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Steam News8 November 20257mo ago

UPDATE 0.5 - The Prestige Update

The Problem Before this update, all damage and health calculations followed a fixed, linear pattern.

In this update7

Full notes

Full Defender Bros update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

What changed

1 fix6 additions10 changes0 removals
  • Balance
  • Maps
  • Gameplay
fixedThe ProblemBefore this update, all damage and health calculations followed a fixed, linear pattern. For example, your pistol’s progression looked something like this:
addedThe ProblemThis system made progression feel less impactful the longer you played . Each new map felt like a smaller step up, and buying +damage or +health perks mid-run became increasingly underwhelming.
addedIntroducing Star LevelsIn The Prestige Update , every weapon, building, and power up now has an accompanying Star Level .
changedIntroducing Star LevelsEach Star Level drastically boosts your weapon’s base power and redefines its progression curve:
changedIntroducing Star LevelsThis is supported by a complete backend overhaul of how damage and health are calculated — allowing numbers to scale infinitely (yes, literally into thousands of zeros ). Think Cookie Clicker levels.
addedHow Prestige WorksWhen a weapon, building, and power up reaches its max level, you can now Prestige it.

Defender Bros changes

fixedBefore this update, all damage and health calculations followed a fixed, linear pattern. For example, your pistol’s progression looked something like this:
addedThis system made progression feel less impactful the longer you played . Each new map felt like a smaller step up, and buying +damage or +health perks mid-run became increasingly underwhelming.
addedIn The Prestige Update , every weapon, building, and power up now has an accompanying Star Level .
changedEach Star Level drastically boosts your weapon’s base power and redefines its progression curve:
changedThis is supported by a complete backend overhaul of how damage and health are calculated — allowing numbers to scale infinitely (yes, literally into thousands of zeros ). Think Cookie Clicker levels.

The Problem

Before this update, all damage and health calculations followed a fixed, linear pattern. For example, your pistol’s progression looked something like this:

50 → 100 → 150 → 200 … (until a fixed max)

This system made progression feel less impactful the longer you played. Each new map felt like a smaller step up, and buying +damage or +health perks mid-run became increasingly underwhelming.

Going from 3050 → 3100 just didn’t feel exciting — especially after the early thrill of doubling from 50 → 100. It was a fundamental flaw in the game’s core progression loop… and that’s what this update set out to fix.

Introducing Star Levels

In The Prestige Update, every weapon, building, and power up now has an accompanying Star Level.

Each Star Level drastically boosts your weapon’s base power and redefines its progression curve:

⭐ Star 0 → 50 → 100 → 150 → 200 (base cap) ⭐ Star 1 → 500 → 1K → 1.5K → 2K ⭐⭐ Star 2 → 5K → 10K → 15K → 20K

This is supported by a complete backend overhaul of how damage and health are calculated — allowing numbers to scale infinitely (yes, literally into thousands of zeros). Think Cookie Clicker levels.

How Prestige Works

When a weapon, building, and power up reaches its max level, you can now Prestige it.

Prestiging:

  • Resets its stats,

  • Grants it a Star Level, and

  • Massively increases its base power, letting it scale far beyond what was previously possible.

Backpack turret at 1 Star Level:

Backpack Turret at 3 Star Levels:

Map Star Tiers

Maps now have their own Star Level:

Map 1 → ★0 Map 2 → ★1 Map 3 → ★2 Map 4 → ★3

Each map’s difficulty and scaling are tied to its Star Tier. If you want to survive in higher-star maps, you’ll need to Prestige your weapons and buildings to match their challenge.

This creates a clear sense of progression across worlds while keeping your grind meaningful and rewarding.

New Buildings and turrets you unlock will start off matching the star level of the map they were unlocked at, so you can always fight back even when going into a new map.

Gold Scaling Overhaul

Gold rewards now scale 5x per map Star Level. Higher-star maps drop much more gold, allowing faster upgrades and smoother early-game progress.

To balance this:

  • Higher-star weapons and buildings cost more,

  • But overall upgrade costs have been drastically reduced, making leveling faster and more rewarding.

Under the Hood

This update included a full rewrite of the game’s damage and health systems. All core calculations now use scientific notation — enabling infinite scaling and allowing future updates to build upon this new foundation.

Bugs & Next Steps

There may still be a few bugs hiding out there, but I’ll be watching your feedback closely and will release a follow-up patch soon.

This update was a necessary foundation for what’s coming next — new maps, new challenges, and a progression system that stays exciting from your first bullet to your thousandth prestige.

More Updates to come.

Source

Steam News / 8 November 2025

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