Knights and mercs, we're coming in this Tuesday with a big update on recent matrix additions of Cloak Program and Mirrorwalker Trait, as well as some Matrix HUD updates to improve clarity around the Q-Sec Tally rules, toughening up enemy captains against Stun and finally a fine tuning of the Heat system - tweaking the ways you get it and the ways you generate it for more fun and balanced play.

We hope you're enjoying the continued push to improve the game, add new content and fight the bugs we have. If you are, please take a moment to help us share the game and continue our updates by leaving a review.

Updated Matrix HUD for Tally per Action Clarity

We've fixed a number of bugs with the "+X Tally per Action" display in the top of the matrix HUD as well as improved its hover text. Finally, we've clarified the exact sources of the Tally per Action in the golden yellow text, listing the bonus from the node itself, any present active IC, your own programs or from Cloak (see next). Hopefully everyone finds this helpful to have these extra details.

Cloak Program Reduces Tally per Action

The Cloak Program offered by Rootmaker Programs service is now correctly displaying its ability - which is to reduce the the number of Q-Sec Tally you gain every action you take. While it won't be able to do much if you a Nuke a node full of active IC, this series of Utility programs can be a big help if you are taking a careful more stealthy hacking approach and just tamp down on the over all host response.

Mirrorwalker Trait - CPU Spike Passive

The Mirrorwalker Trait, which can be introduced during one of the Power Play storylines now correctly displays its ability and the logs in the matrix are all clear when you are getting your bonuses. Mirrorwalker acts as a passive ability, leaping to give a bonus whenever you Spike a CPU. The bonus is a big pile of extra AP and a % of your Cyberdeck's max IO freed up. In short, if you can get to the CPU and spike it, Mirrorwalker gives you a powerful and timely refresh of your key Hacking pools that will let you extend your turn.

All Captains Gain Stun Break

Across the entire set of factions, enemy captains have gained some amount of Stun Break % from 40 to 60%. This is an important push variety in how your most powerful abilities match against the different enemies, forcing you to consider Stunning a captain as a risky proposition that may fail half the time. You still get the benefit of keeping them Stunned until their next Turn, which can tamp down security events and reports, but you never know if they will lunge back into action.

It is a nice update to the Talent balance to ensure that Stun has some weaknesses.

Heat Rebalance

With Update #24, we've completed a balancing sweep through all the sources that generate Heat and all the tools that you have to deal with Heat. Our aim in this improvement has been to give you more options when trying to figure out "how to manage Heat" which was previously relatively one pathed: "get Counter-Intel Pod". This update brings Face's Pressure Drop Talent and "just waiting" back into the play as more viable options.

Heat Reduction Tools

You have 3 primary tools when trying to bring your Heat down - time, your Face, and the Counter-Intel Pod. Update #24 has increased the power of Time to reduce your Heat, reduced the power of Counter-Intel Pod to reduce your Heat and left Face Talent Pressured Drop as it was, because it was right in the sweet spot once the other two were adjusted.

• Waiting out Heat has never looked better. Before Update #24, Heat dropped at 1 point per day, which was very, very slow. Once you reached 100 Heat, there was no reasonable way to wait your way out of that. With Update #24, Heat now reduces faster the longer you are "laying low" in your Safehouse. Heat reduces 1 the first day after you last job, then 2 if you lay low for a second day, then 3 and maxes out at 4 per day. So, if you are resting at the safehouse, your total Heat reduction over 7 days: 1, 3, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22. In Update #23, instead of 22 Heat reduced, you'd have sunk 7 points. It won't fix all your problems, but waiting any amount of time between jobs has a bigger effect on Heat now.

• Counter-Intel Pod has been rebalanced to reduce a % of your current Heat instead of a flat value. The room can now reduce between 20% to 50% of your Heat per Token, meaning you can still do some major damage to your Heat but it isn't a panacea taking your Heat to 0 whenever you please.

• The Face's Pressure Drop Talent can be run in advance of a mission as a Leverage. The changes to Counter-Intel Pod and waiting make the Face's Pressure Drop Talent more attractive than before, making it a very useful part of your toolbox. Once applied, the Leverage stacks up Heat reduction that is applied after the mission. If you're a go loud team, you can use this as often as it has charges to reduce Heat. If you're a mid-stealth or full-stealth team, drop it when you are going into a pure combat mission or know you have a long / hard mission on your hands that is going to spike your Heat.

Heat Generation from Missions

Having made so many changes to the tools you have in your box to reduce Heat, we needed to also make some changes to the Heat generation rules. We've made 2 sets of tweaks - the first is to round the Heat maximums from missions off to match day boundaries (Hack-only missions now take a clean 3 days to "burn off") and second was to reduce the "snowball" effect of going into a mission with high Heat, starting with high Sec Level and then paying for that high Sec Level with more Heat gen at the end.

Let's look at both change in detail!

• Maximum and minimum Heat totals you can get from a missions have all been raised a little bit. A regular mission has gone up from 15 to 18, pure combat from 8 to 10 and pure hacking from 5 to 6. These all are on "day thresholds" - so a max'd out regular heist will burn off in 6 days, pure combat in 4 and pure hacking in 3. The minimum for a heist of any kind is now 3 (2 days).

• If you come into a mission with 25+ Heat, you start with at least 1 Sec Level. We have now removed any Sec Level you start with from the end of mission Heat calculations. In Update #23, if you entered a mission with 52 Heat, you'd start with Sec Level 2 and on the far side, would take +4 Heat (at a minimum) for your ending Sec Level. With Update #24, we now ignore any Sec Levels you started with, and only assess extra Heat for new Sec Levels. This means, a careful stealthy heist, starting with 52 Heat and 2 Sec Level that ends with 2 Sec Level will gain only the minimum of +3 Heat.

Dermal Sheathe Fix

There were some odd, hidden conditions for using Dermal Sheathe that were making it basically impossible to use. We have fixed these and all 3 cybernetic implant levels are open for business!

v2.1.37 - #24: Heat Sinks Steaming - 8/5/2025

- Fixed Cloak Program not describing its effect: Reducing Tally per Action while loaded

- Improved Matrix Hover over Q-Tally per Action to break down all sources

- Fixed Mirrorwalker Trait not describing its effect when spiking CPU: +25 Matrix AP and freeing 25% of max deck IO (increases w/ Trait levels)

- All enemy captains gain some innate Stun Break (40-60% depending on Faction) - Stunning captains is a risky choice

- McKellen enemies (Crusher, Heavyweight) gain Overwatch Break (% chance to take an OW hit and keep going)

- Heat reduction for "laying low" increased to +1 per day without a job, up to 4 / day maximum (burn by days: 1, 3, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22)

- Heat maximums updated - minimum 3 (2 days), 18 for regular Sec Level (6 days), 10 for pure combat (4 days), 6 for hack only (3 days)

- Updated how Counter-Intel Pod reduces Heat from a flat value to a percentage reduction (from 20% to 50% per token)

- Starting Sec Level from Heat (25 Heat per 1 Sec Level) no longer adds Heat at the end of a mission, Heat is only added by NEW Sec Level

- Fixed bug with Scan IV actually linking to Scan III (now links IV)

- Fixed bug preventing the use of Cybernetic Talent Dermal Sheathe