Tactician Update part one - experimental

Hey everyone,

The Tactician Update patch will be very packed, so we decided to break it down and release it in parts.

The first content batch is now live on the experimental branch. Most of the new content uses placeholder art.

This is a quick rundown so you can dive in and start testing; the full write-up comes when everything rolls out to the main branch after sufficient testing. As usual, switching to the experimental branch means losing your current run.

Ion Cannon Rework

The Ionize mechanic has changed: Ionize now disables an enemy equipment for 1 turn instead of removing 1 pip. Alongside that, the Ion Cannon has been split into 3 subtypes, with some new cards (card art is still placeholder):

Ion Disruptor (the basic starting Ion Cannon):

• Ion Sling (Common) - 1O 1E, CD 4 - Deal 6 Ion damage.

• Ion Javelin (Common) - 1O, CD 5 - Deal 4 Ion damage. If you are Shielded: spend 2 Shield Points and deal +4 Ion damage (8 total).

• Glare (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. On Shield break: apply 1 Blind.

• Combined Arms (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 8 Ion damage. Draw an Attack card.

• Ion Spear (Uncommon) - 2O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 10 Ion damage. Apply Ionize equal to the enemy Shield Points destroyed.

• Shield Switch (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - If you are unshielded: gain 4 Shield Points. Otherwise: deal 8 Ion damage.

• Cascade Ion (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 4 Ion damage, in 2 separate hits.

• Backfeed (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. On Shield break: apply Mark to the enemy's Shield Generator.

Ion Siphon is the defensive Ion Cannon, adding to your own shield while degrading the enemy's shield and damage output:

• Ion Shell (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 6 Ion damage. Gain 3 Shield Points.

• Boomerang (Common) - 1O 3E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. If Shielded: gain Shield Points equal to enemy Shield Points destroyed.

• Ion Whip (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. If the enemy is unshielded: disable the targeted equipment for 1 turn instead.

• Drain Field (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. If the enemy is Shielded: reduce the cooldown of a random Shield card in your cooldown pile by 3.

• Direct Injection (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Apply 8 Ionize directly. Gain 1 Heat. Deplete.

• Shield Sapper (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 6 Ion damage. On Shield break: apply -1 enemy Shielding. Deplete.

• Ion Jammer (Uncommon) - 1O 3E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. Apply 1 Suppression for every 4 Ionize added by this attack.

• Undertow (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. On Shield break: apply 3 enemy Shielding until the enemy next plays a Shield card.

Ion Resonator builds up a lot of Ionize to heat up the enemy or amplify your damage:

• Ion Pulse (Common) - 1O 1E, CD 5 - Deal 4 Ion damage. If this applies any Ionize: apply +4 bonus Ionize.

• Ion Oscillator (Common) - 1O 1E, CD 5 - Deal 6 Ion damage. If the enemy is unshielded: reduce this card's cooldown by 2.

• Plasma Bolt (Common) - 2O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 9 Ion damage. Apply 1 Heat for every 3 Shield Points destroyed.

• Ion Resonance (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 6 Ion damage, +1 Ion damage for every 2 Ionize on the enemy.

• Ion Beacon (Uncommon) - 2M 2E, CD 6 - Deal 10 Ion damage. Consume all Ionize present. Your next Attack this turn deals +1 damage for every 5 Ionize consumed.

• Ion Combustion (Uncommon) - 2O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 8 Ion damage. Consume all Ionize present. Apply 1 Heat for every 4 Ionize consumed. Deplete.

• Harmonic Echo (Uncommon) - 2M, CD 6 - The next Ion Attack this turn deals double Ion damage.

• Cyclotron Burst (Rare) - 1O 3E, CD 5 - Deal 6 Ion damage. If the enemy is unshielded: double the enemy's Ionize points instead. Deplete.

Don't have the weapon hardpoint to spare for an Ion cannon? There's also a brand-new Aux-slot Ion equipment, the Ion Array (sort of like an Ion Cannon lite, currently using a scaled-down Ion cannon model as a placeholder):

• Ion Sling (Common) - 1O 1E, CD 4 - Deal 6 Ion damage.

• Ion Shell (Common) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 6 Ion damage. Gain 3 Shield Points.

• Ion Pulse (Common) - 1O 1E, CD 5 - Deal 4 Ion damage. If this applies any Ionize: apply +4 bonus Ionize.

• Ion Javelin (Common) - 1O, CD 5 - Deal 4 Ion damage. If you are Shielded: spend 2 Shield Points and deal +4 Ion damage.

• Induction Bolt (Common) - 2E, CD 5 - Deal 6 Ion damage. Draw 1 card for every 6 enemy Ionize.

• Glare (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 8 Ion damage. On Shield break: apply 1 Blind.

• Plasma Bolt (Uncommon) - 2O 2E, CD 6 - Deal 9 Ion damage. Apply 1 Heat for every 3 Shield Points destroyed by this attack.

• Combined Arms (Uncommon) - 1O 2E, CD 5 - Deal 8 Ion damage. Draw an Attack card.

Unlock changes to go with the rework:

• The Ion Array unlocks by dealing 800 Shield damage after unlocking the Ion Disruptor (the base Ion Cannon).

• The Ion Siphon and Ion Resonator now unlock by applying Ionize (400 and 800 total, respectively), so they're unlocked by actually fighting with an Ion Cannon. The base and Aux versions can still be unlocked by dealing Shield damage with any weapon.

New Beam Laser Family Cards

New cards across the Beam Laser subtypes (card art still placeholder):

• Beam Laser: Refraction - 2O - Deal 4 damage. Costs 1 less Ordnance for each Laser attack played this turn.

• Beam Laser: Thermal Bleed - 2O 1E - Deal 4 damage. If the enemy has Coolant Loss: Ignite 3.

• Industrial Laser: Bevel - 2O - Deal 4 damage, Shred 1. If the enemy is Overheated: Shred 4 instead.

• Industrial Laser: Fracture - 3O 1M - Deal 5 damage, Shred 4. If this applies Brittle: deal 5 again.

• Industrial Laser: Ship Breaker - 3O 3M - Deal 4 damage, +2 damage for each time you applied Shred this turn.

• Thermal Lance: Cauterize - 2O - Deal damage. If the enemy is Overheated: increase damage by +4.

• Thermal Lance: Coolant Purge - 2O - Deal 4 damage. If the enemy is Overheated: apply 1 Coolant Loss on dealing Hull damage.

Equipment Upgrade Tech Tree

Equipment upgrade rules have been restructured into something like a tech tree: some upgrades now have a tier requirement before they become available. A greyed-out upgrade tooltip tells you how many more upgrades you need before that option opens up.

Cargo & Ship Management

• New item: the Splicer. With a Splicer in your cargo bay, you can transfer a card between equipment of the same family (for example, a Light Laser card onto a Pulse Laser). Doing so consumes both the donor equipment and the Splicer.

• Enemies now have a small chance to drop a Splicer as a combat reward.

• Ships now have limited cargo bay capacity: Avalanche 14 slots, Arbalest and Firebrand 10, Marauder 8, Lancer 8.

• You can now drag crew members out of their station and into the cargo bay.

• AI crew members can now be sold in stations.

• You can now re-order items in the cargo bay via drag and drop.

• The ship status panel now shows on the combat reward screen, so you can equip your rewards directly onto your ship.

• You can now jettison unwanted equipment from the ship inspector, both on the map and on the combat reward screen.

Store Changes

• Reworked the store populator logic: some equipment was heavily overrepresented in stores, while other equipment (like the Charged Shield and Cerberus) had about a 1% chance to show up.

• Removed duplicates in stores, both two copies of the same item and two items of the same subtype. Stores should now offer noticeably more varied equipment.

New Subsystems

15 new subsystems, bringing the total to 96:

• Ordnance Regulator (Universal) - Cards from this equipment cost 1 less Ordnance.

• Energy Conduit (Universal) - Cards from this equipment cost 1 less Energy.

• Mass Optimizer (Universal) - Cards from this equipment cost 1 less Mass.

• Pre-loader (Engineering Bay, Resource Bay) - Cards played on turn 1 have their cooldown reduced by 3.

• Standby Module (Precision Laser) - At the start of each turn (after your draw phase), add 1 Blink card to each empty card slot.

• Impact Driver (Railgun) - Railgun attacks deal +2 equipment damage.

• Shrapnel Casing (Railgun) - Apply 5 Shred when destroying an equipment with a Railgun attack.

• Core Breaker (Railgun) - Equipment destroyed by Railgun attacks has +1 repair time.

• Scatter Shot (PDC) - When attacking with a PDC card, apply 1 Suppression.

• Counter-Strike (PDC) - Your next attack this turn deals +50% damage after destroying a missile with a PDC card.

• Procurement (Resource Bay) - Draw 1 random card for every 10 resources spent.

• Supply Chain (Resource Bay) - Return 1 random card from your cooldown pile to your hand for every 15 resources spent.

• Reactor Expansion (Resource Bay) - Gain 1 Reactor power every 3 turns.

• Thermal Mass (Radiator) - Gain 1 Heat Tolerance for every 4 Mass you hold.

• Salvage Extractor (Resource Bay) - When you destroy an enemy equipment, gain 4 Mass.

Quality of Life

• You can now rotate around your ship in the hangar with a controller.

• You can now move around the star map with the ship status open (mouse and keyboard only).

• You can now open the ship status during narrative events.

• Newly unlocked weapons from a run now show up as a guaranteed pick option in the next run's sector gateway event.

Balance Changes

• Flare+: cooldown increased to 6.

• Charged Barrier (+): cooldown increased from 5 to 6.

• Emergency Reserves: cooldown increased from 5 to 6.

• Battlement: cost reduced from 3E 1M to 2E 1M, cooldown reduced from 6 to 5.

• Battlement+: cost reduced from 3E 2M to 2E 2M, cooldown reduced from 7 to 6.

• Kinetic Catapult+: base damage reduced from 6 to 5.

• Tungsten Round: cost decreased from 2E 2M to 2E 1M.

• Tungsten Round+: cost decreased from 2E 3M to 2E 2M, cooldown decreased from 6 to 5.

• Energy Spike (+): cost changed from 3E to 2E 1M. The Overload threshold for returning a Railgun card has been removed.

• Surge Spike (+): now increases the damage of all Precision attacks by 1 per Overload, instead of only increasing the equipment damage of Railgun attacks. Cost increased from 2O 1E to 2O 2E, Overload sustained reduced from 2 to 1.

• Pre-heater+: now doubles the Ignite of your next two Laser attacks played in a turn, rather than tripling the Ignite of one attack.

• Removed the built-in subsystem from the Firebrand's Radiator, and increased its natural Heat Tolerance from 3 to 5 instead.

• SK S03 Elite: Searing Salvo base damage increased from 2 to 3.

Bug fixes

• Fixed the Tungsten Round damage preview.

That's it for the first batch, the next one will focus on enemies. Since this update is packed with content, it's safe to say there there might be bugs too. So dive in, see if anything breaks, and let us know how the new changes affect the game. The Ion Cannon subtypes and the Splicer especially need some play-time before this heads to the main branch. o7

The Breachway Team