Hello fellow Ratooseses,

I have updated the game with Road Map Update 6! The Nest Update.

This update brings with it a big change in the flow of the game. You now have a central hub in the form of a playable nest level. From here, you can use the Shop, choose your Skins, select your Special Rat, pick your weapons, play all the game modes, decorate your nest and just hang out with your little rat friends.

There's a lot to read for this one. So sit back and relax and use your eyes to turn letters into words and make information in your brain. WOW.

Or not. And just play. Whatever I don't care I DON'T. No I really do I doooooo.

Anyway, the rats. They sometimes tell me to write things. And yes as always a big thank you to everyone who's played the game so far! Your support really means the world to me. And if you've been enjoying the game please consider leaving a positive Steam review. It really does help.

Ok on to the patch notes!

THE NEST

• This is the main ratmeat and ratpotatoes of this update. This is a playable area which serves as the main hub of the game now. After pressing play, you will select your Save Slot and then choose to start a New Game or Continue if you have a save file there. If you start a New Game, you will play through Basic Training before entering the Nest. From the Nest, you can then unlock various rooms such as the Shop, Skin selection, Special Rats, Weapons and all the good stuff. You can also go to the different game modes via the Nest. By entering different doors. So Campaign, Skirmish, Horde etc. all have their own door to go through to get to that game mode.

• On every death or victory, you will return to the Nest instead of the Shop like before. (The Shop is right there when you spawn in though)

• Each room in the Nest needs to be unlocked with RatPower. RatPower is a new resource that is awarded every time you win a battle in Campaign or New Game Plus. If you are continuing a game from before this update, you should be given an appropriate amount of RatPower in accordance with your progression, so you can unlock rooms as if you had been playing with RatPower from the beginning. Rat Dealers Shop is always free to unlock.

• There are tooltips that help you out in the Nest. You can turn those off in the Options menu once you are familiar with how it all works.

• You can build decorations to customize your Nest. Although right now the options are very limited. I will be adding more in the coming updates!

• And last but not least, there are little rat friends running around in the nest. The more CHz you have, the more rats there will be. And the more RatPower you collect and spend, the more Little Ones there will be.

NEW MECHANIC - WEAPONS LOCKER

• The Weapons Locker is a room that is available to be unlocked in the Nest. This room allows you to access any weapons that you have previously unlocked and purchased in the Shop. Meaning you no longer need to buy a weapon twice if you swap it out! This is not retroactive unfortunately. So anyone continuing a game will need to buy a weapon again once again before it registers in the Weapons Locker. But after that it will function normally.

NEW SKINS

• Snazzy. This skin is a fancy tuxedo top complete with shirt and tie. Although there are no sleeves. This is awarded after clearing wave 20 in Horde mode in any difficulty.

• Plushie. This is a giant rat soft toy that you can carry on your back. A thank you for anyone who played the game during Early Access. To claim the skin, make sure you launch the game after updating to Road Map Update 6 (the most current update as of this writing) and get to an autosave point. You must do this between now and when the game launches into 1.0. Which will be (hopefully) sometime in October or November at the latest of this year. You will NOT be able to claim the skin ever again. I will remind you again each update until 1.0. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. DON’T @ ME.

Bug fixes, QoL and Polish

• Added a quick fade-in whenever you enter Rat Dealer’s Shop

• Added RatPoints System

• Added UI Panel for RatPoints that appears in the Nest.

• Added legacy RatPoints to be added to players who continue a game from before this update

• Brand New Players will now play through Basic Training when starting a New Game.

• If you die during the Tutorial you have an option to skip it (with a warning).

• When starting a New Game, the option to skip Basic Training will appear if you have already completed it before. This appears when starting a New Game in the pop up that asks for confirmation that you will wipe your current save.

• The Tutorial now informs players that yes the Ratvolver is garbage but you can unlock new better weapons later. (I cannot believe some people don't understand basic video game progression in 2025. Is this the first game you ever played??)

• Loading into the Tutorial or Shooting range will now keep your current save’s difficulty. Before this update it would default to Normal for those levels. Not that it matters.

• New Game Plus difficulty modifier is now a manual option available from the New Game Plus menu. You can set it between 0-100. 0 is default. Although if you set it anything above like 20 you will probably not stand a chance. But ya know what go ahead and see if you can do it! I believe in you!

  The difficulty modifier used to be tied to how many times you had cleared a New Game Plus run, and it was persistent across the game no matter what save slot you were using. This would result in NG+ being pretty unfair if you played it with a new character after having cleared a few NG+ runs with a different Lil Ratty.

  I am planning to make New Game Plus only available after beating the Campaign in a coming update. Not yet, but soon. So this is your warning.

• Leaderboards button has replaced Shooting Range button in the Main Menu.

• There are now some extra screen flashes during the TechnoRat Base death scene.

• Changed “Tutorial” to “Basic Training” as the name of the Battle that is displayed when winning it.

• Skirmish difficulty settings are now locked to save slot difficulty settings

• Arrow now appears over blueprint in tutorial if not picked up within 5 seconds

• Tutorial videos now have a “Press \[space] or (A) to >>” message

• Tutorial videos now have an updated “Press \[space] or (A) to continue” message

• The descriptions of the Horde Mode skins said “Awarded for reaching wave #” This should have been “Awarded for clearing wave #” This has been fixed.

• Padlock icon now appears over locked shutters. Will animate open when unlocked

• Tooltips appear when moving in front of Nest stations or doors. These can be turned off in options.

• Added rats and Little Ones to nest.

• Added Decorations Office.

• Added first two Nest Decorations for Top layer: Sconces and RatKing Portraits.

• Started to add Decorations Office Menu UI. This is a WIP menu.

• Added Teleporatter Stations to Nest

• Added sounds for: Ambient Nest. Rooms unlocking. Doors opening.

• Moved the “Prev” button in the What’s New screen over to the left to get it out of the way of the text ratdammit.

And I believe that should cover everything added or changed in this update! I really hope you enjoy the Nest. I think it really adds a lot to the experience. Let me know your thoughts. I am always open to feedback.

Happy Rat Killin!

Regards,

Brian