Hey everyone,

I'm here with another large update, adding a bunch of features and fixing a ton of bugs!

This update comes 41 (!) new skills along with a bunch of rare skill variations. Each time a skill is unlocked or rerolled, it has a 15% chance to become a better, rarer version of itself. You'll know it's rare by its magenta color and extra flavor text. Usually, rarer skills come with a flat upgrade vs its base skill like 25% to trigger vs 15% per mastery. They are also slightly more expensive to upgrade. Not every skill has a rare version, but now, most of them do!

The 3rd area, the Snowlands, has been added along with its respective boss. Be wary of the Snowlands' vast verticality and snowstorms! The 4th area is also in the game, but let's just say I hope you don't reach there yet. It's definitely... in its early development stage...

Features:

• Added a shop before the boss fight where you can buy skills to replace current ones with
  
• A magical little particle system plays when leveling up
  
• Added breakable: Lantern; hangs on Caves ceilings, shoot to fall, anything it breaks on takes 1 damage
  
• Added breakable: Explosive barrel; shoot/collide with to explode
  
• Added collectible: Gem - gives 20 gold when collected
  
• Gems have a 5% chance to spawn from a chest
  
• Added 3rd area: Snowlands; A vertical, winter-themed area that includes hazardous snowstorms!
  
• Added Caves boss: Spider Knight
  
• Added Hollows boss: Slime King
  
• Added Snowlands boss: Giant UFO
  
• Added Hollows enemy: Bee
  
• Added Snowlands enemy: Ice elemental
  
• Added Snowlands enemy: Reverse broken robot
  
• Added Snowlands enemy: Snowman
  
• Implemented RNG seeding for level generation. Right now this does nothing but soon you will be able to start a run off of a seed or play a daily run. You can see your seed during a run in the top-left when paused
  
• Added the save/load menu in the main menu; it is now possible to have up to 3 different save files
  
• Added secondary skill [Beamblast] -> Briefly fire a slow-moving laser for an infinite distance
  
• Added tertiary skill [Missle Launcher] - shoot a controllable missle. Has slightly longer cooldown and smaller explosion radius than [Bombdrop]
  
• Added active skill [Parachute] -> Deploy a parachute that greatly slows your velocity; activate again to remove
  
• Added active skill [XP Potion] -> For a short time, you gain 2x XP per kill
  
• Added skill [Pickaxe] -> More gold from Gold Ore (%)
  
• Added skill [Hard Hat] -> Take no damage from collisions with rock / hard surfaces
  
• Added skill [Computer Mouse] -> % chance on kill for [Auto Turret] to trigger for no cost
  
• Added skill [Bandaid] -> Can't damage self with [Lasershot]'s projectiles
  
• Added skill [Lead boots] -> Wind no longer affects you
  
• Added skill [Flak Jacket] -> Invincibility from explosions caused by the player
  
• Added skill [Water Bucket] -> Shortens the charge time of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Pressure Valve] -> Extends the firing duration [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Oil Can] -> Extends the rotation speed of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Wrench] -> Shortens the warmup time of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Water Pipette] -> Killing enemies reduces the charge time of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Water Hose] -> Killing enemies extends the firing time of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Water Bottle] -> Collecting gold reduces the charge time of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Rain Cloud] -> +1 charge of [Beamblast]
  
• Added skill [Bike Pump] -> Increased explosion radius of [Missle Launcher]
  
• Added skill [Antenna] -> Increased rotational control of [Missle Launcher]'s projectile
  
• Added skill [Firework] -> Increased acceleration of [Missle Launcher]'s projectile
  
• Added skill [Compass] -> Show an arrow pointing to the exit
  
• Added skill [Radar] -> Show an arrow pointing to the nearest chest
  
• Added skill [Glasses] -> On level up, become invincible for a short duration
  
• Added skill [Cherries] -> Turns [Bombdrop]'s projectiles into 'laser bombs, damaging anything they
  
• Added skill [Gas Can] -> Increase charges of helicopter's booster per mastery
  
• Added skill [Feather] -> All movement skills +1 charge per mastery
  
• Added skill [Pirate Hat] -> More gold from chests (%)
  
• Added skill [Sneaker] -> Reduce all skills' charge times per mastery (%)
  
• Added skill [Magnet] -> Enemies drop flat extra gold
  
• Added skill [Dice Cup] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a die on death
  
• Added skill [Chocolate] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a heart on death
  
• Added skill [Ski Mask] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a gem on death
  
• Added skill [Shopping Basket] -> Shop has +1 item
  
• Added skill [Calculator] -> [Lasershot] does 2 damage
  
• Added skill [Glass Jar] -> Do double damage to slimes (including boss)
  
• Added skill [Broken Glass] -> Do double damage but take double damage (meaning you do quad damage to yourself???)
  
• Added skill [Warhead] -> Do 2x explosive damage
  
• Added skill [Mushroom] -> Your explosions are 2x in size
  
• Added skill [Beaker] -> Explosive kills give 2x XP
  
• Added skill [Electric Fan] -> [Lasershot]'s projectile is no longer affected by gravity
  
• Falling rocks can now be used more consistently to kill things; you should now be able to shoot and push rocks off ledges to make them fall on enemies (other objects still need to be given this treatment such as explosive barrels)
  
• 25% for breakables in Hollows to hang from the ceiling with a vine
  
• You can now see if a skill can be upgraded based on your current gold with a new UI element in the skill tree
  
• Skills' rarity tier can now be seen in the skill tree under the skill name. Colors of the text also indicate its rarity (1: bronze, 2: silver, 3: gold, 4: diamond, 5: red lol)
  
• Added 5th tier to skill tree (yet no tier 5 skills yet)
  
• Removed the skill binding menu from the skill tree. For now, there are only 3 active skills you can unlock in the skill tree, and they are automatically mapped on unlock to unmapped DPad buttons in this order: bottom, top, left, right
  
• Added options menu option: change resolution (finally!)
  
• Added UI showing the player's level to the left of health UI
  
• Added back button functionality to menus
  
• Button icons now swapped per controller used (XBOX vs Playstation vs Switch)
  touch before they explode except you (for now?)
  

Bugs fixed:

• If Steam was not open on launch, Steam would open and attempt to launch my other game, Definitely Sneaky But Not Sneaky, instead of this game, Rocket Cave Adventure (LOL sorry forgot to replace a SteamID)
  
• Explosions would trigger before the player could see them or be near them, destroying the level before the player even reached the area. Explosion that happen off-screen, unless caused by the player, now no longer happen. This should reduce the times the level is destroyed before even seeing it
  
• Explosions were somewhat inconsistent, sometimes blowing up 5 tiles, sometimes blowing up only 1 (they are now more consistent lol)
  
• Rocks would sometimes spawn in the middle of a room instead of at the ceiling
  
• Air tank could trigger and explode simultaneously
  
• If in The Pit, then quit to main menu, then select 'Quick Start', you would be placed back into The Pit instead of into the run
  
• Mushrooms could spawn under/near the exit platform, causing an audio bug
  
• The gold UI did not update between The Pit and the run
  
• [Crumpled Paper]'s skill event did not fire properly
  
• [Extra Cog] did not lower upgrade costs properly
  
• The options menu did not work with the gamepad
  
• Floating skulls and UFOs could fly above or below the level
  
• [Auto Turret] physical gun placement was too low for the helicopter vehicle, causing the projectile to instantly despawn on creation
  
• Propellor noise for helicopter would stop for the level at start of boss fight
  
• Boss Giant Skull got stuck on the floor because skulls would be in the way
  
• Boss Giant Skull's top and bottom half could take damage from the same source at the same time; meaning one bomb could do 4 damage to the boss instead of the intended 2
  
• Boss Giant Skull's bottom half could flash black and white even when dead
  
• [Auto Turret] did not lock on to Boss Giant Skull properly
  
• The skill tree selector icon would not go to the selected skill when first opened
  
• The main menu music would not play on first load
  
• Post-level menu says wrong area name + number
  
• The player console appeared in front of the skill tree
  

Balance changes:

• Added +1 skill slot per skill tree row
  
• Max health set to 9
  
• If you level up with max health, a heart is spawned from you that you can pick up later if needed
  
• The top of the rocket vehicle's collider is now a spere to more accurately match its model
  
• [Stabilizer] skill now works as intended (please)
  
• Boss invincibility reduced from 1 -> 0.9 seconds
  
• Removed the meta-shop purchases: 75% gold courier and 100% gold courier; you can now only send back a max of 50% gold in runs to The Pit
  
• The helicopter vehicle's movement skills have been changed because it was too good compared to the rocket. You can no longer control the helicopter with the left analog stick; you now move by adjusting the pitch of the helicopter with the L1/R1 bumpers. There is now a horizontal booster on the helicopter that allows you to move left and right quickly once charged.
  
• The camera will not be able to see inside the boss room until the boss fight is triggered
  
• [Bombdrop]'s input changed from Triangle -> L2 + Triangle to stop accidental misfiring
  
• [Hourglass] - changed time added to level per mastery from 15 -> 10 seconds
  
• [Floor Candy] skill now spawns a heart at the beginning of the level instead of giving +1 health outright
  
• Boss King Skull should now be fairer; health changed from 16 -> 12, bounces away from players easier, shouldn't get stuck
  
• UFOs now have a damage crystal under them you must destroy to kill them
  
• Slimes that take more than 1 damage will die/split based on that damage. Before, level 3 slimes taking 3 damage would not outright kill them, now it does
  
• Skills can now be linked from right to left in the skill tree (before, only left to right was possible)
  
• Slime enemies are slightly larger
  
• Some room layouts were TOO THICC, meaning if a chest spawned in one of those rooms, it would take 2 bombs to reach it. Now those rooms have a path into them/closer to the wall
  
• Added a few more room templates for Hollows
  

Small additions/changes:

• Mouse cursor is now hidden on game start
  
• Renamed skill: [Pickaxe] -> [TNT]; added a new skill named [Pickaxe]
  
• Renamed skill: [Barometer] -> [Seismograph]
  
• [Barometer]'s timer now turns red if there's 10 seconds left
  
• [Dictionary] should now level up the player on next level start if unlocked in between levels and xp >= xp needed
  
• Added particle FX and SFX for [Gold Vaccume]
  
• Added red eyes to bats to make them more visible
  
• Added two wooden signs to The Pit to assist the player
  
• Play a SFX when changing loadout before a run
  
• Dice UI element in skill tree has unique color
  

Wow, that was a lot of typeing! I'm getting better at keeping track of balance changes, bugs, and features. However, just like every update before, there are many tiny changes that involve small tweaks to numbers and values that I did not write down. Such as slimes jump rate changing from 1.2 -> 1.3 seconds, or Hollows 3 having one less jellyfish. These, of course, are things I should be writing down. However, they sometimes just happen and slip my mind. So, apologies for anyone wondering why slimes are hopping 100 ms slower...

Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are truly interested in connecting with me! Finally, I try to play and upload a run of the game with webcam and commentary once or twice a week; check those out too!

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/boxedworksGames
Discord: https://discord.gg/7bCH7a5SYT

Latest Let's Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jhLkZHTk7M
Until next time!

Thomas
boxedworks