“The Rocks Are Here”

The Tower Defense Fest starts tomorrow — and we are participating! To celebrate the occasion, we are releasing a fresh update packed with new content, improvements, and fixes. This patch introduces a brand new Level 7 – The Golden Cave, a complete overhaul of Level 2, major camera improvements, visual upgrades, balance adjustments, performance optimizations, and many bug fixes. Thank you to everyone who has been playtesting the game and sending feedback!

Highlights

• New Level 7 — The Golden Cave

• Excavation 2 completely reworked

• Overhauled camera system

• New environmental interactions — rocks!

• Visual improvements across all levels

• Performance optimizations

• Balance adjustments

• Many bug fixes

New Excavation — The Golden Cave

Travel to a long-forgotten Constructium-filled cave on the distant desert planet Sha’Korr — the ancient homeland of the Crymz.

Use the new Crossroad terrain piece and adapt your strategy, Capitano. This new level will challenge you in a very unique way.

Level Changes

Bouncer Valley is now Excavation 8 (previously 7).

Excavation 2 has been completely redesigned:

• Level layout updated to encourage building the Rocket Tower

• Enemy waves rebalanced

• Max Winnium increased from 250 → 400

• Max Constructium increased from 250 → 400

• Starting Constructium increased depending on difficulty

• Winnium required for evacuation increased by 50

• The infamous arch was moved further away and visually updated

Environment Updates

All levels received environmental improvements:

• Updated lighting

• New decorations and mountains

• Weather effects

• Hidden easter eggs

• Improved camera setups

Rocks can now spawn on environmental pieces and physically interact with enemies and W.A.R.D. equipment.

Features, Systems & Quality of Life

Camera System Overhaul

• Camera system completely rewritten

• Improved tilt, FOV and camera distance

• Smoother controls

• Press F to focus and follow a selected object

• Depth of field adapts dynamically when zooming

• Camera cannot be controlled during loading screens

Post-Excavation Camera After winning or failing an excavation you can now freely explore the map and take screenshots of your operation. Planetary Gravity System

• Gravity in Levels 1–6 set to 1.62

• Gravity in Levels 7–8 set to 4.2

• Slime jump forces rebalanced accordingly

Incinerate Skill Improvements

• Build Core now dashes downward before firing

• Skill radius now visible when hovering over the ability

Game Balance

Difficulty Settings Updated

• Chill (previously Dumb) – Excavator HP increased from 10 → 20

• Fair (previously Smart)

• Unfai

Most excavations have also had their enemy waves rebalanced.

Rocket Tower Improvements

• Projectiles are now faster

• Acceleration limit removed

• Physics interpolation improved

• Maximum and minimum range reduced by 2 meters

Graphics, Art & VFX

• Ambient Occlusion added

• Shadow resolution increased

• Natives received new materials and color variations

• Frost damage now visually covers enemies in snow

• Improved particle effects

• Ore veins now use precise colliders

• Ground Drill particles updated with new models

• Improved materials for better contrast

Audio & SFX

• New sound when starting an excavation

• New UI hover and click sounds

• New block selection sounds

• Unit-specific selection sounds

• Improved sound balancing

UI Improvements

• New W.A.R.D. color-coded text system

• Cooldown text added to Incinerate skill

• Narration transcripts now fade out

• Pause menu improved for ultrawide resolutions

• Tooltip size increased and standardized

• Tooltip delay reduced

Performance

• Enemy hit particle count now capped

• Rocket Tower targeting heavily optimized

• Rocket impact particles converted to pooled systems

• Enemy hit particles converted to pooled systems

Bug Fixes

• Fixed narration transcript sometimes persisting

• Fixed missing colliders on environmental tiles

• Fixed enemies spawning after excavation ended

• Fixed crashes related to Incinerate after failure

• Fixed selection issues with towers and Excavator

• Fixed incorrect enemy hit type display

• Fixed multiple particle and animation issues

Thank you for playing and supporting the game during the Steam Tower Defense Fest!