Just a small update around reported issues. The next major patch is coming along well, and is shaping up to be the wildest one yet. I'll post a patch preview next week for that.

Balance:

• Tweaked the loot generation system a bit more. Upgrade diversity has been slightly increased in the early levels.
  Note: I previously noticed it was hard to get a couple of upgrades early on that were beneficial to a number of pilots, but not strict synergies, and also found that starting options were way too similar across games. This is a small tweak, however, and should not drastically change things from last patch.
  

Bugs:

• The new upgrade generation system allowed me to rewrite the Upgrade Beacon code to be far more efficient. It should no longer be possible for it to lock the game in edge case scenarios.
  
• The upgrade marker effect triggered by reaching 100% on an Upgrade Beacon will no longer show up or play a level up sound if it fails to find an upgrade to level up. A new sound will play on failure.
  
• I've added a protection for the Sting King that should force it to act if you manage to pause or tab out at an exactly precise moment around its spawning (that is hard to pinpoint).
  Note: This is an incredibly elusive and hard to replicate issue because it requires such precise timing, but I've run tests for days, and not been able to break the Sting King again.