With the big release comes the big update! Between a brand new corporation to pay a [strike]beating[/strike] visit and a slew of improvements and additions, we have a lot to cover! Let's dive right into the patch note before you dive right into the simulation, agent!
What's new?
"????" marks the changes suggested by the Deadlink community
Invest With Femto
New Corporation To Raid
New Enemy Types
Femto Peace Officers
Femto's rise was sudden, unexpected, unnatural even. Whistleblowers either end up doing blows with the CEO or getting blown up “peacefully”.
They wouldn’t like you saying that out loud, but they’re fascists hiding themselves under the burning red banner of peace, the black shirts of investment opportunity. Regardless of sex, they’re darlings of progressive values and big-tech money, enforcing their will with ferocious loyalty to peace, until you become pacified.
8 New Elite Guards
“Seems the other corps and companies don't view Femto as much of a threat. Femto have been hiring mercs and outsourcing tech from other corps. Watch out for familiar faces, these cheap bastards will hurl everything at you.” – Rumiko Usagi
Final Boss Encounter
“I was quite hopeful when Femto started, their stock price was high and they had an optimistic streak I liked. It all went out the door when they went public. We want to know what they might be hiding, what only the investors see.” – Thomas Crusher
Crush the Corpos With Juggernaut
Juggernaut’s Abilities
Graviton Punch
A high-velocity kinetic impact coming from your fists, it launches the Combat Shell in the direction of the crosshair. Stuns enemies.
Stray Redirector
Defensive mode, absorbs incoming damage whilst maintaining mobility. On ability reactivation or after a fixed period it explodes outward, dealing damage and marking nearby enemies.
New Arsenal
Prime Eliminator
A sawed-off shotgun of ungodly and unseemly power. The recoil alone will knock a Combat Shell back. Every trigger pull results in two shots, on press and release.
GNU+Cluster
A cannon shooting a 40mm grenade that explodes mid-air, throwing shrapnel in a frontal arc.
SMRT Coil
A coil creating short-range arcs, dealing electric damage in front of the user.
Blaze Mode
A short-range jet burner dealing fire damage, its damage output increasing with proximity to the target.
Goob Launcher
An industrial-grade toxic goob launcher. Damages enemies over time, hindering their movement. Goobjectiles stick to horizontal surfaces.
Also new in Deadlink
New Implants
11 brand-new implants are available during runs.
The Plot Thickens
Dive into new captivating story elements that delve into the Agent’s work for the CSA, revealing intriguing revelations about their true identity.
Chatters and Voice-overs
Experience the ultimate immersion, featuring mesmerizing voice-overs and a chatter system that brings your runs to life, fully immersing you in the thrilling world of the Deadlink megacorporations.
HUB Upgrades Rework
The HUB upgrade tree is no longer a work in progress. We analyzed tons of runs done by streamers and our Discord community. Some of the upgrades got removed, others reworked, and, of course, some of them are completely new.
???? Rutger’s Casino
Rutger needed some love; we all know that. But here's the thing: if you dig through trash piles, you'll discover more than just implants. Prepare for an epic journey, delving into the world of scrap in a quest to find useful (or maybe not so useful) treasures. And guess what? With the ever-increasing inflation, XPs have become an absolute must for running a thriving trash business.
???? Weapon Inspect Animations
We saw that you really like the new animations, and honestly, we love them too! That’s why we added more. You can now also play the inspect animation directly using the X key by default.
New Steam stuff
Achievements
You asked for them; you got them. Some of them are hard, like really hard. But that’s why they’re called achievements, right?
Localization
Die Toten Link ++ Lien Mort ++ 死链接 ++ Enlace Muerto ++ デッドリンク ++ Ölü Bağlantı ++ Martwe Łącze ++ Мертвая Cсылка
Steam Cards (soon™)
It’s not Magic: The Gathering, but on the other hand, you can collect `em all!
Balance Changes
Armor calculation
The armor has been completely overhauled. Instead of acting as a second health bar and one-shot gating, now it is reducing incoming damage. The more armor, the more damage reduction. On top of that, every elemental damage will provide some armor-stripping capabilities, although the most efficient way to do so is still with Toxic/Corrosive damage type.
???? Difficulty
With the new armor system in mind, we have made adjustments to its values across higher difficulties. This change is aimed at encouraging our Agents to be more thoughtful in their choices of Implants and weapons. Addressing the concerns raised by hardcore players who found Neuromancy too easy, we have enhanced the challenge by making enemies stronger, with increased shooting speed and quicker reactions.
However, we haven't overlooked our non-hardcore players who simply want to enjoy the game. To provide a smoother experience, VR-Orientation will now feature less spongy enemies and reduced armor in later biomes. This way, you can freely experiment with different builds before taking on the challenges of Deep Dive and Neuromancy.
Furthermore, we have made slight adjustments to the XP gain from door rewards, allowing you to obtain your upgrades a bit sooner. We hope these changes will enhance your overall gaming experience.
Neuralboosts
Neuralboost reward got shifted to the regular reward pool, so it's not handed out before every implant selection anymore. This is a big balance tweak for the build's power consistency. Now players can decide whether they want to boost their combat stats vertically or broaden their progress by adding a new shell and weapon upgrades horizontally.
???? Soldier’s Shotgun
- Number of pellets decreased (20 ➡️ 10)
- Shotgun damage increased (5 ➡️ 12)
- Detection radius for shotgun pellets increased, and the detection radius curve changed to be less aggressive (projectiles will have a bigger detection radius of up to 20 meters). This should improve the shotgun feel and damage delivery.
- Reload and Fire Rate Shotgun’s mods properties increased to make them a sensible alternative to other Shotgun mods.
Heavy Weapons’ Stats
We noticed a major disproportion in terms of Heavy Weapon damage outcome. This change equalizes each of the secondary weapons to be as viable to play as any other.
| Damage | Critical Damage | Changes | [/tr]|
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket Launcher | 150 | 225 | Damage +15 | [/tr]
| Flame Assault Payload | 300 | 375 | Damage Mult -20% | [/tr]
| EM Charge | 100 + 280 (mine) | 120 + 420 (mine) | Mine Damage -10 | [/tr]
| Prox Mine | 200 | 300 | Projectiles -1 Damage +20 |
[/tr]
| ARC Cannon | 90 | 135 | Damage +50 | [/tr]
| Particle Accelerator | 300 | 375 | Headshot Damage Mult -15% Damage -15 |
[/tr]
| Electrolaser | 10 | 15 | Fire Rate +1 | [/tr]
| Matter Converter | 300 | 450 | Fire Rate -1 Damage -45 |
[/tr]
| Tarball HRGL | 150 | 225 | Perfectly Balanced | [/tr]
| Fire Ant Rounds | 160 + 160 (recall) | 200 + 200 (recall) | Damage: -15 | [/tr]
| Stormblight Cascade | 50 | 50 | [/tr] |
| Locust Swarm | 155 | 232 | Technical Tweaks | [/tr]
| GNU+ Cluster | 120-522 | 170-680 | [/tr] |
| Blaze Mode | 726 | 826 | [/tr] |
| SMRT Coil | 12 | 17 | [/tr] |
| Goob Launcher | 120 + 200 (DoT) | 170 | [/tr] |
Other Changes
- Fixed Carl's weapon buffs calculation method
- Fixed this one Interport arena not having C-Balls
- Fixed Geisha's never-ending challenge on certain Tora maps
- Fixed Torantula being able to immobilize the player
- Fixed gamepad issues on all UI windows
- ???? Fixed aspect ratio for better handling of the 16:10 and ultrawide resolutions
- ???? Experiments are now displayed in the loadout and summary screen
- Shell selection screen clarity tweaks
- Added elemental effects display for boss HP bar
- Added icons for keyboard and mouse bindings
- ???? Added selection of the gamepad icons type (Xbox or PlayStation)
- Added death animations to heavy enemies
- ???? Added weak points to the Iskra boss
- ???????????? Iskra is less talkative now (and more quiet)
- Apex cutscenes rework
- Added handling for the nVidia DLSS
- Increased values of the XP doors
- Added HUD notifier for the incoming enemy’s melee attack
- Added more environmental audio
- Improved performance of the NPC’s dialogue windows
⚠️ Save Data Reset ⚠️
Excitingly, the full release brings a plethora of incredible changes. However, this means that the EA saves won't sync with the current version, leading to a reset of progress on the affected save slot. To compensate for any inconvenience, you will receive a partial refund of XP and Turing Tokens. Get ready for an enhanced gaming experience, and thank you for being part of our journey!
Note from the Devs
The past nine months have been one hell of a ride! Since we dropped the Early Access version in October 2022, we've been on fire, delivering six content updates and five crucial hotfixes. And now, brace yourselves because we're beyond thrilled to unveil the Deadlink v1.0 release!
Every single change made during the Early Access period was heavily influenced by the incredible Deadlink community, who've been actively engaging with us on our Discord server. They're like an extra team of game designers, and we can't thank them enough for their invaluable contributions!
As for the post-release roadmap, we're keeping things flexible. We'll be focusing our efforts based on the reception from Deadlink's players and critics. So, make sure to share your feedback on the Steam forums, Discord server, and our social media channels. Rest assured; we read every single word!
Now, it's time to dive in and have a blast, Agents! Let the excitement begin!
