Update #35: Morale Shroom Update

Hello, Legends!

The new update is live! It brings new features, bug fixes, balance changes, quests, and quality-of-life improvements. Most importantly, it introduces new mechanics for settler management.

Disclaimer: Your feedback on the new morale system and settler settings really matters to us. Maybe morale drops too quickly while working, or maybe settlers work too slowly on Hard intensity. If so, let us know, and we will balance the system. What feels right? What feels off? We hope this sounds good 🙂

Settler Morale System

Settlers now have their own morale value, which consists of two parts:

• Maximum achievable morale

• Current morale

Current morale rises or falls depending on work intensity and, in future updates, other factors. Current morale can never exceed the maximum achievable morale.

Maximum achievable morale is affected by structures:

• House (unpowered): +10 maximum morale to its residents

• House (powered): +20 maximum morale to its residents

• Water Well: +10 maximum morale to all colony members

• Community Hut: +20 maximum morale to all colony members

At the moment, the maximum achievable morale for settlers is capped at 50 points. More structures that increase this value will be added in future updates 🙂

New Settler Management Options

In the Settler Management window, you can now configure the following:

Work Intensity

• Light Intensity: Works slower but does not lose morale

• Normal Intensity: Works at normal speed, loses morale, and takes breaks when morale is low

• Hard Intensity: Works 50% faster, loses morale faster, and works until morale is depleted or becomes depressed (1 minute duration)

Danger Response

You can choose how settlers react when the settlement is under a wave attack:

• Hide: Runs to their home

• Ignore: Does nothing

• Repair: Repairs damaged buildings

Collect Drops

You can decide whether a settler should collect monster drops or stay focused on their work without getting distracted.

We have always wanted to give players more tools to manage their settlers and experiment with the system. We hope you will enjoy this new approach 🙂

And here is the full changelog for Update #35:

🎭 Morale System

• Settlers now have a visible morale bar. You can check the current morale by opening the Settler Management window (hold F near the settler).

• Maximum morale depends on structures in the base. Currently, the maximum morale for a single settler is 50 points.

• Specific buildings increase the maximum morale of settlers:

  • A House increases the maximum morale of its resident by 10.

  • If the House is powered with mana, it provides an additional +10 maximum morale.

  • A Community Hut grants +20 maximum morale to the entire colony.

  • A Water Well grants +10 maximum morale to the entire colony.

🏚️ Settler Management Tab

• You can now set the work intensity of settlers.

  • Light Intensity: Works slower but does not lose morale.

  • Normal Intensity: Works normally, loses morale, and takes breaks when morale is low.

  • Hard Intensity: Works 50% faster, loses more morale, and works until morale is depleted or the settler becomes depressed.

• You can now set the Danger Response for settlers.

• You can now decide whether settlers should collect drops.

🤹🏼‍♂️ Other Things

• When you unlock the new Mushroom Log, three new quests will appear on Val’s quest board, if you have progressed far enough.

• Fixed: Missing prompt on the lever time puzzle on the 4th island.

• Boomboo Seeds quest name fixed.

🛠️ New Crafting Stuff

• New Structure: Mushroom Log

• New Structure Add-on: Additional Mushroom Log

• New Structure Add-on: Mushroom Cultivator

• New Item: Mushroom Sprayer

• New Item: Skill Cleanser

• New Item: Highshroom Mycelium

• New Item: Meatshroom Mycelium

• New Item: Acidshroom Mycelium

• New Item: Flowershroom Mycelium

• Added new pickup: Acidshroom drops from Acidshrooms

📈 Balance

• Added alternative recipes for x5 Taint Cleaning Bolts:

• Plant Fiber alternative: 2x Snow Herb

• Plant Fiber alternative: 2x Barley

• Plant Fiber alternative: 2x Reed

• Basic Repair Kit for the Mech now heals 500 HP instead of 250.

• Improved Battle Axe collision to reduce missed attacks.

🧑‍⚕️ Quality of Life

• Swapped W and S buttons for Min/Max stack in the transfer window.

• Improved auto-lock system: less sticky to enemies and easier to disengage.

• Added an option to disable enemy auto-lock.

• Fixed a bug where the game did not save when selecting Leave Game.

• Leave Game option renamed to Save & Quit.

If you try the new morale system, let us know how it feels - leave a comment, drop by our Discord, or just share your thoughts with us. We read everything 😘

See you soon!

Damian

Star Drifters Team