Balancing in Open Beta

Hello Brotatoes. It's been 4 days since the release of Primal Dread DLC, it's time to try our hands at some balancing after reading your feedback!

• Mutation is too weak,
• Mecha is too strong,
• Variant is annoying,
• etc.

Our bodies are ready. We’re all ears to tackle all of this!

First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to left their impression on the Steam Discussion, Discord, Reddit and everywhere else. We truly appreciate it.

We've mentionned it before but:

Balancing is a never ending process. We want to take the time to hear what you have to say and implement it in the best way possible.

That is why we are chosing to start balancing in open beta. That way, we can try and experiment without breaking the default branch. And once it feels that balancing is in a good state, we will push it on the

main branch.

Before getting into the content, a word about progress saves:

• This time, you will be keeping your save from beta to main branch once it's live! Since it's balancing patch, it does not present the same risk of breaking saves so we did not create different progressions.

If you have any questions about that, do not hesitate to ask. When playing the beta branch, please deactivate and unsubscribe to all mods in the workshop. Outdated mods might cause crashes and corrupted save.

To access the beta branch, go to your Library, right click on Brotato and go to "Properties" of your game, then select "Betas". In the “beta participation”, select “beta” in the drop down menu.

Now, let's get into the changes:

Patch Notes 1.2.0.2.beta-0

Characters:

- Variant: replaced "50% chance that a mutating item is replaced by a mutated item of a better tier" with "25% chance for an item to mutate when you equip it" (bought in the shop or taken from a crate)

- Time Shifter: Dodge upgrades no longer appear

- Arsonist: Engineering upgrades no longer appear

Items:

- Chimera Cells (Uncommon, Mutant): +10% chance for an item to mutate when you equip it. Max 5. Unlocked by winning a run with Variant

- Wildfire Mutation is no longer Variant's unlock and is now unlocked by default

Evolution:

- Mutation: copied effects get stronger faster: 70% strength at 40 Evolution (was ~67) and full strength at 100 (was 150). Pets, structures and some effects can be copied from 40 Evolution

- Mutation: Anvil's effect can no longer be copied

- Mutation: the "NOTHING HAPPENED" line is no longer added when a mutation can neither remove a malus nor copy an effect

- Extra Stomach: copies in the Tumor can no longer exceed the per-wave cap

- Mecha Evolved Leap / Mutant Evolved Leap: new effect added, +50% chance to attract a Mecha / Mutant Fruit at end of wave. In co-op, the receiving player is drawn based on each player's chance

- Mecha parts drop chance: 2% -> 1.5%

- Weapon mechanization: stat options have been lowered at each rank. They now reach the tier IV value at rank 8 (was rank 4) and stop growing after it (they used to keep growing), while the cost keeps increasing

Ban:

- You now gain 1 ban token every 4 waves, up to wave 20

Items:

- Fossil: Tooth: -1 Max HP (was -2)

- Fossil: Right Arm: +3 Max HP (was +1), +2 Max HP per fossil (was +1)

- Fossil: Left Leg: +3% Speed (was +1%), +2% Speed per fossil (was +1%)

- Fossil: Right Leg: +15 Range (was +5)

- Fossil: Spine: +3 HP Regeneration (was +2), +2 per fossil (was +1)

- Fossil: Jaw: +3 Life Steal (was +1), +2 per fossil (was +1), -2 HP Regeneration (was -3)

- Fossil: Left Arm: +3 Armor (was +1)

- Fossil: Skull: +5% Damage per fossil (was +3%), -3 Dodge (was -5)

- Dart Trap: now tracks the damage it deals

Enemies & waves (Danger 0 to Nightmare):

- Acid puddles: damage increase per wave lowered, the first damage tick happens after 1s in the puddle, and damage stops as soon as you leave the acid puddle

- Velociraptor: lower speed boost when it spots you

- Pterosaur: lower charge speed

- Giant Dragonfly: lower charge speed

- Carnivorous Plant Mother: less HP

- Iguanodon: HP 20 -> 16

- Parasaurolophus: lower knockback resistance

- Enigmacursor: lower knockback resistance

- Brachiosaurus: its foot now has a landing attack, fires fewer projectiles (14 -> 8), and can be Mecha, Mutant or neutral

- Jeholopterus: removed from the Jungle, replaced by other enemies in its waves

- Fewer hole clusters

- Wave 4 less carnivorous plant and start a bit later in the wave

- Carnivorous plant mother attack cooldown is longer

- Dilophosaurus wave 3 spawns together (help melee build)

- Wave 11 enigmacursor spawn together

- Wave 12 less spamming of pyroraptor spawn

- Pachycephalosaurus and pachyrhinosaurus both give 1 more gold

Nightmare specific:

- Wave 7 less carnivorous plant mother 2 instead of 3

- Carnivorous plant mother attack cooldown is longer

- Dilophosaurus wave 11 spawns together (help melee build)

Bug fixes:

- Fixed Lystrosaurus having the wrong sprite and stats

- Fixed a stray line above Dilophosaurus's head

- Fixed Harpymimus Looter's codex entry

- Fixed the random zone selection when some DLCs are disabled

- Fixed the burning tooltip showing the wrong scaling

- Fixed some hole layouts leaving the bottom of the map empty

- Co-op shop: fixed navigation between the shop and the inventory

- Codex: the enemy completion percentage can now reach 100% with each DLC combination

- Challenges: the "verify challenge unlocks" option now works correctly, and missing challenge rewards are automatically unlocked when the game starts

Misc:

- Fog visibility tooltip: now also shown with Caveman's permanent fog

- Codex: new screenshots and descriptions for several Jungle enemies and bosses

- Spanish: Variant is now named "Variante" (it shared its name with Generalist)

- Polish: fixed Caveman translations

This is the first of many. Now, we need to hear what you think! Try it and tell us on it feels in the Steam Beta Discussions, in the Discord beta channels or on the official Reddit! Cheers,

Dalloks and the EE team