Vehicle No. 4 news & patch notes

• Enemy health scaling from wave 10 to 20 drastically reduced (1.2 -> 1.06 multiplier per wave)

• Boss health on wave 20 slightly increased, to account for the health multiplier nerf

• Now 66% of Sprockets that where not collected are rewarded at start of the next wave

• Flying Saw now prioritizes boss

• Flying Saw base damage increased across all levels

• Slightly decrease sprocket drop rate on higher waves in difficulty 5

Wohooo, after 2 years of work the game is finally finished!

The content so far:

• 11 characters with different playstyles

• 18 unique weapons

• 54 weapon upgrade modules

• 5 difficulties

Any feedback is further appreciated, please use the steam community forum, discord or in-game reporting feature - Thanks!

Enemies

• StrandBeest - Support enemy that buffs other enemies

• Boss Razor - New jumping boss

• Boss Quadropus - New boss

• Enemy formation - Small enemies do not clump up

Weapons

• Tesla Tower - Split up behavior changed on overcharge (3 -> 2)

• Yondu Arrow - Level 5 now has +1 pierce

Modules

• Perpetuum Mobile - New module (provides continuous movespeed buff)

Balance

• Iframe mechanic - Added invincibility frames to 0.3 seconds after taking a hit

• Difficulty scaling - Nerfed enemy damage scaling on higher difficulties

• Enemy health - Extra health scales now rapidly over wave 10 (about +20% each wave)

• Shop costs - Increased shop cost scaling over wave 10

• Plasma Cannon Overcharge - Nerfed (40% instead of 100%)

• Cannon - Added +pierce and +damage for level 5

UI/UX

• Detail Weapon View - Shows required modules for overcharge

• Achievement Overview - Added category info, scroll improvements

• Unlocked Tooltips - Show tooltips on Game Over screen

• Font sizes - Increased UI size of tooltips

Performance

• Flamethrower - Performance improvements

• Hit Effects - Optimized performance (limited amount)

• Damage popups - Optimized performance (limited amount)

Bug Fixes

• Various bug fixes and other

I am happy to announce that Vehicle No.4 is selected to take part in the Rogue Bots 2026 festival! The festival runs from March 1-9, 2026.

Rogue Bots highlights games where bots, AI or mechs are central in-game characters, paired with a strong rogue-style gameplay.

Check out the free demo or buy the game right now!

Also check out all the cool other games! https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45723254/sale/RogueBots2026

A big update is out!

Locomotion System

• There are 3 different locomotion systems now:

• Tank Treads (default)

• Spider Legs (slower movement but more defensive)

• Hover Craft (faster but more fragile)

• Unlock them by achievements

Overcharge Weapons

• You can now upgrade weapons over "Legendary" to "Overcharged"

• They gain all 9 module slots

• To overcharge specific modules (1-2 modules) are needed to be placed into the weapon

• Each weapon gains an unique effect when overcharging

New Modules

• A lot of higher level modules with specific abilities

Bug fixes & etc

• Smaller bugfixes

• Some surprises

Balance

- Difficulty 1: Enemy Health per Wave 0.72 -> 0.69

- Difficulty 2: Enemy Health per Wave 0.78 -> 0.75

- Boss Wave 10: Base Health 1400 -> 1250

- Nerf Circular Saw (Price increase)

- Wave 5 (Blue Box March): Drop Rate Scaler: 0.5 -> 0.6

- Sprocket General Spawn Chance: 0.5 -> 0.54

Restart Option

- Add Quick Restart Option

Items

- Item Extra Chance per current equipped category: 7% -> 15%

- Item Extra Chance per same weapon type: 7% -> 25%

- Item Extra Chance per same weapon type and level: 7% -> 10%

Other

- Fix Tooltip clipping at top

- Fix Bomb Owl not able to crit

Taking part in the Bullet Heaven Festival!

New Weapons

• Mechanical Tentacle

• Steam Hammer

• Steam Crossbow

• Steam Engine

• Flying Arrow

New Modules

• Antenna

• Raven

• Turtle

• Oracle

• Steam Tank

• Light Bulb

New Characters

• Arthur: Gets better the more categories you have on a weapon

• Cindrix: Every time you spawn a bot, spawn one more

• Hugo: Has increased Steam Generation

Other Improvements

• Localization now in Spanish and French

• Projectile Category and Projectile Pierce Stat

• Crafting category: Increases Expertise

• Expertise Stat: Increase chance of higher raritiy items

• Toolboxes can be dropped from enemies. They contain a variety of modules.

• Rolling Box Wave

Achievements

• Win the game at difficulty V with only buying weapons with the base category Physical.

• Win the game at difficulty V with only buying weapons of one type (e.g. Tesla Tower or Cannon)

• Survive till wave 20 with only buying and using weapons of rarity Basic

Balance

• Nerf enemy damage scaling on higher difficulties

• Add higher chance for weapon with same type (and level)

• Reroll cost increment 2 -> 1

Balance

• Increase health of bosses

• 3% shop cost increase every wave

• Rebalance some waves

• Enemy health scaler

  • Difficulty 1: 0.69

  • Difficulty 2: 0.75

  • Difficulty 3: 0.83

  • Difficulty 4: 0.87

  • Difficulty 5: 0.9

• Enemy health over wave 10: +20%

Others

• Add correct XBOX glyphs

• Description of not collected sprockets

• Fix localisation "bonuses"

• Increase enemy health scaler per wave:

  • Difficulty 4: 0.85 -> 0.9

  • Difficulty 3: 0.75 -> 0.85

  • Difficulty 2: 0.67 -> 0.8

  • Difficulty 1: 0.6 -> 0.75

Weapons

• Some weapons now do not rotate anymore, but when places in front or back they face this direction (Laser, Flamethrower, Gatling).

• Nerf Circular Saw

• Plasma Cannon: More base damage, but increased cost, increase rotation speed

• Gatling Gun: Attack Speed timer now starts when beginning to shoot out (was started after shooting out before), Increase projectile speed

Characters

• Characters now start with default weapons if unlocked

• Characters now can have Category dependent modifiers

• Emberly

  • Now starts with Oil Canister

  • Burn damage modifier: + 50%

• Cydelia:

  • Connected Modules have their effect tripled

  • Now starts with Connection Pipe Modules

Modules

• New Module: Molotov Cocktail

Others

• Electric category now applies critical hit chance modifier

• Elemental category now applies Burn damage increase

• Now 3 separate Platform Rotation Modes:

  • No Rotation

  • Manual Rotation

  • Automatic Rotation

• Dustbin now hidden per default

• Steam achievements: now implemented (You have to reunlock them, otherwise it would have been to easily to cheat)

• Some surprises ;-)

BUG fixes

• Connected Modules recycle for half the cost

• Game over now if you do not kill the boss on wave 20

• Fixed "Require 2 or more of each category" achievement

• Connected Modules highlights should now go away everytime

• Add characters having boni on specific categories (Nicolai for now)

• Add Welcome Dialog

• Nerf Circular Saw

• Add Critical Hit Chance to ELECTRIC category

The game Vehicle No. 4 is now out in Early Access!

Features included:

- 7 characters offering diverse playthroughs

- 13 unique weapons

- 35 upgrade modules

- 5 difficulties

- 20 waves with increasing difficulty

For bug reports please use the in-game bug report tool or write on discord.

For feedback please use the Steam Community forum or discord.

If you have any ideas for characters, weapons and modules, just let me know. Every idea is an inspiration and highly appreciated ;-)

Vehicle No. 4 — Release Notes

Version 0.4.1a – Early Access Beta

General Updates

• Simplified Unlocks: Unlock all content by completing every character on Difficulty III and once on Difficulty V.
• Vehicle Collision Damage: Colliding with enemies deals damage equal to your current armor.
• Enemy Collision Behavior: Enemies cause collision damage only once per second.
• Weapon Overview: Added stack and connection counters for active module behaviors.

New Characters

• Thorn: A defensive-focused character.
• Emberly: Deals more damage with burn on enemies with oil.

New Modules & Weapons

• Unstable Experiment (Module): Deals self-damage on every 3rd hit, but gives a large power boost.
• Hose Connection (Module): If Weapon A kills, reset Weapon B's cooldown.
• Push Back Ram (Module): Knocks enemies back, deals armor-scaled damage, and increases armor.
• Connected Module Highlighting: Connected modules show their counterpart.

Visual Improvements

• New Character Portraits: Updated artwork for all characters.
• Enhanced Visual Effects: Post-processing effects added across all scenes and UI.
• Crit Damage Display: Critical hit damage now shown in red.
• New Background: Added environmental elements to improve background scene.

Balance Changes

• Plasma Cannon: Buffed attack speed (1.5 → 1.8 attacks/sec).
• Flamethrower: Nerfed attack speed (2.0 → 1.7) and damage (/2 → /4).
• Dynamite: Damage halved (still cascades with half weapon damage).
• Armor Converter: Reduced critical hit chance and damage.
• Hydraulic Pump: Nerfed, now includes Mechanical category.
• Relay: Adds Electric Category.
• Base Health: Increased from 50 → 100.

Misc & Bug Fixes

• Controller Fixes: Improved multiple controller input issues.
• Tutorials: Added more in-game instructional content.
• Linux Graphics: Switched to prefer Vulkan API for better performance.
• Vehicle Hit Sound: New sound effect plays when vehicle takes damage.
• Behavior Counters: New counter system tracks special character behaviors.

• New Modules
  • Pipe Connection
  • Oil Canister + Oil Bot (new effect on enemies)
  • Shield Modulator
  • Fire Extinguisher
  • Rainbow Gem
  • Welder
  • Aperture
  • Relay
  • Transformator
  • Armor Converter
  • Sprocket Collector
  • Steam Turbine
• New Character - Sharp Shooter
• Better controller support (still lacking merge of weapons)
• More Vehicle Stats
  • Health Reparation Stat
  • Shield Generation Stat
  • Steam Generation
  • Pickup Range
• Auto rotation of Vehicle Platform
• Character Progress Icons
• Add Meta UI
• In-Game Tutorial
• Various Bug fixes

• Laser
• Gatling Gun
• Bomb Owl (Minion)
• Flying Saw (Minion)
• Hydraulic Pump - Support weapon

Weapon Categories

Weapon Modification View

Detailed Weapon Overview

Others

• All sprites are updated to match a color palette and art style
• Weapons can now be upgraded via dragging them on top of each other if the have the same level. Weapons can also be swapped.
• Localisation is now available in English and German.

Future

• More weapons (rocket launcher, minion spawners, armor generator, hydraulic pump etc...)
• More modules of every kind
• More characters (e.g. character that deals more damage the faster your vehicle moves, etc..)
• More enemy types (rolling sprockets, fast moving enemies, enemies with laser attack)
• More bosses (advanced attack patterns, line AOEs, crossing AOEs)