THE GREAT BALLS OF FIRE UPDATE Is Here!

Greetings Convicts,

Grenades. Explosives. Frags. Pineapples. Hot Potatoes. Call them what you like, everybody loves those small balls of boom. You know what's good about grenades? They explode. You know what's good about robots? They explode! What a match made in heaven. With this update, you can look forward to a bunch of new features:

• NEW Pickups: Grenades (a few of them, actually)

• NEW Shotgun Designs, Animations, SFX and Effects

• NEW Music, Almost Double the Amount of Tracks

• Cutscene Reworks and Touch Ups

• Balancing Changes

• Plenty of Bug Fixes

• A Happy Accident Feature...Stay Tuned to the End for More

Wow, that's a lotta damage! Lets take a closer look...

NEW PICKUP: GRENADES

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!

Some idiot has been stuffing crates around the prison with grenades. Who? Jury is still out, but I'm sure you'll want to thank them. Four new grenade types are available, one for each area currently available. Break some crates, pick them up, and launch them from the new and improved Shotgun MkIII's launcher. you can even hold three of the same type at once, just don't think too hard about where you're storing them.

FRAG GRENADES

Ah, what a classic. you throw it, it whistles through the air, and then a big boom happens wherever it happens to end up. Oh, that's right by your feet? Very unfortunate. Regardless, these are as close to your bog standard high explosive as you'll get. They've got a big round green casing with a red stripe around them to make sure they stand out amongst all the robot debris. They'll be found amongst most rooms in the Cells areas.

SHOCK GRENADES

Robots and electricity are a bit like me and cheese; a small amount is good, but too much and it'll spell disaster. These small batteries emit a highly dangerous static field for a few seconds on detonation, making for great area denial as bots are helplessly zapped upon entering into the radius. With bright blue tubes on a silver shell, they crackle with arcing electric to make sure you can spot them. They're found in most rooms within the Hydro areas.

FUSION GRENADES

So, you've just discovered fusion. Would you solve an energy crisis? Help achieve world peace? No, stupid! You'd compact it into a small throwable object and chuck it at that toaster that didn't do your bread quite right! These experimental reactors deal an high amount of damage with a small radius, with the added benefit of being magnetic enough to stick to targets. How handy! Keep an eye out for red casing with a ominous green glow from within. You'll be looking for them in most Tech area rooms, as benefits such a experimental and stupidly misused technology.

CLUSTER GRENADES

One grenade not enough, huh? Okay. I hear you. A bit greedy, but we all have our moments. What if you had a grenade, that when thrown turned into several smaller grenades? Surely that can only end well. Winner of the "Most Likely To Kill The User" Award 2026, these little babies ping out from the casing and fly off to explode in a bunch of different directions. They're very bouncy too, just in case you felt they were too easy to avoid. They look like a grapefruit at an EDM concert, and can be found in most Service areas.

FULL WEAPON DESIGN REWORK: THE SHOTGUN MKIII

REDONE ANIMATIONS, SFX AND VISUALS

Say hello to the Shotgun MkIII! This all started with an important thought: those grenades have to come from somewhere. What to do? Obviously the solution is to strap more stuff to the shotgun. This gave a good excuse to touch up a few things here and there, and one thing lead to another. Observe the new under-barrel grenade launcher, funky adrenaline-filled pipes ready to start pumping you with all sorts of chemicals, and some additional new details along the way. A full texture rework too!

All animations for the shotgun have been remade, from firing and reloading to all upgrade animations. They're just a little nicer to look at. Ever fired a real shotgun? They're loud. Real loud! Now this one is too, with every sound effect overhauled (and even a few new bits added), along with improved VFX for firing and general use. Enjoy an intimidating sound akin to a door being slammed each time you shoot. Oh, and the autoloader now makes tiny little servo noises when it opens and closes. Cute.

NEW MUSIC: BIG BOOMS NEED A BIGGER BOOMBOX

NEW VIBES TO CARRY YOU THROUGH A BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

Alongside the new shotgun audio reworks, there's a bumper pack of music headed your way, with almost double the amount of music currently in the game. This is only the start, so expect to see much more music hitting soon! Alongside some of the usual 'Dad Rock' sounds are some more synth, industrial and metal tones. Variety is the spice of life and all that (as long as that spice still has an electric guitar).

I've had some requests to put the complete soundtrack on [music streaming service of choice]. It's not available anywhere currently, but rest assured this is being looked into and hopefully I'll have some more info to share soon!

• New Gameplay Track - SIREN'S CALL

• New Gameplay Track - FRAGHELL

• New Gameplay Track - METAL RESISTANCE

• New Gameplay Track - MONOCULAR DECONSTRUCTION

• New Gameplay Track - CIRCUIT BENT

• New Boss Track for Cells Bosses - HARDWARE HARDPOINT

• New Boss Track for Tech Bosses - CYBER WARFARE

BALANCING CHANGES

New weapons means the balance police have to be called in. Since high damage is easier to deal out now, bosses will be more resistant to damage sooner, as well as some objects loosing their ability to chain from other objects (i.e. ignoring the Warden's shield). As a bit of relief, Protodroids will barely increase in resistance, damage or general threat level, because they're pathetic and bravery really doesn't suit them. Give them something to be scared of. This also extends to the basic Buzzards, since they're hard to hit at the best of times, though they will still increase in resistance, just at a slower rate.

Oh, and one last thing...

NEW FEATURE...ISH: GRENADE JUMPS

I HOPE YOU DIDN'T NEED THOSE LEGS

A great man once said "It's not a bug, it's a feature." He was on to something. As a result of some tightening up of the physics, anti-clipping fixes and the new grenades, you can now grenade jump. Really high too, if you do it right. Is this by design? Nope. Will there be ways to break the game with this? Almost certainly. I could patch it out. I probably should patch it out. Maybe I will...

Nah.

Games are about having fun, and if someone can get a giggle from blasting themselves 60ft into the air, more power to them. Use with caution.

WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? GO BLOW SOMETHING UP!

Carnage awaits you! All previous save games are compatible with this update, though for the full explosive experience starting fresh is maybe a good idea; grenade damage doesn't increase with shotgun damage upgrades. 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!

Angry about changes? Need some faceless inbox to yell at? Maybe you just found a bug and want to report it in a nice friendly way? Feel free to contact the Breakout email (you'll give me a break from the thousandth free key request) or post in the discussions!