Patch Notes

Message from the Mothership

Alien Hominid Invasion’s Update Part 2: JUICY VARIETY EDITION has arrived to Steam! Today we welcome a handful of fresh hazards, enemies, areas, and modifiers to the game, in addition to the brand-new Orbiter mutation and more balance tweaks.

Read up on all the juicy intel below, and as always, let us know what you think! What are you waiting for? Become an alien pinball and get flung back into the invasion today! Tell the MECHA F.R.O.G. we said hi, thanks!

New Content (JUICY VARIETY!)

1. Ricochet Pads

Ricochet pads bounce your shots off in different directions, which sometimes helps and sometimes doesn’t. If you hit their underside, they will explode!

2. Shutters

Shooting one affects all the others, so plan accordingly!

3. Pinball Bumper

Pinball bumpers can be used to your advantage, or maybe not – it really depends on how much chaos is on the screen at any given time.

4. Mine Layers

Every single enemy drops explosive mines when they die.

5. Grind Lines

Grind lines have appeared around city blocks for you to zip around on new slippery angles and slopes. Invade radically!

1. Orbiter

With every use, the Orbiter mutation spawns a projectile that circles you, making you a close-range killer! Using it a second time will make a temporary platform.

1. MECHA F.R.O.G.

Invaders can now encounter the Mecha F.R.O.G. as a mini-boss at the end of city blocks! If you defeat the Mecha F.R.O.G, some say you can use it as a vehicle… MECH RAMPAGE?!

With most of these additions come new combinations of builds you can discover using previously existing modifiers!

1. Roll/dive Bomb

Chance to leave a bomb upon any roll or dive. Higher quality loot for higher chances!

2. Double Jump Reflect

Create a small deflection blast around you after a double jump.

3. Chargeshot Juice Regen

Hold down your chargeshot to generate Mutation Juice for your alien friends! Higher quality loot for more juice per second!

4. Metal Detector

Find lunch money while digging in the ground! Higher quality loot for more lunch money!

There are now three new city blocks for invaders to explore (and destroy), in addition to numerous art updates sprinkled throughout the game!

1. Highway Underpass and Overpass

2. Rubble of What Once Was

3. A Lot of Parking Lot

4. Background Art Updates

Art for Meow Motors, Gas Pass, Cinema, Bookstore, and the ad for Horseass Grillery has been updated! Sidewalks are more destroyed, yay for destruction!

Adjustments

1. Keybot and Chomper Wall Level Adjustments

The Keybot now spawns earlier in Chomper Wall levels! Chase it down and shoot it while running from the spike wall.

2. Hazard Change: Bounder

The Bounder is now larger and in charger. He shall not be ignored!

3. Mutation Change: Dispatch

Helper invader aliens will shoot more often and scale with player damage (both Dispatcher mutation aliens and those found in the wild).

4. Objective Change: WOOSTER Arrives

The generic “Kill-Purple-Enemies” objective has been replaced with WOOSTER, the ultra-wide robot.

5. Objective Change: Ice Cream

Agents now carry around ice cream they’ve stolen from the sewer children. You must defeat the agent and return the ice cream to the child!

6. More Level Updates!

There are now many more vehicles to jump around on and explode! Suburban areas have also been retooled with a sprinkle of new things to discover.

Balance

1. Danger Level

Danger Level now caps out at 15 minutes instead of 7.5, but the max values (damage, projectile speed, etc.) are now twice as high.

2. Fax Machine and Intel

Fax Machines will now spawn closer, meaning the Mothership has less reason to get mad at you, right? Less intel is required per objective, too!

3. Eradicators

Eradicators now have less health and hog less of the area.

4. Spark Bot

The bot that breathes flames won’t be knocking you away anymore, so remember to stop, drop, n’ roll!

5. Juiceman

Juiceman’s health has been raised, and his dig attack is now buffed.

6. Grunt Agents

Grunt agents spawned in swarm levels are no longer weaker than normal grunts.

7. Lightning Gun

Lightning Gun’s charge shot has been buffed and is now better at triggering the chain lightning effect, but the regular shot is slightly worse at applying the status.

8. Alien Blaster

Alien Blaster now deals slightly more damage, is twice as accurate, and has slightly more range. For those who love the classics – we see you!

9. Medic Mutation

The Medic mutation can be used more often, but now heals slightly less. Apologies if you haven’t gotten that achievement yet.

10. Newborn Hominid Stats

Newborn hominids run and dig slightly slower, but jump slightly faster. Jumping around and dodging bullets should now be a bit easier, but riding enemies, movement modifiers, and the Speed Demon mutation are more key than ever when cross-country invading!

Quality of Alien Lifeform Updates

1. Turret Hazard

Turret hazards that shoot weighted orbs can now be destroyed because they are annoying when you can’t!

2. Flinch Recovery

Aliens now recover from flinching more quickly! You’ll find yourself recovering faster, so you can survive a little more.

3. Bigger Boost Numbers

Numbers found on your boost slots are universally stronger than before! BIGGER NUMBERS, BIGGER POWER!

4. Agent Blaster Projectile

The agent blaster projectile’s flinch and stun effect has been shortened.

5. Indicator on Riding Enemies

Don’t lose sight of yourself when riding on enemies with this new handy dandy graphic!

6. Mothership Memory UI

The Mothership’s memory UI has been updated to be organized a bit better.

Bug Fixes

• Settings – Fixed a resolution bug when switching to borderless windowed mode
• Gameplay – Fixed a bug where advanced objectives were not available in railroad levels
• Gameplay – Fixed a bug with Armored Flametroopers moving slowly in C.H.O.M.P.E.R. lockdown zones
• Gameplay – Fixed a bug where location indicator icons displayed the pigment of the AI alien rather than the players’
• Gameplay – players are now able to ride Cybernids
• Online – Fixed a bug with online camera movement when players are in arena wall objectives
• Online – Fixed a bug where visual indicators for crits were not visible to all players
• Online – Fixed various bugs with joining an online game that is at the final in-game cutscene
• Level – Fixed a bug where there would be an inaccurate amount of agents in the observation room prior to a boss level
• Level – Fixed a bug where the General would appear crying again after a sequence had ended. Poor General 🙁
• Localization – adjusted some translations based on feedback
• General – Various Local and Online QOL bug fixes

Message from the Mothership

Kicking off our first Alien Hominid Invasion update, Part 1 brings 23 new achievements, along with some hard decisions, variety, and more balance! This will be followed by Part 2, which will bolster the delight of destroying Earth with even more significant improvements and new content!

Here’s all the intel on Part 1’s changes:

Update Patch Release Timing

Part 1 of this update will go live in December for Steam and consoles.

More Achievements, Cosmetics, and CHOICES

1. 23 New Achievements

A whole new set of achievements arrive in our next update! Some of these are retro-active, AKA time-traveling achievements, meaning the game knows what you’ve done and will reward you with the new achievements next time you sign into your profile. Others will have to be earned. You’ll keep all progress made on your already hard-earned achievements, of course!

2. More Choices

What’s that you say? You like making more meaningful decisions in your invasion paths? We have great news for you, then!

There will be more deliberate pathways in the generated mission maps, making it more common to have hard choices! Uh oh! Overall Danger-Per-Level added per block has been lowered to compensate for the longer pathways that can appear.

3. More Choices 2.0

When you defeat a boss at their HQ, you can now select from a wider initial pool of Mutations, increasing randomness and making playthroughs more curious!

4. November Seasonal Attire

The aliens have observed us and increased the discoverable alien head pool with November-esque cosmetics!

Balance Pass

1. Alien Irradiator

This weapon now takes 0.3 seconds longer to reach ultra-white-hot-melting on targets.

2. Enemy Danger Level Behavior

We’ve tuned the Agency’s scaling to work differently. In later Danger Levels, enemies won’t fire bullets with as much boosted velocity as before, meaning the cloud of green death will approach you a bit slower and give you a better chance to dodge!

3. Agency Grunt Standard Issue Blaster

Grunts are massacring invaders, and still will, though their damage per-bullet output has been lowered, along with a longer time to reach maximum velocity for more of a “tell.”

4. Agency Mini-Mech Attack

Damage per-bullet output is lowered when Agents are operating the Mini-Mech. They don’t know how to use them as effectively as you!

5. Installball 2.0, Spinner of Fists

Installball’s Megaflight ability now tracks players better – “Injustice rains from above!” Stationary tantrums hurt less, because stationary tantrums shouldn’t hurt that much.

6. Lozenge Man Attack

Damage per-bullet output lowered for Lozenge Man, whose main job is supposed to be more “slowing aliens down” and less “mowing aliens down like he’s holding four blasters at once.”

7. Hunterbot Attack

Speed, range, and follow time on the Hunterbot’s projectiles have been slightly reduced, but their homing has been increased. Hunterbot attacks should still be spooky, but are now a bit more satisfying to dodge.

Other Changes

1. Update to Maximum # of Enemies, Part 2

Previously, we lowered the number of enemies that spawned per player. Now, we’ve tweaked the solo experience as well. The overall number of enemies should look less like a flood and more like a… slightly smaller flood.

2. Update to Objective Placement

Objective objects (fishbowls, ice cream, etc.) now have a greater chance of spawning lower in the level. Aliens are great climbers (and flyers!), but repeatedly needing to get to the tops of tall buildings could be especially rough on new invaders.

Part 2 Coming Soon…

NOTE: This post only covers content and balance updates. We are still reviewing all your feedback and bug reports, and there are a myriad of bug fixes coming along with this update! Keep invading, and stay tuned for more details!