Hey Loners,

The major update has passed by, but the work continues. Our next update is packed with exciting new VFX, SFX, visual enhancements, and quality-of-life improvements, many directly requested by our amazing community!

Here’s a breakdown of what’s new, what’s changed, and what’s been fixed:

What’s New

SFX & VFX Additions

• Added Camille SFX and Gold Goblin SFX for a more immersive audio experience.
  
• Introduced Weapon Skill VFX for Throwing Knife, Rocket Launcher, and Ball Lightning which was missing from the last Major update.
  

• Updated Blooming Faucet model and VFX (decoy) for better visual clarity.
  

Visual Improvements

• New HUD for life and XP, including a low-life animation for added tension.
  
• New UI for the Area Hold Event to improve readability.
  
• Ammo bar now displays near the player’s aim for better combat awareness.
  
• New wood windows were added to concrete buildings in the City of Sands.
  
• Enhanced screen shake and shooting feedback when using weapon skills.
  
• Updated Rose drone colors and Survivor's Guilty stack VFX for better visual feedback.
  

Quality of Life Improvements

• Added unique crosshairs for each Weapon Skill to improve usability.
  

Key Changes

The changes below are direct feedback from the community in response to the newest update, which introduced Rose and Weapon Mods. A huge thanks to everyone who spent some time writing their thoughts on our Discord and Steam forums and gave us some amazing feedback! ❤️

Rose Skill Rework

Based on community feedback, Rose’s skills have been rebalanced and improved:
[list]

Survivor's Guilt: Now gains Stacks of Guilt for every point of damage taken OR healing received. A small Stack % is now partially restored when defeating an enemy after consuming Stacks of Guilt.

Every Shot Counts: Changed to: Restores more Guilt stacks upon enemy defeat and now allows unlimited stacks.

[*] Mature Mastery: It now automatically reduces fall speed after X seconds in the air, and Slow Fall will be canceled after shooting.

Weapon Mods

• Bubble Shotgun: Increased range, reduced spread, and higher damage.
  
• Mini-gun: Bigger magazine size.
  
• Triangle: Reduced range.
  
• Travel Zooka: Bigger explosion radius and increased damage.
  
• Tri-Shot: Increased range, reduced gravity, and higher damage (with less piercing).
  

Weapon Skills

• All mods now require fewer charges to fill.
  
• Throwing Knife: Increased base damage and reduced gravity.
  
• Lightning Orb: Slower movement but higher damage per trigger.
  
• Reworked invulnerability mechanics during dash to improve interactions with curios like Good Times and Alternate Actuality.
  
  • Should be easier to do and have a better gameplay feel when dodging attacks! This will also improve dodge-related Discoveries.
    
  
  

Alternate Actuality Changes

• Players can now detonate each other’s Snowbros.
  
• Snowbros automatically explode if not dashed through (with reduced chill effect).
  
• Removed tick-to-chill mechanic for Snowbros.
  

General Rebalancing

• Rebalanced all curios related to area size.
  
• Area Hold icons now fade based on proximity.
  

Fixes

We’ve addressed a variety of bugs and issues reported by the community:

Fixed currency rewards not being granted for Discoveries (players will receive retroactive rewards).

• Fixed placeholder image in the "Going On A Picnic" discovery.
  
• Resolved issues with the Discovery tracker failing to progress.
  
• Added missing texture on a specific building in the City of Sands.
  
• Fixed Curio One-Eyed Whirli’s twisters not giving jump bonus for players.
  
• Fixed persistent "Death" skull marks and ping icons on the client’s screen.
  
• Corrected Moon Owner Discovery description showing code strings.
  
• Fixed typo in the Critical Shots Discovery title.
  
• Updated placeholder text in the "Can Take Much Longer" discovery.
  
• Resolved issue where Assimilar marks stayed after enemy death.
  
• Adjusted reload bar appearing on top of Taka-chan animation.
  
• Fixed squad hover state being locked pink while in camp.
  

Director Commentary

Hey Loners!

The feedback we've received after our first Major Update was incredible! Our Forums and Discord were filled with new and returning players, all ready to tell us what they loved (and didn't) about the new features! As always, I read through every post on Discord and the Forum and sent them to our team, then we had long heated discussions, changed and rechanged the game, we even did some hardcore playtesting until we couldn't handle it anymore! But in the end I think we're all stronger for it!

Thank you so much for all the amazing words you guys sent. Here's a special thanks to some Discord Players who left some cool feedback: Xcite, Hellblazer, Monarch of Glass, GalaxyPhoenix, and our mod Puddle!

Cheers,
Edu
Atomic Picnic's Creative Director

One last thing Loners!

Atomic is joining the Spring Sale! Spread the love by gifting your friends a copy and inviting them to play together.

Stay Connected
We invite players to join the conversation and share their thoughts on the update:
Steam Community Hub
Discord

Your feedback helps us shape the future of Atomic Picnic.