THE STORY UPDATE

If you're reading this, it's because I've finally settled into my new home irl (and because my gang of playtesters have thoroughly tested this update and its content).

This is just the first of 5 (currently planned) major updates - each one will always come bundled with new content and mechanics! Rest assured: All those Guardians, Parts, Mods and Modes you see marked as "unreleased" in-game will be playable by the time full release lands.

Now, without further adieu...

MYSTERIOUS TRANSMISSIONS

The beast you've been blasting microbes inside of has finally noticed you. It has terrorized the planet for over 30 years, and you're the only one that can stop it.

RECOVER 70 FILES

You are the nanobot inside The Abyss, and The Abyss originates from within A.B.Y.S.S. Labs. That lab was full of paper documents, including news articles from 30 years ago (when you were first injected into The Abyss) and journal pages from a (very important) unnamed scientist.

Your internal file register is in a state of disrepair too - they shine some light on each Guardian, and what exactly "Guardians" really are.

You'll obtain records of those mysterious transmissions as well! A big fault of GG1 was that, once you saw spooky purple text, that was it - no way to see it again. Of course people struggled with picking up the story.

SYNTHESIZE A CURE

"Cure Progress" will now be displayed on the main menu after you start hearing voices. Basically, all you need to do is keep unlocking stuff, and collect those files that will now appear ocassionally during dives (they'll be kinda like Deposits but much easier to break).

YOU DON'T NEED TO RESET YOUR SAVE

Everyone will start the story from the beginning regardless of how much they've played already. Don't worry about it, don't overthink it, just play.

You also don't need to click some button to start it - it'll start when it's supposed to start and once it has it's impossible to miss.

... hmm? What's that?

You... don't even care about all this story stuff? Oh, well, that's fine, because not only is there a setting to hide Abyss Transmissions, you're also getting a whole bunch of new content along with it:

NEW GUARDIAN: NEXUS ⚡

• Zap

• projectiles don't deal Damage on impact

• Damage +50% per Zap chain after the first

• Zap chain distance +50%

This one's interesting, since the microbe hit with the projectile itself won't take damage, but each one in the Zap chain is going to take more than the next, it's pretty rad.

NEW GUARDIAN: CURLER 🥌

• Freeze

• Microbes at 0 Health become bouncy ice balls that can't hurt you and get eliminated when they hit another Microbe

• Microbes stay within view

• slidey nanobot movement

So much work went into Curler... it plays very differently but it's super fun. You'll have these Microbe ice balls bouncing all over the place. What I really like about this one is that both Damage and Knockback are highly relevant stats to you, like, at the same time.

NEW GUARDIAN: SANGUINE 🌕

• can't shoot until Blood Moon rises when wave time hits 10

• after Blood Moon rises: guaranteed Crits & Firerate/Velocity/Speed +100%

• Microbes stay within view

Essentially you're forced to spend those first 20 seconds utterly helpless - and dodging Microbes is only made harder by the fact that they don't just fly off screen. But, once the 10 second mark hits, you absolutely tear them all apart. Guaranteed Crits with +100% Firerate is x4 DPS.

NEW MOD: ACCELERATOR ⏩

• after 1s of 0% Heat & not firing: Firerate & Velocity & Heat Buildup +200% that decays for 1s

It's a lot less complicated than it sounds - you just get a big burst of power if you haven't fired for a second, with some really nice sound design too. Probably my favourite Mod aesthetically.

NEW MOD: ONION 🧅

• Size +50% & Nanobot Scale +50 per Armour

With a Hull like Crossbow or the Brace Gadget, you can get some insane mileage out of this one.

NEW MOD: PERISCOPE 🔭

• Damage +40%

• projectiles can't hit Microbes until the last 1/3 of the projectile's Range

It'll really help to have a moving Platform with this one so you can adjust your distance accordingly - it's a pretty meaty Damage boost.

NEW MOD: IMPELLER ☁

• Firerate -30%

• Firerate +20% per Offspring within 50% Range (up to +300% Firerate)

You know those CG microbes that spit out a bunch of blue droplets, or Plantaray and its big row of yellow dots? Plant yourself near those for a megaboost.

NEW MOD: MEGAPHONE 📢

• Explosion Size & Area Size +50%

• direct wall / Microbe hits don't produce Explosions/Areas

Note that Explosion Size / Area Size +50% is equivalent to Size +100% for explosions/areas, since the regular "Size" stat only scales explosions & areas by half. Basically, this Mod grants much larger of each if they aren't triggered via a collision!

stay tuned for update 0.7.0: THE JESTER UPDATE

• The Jester Guardian

• More new Mods

• Many new anomalies

• Other cool stuff

⚖ BALANCE

just another reminder that this game is in Early Access (and has been for only a short period) - everything is subject to balance changes.

• "Superstar" Guardian: Powerpolyp Chance +800% → +700% (we both know that's still absolutely ghastly)

• Added"Screw" Platformyou won't see this reflected in the stats, but I'm increasing how quickly it accelerates/decelerates and how fast it spins to a new direction.

• "Spinner" Bracket: Damage -20% → -25% (so that the "Sprinkler" Bracket competes with it more)

• "0V3-RL0RD" Motherboard: Core Max -35% → -40%, Core Rate -35% → -40%.

• Mods:

  • Horns: now requires at least 1 Health (this Mod is supposed to be about risk/reward, not"slap it on a Healthless build for a completely free ride"😑 you've got loads of other amazing Mods for your Armour/Shield-only loadouts).

  • AddedCageconverts every 10 → 8 Health Max to Armour Max. (that's a buff since it caps at 4 → 5 Armour Max added now)

  • Scar: Health Max +1 for every 4 → 8 Health lost. (c'mon, wipe away those tears - you know this is still insanely, insanely good)

  • Lever: Heal 4 → 8 when you reroll.

  • Selector: Accuracy +35% → +40%.

  • Siren: Firerate/Velocity +100% & Accuracy -50% for 2s when hit → Firerate/Velocity +150% & Accuracy -50% for 1.5s when hit.

  • Buzzsaw:

    • removed 40% Damage penalty!

    • there's a lot of "confusion" surrounding Buzzsaw - yes, you still take Damage from Microbe collisions. You need to figure out how to work with that. It's not a simple "now I can never die" button (I wouldn't give you a Mod that, solely & without the help of other parts, turns your main threat into something you ignore).

    • even if the healing isn't valuable to you, consider that, normally, colliding with a Microbe doesn't "eliminate" it (and thus doesn't grant Biomass).

• Weapons:

  • AACT Antifreeze Missile: each explosion now occurs 3 times, just like it did in GG1. Keep your eyes peeled for bugs with this - the only testing I've done is fire it a few times in an empty arena.

  • AddedAAGT Heatseeker Swarmthe change to how Burn works in GG2 (compared to GG1) wasn't kind to this weapon, AND, the Helix-y travel added to them in GG2 made them less likely to land on target, thus: Accuracy +25% , Damage +75% , Firerate -10% ( DPS +67% ).

  • AATT Critter Hatcher: Damage -8%.

  • AGTT Bubble Blaster: I made drastic changes to this weapon compared to how it functioned in GG1, so I'm not surprised that the balance ended up being off. Damage +25%, Size +25%, Accuracy -100%.

  • ACGG Thunderbounce Emitter: Size -50%.

  • CCGG Thunderbolt: Damage +12.5%, Firerate -25%, Range +15%.

  • CGTT Bubble Burster: Damage -10%.

• Genes:

  • Homing +50%, Velocity +50%: Price 30 → 35.

  • Homing +75%, Size -50%: Price 35 → 40.

  • Homing +100%, Damage -15%: Price 35 → 40.

  • Homing +200%, Firerate -30%: Price 40 → 45.

  • Size +200%, Firerate -25%: Price 35 → 40.

• ACC "Warpistol" & ACCC "Telepanzer" Microbes: with the "Charge" Mutation, they'll now approach much slower once they reach the distance they'd normally stop at.

• Adjusted stat modifier ranges on many Anomalies (ex. the one where you pick between +Accuracy/-Firerate or -Accuracy/+Firerate now offers Accuracy +40/60/80 instead of +25/50/75).

🔄 CHANGES

• ⭐ GUIDE Menu: now has a "STORY" tab with a repeat of the story introduction blurb, OR, a bit more in-depth story details after you've recovered at least 9 Journal Files.

• Adjusted"Satellite" Guardianincreased the size of the Satellite ability spinny effect thing when it hits Deposits.

• "Saucer" & "Spider" Platform: more clear description text.

• Cores:

  • Electric:

    • "Damage +30% to shots fired at full Electricity" → "Damage +50% to shots fired under 50% Electricity".

    • This change was made because it was never intended to be optimal for "tap-firing" (which more or less ignores its gimmick) - now it features some risk/reward, of which actively discourages cranking up Recharge Rate too high.

  • Biofuel: now states that it doesn't refill automatically after each wave (which was always the case).

• Mods:

  • Carapace: description now very clearly specifies it requires exactly 1 Armour.

  • Conduit: description now very clearly specifies it requires exactly 1 Armour.

  • Stator: unlock condition requires 300 → 100 Shielded Microbe eliminations.

  • Bellows: clearer unlock condition text.

  • Collar: now has conditional glow / trigger effects.

  • AdjustedSpoilerunlock condition changed to require 3mm → 10mm of movement.

• "Coldsnap" Gadget: will now freeze Powerpolyps in place too.

• Knockback now properly factors in the current timescale (ex. from Doubletime).

• Wave Time minimum increased from 5s → 10s (mostly because this caused buggy behaviour in many instances).

• Various music tracks with silence at the beginning/end have been trimmed.

• Quieter Burn & Freeze application sounds on Offspring.

• Slightly fancier Damage popups (somewhat inspired by SYNTHETIK).

• More visual juice when eliminating microbes.

• Add a kinda-sorta scanline effect to the background (while outside dives) that renders behind everything else, just for a little more flavour (but doesn't make anything harder to see or impose any performance cost).

• The shop heal button will now stop reminding you that you can only use it once per wave after 30 uses.

• AdjustedZapupdated definition to be more clear (GUIDE / hover tooltip).
• RemovedStudiesRemoved the god-awful COLLECT/AVOID Enraged Microbe elimination ones and replaced them with ones relating to movement.

🎵 MUSIC

2 new music tracks by "Knob" (both of which are bangers & streamer-friendly):

• Knob - Chiffy

• Knob - Wet

🔨 FIXES

• Guardians:

  • Snare:

    • stuck projectiles will now detonate on microbes rubbing up against the edge.

    • projectiles now properly stick to the microbe's actual collider shape (so no more projectiles "stuck" to the microbe floating far away from it).

    • projectiles with Flak & Split will no longer detonate early (aka outside of Snare's ring).

  • Warp: uncontrollable spinning (like from the Endless Mutation) + "AIMBOT!" Powerpolyp no longer makes aim tweak out.

  • Aperture: if the projectile that hits the Microbe is a Crit when you eliminate it via Aperture's ability, it will now count as a Crit elimination (ex. for "Syringe" Mod).

• Fixed"Baphomet" Hullfixed "NO HEALS FOR YOU SINNER!" healing text being white.

• "Bouncer" Barrel: Damage boost per Microbe bounce now applies to explosions & Areas, and the description now states that it's capped to +400% Damage.

• "Helix" Bracket: would sometimes cause the light cone to be offset to the side.

• "Pneumatic" Core:"Refill Delay" is now faded / crossed out since it's not relevant to this Core.

• Mods:

  • Plow:

    • would sometimes be active on weapons when it shouldn't be.

    • now affected by Seismograph Mod.

  • Bellows: unlock trigger would sometimes be delayed until you left the dive.

  • Compressor: wasn't lighting up when it should have been.

  • Intake: mod icon no longer feels full brightness at the start of the dive.

  • Director: now scales Proximity detonation radius properly.

• Weapon Hover Stat Changes: would sometimes mark a value as being an increase/decrease despite the displayed number not changing.

• AddedRESEARCH Menuyou could navigate to hidden buttons on the BUFFs page (only really affects new players).
• RemovedArmoured MicrobesArmour will no longer get removed immediately when the microbe is hit by a projectile that produces an explosion.

• "Fog" Mutation: would sometimes still be super dark and foggy after returning to SETUP.

• Endless Mutations: the ones that claim to Damage you over time were only reducing Health before.

• "Floating Point Processor" Anomaly: No longer disables projectile Bounce.

• Steam Deck:

  • SETTINGS / GENERAL would show 2 settings overlapping on the right.

  • some popups would appear half-way off-screen.

• Steam now prompts you to download the necessary redistributables (the vast majority of players already have them so it took a while for someone to catch this).

• Fixed some instances where so many sounds would be playing that the music would abruptly cut out.

• Fixed some instances where explosions would appear offset from where they should have spawned.

• The Banish list would sometimes persist after starting the next wave.

• various translation improvements (especially 🇰🇷 Korean).

🎨 FAN ART

Any fan art you post in the Discord I'll add in-game & feature in update posts like this one!

"p53 3D Print"by B'laze

"What a Joke"by ANG (this one will make a lot more sense after 0.7.0)

💖 Reviews Directly Support GG2 / Continued Development

You know those sites, like Patreon, or that Buy Me A Coffee one? That's what reviews are to a game.

more reviews means more players see Genome Guardian 2.

30 paragraphs or 1 letter - they all directly influence Genome Guardian 2's success.