Evil Genius 2: World Domination news & patch notes

Happy Easter Geniuses! Rather than eggs, we've been hunting bugs in the lead up to the bank holiday, and we're happy to report that we've cracked a few that have been lurking. With a focus on navigation, we've continued to make improvements to minion pathing, so we should see fewer members of our dedicated workforce getting stuck at the helipad and having to pay the ultimate price for their slacking. With a little community assistance we also identified and fixed an extremely rare issue that caused minions to become completely invincible lair destroying monsters, so that's good! In addition, we've made a number of smaller fixes and general stability improvements to keep your sinister machinations running smoothly. Thank you all for your continued support, Stay Evil, The EG2 Dev Team {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/9ebbeb72ca0c6c69e8ba58fccb19159ccf899810.gif

Platform Specific

• WINSTORE - Signing out of the "Xbox App" no longer causes the game to crash.

General

• Minions will no longer become immortal under specific circumstances
• Island will no longer be visible on transition to Island view from World Map

Navigation Fixes

• Weapon dispensers should now correctly auto-reconstruct
• Load game button remains visible if all cloud save data is deleted
• Animation improvements
• Security Zone gamepad input prompt will no longer overlap other prompts.
• Characters should no longer become stuck in a loop of falling into a shark trap when blocked in by attackers
• Turret "Out-of-Ammo" backplate now displays correctly
• Minions will now correctly re-load turrets
• Research now correctly calculates money required and time remaining when difficulty is changed mid-game
• Minions should no longer become stuck by stat changes while departing to World Map
• Brainwashed minions can now be re-captured.
• Tier 1 Mining research now unlocked by default in Sandbox mode
• Tourists in Benchmark mode now correctly sit on sofas

Super Agents/Henchmen

• Henchman recruitment warning added to Super Agent Recruitment objectives in Sandbox
• Henchmen no longer become unresponsive if interrupted during placement of a trap
• Agent X "Noir" ability visuals adjusted
• Henchman ability stability improvements

Oceans

• Geniuses and Henchmen can now access the dock area of Icicle Point
• Minions can now correctly access Floor 3 of Icicle point using stairs.
• Ice statues can now be placed in the "Workshop" and "Portal Chamber"
• Fixes for ice statue textures
• Temperature balancing
• Engineering Projects can now be cancelled after being suspended
• Nautilus and Atlantis Rogues Gallery unlock fixes
• Polar no longer becomes bald when frozen by a trap
• Tutorial markers added to "Troublemaker" minions in Polars campaign
• Button added to minion manager to allow Engineering specialisation

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/dd3a3dcf81cf53133985921ba938d60c4bb362e1.png

POST HIGHLIGHTS

• Wrecking Bola, Atomic Olga, Symmetry and Agent X are now available to recruit
• Other new changes include Temperature tweaks and buffing the benefits *full patch notes at bottom of post
• Wallpaper rewards are available to download
• All Discord rewards are now accessible
• Wall of Infamy winners announced (on our blog)
• New Evil Genius 2 merch and 25% discount code available

DIRECT FROM THE DEVS

You did it, you showed those Super Agents who's really the boss and now you can recruit them into your own evil organisation, congratulations! With this update we have added Side Stories for recruiting Atomic Olga, Symmetry, Agent X and Wrecking Bola as Henchmen. You'll encounter each Super Agent as usual as you progress towards World Domination in a Campaign game, but after you've defeated them once and for all, recruitment side stories will become available, allowing them to cheat death and join your side. Alternatively, dive into Sandbox mode and start playing with them right away! This content does not require any DLC download or enabling, its now available by default as part of the base game. The addition of the Temperature System in the Oceans DLC pack was always intended to introduce new construction challenges, and additional considerations when building your evil Lair, but it has done so a touch more aggressively than some of you would like. We've made some changes here to make Comfortable temperatures (and aesthetically pleasing Lair layouts) easier to achieve, and we will continue to monitor this over the coming weeks. We have of course continued to listen to feedback we receive through our wonderful community team, and so you can also expect the usual list of bug fixes and QoL improvements in addition to your rewards for successfully completing the community challenge. Stay evil, The EG2 Dev Team

RECAP: FROM S.A.B.R.E. TO NEIGHBOUR - WEEK 1

Wrecking Bola was our first target. Giving players the chance to really get stuck into the brand new Oceans Campaign Pack, we set our targets a little lower in week one - giving you time to get familiar with all the new content and progress far enough into your evil campaign that you could start luring Super Agents. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/8b71d6ea8f4b7e04b22bae6e09946d154e187c93.jpg Not only did you comfortably complete our objectives by the end of the week, but you Schemed a WHOPPING 506,844 times! The target was only 140k. Talk about overachievers... give these minions a pay rise! Download your Wrecking Bola wallpapers here!

RECAP: LAIRS UNDER THE H.A.M.M.E.R. - WEEK 2

Naturally, your hard work should be rewarded with... more hard work. The second week of our event was meant to test your dedication to our evil cause. Again, you did not disappoint - though it was touch and go near the end! Atomic Olga is a formidable foe, but you still managed to sneak ahead of the target number of defeats, obliterating Olga 123,000 times over. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/61b69ca5fcbce2f57c0bad470fb1de3fb452e469.jpg And we'd be amiss not to mention you just crossed the finish line (in overtime) for the Scheming objective this time round - surpassing the 500k goal by a mere seven Schemes! You could say 007... But that might be copyright infringement. *wipes brow* We thought our ambition was simply too great, but you really pulled out all the stops to get Atomic Olga on our side. Download your Atomic Olga wallpapers here!

RECAP: AN A.N.V.I.L. SCANDAL - WEEK 3

Up next, we had Symmetry... Another challenge. Another success. It was by a fine margin, but you still managed to exceed our expectations, by a few thousand extra Schemes, Interrogations and defeats. More impressive was your bloodlust for the treacherous little thief that's made off with so much of your ill-gotten gains in the past. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/6ce15d1828af143871c1de879aa32107d2193320.jpg Honestly, there's evil and then there's hiring Symmetry for the sole purpose of guarding your Vaults of gold - to look but never to touch... We hope you revel in your long awaited revenge now you can recruit Symmetry to do your bidding! Download your Symmetry wallpapers here!

RECAP: A CANDIDATE AT P.A.T.R.I.O.T. - WEEK 4

Finally, we rounded off our event with a long awaited foe. Agent X was always loyal to a fault... but no more! Now he is yours to command. Despite your stats draining after four gruelling weeks of endless combat, intense Interrogations and sustained Scheming, you still managed to over-deliver on those Agent X defeats (11k over target)! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/731959e54ec6211e619c8c4c23600776de3a706f.jpg You also Interrogated a total of 154,342 P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Agents (44k over target)... We're impressed. Maybe Agent X is too. He values dedication to a cause as much as we do! Who knows, perhaps your dedication was the key to swaying his loyalty to P.A.T.R.I.O.T. in the end. Download your Agent X wallpapers here! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/730d50cd54cb1f29f9dc441e65d2cb212e2c564a.png BONUS REWARDS: For completing every objective during our event, you can also download a brand new Polar wallpaper set here, and there are additional Polar stickers and emojis on our Discord.

NEW MERCH ALERT

We are also running a 25% discount on all Evil Genius 2 merch, with new items now in store (including one of our runner up items voted for by our community, a pom pom beanie)! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/bcbde46fb19258bcf4418b34218c6dbb1e6d14d3.png

WALL OF INFAMY

To browse our Wall Of Infamy winners and their screenshot submissions, visit our full blog here - and don't forget to join our Discord for impromptu content challenges and exclusives. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/e5e0d1f6c90b95d4c73ec26de60b99167c4ca1c4.png

PATCH NOTES:

Additions:

• Side Stories for the recruitment of Super Agents (Wrecking Bola, Symmetry, Agent X and Atomic Olga)

Platform Specific:

• PS5 - Fixed issue with audio dropout
• PS5 - Doomsday Devices should now cause pad vibrations
• PS4 - Gamepad no longer becomes unresponsive on switching profile
• WinStore - Game will no longer crash on close if the user is signed out

Oceans Campaign Pack:

• Comfortable Temperature level thresholds have been relaxed, and negative Temperature thresholds have been increased
• Extreme Temperatures now have a reduced impact on Lair Item Durability
• Permanent Temperature changes during Polar's Campaign have been reduced
• The positive effects of the Comfortable Trait have been increased
• The Air Con Unit and Space Heater have had their emission range increased
• Temperature furniture adjustments
• Temperature traits no longer prevent minion capture
• Brought Polar's "Inner Sanctum Door" stats in line with others
• Oceans content in Rogues gallery now displays correctly
• Arctic Casino Doors no longer switch to normal Casino Doors after they open
• Engineers now correctly receive "Well Fed" buff from Sushi Bar
• Hubbard Slice now correctly affects Oceans loot items
• Industrial Air Conditioner now correctly unlocked in Sandbox Mode
• Prevented Oceans side stories persisting beyond the "point of no return"
• Gordian Naut engineering project now correctly lists "Unlocks"
• Deep Six objectives now correctly list "Unlocks"
• Improved collision for selecting Oceans regions on the World Map
• Credits now play correctly on completing the Oceans campaign
• Deep Six objective markers now rotate correctly on the World Map
• Engineers no longer become misaligned with "Workbench"/"Advanced Workbench" during use
• Improvements to Agent speedboat arrival animation
• Characters should no longer float into the air inside the Oceans island helipad lift
• Minor Arctic Island updates

General:

• Doors destroyed by Wrecking Bola will now be re-constructed automatically when set to do so
• Removed duplicate items from Sandbox build menu
• Improvements to Muscle minion rigging
• Muscle minions legs no longer float while using "Super Serum Machine"
• Clara Jones now correctly sits at Red Ivan's conference table
• Prevented stair construction configuration leading to invalid build state
• Gamepad can no longer navigate to invalid minion type in minion manager
• Improvement to the way minion training and priorities interact
• Furniture selection markers now appear on Incinerators when selected via minion side panel
• Casino fountain damage stats now more consistent
• Launcher graphics settings now consistent with in-game options
• Collision updated on V.O.I.D. Stage 3
• Updated overhead icon priorities
• Added reset camera key
• Scientist minions should leave computer consoles earlier when power is switched off
• Intro cut scene timing updates
• Adjustment to job priority of Incinerator vs. Abomination Creation Station
• Freeze Ray VFX should trigger correctly on interaction with other traps
• Reduced delay before Super Agents respawn after being defeated
• Combat furniture vision cone updates
• Updated stats for "Improved Radio Repeater"
• Lighting/Shadow improvements
• Text Updates
• Minor UI Updates
• Animation clipping updates
• Island object clipping updates

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/a4598795d210d4919dfd29a31a754c7981b07b7d.png Brrrr, this new Lair is giving us the shivers! But it sounds like our the new Evil Genius likes to keep things cool. Yes, you guessed it - The Oceans Campaign Pack has landed (in the Arctic of all places)! Get ready to give those pesky Forces of Justice the cold shoulder as the new Oceans Campaign Pack brings the big freeze to Evil Genius 2. Introducing Polar, our ecological mastermind and new genius in Evil Genius 2: World Domination. Venture out to her Arctic Lair and start constructing the Z.E.R.O. Doomsday Device to freeze the Earth to its very core. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/4084cd5a90b5fe7e7c77d091b0130ee07bcc8841.gif Complete with a new Campaign storyline, and five Ocean Regions to control, this cool new pack adds a new Force of Justice Agent type, and an armoured Super-Agent who can even be turned to join forces with you as a Henchman. In addition, the pack also includes new Minions: Engineers that will beaver away in their Workshop to create and maintain submarines and turrets. A new temperature system means that your workforce’s productivity will be affected if they get too cold or too hot: place heaters and air conditioning to ensure optimum working conditions. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/a20ab94410820c0845be4fb023a9982abc5acba7.gif

The Oceans Campaign Pack includes:

• A new Genius - Polar
• Z.E.R.O. Doomsday Device
• Unique Arctic Lair
• Temperature system
• Ocean World Map regions with new Schemes
• Engineers
• Workshop room
• New Super Agent who can be converted into a Henchman
• New Force of Justice - J.A.W.S
• Turrets
• Rocket launchers for minions
• 3 New loot items with side stories

Development Team Message

Despite still being in the grips of the winter season, it's quite mild out... With the release of the Oceans Campaign Pack, our latest Evil Genius is scheming to correct that once and for all! Now available to Season Pass holders as well as for purchase separately, global warming won't know what hit it. In addition to developing this frosty new content, the team here has continued to fix community-reported bugs, with just enough time to add a couple of features that have been requested by you along the way. Most notably we've added a function to the furniture side menu that allows you to identify items of furniture that you would like your minions to automatically re-build should it, for any reason, be destroyed. No more worrying about power supply interruptions from Blue Saint and his destructive tendencies, or having to follow Wrecking Bola around after she has smashed her way through all of your precious doors. We've also spent some time improving messaging for Trap cooldowns and blockages, so it should be easier for you all to tell at a glance how your Trap networks are functioning. Finally we also added a button to quickly swap between placed Portals, almost as if you were using them yourself. With the Season Pass now complete, we'll be continuing a tail of support, and may even have a surprise or two left that our Community Team will be eager to share information about very soon. Thank you for playing and for continuing to support Evil Genius 2: World Domination. The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

Full Patch Notes

New Additions

• Addition of an overhead indicator for blocked Traps.
• Addition of an indicator for time until Trap is ready to use again.
• Addition of a button in the side panel to automatically reconstruct destroyed furniture.
• Addition of a button to jump between constructed Portals.

General

• Further improvements to Lair navigation and minion job prioritisation. - Including navigation through Portals. - Including Cruise Ship navigation into and away from the Lair.
• Abominations will no longer attempt to escort Agents tagged for distract.
• Abominations and Mechanical Minions are no longer affected by Emma's Doomsday Device Backfire effect.
• Mechanical Minions will no longer be affected by negative gas/thermal status effects.
• "Tox Populi" subtask will now correctly count construction of "Paywall" as a Trap.
• Improvements to menu navigation when using gamepad.
• Live feedback added to options menu settings.
• Fixes for overlapping and missing icons in menus.
• Improvements to Stats page displays.
• Scrolling in the objectives menu will no longer loop around the visible entries only.
• Save/Load menu will now correctly message the maximum number of supported save files.
• VFX applied to certain furniture will no longer stretch or become misaligned when the furniture is moved while in use.
• Minions/Agents will no longer become stuck when attempting to enter melee combat on stairs.
• Improved messaging for brainwashing failing while at maximum Lair occupancy.
• Improved messaging for unconnected stairs.
• Robot minions can now be healed by Magnolia Mings "Cure" ability.
• Game .exe icon updated.
• Improvements to messaging the positive effect of the "Communications Array" item.
• Fire VFX now correctly aligned on Red Ivan's Doomsday Device on all islands.
• "Broadcast Strength" will now be refunded when a region is destroyed by a Doomsday Device.
• Traps blocked by body bags now correctly message their state.
• Out of world no longer visible on cancelling loot item construction.
• Trap AoE now correctly updates when blocking furniture is moved.
• Assorted icon imagery fixes.
• Assorted menu functionality fixes.
• Assorted animation fixes.
• Text and localisation fixes.
• Credits updated.

Side Stories

• "Reign of Terra" Side Story will now trigger when appropriate conditions are met.
• "Pharaoh is Foul, Foul is Pharaoh" final scheme will now trigger correctly.

Tutorial

• Progress will no longer be blocked if the player confirms partial construction of the Barracks.

Henchmen

• Henchman ability 1 can now be de-activated from the side menu.
• Fix for IRIS becoming stuck on activating and de-activating "Security Network Link".
• Fixes to prevent Henchman ability VFX being visible from any floor within the Lair.

Crash

• Fixed a crash when "Fuels Gold Part 2" progress reaches 99%.

Oceans Campaign Pack

• Corrected a progression blocker in Emma's campaign when playing on Oceans DLC Island.
• Save/Load menu will now display correct image and name for Oceans DLC Island.
• Added missing localisation for a main objective in Oceans DLC campaign.

Community Team Message

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/945b49d1778e870b73da8cf55fd32360f4aba1b2.png We first wanted to thank the community for all their feedback on the last (and our first) Community Event back in October 2021. Players really blew us away, smashing every target before the timer ran out (and running over one million Schemes in total). The time has finally come to unveil our new Community Event - and we're very excited about it! We've been working closely with the development team to bring some of your favourite Super Agents into the fold as new Henchmen...but they won't come quietly! Here's your evil agenda:

• Defeat the Super Agent and their crew (new target each week)
• Run Schemes in specific Regions (new Force of Justice each week)
• Interrogate Agents from specific Forces of Justice

You can view our Progress Tracker to see how close you are to unlocking your rewards!

• Recruit x4 Super Agents as Henchmen
• Exclusive new Genius and Super Agent wallpapers
• Devious new Discord stickers/reactions

Don't forget, you can meet like-minded criminal masterminds to discuss our Community Event, swap sinister tips, Lair-building ideas and more over on Discord. But we'll be putting out regular updates on your progress over on our social media channels as well. There's also a full FAQ section included over on our blog (and below for convenience). Thanks everyone. Stay evil! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/8d1dfae14d230265c9719b3ae56e05a00e3065f7.png

Community Event FAQ

Q: How do I participate in this event? A: We've set the Evil Genius 2 community a series of objectives to complete over a one week period, with four weeks to the event. That means each week, starting on a Tuesday, you'll have a total of three new objectives to work towards. You can track the community's progress via evilgeniusgame.com/community. Q: I can't see any new objectives in my game that are related to this event - how do I play? A: As our objectives are shared with all players, they exist outside of the game. You won't see any objectives in the game that link up to the objectives on our website. Use the objectives on our website as instructions for actions to perform in your game (e.g. Beat Wrecking Bola and her crew = when playing, focus on luring Wrecking Bola to your Lair to kill her and her cronies). Q: I don't understand the objectives, how can I access more support? A: Our Community Managers are easily contactable in our Discord server, as are our moderators who may be able to help you further. Q: When does the event start and end? A: We'll be tracking your World Domination efforts from Tuesday 8th February to Tuesday 8th March, with some rewards distributed weekly, and others coming in a future patch after the end of the event. Q: Do I need to start a new save to begin contributing to the weekly objectives? A: No. You can start participating at any time in existing or new saves. However, if you wish to play as Polar during this event, or play with any of the new DLC items related to the Oceans Campaign Pack, you'll have to start a new save file. Q: I've killed the Super Agent of the week, can I still contribute to that objective? A: Yes, if you want to! Playing on another of your running campaigns, or starting a new campaign will mean you can defeat the Super Agent and their crew all over again. Or, you might want to spend that time working on other objectives, or readying your Lair for the next week of Super Agent attacks. Q: For the objective where we have to defeat the Super Agent and their crew, which actions count towards the progress? A: Every time the Super Agent visits your Lair and you emerge victorious counts. So long as you reduce their Vitality to zero you'll put points on the scoreboard - even if the too-smug do-gooder manages to escape at the last moment! Q: Do defeats outside of the side stories count? A: Yes, defeating Super Agents (and their crews) outside of their side stories will still count towards the target. Q: Will death by Interrogation count towards both the Interrogation objective and the Super Agent and crew defeats objective? A: Yes, you can choose to kill Agents on sight (progressing one objective) or you can get clever and capture the crew that accompanies the Super Agent for Interrogation - this will count towards both objectives. Q: What if I cancel a scheme before it has completed, will that still count towards the scheme objective? A: Cancelling Schemes will not count. The scheme must be completed to contribute towards this objective! Q: How do I get more Agents from the Forces of Justice faction we're focusing on? A: You should already be running Schemes in the regions where your target Forces of Justice faction is located, so keep heat under control in the other regions, and bring in Agents from the regions you need. Q: Can I run Schemes in other regions or do I have to only run them in locations of the target Forces of Justice faction? A: You can run Schemes wherever you need to keep your funds up and heat down - but Schemes in regions not related to the target won't count towards the progress of your community objective. Q: Do I need any DLC to participate in this event? A: No, each objective is purely based on the base game, and does not require a Season Pass or any of our free DLC content to participate. Q: Why do some of the targets for community objectives change each week? A: We identified each target set by looking at historic data on player behaviour, using this as a baseline in creating our more challenging objectives. You may find that the target number of kills on one Super Agent and their crew is different to another of the same objective. This will be because players historically kill some Super Agents more than others, therefore the target of kills on a Super Agent and their crew will will vary. Q: How do I unlock the rewards when the event has ended? A: We will be posting news to our blog and social media channels, as well as the Steam forum and Discord server when the Super Agents become available to recruit as Henchmen. These won't become available immediately. As for your wallpapers and Discord stickers/reactions, we will communicate when these become available during the event through the usual channels. PLEASE NOTE: If you have any other questions regarding the Community Event, please let us know and we'll add these to the FAQ for other players.

Greetings Geniuses, As we head towards our final instalment of Season Pass content for Evil Genius 2, we were thinking it's time to get together for a live Q&A with our community managers (Flop and Gabe). Join us Monday, February 7th over on Twitch for all things Evil Genius 2. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/d1cf4285533fca54d60eba9ea6a336df667bc78d.gif Submit your questions either in the comments, over on our Twitter thread or in our Discord server. We'll be working our way through your questions, discussing the latest Evil Genius 2 news and plans, plus maybe even giving a few additional teasers for the Oceans Campaign Pack DLC - coming soon! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/b505cb61d4501d47c970b342702f9e7f8c0c1b49.png

Greetings Geniuses, Before we end what has been quite a year, we'd like to give you one more Developer Update for Evil Genius 2: World Domination. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/f5e625453d47f10c7400f2a3ec128599bf6bb1f3.gif Firstly, and most importantly, thank you all for your support! From release in March, through five DLC releases, two free pieces of tie-in DLC (thanks Valve!), and a whole bunch of patches, you've given us plenty of positive feedback as well as features to work on whilst we endeavoured to make Evil Genius 2 the best game it could be. As you'll have seen, we've recently been spending some of our time on console versions, so new players have many more opportunities to express that world-conquering ambition they're all hiding. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/87003fc149dab88b73ad58ac148e4cdd33ec00d7.gif For those who have been with us since we released on Steam, that work has improved game-pad support across the board, fixed a whole host of weird and wonderful bugs, as well as better optimised the game for those on lower-end PCs that might have been struggling. For more information on minimum specs, check out the pinned Frequently Asked Questions thread on our Steam forum. But that's not all we've been working on, and obviously this is what you're really here for isn't it? We're close to finalising the last piece of our Season Pass content - the Oceans Campaign Pack - which we'll be releasing some time early next year once everyone returns from a well-deserved Christmas break. We can tell you now that this pack is a monster! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/add3f3c7c833c0ad26aec37ba286531bac0e6355.png For a taste of just some of the content, we'll be giving you a new Lair environment (usable by any genius), a new fifth Genius to select (with their own story campaign and doomsday device to build), lots of new furniture, some more loot, new agents, and a few other surprises too. We've learned a lot from this year, and we're bringing it all to bear to make this the best campaign yet. We hope this small tease will keep your appetites whetted until our Community team can start giving you more of an in-depth look at each of those features, but until then keep your feedback coming and enjoy your festivities. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/768a4ba26554b0422d5ec16fed1becc55da8ebec.gif Wishing you a very mischievous Christmas, The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE! No, seriously... Our science minions have been cooking up something seriously sinister (and just a little bit slimy) as an added deterrent for the Forces of Justice, and it's just in time for spooky season. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/83c0927df5718b1a27720409b25d7858c78f88fc.jpg Now you can resurrect your own army of brain-munching brutes to keep agents at bay. Imagine the sheer terror those troublesome agents will experience, running into one of these towering, barbaric beasts! No mercy, just muscle. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/2221b2a64a75ada202e919c6f695189b26af1c97.jpg What goes into making a monster? First, you'll need to construct your very own top-of-the-range Abomination Creation Station (see below for manufacturing details). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/da86446fd8cd14e9f0d358e5db830cc511377e87.png ABOMINATION CREATION STATION (ACS) BREAKDOWN 1) The Abomination Creation Station uses body bags as fuel! These are added using the same Omni Port design used on the Incinerator. 2) The ACS can hold fuel for three Abominations. This is noted with lights over the Omni Port which switch on or off according to the amount of charge left. 3) The three cells on the other side of the unit serve the same purpose (as 2), lighting or dimming according to remaining charge. 4) The ACS can operate unaided but the presence of a minion speeds up production. 5) This is the exit ramp for the Abomination. 6) Abomination 'casket' is the same as the one for the Android Creation Station, both in looks and functionality. 7) More for narrative and decoration, chains add an industrial feel and imply what is being created here is more brutal than other creations. 8) Lazer Antennae can retract into the body of the machine when not in use. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/f45db71b4b946f239145d301fa743f83966f9d89.png The Abomination pack is included as part of the Evil Genius 2 Season Pass or as an individual purchase costing $3.49/€3.49/£2.99. Happy Halloween!

FULL PATCH NOTES:

The spooky season is upon us, and with this update the Abomination Pack is available to Season Pass holders, or separately for purchase, blending Body Bags with a dash of mad science to add these shambling hulks of muscle to your minion ranks. We continue to squash bugs where we find them, and this patch should remedy the remaining navigation issues some of you have experienced. The Design team have also reviewed Loot item power costs, and made some changes as a result, spreading the power requirements out more evenly to prevent sudden drains on power at the end of objectives. We’ve included the specific changes below. We've also added an option for those of you who want to use your cursor outside of EG2 while the game is running, improved a few Trap combos, and added some additional messaging where you've told us it would be helpful. The team are hard at work on the Campaign Pack which will be our next item of new post-launch content, and will complete the Season Pass. Those of you looking for new challenges and fresh faces in your Evil Genius 2 campaigns should look out for updates on this from our Marketing team in the weeks ahead. And finally no, we didn't forget about v1.9.0, but the reasons for jumping to v1.10.0 for this update are far less interesting than you might imagine. Bureaucracy is perhaps the ultimate evil. We wish you continued success in your pursuit of World Domination.

• The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

General

• Characters will navigate unusual Lair configurations with greater reliability.
• Captured minions no longer retain possession of their weapons.
• Minions with the "Unloved" and "Heatwave" Traits no longer become trapped restoring stats when assigned to leave on a Scheme.
• Entering High Alert while minions are in transit to a Scheme will no longer interrupt the transport in unusual circumstances.
• Messaging added for minions with zero Smarts damaging Items in the Lair.
• Additional visual feedback added for incarcerated characters.
• The correct Genius' Inner Sanctum visuals will continue to be used when playing for an extended period of time.
• The cost of Items sold while they are being moved is correctly added to the Vault.
• Traps on cooldown can be used for Interrogation. This will not reset the cooldown.
• Agents with depleted Resolve will attempt to exit the Lair using the closest vehicle available to them.
• Active audio effects of Items no longer continue to play when not in use in unusual circumstances.
• Items that are being transported for construction no longer display a shadow at their destination before being placed.
• Environment rocks no longer clip through the extreme edge of buildable space in the default Cover Operation space when playing on the "Crown Gold" Island Lair.
• Environment rocks no longer clip through Items with recessed floors placed in specific locations when playing on the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
• Environment rocks no longer clip through Items with recessed floors placed in specific locations when playing on the "Caine Key" Island Lair.
• "Allow cursor out of window" option added.
• Shortcut keys for changing tabs function consistently when navigating the save/load screens.
• Gamepad control and button prompt improvements.
• Explanatory tooltips added for several options settings in the launcher.
• Text and localisation improvements.

Sandbox Mode

• Additional icons added for Sandbox Objectives.

Campaigns

• Doomsday Device countdown is correctly aborted when the Doomsday Device loses power for any reason.

Side Stories

• The explosion damage caused by Robot minions on death has been reduced. Explosion damage caused by enemy Robots on death remains unchanged.
• Robot minions are correctly affected by each Genius' AoE abilities.
• Loot items have had their power requirements adjusted as follows:
  • Giant Egg - Was 0 Now -2
  • Area 51 Dispenser - Was 0 Now -1
  • A Million Bees - Was -8 Now 0
  • Carrion Flower - Was -6 Now 0
  • Flying Pig - Was 0 Now -1
  • Doors of Fort Knox- Was 0 Now -1
  • Dodo Educator - Was 0 Now -1
  • World's oldest bones - Was 0 Now -1
  • Flame of Prometheus - Was -8 Now 0
  • The Sarcophagus - Was 0 Now -1
  • Rumpelstiltskin's Wheel - Was 0 Now -2
  • Additional messaging added when Side Stories have limitations attached that could lock out other Side Stories.

Henchmen & Super Agents

• Jubei will now respond to move orders while his "Flow" ability is active.
• Henchman targeted abilities are no longer interrupted by an Agent disabling a Trap.

Traps

• Characters hit by a Boxing Glove or Aperture Science Panel will be correctly affected by the Freeze Ray and Bubble Cannon.
• Turrets are no longer able to see through Agent Disguises.
• Propulsion Gel will no longer remain visible over an open Shark Tank when these traps are used in a combo.

You can get the Abomination DLC now at: http://reb.to/yl8cg2y

One step closer to global domination... and it's all thanks to our community of criminal masterminds! You've shown those no-good do-gooders from the Forces of Justice that we're not to be trifled with. Together, we've interrogated 549,350 prisoners, looted over 30,142 world treasures, completed 1,072,253 schemes and upgraded no less than 115,685 criminal networks. All that evil in only one short week... Wúnderbar! Having successfully completed all four objectives within the time limit, you've unlocked some loot-worthy rewards for the whole Evil Genius 2 community - including the long awaited Toilet Block DLC! While you continue to bustle about your most evil of business, your minions can finally do their business in peace. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/2de28dd8de81c80ed1e28bdfba7372b55ce47614.png 25% Discount on ALL EVIL GENIUS 2 MERCH Click here to visit our merch store and grab yourself some evil goodies! (CODE: Worlddom) This discount will be valid from Wednesday 6th October, to Wednesday 20th October (midnight BST). NEW Discord Stickers and Reactions Click here to join our Discord channel and discover our Evil Genius 2 themed reactions (emojis) and stickers! Look for a post in #eg2-announcements to find your reward. Exclusive Wallpapers (x4 designs) Add a little evil to your laptop or desktop with our exclusive Evil Genius 2 wallpapers (one for each of our four geniuses). Plus, bring the evil with you wherever you go with our additional mobile wallpapers. Click here to download now! Hotfix We've also hotfixed some issues which arose with patch 1.8.0. while making some general improvements to EG2's stability so that you can enjoy even more evil endeavours with mecha-minions alongside your fun with portals! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/a97fd07b875e679c30909cde12b9f2257713d82a.png

Full Patch Notes

General

• Toilets are available for construction in Corridors.
• Stability Improvements.

Side Stories

• Objective progress is correctly tracked and updated during the "Human Resources" Side Story.

Sandbox Mode

• Research Projects unlock correctly when playing in Sandbox Mode.

We’re calling on criminal masterminds from across the globe to help us achieve true World Domination – consider yourself recruited! It’s time to show those no-good do-gooders from the Forces of Justice that we’re not to be trifled with. By demonstrating our unparalleled power, unmatched malevolence and unrivalled reach across the globe, we’re confident they’ll bend to our rule once and for all. You have four objectives to complete, seven days to do it… and one resolute message to send to anyone that wants to get in our way. Don’t! ALERT! ALERT! Evil Genius 2 is on sale now (discount offer ends Friday, Oct 1): 40% off Evil Genius 2: World Domination 33% off Evil Genius 2: World Domination {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/8c368432f9ab72d1f4fd44d41f32bc3a391d5e53.png

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

OPERATION: INTEL We have ways of making you talk! Squeeze that sweet, sweet Intel out of your prisoners to unlock prizes. SCHEMING IS DREAMING Keeping an operation of this scale running is no easy task. Complete schemes to earn money, recruit more bodies and keep Justice at bay. MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS We can't work in these conditions! Upgrade your criminal networks to improve your global operations. TAKING CANDY FROM BABIES Is it valuable? Is it shiny? Is it unique? Yes - then it's ours. Expand your loot collection to earn your rewards.

Who's up for looting?

You have 'til Tuesday, October 5th to help us achieve world domination and unlock your rewards. What rewards, you ask? Well... - Toilet Block DLC - Exclusive Wallpapers (x4 designs) - NEW Discord stickers and reactions - 25% Discount on ALL EVIL GENIUS 2 MERCH It's time to call in every henchmen you know to help us smash these objectives. Don't forget to check our progress tracker to see what's left on the evil agenda, and how close you are to unlocking your rewards. Looking for like-minded criminal masterminds? Want to join in the conversation? Join our Discord community to celebrate your sinister successes, and share your contributions with us on social media (tag us and use #WorldDominationEvent). Good luck.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I participate in this event? A: We’ve set all Evil Genius 2 players four objectives to complete in-game so simply play as you normally would to participate in our World Domination efforts! Keep an eye on your collaborative progress over the 7 days via evilgeniusgame.com/live-event. Q: When does the event end? A: We’ll be tracking your World Domination efforts from Tuesday 28th September – Tuesday 5 October and prizes will be distributed on Wednesday 6 October. Q: Do I need to start a new save to begin contributing to the four objectives? A: No. You can start participating at any time in existing or new saves. Q: Who can I interrogate to progress the Operation: Intel objective? A: Any interrogation that results in Intel is viable for this objective, feel free to squeeze that vital intelligence out of minions and intruders alike. Q: What if I cancel a scheme before it has completed, will that still count towards the Scheming Is Dreaming objective? A: Cancelling schemes will not count. The scheme must be completed to contribute towards this objective! Q: If I destroy and rebuild my criminal networks to upgrade those networks again, will that still count towards the We Must Construct Additional Pylons objective? A: Yes, you can demolish a criminal network without setting the objective back, and your rebuild will count towards the objective. Q: If I start a new save to collect more loot, will that count towards the total number of loot items collected? A: Yes, feel free to start a new save file to collect loot you missed on previous campaigns, to aim for the complete collection, or simply to pick up loot items you’ve collected on different save. Q: Can we place loot items multiple times in one campaign? A: No, each loot item is unique and there can only be one of each loot item placed within a campaign. Q: Do I need any DLC to participate in this event? A: No, each milestone is purely based on the base game, and does not require season pass or free DLC content to participate. Q: How do I unlock the prizes when the event has ended? A: Keep an eye on our blog after the event ends to find out how to access those precious prizes!

With this update, our two latest DLC packs are available: the Mechanical Minions Pack is available to Season Pass holders or separately for purchase, and the Portal Pack is available as a FREE download for everyone! A huge thank you to our friends at Valve for letting us bring Aperture Science Test Chambers to the Evil Genius universe! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/70dfb808651886f337fa10494bf53da9a12c95b8.gif In parallel with these additional content packs, this update brings further improvements to the core Evil Genius 2 experience. Sandbox Mode has had some attention from our design team, bringing the following much-requested features to the more laid-back approach to World Domination:

• All Loot Items can be constructed in Sandbox Lairs, and start each game unlocked.
• Henchmen of your choice can be added to a Sandbox Lair, selected through the Side Stories menu.
• A broad selection of enemies, from Crime Lords to Super Agents, can be called on to test your meticulously crafted Sandbox defences, also selected through the Side Stories menu.
• All present and future DLC Characters and Items can be used in Sandbox Lairs.

Whether in Sandbox Mode or a Campaign game, modelling and remodelling the finer details of your Evil Lair en masse can sometimes require more clicks than we'd like, so we've added additional hotkeys for manipulating Items in Build Mode. These hotkeys are unbound by default, but can be set through the Gameplay Options > Keyboard & Mouse Controls menu. Finally, we have given Sir Daniel back his trusty Hunting Rifle, having inadvertently disarmed him in the previous update, limiting him to fisticuffs. Sorry about that Sir Daniel. As ever, thank you all for your continued support of Evil Genius 2, and we wish you continued success in your pursuit of World Domination. The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

Aperture Science Meets Evil Genius

Ever wanted to walk through walls and get from one side of your vast evil lair to the other in an instant? Well now you can thanks to the researchers at Aperture Science, who have worked wonders to bring the world of Portal to Evil Genius 2. The new free DLC pack is available now for all PC players and includes a host of amazing upgrades for your lair based upon the classic Portal games from Valve. These include portals, autonomous turrets, propulsion gel and more… The new Portal DLC for Evil Genius 2 includes:

• A new room type - the Test Chamber
• 4 new traps (Propulsion Gel, Repulsion Gel, Cake That Is A Lie, Aperture Science Multi-Purpose Science Panel)
• 4 new Loot items (Orange Portal, Blue Portal, Companion Cube, Actual Cake)
• 3 new Lair items (Turret, Security Camera, Test Chamber Door)
• New Decor items
• Accompanying Side Story Objectives

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/8dc9f67ac425c1a89e4257029eb67a314ddb9e9b.jpg And as if that wasn’t enough, we are also bringing you robots! The new Mechanical Minions DLC Pack gives Evil Geniuses a modern alternative to flesh-and-blood subordinates. These new workers are incredibly reliable and do not need to be fed, watered or even paid (although charging them isn’t a bad idea) making them the ideal choice for the ultra-modern villain. The Mechanical Minions DLC includes:

• 2 New minion types (The Work-O-Tron + The GuardBot 2.0)
• 3 New Lair items (Work-O-Tron Assembly Line, GuardBot 2.0 Assembly Line, Robot Charging Station)
• Accompanying Side Story Objectives

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/606a63e1c930b653b6fb2bfc58a661d70dd8e45a.jpg Available now on Steam, the Mechanical Minions pack is included as part of the Evil Genius 2 Season Pass or to buy separately, priced £2.99/$3.49/€3.49.

Full Patch Notes

General

• Multiple issues with characters being unable to navigate to or from specific areas of a Lair have been resolved.
• Optional keyboard hotkeys added for Moving, Selling, and Toggling Power on the selected Item while in Build Mode. Find them in Gameplay Options > Keyboard & Mouse Controls.
• Characters fleeing from combat and gas clouds simultaneously will no longer become trapped in a fleeing state.
• Characters waiting to be escorted to a Holding Cell will no longer become stuck in place after repeatedly toggling power to the only usable Holding Cell in a Lair.
• Audible alerts added when the Genius or a Henchman catches fire.
• The "Floor 1" button on the HUD no longer flickers when a fire is present on other Floors of the Lair.
• Characters are now escorted to available Holding Cells correctly in unusual Lair configurations.
• Characters no longer remain stationary when assigned specific jobs in unusual Lair configurations.
• Characters no longer teleport to their destinations when assigned specific jobs in unusual Lair configurations.
• Tourists no longer become trapped in place when attempting to board the Cruise Ship in large numbers.
• Characters correctly transform into Body Bags if the Capture Tag is removed during a potentially lethal final blow.
• Tourists no longer walk through restricted areas when playing on the Montañas Gemelas Island Lair.
• Genius area of effect abilities will no longer impact minions on other floors of the Lair.
• The Build Menu information panel correctly updates when selecting a Loot item that has not been placed immediately after selecting a Loot item that has been placed in the Lair.
• The camera can no longer be positioned to clip through the Cruise Ship.
• The "Crack Shot" and "Poor Shot" Traits are now mutually exclusive.
• Extraneous button prompts and tooltips have been removed from a number of menus.
• Stability improvements and performance optimisations.
• Gamepad control and button prompt improvements.
• Text and localisation improvements.

Sandbox Mode

• DLC content is now available in Sandbox Mode.
• Construction visual effects will display correctly during extreme builds in Sandbox Mode.
• The "Back" button functions as intended on the Island Selection screen when starting a new Sandbox game.

Campaigns

• IRIS will no longer become stuck in place on the Shark Tank Trap in unusual circumstances during Emma's Campaign Objective, "Tourists Trap".
• Visual effects from Emma's "Plotter" ability no longer display on Body Bags after using this ability on a Henchman shortly before Executing them.
• Incendio has the correct Crime Lord Trait and overhead icon during Emma's Campaign Objective, "Untied Nations".
• The "Destroy S.M.A.S.H." Scheme no longer appears during Emma's Campaign Objective, "Doomsday".
• V.E.N.O.M. Gas Traps once again harm Agents as intended during Emma's campaign.
• Feral minions are now immune to Execution attempts throughout Emma's Campaign.
• The "Fake Schematics" Item can now be placed in the Training Room during Maximilian's Campaign Objective, "As Broken As My Heart".
• Crime Lord Barks will consistently match their on-screen callouts during Maximilian's Campaign Objective, "Bury The Hatchet".

Side Stories

• Writers will not attempt to flee the Lair after being captured during the Side Story, "Hearts and Masterminds".
• Icons for Deception-class Side Stories are correctly displayed in the Objectives Screen.

Henchmen & Super Agents

• DLC Henchmen recruited after completing one or more Henchmen Improvement Research Projects will have their stats boosted correctly.
• Sir Daniel Ernest Hemingboone has had his trusty Hunting Rifle returned to him, and is once again armed for ranged combat.
• Wrecking Bola no longer becomes stuck in place when intercepted for Distract by a Deception class minion.
• The effectiveness of Blue Saint's Smoke Bombs has been increased.
• Friendly Henchmen no longer temporarily target Doomhilda when her "Shattering Voice" ability is used nearby.
• The Pyro Henchman's "Armageddon" ability activates more reliably when used during combat.
• The Pyro's bark for the "Armageddon" ability will no longer be interrupted by their regular attack bark, when playing in fast forward.
• Combatants now react correctly to Espectro's melee combat finisher.
• Clara Jones' position marker is no longer misaligned when using a Conference Table.

Traps

• Moving a Trap while it's active will no longer result in those characters being teleported to the intended destination of the Trap.
• The effective trigger zone for the "Shark Tank" Trap has been increased.
• Explosions from the "Puppy of Death" Trap are no longer visible when viewing other floors.

World Map

• Lair icons on the World Map now display correctly when playing as Zalika or Maximilian.

Items

• The Cloning Machine, Basic Training, and Bush Tucker BBQ Items will be used by minions more frequently than before.
• Minions will cease using the "Melee Trainer" and "Agent Disguise Simulator" Items during High Alert.
• Minions returning dropped Ray Guns play the correct animation upon reaching the Loot item
• The "Security Checkpoint" Item correctly indicates that it increases the number of Security Cameras in the Lair by 1.
• Extraneous access point indicators (footprints) have been removed from multiple variants of Doors.
• Longer Item names are no longer truncated on tooltips.

A pinch of pizzazz, a touch of finesse and heaps of cunning. That's what it takes to create the most charming, clever, inspiring and devilishly handsome evil genius. Okay, Maximilian - that's the last time we let you guest write for us! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/d8c3716becc12618152940d84f803acee50ffb6c.gif All self flattery aside (almost), Evil Genius 2: World Domination is a LOOK! But what goes into creating a world of evil deeds, despicable schemes and criminally charming characters? Well, all is revealed in our new digital art book. Flick through pages and pages of devious designs, from hunky Henchmen mock-ups to intricate Inner Sanctum scheming. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/505d4eabcd057ee221f5da0d7f18170520d1825d.jpg This free 64-page PDF showcases a collection of concept art created in bringing the stylish world of Evil Genius 2 to life. This artwork will provide an insight into the attention and creativity applied to every aspect of its realization - characters, lair, furniture, loot, traps and gadgets. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/374c9d3ac58aa9707ec927990f0a2199f72a076c.jpg Please visit the Evil Genius 2 store page for more information and your free download.

Hi all, This update focuses on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, and comes with a new Campaign and Sandbox Survey for our community to provide feedback on key focus areas of Evil Genius 2. With this update, Traps no longer take passive Durability damage. Instead, Traps take a hit to their Durability only when they are triggered, and this is a flat Durability hit regardless of how many characters are caught in that activation. For example, a Pinball Bumper may be struck by multiple characters (or the same character repeatedly) on a single activation, but this results in only a single drop in Durability. A few oddities in pathfinding have been cleared up, so your minions will no longer take the long way around to avoid Paywalls, and we've significantly reduced the cost of all Traps, easing the impact to your Vault when building more elaborate Trap networks. In general, where a character looks like they are wearing something which should offer protection from gasses (a gas-mask, respirator, or maybe they just don’t have lungs at all) then they are now unaffected by gas clouds that would cause damage from breathing in. These characters will still be affected if the gas is corrosive or magical in nature, and will still be effected by beneficial gas-based effects. IRIS is always eager to keep you informed of goings on across your Lair, but sometimes she can be a little too keen, resulting in repeated notifications for events you're well aware of. We've made adjustments here, toning down some of the less important audible alerts, and will continue to monitor this in the weeks ahead. Finally, inactive Regions on the World Map can be more easily identified from the fully zoomed out view, where idle Criminal Networks will display a visual effect, and Achievement hunters should have a slightly easier time following this update, as acquiring the Prometheus Flame no longer locks out the Hubbard Slice for that campaign. Over the past few months our community team has also been gathering feedback from a variety of spaces, we’re really grateful for all of our players who engage with us and each other on the forums and social platforms so that we can understand the sentiment coming from our community. To build on this we’d really appreciate if you’d complete our quick Campaign and Sandbox Survey! This will allow us to fine tune the broader feedback we’ve been collating so that we can inform specific improvements moving forward. Thank you all for your continued support of Evil Genius 2! The Evil Genius 2 Development Team General

• Reduced the frequency of audible IRIS alerts for multiple categories of notification.
• Audio on the Genius select screen now plays as expected, and at appropriate volume.
• Minions imprisoned while deserting will more reliably restore their stats, and may gain a new Trait to reduce their stat depletion for a time after they are released.
• Characters with visible protection cannot be harmed by gas attacks. This includes the Pyro, Magnolia Ming, Espectro, Biologists, and all Robots.
• Investigators no longer take photographs of non-suspicious items.
• The Blue Saint now uses blue smoke bombs to attempt to disguise himself.
• The HUD indicator correctly displays when Research has halted.
• It is no longer possible to change floor during the early stages of the Tutorial.
• Characters can no longer be targeted until they have fully exited their arrival vehicle.
• Characters will no longer clip through beach furniture in new games.
• Character vocalisations no longer continue when the game is paused.
• The "Dirt" button is no longer highlighted when opening the Build Menu using right-click.
• Tooltips no longer remain displayed when moving the camera after highlighting edit buttons on a furniture item.
• Tooltips for the last item visible on the Build Menu is no longer erroneously displayed when toggling the Side Panel.
• Characters can be sorted by positive and negative Traits in the Minion Manager.
• The Minion Manager will provide feedback when a search has no results to display.
• In the Minion Manager, viewing the last minion's stats in a full screen of results no longer causes those stats to be displayed off screen.
• Narrative minions are correctly removed from view when using toggling minion visibility in Photo Mode.
• Input prompts are correctly displayed when using Photo Mode, and controls for switching tabs are consistent.
• Edge scrolling now functions when using Photo Mode.
• Informational messages that Achievements cannot be earned in specific game modes have had their prominence increased.
• A warning message has been added that earning difficulty-related Achievements may be affected if the difficulty setting is changed for a game in progress.
• The "Customise Graphics Detail" Options menu correctly closes when pressing the Escape key.
• Island environment is no longer visible through floors when constructing Stairs in specific locations on the "Caine Key" Island Lair.
• Characters correctly appear in callout boxes during their barks when they are killed or captured.
• Correct Crime Lords are visible during their barks if multiple Crime Lords have died simultaneously.
• Narrative minions correctly display an appropriate icon in their side panels.
• Agent types and J Steele now unlock predictably in the Rogue's Gallery.
• The "Load Game" menu option is no longer available if there are no save games available.
• DLC used in the current game can be viewed through the "Active DLC" Pause Menu option.
• Performance improvements and memory optimisations.
• Gamepad control improvements.
• Text and localisation improvements

Achievements Campaigns

• Audio now plays reliably during campaign completion cutscenes.
• A task to fire H.A.V.O.C. at a Force of Justice headquarters is no longer erroneously completed during Red Ivan's campaign Objective, ""Cry H.A.V.O.C.".
• Tourists leaving on the Cruise Ship no longer increments task progress during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Going for Gold".
• Peacekeepers correctly display an overhead icon during Emma's campaign Objective, "Tourist Season".
• Incorrect Scheme reward text has been corrected in Emma's Campaign objective, "Spectres".
• Super Agents are now referred to by name when tagged by the Genius during later campaign Objectives.
• Switching floors is no longer possible during a Genius' death animation.

Side Stories

• Acquiring the Prometheus Flame Loot Item no longer blocks unlocking the Hubbard Slice Loot Item.
• Research requirements have been adjusted to require only one minion type and one item type in Side Story, "Pride Goeth Before the Fallout".
• Minions will no longer repeatedly interact with the Magic Carpet Loot item during the Side Story, "Too Darn Hot".
• Minions no longer talk over subsequent lines during Talking Heads scenes which include the Pyro.
• Crime Lord Side Stories are no longer incorrectly labelled as "Minion Recruitment" Objective during the Tutorial.

Henchmen

• Attempting to use Fugu Furakawa's abilities while she is already in combat will no longer deduct the required stats without activating the ability.
• The Pyro's "Armageddon" ability no longer activates twice in unusual circumstances.
• The strength of Iris' basic attacks has been slightly reduced.
• The strength of Doomhilda's basic attacks has been slightly increased.
• Jubei's barks no longer display incorrect callout text in unusual circumstances.
• Activating Espectro's "Clone" ability while he's moving no longer activates the ability cooldown without summoning the clone.
• Incendio's position marker is no longer misaligned while sitting at a Conference Table.

Traps

• Most Traps no longer take passive Durability damage. Instead, Traps take Durability damage each time they are activated, once per activation. Single use traps, Loot Traps, the Fake Safe, and the Pay Wall are unaffected by this change.
• The cost of all Traps has been reduced by circa 20%.
• Tourists correctly interact with active Paywall Traps.
• Minions and Tourists no longer avoid pathing through a Paywall Trap.
• Correct animation will play when characters are Interrogated on the Venus Spy Trap.
• The "Puppy of Death" Trap container no longer ceases to be rendered at distance.

World Map

• Inactive Regions are now indicated with a visual effect when fully zoomed out on the World Map.

Items

• The Hubbard Slice Loot item now prevents fires on Traps as well as other Lair Items.
• The Maple Syrup Loot item now restores Morale more rapidly.
• Characters' legs no longer elevate out of place when using the "Omni-Check-Up" Infirmary item.
• Visual effects of some items no longer appear when viewing different floors of the Lair.
• Eli Barracuda's hair no longer clips through the Cabal Induction Chair during use.

Again, we’re constantly looking for ways to provide the best Evil Genius 2 experience possible for all of our players. With this in mind we’ve built a survey which rests upon the feedback you’ve all been giving us over the past several months in order to inform specifics improvements to the game. We’d really appreciate if you’d take a couple of minutes to complete our Campaign and Sandbox Survey!

It’s Red Ivan Appreciation Week. It must, surely, be time for another Developer Update for Evil Genius 2: World Domination! The Evil Genius 2 development team are continuing the hard work here at Rebellion. We’ve got eyes on a lot of your feedback, and we are also work closely with the Community team to know where to focus our efforts. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/205840ee7b1401e7da98ea16e12c6282119ed8c6.gif As such, Rich Edwards and our design team are taking another look at Sandbox Mode to give you some of the features that you’ve been missing and further flexibility when testing your fiendish lair design. Expanding the available options to include Henchmen and Loot is one pillar of these changes, allowing those who just want to build the nicest looking lair to let their inner interior decorator out to play. We also know some of you want to test your trap set-ups against various teams of agents, so finding ways to bring them to your lair consistently is also on the cards. Large scale remodelling of your Evil Lair can require a lot of clicking, so we’re looking at extra hotkeys for common operations and we know we still haven’t quite hit the sweet spot for trap networks, so some further balance changes are coming soon for traps. We continue to look into tuning IRIS notifications and we’ve made some small improvements to the “inactive region” messaging on the world map to try and make them easier to spot. We have, unfortunately, had to give a fairly hefty buff to one of the Super Agents, but adjustments to the henchmen who didn’t quite measure up after our last pass might make up for your anguish! Finally, we’re really happy that you’re all enjoying the free Pyro Pack. Back when we first revealed EG2 and people commented it looked a bit like Team Fortress we couldn’t imagine getting to play in Valve’s sandbox, so the team had a lot of fun building them. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/79b310c8deacff2364d26455acfa2760fe77cda2.gif We're glad you’re all getting so much enjoyment out of watching your enemies, and sometimes your Lair, burn to the ground. It’s almost like having the old Red Ivan back again! I wonder what the older, wiser Red Ivan would say? “Look, Mishka! Look at the fireworks!” Until next time, keep sending us your feedback, and thank you for your support of Evil Genius 2.

Attention Minions! Once again, we've sent our agents of T.A.L.E.N.T out into the world to discover the finest fan art, most devilish doodles and malevolent masterpieces. Well, let's just say you've generated some heat... Because these community creations are ON FIRE! Evil Island (Credit: Jean-Ronflex) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/214e0f47189bb1e265d9a1d0d6c94ae7fb0bde9e.png This would make for some fine loot to add to our collection or to decorate the inner sanctum! We don't know what we love more, the soft magma glow creeping up the rocks, or that tiny waving crab. It's the crab, it's got to be the crab. Perfect Disguise (Credit: Koshei_Smertnov) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/f30df402e1802ed8f19b36bcb335d77ff15eac1d.png There's nothing to see here, just you're common-or-garden minion hard at work. *nonchalant whistle* You need real smarts to not be fooled by the infallible (and iconic) Groucho glasses disguise. But now we moustache you a question... WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR? Shen Yu Reworked (Credit: Jean-Ronflex) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/8dca65a7966b297ecc5ab76b33f2220b1c3c7452.png For fans of Doctor Who, this redesign of the sinister Shen Yu might remind you of the classic Gallifreyan robes and strange headgear. Yes, this humble pickpocket turned criminal mastermind got yet another glow up in this fabulous fan creation! Special Highlights (Credit: Колдун из леса) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/882733d88eecf36a7be8d78a3a6d5c18e1b4c881.png For our Special Highlights, we're celebrating these hand drawn creations, by Колдун из леса, who's captured pure Pyro chaos so accurately that we felt it deserved an extra round of applause. Pay particular attention to the little worker minion with the fire extinguisher, desperately trying to restore some semblance of order. Finally, here's our latest batch of Criminal Colourings brought to you by our very talented Discord Community. For this edition, we reimagined Zalika, combining our love of cacti décor with the greenest of geniuses. Introducing, Cactika! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/2145ccc8f3dd298c119f399d86efc60eda44e850.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/d2baa6a3f210cbe981a8be2217bcd8d11b22b798.png To get involved in our Criminal Colourings, head over to the Rebellion Discord server and keep and eye out in Evil Genius 2's Community Content chat for prompts and templates. Or, to share your amazing artwork on social media, simply tag us in your posts. In the meantime, here's a batch of evil prompts to get your creative criminal juices flowing... {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/fc6309b5e16a0ac3d59d042a3b94e408cb856783.png We'll be back soon with another round of community creations and fabulous fan art. Until then, get back to being evil!

Minions, we've just rolled out a small update to address a couple of high priority bugs. Once again, thank you for flagging this to our Community team with urgency. The fixes are as follows: General

• Moving Gold Statues during Maximilian's campaign no longer causes crashes.
• Characters tagged for Capture will no longer be killed by the Pyro's flamethrower, by Jubei's Flow ability, or by other spreadable effects.

This update sees the release of two DLC packs: the Rise of the Valkyrie Pack available to Season Pass holders or separately for purchase, and the Team Fortress 2: Pyro pack, which is a free download for ALL players - the team have really enjoyed dabbling in the Team Fortress universe, and we hope you enjoy this characterful addition to Evil Genius 2's line-up! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/cf1295afd54b98fc36dba49772c755f17347ce19.gif Recruit the Pyro as a Henchman and increase your firepower… literally! Pyro can indiscriminately engulf their surroundings in an inferno, fan the flames on those tiresome Agents in the aftermath, and even extinguish less friendly fires with a puff of compressed air. What self-respecting Evil Genius can resist harnessing such destructive power? Pack includes:

• New Henchman (Pyro)
• Accompanying Side Story objectives to recruit Pyro
• 3 Loot Items (Briefcase of Australium, Briefcase of Intelligence, Payload)

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/275fbb2430dfcb5b05bea9ab8d4f3e083cc90be4.gif It’s time to unleash the Valkyrie’s voice! When the Evil Genius decimates the plans of a rising star in the Opera world, you better believe she’s going to seek sonic vengeance. Your minions will need to best this devastating prima donna and her powerful friends, in a saga of shattering performances that will test their nerves, eardrums, and glassware. Doomhilda’s destructive voice is legendary, possessing the power to stop her enemies in their path – or even inspire her allies to victory. Can the Evil Genius convince Doomhilda to join their side as a Henchman, or will this woman with the voice of an ‘angel’ see them facing the final curtain call? Pack includes:

• New Henchman (Doomhilda)
• Accompanying Side Story objectives to recruit Doomhilda

Alongside these content packs we have of course continued to focus on quality-of-life improvements and key areas of community feedback, and while many of these have their own entry in the patch notes below, there are a few higher-level areas we'd like to call out here. There has been a clear and consistent call to make your Cover Operation a meaningful secondary source of income, and with this update you should see a marked increase to the Gold you can make when setting your casino items to "Scam Tourists". With this update, those of you who want to place greater emphasis on money making opportunities within your Cover Operation should find yourselves able to do so, and we'll continue to monitor this change in the weeks ahead In the June update we significantly increased the impact of Decor items across the board, but we weren't satisfied with the messaging of these effects, so we've made additional changes here. Each Decor item, where applicable, now displays its area of effect in a solid colour that matches the stat that it affects: Pink for Vitality, Yellow for Smarts, Green for Morale. Items within Decor's area of effect will also become tinted with the colour of the relevant stat, clarifying which Decor item is active. A small number of Decor Items have had their boost effect modified to increase their utility, and those are called out in the specific patch notes below. Many Objectives require the completion of narrative Research, and some of you have got in touch to ask for a way to avoid losing progress when switching between Research Projects. With this update you can do exactly that, switching between Research Projects with a minimum of fuss while retaining progress made, as well as adding the option to suspend Research entirely if you want your Science minions to focus on the Control Room for a while, for example. Of course, you can still cancel a Research Project entirely if you just need the Gold back in a pinch. Henchmen have been rebalanced, with the intent of more significantly differentiating their effectiveness based on their type:

• Deception henchmen now roam the Cover Operation, dealing high Harass damage allows them to deter Agents and Tourists without initiating combat, where their effectiveness is weaker.
• Muscle henchmen have had a rebalance, making them less effective in the Cover Operation but more obviously tuned for direct combat.
• Science henchmen now sit somewhere in the middle, with average combat and Cover Operation effectiveness making way for their boosted, more outlandish abilities.
• Each Henchman's Stats now better reflect their specialisation.
• Agents and Super Agents have received additional, though less significant balance adjustments, and Crime Lords should pose more of a challenge across the board.

We're aware of a small number of players continuing to encounter problems when playing Evil Genius 2 with wireless headphones - please get in touch with our Customer Support team if you're one of them, so we can track down the root of the problem. As always, thanks for your continued support of Evil Genius 2.

General

• Super Serum VFX has been modified to remove an undesirable flickering effect.
• The "Share Game Information" options setting is correctly preserved.
• The Build menu can be consistently accessed after selecting a Decor or Lair Item during the Tutorial.
• Added an option to Accessibility settings to reduce the risk of burn-in when playing Evil Genius 2 for extended periods on certain OLED displays.
• Tooltips added for FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 in Graphics Options.
• "Select All" option added to the DLC select screen.
• Added an option to remove individual key bindings through the "Keyboard & Mouse Controls" menu.
• Agents that arrive during specific narrative Objectives will correctly leave the Lair when their Resolve is reduced to zero.
• Agents being Escorted past a Paywall Trap will no longer cause the Trap to briefly activate.
• Animations on the Objective Tracker have been reduced for small increments of Objective progress.
• The completion audio for Objectives and Research Projects will no longer repeat under unusual circumstances.
• Updated IRIS alert when Rogues are stealing Loot items.
• Pinball Bumper musical notes are correctly previewed while the game is paused, and the sound effects for these notes has been improved.
• The same Pinball Bumper musical note can be previewed multiple times.
• Updated sound effects for Stun Guns and Stun Rifles.
• The "Pyromaniac" trait correctly gives minions a small chance to set opponents on fire during combat.
• The level of Agents accompanying a Super Agent is displayed correctly when they are imprisoned in a Holding Cell.
• Cursor added to indicate an area cannot be marked for Security Zones.
• Narrative characters will correctly display a Distract overhead icon when Tagged for Distract after escaping a Holding Cell.
• The camera can no longer pass through the second level of a Doomsday Device on the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
• In new games, characters will no longer clip through folding chairs on the beach level of an Island Lair.
• The number of minions that will be auto-hired or bought is now displayed when viewing Workers in the Minion Training screen.
• Locked Training Items are no longer displayed when changing tab in the Minion Training screen.
• The HUD correctly displays when Research has been manually paused.
• Information panels for Rooms display correctly when navigating back to the Room tab.
• The Character Selection menu closes correctly when a hotkey is used to select a character while this menu is open.
• Research Project icons have been corrected in the Side Panels of the Research menu.
• The confirmation pop-up when using a gamepad to collect Optional Objective Rewards has been removed.
• The selected Side Story is correctly displayed after navigating to another tab of the Objectives screen, then back again.
• Information for the Martial Artist no longer unlocks in the Rogues' Gallery after unlocking the Mercenary minion type.
• An input prompt has been added for returning to the list when viewing a completed Objective.
• The cursor control keys can be used to correctly navigate the Minion Manager list.
• Saves can now be correctly deleted when using a gamepad.
• The menu bar is more easily accessible following a Game Over when playing with a gamepad.
• Locked Items are correctly highlighted in the Build Menu when using a gamepad.
• Hidden Build Menu buttons are no longer selectable during Talking Heads.
• It is no longer possible to navigate away from the Benchmark results screen by selecting hidden buttons.
• Text and localisation improvements

Achievements

• Agent Steele can be captured during the Side Story, "The Melting Point Of Steele" to earn the Achievement, "Can't Be Fooled".

Campaigns

• Characters who have been turned to Gold statues no longer become unselectable in unusual circumstances during Maximilian's campaign.
• Tamara Krast can no longer be Tagged for Kill or Distract during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Gold Fingers, And Toes, And...Well, Everything".
• Listening Devices will be placed correctly by Agents in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Hostile Takeover".
• Removed Listening Devices will consistently count toward progress in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Hostile Takeover".
• Golden Statues can no longer be placed in external locations during Maximilian's campaign.
• Notable Engineers will no longer Repair standard Lair Items during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "M.I.D.A.S. Touch".
• Kidnapped Scientists are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "If You Build It, They Will Scream".
• V.O.I.D. Worshippers no longer have their names overwritten, and will be assigned jobs correctly during Zalika's campaign.
• Firing V.O.I.D. with a completed Research Tree will result in a reward of Gold being added to the Aftermath Scheme, with more Gold available if the device is fired at Level 2 or 3 during Zalika's campaign.
• Offscreen indicators display correctly when viewing a different floor from the required items during Zalika's campaign Objective, "Damage Control".
• "Random Sample" Schemes now require only a Level 1 Criminal Network in Zalika's campaign Objective, "Barely Living Proof".
• Agent infiltration positions have been updated during Zalika's campaign Objective, "Damage Control".
• P.E.A.C.E. Agents are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Red Ivan's campaign Objective, "P.E.A.C.E. Corpse".
• Peacekeeper Soldiers can no longer be Tagged for Distract during Emma's campaign Objective, "Tourist Season".
• Rewards are correctly displayed for the "Uncover Agents" Research Project in Emma's campaign Objective, "Spectres".
• Confirmation pop-up added when returning to the Title Screen from the Credits at the end of a campaign.
• The "New Main Objective Available" IRIS alert no longer plays at the beginning of the credits after completing a Campaign.

Side Stories

• Minions no longer move into the air when clearing Gas Clouds on specific areas of the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
• A S.M.A.S.H. Region must now be Scouted before the Cabal Side Story, "Giving Up The Ghost" to become available.
• Characters will no longer be set alight when escorting Incendio to a Holding Cell during the Side Story, "Unwanted Guests".
• Crime Lords allied with the player can no longer be tagged for Capture.
• Full Metal Jackie can no longer be tagged for Capture in the Side Story, "Up In Arms".
• The Super Bot can no longer be Tagged for Kill in the Side Story, "When You Cut Me, Do I Not Lubricate?".
• Schemes to invite Critics to the Lair now spawn in a broader variety of Regions in the Side Story, "Fugu State".
• Additional guidance arrows added to the Side Story, "Learn The Ways Of the Technician".
• Schemes referencing the Flame of Prometheus no longer spawn during the Side Story, "What's Mine Is Mine".
• The Threat Scheme, "Hot To Trot" now displays correct VFX during the Side Story, "The World Is Hot Enough".
• The Threat Scheme "Slippery Slope" displays the correct VFX during Side Story, "Imbalance of Power".
• Arms Dealer Goons display the correct job name when demonstrating weapons during the Side Story, "Heavy Metal Queen".
• Medical Investigators are correctly attributed to the S.M.A.S.H. Force of Justice in the Side Story, "King Of The Fountain".

Geniuses

• Maximilian's "Train Faster" Ability no longer affects minions outside of his visible aura.
• Emma's "Plotter" Ability now displays correct VFX when used on Espectro's Clone.

Henchmen

• IRIS will correctly disable her Security Network Ability if she enters a wounded state while this Ability is active.
• The Ability duration bar is displayed appropriately for all Henchman abilities.

World Map

• World Map Regions can now be navigated by using the Q and E keys on a keyboard, or by using the bumpers on a gamepad. Button prompts have been added to Region Side Panels to indicate this.
• The Lockdown alert indicator is no longer displayed in Regions that have not been Scouted.
• Heat bar animations now display correctly at all levels, including when a Region is in Lockdown.
• Heat gain for Schemes in S.A.B.R.E. Regions with a Level 4 Criminal Network have been brought in line with other Force of Justice Regions.

Items

• Doors display correctly as open or closed at greater camera distances.
• The Agent Disguise Simulator is now displayed correctly at all camera distances.
• The "R.A.Y.G.U.N." VFX will consistently display during longer Interrogations.
• Investigator Agents will correctly gain Suspicion after encountering the R.A.Y.G.U.N. or Induction Chair items.
• Loot items which are immune to Durability damage will no longer be marked for Repair.
• The Melee Trainer Lair Item is correctly affected by the Hubbard Slice and Sands of Time Loot items.
• The Broken Time Machine now correctly applies traits to Agents in addition to minions.
• Advanced Guard Posts can now have their Power disabled.
• The Loot items, "No. 2 Memorial", "Mr. Scruffles", and "John Steele's Defeat" can no longer have their Power disabled.
• Text displayed in the Side Panel of the "Secure Holding Cell" and "Unpleasant Holding Cell" no longer overlaps.
• Character position markers are no longer misaligned when selected while using the R.A.Y.G.U.N. Lair Item.
• Henchmen will play their bark correctly when ordered to interact with the Cabal Induction Chair.
• The "Egg Pod" Infirmary Decor Item now gives a boost to Restore Vitality jobs.
• The "Brain Hologram" Laboratory Decor Item now reduces Smarts decay.
• The "Food Disposal" and "Condiments" Mess Hall Decor Items now give a boost to Restore Smarts jobs.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/d97edfe1b8aa07cb18b635ee06978d89a2113f38.png Wúnderbar! Grab Evil Genius 2 for an absolute steal this Steam Summer Sale - with up to 25% off!* *Evil Genius 2: 25% off! *Evil Genius 2 Deluxe Edition: 20% off! 🏠 Construct your base 💪 Train your minions ⛔ Defend your operations from the Forces of Justice 🏆 Collect shiny loot ✅ Achieve global domination Unleash your inner evil and become the criminal mastermind you were born to be. And find like-minded geniuses, swap clever trap ideas and submit your artwork, promote your content and discover other creators over in our Rebellion Discord server: discord.gg/Rebellion

V1.5.2 AMD FidelityFX

• Added support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 to Graphics Options.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 is a cutting edge super-optimized spatial upscaling technology that creates a high-resolution frame from lower-resolution input. It maintains impressive image quality while allowing faster framerates than one would get by rendering at a native resolution. It has four quality settings:

• Ultra Quality mode produces a super resolution image with quality very close to native rendering. It should be selected when the highest quality is desired.
• Quality mode produces a super resolution image with quality representative of native rendering, with a sizeable performance gain.
• Balanced mode produces a super resolution image approximating native rendering quality, with a major performance gain compared to native.
• Performance mode visibly impacts image quality and should only be selected in situations where needing additional performance is critical.

General

• Benchmark Mode added.
• Resolved a timing issue which could cause Evil Genius 2 to crash when launching or cancelling a Scheme in unusual circumstances.

Thanks for your continued support.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/ab393ea7e022ce9be7b6d09a0131a87f2e7b619c.gif Explore some of the most inventively evil lairs from the Evil Genius 2 community. Gabe and Flop will be critiquing criminal bases sent in by EG2 players, rating evil levels and enjoying your magnificently malevolent decor decisions. 📅 Thurs, June 10th 🕔 5pm BST 🏆 PRIZES to be won! 💜 Available to watch on Steam, Twitch, YouTube and Facebook Live. Join us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/rebellion_official Join us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/evilgeniusgame Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvilGeniusGame

Hotfix V1.5.1 is now live: General Resolved an issue where some players were unable to start Evil Genius 2 without removing their previous game saves.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/d792a3e932bfd6c0e4e3911b2327f3cc1957347f.png This update focuses on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. With this update, additional content can be added to a campaign in progress through the "Enable DLC" option on any Load Game panel, and we intend to continue to support this option for all future DLC, with the exception of the Campaign pack, as noted in the last Development Update. Deserting minions can now be captured and allowed to reconsider whether betraying you is really a mistake they can afford to make, with the result that their Morale will gradually restore during captivity, and with the new "Release Prisoner" button on all flavours of Holding Cell, said minions can be released and allowed to return to work once you determine they've learned their lesson. We've also taken a good long look at Decor Items, as though the effects of these were always intended to be subtle, they were clearly not having a sufficiently measurable impact on your Evil Lairs, and as a result have had their effects significantly boosted. The strength of Force of Justice Agents against Lair defences continues to be a focus area for the Design team, but as a first step with this update you should find Agents are less effective at Sabotaging Traps at all but the highest levels. Please note: We continue to investigate reports that a number of players have been unable to play Evil Genius 2 since updating to a previous version, and will be releasing a fix for this as soon as we are able to do so. Thank you all for your continued support of Evil Genius 2: we'll continue to listen to your feedback through the Community team. The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

General

• Characters now board the Cruise Ship more swiftly.
• Click and hold functionality has been improved for picking-up and moving Items.
• All Decor effects have been significantly boosted. Note that an Item can be affected by only one Decor Item at a time, and we are looking at improving the messaging of this in a future patch.
• Deserting minions can now be captured and imprisoned to make them rethink their life choices, and slowly restore their Morale.
• Warning notification added at the "Point of No Return", after which progressing to the next campaign Objective will prohibit access to any remaining Side Stories.
• The layout of rock types in Montañas Gemelas has been modified to increase options for reaching the lower levels of the Doomsday Cavern. Note that this change will impact new campaigns only.
• Options for Stair placement on the basement floors of the "Crown Gold" and "Caine Key" Island Lairs have been expanded. Note that this change will impact new campaigns only.
• Characters will no longer become trapped inside the Helipad tower in unusual circumstances on the "Caine Key" Island Lair.
• Characters should no longer become temporarily trapped when moving through Doors in unusual circumstances.
• Access to the Doomsday Device Cavern can no longer be blocked by placing Items.
• Training Items will no longer enter a state where training is extremely swift or extremely slow in unusual circumstances.
• Characters no longer become clipped with one another and unable to board vehicles in unusual circumstances.
• The frequency of IRIS notifications has been reduced for the Vault, combat, and Training interruptions.
• Fire Extinguishers no longer become less used over time if minions drop them to desert the Lair due to low Morale.
• Using hotkeys to select Henchmen will no longer cause the camera to jump to their location.
• Completion rewards have been added to Objectives that previously had none.
• Commanding a captive to be Escorted to first a Prison Cell, then overriding this with a command for the same captive to be taken to an Interrogation device, will correctly result in the second command being carried out.
• Minions will no longer use Items which boost their maximum stat value unless the stat which will be boosted is already over 45.
• Character Abilities are more clearly differentiated on Side Panels when the character has insufficient stats to activate them.
• New Status messages for the Genius and Henchmen indicating that their stats can be restored at an Impressive Desk or Conference Table respectively.
• Enemy characters using Cover Operation Items are now correctly affected by Gas attacks, such as Fugu Furakawa's "Blowfish Explosion" Ability.
• Additional rare Traits added when minions are spawned, or complete specific jobs around the Lair.
• The Gold cost of broadcast strength Research Projects has been reduced.
• The "Learning Lamp" Archive Item correctly lists Deception minions as Users, and Science minions as Operators.
• The "Intensive Care Pod" Infirmary Item correctly lists All minions as Users, and Science minions & Workers as Operators.
• The doors of the "Rejuvenation Chamber" Lair Item now animate correctly, and the visual effects align correctly with the model.
• Characters no longer play erratic animations before death in unusual circumstances.
• Characters' limbs remain in the intended positions during Interrogation.
• Selecting the final stage of a Doomsday Device, then entering Build Mode will no longer cause the Doomsday Device to temporarily float in place.
• Descriptions have been added for Mode settings on Lair Items.
• Door access times have been slightly adjusted.
• Suspicion is now displayed on the Side Panels of Lair Items awaiting construction.
• The "Laser Disco" Trap no longer clips through area of effect indicators when selecting other Traps.
• Cover Operation glass is no longer visible when constructing Stairs near the windows of the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
• The Event Log displayed in the Stats Screen now scrolls correctly when clicking and dragging the scroll bar.
• The Research screen will now display a brief explanation if Research has become paused.
• Deception minion descriptions are listed correctly in the Rogues' Gallery.
• Information overlays for Tourist Side Panels have been updated.
• Triggering a Flamethrower Trap will no longer trigger a Fire-related Event Log message unless minions are caught in the effect.
• Maximilian's Inner Sanctum wall tiles no longer clip through Doors.
• The cursor for ordering prisoners to be moved to an empty cell is no longer misshapen.
• Player-controlled characters no longer rise a short distance into the air when ordered to walk to specific locations near the swimming pool on the "Crown Gold" Island Lair.
• "Move" Tooltip is no longer displayed in the top-left of the screen after placing an Item then immediately selecting it.
• Minion position markers are no longer misaligned when selected while using specific Lair Items.
• Minor improvements to icons when colour blindness settings are enabled.
• The game no longer lags when adjusting the Brightness slider in the Graphics Options screen.
• The ability to move Items is no longer prematurely unlocked in the Tutorial.
• Items from the "In-Genius Items" pack can be used to complete Tutorial tasks where appropriate.
• The Technician Trainer correctly obeys in-game audio settings.
• A number of Schemes have had their locations adjusted to more suitably match their descriptions.
• A number of Traits have had their effects significantly boosted.
• Depth of Field Toggle added under Options - Accessibility Options.
• Improved gamepad support.
• Text and localisation improvements.

Achievements

• The "Fighting Fire With Fire" achievement now unlocks correctly when setting Atomic Olga on fire by using Traps.
• In Zalika's campaign Objective, "Tourist Trap", curing IRIS will no longer count toward Henchman recruitment achievements.
• The "Total Annihilation" achievement no longer unlocks prematurely.

Campaigns

• Emma will no longer become trapped in an Execution animation in unusual circumstances.
• The backfire effect of H.A.V.O.C. has been reduced.
• John Steele Snr's Allies can no longer be brainwashed in Emma's campaign Objective, "Poison Paradise".
• Minions will no longer approach John Steele Snr when attempting to Execute him during Emma's campaign Objective, "Dear John".
• Geniuses can no longer be reduced to 0 Smarts by Mocking prisoners repeatedly.
• Main Objective Schemes will spawn more rapidly on the World Map, reducing wait times.
• The appearance of Regions affected by the M.I.D.A.S. Device at maximum power has been improved.
• Investigators who reach 0 Resolve will correctly attempt to escape the Lair during Red Ivan's campaign Objective, "Rumour Has It".
• The "Ambush Air" Scheme displays the correct rewards during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Trap D'Or".
• Political Aides will no longer gain a brief "Exit" overhead icon in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "The Traditional Method".
• Nigel McReary will attempt to avoid combat during Maximilian's Campaign Objective, "War On Krast".
• Schemes which invite additional Tourists to the Lair have had their visual significance reduced during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "War On Krast".
• Agents assaulting the Lair are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "The Golden Age".

Side Stories

• Carl Cafard no longer clips into the "Valuable Paintings" Item while inspecting it during the Side Story, "Body Snatcher".
• Beekeepers will no long attempt to escape the Lair during the Side Story, "One In A Bee-Lion".
• Cameras that have already been constructed will count toward the Side Stories, "Thy Fearful Symmetry" and "Wind Wars: The Wind Strikes Back".
• Travel Agents will no longer put up a fight when tagged for Capture in the Side Story, "North By North".
• The "Antidote" Research Project is no longer removed if the game is played for over 15 hours while remaining on the Side Story "Going Green".
• Full Metal Jackie correctly has the "Temporary Partnership" Trait during the Side Story, "Eighteen With A Bullet".
• The "Time After Time" Research project has had its research time significantly reduced in Side Story, "Outta Time".
• Eli's Guards no longer display a Force of Justice affiliation in the Side Story, "Vox Pop-Eli".
• The Event Log correctly indicates Agent X has arrived at the Lair alone during Side Story, "Manifest Entropy".
• "Attack Robots" no longer arrive prematurely during the Side Story, "I Spy With My Cybernetically Enhanced Eye".
• Schemes no longer incorrectly appear as Threats during the Side Story, "Hail To The Chef".
• Espectro no longer hovers in the air above P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Region terrain when he appears on the World Map during Cabal Side Stories.
• Ignacio no longer has a Trait erroneously indicating he is actually Incendio during the Side Story, "Fire In The Hole".

Super Agents

• Side Panel portraits for Agent Steele now match the appearance of the character.
• Super Agents Side Panels include the correct Force of Justice affiliation when they are Lured from the World Stage.
• Specialist Agents accompanying a Super Agent are assigned the correct Force of Justice affiliation.

Henchmen

• Henchman Abilities no longer enter cooldown or have their stat cost taken before they are in the correct position to begin using the selected Ability.
• Jubei will no longer teleport through terrain when his "Windwalk" ability is targeted at very specific points on an Island Lair.
• Jubei no longer becomes unresponsive in unusual circumstances when activating his "Flow" ability while the game is paused.
• Jubei's "Flow" Ability can no longer be activated while he is being Executed.
• Incendio will no longer become stuck in an animation cycle when using his "Magic Trick" ability in unusual circumstances.
• Incendio's Side Panel now correctly lists the Morale cost for using his "Misdirection" character ability.
• Espectro will no longer become unresponsive after being ordered to use his "Clone" ability immediately after completing a move command.
• Selecting Espectro's "Summon Ally" Ability while "Piston Punch" is being activated will correctly focus the camera on the Espectro Clone, if one has already been summoned.
• Fugu Furakawa's "Sleeping With The Fishes" Scheme now correctly removes all Heat from a Region, regardless of the level of the Criminal Network.
• Eli's Silver Revolver should no longer disappear from his hand during idle animations at a Conference Table.
• Clara Jones defeat bark is now paired with the correct text.

Loot Items

• The requirements for a minion to be judged worthy by the Sword In the Stone Loot item have been made easier to meet.
• Certain Loot items can no longer be stolen during their Side Stories.
• The "Cupid's Arrow" Loot item can no longer be destroyed.
• Minions will more commonly use the "World's Oldest Bones" Loot Item.
• The "Million Bees" Loot Item no longer requires a minion to deliver it to the Depot before it can be placed.
• Loot Item information is consistently unlocked in the Rogues' Gallery after acquiring it.
• When using a gamepad, navigating between placed Loot Items in the Build Menu no longer skips items in the list.

Hotfix - V1.4.1 This latest hotfix addresses a small number of issues raised following the release of our last patch. The list of changes that are now live are as follows:

General
• Addressed a crash when a character has been targeted by a Special Ability, but despawns before the Special Ability has completed. Special Ability has completed.
• Incendio's "Magic Trick" ability will correctly display a cooldown timer. Side Stories
• Completing "The Melting Point of Steele" Side Story will no longer remove Symmetry from the campaign.

Developer Update Hi, this is Rob Myall, lead coder on Evil Genius 2, with another development update. We continue to see lively discussion on all our social media channels and hopefully this will help you understand where our priorities are today. With the release of our In-Genius Items Pack, one of our early decisions to only allow the addition of DLC to new campaigns received a lot of feedback and we’re looking to address that as soon as we possibly can, hopefully in the next major patch. The next patch will focus on further quality of life updates and bug fixes. This is looking promising but is going to take a fair amount of testing so we can’t rush it out of the door. This will ultimately exclude one item of DLC – the Campaign Pack – which, as you’ll see when we start to reveal more details, is not something that can be dropped into a game in progress. We’re also continuing to look at other points of feedback: many of you have expressed dissatisfaction with the vignette effect around the screen so we’re looking to add an accessibility option to disable this, as well as an option to disable some of the flashing elements in the UI. One of the items we couldn’t address in our large balance patch (V1.3.0) was research still being an item that blocks play, so we’re looking at whether we can retain your progress on one research project while allowing you to switch to another (allowing you to prioritise that World Domination research without having to abandon a longer-term upgrade). Rich Edwards’ design team are looking at balance issues to do with the spreading of Fire (which may help those struggling with a Red Ivan playthrough!), how Agents interact with the Cover Operation and their initial entry in to the Lair, and looking at making Traps more effective. They’re also fixing a number of Loot items that haven’t quite been working as expected. Keep engaging with our Community team and we’ll do our best to keep you apprised.

Attention Minions! It seems some of you have been up to no good in lairs of your own, so we wanted to highlight some of your hard work as an inspiration to those other layabouts! Please note that all minions are personally responsible for any loss of property, personal injury, mental injury or fatalities which occur from over-achieving, under-achieving or simply achieving. Teamwork Makes The Evil Dream Work (Credit: Dexter) We found a rival genius who had some excellent tips and tricks in this guide which were helpful in our own scheming; covering FAQs, Henchman, Loot and bagsful of other villainy. Last one to take a continent is a super-agent’s best friend! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2443438168 Agent X For Excellent Assassination (Credit: Kuaikukia){STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/df429a606645c3af79005d6779f3bfe24f3f74b5.jpg Speaking of super-agents, except in the case of identification posters and warnings we would like to discourage minions from illustrating or otherwise idolizing super-agents. Super-agents are not your friends. Agent X especially. Heard he said you all lack personal hygiene stands... and would I lie to you? (Love this art, kuaikukia!) Red Ivan reimagined! (Credit: MOJO){STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/9f49dba7cab243798547d46be9958f6bb0e724c9.jpg This is exactly the kind of artwork we can get behind… art which venerates your overlord! Look at that charismatic dictator! Fifteen Fists Of Fury (Credit: LAN A) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2482916197 We personally felt that 15 punches was a little excessive for a single agent… but we certainly like your enthusiasm. Somebody get them into an interrogation chair before they keel over! --- Stepping out of Red Ivan’s cape for a moment, the Community Team would really like to thank all of you amazing geniuses out there making these beautiful artworks, clips and guides! It’s really lovely to see you getting so hyped about elements of the game and helping one another. We are still listening to your feedback and working with the Dev Team on many of the elements you’ve raised. We hope to make these a regular feature because some of the stuff you’re making is simply villainous and it deserves to be shown off in all its evil majesty. Until then, get back to being evil!

An Evil Genius is only as good as the equipment they surround themselves with! That’s why we’re delighted to share our In-Genius Items Pack, perfect for taking your villainy to the next level. As well as this exciting new content, our team have been hard at work addressing improvements and locating and resolving additional bugs raised by the Community since our last patch. Once again, we’d like to thank the Evil Genius Community for their continued support. The In-Genius Items Pack It’s time to boost your Lair’s capabilities with this Item Pack – featuring 26 new items, all designed to help your minions and Lair work smarter and harder than ever before! Included in the In-Genius Items Pack:

• 4 Armoury Items (Agent Disguise Simulator, Melee Trainer, Practice Range, Security Checkpoint)
• 2 Control Room Items (Advanced Computer, Communication Array)
• 2 Corridor Items (360 Camera, Worker Station)
• 2 Prison Items (Secure Holding Cell, Unpleasant Holding Cell)
• 1 Staff Room Item (Puncho Bots)
• 2 Infirmary Items (Rejuvination Chamber, The Scan-O-Tron)
• 2 Archive Items (Further Education, True Crime Documentaries)
• 4 Barracks Items (Worker Beds, Muscle Beds, Deception Beds, Science Beds)
• 7 New Doors (Inner Sanctum Doors for Max, Emma, Red Ivan and Zalika, Lab Door, Prison Door, Vault Door)

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/5405c903db37a2dcefa325b56111fcf4fdc172a4.jpg Simply activate these items when you start a new save to start benefiting from their varying evil-enhancing effects. FREE Minion 2 Statue: This advisor once dared to tell a Genius what to do and how to do it. That didn’t go so well – but at least she got a statue… Every player will find this statue added to the Loot section of their Build Menu as standard from launch today! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/3e05dbc468c3a69e0c7c265bf9905be2619f1138.jpg

Full V1.4.0 Patch Notes:

V1.4.0 General

• Prisoners can be moved from one Cell to another by using the "Escort Prisoner" feature.
• Minions correctly attempt to escape after being imprisoned in a Cell.
• Combining the Cupid's Arrow Loot item with a Shark Tank no longer results in an inescapable Trap.
• Notifications for Minion Salaries more accurately coincide with their respective events.
• Sound effects for Henchman abilities play consistently.
• Characters' limbs remain in the intended positions when interacting with Lair Items & equipment.
• Items placed by Agents, Crime Lords, or narrative Objectives are no longer constructed on tiles that block existing build orders.
• Characters consistently navigate Stairs in unusual Lair configurations.
• Minions are less likely to abandon useful jobs to play Videogames while their stats allow them to continue working.
• The Minion Training Screen now displays training items that are under construction.
• Disabling the "Auto-Follow" option no longer prevents a character from being followed by clicking the profile image on their Side Panel.
• The presentation of Research Project costs update correctly based on colour blindness accessibility settings.
• The Cost of Organic Samples has been increased to be consistent with other Research equipment.
• The Holographic Globe now requires Quantum Chemists and a Super Computer to unlock.
• The Computer Array now requires Biologists and a Centrifuge to unlock.
• Security Zone modes that have not been unlocked now display correct descriptions.
• Geniuses can no longer be ordered to use Weapon Racks.
• The durability of Armoury Items now depletes consistently.
• Objective images correctly display after opening the Objectives interface directly after the Minion Manager.
• End of Campaign cutscenes correctly respect in-game volume settings.
• Cover Op Decor items now function as intended.
• Decor Items for the Cover Operation are no longer made available before this Room type has been unlocked.
• Selecting a Locked minion type, then closing and reopening the Minion Training screen will correctly display a Worker minion.
• Weapon racks can no longer be placed with their access points overlapping one another.
• Security Cameras no longer have their orientation locked in unusual circumstances.
• Generated and consumed Power is displayed correctly in the Stats Screen.
• Rotation points have been adjusted for some Lair Items.
• Improved gamepad support.
• Text and localisation improvements.

Achievements

• The Achievement "Your Very Own Museum" can be correctly unlocked after obtaining the Hubbard Slice before the Flame of Prometheus.
• The Achievement "Recruit Them All" can be correctly unlocked without recruiting both Clara Jones and Carl Cafard.
• Achievements for firing later stages of a Doomsday Device are no longer unlocked during Test Firing.

Campaigns

• During the "Bury the Hatchet" campaign Objective, Criminal Goons can no longer be captured and brainwashed.
• The Board Meeting can be consistently completed in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "War on Krast".
• The Criminal Network level requirement has been lowered in Red Ivan's campaign Objective, "Glorious Reclamation".
• The aftermath Schemes from firing the M.I.D.A.S. device no longer occasionally suggest you have fired H.A.V.O.C.
• The "Great Studies" Research cost is correctly displayed during Zalika's campaign Objective, "Brain Trust".
• Emma's "Plotter" ability displays updated visual effects.

Side Stories

• Crime Lords can be targeted using Henchman abilities.
• The number of Super Agents assaulting the Lair has been reduced during the Side Story, "The Melting Point of Steele".
• Additional Demolition Squaddies will assault the Lair if one or more of them are Brainwashed during the Side Story, "The Brave And the Bola".
• Permanently defeated Super Agents are no longer resurrected to be defeated again during the Side story, "The Other Most Dangerous Game".
• Incendio no longer gains a trait indicating he is a Super Agent during the Side Story, "Ace Up The Sleeve".
• Schemes to Stop Poison Attempts will correctly be removed if cancelled during the Side Story, "Hail To The Chef".
• Correct voiceover plays when recruiting Eli Barracuda Jnr in Zalika's campaign.
• The correct Threat Indicator is displayed over the "Wing Or Lose" Threat during the Side Story, "Vox Pop-Eli".

Super Agents

• Permanently defeating a Super Agent correctly removes their Threats from the World Map.
• Wrecking Bola now arrives at the Lair with a team of Agents when Lured.
• Agent Steele's "Smash And Grab" Threats no longer spawn in multiples within a single Region.
• Agent X's Hard Boiled Investigators are consistently attributed to the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Force of Justice.
• Agent Steele now gives 20 Intel when successfully Interrogated.

Henchmen

• Espectro no longer becomes trapped in place when interrogating captured characters on Traps.
• Sir Daniel can recover his stats at a Conference Table even if his Camouflage ability is activated when sitting down.
• Incendio's "Misdirection" ability correctly resets after sitting at a Conference Table.
• Incendio's position marker is now accurate when seated at a Conference Table.
• After recruiting Full Metal Jackie, her bonus Schemes no longer display overhead VFX.

Loot Items

• The R.A.Y.G.U.N. Laser correctly fires repeatedly on lengthy Interrogations.
• The "Taught By a Dodo" Trait is correctly applied after minions interact with the Dodo Educator Loot item.
• The "Flying Pig" Trait is correctly applied after minions interact with the Flying Pig Loot item.
• The "Egg Head" Trait is correctly applied after minions interact with the Giant Egg Loot item.
• Indestructible Loot items no longer display the repair overhead icon after minions interact with them.

Hello Minions! A huge thank you to everyone who has been busy lair building, agent killing and generally, plotting to take over the world in the last few weeks. We’re so grateful to all of you and appreciate all your comments on our forums, social channels and beyond as we work to support and improve upon the game after launch. We hope to share a number of top tips over the coming weeks to aid your world domination efforts and shed light on some of the Community topics we’ve seen discussed more frequently. First things first - Heat and Suspicion! We’ve just gone live with a patch that alters the way these two elements function in Evil Genius 2, so let’s clarify exactly how they work and why they’re important to keep track of.

Heat:

Your actions on the world map generate Gold and Heat and it is Heat that determines the strength of the agents that come to your island. You can keep track of this by closely monitoring your criminal networks. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/9c53d0db0828922663bf2de8ef5a473c111dfc8f.gif Heat management will become increasingly important as you become more active on the world stage so expanding your schemes evenly across the world map is a great way of spreading the Heat across the five Forces of Justice. This will mean that the strength of the agents visiting your lair is more evenly balanced and you won’t end up facing one very powerful foe. Don’t forget, minions, Heat reduction schemes are vital for keeping enemy Agents weakened. Those pesky Forces of Justice will still arrive at your lair, but they won’t test your defences too much.

Suspicion:

Suspicion is always running and ticking along underneath the game – sending Agents to your lair periodically to build up a picture of your operations, starting with Investigators. These shifty customers will arrive in waves and when they do, they will build up a picture of the kind of operation you’re running. When you click on an Investigator you will be able to track their Suspicion levels – the higher that suspicion rises, the bigger the consequences… If you’re doing very well and keeping those pesky Investigators at bay with various distraction techniques then that suspicion will stay low. However, if you start to ignore those investigators and allow them to infiltrate your lair and escape with precious evidence, specialist Agent known as Rogues, Saboteurs or Soldiers will begin to be summoned. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/32de58e24c8cc1447feda03f327c6da4d6deefcc.gif The type of Agent you get is governed by suspicion, meaning that your actions in your lair will determine what kind of Agents you get. For example, if you were to get Saboteurs in your lair, that means Investigators found something they could potentially blow up. Same for Rogues and things that are steal-able. Soldiers are triggered by numerous Agents becoming MIA – so think twice before leaving that pile of body bags by the entrance of your lair! All of this really emphasizes the importance of your Valets – if these masters of deception aren’t doing their jobs and distracting those initial waves of Investigators, Suspicion will rise and your foes will fight back with more and more force! (HINT: Keep climbing your way up The Deception Tree to progress your Valets to Socialites, Spin Doctors and Counter Agents)

Patch V1.3.0:

In our recently released V1.3.0 Patch, we’ve altered Agent behaviours slightly, so it’s going to be easier for Investigators to summon specialists based on their findings, and those specialists will increase in power based on how often they’re summoned to your lair. We’ve also enhanced the Valet’s deception capabilities so Investigators will now have a higher chance of being turned away. In other words minions, your cover operation and Valets are more important than ever to keep Suspicion low. We’ve also made some changes to the World Map, meaning that managing your Heat is a lot more valuable, and the passive income gained from the World Map is going up – so it will pay to keep your regions Heat-free! Especially at higher difficulties, which will see lockdowns no longer resetting your Heat to zero. So get those screens built in your Control Room and manage that Heat! You’ll be glad you did. To read more about the changes we’ve made in our recently released patch, Click Here

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/2cbf8b0640cddb39e859ab51aa6b625d44eee316.jpg https://youtu.be/M_bhmhITDOA A new wannabe Super Agent is on the scene in Evil Genius 2: World Domination’s brand new DLC. Can you defeat the mighty Espectro? Behind the red mist of his headgear lies a twisted mind fixed on power, all with the singular aim of your annihilation. Not only can he charge up devastating attacks, Espectro can also use forbidden technology to create clones of himself. He must be stopped, but more than that, his incredible abilities must be harnessed for your own…

SEEING RED

Out today, The Cabal Pack introduces Espectro as a brand new acquirable henchman, along with accompanying Side Story objectives and plenty more: In full, the pack includes:

• New Henchman - Espectro
• New Lair Equipment – the Cabal Indoctrination Chamber. Change the appearances of four other henchmen by giving them the Cabal makeover.
• New Lair Equipment – the R.A.Y.G.U.N. Interrogation Device
• Accompanying Side Story objectives

All of the Cabal Pack content will be available in new campaigns. The Cabal Pack is available as additional content for Evil Genius 2 as part of the Evil Genius 2: Season Pass. It’s also available to buy separately, priced £4.19 / $4.99 / €4.99 on Steam.

T’IS THE SEASON TO BE EVIL

The Cabal Pack is the first drop from the Evil Genius 2: Season Pass, with plenty more lair-building content on the way to satisfy supervillains everywhere. As detailed today in the Season Pass roadmap, The Cabal Pack will be followed by:

• A lair items pack
• Another henchman pack
• Two minion packs
• A campaign pack

The Evil Genius 2: Season Pass is available now, priced £22.99 /$24.99 / €24.99 on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545860/Evil_Genius_2_Season_Pass/ {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35214975/7ad2b35f91b0173707400a86a430ed5d5ef4dc40.jpg

We've been listening, and we've been busy. With this update we have addressed core areas of feedback from you, the Evil Genius 2 community, ranging from progression issues to game pace, and as a result the length of a campaign can be significantly shorter for those of you who want to play more aggressively. On the World Map, we've increased the amount of Gold earned from longer running Schemes, and ensured that this is earned over the Scheme's entire duration, allowing you to set a Scheme in motion and reap the rewards while your attention is turned elsewhere. These Schemes still add Heat to the Region, but you'll know how much to expect up front, allowing you more effectively manage the strength of the Agents you're willing to face. Longer "Heat Reduction" Schemes still remove all Heat from a Region, but once they have done so they can either be cancelled, or allowed to continue running for an increased amount of time, preventing Heat from rising in the area. This keeps the Forces of Justice off your back while the Criminal Network continues to bring in its passive income of Gold. We've also increased the variety of Schemes at Tier 1 Criminal Networks, which will allow you to earn increased rewards for sending specialist minions out into the world earlier in the game, so while you'll still be able to rely on workers to bring in Gold in the early game, it can be beneficial to keep a supply of advanced minions on hand. Additionally, a brand new Scheme Type has been added in the form of Intel Only schemes, representing activating contacts in your existing Criminal Networks by using Intel generated by Computer Consoles, or sourced from Agent Interrogations. These schemes can be run without sending additional minions from the Lair, allowing you to start a scheme instantly and reap enormous rewards. Be aware that setting some of these Schemes in motion will add a substantial amount of Heat to your Region, so be prepared for strong Agents if you activate one at the wrong time. In the Lair, the first thing we changed was the speed that vehicles arrive and depart from your Island. This allows minions to get out into the World with greater haste, helping you keep your efforts of World Domination ticking over more readily. We've reduced some key training times for specialist minions to reduce stalls in the training room, and we've also taken a look at the messaging of some items of Lair equipment and added some key information, especially in relation to which items of furniture the Forces of Justice are going to be on the lookout for. Your more valuable minions - despite being inherently less valuable than your own, nefarious Genius - will still expect to be paid for their time...while they're alive, of course. You'll need to keep a keener eye on your income and outgoings from now on, as the penalties for not doing so will be more readily apparent. We've added additional status effects and minion overheads to help you identify the problem cases in your Lair. The Forces of Justice have also had some attention, with more dangerous Agent specialists now regularly visiting your Lair if you fail to turn away Investigators before they delve too deeply, and some rebalancing of Super Agents and the squads that accompany them. Be wary - the specialists sent by Investigators will always pose a more dangerous threat. We've also taken care of a range of bugs too of course, addressing known problem areas with stuck or vanishing Super Agents, troublesome Schemes that decided a Region was too crowded to spawn in, and ensuring more players across the world are able to play out their dreams of dominating it, to name just a few. See the bulleted lists below for a few more details of the balance changes and bug fixes. As always, thank you for your continued support of Evil Genius 2. The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

Balance Notes

General

• Vehicle speed and responsiveness have been significantly increased, resulting in a faster game pace, and more rapid travel for all characters to and from the Lair.
• Body Bags have been made less punitive, by increasing the duration of the negative status effect, but lowering the Morale drain that results, giving minions more time to reach stat restoring equipment.
• Minions operating furniture will no longer ignore Executions.
• Minion Salaries have been increased in line with the increased income available from the World Map. Evil Genius discounts still apply.
• Specialist minions who are not paid will suffer increased penalties to their Morale, and the messaging of these penalties has been improved.
• Minions will abandon a wider range of Lair activities to travel to the World Map, speeding up Scouting of Regions, Upgrading Criminal Networks, and running Schemes.
• Muscle minions will respond to combat at a slightly increased range, and their base armour and damage values have been increased.
• Suspicion required to attract a wave of Specialist Agents has been lowered.
• The cost of the Bonus Minion Capacity Research Projects has been lowered.
• Agents will spend less time on individual items in the Cover Operation, and are less likely to revisit them.
• The number of Tourists arriving at the Lair will increase with campaign progress.
• Additional categories have been added to the Minion Manager for Guard Posts, Armoury Staging Posts, and the Laboratory.
• Advanced minions types are now available earlier in each campaign.
• Main and Side Story tasks that require minions to be trained now take into account those already present in the Lair.

Difficulty Modes

• When playing on Easy difficulty, free Worker minions are auto-hired at a rate of 6 every 60 seconds, increased from 2 every 60 seconds.
• When playing on Easy difficulty, Worker minions can be manually recruited at a cost of 1,000 Gold per minion, reduced from 2,000 Gold per minion.
• In Hard mode, Agents have had their combat stats increased to ensure they remain a challenge in the face of tougher Muscle minions.

World Map

• Increased duration on long Gold and Heat schemes, and cost adjustments made to allow for more hands-off World Map play.
• Criminal Networks now generate more Gold as a passive income at each level.
• New Scheme Type Added: Intel Only. These schemes do not require minions and have a very short duration.
• Increased variety of Schemes at Tier 1.
• Super Agents and other Antagonists on the World Stage can be attracted to the Lair directly by selecting the character on the map, and then using the "Lure" option on their side panel.
• After exiting Lockdown, residual Heat in a Region remains at 0%/20%/30% when playing on Eay/Medium/Hard difficulty.
• Broadcast Strength required to upgrade Criminal Networks has been reduced.
• The time required to upgrade Criminal Networks has been reduced.
• Super Agents ignore Heat Reduction Schemes.

Lair Building

• Gold earned from excavating Gold Tiles has been increased.
• Furniture Modes have additional descriptions.
• Muscle minions now prefer Advanced Guard Posts over Armoury jobs.
• Training time has been reduced for Biologists, Quantum Chemists, Counter Agents, Socialites, and Spin Doctors.
• Internal door access times have been modified to favour shorter times for minions and longer times for agents. The Evil Genius and Henchmen can pass through any door unimpeded.
• External doors to the Lair now open automatically for minions on lower security levels, but not for Agents, cutting down on the time it takes minions to travel to the World or collect new items.
• Minions gain improved benefits from the "Well Fed" Trait, gained by eating at specialised Food Counters in the Mess Hall.

Campaigns

• Scheme durations have been reduced to 10 seconds for the overwhelming majority of Objective Schemes.
• Doomsday Device Fuel Scheme costs have been adjusted to cost only ONE thing: Gold, minions or intel, and had their durations reduced to 10 seconds.
• Doomsday Device Fuel Schemes now require only a level 1 Criminal Network at all stages, making gathering fuel much easier throughout each campaign.
• Schemes spawned from Red Ivan's Doomsday Device reward a number of Muscle minions in addition to a significant quantity of Gold.
• Heat generated by Objective Schemes has been lowered so that Schemes can more reliably be run without being cancelled by the Criminal Network entering Lockdown.
• Intel costs have been reduced for Main Objective Schemes, and entirely removed from Side Objective Schemes.
• The Objectives "A Moment's Calm", "A Moment's Respite", "A Moment of Preparation", and "The Final Respite" have had requirements for Loot, Schemes run, and Research completed entirely removed.

Traits

• Feels No Pain, Good Reflexes / Thick Skin / Owns Armour damage reduction to 10% / 15 / 20% / 25%
• Decent Uppercut / Good Cross Punch / Strong Left Hook / Strong Right Hook / Strong Left Jab / Strong Left Jab bonus melee damage increased 10 / 10 / 15/ 15/ 20 / 20
• Crack Shot / Good Shot bonus damage increased 25 / 10 Ranged damage, and no longer stack with Poor Shot
• Ex-Force of Justice Spotting Power bonus increased against the appropriate Force of Justice
• Perceptive Spotting Power increased against All Agents
• Loves Sleep / Loves food bonus stat restore increased to 10 per minute on affected jobs
• Bad Back Vitality drain while carrying body bags and furniture lowered to 5 Vitality per minute
• Sees Dead People spawn chance lowered slightly. Now restores additional Morale when disposing of bodies
• Thrifty / Cheap Salary Reduction increased to a 50% / 75% discount
• Loves 80s Ballads Morale Restore boost on Karaoke Machine doubled
• Hates Needles Morale drain reduced while operating equipment in the Infirmary.
• Embarrassing Tattoo Willingness to train into a minion type who does not have sleeves on their uniform further reduced

Bug Fixes

General

• Crash fixes and stability improvements.
• Evil Genius 2 can now be played and saved if your Windows username contains non-latin characters.
• The setting to "Share Game Information" is reliably saved between games.
• Agents and minions will no longer refuse to die in unusual combat or trap combinations.
• Characters will no longer become stuck in place after triggering Traps in unusual circumstances.
• Geniuses and Henchmen will no longer fail to enter combat with disguised Agents when given a direct command.
• Minion Salaries are correctly removed after desertion.
• Commitments are correctly updated after canceling or rearranging build orders.
• Agents will brazenly don their Disguises in front of minions if those minions lack the Smarts to remove them.
• Interrogating Force of Justice Agents of any quality will correctly generate Intel.
• Research progress on the HUD is displayed consistently.
• IRIS will no longer erroneously advise that the Vault is empty on starting a new game.
• Minion Manager performance has been improved.
• Minions with Traits which recover their stats can be captured correctly.
• Minions will upgrade their weapon after training to become a more advanced minion type, provided better weapons are available for them to do so.
• Event Logs for characters arriving at the Lair now trigger when the vehicle they are in has arrived.
• The Cruise Ship will wait for significantly less time before departing.
• The cooldown on specific IRIS Event Log messages has been increased.
• Loot Items do not indicate one is available to place in the Build Menu after they are stolen by Rogues.
• Causes of death remain on Body Bags after loading a save.
• Dropped Rogue sacks now have a standardised appearance, regardless of their contents.
• Minions can correctly be assigned priorities in the Minion Manager whilst Training.
• Overhead icons for wall-mounted Traps now appear in the correct location above the trap.
• Luxury Beds have had their passive durability decay removed.
• Brainwashing Saboteurs/Rogues/Soldiers will more reliably add Technicians/Valets/Guards to your workforce. Brainwashing higher level Agents will add higher level minions to your workforce.
• Muscle minions now prefer to use Advanced Guard Posts over the Guard Tables / Staging Posts in the Armoury.
• When playing as Maximilian, multiple Conference Tables can be built.
• The area near the Helicopter Tower on Crown Gold is no longer autotagged.

World Map

• Schemes necessary for progressing Objectives spawn more reliably.
• Super Agents no longer become stuck in the "Investigating" state on the World Map.
• Schemes that provide rewards over time have had their presentation modified to improve messaging.
• Criminal Networks can no longer be destroyed while a Region is in Lockdown.
• Super Agents will travel to the Lair after a Scheme has been run in their Region, even if that Scheme is cancelled.
• Super Agents will respawn more rapidly on the World Map after leaving the Lair without being defeated.

Campaigns

• Running Doomsday Fuel Schemes will correctly progress Objectives which require it, even if the Doomsday Device is fully fuelled.

Side Stories

• In the Side Story, "Cunning as a Foxworth", killing any Steele Agent will correctly progress the task to "Kill J. Steeles in the Lair".
• Full Metal Jackie is now easier to recruit.
• The Side Story, "The Other Most Dangerous Game", can no longer be started if one or more Super Agents have been permanently defeated.
• Minions will correctly move away from stat restore equipment during Objectives which impact their maximum stats.
• The Rayguns stolen from Area 51 list the correct minions that can use them.

Sandbox Mode

• All Tech Tree nodes are correctly accessible in Sandbox Mode.
• Research which costs more than 40,000 Gold can now be unlocked in Sandbox Mode.
• Photo Mode stability has been improved in Sandbox Mode.

Hi, I’m Rob Myall, lead coder on Evil Genius 2 and I’d like to update you on what’s going on behind the scenes here at the moment. We’re aware of all your feedback and many of the team have been reading your discussions and review comments, even if we generally leave responding to our hardworking Community team so that we can focus our efforts on addressing your feedback in the game itself. We’re pleased to confirm that we’ve got a fairly substantial patch coming in the next week. We’re just finalizing the last few fixes and ironing out any new bugs our fixes might have introduced but we want to give you some highlights so that you know we’re here, we’re listening, and that more updates are coming.

• Rich Edwards and his design team are finishing up a complete rebalance pass to address pacing concerns some of you have mentioned. This hasn’t been a small change and has touched nearly every system in the game. We’ll give you more information in our patch notes but you should find the pace of the game much improved, with less micromanagement of the World Map required, and less waiting for campaign progression. You can still take your time if that’s your preferred playstyle, but those of you who want swifter campaigns should find we’ve sped up the core areas where you’re currently required to wait.
• We’ve eliminated the cause of a number of progression blockers, simplifying the method of summoning Super Agents to your Lair and making sure that critical Schemes have room to spawn.
• We’ve exposed a bit more information on Lair equipment that attracts specialist Agent types and made sure Investigators summon those Agents more readily.
• We’ve toned down the consequences of Body Bags but we’ve ramped up the importance of minion salaries. So although you’re still at risk of desertions, it’s now more likely to be a result of training too many higher-level minions or running out of Gold at a bad time, rather than it being because everyone’s cleaning up after the last Agent attack.
• And we’ve fixed a lot of bugs (and where possible, fixed up existing saves to account for them).

Obviously, we’ll save a more complete list for our patch notes, but we wanted to speak to you directly ahead of the full update reaching you next week. We’ve still got a list of improvements we’d like to make in the future as our post-launch support continues, and we’ll continue to read your feedback once this patch is released to make sure we’re making the right changes for you to get the most out of Evil Genius 2.

With this update we've improved overall game stability, improved detection of audio devices, addressed a number of issues which could cause progression to become blocked, and made it simpler to see which of your Criminal Networks have no Schemes running. We're continuing to listen to your feedback about balance and the desire for a swifter game pace, and are hard at work on further updates to these areas. Thanks to everyone who has got in touch, and thank you for your continued support of Evil Genius 2.

General

• Crash fixes and stability improvements.
• Audio device detection has been improved, and manual audio device selection has been added to the Launcher Options.
• Radio Tower VFX has been disabled where a Scheme is running in the Region.
• Narrative Characters can be successfully brainwashed if Objectives require them to be, even if the Lair is already at maximum minion capacity.
• Trap effects no longer remain on minions or Agents indefinitely in unusual circumstances.
• Stairs place on Gold tiles will be constructed correctly.
• On the Crown Gold island Lair, the bridge from the Helipad is no longer autotagged for Distraction.
• Improved gamepad support.
• Various text and localisation improvements.

Campaigns

• Tamara Krast can no longer be executed before the Task requires her to be in Max's campaign Objective, "Gold Fingers, And Toes, And...Well, Everything".
• Narrative characters can no longer escape the Lair under unusual circumstances during Emma's Campaign Objective, "The Sound of Science".
• Scientists consistently die after being Interrogated during during Emma's campaign Objective, "The Sound of Science".

Side Stories

• Addressed issues where several Side Stories could be started without having the advanced minion types they required.
• Loot items cannot be stolen by Rogues before their Side Stories are complete.
• Side Story "Hail to the Chef" can now be completed correctly even if fewer than three Forces of Justice have at least one scouted Region.
• Fugu Furakawa's Heat Reduction and Gold Schemes will no longer spawn multiple times simultaneously within a single Region.
• Crime Lords will correctly become full Henchmen when their final Side Story Objective is completed, even if the reward has not yet been collected.
• Arms Dealer Bodyguards have had their strength reduced during the "Up In Arms" Side Story.
• Julius Bird can no longer be killed after Interrogation in "The Man With The Silver Gun" Side Story.
• Completion rewards have been added to to the "Poisin' Ivy" Side Story.

Super Agents

• John and Jane Steele can no longer be brainwashed.
• Agent Steele will no longer arrive at the island dressed in scuba gear. Instead, one of a variety of John or Jane Steeles may arrive.

Henchmen

• Carl Cafard can now be killed after being recruited as a Henchman when playing on Hard difficulty.

New

• Trading cards have been added to the game! Get collecting minions.

Update 15:50 UK

• Players who observed dead henchman in their lair should find them healthy once more.

It has been just over a week since Evil Genius 2 was released into the world, and what a week it has been! With this hotfix we've addressed several issues which could cause progress to become blocked, and have made Deception-focused playstyles more viable by significantly reducing Force of Justice Agents' chance of fighting back, which should result in fewer brutal murders of your humble Valets...provided you keep an eye on your Heat! Thank you all for your passionate feedback, and we'll continue listening as we address areas where balance and pace can be adjusted to reduce waiting times and further improve your World Domination experience in the weeks ahead.

Patch Notes

General

• Agents of "Average" quality and below will no longer fight back when being distracted and escorted out of the Lair. The chance for higher quality Agents to fight back has been reduced.
• The Spotting Power bonus for minions on duty at Guard Posts has been improved.
• Killing characters as soon as they disembark from the Cruise Ship will no longer prevent other characters from disembarking.

Side Stories

• Crime Lords dying outside of combat will no longer block progression.
• Gas clouds of all types, including those seen in the Sword in the Stone Side story, will correctly disperse on completion of the Side Story.