FYI we are gonna be in the Summer Sale with a 10% discount starting on the 26th.

It's finally Summer (in the northern hemisphere) and the pilots are enjoying a well-earned break after fighting invaders in countless timelines. Check out what's new in the 1.1 update below!

We've also finally reached over 2000 overwhelmingly positive reviews at 98%!

It's honestly so insane to me, I never would have thought so many people would enjoy our very wacky, very specific design philosophy. I've thanked you all so many times already but you really don't know how helpful it is to us indie devs.

If you missed it, here's a recap of what we've done between 1.0.0 and 1.0.7:

1.0.0 ~ 1.0.7 Notable Updates Recap:

• Added Savescum Mode and Infinite Chronos assist mode toggles

• Buffed Roxy and Noel's starting decks

• Improved the clarity and balance of the True ending and Hemophage boss fights to make them feel better to play against

• Fixed dozens of bugs, crashes and localization issues of all types

• Much more! check out the full changelog of all updates in our previous news posts.

1.1.0 - BEACH EPISODE:

[New!] Sandbox Settings

Adjust the game to your liking with the Sandbox Settings, a new menu to tweak the game with.

Notable features include:

• Optional customization of difficulty with new settings based on player suggestions.

• Ban specific packs and bosses from appearing during gameplay.

• We will continue to add to the Sandbox Settings based on player feedback and suggestions!

[New!] Beach Pack

Part of the magic of the "Pack System" is that it lets us add a lot more variety and mechanics without diluting the card pool as is often a problem in many deckbuilders with a lot of content.

We will be able to add as many packs as we can think of, and each one added will expand the variety of the card pool across multiple runs. And if you do not enjoy the new packs, you can always disable them in-game with the new sandbox settings!

The first new pack post-release is the Beach Pack, themed around "random" synergy. Randomness is not always dangerous, sometimes it can be harnessed and used to your advantage.

Use the Pocket Sand to strike random invaders while sifting through your deck, or throw the Beach Ball at other invaders with big splash damage. (Beach Ball is one of my new favorite Items to build around!)

This pack is designed to synergize with the existing card pool too. The Roadtrip card will return all cards that mention "random" from your discard pile to your hand, and the Lucky Dice artifact will improve the odds of ALL random-related artifacts and cards from other classes and packs!

Discover these in-game after you unlock the Beach Pack through earning trophies!

[New!] Buncha Artifacts

We're adding a new neutral Legendary, and each pilot gets a new pilot-unique Common artifact that explores a bit more of their unique mechanics!

Some of these are references to content creators who played the game that we really enjoyed, try to guess who they are!

[New!] Kaia Skin for the Supporter Pack!

There is a new beach-themed skin for Kaia in the Supporter Pack! (in addition to the 3 existing skins)

If StarVaders has been fun for you and you'd like to help us continue working on the game, the Supporter Pack is a wonderful way to show your support!

We (Pengonauts) are a small and new 3-person studio based in Montreal, Canada. StarVaders is our first game, but we have many great plans ahead for both StarVaders and other games beyond! 

We’re grateful for any help, but remember – buying the pack is entirely up to you, and your enjoyment of the game is what matters the most! The supporter pack is purely cosmetic and won’t affect the gameplay experience.

We've just created a new bundle, where you can get the supporter pack and the soundtrack at an additional 10% discount, check it out here!

StarVaders - Support the Team! Bundle

Notable QoL Improvements

• On the Character Selection screen, there is now an indicator for the highest difficulty the pilot has won with.

• Challenges now show a different trophy when they've been completed with the True Ending (this is not retroactive so only new runs will update it).

• Regenerating Shield now has its own, more visible section in the description, and has been added to the bosses that it applies to that was missing that information.

Notable Balance Changes

• Zeke has been buffed to start with Echo on their Nova Bomb instead of a Heated.

  Zeke has had problems with setup and early-game, which became a lot more apparent after the buffs to Roxy and Noel. Changing the Nova Bomb upgrade gives Zeke a strong AOE setup early and also helps showcase his ability to dismantle self-purging cards as an advantage.

  It's not the biggest buff but it does give him the much needed early game tempo to be able to get off the ground easier and build towards something stronger.

• Doom Ritual has been reworked to only activate if no other invaders are channeling Doom.

Other

• Buffed Chant (from Dark Medal), now draws a card.

• Buffed Dawnbreaker and Nightbringer, now only increases cost of Sun/Moon cards by 1.

• Nerfed Hologram, now 1 cost instead of 0 cost.

• Added a countdown for when the Daily Run resets

• Orchids and other similar simultaneous doom + attacking invaders now attack before channeling Doom.

• Added animations for Min! (very important)

• Added whiff indicator to Static Wave

• Added more info tooltip for Robo-Parrot

• Added a toggle in the settings for increasing danger zone visibility on the grid.

• Buffed Gunner Assist!, now fires 2 additional rockets

• Ghosts can no longer gain immunity while they are channeling Doom.

• Added some modding-framework related changes to the codebase in preparation for modding

• Improved the clarity of a few boss descriptions

• Fixed several missing card tags

• Fixed bug involving entities floating above holes

• Fixed a few mouse-hover input related bugs where some entities are too close to each other

• Fixed Ultra Coolant crashing on a no-commons pool modifier run.

• Fixed missing 2x Legendary Special reward on a no Legendary pool modifier run.

• Increased Guide scale for better readability

• Fixed Visual overlap of completion star in more info

• Fixed Summon limit text overlapping with Bomb limit

• Fixed Summon limit text not updating when max Summon limit is changed

• Attempted fix on Nessie freeze when defeated

• Attempted fix on settings scene crash due to resolution errors

• Attempted performance improvements and fixes for memory leaking

• Many localization changes based on suggestions.

Hope you all enjoy! The update is live now!

Other than any immediate bug fixing patches, the next big content update will be Update 1.2 around September / October. It will be very scary and have a bigger focus on new gameplay content! The beta for it will be up in the next few months, so stay tuned!

- Axolotl of the Pengonauts