Hello mercs and happy holidays!

After many months at the lab, experimenting on the undead, I'm very excited to bring you the biggest content update to Dead Grid yet.

While this update brings a lot of new items, a new difficulty mode, many balance changes and bug fixes, the main feature is the new playable mercenary class, called Revenant. So, let's get to it!

REVENANT

Revenant is a new playable merc class, unlocked through the Lab component. A new Lab component has been added, called Mortuary. Once you gain access to the Mortuary, new Lab components will start to drop from eliminated enemies. Collect enough of these components to reanimate your first Revenant merc.

A set of 15 new Revenant skills has been added, centered around the theme of the class.



Revenants can only attack in melee and use a variety of class specific weapons, equipped into either of their hands. These weapons cannot be equipped on non-Revenant mercs. Durability of both hands is repaired by a single consumables at once. It's perfectly normal for Revenants to break their weapons on a mission as their damage with bare hands is already very strong.



Combat the training options are also unique to the class.

TACTICIAN

Tactician's first tree desperately needed a big review with a lot of feedback from players stating the noise reduction skills didn't have much of an impact when compared to the rest of the class toolkit. Another common request was to offer more passive options and this update should address both of these topics. Here's a quick look at the new skills and their placement on the tree.

COMMANDO

Breach and Enemy Assessment have been upgraded to 5 ranks and received a substantial buff.

NEW DIFFICULTY MODE - APOCALYPSE

A new difficulty mode has been added, called Apocalypse. The game now offers 4 difficulty options, covering a wide range of pace and play styles.

With the the addition of this new mode, the game has gone through a significant rebalance of enemy scaling, specifically pushing for an easier start and a lot more challenge on the later missions. Game balance is a continuous endeavor, so your feedback is always considered. If you're having problems beating some missions, please consider trying an easier difficulty and submit your feedback on the forums.

NEW MISSIONS

Two new missions have been added to the game, County Jail and Prison Route. Existing saves will need to complete their prerequisites again to unlock. These missions present a new enemy type, prison inmate. You'll be fighting weak, strong, elite and boss variants of these inmates.

NEW ITEMS

Over 80 new weapons have been added to the game, many of which are unique variants of existing weapons and some are completely new to the game. New unique weapon modifiers have also been added to change the behavior of various skills, making them more appealing for specific builds.

In addition to the new weapons, around 20 new gadgets and accessories have been added with completely new mechanics. Here's quick look at some of them.

QUALITY OF LIFE

A feedback requested feature to filter by minimum item level has been added to the gear management interface of all weapons.



Another popular player suggestion was to allow you to hide the card details for mercs and enemies in play. This is especially useful for players already familiar with the cards, looking for a less noisy UI. You can toggle this with the Ctrl key while hovering over a minion or object card in play.


Items stolen by Brie are now displayed on the Loot Haul dialog when returning from any mission where she was used.

SEASONAL CONTENT

The first holiday event has been added to the game. More more seasonal is planned in the future.

WHAT'S TO COME

I'll be closely monitoring any feedback and bug reports, so the first priority is the game's stability. I've already started planning the next update and plan to star working on it right after the holidays. A more interesting mission diversity is one of the things at the top of my list. I'll also be looking to complete the remaining survivors and start filling the gaps in the story. Controller and Steam Deck support is planned as well, some of that work is already in the game.

As always, thanks for all the great feedback and bug reports!
Please stay tuned for more news and I hope you enjoy the update!

FULL PATCH NOTES - EA 0.3.10

GENERAL CHANGES

Improved the skills tutorial, shown to new players early in the game.

Added an item level filter for melee and ranged weapons next to the pagination.

Duplicate cards can now be sold to the trader with single click while holding Shift.

Loot stolen by Brie is now displayed on the Loot Haul screen with a STOLEN flag.

Enemies with 10,000+ HP will now display as 10.0k on card frames.

Skills playable on target minions or objects can now be discarded from hand by dragging down.

Consolidated Tactical Advantage chance (from mercs in play) to no longer go above 100%.

Added a new minimal combat board frame variant, available in Game Settings.

Clicking on an open assignment button closes that assigment's details (per feedback).

New random enemy mechanic, called Fierce which grants a chance for double attacks.

Many unique melee and ranged weapons now offer modifiers to different class skills.

Weapon upgrade preview now indicates cripple or stun chance improvements.

Added distinct sound effects for broken sharp vs blunt vs shield weapons.

Holiday seasonal content has been added to the game as special drops, available until mid January.

Hidden skills with not enough earned points can now be hovered over to read their details.

Spacebar hotkey can now be pressed to return to camp from the mission victory screen.

Card details of minions and objects in play can now be hidden by pressing Control.

Remastered the end turn sound effect with a reduced volume.

GAME BALANCE CHANGES

Weapon accuracy from merc training has been rebalanced resulting in additional hit chance of all ranged weapon types.

Many unique weapons and shields have been slightly rebalanced for damage and durability, mostly with minor buffs.

Stamina consumption has been rebalanced for all melee weapons to be more consistent with weapon damage.

Stamina regen has been rebalanced for all ranged weapons, smaller weapons will restore more stamina.

Infection has been reworked to drop merc's HP to 50% and lasts for 5 turns (previously 10).

Chance of infection has been rebalanced to slightly increase with game difficulty, this is shown on every enemy in combat.

Enemy chance to cause bleeding has been rebalanced to increase with game difficulty,shown on enemy in combat.

Poisoned effect no longer drops mercs to 0 stamina (Exhausted), this addresses a couple of issues with mercs never leaving Exhausted.

Gadget Sleeping Bag has been buffed with additional damage while Fully Rested.

The flat melee bonus of accessory Spiked Ring has been slightly reduced.

Study of Decay lab cards now only drop from Strong, Elite and Boss enemies, but the drop rate is doubled.
Enemy type is shown in card details.

5th merc slot in missions squad is now unlocked much sooner, upon discovering Pine Valley PD.

HARD mode and enemies are no longer affected by the extended tutorial for reduced HP and disabled
damage gain from Frenzy.

All medical consumable cards have been completely rebalanced to align with the upgrade paths they offer.

Consumable with heal over turn (hot) now have a consistent 15% HP heal. The quality of the card increases
the duration of turns.

Heal Over Turn effect now triggers at the start of turn instead of end of turn, allowing an extra turn of taking damage.

Knife Tool no longer offers lock picking. There are specific lock picking cards and gadgets.

Area objects (barricades, vehicles, rotting corpses, propane) can now be destroyed with melee attacks.
Previously could only be destroyed with firearms or explosives.

Greatly reduced the number of completed assignments, required to unlock all the Survivor Assignment slots.
This is in preparation for more assignments to be added in the next update.

Balance changes to survivor character Brie
- Lowered Brie's cooldown from 30 to 20 turns.
- Brie can discover a lot more uniques but also has a 50% chance to find 2-4 valuables instead.
- Brie can now be used twice as much on a single mission, upgradable with Intel points.
- A new gadget has been added, specifically to deter Brie from stealing your items.

NEW MISSIONS AND GAME DIFFICULTY CHANGES

A 4th game mode has been added called, APOCALYPSE.

APOCALYPSE mode cannot be lowered to HARD once started.

Each game difficulty now offers different unique item drop rates from eliminated bosses.

The drop chance from bosses goes up for each repeat, shown in combat log after killing a boss enemy.

Here are the base values for the drop rates of the 4 modes in the game:

- EASY: 15% (max 25%, +1% from each repeat)
- NORMAL: 20% (max 30%, +1% from each repeat)
- HARD: 25% (max 35%, +1% from each repeat)
- APOCALYPSE: 30% (max 45%, +1% from each repeat)

HARD mode can now be selected without any requirements.

HARD mode can now be toggled in game settings while playing on NORMAL or EASY.

A major rebalance of enemy scaling has been done, specifically focusing on the easy and harder difficulty modes
The game should now offer a wide range of challenging enemies for all play styles.
If you're still finding the game too hard, I suggest toggling to EASY and gear up some more.
I will of course keep balancing the game further, so I will be closely monitoring all the feedback.

Added a new medium size mission, County Jail, unlocked after completing the mission Pine Valley PD.

Added a new small size mission, Prison Route, unlocked after completing the Oil Refinery.

Existing saves will need to complete the prerequisite missions to unlock these new region locations.

LEADER

Track Runner has been rebalanced with a significant buff to the skill.

COMMANDO

Breach was converted from 1 to 5 ranks and now offers a major buff.

Enemy Assessment was converted from 1 to 5 ranks and also offers great rewards when fully ranked.

Execute damage now stacks with Enforcer's skills Pummel and Power Strike while applied on the same merc.

Updated art for some Commando skills.

ENFORCER

Buckshot skill details now indicate the skill usage is per shot, not per attack. Increased shots from 7 to 10.

Slugs changed to count each shot (not attack) to be consistent with Buckshot. Increased shots from 5 to 10.

Power Strike and Pummel can now stack the damage when applied on the same merc.

Shield Master was slightly rebalanced to prepare for a new set of unique items.

Updated art for some Enforcer skills.

TACTICIAN

Aside from the new merc class, Tactician has the biggest rework of skills in this patch.

Propane, converted from 1 to 5 ranks, added multiple variations of the object deployed in combat.

Dynamite, converted from 1 to 5 ranks and slightly rebalanced.

Siphoned Petrol was converted from 1 to 3 ranks and slightly rebalanced.

Smoke Grenade now offers extra noise reduction.

Pyrology, converted to a passive skill with a completely new mechanic.

Flare Gun was converted to a passive skill with a new mechanic.

Silence, phased out and replaced by a new passive skill Lure.

Light Movement, phased out and replaced by a new passive skill Infiltration.

Updated art for many Tactician skills.

REVENANT

A new merc class has been added to the game, complete with 15 new class skills and unique training options.
Note: Revenants cannot be the selected on the new game creation screen, they are unlocked through the Lab.
After all, they are the experiments of a post-apocalyptic scientist!

Revenant cannot use ranged weapons and can only attack at melee using both of their hands

Revenants perform multiple swings and occasionally bite for even more damage.

Revenants use custom weapons designed specifically for the class, they cannot be equipped on regular mercs.

Revenant weapons use durability which means they can be repaired just like any melee weapon, using a variety of repair cards or skills.

Revenants are strong with their bare hands and their class specific weapons act as damage modifiers,
equipped into individual hands. Keep in mind, it's perfectly normal to break their weapon during a
mission as their hand damage is still very strong.

A new Mortuary section has been added to the Lab. You must unlock the Virology section of the Lab to
reanimate your Revenants. Reference tool tips for more information on the required components, which start
to drop as soon as you unlock the Mortuary.

Lab progression to unlock all Revenant mercs is persistent to future game replays, meaning you can
reanimate all 3 Revenant mercs as soon as you unlock the Mortuary on that save.

FAME

60 new Steam achievements for a total of 215.

NEW CARDS

3 voiced Revenant mercs

15 Revenant skills

2 new Tactician skills

2 enemy types with 15 variants for strong, weak and elite

1 new boss, appearing on the County Jail mission

7 gadgets with unique variants

8 accessories with unique variants

10 random lootable containers (duffel bags, suitcases, boxes, etc)

10 valuable item drops

10 junk loot variants

5 new food and drink consumables

8 events with unique mechanics

3 rare medical consumables

80+ weapons, many old weapons rebalanced and some are completely new to the game

30+ new unique variants of existing weapons

BUG FIXES

Lab unlock Field Tech is not correctly triggering, resulting in very little chance of progression.

Mission squad slot 4 can be unlocked before squad slot 3 which is confusing.

Melee weapons or shields using auto-repair from a backpack slot sometimes cause an item to break anyway.

Toggle weapon tooltip shown in card details on mercs without a ranged weapon.

Increased the size of skill details UI to fix out of bounds text on some resolution settings.

Mercs holding a shield with a bleeding status take bleed damage to durability instead of health.

Klaus leads away 0 undead on missions with a low unaware count, should always be at least 1 enemy.

Repair consumables still in bag sometimes don't trigger the auto-repair when reaching 1 durability.

Lockpicks auto-consumed from bag with a return chance do not stay in the bag on a successful roll.

Heal cards auto-consumed from bag to prevent a killing blow don't trigger heal over turn effects.

Repair cards auto-consumed from bag slot don't trigger repair over turn effects.

Charmed undead (through Bloody Meal) can gain XP in combat, they have no use for XP.

Poisoned mercs with no stamina (Exhausted) are able to perform attacks on a new turn, while showing as inactive.

Merc starting a turn in Exhausted state is unable to attack when stamina is restored by any means.

Merc at low stamina gets an unintentional stacking melee damage buff at the start of every turn.

Enemy 3d avatar occasionally does not fall down if killed by reflect or status damage during their attack on a merc.

Spiked Ring accessory applies multiple times when merc is played on board, resulting in incorrect item usage.

Selecting a save slot and closing Game Settings without confirming breaks the UI when upon returning to Save/Load.

Mercs returning to combat on new encounters (map tiles) are not kept in the last known order.

Some accessory buffs apply 4 times on the same merc when entering combat.

Total explosion damage boost in combat shows an invalid negative number (rare case).

During a Power Strike sequence, players are sometimes able to switch to a ranged attack.

Multiple fixes to Fame tracking related to killing with bows, pistols, shotguns and ARs.

Lab's Field Tech progression drop has an incorrect card image (explosive).

Enforcer's Shield Mastery skill triggers on melee attacks without a shield.

Enforcer's passive turn ability (repair) states COMMANDO in card log, should be ENFORCER.

Repair consumables can sometimes trigger lock related Fame progression.

Accessory item Waste Disposal (gloves) almost never triggered due to a wrong validation check.

Card details on the Loot Haul screen stay open if the space bar is used to close the dialog.

Mercs stunned by an enemy event, during the player's turn are still able to attack.

[*] Many typos and errors have been fixed throughout the game, please report more as you spot them.

SPECIAL THANKS

I'd like to extend my special thanks to the Discord fans who've participated in testing this update the past couple weeks. You guys have really helped me improve the game!

Mimic
Immortal George
Tchey
Rafael Hydra
Toolpanzer
Jigglyproff
SirThoryn

Sorry if I missed anyone, be sure to let me know.

Please post your issues and suggestions in Discord or the forums. Thank you!

--Paul

Dead Grid Discord