The stages are set

Thank you for your continuous support and feedback. This time around, for the first time, we've launched the patch on the beta branch a week ahead to gather feedback. Special thanks to those who helped us test the patch and tinker with the balance. We'll definitely be making the beta branch a regular thing.

We skewered a lot of features and content for this patch, so an update to our 2023 Roadmap is due!

Check out the full patch notes:

New Features / Content

• 9 new stages

• 6 new upgrades

• 3 new map hazards / mechanics

• 2 new achievements

• 2 new pickup variations

• 1 new monster variant

• Tougher late-stage monsters

• Destructible / shootable enemy projectiles

• New quality settings menu (for tuning performance)

• New gamma setting to adjust game brightness

Balance / Gameplay

• Game is generally more challenging now

• Upgrades increase in price (50, 55, 60, …)

• Reworked the bullet time AOE upgrade (drops grenades around you now)

• Improvements to the slime and grenade attacks

• Improved object spawning logic (does better job not spawning things too close to the player)

• Monsters can now trigger “spikey” obstacles

• Large variants of enemies have less health now

• Stomp AOE and stake damage reduced

• Reworked the recoil and screenshake animations - less annoying now

• Enemy missiles explode instead of despawning

• Stone head monsters have slightly less health

• Large versions of monsters have 20% less health

• Overheat mechanics slightly more forgiving (faster cooldowns)

• Enemy missiles are no longer homing

• 15% increase in healing

• Stone head monsters and turret monsters will not attack player with projectiles if player is above

• them

• Map hazards (like sawblades) do 25% less damage to player

• Offerings destruct at the end of rounds and drop their contents (instead of despawning)

Audio / Visual

• Art upgrades

  • Monolith obstacle

  • “Stone head” monster

  • Coin crate

  • Explosive barrel

  • Spike kill iconography

  • Stakes

  • Boss

  • Pulverizer obstacle

• Sound upgrades

  • Revisions to existing sounds

  • New audio for various monsters

• Various visual enhancements to boss stage

• New game icon

• Added muzzle flashes to some monsters

• Made the red damage overlay more subtle and removed the blood splatter (less visual clutter)

• Improved visibility of monsters when looking down at them - much easier to see now

Bug Fixes / Technical

• Performance improvements / optimizations

• Fixed jump pads sometimes spawning on shrines

• Fixed coin HUD not showing in some cases (now shows red text until you have enough gold for an upgrade)

• Fixed bug allowing config file to disable weapon recoil

• Fixed incorrect rendering of certain effects on top of HUD elements

• Fixes issues related to pressing escape in the upgrades menu

Thank you all for getting through the patch notes, make sure to let us know what you think about the changes and new features on Steam forums, or our official Discord server.

Now, it's time for a little teaser. The next update is monster-focused. It's going to be bonkers!

As always, please share Impaler with your friends and leave a Steam review if you’re enjoying the game to help us reach even more players.

Also, be sure to check out our bundles with extra discounts for a number of great indie titles.

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Don't. Stop. Impaling.

Apptivus and Retrovibe