Katanaut news & patch notes

Hey all! This is a smaller patch based on feedback and bug reports from the Katanaut General Discussion. Thank you to everyone who's been posting. I read all of it, and it directly shapes what gets fixed :) If you've been enjoying Katanaut, please consider leaving a review on Steam. I'm a solo dev, and reviews are by far the biggest thing that helps the game get seen by new players. More reviews means more visibility, and more players means I can keep pouring time into big updates. It only takes a minute, and it genuinely means the world to me! Speaking of big updates: next month Katanaut is getting a large content update that I've been preparing for a while now. More on that soon ;) Also, a little secret for the leaderboard hunters. If you want to join the "cheat" runs on the leaderboard without grinding out unlocks first, walk around the home base and type "pudding" on your keyboard. A hidden room will open up with free weapons and gear to build a loadout from. Using it marks your run as assisted, so your time lands in the "cheat" section of the leaderboard and the main board stays legit. Core: - The minimap opens larger now when you pull it up on a run, so it's easier to read. - Items now show a small roman numeral by their icon so you can see their level at a glance. - Sliding should feel better now, especially on keyboard. You no longer have to tap down at just the right moment after a roll. Hold down and press dodge in either order and you'll slide, the same as it already worked on controller. You can also dodge roll out of a slide now to cancel it. - Added an optional Slide button you can set in Settings, in case you'd rather not use the dodge combo. It's C on keyboard by default, you can rebind it, and you can put it on a controller too. It costs stamina like a dodge, it always slides the way your character is facing, and pressing it again mid-slide chains straight into another slide. - Added a few more ambient sound effects to the transition levels. Bugs: - Fixed the player getting stuck in a standing pose while still sliding along the ground, which could happen if you slid off a ledge and landed before the slide ended. - Fixed a stray pop of weapon noise that could sneak through while riding the elevator down from home base. As a bonus, a few launcher sounds that ignored the volume sliders now respect them. - Fixed an issue with the keybinding icons in the settings menu changing sizes in various languages. Happy hunting! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev https://media1.tenor.com/m/645SBPKVFncAAAAd/samursi-samurai.gif

Today wraps up season 4! Congratulations to the players below, you'll find your rewards in the home base! This months reward is the Void Eruption crown, where if you kill an enemy, they erupt with flesh eating minions! Chupep, Cpt.Brainlag, CyberWolf, Dr.onabinol, Flalalalanx, Fla1myC, gabrieledesu, Geeni, Hazman_Yahya, Horoho, ILoveThemBuns, JIN, luixa, Lurn Loroth, Malckeor, Manaく くYne, Morfi_Sky , Mr.Stick, Mrallonezii, Nightmare, Nucklechutz, PANIC, PoopSlinger34, Rook, Sacripant, size68, Stein Leas, tangbin, wabbiT, walkaris, yourabusivestepdad, zakuto, Ебоboy, 游戏娱乐一般人, 米希, 정신질환전문의사 https://media.tenor.com/ygl0F57clLgAAAAi/obito-naruto.gif A big balance pass this season to shake up the meta. Vorpal Pistol and Pulse Barrier have ruled the speedrun boards for three months straight, so they're getting reined in, and a whole pile of slept-on skills - plus poison and fire builds - are getting cranked up to give other builds room to shine. These buffs are deliberately generous; go find a new way to break the game. Core: - Season reward buff - Voidspawn Eruption: the new season's leaderboard-winner crown buff, replacing Reaper's Harvest. Every enemy you kill makes you erupt - cursed tendrils whip out behind you and a swarm of 1-3 void minions comes shooting off your body to hunt down whatever's left. The winner's crown gets a new look too, with tentacles writhing out of it. - You can now scroll around the enlarged minimap. With the big map open, use your movement controls (keyboard or gamepad stick) to pan the view and scan more of the level - your character holds still while you look, and the map recenters on you when you close it. Balance: - Vorpal Pistol: its ramping same-target damage bonus is reduced by ~30%, so it snowballs less viciously on bosses and tanky targets. - Pulse Barrier: cooldown increased by ~15% and stamina cost increased by ~25%, so it can't be thrown out quite as freely. - Decapitate: cooldown cut by ~80%. - Delayed Slash: cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Phantom Blades: cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Eldritch Storm: cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Eldritch Inferno: cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Blade Rift: cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Aether Drain: cooldown reduced by ~35%. - Magnetic Collapse: cooldown reduced by ~35%. - Siphon Strike: cooldown reduced by ~30%. - Inferno Ring: damage increased by ~45%. - Unstable Tether: damage increased by ~40%. - Cursed Aura: damage increased by ~40%. - Reality Rift: damage increased by ~35%. - Blink: damage increased by ~60% and cooldown reduced by ~50%. - Flashbang: damage increased by ~150% and cooldown reduced by ~40%. - Rolling Thunder: damage increased by ~60%. - Blast Mines: per-mine damage increased by ~55%, plus ~18% more mines dropped. - Warp Storm: damage increased by ~50% and it strikes ~33% more often. - Ground Stab: damage increased by ~55%. - Uppercut: damage increased by ~50%. - Shockwave Roll: damage increased by ~50%. - Eldritch Grasp: damage increased by ~85%. - Cosmic Pact: damage increased by ~57%. - Frostbite Blast: damage increased by ~60%. - Shadow Cut: damage increased by ~55%. - Warp Orbs: throws ~35% more orbs. - Void Legion: damage increased by ~45%. - Encroaching Doom: damage increased by ~45%. - Vacuum Slash: cooldown reduced by ~25%. - Kinetic Reflection: damage increased by ~50%. - Volt Shear: damage increased by ~50%. - Spectral Cleave: damage increased by ~50%. - Orbital Blades: damage increased by ~100%. - Poison and fire tick damage roughly doubled (+~100%) across every source - infecting shots, napalm, the flamethrower, and Emberlash. - Poison and fire now linger far longer - average burn/poison duration increased by ~110%. - Drone Buddy: drone damage increased by ~150%. - Life Drain: heal-on-void-damage chance increased by ~55%. - Ammo Salvage: ammo-on-hit chance increased by ~60%. Happy hunting! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Hey all, This patch includes a handful of leaderboard fixes, along with some long overdue minimap features. You can now see items on the map in various colors. Aside from that, work on the ports is continuing, and I finally have some cool news to share: XBOX: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/katanaut/9NJBHBLBPD0C/0010 https://i.imgur.com/L1mCelj.png PLAYSTATION: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10019282/ https://i.imgur.com/ofevceA.png Switch is also on the way! If you’re excited to play on any of these consoles, wishlists help a ton. Anyway, see you in a few days for the new leaderboard season! Core: - Added colored dots to the minimap for nearby enemies and dropped loot. - Added extra protection for your save file. The game now double-checks every save before it replaces the old one and keeps a safety backup it can automatically fall back on, so a bad save (for example if the game or PC closes at the wrong moment) is far less likely to cost you your progress. - Hardened leaderboard logic so that players who disconnect or have connectivity issues in the middle of reporting a leaderboard run will have their game attempt to re-send the leaderboard data. Bugs: - Fix issue with leaderboard winners not getting their seasonal reward chest when restarting levels. - Fixed invisible platforms on Waste Sector at the top of stair cases. - Fixed run times and stats sometimes not counting on the leaderboards when Steam's connection dropped during a run. Finished runs are now saved and automatically uploaded once the connection is back (even after a restart), so a good time is never lost. - Fixed getting stuck against the ceiling in the sewer water streams. If a water jet ever pins you, it now lets go after a few seconds so you can move again. - Fixed the home base leaderboards and the season reward chest sometimes disappearing (empty board / missing chest) after a brief Steam connection hiccup, and not returning until you re-entered the base. - Fixed a bug related to using the elevator and opening the pause menu, that lead to the player getting stuck or running indefinitely. Thanks for playing and for sending in the reports, they genuinely help me track this stuff down. Good luck on the last few days of the leaderboard! Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. https://media1.tenor.com/m/radrrhFDC2gAAAAC/akam.gif - Eugene | Solo dev

Hey all! As per usual, while I was working on porting to consoles, I came across some wild performance hacks that also work great on PC. This patch is lumping in some of those performance increases which should wildly help lower end PC's, and also maximize FPS for everyone across the board. Also lumping in a few bugs and QOL feature reported on the Katanaut General Discussion <3 https://media1.tenor.com/m/VrzXhtoSwcsAAAAd/hacker-typing.gif Core - Enemy hitboxes are a little taller now so your hits land more consistently - Combo alerts now play one at a time instead of all stacking on top of each other, so when one upgrade sets off two or three combos at once you can actually read them Bugs: - Fixed combo unlock alerts showing the wrong icon when you had more than one matching perk equipped. It was grabbing whichever one it found first instead of the one you actually built around. This was purely cosmetic. Performance: - Did an optimization pass on the enemies, so big crowds and busy rooms should run a good bit smoother now. - Some extra rendering and memory cleanup under the hood for better performance overall. - Reduced CPU cost of enemy collision/sight checks. - Gutted a lot of effects across the game that were no longer being used but loaded into memory. - Optimized various common effects using pooling. - Lowered memory churn / garbage-collection pressure during intense fights Thanks for playing and for sending in the reports, they genuinely help me track this stuff down. Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Hey everyone! That's a wrap on this season's leaderboards! Huge thank you to everyone who threw themselves down the elevator and competed this month. Watching the runs pour in never gets old. <3 Rewards are going out to the TOP 10 on every leaderboard. If you placed, this season's crown reward is yours: Reaper's Harvest - a gravity rift that warps the world behind you while every nearby kill detonates a soul-reap implosion that sucks the whole horde in. Go flex it. https://media1.tenor.com/m/SGO1Uv5TXEwAAAAC/samurai-champloo.gif Massive shoutout to all of the people that top 10'ed the leaderboards below! I hope you enjoy your buffs! Aimai, BANG, Big Chap, bonjourhippo, C4PTAINCRUNCHY, Dante2153, DarkTemplar, Dr.onabinol, FaintSpeaker, fixxxer667, Gemini Killer, Geeni, hasttati, Hazman_Yahya, Jerbear, kirilov99, Lersayil, Manaく くYne, matty-pro, mcamelia.vol13, mdma/tgk, Mordicus, Mr.Stick, Mutant Funk, ohanaska, Pertsa, pile bunker, Potatosack111, Q84, r3vLL, R_HaTTNльнNk, Stein Leas, syusyupoke, Tony, Uh_Oh_Bro, VAC,启动!, vrdrv, wabbiT, Xiven, YAOHU, Ебоboy, Криптофашист, 雨の匂い And a brand-new season starts RIGHT NOW. Every leaderboard resets to zero, so whether you topped the charts last month or you're jumping in for the first time, the climb is wide open again - go take it. Full notes below: new combos, fresh combat feel, and a pile of fixes! Core: - When unlocking a "combo", player will see a description of what the combo does as the combo is unlocked, so its more clear what the buff is. - Red warnings for unparryable boss attacks: boss attacks that can't be parried now flash a RED exclamation telegraph, while parryable attacks keep the normal white one - so you can tell at a glance which to parry and which to just dodge. - Melee hit sparks: connecting a melee swing with an enemy (or clanging the blade into a barrel) now throws off sparks - fast yellow pixel-line streaks that shoot out along the swing, ricochet off walls/floor/ceiling, and fade. - Roll-cancel attacks: you can now dodge-roll straight out of a grounded melee swing instead of waiting for the whole animation to finish. - Season reward buff - Reaper's Harvest: the leaderboard-winner crown chest now drops a new temporary buff, replacing last season's cherry-blossom petals. A gravity rift warps the scene behind you the whole time, and every nearby kill detonates a soul-reap implosion at their corpse. Balance: - All poison/fire damage over time effects is buffed by 100%. - Laser rifle damage buffed by 50%. - Plasma Minigun damage buffed by 15%. - Ballista damage buffed by 50%. - Shuriken damage and scaling buffed by 100%. - Ninjato buffed by 40%. - Meat Grinder damage buffed by 150%. - Overload Cannon damage buffed by 50%. - Charger SMG damage buffed by 80%. - Personal Teleporter damage buffed by 30%. - Crowbar damage buffed by 50%. - Blast Gauntlets buffed by 110%. - Executioners strike damage buffed by 60%. - Zeal damage buffed by 100%. - Ion Storm damage buffed by 300%. - Decapitate damage buffed by 100%, cooldown scaling set to 0.1 second at max level. - Fox Claw damage buffed by 100%, cooldown scaling set to 0.1 second at max level. - Vorpal Pistol damage reduced by 20%. Bugs: - Fixed a Save & Exit bug where the time was not being properly saved and re-loaded when the player loaded back into the game. - Fixed bug for speed run timer overlapping with existing timers. - Fixed melee swings sometimes missing point-blank near walls. - Fixed a rare Weaverfang damage quirk (found while corner-case-testing the melee fix above): its rapid double-strike could inherit a leftover special-attack multiplier from a katana you'd just swapped off of, occasionally making a Weaverfang hit deal far more than intended. Quick strikes now always deal their normal damage. - Fixed the Assault Shotgun's "better/worse" pickup indicator: finding a higher-quality Assault Shotgun showed damage in red and never lit the green "better" arrow, so a clear upgrade looked like a downgrade. Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Hey everyone, quick balance patch before the weekend, plus a few suggestions and bug fixes that were sent in. Seeing the item combos people are using (through the leaderboard) is opening up a lot of great opportunities for balance adjustments. I’m really happy to see such a wide variety of builds! My overall goal is to make more synergistic adjustments so players feel encouraged to combine more items in different ways. I think that will lead to a better overall experience. https://media1.tenor.com/m/ei9a_seUEmcAAAAd/roguelite-katanaut.gif Core: - Steam Deck -- the viewport now expands to 16:10 to fit the steam decks resolution. - Hold-to-Auto-Attack (new Accessibility-tab toggle, default OFF): holding the melee button continuously attacks as fast as possible. While enabled, secondary/special katana attacks switch from hold-to-charge to double-press (fire immediately when available), and the HUD shows two smaller button-popups above the sword icon to indicate the double-press input. Balance: - Chronocide: temporal strike special cooldown ~44% shorter (18s -> 10s) and its strike damage +33%; it was the weakest special payoff on the longest cooldown in the roster. - Leedras Scale: primary swing damage +30%; it had a baseline primary (single-type syringe scaling) and leaned entirely on its dash special. - Sootforge Cannon: damage ~+125% (more than doubled) so it isn't 100% dependent on its flat burn DoT (burn doesn't scale with gun level and bosses clear DoTs). - Protean Gun: damage ~+70% and ammo cost cut ~33% (about +155% damage per ammo). - Plasma Minigun: damage ~+45% to offset the extra fire gate that made it strictly worse than the Mini Gun. - Ballista: damage ~+35%. - Flare Gun: damage ~+33%. - Cosmic Pact: damage ~+55%; only lands one reliable hit since its rift triggers after the target dies. - Siphon Strike: cooldown ~-42% (about +75% effective DPS); was a single hit on an extreme cooldown. - Aether Drain: damage ~+45%. - Void Impalement: damage ~+30%. - Summoned-minion base damage doubled (+100%): buffs Void Legion, the Protean Pet combo, Spectral Dagger, and Warp Thornes; Swarm Rifle drones were left as-is since they already deal full gun damage. Bugs: - Doctor's Syringe tracking was not properly tracked in the leaderboards. Happy Memorial day weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Quick one for this weekend! This update includes lots of small backend tweaks from the porting work, some bug fixes, and a new feature: you’ll now be able to see player gear on the leaderboard. From now on, whenever a player submits a score to the leaderboard, we’ll show their gear and gear levels alongside their perks and implants: https://i.imgur.com/878JUBO.png Since this patch is going live halfway through the current leaderboard season, most players won’t have gear data attached to their existing submissions yet, so it may look like this for now: https://i.imgur.com/5QwsXXE.png In about two weeks, we’ll get a fresh start with the next season, and everyone’s gear should start showing properly. Core: - Added feature where players will be able to see each others gear during submissions. - Standing at the leaderboard, you can press up/down (W/S, joystick, D-pad) to scroll through the top 10. The focused row gets a soft yellow highlight. - Entries from before v1.125 (when the loadout data didn't exist) show a "Pre v1.125" notice instead of an icon grid. Bugs: - Fast attacks no longer drop hits on any katana. Voidthorn was the worst with Quick Blades, but every blade had the issue. - Counter-attack, spectral slash, and temporal strike bonuses now apply correctly even when chained into follow-up swings. - Voidthorn's purple afterimages no longer stack on fast swings. Fixes a framerate dip with Quick Blades + Voidthorn. - Lowered the sound effect that plays when you cross into the training room. https://media1.tenor.com/m/Z_YzA06fRrQAAAAC/rurouni-kenshin-2023.gif Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Hey everyone! Season 2 is officially over, and Season 3 begins now! https://media1.tenor.com/m/rw4hnyKNq7EAAAAd/samurai-katana.gif Season 2 winners are listed below and will receive their in-game rewards in their Home Base. For this season, I'm trying something new and interesting. I introduced a combo system where if you pick up specific items that are considered a combo, they receive a mutual buff together. For example, Ground Slam and the Death from Above perk naturally buff each other now, based on the height of the impact(shoutout to Iron)! I added a massive number of these combos to the game. Many are known, and some are unknown. I’m going to wait for feedback to see what you all think. Other than that, business as usual! Core: - Season 3 starts now! - Season 2 reward chest is now handed out to all top 10 players from last season - New combo system is added to the game. when certain pairs of skills/perks/offhands are used, they synergize each other. I listed a handful of them below, however other "secret" ones exist. Looking forward to testing this new system out to see if people enjoy it! - HUD now plays a big merge animation the moment a combo activates: copies of the relevant icons fly together above the stamina bar, collide, and explode in a purple burst with a sound effect - Death from Above now also triggers when you land from a high enough fall, including after Ground Stab and Blade Cyclone - Ground Stab damage now scales with how far you have fallen during the strike. Strike from a high ledge for a bigger hit - Spectral Cleave kills now feed Necrotic Burst, Void Summoner, Astral Echo, and Life Drain, matching every other void skill Bugs: - Fixed an issue where rapid melee swings (most noticeable on Voidthorn) would silently drop the second attack instead of registering NEW COMBOS: - Ground Stab + Death from Above: Ground Stab damage scales with how far you fell, and each hit + the DfA landing fire the combo label - First Blood Strike: Dodge Slash now deals First Blood bonus damage to enemies at full health - Pulse Volley: the Electrician perk now boosts Pulse Barrier's discharge damage - Bullet Storm Double Tap: owning the Double Tap perk now adds 50% more pellets to Bullet Storm - Cloak Strike: every attack during Emergency Cloak counts as a backstab - Pulse Barrier Slam: when Pulse Barrier or Pulse Shield absorbs a hit, a Death from Above shockwave drops at your feet - Voidthorn Detonation: Voidthorn's held shockwave kills now feed your void perks (Necrotic Burst, Astral Echo, Void Summoner, Life Drain), matching other void skills - Chronocide Crit Burst: a successful charged temporal slash opens a 1.5-second window where Precision Strike and Critical Assault deal bonus damage like in Slow Time - Reactive Recovery: when Reactive Armor breaks, you get the Killer Instinct movement burst (normally a kill-only trigger) - Slow-Time Stealth: while Slow Time is active, every attack counts as a backstab - Frozen Backstab: hits on frozen enemies now count as backstabs - Bullet Storm Drain: Bullet Storm hits get a second Life Drain roll, doubling your heal chance per hit when you own Life Drain - Eager Echo: Astral Echo always procs when you also own Aether Efficiency (skips the rng roll) - Dive Bomb: Death from Above hits also fire an Explosive Rounds blast when you own both - Killshot Scaling: melee damage gets a 40% boost during the Killer Instinct movement burst when you also own Relentless Assault - Pierce the Veil: damage you deal during Wraith Form invul is increased 50% when you also own Piercing Shots - Frozen Crit: frozen enemies take 50% bonus damage when you own Precision Strike - Tether Echo: Unstable Tether is guaranteed to fire an Astral Echo on every enemy hit when you also own Astral Echo - Hot Lead Bleed: Shotgun guarantees the Infecting Shot proc on every pellet - Crit Slugs: Shotgun pellets deal 50% bonus damage when you own Precision Strike - Dagger Drain: Spectral Dagger hits trigger a Life Drain roll on every enemy when you own Life Drain - Cosmic Cleaver: Spectral Dagger hits guarantee an Astral Echo proc on every enemy when you own Astral Echo - Slip Hazard: Banana Gun explosions launch enemies with extra force when you own Knockback - Banana Void: bananas spawn a tiny void burst on each impact when you own Astral Echo - Knuckle Bleed: Blast Gauntlet punches force a Bleeding Edge proc on every hit when you own Bleeding Edge - Sootforge Stand: Sootforge Cannon doubles the standing-still damage bonus from Leadstorm - Charged Crit: Charger SMG hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Precision Strike - Flare Frenzy: Flare Gun guarantees the Infecting Shot proc on every enemy hit - Spore Slip: Spore Launcher hits launch enemies with extra force when you own Knockback - Chronocide Echo: Chronocide's charged temporal strike deals 2x damage during Slow Time - Aura Pierce: Aura of Pain damage gets +30% when you own Piercing Shots - Corpse Wave: Shuriken Shower kills also trigger a Rotburst on the corpse when you own Rotburst - Banana Rot: Banana shrapnel kills also trigger a Rotburst on the corpse when you own Rotburst - Glass Cannon Pulse: Pulse Barrier collapse fires a Spite Burst at your position when you own Spite Burst - Reactive Tendril: Reactive Armor breaking spawns a Spite Tendril at your position when you own Spite Tendril - Limbswarm Aura: Cursed Aura ticks also spawn an Aberrant Growth limb on each enemy when you own Aberrant Growth - Wallop Limbs: Wallop hits also spawn an Aberrant Growth limb at the impact when you own Aberrant Growth - Grave Harvest: Aether Drain kills always summon a void minion when you own Flesh Legion - Cursed Cleave: Spectral Cleave hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Cursed Edge - Backshot: every Shotgun pellet counts as a backstab regardless of position when you own Backstab - First Pellet: Shotgun pellets deal First Blood bonus damage to full HP enemies when you own First Blood - Crowbar Conspiracy: Crowbar guarantees the Explosive Rounds proc on every hit - Crowbar Krit: Crowbar swings get the Gun Kata damage bonus when you own Gun Kata - Cleaver Volley: Crowbar swings deal double damage when you own Double Tap - Banana Barrels: bananas spawn a Boom Barrel explosion at impact when you own Boom Barrels - Boomerang Pop: Redrive Pistol guarantees the Explosive Rounds proc on every hit - Vorpal Stack: Vorpal Pistol deposits a second vorpal stack per hit when you own Double Tap - Disco Bullets: Scatterwave hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Ricochet - Cyclone Fury: Blade Cyclone hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Focused Fury - Pact Slam: Gravity Slam hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Shadow Pact - Fox Frenzy: Fox Claw hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Relentless Assault - Eclipse Shadow: Eclipse Cannon hits during Stealth deal 75% bonus damage - Anchor Lead: Ballista deals double the Leadstorm standing-still bonus - Overheat Volley: Aether Volley hits deal 60% bonus damage when the Overheat implant is active - Cloak of Calm: Emergency Cloak heals 1 HP on cast when you own Tranquility - Necrotic Hits: Necrotic Burst deals double damage when you own Aether Mastery - Corpse Chain: Corpse Detonation deals 60% bonus damage when you own Ricochet - Slide Bleed: Slide Cutter applies Bleeding Edge on hit when you own Bleeding Edge - Eternal Doom: Encroaching Doom spawns 2 extra minions and hits deal 50% bonus damage when you own Loyal Minions - Cursed Decay: Ritual of Decay ticks deal 50% bonus damage when you own Cursed Edge - Storm Aura: Eldritch Storm chains deal 50% bonus damage when you own Aura of Pain - Heart Pierce: Heart Seeker parry hit deals 50% bonus damage when you own Piercing Shots - Boom Bonus: Explosive Rounds blasts deal 50% bonus damage when you own Boom Barrels - Riposte Storm: Riposte hits deal 60% bonus damage when you own Shock Guard - Tendril Riposte: Riposte spawns a Spite Tendril at the riposted enemy when you own Spite Tendril - Mine Magnet: Blast Mines deal 75% bonus damage to enemies caught in a pull skill (Gravity Slam, Magnetic Collapse, or Vacuum Slash) - Reaping Reaper: Reaper Blade hits trigger an extra Life Drain roll and deal 40% bonus damage when you own Life Drain - Drone Swarm: Swarm Rifle blasts spawn an extra drone when you own Drone Buddy - Ride the Lightning: Ion Storm orbs deal 60% bonus damage when you own Electrician - Drone Storm: Ion Storm kills spawn a drone at the corpse when you own Drone Buddy - Phantom Surge: Phantom Blades kills restore 20 stamina when you own Stamina Surge - Shuriken Storm: Shuriken Shower hits deal 50% bonus damage when Bullet Storm is also equipped - Emberlash Inferno: Inferno Ring hits deal 60% bonus damage when Emberlash is equipped - Voidthorn Garden: Warp Thornes hits deal 50% bonus damage when Voidthorn is equipped - Protean Pet: Protean Rifle hits spawn a void minion when you own Void Summoner - Minion Detonation Chain: Minion Bomb lethal hits guarantee a Necrotic Burst when you also own Necrotic Burst - Banana Split: Banana Gun guarantees a Double Tap proc when you own Double Tap - Stormfeed: Bullet Storm hits restore 1 ammo each when you own Ammo Eater - Stealth Strike: every hit while in Stealth now counts as a backstab, automatically procing Backstab and Shadow Strike - Gun-Kata Vault: Slinger Vault now opens the Gun Kata damage window, just like a dodge roll - Parry Cascade: Pulse Barrier, Pulse Shield, and Reactive Armor breaks now fire your parry perks (Heart Seeker, Shock Guard, Riposte) - Wraithwalk Echo: Astral Echo now detonates as a defensive blast the instant Wraith Form or Emergency Cloak triggers - Time-Frozen Crit: while Slow Time is active, Precision Strike and Critical Assault now stack bonus damage on every hit - Gravity Pull Slam: activating Gravity Slam or Magnetic Collapse now drops a Death from Above shockwave at your feet - Pull-and-Cyclone: while you are using a pull skill (Gravity Slam, Magnetic Collapse, or Vacuum Slash), your Orbital Blades or Blade Cyclone deal double damage - Minion Detonation Chain: minion bombs that lethally damage an enemy now chain into a Necrotic Burst - Shockwave Hunter: Shockwave Roll, Dodge Slash, and Rolling Thunder kills now grant the Killer Instinct movement burst, just like katana kills do Congratulations to all the Season 2 winners below!!! -=Allie=- 1xbrogan_ 2282117787 2CB 🐝 2deep4u ACIDCORE_TOXICWASTE BASSOTA Alphadelta13 Athetos baldonigis Big Chap Cencene daniel.r.martin Darkness Don Weaso Dr.onabinol DuckJibe Evil Santa fixxxer667 Gemini Killer Geeni glider521al (Aura of Worlds dev) gmomofunky GoodOmens Hazman_Yahya HFgddZdy Hikigane HurtinForASquirtin Itzhexen Kameleon42 Kassel1984 Kelvin kirilov99 Knight Kyouji The BlackAce LegendaryFailure lucky31491 luixa Luka Manaく くYne Metamorphosis Mewalk Mychi Napalm Numot Omni ossan87 Owlbear Panda_General PANIC PaxGladeus Peegwah Penguin Phuadro Gutisberg Poptart Protohobo Rorroconter Scorm Sillyplantation Skeleton in a Meat Mech smyt SolarPons sonof_david Spidey T.FERRARI Tateomuro Tenebris Ti-rex Tibicinator Toro148 ToxicAitzy Undieman Vandud vrdrv VRipley34 wabbiT whoiam wubba lubba dub dub xMisterCatzx Xx_Giggleshittertron3000_xX Дутый Чайник Ебоboy ♍Tiesti™ 卄乇乂 古月木其 狼与猎人 野菜野トマト Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Got a nice balance patch along with some bug fixes that I've been hunting from recent submissions! The leaderboards have been heating up recently. If there is a build or certain items/skills that you wish were a little more powerful, mention them below or send it in the feedback in-game! Would love to help surface new builds for you all. https://media1.tenor.com/m/3Nz2xEE02pwAAAAC/ninja-scroll-ninja.gif Balance: - Final Boss: base health reduced ~12% to bring fight pacing in line with the rest of the game. - Protean Gun: damage increased ~55% across all rarities. - Warp Thornes: damage increased ~25% on average (larger boost at lower rarities). - Deagle: damage scaling improved, ~20% increase at max rarity. - Charger SMG: damage increased ~30% across all rarities. - Grapple Gun: early-tier damage roughly doubled, smoother curve into the existing max. - Aether Drain skill: damage roughly doubled across all rarities. - Phantom Blades skill: damage more than doubled across all rarities. - Eldritch Wildfire skill: damage more than doubled across all rarities. - Eldritch Storm skill: damage increased ~75% across all rarities. - Volt Shear passive: damage increased ~30% on average to match comparable passives. - Vacuum Slash skill: damage increased ~25% across all rarities. - Backstab perk: bonus damage roughly tripled across all rarities. - Swarm Instinct perk: per-minion damage bonus roughly tripled across all rarities. - Fixed broken cooldown progression on Rolling Thunder (now decreases consistently across rarities). - Fixed broken cooldown progression on Blast Mines (now decreases consistently across rarities). - Fixed broken cooldown progression on Vacuum Slash (now decreases consistently across rarities). - Fixed a duplicate damage value on the Death from Above perk that caused two adjacent rarity tiers to grant the same bonus. Bugs: - Fixed a massive lag spike at the end of the final boss fight caused by the echo enemies dropping huge piles of loot when they despawned. - Fixed an issue where rapidly spamming the blink (teleport) skill could send the player outside the map, causing them to fall forever. - Investigated and fixed an issue in "The Aether" level where in rare cases, a player can fall through the bottom Aether zone and fall through the world. Hope you all have a great weekend! See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

You might be thinking... What is this solo dev doing. He just patched the game yesterday, and now he's dropping a MASSIVE 200MB patch. WTF. Well, I just had a massive breakthrough in performance for Katanaut while working on the porting efforts for Switch. These performance updates are significant under extreme testing, and I'm so incredibly happy about them, that I'm here patching this in at 2am. This is a win for anyone with lower-end PC's, steam deck users, and future consoles ;) https://media1.tenor.com/m/W93VsNUYX6MAAAAd/sa-tis-c.gif So along with the massive performance face lift, there were some other bugs I tackled as well: Core: - Godot upgrade from 4.5 -> 4.6 - Massive unlocks in terms of FPS performance -- all coming from porting efforts. - Sometimes if you have too many unlocked items, opening a npc menu introduced brief lag. Optimized the npc menus for players with a lot of unlocked items. - Updated various implant descriptions for clarity. Balance: - Voidthorn katana secondary AoE attack will now charge the katana as well, allowing the player to tactically spam the secondary attack when there are lots of enemies. Bugs: - Fixed issue with +1 health implant not working after initial run. - Fixed bug associated to personal teleporter object not deal damage after the teleport. - Fixed issue with implants persisting outside of training room. - Fixed issue with certain implants disappearing after death. - Fixed issue with Chinese names not properly being displayed on the leaderboards. See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Got a new patch before the weekend! This is from some recent bug reports and realizations that I had. Some good QOL changes and a few optimizations I also figured out as I'm working through the porting for consoles! Hope you all enjoy and have an amazing weekend! Core: - Testing some improvements to the efficiency of the blood system. Hoping everyones PC cry a little less with all effects on :) - Due to the ever-increasing amount of unlocks that I'm adding to the game, I feel like the ban system needs to allow players to ban more items from dropping if they want. If you have over 15 unlocked items in any category, you can now ban up to 60% of the items from dropping. - Update the visuals on Voidthorn Katana(new katana!) during normal swings. - When using a controller, the pause menu can now be toggled open and closed with the same button. - You will no longer be able to bind two buttons to the same key in the settings menu. I noticed that this causes confusion in some bug reports, so you'll unbind old buttons if you override any. Balance: - Flash Fang katana now has 4x damage if the player gains the sliding buff before an attack. Other katana's retain a x2 buff when sliding. - Doubled the charging speed of the new Voidthorn Katana. - Since losing Voidthorn charges during a boss fight can be extremely punishing and also make the fight significantly more boring, there is a 50% chance that hitting a boss with Voidthorn will charge it. - Tripled the distance that the Teleport Dagger flies. It's possible to hit walls beyond 2x the screen distance. Bugs: - Fixed issue where currency still drops from creatures in the training room. - Eliminated a bug that allowed users to leave the training room with their training gear -- leaderboards were not affected. - Found a small corner case for teleport dagger(offhand) teleporting the user outside of the level. - Found a small corner case for blink(skill) teleporting the user outside of the level. - Fixed an issue where the collector menu would immediately reopen after closing it with the controller. - Fixed closing menus while standing on items accidentally triggering a pickup. https://media1.tenor.com/m/0j_od00JxacAAAAC/keytar-80s-keytar.gif See you soon. - Eugene | Solo dev

Solo dev here -- and that’s a wrap on Season 1 of Katanaut! Get a head start on Season 2 ending at the end of April! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/2cc63e6bb1f709e2ae25da1fdb51005a52884bdd.png This patch comes in hot with sweeping balance changes across the board, and yes, it is a full meta shakeup. What does that mean? BUFFS. Buffs everywhere. Every category has been brought up to make more builds viable, more playstyles rewarding, and more weapons worth experimenting with. Season 1 competitors, if you placed Top 10 on any leaderboard, you will find a reward waiting in your homebase. On top of all that, one of the most requested features is finally here: 👉 The Training Room Located beneath the homebase, you can now test your gear and upgrades against enemies in a controlled environment. Bosses did not quite fit into hologram form... maybe next time 😉 https://i.imgur.com/GibVvDb.gif Core: - Added training room to the homebase so users can test items that they have unlocked! Training room is available once you beat the final boss at least once. - Added the 9th Katana! There is a chance for it to drop from all enemies in "The Aether" level. - Leaderboards are completely wiped! Anyone in the top 10 of any leaderboard will get a reward in the home base! - Season 2 for leaderboards start now! Offhand Buffs: - PLASMA PISTOL: Got a big make-over. Doubled damage, now fires two rounds at once that spiral through each other. - BALLISTA: Got a big make-over with a spiraling arrow effect to help aim. +38% damage. 5 piercing arrows for 2 ammo had the worst effective damage-per-ammo among multi-projectile weapons. Was outclassed by Shotgun at half the ammo cost. - RAIL GUN: +20% damage. New shooting effect. - ENERGY CHAKRAM: +30% damage. Boomerang return and 10 bounces give it identity but raw numbers were identical to generic weapons. Now rewards landing both outbound and return hits. - SHURIKEN: +30% damage. Wall bouncing is situational. Was barely above the starter Pistol despite being a found weapon. - NINJATO: +20% damage. Dash melee for 2 ammo puts you in danger. Small buff rewards the close-range risk. - SPORE LAUNCHER: +30% damage. 3 ammo cost gave it the worst damage-per-ammo in the game. Poison gas AoE helps but didn't justify how bad the numbers were. - DRONE: +50% damage. 3 ammo to deploy, auto-targets but dies when you take a hit. Damage was so low it was essentially decorative. - ECLIPSE CANNON: +30% damage. 3 ammo with 5s blind is strong CC, but the damage was worse than many 1-ammo weapons with no utility. - WARP THORNES: +35% damage. All-direction melee for 1 ammo is a cool crowd-clearer, but each individual thorn hit for almost nothing. - SOOTFORGE CANNON: +50% damage. 6-bullet burst with AoE burn, but per-projectile damage was absurdly low. Still relies on burn stacking, just less invisible now. - CHARGER SMG: +25% damage. Explosive bullets usable while moving is its niche, but damage was below the Plasma Minigun which also fires bursts. - GRAVITY GUN: +15% damage. 3 ammo for a gravity well with its current base damage was still low. The gravity pull CC is its strength but the damage-per-ammo needed help. - VORTEX RIFLE: +15% damage. 3 ammo slow projectile with gravity well and shock. Great utility but at 10.33 damage-per-ammo it underperformed for a 3-ammo investment. - MINI GUN: +25% damage. Added recoil pushback. 6-round burst for 1 ammo was decent but damage per bullet was too low for a weapon that roots you in place. - PLASMA MINIGUN: +25% damage. Added recoil pushback. Same rooted-burst identity as Mini Gun but with bouncing plasma rounds. Damage didn't justify the slower projectile speed and stationary requirement. Summon Buffs: - SUMMONED MINION (Ground): +25% damage (0.4 to 0.5). Faster chase speed, quicker bite cooldown (1.0s to 0.7s), and more frequent target acquisition. Minions felt sluggish and passive, but now they hunt more aggressively. - SUMMONED MINION (Flying): +25% damage (0.4 to 0.5). Faster flight speed, quicker bite cooldown (0.7-1.0s to 0.5-0.75s), faster stuck detection, and more responsive targeting. Flying minions had the mobility but weren't using it aggressively enough. Skill Buffs: - FROSTBITE BLAST: +35% damage, stamina cost reduced from 50 to 40 (-20%). Tiny AoE with single hit and freeze. At the same 50 stamina as Time Dilation which hits the entire screen, which is probably why nobody picked it. Lower cost and higher damage reward precision aiming of the small hitbox. - SIPHON STRIKE: +15% damage. 40 stamina with health drain on hit. The heal is the utility but the base damage at that cost made the strike feel like it did nothing. - PHANTOM BLADES: +35% damage. 40 stamina for sustained spinning blades around you. Base damage was too low to compete with 20-stamina skills. - UNSTABLE TETHER: +25% damage. 25 stamina to mark multiple enemies for shared Aether damage. Mark mechanic is useful but base damage underperformed Impulse Wave which does more for 20 stamina. - INFERNO RING: +20% damage. 45 stamina expanding fire ring with burn DoT. The per-level scaling was almost flat. Now rewards upgrading with steeper progression. - ELDRITCH INFERNO: +40% damage. 45 stamina to ignite all nearby enemies. Despite full AoE coverage, base damage was lower than single-target skills at half the stamina cost. - COSMIC PACT: +25% damage. 45 stamina, must kill the marked enemy to spawn a cosmic rift. Two-step payoff demands meaningful rift damage to be worth the setup. - ELDRITCH STORM: +18% damage. 60 stamina with dual-hit chain lightning and random status effects. Chain mechanic and status are powerful but 60 stamina is the highest cost tier and the base felt punishing. Status Effect Buffs: - Sootflame burn (Sootforge Cannon's DoT): +60% tick damage. Was dealing one-third of standard burn damage despite the weapon already having the lowest base damage in the game. - Freeze duration: +25% (4.0s to 5.0s). Freeze was shorter than blind (5.0s) despite being harder to apply. Extra second makes freeze builds more viable and differentiates Frostbite Blast from cheaper CC options. Season 1 Winners -- top 10 on any leaderboard: * Geeni * luixa * Manaく くYne * Peegwah * Mychi * Tenebris * gmomofunky * Spidey * smyt * Undieman * GoodOmens * ♍Tiesti™ * 2CB 🐝 * Omni * daniel.r.martin * HurtinForASquirtin * Rorroconter * lucky31491 * wabbiT * Vandud * Numot * SolarPons * glider521al (Aura of Worlds dev) * Itzhexen * sonof_david * Owlbear * ossan87 * Poptart * Hazman_Yahya * wubba lubba dub dub * 1xbrogan_ * PaxGladeus * 2282117787 * Phuadro Gutisberg * Toro148 * Athetos * Дутый Чайник * Mewalk * whoiam * Don Weaso * HFgddZdy * LegendaryFailure * DuckJibe * Hikigane * Evil Santa * Tateomuro * Ебоboy * Xx_Giggleshittertron3000_xX * Metamorphosis Thanks to everyone that participated! - Eugene | Solo dev | Katanaut

Hey everyone! This weeks patch is a smaller one just to focus specifically on reports that have come in, and comments from the discussion threads. As always, if you have any suggestions please drop them in the discussions or even use the feedback reporting feature on the main menu! Just a general update -- My primary focus recently is on porting(as usual), which has been monumental. The latest is that Switch porting is going well and currently split between certification and optimization. Once Switch is done(nearing it), porting for the other consoles should be more trivial. Looking forward to having more news about ports soon! Core: - Reduced all Boss health by 10%. - Added more warnings to charge boss charge phases for Avarice Machine, Lilithex, and Goreweaver. - Added more clarity to a handful of boss attacks, so they are visually easier to see. - Added loading bar segment for scenes that take long to load. - Updated all the echo timers on warp 3 to be 15% larger to give the player more time to scavenge. Bugs: - Attempting a fix for allowing unsupported controllers such as GameSir Nova Lite(and many more) to function correctly. - Fixed issue where malignant mutation could in very rare circumstances softlock a player in a boss fight due to the boss being mutated. - Fixed issue with displaying cerelic letters on the leaderboard -- names appear more accurately now. Thank you all again for the massive support! Hope you're all enjoying the community items that were recently added in the patch before! I myself am digging the profile borders :D See you all soon! https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbXV1bzRnbWxyYWYzb21ja3l2eG16YmgyZ21tOHQ1NTY4cGY0dzJnbyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3otPoFkiq8LCv3LTOM/giphy.gif

Hey everyone! Got a fun one today. The Katanaut Points Shop is officially live on Steam! That means trading cards, emoticons, badges, profile backgrounds, animated profile backgrounds, and animated avatar frames are all available now. If you've been wanting to deck out your Steam profile with some Katanaut flair, go nuts: https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/app/3032830 https://i.imgur.com/vw1zcAN.png I spent a lot of time on these and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Collecting the full set of trading cards will unlock badges, and the animated backgrounds and avatar frames look pretty sick if I do say so myself. The backgrounds were created by an amazing artist friend of mine, and if you want the full resolution versions of them, I'll be posting them up in discord later :) https://i.imgur.com/BTOklNE.png On top of that, there's a handful of gameplay changes and bug fixes in this patch: Balance: - Enemy health across all biomes has been flattened out a bit. Some enemies in later biomes were just too tanky, so this should make things feel more consistent overall. - Void Shield implant now has a cooldown. Weaver Fang was proccing it way too easily and it trivialized a lot of encounters. Still strong, just not "why even dodge" strong. Improvements: - Improved the timing on invulnerability for skills and offhands that trigger i-frames. Should feel more responsive and reliable now. Bug Fixes: - Fixed a few critical file saving issues that were reported by a player. Thank you for reporting those! - Fixed an issue for players who migrated from the demo save file to the full release, where 2 specific items were unobtainable due to item pools being changed between the demo and release. Those items should now be acquirable. - Fixed a problem when using teleporter-based items in transition levels. To avoid some corner case bugs going forward, teleporter weapons are now disabled in elevators. - Fixed the animation for teleporter dagger when walking after use. Console Port Update: Quick update on consoles since I know people have been asking. The Switch port is coming along really well and is getting close to done. Once Switch is wrapped up, Xbox and PlayStation ports should follow more quickly since a lot of the heavy lifting carries over. Things are looking good and I'm excited to share more when the time comes. ETA's are a little hard to predict because this is my first time going through the process, but I'm still hoping Q2! https://media1.tenor.com/m/0j_od00JxacAAAAC/keytar-80s-keytar.gif As always, thank you all for playing and for the feedback. You all are the best!

You get a buff, and YOU get a buff, and YOOOOOU get a buff! I've been collecting some data on lesser used weapons, so I wanted to give them a chance on shining with some minor buffs here and there. Let me know if you feel like anything else needs a buff! I hope you all have a great weekend! https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZ25jeXJyNTYzazQ1MXBsaGRscWJ5MnAwYXV6b2g5cjJwZ3E1cmZzMCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/LcfBYS8BKhCvK/giphy.gif Balance: - Buffed all enemy hp by an additional 5% per biome. They should still be relatively easy to kill, but some enemies might require an extra hit. - Buffed Shurikens by allowing them to pierce enemies for half a second after colliding with an enemy. This will also allow easier access to getting the Shadow Warrior achievement(finally!). - Buffed Scatterwave gun damage by 15% - Buffed Railgun by 10% - Buffed Plasma Pistol by 10% - Buffed Minigun and Plasma Minigun by 10% - Buffed Vortex Rifle by 10% - Buffed Energy Chakram by 20% - Buffed Meat Grinder by 25% - Buffed Impulse Wave Launcher by 25% - Buffed Charger SMG by 10% - Buffed Scrambler Rifle by 15% - Buffed Reaper Blade by 10% - Buffed Kinetic Baton by 100%(wowowow!!!) - Reduced Spectral Daggers ammo consumption by 1. Core: - Fixed a broken combo: Siphon strike + Weaver Fang allowed people to spam siphon for unlimited health gain, so I put a 4 second cooldown on Siphon strike being able to generate life -- Massive shout out to dev Anthony from Aura of Worlds for finding this! - Made some leaderboard adjustments to streamline how some conflicting scores might be handled, and added some enforcement's to help detect malicious users. - Added more logging for leaderboards on my end for malicious users. Bugs: - Fixed a bug (on Steamdeck) where killing the info-drone on higher warp levels would cause a lag spike. - Fixed an issue with Waste Sector where some rare spawns would spawn offhands inside of the spinning rotary wheels. - Fixed bug where player sometimes gets stuck in water streams in the Sewer level(yes, it came back). - Attempted fix at a bug where sometimes the screen does not fade to black when using an elevator to the next level.

No balances this time, just bug fixes and some great suggestions I picked up from the feedback forms and recent discussions. Thanks again for sending in feedback and letting me help make the game better than ever! On that note, porting is going well so far. Still aiming for all home consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch). I’m also working on adding trading cards and other community features for Katanaut on Steam. I’m teaming up with an awesome artist who’s currently sketching Naut, Nox, Carver, and the Doctor. I can’t wait to share them as backgrounds you’ll be able to grab with points! Hope you all have a great weekend! https://media1.tenor.com/m/ReYR-nIvWdMAAAAC/hackerman-break.gif Core: - Hologram NPC's will no longer automatically start their dialog and drop loot when coming close to them, you must interact with them instead, so they dont drop loot in the middle of combat. - Background accessibility option for faded backgrounds has increased in intensity. For people that have issues with the contrasting backgrounds, I would suggest using faded/blur in the accessibility settings, and increase the brightness of player/enemies/items to maximum. Blood being everywhere is also a major factor in sight -- please feel free to explore replacing all of the blood with fun features like flowers or confetti(my favorite), theyre actually pretty funny to use! - Before Goreweaver charges at the player, it will now show an indication of which way it will charge to warn the player that it's about to happen. - Fixed formatting in the leaderboards for people using unicode-names. Bugs: - Fixed bug where Malignant Mutation would kill + spawn new enemies infinitely when combined with Weaver Fang. Malignant Mutation will now respawn but not kill existing enemy. Thank you GoodOmens for this submission! - Fixed bug related to vibration not turning off for gamepads despite turning it off in accessibility settings. - Attempted to fix lag that happens on Steam Decks when killing warp warning drones when you first enter a level. - Added in a patch for blink, which got a player stuck in the walls of a specific level chunk of the commercial district. - Updated translations for Ukrainian and Russian according to feedback suggestions. - Updated Kinetic Reflection animation to be less intense.

Another small patch handling some bugs from these past few days. We’ve had a big wave of new Nauts lately, and also since v1.1 was a major content update, this means more potential bug reports -- so I'm doing my best to stay on top of them so all your runs are clean! Thank you for all the support! https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZDNubXBwNnRqcjU5eTVzN3kzYWUwMnF3MDRvZGRnNXUxeHdsM3g5biZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/br9pyzOgQRl7E78Zgp/giphy.gif Core: - Removed "Disable UI" hot button(F5), as it was confusing players who might have accidentally hit that button. Bugs: - Fixed issue where some players very rarely fell through the level before the level fully loaded. - Fixed issue where jumping on the diagonal pipes inside of the Service Tunnels cause a jumping bug. - Fixed issue with one rare spawn point in "The Aether" level where you spawn outside of the level. - Fixed translation some more translation issues.

Hey folks, small weekend patch. This one is mostly performance work based on your bug submissions, plus a couple fun additions. Seriously, thank you for all the reports and support. They make the game better faster. If you have more ideas for weird weapons or leaderboard categories you want tracked, toss them my way. If it is doable, I’ll try to make it happen. Added:

• New leaderboard: Fastest Run No Limits
• This board tracks fastest time no matter what accessibility options you used
• Yes, that means god mode and reduced enemy health are allowed
• This one is purely about the fastest possible clear, consequences optional

• New surprise gun
• It shoots yellow fruits
• Drops from Thornmaw and Blast Weaver in the new levels

Fixed:

• Improved performance in Service Tunnels on lower end PCs
• Improved performance in Sewers on lower end PCs
• Improved performance in The Aether on lower end PCs
• Fixed localization issues for some of the new 1.1 content across various languages
• Fixed an issue cycling leaderboards when R2 is set as your interact button

https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExM3FyZWg2OWJ4bWhhNTFnZzIxN3Y2NHc5bzJpajYyOXk0d29kd3VhaiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/78gXsqkXknGhmdXtFw/giphy.gif Onward!

Hey Nauts, v1.1 has been wild to watch in the best way, and your bug reports have been doing real damage (to the bugs). https://media1.tenor.com/m/ei9a_seUEmcAAAAd/roguelite-katanaut.gif This is a small post patch to clean up a few urgent issues and keep the leaderboards fair. The people that helped me find these bugs opted to remove themselves from the leaderboards as well, so props to them! - Fixed the Service Tunnels and Sewers trying to become an unplanned spacewalk simulator - Some walls were too thin, so players could fall through into the abyss - The walls are now appropriately thick and reality is slightly more stable - Fixed reward skipping after the final boss - If you rushed past the reward panel, you could miss some reward currency - You now immediately gain your boss orb and void crystals when the reward panel appears, so feel free to speed click like a goblin - Leaderboards are now stricter and safer - Runs with modified accessibility settings no longer qualify for leaderboards - Fixed a loophole where accessibility settings could be changed up until the final boss and still count - Fortified leaderboard code to prevent some basic leaderboard attacks - Fixed a nasty save elevator interaction - You could dash past the save machine into the next level elevator and trigger both at once - This could put the game into a bad state - Updated localization files with some updates from some of the most amazing souls that helped me translate this game :) Seriously, thank you for playing, reporting issues, and pushing scores. I read the feedback, I fix everything I can, and I’m grateful you’re here for the ride. Thank you again for all the support!

Happy New Year, Nauts. I hope your holidays treated you well. I’m Eugene, the solo dev behind Katanaut. It’s a cosmic horror action roguelite set on a massive space station spiraling into chaos, built around fast combat and a ton of build variety across melee weapons, guns, off-hands, skills, implants, and perks. Today, the long awaited surprise drops: Katanaut v1.1 I’ve been cooking this since launch, and it genuinely feels like the game leveling up. A lot of what is in this update exists because of your feedback, bug reports, clips, and the simple fact that you kept showing up and playing. Thank you for that. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/5c10d3a40e9a21250debdffc189287604eeeb6c6.png The big new vibe in v1.1 is some added competition on a global scale. Global leaderboards are now part of the station’s heartbeat, and each board has a visible trophy holder. If you take first place, the game will put your name up for everyone to see. There are speedrun boards across Warp 0 through Warp 3, plus boards for most enemies killed and most currency collected, so it is not just about raw time. If this feels like a hit for people, I'll add more leaderboards :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/754dbc7f00ac67d931844ef428370535a207dfcd.png Beyond that, v1.1 pushes the content outward with new areas to fight through, new threats, and new encounters that I am keeping intentionally vague. I want you to discover what is waiting down there on your own. To open up even more build variety, v1.1 also adds two new blades: Weaver Fang and Leedra’s Scale. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/ac869123af04402dc73f8158e23c4bd9042a75b7.png And the other headline, because it still does not feel real to type: console ports are happening. This is a massive deal, because I genuinely could not have gotten here without the support from everyone who's purchased the game -- I really cannot thank you all enough for all of the love and support you've provided, and all of the critical feedback! I am actively working on bringing Katanaut to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. I will share timing once I have solid dates. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/a1351c8b4634bde297665fbfdbce92dffb09f3f7.png If you want the full details, here are the patch notes! Wishing you all the best for 2026, and looking forward to pushing the Katanaut universe even further! Thank you massively for all of the help and support! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45311912/fb136aa426c66dfdd8cdaf182f5479bf296f043a.jpg

Hey Nauts, Happy New Year!!!! I've been working on this for a while, and v1.1 is my first big step since launch, and it is built directly from your feedback. It adds global competition, new places to push into, new build options, and plenty of new things to mess around with! https://i.imgur.com/NVfFqLt.png Global leaderboards (6 total) Each leaderboard has a visible trophy holder. If you are in first place, the game shows it to everyone. - Fastest Clear: Warp 0 - Fastest Clear: Warp 1 - Fastest Clear: Warp 2 - Fastest Clear: Warp 3 - Most Enemies Killed - Most Currency Collected New content and variety - New areas: Service Tunnels, Sewers, The Aether - New enemies and new boss encounters (I am keeping these vague on purpose) - New blades: Weaver Fang and Leedra’s Scale, adding more build variety - Boss loot implemented - Elevator level selection animation - New weapon tutorial animations and updated weapon placement Gameplay and balance - Added a “Cause of Death” label to the death screen - Added a new syringe - Reduced all boss HP by 15% - Holograms drop loot much quicker - Improved monster crushing effects when crushed by Level 5 crushers - Added spawn protection so enemies cannot target you when entering a level until you move or take an action Performance - Optimized blood effects when hitting one way platforms - Added performance enhancements to help stabilize lag in larger levels Bug fixes - Fixed skill orb menu recycle and exit buttons not clickable with mouse - Fixed an issue where the final boss could still be damaged while teleporting or invisible - Fixed garden portals sometimes spawning on top of NPC interaction zones - Fixed Level 5 crushers pushing Luremaw into a bugged state when crushing it - Fixed a handful of translation issues based on bug report feedback - Fixed Luremaw despawning if damaged too early during its transformation Breaking news Console ports are happening. I am actively working on bringing Katanaut to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. I will share more once I have solid dates. Thank you for playing, and good luck holding those trophies.

Hey folks! I’m back from a quick (and much-needed) vacation. It was super relaxing and I’m glad I took some time off, but I genuinely missed working on Katanaut, so I’m excited to be back at it. Today’s patch is a small one that focuses on cleaning up bugs and addressing some of the feedback you sent in while I was away. For the next few updates, I’ll mostly be tackling any new issues or bugs that pop up, since I’m currently full steam ahead on a larger content update. I’m aiming to have that “big” release ready for January. 🙂 Also some great news next year for momentum... can't speak to much to it yet, but there will be a good amount of Katanaut surprises next year! https://media1.tenor.com/m/VWv1dJShgnYAAAAC/deploy-katana.gif Core - General performance updates for upper and lower end PC specs -- lowering lag associated to damage numbers and gibs. - Updated skill orb selection menu so the text size and spacing is all normalized for PC and Steamdecks. - Optimized blood particle system by 5-10%. Balance - Nerfed Mawhounds new tumor ability, elongating its spawn timer by 50% on all warps. - Nerfed Avarice Engines mini droid spawns, reducing their running speed and targeting distance by 40%, and reducing their health by 25%. - Buffed Lilithex boss, brought back her ground thorn attack but at a significantly reduced rate. - Buffed Horizon Keeper boss hp by 20%, increased rate of thorn spawns(zoomed out phase) depending on the warp. Bugs - Fixed issue when swapping jump/dodge game-pad buttons, players could not select skills from skill orbs. - Fixed issue where swapping aim between left-right joysticks wouldn't save after restarting game. - Fixed issue where the tail end of Lilithex's Warp Worms would not deal damage to the player when touching them. - Fixed minor graphical issue when Lilithex does invisible. - Fixed audio issue when pausing during a boss fight, and the music does not return back to normal volume.

Strap in. It’s a big one. https://media1.tenor.com/m/zODlMimX-AwAAAAC/kung-fury-driving.gif TL;DR – Every boss fight got a full makeover, you can now ban items you hate from dropping, there’s a new keybind for quick recycling, and Steam Deck players are finally getting that performance love they’ve been begging for. This patch is a proper shake-up. I’ve been reading through feedback, Discord rants, Steam reviews, and I’ve tried to tackle the biggest recurring stuff. Let’s start with the bosses. A lot of you said they felt like oversized damage sponges, which is fair. That’s not what I wanted them to be, so I went back in and reworked the whole system. All boss health values are now normalized, and instead of just eating bullets, they’re designed to get nastier mechanically the deeper you go. So yeah, if you memorized their moves before, theyre going to be a bit different now as you age through the warps. Let me know how they feel now, I’m genuinely curious if the fights are more “oh no” and less “ugh.” Next up, the long-awaited item ban system. You can now blacklist up to one-third of the items in each category from dropping during your runs. Hate an item? Yeet it into oblivion. Never see it again. Problem solved(And please, tell me which items you’re banning so I know which ones I need to go cry about and fix). My goal is for every item to feel usable in some weird combo... except maybe the basic pistol, that thing’s just here for moral support. Oh, I also ordered a Steam Deck devkit way back in February. Yeah, it finally showed up. I can now actually play my own game on it like a normal person instead of begging for logs from my Discord heroes(THANK YOU FOR ALL THOSE THAT HELPED). Turns out Katanaut was doing some very dumb things under the hood on Deck, so I squashed a bunch of performance issues. Frame rates are up, loading times are down, and overall it’s just a smoother experience. And finally... I’m taking a vacation. Wild, right? After years of working on Katanaut every single day, I’m forcing myself to step away for two weeks. No weekend patches, no “just one more tweak,” just sleep and probably some existential staring into the void. I’ll be back soon, and with 10x the amount of plans for Katanaut as well. As always, massive thanks to all of you. Seriously. The feedback, support, and memes keep this whole thing alive. Hope you’re having a blast up there on the station. Core: - Added a "Quick Recycle" button to break down Offhand weapons and Skill Orbs quickly -- F or Left Joystick Press by default. - Added a menu to ban items from dropping on your runs, to help reduce your active pool of items -- look for a computer by the elevator. - Normalized Mawhound health across all warps. - Mawhound now has increasing mechanical challenges across all warps, starting from easy to difficult. - Normalized Avarice Engine health across all warps. - Avarice Engine now has increasing mechanical challenges across all warps, starting from easy to difficult. - Normalized Lilithex health across all warps. - Lilithex now has increasing mechanical challenges across all warps, starting from easy to difficult. - Normalized Doctors health across all warps. Small Core: - Spawn timer rates for Lilithex's hexes are increased by 20%. - Added a new launch option specifically for Steam Deck users for optimized play. This is the initial popup when launching the game. - Steam Decks will automatically default to low texture blood in order to improve performance. - Added Steam Deck button icons for Menu and View. - Updated Shurikens to stick around longer after colliding to help make the shadow warrior achievement easier to get. Balance: - The majority of all offhand ranged weapons will no longer stun-lock bosses when hitting them. - All minion damage is buffed by 15%. - Corruption Launcher damage buffed by 50% - The amount of minions you can have out at any given time is capped to 60. Bugs: - Fixed issue where you can use teleport dagger to clip through the boss fight boundary. - Fixed issue where items would get stuck under "reroll" buttons for the purchase shops. - Fixed issues where sometimes laser beams on level 7 would not damage you. - Fixed visual Implant menu issue where the "installed" animation would go off when selecting implants, even if you couldn't afford them.

Ahoy, Nauts. Mawhound and Avarice got some work done mid-fight; the stitches are fresh, the attitude is louder, and they should feel more engaging and a lot less generic now. Thanks for the steady stream of bug reports and suggestions. I’ve been grinding through fixes, so they should be largely sorted for this week. Meanwhile, the new biomes and enemies are taking shape into something mean and memorable. I’m looking forward to showing you when it’s ready. Till next patch... https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcTc4Z3V1Mnk4cWcyankxejNpMXk5YnhlNWt0ZHIwb20wdWYxZXF0NCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/LcfBYS8BKhCvK/100.webp Core: - Updated Avarice Engine with two new attack phases. Small Core; - Added types to the Keeper's menu when browsing your item collection, for easier planning. - Added more clear animation to Blocker enemy(level 7) to help players see the blocked effect when hitting his helmet. - Updated enemy tracking on blink during boss fights to help prioritize boss over aiming at projectiles. - Made gamepads work better when rebinding movement to d-pad, so the katana's also aim in the direction of the d-pad. - Updated settings menus to work more fluidly with gamepad when rebinding to d-pad keys. - Updated animation for Clubber and Rendkin attacks. - Optimized minions a bit in order to help combat against lag. Balance: - Buffed the amount of plasma cells you get from recycling by 20% Bugs: - Fixed audio issue on Avarice Machine where his audio was faded when pausing and unpausing the game. - Fixed issue where Blink teleports player to enemies that are already dead. - Fixed issue where Blockers will die but still have their blocking ability up, leading to confusing when a player strikes their dead body. - Fixed an issue where items would spawn and get stick in the level 2 portals to the secret areas. - Fixed an issue where sometimes you would attack Lilithex while she's stealthing, and she would come out of stealth. - Fixed issue with dialog placement clipping off screen during the "flash back" scene. - Fixed issue where Warp Thornes and Warp Orbs stayed on screen after final boss. - No longer showing the "cooldown" for skills that have a cooldown of 0.

Ahoy Nauts! These notes might look short, but there is a lot of depth to them. Overall I'm working towards a larger winter update, but I wanted to release Mawhound's changes a little earlier in regards to some feedback. Best of luck re-learning the fight! https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExNWlzbWxtbmt0ZW83MDBneHJkdHZmYWp4enZ3eHo1cDA5b3h4ZTd4NyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/Wo7iLUMAfXI7n3YW2W/giphy.gif Core: - Updated Mawhound boss fight with a new phase and animations. - Added ability for players to switch between left and right joystick aiming for offhands in the Gamepad settings. - Added more contrast to the player icon on the minimap so its easier to see. - Added label to show player if a skill is passive or not. - Updated Reaper Blade animation Bugs: - Fixed a small graphical glitch in the implant menu that doesn't accurately update the percentages when toggling between installed/uninstalled implants. - Fixed items spawning inside of damaging spikes. They will not attempt to move out of the way of spikes to make items more accessible. - Fixed Luremaw sometimes not spawning correctly when petting cat. - Fixed an issue with players not getting the "Curiosity Killed the Naut" achievement. - Fixed a graphical issue with bosses showing an "IMMUNE" sign when Overheat activates, for no reason.

Happy Halloween, Nauts!🎃 We're burning some midnight oil and probably getting some pizza and then burning some more. https://media1.tenor.com/m/ei9a_seUEmcAAAAd/roguelite-katanaut.gif Tonight’s patch tidies up some core changes with quality of life, a little more balance after that massive buff patch 2 weeks back, and a nest of bugs that folks have submitted this past week! Thanks for every report and every run. If you keep the notes coming, I’ll keep carving quick follow-ups🎃 See you where the lights go thin. Core Changes: - Added confirmation screen before exiting or restarting your run, so you don't accidentally exit/restart. - Added a method of skipping the finale scene at the end of warp 3. - Added ability to toggle implants off in Weavers Implant menu, instead of needing to reset all implants at once. - Warp 3 monsters are back to flinching when hit -- enemies not being able to flinch makes warp 3 unbelievably difficult. - I got report of a person not being able to get past the slide tutorial... I'm not judging(I am). I added a workaround that pops up after 10 seconds of struggle. - Wallop skill got a big glow up. - Throttled blood particles and gibs for Steam Deck users to help combat against frame drop during combat. - Updated recycle bar animation when recycling weapons. - Updated Orbital Blades animation. - Perks no longer show which type(Combat/Kinetic/Aether) they are associated with, since it's irrelevant are are not bugged by syringes. - Updated a few animations in the final boss fight for clarity, specific to the platforms and boss attacks. - Updated Garden dark portal at the end of the Echo Fang secret area, so they teleport back to the start of the pit jump, to eliminate the long walk to pick up your weapon. Balance: - Adjusted Iron Fangs parry cooldown timer from 1.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds. - Endvow will not longer kill elites in one hit, however it will have a significant damage bonus towards them. - Orbital Blades damage nerfed by 10%. - Shotgun damage nerfed by 10%. - The chance that enemies will be mutated on higher warps is increased. - Void Shield is removed from Warp Storm and Aether Volley. Having Void Shield applied to either skill lead to near-invulnerable builds. Bugs: - Updated my algorithm on how dropped items behave to make sure they dont get stuck in walls. - Fixed an issue with Weaver not allowing you to uninstall singular implants. - Fixed a bug where protean gun morphing higher hp monsters on warp 3 turned them into immortal 9999999 hp monsters. - Fixed a few Turkish translations based on feedback. - Fixed issue where sometimes the monsters spawned by the doctor in the final fight would not die. - Fixed bug where you can stand on the door during the lilithex fight and avoid attacks. - Fixed mappings for DualSense Edge Wireless Controller. - Fixed issue with laser rifle where the collision would sometimes miss enemies. - Fixed bug where sometimes Nox would not teleport away properly during combat and get stuck on a frozen frame. - Fixed bug where restarting during the finale scene would freeze camera. - Fixed an issue where on the first level, when you stand in the wall next to a space area, you get slowed down even when fully indoors.

Happy almost-Halloween, Nauts. It's that time of the year, and the vents are whispering again... perfect time to sample the new gore presets in the accessibility menu, including a seasonal harvest of festive autumn gibs! This patch continues last week’s balance pass. We juiced many skills then; now we’re calming a few that grew…hungry, but buffing some enemies. Thanks to the sale, a swarm of fresh recruits has joined the drift! Several of their first-contact notes are folded into today’s tweaks. Keep the feedback coming, and I’ll keep carving small follow-ups as needed, before anything metastasizes. https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZXJjdm8zbjF6cGE1eHNsN214MGdveGl3bXg5MHBxbnoydXMxcGJ6YiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/VHHxxFAeLaYzS/giphy.gif Beyond the immediate containment, I’m still tunneling toward a larger winter update: new monsters, new biomes, new places the lights don’t reach. Pack a spare blade. Thank you all again for the massive support! Let me know how you feel about the changes and if anything needs an extra look. Always happy to do some emergency balance changes. Core Changes: - Added an accessibility option to turn on auto-aim(for offhands) for Keyboard + Mouse. - Added new damaged effects when Naut it hit. - Added more impact effects when bosses are hit. - Streamlined the skill orb upgrading process by allowing the third slot in the skill orb to have a flat chance of being an upgrade(40%), to help people guarantee an upgrade even if they have a large item pool. However skill orb drops were also nerf(details below) - Updates various perk descriptions so their interactions make more sense, based on some confusion that was raised from feedback. Balance: - Buffed Ammo Eater perk by 5x -- so stamina regen is much more noticeable. - Buffed skill/offhand rarity drops in later warps levels. - Buffed all enemy HP by about 5-10%, after buffing the majority of all skills last week. Would love feedback from folks if it feels like its still too easy, fair, or too much! - Buffed Boss HP is increased by 5-10% - Nerfed Lilithex. Her dash timer is now doubled, to give the player a larger window of time to deal damage to her. - Nerfed the range on Flesh Tearer's ranged attack. - Nerfed Orbital blades by 10% -- these bad boys do some serious WORK. - Nerfed skill orb drops by about 40%, however, you have a higher chance of having an upgrade. Trying to see if people like this better, as I've gotten feedback about how they spend more time selecting skills rather than actually fighting. Loot syringes still buff their drop chance! Bugs: - Dark portals that lead to secret areas are now more visually different from normal portals. - Fixed throwing animation for shurikens. - Fixed an issue with the "Volatile Growth" mutation(enemies dropping a totem mine) was hard to see because it was hidden behind enemies. - Fixed issue where sometimes a portal will overlap with the door to the next biome. - Fixed "empty" offhand sound for offhands. Offhands that are melee items, and make a gun sfx didn't make sense. - Added a timer to prevent the camera from panning down accidentally, when the player is holding down. The camera was panning down during combat which was not optimal for players! - Fixed portal placement getting stuck in walls on level 7. - Fixed issue where some of the new 'passive' skills would not properly load when using the save & exit machine, and then loading back into the game later. - Adjusting the collision priority on items that drop out of chests to make sure they dont get stuck in the walls when spawning in crowded places. - Fixed issue where passive skills such as Orbital Blades are still showing up on the congrats screen after killing the final boss. - Updated some inaccurate translations related to FR/UKR/RU text.