A preliminary version of Chapter 9-1 has been implemented!

*The Mystic Gate and Last Inflator devices are functional, but the effects for new Legacy items and spells have not yet been implemented (though you can still obtain them).

We plan to implement these effects within a few days.

Also, I’ll write a proper article as soon as we implement the Unique Enemies mentioned below.

*Note: This stage is actually supposed to have a “Unique Enemy Route” with completely different strategies and game balance, but its implementation will be next week or the week after.

(The programmer is supposed to spend 30–50 hours “fine-tuning the actual parameters,” but for the past two weeks, there hasn’t even been a single day where they worked less than 14 hours, so please give them a break for now.

In return, this stage should be a clear improvement in both game design and quality of life compared to other stages—assuming we haven’t already lost our minds.)

*Since we’ve ended up tangling about 15,000 lines of spaghetti sauce into the original 150,000 lines of spaghetti code, there’s a possibility of bugs popping up here and there.

Stages 5-0 (Bridge) and 8-4 (Moon) are particularly suspect.

We expect to fix 90% of the bugs within half a day to three days, but as a general rule, we’ll handle fixes silently (without announcement) unless they’re critical errors.

*Since we’ve already made about three times the usual amount of adjustments, I don’t expect many more changes; however, the history of Tactical Nexus is a repeated pattern of “things the staff thought were fine turning out not to be.”

Therefore, if things get too out of hand, there’s a possibility that enemy parameters for Tiers 8–12 will be adjusted.

(I believe there are many ways to enjoy this, but if you’re low on Sunstones, you might find it a bit as challenging as Aurora was before the difficulty was adjusted.

We have no intention of making the normal route for this stage extremely difficult, so if it receives overwhelmingly negative feedback from the community, we’ll make some adjustments within a few days.)

◆Chapter 9-1 has been implemented!

In a sense, this is an extremely simple and straightforward stage, as almost all the items scattered across the map are a special item called “Energy.”

On the other hand, it’s also an extremely complex stage in a sense, featuring a diverse skill board, the Altitude system, Energy Waves, and more.

With so many different elements incorporated, we developed it while searching for the fine line where it could still be understood as intuitively as possible.

This DLC will not be sold until Chapter 9-2 is released and will be temporarily included in the main package.

Since all DLC for Chapter 9 and beyond will be sold for $1, and creating a separate DLC store page on Steam is a real hassle every time, I may include it in the main package for the time being, depending on the situation.

If you’ve earned Nexus Medals or similar items, you’ll still be able to use them even after they’re incorporated into the DLC, so I hope players who don’t own the DLC will play with the mindset that it’s a bonus if they happen to earn them.

◆We’ve expanded the ES note feature and implemented a function where notes “remain displayed while you’re on that floor.”

◆In this stage, the effect of triggered by enemies is scheduled to change slightly.

(There will be almost no impact.)

------------------ ♪🌵♪The following is unrelated to the update information♪🌵♪------------------

◆We sincerely apologize for postponing the update last week despite announcing that it would be released “in a few hours.”

Setting aside “delays of several days to several weeks,” postponing the release to a different day at the “last minute”—just a few hours before the scheduled time—is something we should never have done.

While delays like the former have no direct impact on players, the latter clearly does.

There are always at least a dozen players who stay up waiting right before an update, and honestly, we do the same when we’re looking forward to a game update.

If there’s going to be a delay, it’s preferable to get the update out before people go to sleep; a “major postponement right after the scheduled time” is really not good.

Generally speaking, the fans who are most immersed in the game tend not to complain even when they suffer such tangible harm.

Similarly, the fans who love the game and its development—and who offer incredibly valuable feedback and constructive ideas while being considerate of various details—tend to be extremely cautious about what they say.

That’s precisely why it’s desirable to create an environment where these heavy users feel comfortable speaking up and participating, and developers should act in a way that avoids causing direct harm to such fans—things like that really shouldn’t be done.

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize.

That said, the work we did toward the end of that phase made tremendous progress, and both the game balance and the programming were significantly tightened up all at once.

Specifically, the stat inflation mechanics for Tier 1 and Tier 2 in this stage, as well as the system where the SP on the skill board takes different forms, were the result of last week’s work.

That hellish phase where we kept tweaking endlessly and found ourselves wondering, “What’s even fun about this game…?” is actually a pretty good state of affairs in terms of “optimizing the system’s strengths and weaknesses.”

(However, if taken too far, it can lead to excessive refinement or a breakdown in our sense of balance, so it’s difficult unless we’ve each built up a certain level of experience and skill in managing our autonomic nervous systems, identified our own “stop-at-all-costs” limits, and keep an eye on one another.)

Although the programmer had just had a tooth extracted and was supposed to be working at a relatively healthy pace, he ended up staying awake and working for 36 hours straight, and—unusually—even the game designer pulled an all-nighter, which began to interfere with our daily lives. However, that pressure and working right at the limit clearly brought about extremely high-density progress.

Please support TacticalNexus, this cursed content that swells by sucking up the blood, time, humanity, and trust of both the development team and the players.

This cursed creation will likely continue to evolve, with such incidents occurring from time to time.

◆Here are some examples of announcements made on social media or here that were turned into fake leaks or news stories by the game designer.

★The initial stat cap was planned to be 2,500 but has been reduced to 100.

★The skill tree and its contents, as introduced on Twitter, have changed.

★ The total number of Solar Gates and Moon Gates in the skill tree has been reduced from 16 to 12.

★ I mentioned that “there is a skill in the skill tree that increases preemptive attacks,” but it has been removed.

★ I mentioned that “there is a skill in the skill tree that increases EXP by a fixed amount,” but it has been removed.

★ I mentioned that “there is a system in the skill tree that nullifies a certain amount of damage,” but it has been removed.

★The HP recovery effect has been changed from “Recover by gaining Energy” to “Gain 5 Shining Sky Drops.”

★I mentioned that “stat inflation wouldn’t be extreme in this stage,” but there has been slight inflation starting from Stage 8-4 (Mon).

★I had announced that the update would be released last week, but that was not the case.

★I had announced that the update would be released three weeks ago, but that was not the case.

★We had announced that the update would be in June, but that was not the case.

★We had announced that the update would be in May, but that was not the case.

★We had announced that the update would be in April, but that was not the case.

◆Here are some examples of announcements made on social media or here that turned out to be fake leaks or news due to final adjustments by the programmers.

★We made it possible to gain a large amount of Energy at the start of a stage and changed the initial stats from 2,500 to 1,000.

(Later, the game designer proposed further adjustments, which led to the creation of the environment where you initially receive 10 SP.)

★We changed the total number of passive skills that increase Attack and Defense in the Skill Tree from 30 to 40.

★ The “Crown of Life” in the skill tree was changed to the “Shining Crown of Life” (retroactive healing).

★ We had announced that we would implement the new ES “Super Status Stamp,” but this was postponed to a later date.

★ We had announced that the achievement feature would be implemented on May 22, but this did not happen.

★ There is a possibility that bug reports to which we replied “We’ll fix this in the next update” in the community have not actually been fixed.

(We will thoroughly review and fix these issues again after the Unique Enemies are implemented.)

★Last week, it was decided that “we would postpone the implementation of Unique Enemies, but implement the Legacy and Magic effects.”

★Last week, it was decided that “we would postpone the implementation of Unique Enemies, but implement the Legacy and Magic effects,” but it has now been decided to postpone the Legacy and Magic effects as well.

★Last week, it was decided that “we’ll postpone the implementation of Unique Enemies, so we’ll implement the Legacy and Magic effects,” but it was later decided to postpone the Legacy and Magic effects as well. However, since the delay is now one week, we’ve decided to implement the Legacy and Magic effects after all.

★Last week, it was decided that “we’ll postpone the implementation of unique enemies, so we’ll implement the Legacy and magic effects,” but it turned out that the Legacy and magic effects would also be postponed. However, since the update has been delayed by a week, we’ve decided to implement the Legacy and magic effects after all—but it turns out the Legacy and magic effects will be postponed again.

★We had announced that the update would be released in March, but that was not the case.

★We had announced that the update would be released in February, but that was not the case.