice[/p]
• [p]Stims: prevent nano stims from being applied while transitioning levels[/p]
• [p]Chips: fixed a number of chip behaviors in edge cases[/p]
• [p]Chips: fixed status description of Vigorous Vitality (gameplay was fine, just the text feedback)[/p]
• [p]Chips: fixed Last Stand upgrade[/p]
• [p]Chips: removed last uses of Toughness chip (medic class)[/p]
• [p]Enemies: fix for unkillable AI (this was a super tough one to track down)[/p]
• [p]Enemies: improved enemy path-finding and patrolling behavior[/p]
• [p]Enemies: will move if they stay in one spot for too long[/p]
• [p]Enemies: Improved drill bot search for crystals[/p]
• [p]Enemies: less likely to hit other objects[/p]
• [p]Enemies: grenadier robots shoot at you again[/p]
• [p]Enemies: improvements to spider gunner enemy navigation (should fix it spawning in ceilings)[/p]
• [p]Enemies: improved large robot behavior in Industrial Area when it comes to alarm buttons[/p]
• [p]Enemies: Improved Drone behavior (they were colliding with their own colliders, which caused weird movement behaviors)[/p]
• [p]Levels: fixed fuel cell and acid grenade spawning behaviors[/p]
• [p]Levels: fixed several missing enemy spawns[/p]
• [p]Levels: fixed a few missing models in Slums, removed some extra barrels[/p]
• [p]Levels: switched some windows in Industrial Area to breakable glass[/p]
• [p]UI: Show katana icon correctly when holstered[/p]
• [p]Visuals: adjusted all bullet impact decals to only use local scaling (no more stretched bullet marks)[/p]
• [p]Visuals: improved transparency on bullet marks (for Quest 2 non bloom mode)[/p]
• [p]Visuals: fixed acid vignette color[/p]
• [p]Stability: fixed double-barrel + double mag chip combos crashing the game[/p]
• [p]Stability: removed camera from a room in the mines that caused weird things to happen[/p]
• [p]Stability: fixed colliders on Slum Explosive barrels[/p]
• [p]Stability: better error checking in enemy targeting[/p]
• [p]Stability: better logging to track down room occlusion issues[/p]

[p]Audio: reduced the chance of audio crunching during heavy fire fights.[/p]

Dear Sweet Surrender Community,

We’re back with another massive update. The central focus of this update is a revamp of our core Chips Upgrade system, but we’ve also made numerous Quality of Life improvements across the whole game.



Our efforts to revamp the chip system started last year as we sought ways to better balance the game. To that end we have made several major changes:

We introduced Nano Stims - a new way to boost your health. Keep your eyes open for them.
We created a new category of Economy chips that heavily involves gears with 7 new chips
We revamped the Projectile category - chips affecting bullet damage - with 9 new chips and 3 improved ones.
We also revamped the Quickfire category - chips affecting firing rate, magazine size and recoil - with 2 new chips and 2 improved ones.
We removed some of the less interesting chips.



[h3]Here’s a full list of all the new and revamped chips in this update[/h3]
Click on "Show Spoilers" - Gray lines indicate improved existing chips

[expand]

[/expand]

Whenever we could, we tried to combine at least two systems to encourage more interesting builds to evolve. It’s been fun watching our community during Beta testing come up with new and different ways combinations and builds.



Later this year we plan two further updates refreshing the rest of the chips, as well as bringing further improvements to these systems.

[h2]Explosions Rebalancing[/h2]

We wanted to make grenades more interesting and useful in the game. To that end, we did a pass on their strength and radius to make them more impactful.

We then did a pass on ALL explosions in the game to change their radius, fall-off curves and corresponding visuals. Explosion radius should now more closely align with their visuals.

[h2]Improved Holosights[/h2]

We have massively improved the visuals for the holo sights (laser-sighted handgun, focus handgun, assault rifle and both sniper rifles). We also added a dot to the laser pointer on the lasersighted handgun for more precise aiming.



[h2]Improvements for First Time Player[/h2]

We’ve taken the time to once again thoroughly test the experience for first time players. It’s quite easy to take this for granted ~4 years after launch, but it’s also one of the hardest areas to get feedback on from players.

Despite that, we’re still doing what we can to improve our first-time experience, as well as making our more hidden mechanics easier to notice for returning players:

• We added a “Tips” screen in the homebase, scrolling through our most frequently requested tips
  
• We added a clearer explanation (and reminder) of the existence of our map. Also added an indicator on your wrist.
  
• We added a Settings Screen directly in your homebase, to more directly surface our extensive options for the player. And also as a QoL feature, so you can finally directly see your changes live when adjusting your graphics settings or holster positions.
  
• Gears are now more easy to spot, with added particle effects (color-coded to indicate value)
  
• Better on-boarding of comfort options and leaderboard
  

[h2]Weapon-Environmental Collisions[/h2]

Last year we introduced a fundamental rework of our collision system, allowing players to prevent collisions between their weapons and the environments. This was a commonly-reported source of frustration for first-time players.

We’ve now disabled weapon-environment collisions by default for all players. For existing players, you can re-enable collisions if you like in the Weapons settings menu.



[h2]New Settings[/h2]

We’ve added several player-requested settings in the last few updates that we would like to highlight:

• Over the shoulder slot height adjustment
  
• Optional speed run timer
  
• Extra player height offset
  
• Quest 3 now has a custom graphics settings screen
  

[h2]Various Other Chip Improvements[/h2]

We’ve made several visual improvements to how we present chip information. Better layout, better use of color. We have further improvements still planned, including an improved system for conveying the chip active status.

[h2]Improved In-Game Patch Notes[/h2]

We’ve reworked our in-game patch notes system to communicate a summary of our last 5 major updates. This new system also allows us to update the patch notes without an update to the game. We plan to use this in the future to communicate upcoming changes and other developer news.

[h2]Save & Quit[/h2]

We’ve revamped the Save & Quit to make it a bit more robust against leaderboard abuse and class-based progression issues. After some internal discussions, we’ve also decided to remove the “Save & Quit” station once you move past the first room in the level. We’ve improved our Class Stats tracking, including across Save & Quits.

[h2]Melee Improvements[/h2]

We’ve made several improvements to our melee weapons so that they behave more reliably. There’s still further improvements to make in this area but it’s going to take a deeper undertaking to get right.

[h2]Improved Bug Reporter[/h2]

We’ve improved our bug reporter interface (better keyboard, avoiding duplicate logs) and the underlying tech (we can now see errors you ran into in a previous run, not just the current run). This helps us investigate some of the rarer issues players run in.

[h2]Conclusion & Next Steps[/h2]

We’ve made a bunch more smaller touches here and there, please see the full list of improvements and fixes below.

A big thank you to our Discord community, especially our Beta Testers. We released 4 major betas for this update over the last few months, and our testers helped us track down quite a few bugs, new and old.

This is again, a big Quality of Life (and FREE) update. It’s our big thank you to all those who keep playing and enjoying our games. We appreciate all your kind words and feedback.

Stay tuned later this year for Part 2 of our Chips Revamp\!



[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Gameplay: Added Nano Stims that give you a health boost (performance chip has been correspondingly removed)
  
• Chips: Reworked overpowered chips Mobile Malware (scale based on damage \+ probability) and Health Regen (removed)
  
• Chips: New Gear/Economy category with 7 new chips
  
• Chips: Revamped the Projectile and Quickfire chip categories with 11 new chips and 5 improved chips
  
• Chips: Revamped and improved chip tiers and chip distribution
  
• Gameplay: Rebalanced level distribution to better work with Economy chips.
  
• Gameplay: Player grenades are stronger, with a bigger range
  
• Gameplay: Save & Quit station is removed once you leave the start room of a level.
  
• Gameplay: Enemies are less accurate after you teleport
  
• Gameplay: Buffed auto-reloading (faster) on Heavy Submachine Gun, Burst Shotgun and Heavy Grenade Launcher
  
• Gameplay: Improved teleporter pad behavior so it’s easier to approach them from behind
  
• Gameplay: Healing pods no longer heal each other
  
• Gameplay: Healing pod “heal” visuals match correctly to affected radius
  
• Gameplay: Improvements to the final boss scenes including reducing overall performance impact
  
• UX: Tips screen in homebase
  
• UX: Settings screen in homebase
  
• UX: Improved in-game Patch Notes
  
• UX: Improved comfort options descriptions for first-time players
  
• UX: Weapon-Environmental Collisions are off by default now
  
• UX: Show “no leaderboard available” until player has completed first run
  
• UX: Vending Machine UI improvements: more clearly communicate level progress and gear usage
  
• UX: New map visual indicator on wrist
  
• Visuals: All enemies now have muzzle flash and recoil when they shoot
  
• Visuals: Leaderboard layouts and highlighting active leaderboard
  
• Settings: new option for adjusting over the shoulder slot height
  
• Settings: Optional speed run timer
  
• Settings: Extra player height offset
  
• Settings: Replaced 3rd graphic mode on Quest 3 with customizable settings
  
• Visuals: Gears are more visually apparent
  
• Visuals: Chip UI improvements
  
• Visuals: “Snappier” animations for sniper scope
  
• Visuals: Improved feedback on elevator button and vending machine buttons
  
• Visuals: Tunnel Robot now has an idle animation
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Katana EMP: fixed triggering completely refilling the energy (now should gradually refill)
  
• Melee weapon collisions with environments
  
• Fix BlastAcidGrenade null collision issues
  
• Fixed duplicate bullet reload sounds
  
• Sewers: fixed bridge that didn’t lower visually but collision lowers
  
• Class specific leaderboard stats track correctly across saves
  
• Fixed class progression on grenadier class so that all grenades count
  
• Fixed incessant beeping on turret spiders
  
• Fixed duplicate holo sight element on rifles
  
• Fixed room generation issues with overlapping containers
  
• A number of bugs reported by the community during beta (including infinite ammo, broken crit chips, infinite gear issues and a lot of balancing issues).
  
• Added a 1k cap on max amount of gears