StarCrawlers Chimera update for 14 January 2022

The Beta 1.4.6 (14 January 2022) Minion Patch Part 2 has arrived. More improvements and additions to the Engineer, Hacker, Nanomancy, and Xenobiologist skill trees, new abilities and fixes.

Changes

• Engineers Junker Scavenge and Turret Barrage no longer require these Minions to have line of sight on the target location or character.
• Engineer starting weapon the Pneumatowrench is now a 1 handed melee weapon.

Xenobiologist

• Skull Crack is a new ability that gives your pet slime a skull of its own to deal ranged ballistic damage. It can be perked to become passive and grant a stacking Smarts boost to your pet slime.
• Warp Wave is a new ability that teleports your pet slime to a target location and deals AOE psi damage around the impact. It can be perked to become passive and grant a stacking Smarts boost to you.

Hacker

• Hack can now be perked to become ranged and have no cooldown if the hack fails.
• NEW ABILITY Virus : Overheat. Deals fire damage over time. When perked, Overheat can spread viruses on the target to other enemies.
• Scramble is now passive and has a chance to apply a glitch to an enemy Mechanical when they take damage from your viruses. When perked, also increases the duration of the virus.
• NEW ABILITY Virus : Snowcrash. Deals cryo damage over time and then explodes to deal AOE cryo damage around the target. When perked, virus damage to a target with Snowcrash has a chance to Freeze the target.
• Command Override can no longer charm Vendorbots and Vendordamus and makes the target a permanent minion. When perked, charmed targets heal to 100% health and gain a damage boost.
• Engineer Mechparts can be used to heal (and Upgrade) minions created with Command Override.
• NEW ABILITY Virus : Mindmelt. Deals shock damage over time and decreases target shock resistance each time it deals damage. When perked, Mindmelt deals damage whenever another virus does.
• NEW ABILITY Killswitch (Passive). When a target with low health takes virus damage, Killswitch deals shock damage. When perked, the first time it activates on a target, Killswitch refreshes virus duration and applies a glitch for each virus.

Nanomancy

• Nanomancy now begins the game with 3 filled Nanite Jars and 3 empties.
• The Magnetic Jars perk is now baseline for all Nanomancy abilities. If the jar doesn’t shatter, thrown jars will automatically return to your inventory when used.
• Shatter chance now decreases as your Smarts increase.
• Craft Nanite Jar can now be perked to gain Replication, allowing nanites you summon to passively consume corpses to create more nanites for you.
• NEW ABILITY Nanite Hex replaces Angry Nanites and directly inflicts a damage over time effect using a Nanite Jar. When Nanite Hex end, a Wild Nanite Cloud bursts out of the target. The Nanite Whisperer perk gives you a chance to coax Wild Nanite Clouds directly back into your inventory.
• NEW ABILITY Nanite Armor applies nanites directly to your body to create a robust armor that dissipates after several hits and then regroups to form a Wild Nanite Cloud. When perked, your nanite armor will deal energy damage to nearby enemies.
• NEW ABILITY Nanite Healing directly heals the player over time before dispersing to become a Wild Nanite Cloud. When perked, becomes Nanite Rejuvenation to grant more healing and removal of negative effects.
• Nanite Plague has been reworked to consume 3 Nanite Jars to create a deadlier Nanite Plague that persists, deals increased damage and spreads aggressively. When perked, boost the damage of Nanite Plague even further when it is first created and become immune to its attacks for the same duration.

Big Guns
To balance with other weapon trees and losing stat gains from the offhand slot, the Big Guns skill tree is expanding to 7 ranks and will receive its final capstone ability in a future update.

• NEW ABILITY Run ‘n Gun. Run forwards and make your next Big Guns ability Instant. When perked, boost damage of your next Heavy Ranged Weapon attack.

Enemy AI
Chimera has been holding (mandatory) workshops on proper search procedures, resulting in enemies persisting in looking for you longer and executing an investigation of the area before giving up and returning to their posts.

Key Fixes

• Fixed an issue with dragging and dropping to equip a shield item while a heavy weapon is equipped causing the inventory icon to disappear until the inventory was reopened.
• Fixed an issue with Bonus Contract Crates sometimes allowing clever enemies to hide inside of them.
• Fixed an issue with Security Summon traps sometimes choosing to teleport guards into closed doors.
• Fixed an issue with Minions teleporting to catch up to the player could appear invisible due to culling until changing rooms.
• Fixed issue in damage boosts to Big Guns Shock and Aww Yeah! and Cyberninja Dash resulting in some unreasonably large damage.

Coming Soon (in no particular order)

• Floor 4 : Production
• Skill Tree Improvements : ability changes and balancing + new abilities

As always, thank you for your support!

• Thunderflux & Juggernaut Games