THE ANNIVERSARY UPDATE Is Here!

Happy 1st Anniversary, Convicts!

As the new year rolls in, so does a new year of content! To celebrate the one year anniversary of Breakout’s launch, there's a wealth of new content now available. From new bosses, arenas, collectables and more! We've got a lot of ground to cover, to name a few:

• NEW Hydro Boss: Umibozu

• NEW Upgrade Areas

• NEW Arenas

• NEW Pickups & Environmental Hazards

• NEW Achievements (and lots of 'em)

• NEW Intro Cutscenes

• NEW Collectables

• NEW Music To Destroy Bots To

• Boss Fight Redux: Aquadragoon

• Balancing Changes

• Plenty of Bug Fixes

Phew! Lots going on, so let's dive in!

NEW BOSS FIGHT: UMIBOZU

UMIBOZU

You might feel safe in the water, especially since the bots don't usually want to take a dip themselves. That safety is about to be rocked. A new boss enters the Hydro theme, Umibozu! With the ability to manipulate water around itself, you'll have to duck, dive and swim to avoid incoming attacks while waiting for your moment to strike at the head.

BOSS REDUX: AQUADRAGOON

AQUADRAGOON

Not wanting to feel left out, the Aquadragoon boss fight has had some additional work, from revising current attack patterns and projectiles to adding whole new attacks to its arsenal, the Aquadragoon has shaken up the fight.

UPGRADE ROOM REDUX

REWORKED & RENOVATED UPGRADE SYSTEM

Upgrades, prisoners, upgrades! Long gone are the times of poor luck, getting five lesser quality upgrades in a row. New upgrade rooms are here, and they're a lot more consistent: alternating are Major Upgrade Rooms and Minor Upgrade Rooms, each now containing three upgrades to choose from. You'll have a lot more control over your upgrade build from now on.

NEW ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: CRATES & BARRELS

DESTRUCTABLE CRATES AND EXPLOSIVE BARRELS

You know them, you love them. The video game classic combo: Explosive barrels are ready to pop at the slightest hint of sparks, and will send flaming shards of metal hurling through the air. Crates are just begging to be broken, often containing goodies to help you on your journey. Who knows, maybe in the future they'll contain something even more interesting?

NEW PICKUPS: ADRENALINE INJECTORS

POWER UP WITH ADRENALINE INJECTOR PICKUPS

These handy little guys are a one shot burst of adrenaline, just to take the edge off if you need it. Find them in crates by busting them open, or checking hidden spots for an additional bump. Handy for if you're in a tight spot and need a quick rush to get you through.

NEW ARENAS

GET YOUR FEET WET IN NEW HYDRO ARENAS

Wow, look at that! What's that you say? I said multiple arenas but there's only one in the picture? Well, to be honest there's an odd number of new arenas, and when you try to collage them into a single image for this post it comes out looking like a "Greetings From The Hydro Decks!" postcard. So you only get a preview of one. Bite me. If you want to see the rest, you'll have to find them yourself. A variety of new arenas have hit the Hydro decks, and it's too many to list here (this is already long as it is). Safe to say you'll be sufficiently challenged as these new, wider, more open areas give you more space to move, but take more effort to navigate. There are even a few goodies sprinkled in amongst them for you treasure hunters out there.

NEW ACHIEVEMENTS

76 NEW ACHIEVEMENTS TO EARN

You like achieving? Well, you've come to the right place. A whopping 76 additional achievements have been added, covering everything from upgrades, destruction, sightseeing and secret somethings all the way to specific challenges you'll have to work towards. A few of the current achievements have had some slight reworks, either to make them a little easier or to make them more clear. Happy hunting!

NEW CUTSCENES & INTRO

MEET YOUR NEW BOSS

Just what goes into starting a robot revolution anyway? You'll soon find out as you meet our mysterious voice, Dr Anderson, for the first time. Some changes to the tutorials in the opening areas make it a little clearer how to play the game too, so you've no excuse for not impressing her now.

NEW DATAPADS

NEW COLLECTABLE DATAPADS

It wouldn't be a Breakout update without new Datapads. Check out the new arenas and search far and wide for some fresh stories, tidbits and humour. There's even some achievements tied to collecting them now, so might as well grab them when you see them, right?

NEW MUSIC

A NEW TUNE FOR THE NEW YEAR

Bumping tunes keep you fighting. This time, to compliment our new boss, a new Hydro Boss track has been added into rotation; it has a chance to play on either the Aquadragoon or Umibozu boss fights.

• New Boss Track for Umibozu - OPEN YOUR SHOTGUN

BALANCING CHANGES

Everybody seems to be having far too much fun, and we can't have that. Jokes aside, due to the new structure of upgrade rooms there's been some changes to how upgrades stack. Upgrades now provide diminishing returns when picked up multiple times, encouraging variety in your builds and keeping the gameplay from becoming too weighted against your enemies. Rest assured though, you won't feel the effect of this unless you're picking up the same one multiple times in a row, so feel free to experiment with stacking and see what works for you.

In addition to this, with the introduction of adrenaline injectors, the ceiling for how much adrenaline you can have at maximum was lowered just a smidge. You don't really feel this too much, but it does mean that keeping your adrenaline up is more important then ever. Guess you'll have to hit your targets more often! A smaller number of bots (primarily Protodroids) will take you on in the first few rooms to ease you into the gameplay loop now rather then throwing you in the deep end, so you'll have chance to get a feel for it before coming to blows with the heavier hitters.

PHEW, THAT'S A LOT OF WORDS!

With the shorter timespan between the release of the last update and this one, the behind the scenes work has been paying off. Expect to see more updates like this as the year goes on, and here's to another year of shotgun carnage!

Of course, if you find any bugs, issues or have general thoughts, feel free to contact the Breakout email or post in the discussions.