Mutate your skills to unlock new combos!

Skills are the core of GSA. The first 90% of each match is spent leveling up as fast as you can to unlock skills and create strong synergies before the final showdown. Well this process just got a whole lot more interesting with skill mutations.



Every skill now has a "mutation power". This isn't active to begin with, but you can activate it at vendors by spending a new in-game currency called Syringes. A simple example of a mutation is the Self Repair skill. This normally just heals you, but if you activate it's mutation power it will ALSO make you move much faster for the 2 seconds that the heal is active. This opens up new ways to use the skill, like chasing or escaping from enemies.



All 54 skills in the game have their own unique mutation power. Here are a few examples:

- Radiate's mutation makes your own nukes heal you, allowing you to cast it on yourself.
- Executioner's mutation causes enemies to explode when they die, creating chain reactions of cops exploding eachother.
- Invisibility's mutation causes you to accumulate damage when standing near enemies, allowing you to stalk enemies to secretly charge up a powerful shot.
- Flying Dagger's mutation makes your throwing knife fly back to you like a boomerang, allowing you to double hit enemies and do trick shots.
- Bullet Time's mutation will steal all nearby enemy bullets and fire them back towards them (like in this image below).



You get +1 syringe every 5 score you earn in game, and it works out so that most players will be able to activate either 2 or 3 mutations each match. But you'll usually have 5 skills, so you'll need to choose which skills you want to build around, as you can't mutate them all.

Mutating a skill will also give that skill a big boost of skill points, based on the rarity of that skill, forcing you to really invest into the skill you're mutating. This is a big power spike, and makes it extra exciting to earn score and get that next syringe. The primary way to get score is to level up but also get kills during overtime, and this new incentive to get score ASAP gets players to really hunt kills during the final showdown moments, instead of hiding away.




[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
- When you die or respawn, all vendor options reset for you.

- When zombies revive, they only start with 100 health, and will need to regen the reset.

- Knife now does 70hp damage, with 60 rate of fire. Instead of 60hp damage, with 80 rate of fire.

- Shadows from players in the air are more visible.

- Bomb Boxes have a slightly bigger explosion radius.

- Crate Race modifier can only be completed once per round.

- The leaderboards now show players' actual builds used in-game. Not their builds from the menu. This includes the skill level and syringes.

[CLASS CHANGES]
- Assault's reload speed is now +70% instead of +50%.

-Fixed a bug where criminal's gangster could kill enemies. It now caps at 1hp like the rest of the gang.

-Criminal's gangster has a 3% chance of appearing instead of a 5% chance when shifting.

[SKILL CHANGES]
- Backtrack renamed to Teleportation. Teleportation will teleport you to your target after a short channeling time. After teleporting, it will heal you.

- Combo Killer now drops loot starting at double kills, not triple kills.

- Armed Robbery rewards are now only given once every 60s. A little indicator will appear above the vendor's head to show when it's ready to be killed again. Speed vendor upgrades speed this up.

- Armed Robbery has higher drop rates to compensate.

- Blade Mail no longer buffs the next bullet as it takes damage. Instead, Blade Mail will drop damage med kits as you take damage.

- Rambulance no longer boosts your vehicle speed (too hard to drive with). Instead it will make your car take less damage.

- Energy Vortex no longer slows enemies (for netcode smoothness reasons). It has been compensated by having a larger radius and doing more damage/healing.

- Automatic Armor's protection duration is now 2s instead of 1.5.

- Firestorm flies a bit slower through the air.

- Assassinate's econ boost ranges from 30% to 120% instead of 40% to 160%.

- Critical Rage's cooldown rescaled to 32 to 8s, instead of 30 to 12s.

- Spike Trap's vulnerability time is 4s instead of 3s.

- Clip Magnet has greater seeking, but takes longer to refill a clip. The seeking bullets also now expire when that gun reloads.

Hey all, this version just polishes up the econ and scoring systems a bit. It mostly plays the same with one key difference - how to score well.

Your score from level ups is now capped at 20 (when you hit level 10). This is fairly easy for most veteran players to achieve, and so everyone will be equally on 20 points here. Instead, focus on outscoring enemies by getting more kills during overtime, and by winning the rounds 1 and 2 showdowns, which now give +5 score each (in hindsight they should have done this a long time ago).

The reason for the score cap is that players were taking specific econ skills and classes just because they gave more XP, more levels, and thus more score. That's not a great incentive. It's still useful to take these classes because being a higher level makes you more powerful, but you'll now need to actually USE that power by killing enemies in showdowns if you want bonus score. You can't just automatically get more score than other players just by choosing the right class.

Another benefit of this change is that it tones down the RUSH factor of GSA. GSA is all about farming, and of course you still want to outfarm your enemies. But now you no longer NEED to do this. You can afford to do other things that don't give farm (eg shop from vendors, place chemicals, fight gangsters) and not worry that you're falling behind in score. So this opens up more strategies to win, and also removes the psychologcal feeling of "guilt" that you're doing something other than grinding XP.

Now you can chill out before overtime, and not rush. Use this time to prepare your build, then get a lot of kills and wins in overtime.

Enjoy!
bencelot

----

[SCORING CHANGES]
- Score earned from level ups is now capped at 20 (level 10)

- We now get +5 score for winning rounds 1 and 2


[ECONOMY CHANGES]
- No new skill appears at level 15

- Deaths now remove 200xp instead of 100xp

- Kills now give 50xp + 10xp x streak (capped at 100xp) instead of a fixed 100xp

- Cops now give a flat 10xp and $100 per kill, instead of $50 + 10 x Wanted level

- The main supply drop has an extra $1000 and 100xp in it

- XP Fountains are now shown in the minimap

- XP Fountains are now only disabled for 20s instead of 120s

- Improved the pacing and difficulty of Survival mode. Also the Hostile Vendors modifier no longer hides vendors from the map.



[MODIFIER CHANGES]
- Crate Race gives 1 vendor upgrade instead of 2, but only requires 20 instead of 30 crates



[SKILL CHANGES]
- Force Field explosion damage is now 10 instead of 30

- Frenzy duration is now 2.5s instead of 3.0s

- Falling Inferno damage now ranges from 40% to 160%, instead of 30% to 120%. However, by default it no longer gives extra molotov duration

- Rambulance healing lasts for 10s instead of 6s

- Illicit Income cash per wanted level is doubled.

- Armed Robbery drops slightly more cash per vendor killed

- Mana Shield duration is now 3s instead of 2.5s after using a skill

- Proximity Rounds has a slightly larger trigger radius

- Radiate has a slightly larger area

- Laser Scope has slightly faster bullet speed but less range


[WEAPON CHANGES]
- Bazookas rpm is now 70 instead of 60



[CLASS CHANGES]
- Heavy gains +2.5% instead of +3.0% ROF when at low health

- Scavenger shifts are +33% instead of +50% faster (when moving. Still +150% when standing still)

Hey all, this version replaces the old passive XP income with something more skillful - XP Pools.



Scattered around the map are a new special type of zone called an XP Pool. It looks a bit like a gangster camp, but it is blue. Standing inside this will give you XP, until you drain the pool. There are 15 of these to explore for in the map.

Up the top right of the screen is a number that shows the amount of XP you're currently able to drain from these pools. This number gradually increases like a passive XP income. When it gets big enough you should seek out an XP Pool to claim it. This shifts this XP into your actual XP bar and levels you up.



It takes a bit of time to claim the XP. Up to 8 seconds per pool. And enemies can attack you while you do this, so they can claim the pool themselves. This is a far more interesting way to earn XP than the old passive income. It creates new points of interest in the map to fight over, and some subtle strategies as to the optimal time to claim the XP.

These XP Pools also serve a much needed purpose in GSA - forced downtime. It's only 8 seconds, but it's one of the only times in GSA that you can stand still and actually feel productive. All other times you are on your feet, hunting for kills and loot.

These XP pools scattered around the map will give players short moments of rest, while still feeling productive. It's a great time to look at your build, think about your skills, and decide on your next synergy. Something that is much easier to do when you're chillin' in a pool, than cruising through the city streets of Gene Shift Auto.



Enjoy!
bencelot


----


[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
- Passive Income has been replaced with a mechanic called "XP Pools".

- Reaching max shields no longer give +$1000.

- Kills now give a flat 100xp always. They don't increase based on your kill streak. However, the amount of cash earned can still increase based on your streak (ranging from $100 to $500 on a 5x streak).

- Vendors are less likely to spawn in a location where one has just died.

- Armed Robbery now gives +$1000 instead of +100xp

- Phase Drifting takes a bit longer to charge up to full speed

- Flaming Bullets duration is now fixed at 1s, and ranges from 3 to 12 hp/s damage

- Scavenger's new shifting perk is buffed to +50% shift restore speed instead of +33%


[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Random class and random skills modes no longer give bonus out of game XP (they still give in-game cash and XP though). This allows players to play whatever mode they genuinely prefer, instead of prioritizing these random modes purely for account progression.

- Fixed a bug where epic random flasks wouldn't always give epics

Hey all, just a small balance patch today. In a few weeks I'll release a larger update that gives every skill in the game a brand new special mutation that changes how it plays. Stay tuned for that!

The main focus of this patch however is to simplify the gameplay. The feature above will add a bit more complexity, and GSA is already a fast and complex game! So this version is "making space" for this upcoming feature by removing some complex mechanics that are mildly fun, but not enough to justify their extra complexity, and ultimately just become a bit of a mental tax that you need to think about if you want to play well. I'll give some examples, but it's a bit wordy and you can just skip to the changelog for a quick list of changes.

A good example is the penalty for death. This is now changed to give a flat 100xp penalty. If you die 6 times in a match, you'll have -600xp. Very simple. Just try to avoid dying. That's all you need to know and you can now go back to getting kills. The previous system however was more complicated. You lost 50% of your current XP towards the next level. This meant that if you just leveled up you'd lose a small amount, but if you were almost at the end you'd lose a lot! Now.. that is quite interesting. But it added a whole new level of complexity to the game. Good players needed to constantly check their XP bar to see where they were at, and know when they should take risks or not. Often though you'd forget this and then see a huge amount of XP drain away which felt bad. Ultimately, GSA is so fast-paced that it's more fun to just focus on getting clean kills, instead of having to constantly manage your XP bar. In a simpler or slower game this could be cool, but GSA is so fast it's just too much to focus on, and takes focus away from quality combat.

Another example is that this version removes the rare loot icons in the minimap. It's another thing to keep track of, that gets your mind into the UI and out of the game itself. Now you can just focus on exploring the city itself, instead of heading to checkpoints in a map. Another mechanic that got cut was the "first 3 kills of each round give bonus XP" rule. This cluttered up the HUD and it's just simpler to give a flat +100xp per kill. Finally, rounds are 1 minute longer to give sufficient time to explore and shop before the circle pushes you into overtime.

In general, this version should let you just exist in the city itself, and focus on quality combat without having to constantly check various parts of the HUD. Feedback is welcome of course!

Enjoy!
bencelot


----

[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Wanted stars now appear in the middle of the screen when the "WANTED LEVEL X/5" message shows.

- Holding ALT will now show the names of guns in the bottom right.

- The "PLAY VS BOTS" button is renamed to "PRACTICE MODE" and it works slightly differently:

- In Practice mode, you will become invulnerable if you stand still and avoid shooting for 1s. There are only 12 bots in the lobby, and they are easier. You can't earn trophies in this mode. This is a good mode for players to explore the mechanics, read UI elements and skill descriptions, without fear of being shot at.

- Daily challenges give 250 acid and 2500 XP instead of 200 and 2000.

- The Deluxe DLC will now give 3x instead of 2x to these daily challenges. And it gives 3x instead of 4x to the ACID level ups (150 instead of 200). This is overall a buff, and should give DLC players DLC roughly +1000 more ACID per day (aka 1 flask).

- Legendary packs are only available to players who have bought the DLC or starter pack first.

- Added a new "CLAIM ALL" button when leveling up.



[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
- There are now 4 minutes before overtime instead of 3.

- The first 3 kills of the round rule has been removed. Too complex. Instead, all player kills give +100xp more than before.

- When you die, you now lose a fixed 100xp, instead of 50% of your current XP progress. This removes the mental need to keep track of your current XP progress.

- Rare loot crates no longer show in the minimap, nor do heart crates show for survivors.

- It once again takes 3 kills instead of 2 kills to get the skill in the 3rd build slot at levels 4 and 6.

- No new skill appears at level 12 anymore. This is moved back to level 15 (but almost no one ever reaches this). 5 skills is enough.

- Hearts now give $100 instead of 10xp for survivors.

- The civilian gangster mission and place chemicals mission no longer appear in round 1.

- The kill zombies civ mission only requires 1 kill instead of 2.

- Vendor upgrades do prices differently. Instead of the price going up per purchase across all upgrades. It goes up on a per upgrade basis. The first purchase costs $9000, then the next $12000, then the final one is $15000.

- Vendor upgrades for skills won't appear if you don't have any skill that works with it.



[CLASS CHANGES]
- Assassin only gains +15% instead of +20% upgrade power per kill.

- Caster now get a -33% discount on skill upgrades instead of a -50% discount.

- Scavenger's second perk has been removed and replaced with a new one called: "Swift Shifts"

- Swift Shifts: Restore shift charges +33% faster when moving, or +100% faster when stationary



[SKILL CHANGES]
- Soul Drop no longer steals health from enemies. It still does the damage, but you no longer get that amount of health back as well (way too OP).

- Clusterbomb has a smaller range to toss at nearby players, only 35m instead of 45m

- Self Repair cooldown now ranges from 18s to 12s, instead of staying fixed at 15s

- Self Repair healing now ranges from 20 to 80hp instead of 20 to 110hp

- Frenzy duration now ranges from 20s to 14s, instead of being fixed at 20s

- Revenge Rockets bazooka damage now ranges from 50% to 110% instead of 30% to 90%

- Regeneration healing rate now ranges from 6 to 24hp/s instead of 5 to 20hp/s

- Shrapnel damage now ranges from +20% to +80%, instead of +20% to +110%

- Smoke Bomb healing now ranges from 8 to 32hp/s instead of 6 to 24 hp/s

- Flying Dagger damage now ranges from 100% to 130% instead of 85% to 115%

- Invis move speed is now +10 to +40% instead of +16 to + 64%. Gun penalty duration is now 0.5 instead of 1.0s.

- Boots of travel move speed is now +12 to + 48% instead of +16 to +64%. It kicks in after 0.5 instead of 0.7s.

- Phase Drifting speed now ranges from +40% to +100% instead of +60% to +120%

Hey all, this is a special announcement!

URANIUM has been rescaled to 50% of it's previous value. This means the COSTS and REWARDS and BALANCES in everyone's account is now exactly 50% of the previous value. Relatively, nothing changes.

If you notice that you have half as much uranium as before, this is why. But it is OK because everything is exactly half as expensive, so your purchasing power is the same as before.

Actually, everyone's uranium has been scaled down to 50%, and then had +200 added for fun, and to make up for the confusion.

Why make this change? Because it will align the prices with USD better. This change name makes 1000 uranium = $10 USD. This makes for easier maths, less confusion and more transparency.

So basically everything was rescaled down 50%, with these exceptions (all of them make things cheaper and better for players):

- Weekly challenges used to give 5/10/15/20/50 uranium (100 total). Now they give 5/10/15/20/25 (75 total, or the equivalent of 150 in old values). So they are +50% more rewarding.

- Leaderboard rewards are also better. Genetic God used to give 600 uranium, now it gives 400, but it should have been rescaled down to 300. So at 400 it is +33% more rewarding.

- All shop items got 50% cheaper. So did the cost of bonus daily challenges. But a few items got even cheaper than that:

- Epic Flasks used to cost 400 uranium. Now they cost 150.

- Epic Class Flasks used to cost 500, and now they cost 200.

- Shard boosters used to cost 500, now they cost 200.

- The uranium cost to swap DNA between classes used to be 30 x DNA%, but it is now 10 x DNA% (capped at 500).

Hopefully this doesn't confuse anyone! Also, there are some small gameplay changes listed below.

Cheers,
Ben.


----

[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Criminal's 3rd perk is now called "Shifty Soldiers": Every time you shift, there is a 3% chance to summon a gangster to join your gang (max 1).

- Killing a criminal will also instantly kill his entire gang.

- Magnets have a 20% hit rate instead of 15%.

- There are now 18 instead of 24 players in a server

- Fission mines from the Minefield perk are now visible instead of hidden

- Assassin's upgrades gain +20% instead of +15% per kill

- Assassin's no longer lose their potential next upgrade when they die.

- In squads mode, you get $5000 instead of $3000 for capturing gang loot

- As a survivor, hearts now display as XP

- Score is now given automatically for kills in overtime, instead of having to pick it up

- Dying once again removes all of your XP towards the next level.

- Players no longer gain score for the final 5 placement

- More loot pops out of enemies when you kill them

Round modifiers change the game.

In GSA there are 3 battle royale rounds per match. At the end of each round, all players will now vote on a round modifier. The modifier that wins will become active for the rest of the match, affecting all players equally and changing the rules of the game.



In the screenshot above we see that there were 2 choices after I won the warmup.

Crate Race: After opening 30 crates, you'll get 2 vendor upgrades.
360 No Scopes: Spinning 360 degrees briefly makes your next bullet do +25 damage.

360 No Scopes got more votes because it has more meme potential, and so for the rest of the match everyone was spinning in circles frantically trying to one-shot one another.

Modifers don't just add roguelitey variety. They also adds strategic depth. For example, with 360 No Scopes you might want to pivot to a sniper build, because sniper rifles have a long delay between shots anyway, giving you time to do a quick twirl before your next shot. Sticking with an SMG however won't let you make much use of this modifier, because you'd be better off just aiming at the enemy as you spray.

Once you decide to pivot to a sniper build, you'll then start making other choices in-game, like taking sniper-friendly skills that give you faster bullets. Before you know it, you're running a completely different build to the previous match, all because this wacky modifier won the vote. But had Crate Race won instead, you could go for something totally different (like movement speed skills to loot extra fast).

GSA's gameplay was already quite varied due to the random skill drafting, but with 3 round modifiers in each match and thousands of possible combinations, no two matches will ever be the same.



The cool thing about this feature is that if you win the round, you get far more influence over the vote. You not only get more votes than everyone else, but you get to decide what is even voted upon in the first place! This is determined by your modifier build.



In the screenshot above you can see I created a build for the Assassin class (the 6 modifiers shown on the right). Whenever I win a round while playing as Assassin, this build is used, and 2 of the modifiers are randomly selected for voting. In this case it was Crate Race and 360 No Scopes.

But I would have been happy for ANY of these modifiers to show up, because I specifically equipped modifiers that synergize nicely with the Assassin class. This synergy potential makes round wins really matter. Because no matter what gets voted on, you can be sure that as the round winner, the next modifier that appears will combo nicely with your class and playstyle.



With this version, there are 54 modifiers in the game, with more to be released soon! These modifiers are split into 18 commons, 12 rares, 12 epics, and 12 legendaries. Players start with all the commons unlocked and can start creating builds immediately. But to get the rest, you'll need to spend shards.



Shards are a currency that you mostly get from leveling up your classes.

When you get 100 shards, you can spend them to supercharge your next flask and make it drop a modifier. Doing this gives you a 10% chance to drop a legendary modifier, a 35% chance to get an epic or higher, and a 100% chance to get a rare modifier or higher. In the screenshot above I unlocked the legendary Thug Drops modifier, which changes how gangs work (more on gangs below!). Now I am free to equip Thug Drops to my modifier builds and give it a chance to appear when I win my next match.

It is also possible to get new modifiers without spending shards, but this is extremely unlikely. It's just a 0.2% chance to get a random legendary modifier for free in any flask. This is just for fun, and shards are the main way. Also, if you hit a duplicate modifier in the flask, that's OK. Those 100 shards will get turned into 100 ENRICHED SHARDS instead, which lets you buy legendary modifiers directly from the shop.



The thing I love about this system is that you share these unlocks with others. You don't just unlock Thug Drops for yourself, no. It is a round modifier that affects everyone in the server. This means it's not just veteran players with 100+ hours in the game that get to experience this content. Whenever they win, we all get to try out some of the crazy legendary modifiers that they've unlocked.

It also means that if you're a more casual player, you can still get lucky, unlock a sweet legendary modifier, and be one of the only players in the entire game who has the ability to make this specific modifier appear. There will be many players who don't have that modifier, and haven't even played it before. And then suddenly when you win your next match, there it is. And if you're feeling generous, you can vote for this new legendary modifier just so they can try something new. In this way, unlocking new modifiers doesn't just benefit you, it benefits the whole community.

There are also weekly modifiers. These rotate every week, and they are added to everyone's build. So you have your 6 equipped modifiers, and then the 2 weekly modifiers bring the total up to 8. These are randomly shuffled up and then 2 are chosen for voting each round. This means that we'll see the weekly modifiers more often, and if you want you can strategize around them.



In the screenshot above we see:

Gold Rush: 30s into the round, multiple rare loot crates will land in the safe zone.
Skill Scan: Reveal nearby enemies for 5s after casting a skill.

Gold Rush combos nicely with Scavenger, as they duplicate every bit of loot they pick up. And Skill Scan synergizes with Caster, as they tend to run more active skills due to faster cooldowns. If you're feeling sweaty and want to try grind the leaderboards, it might be worth focussing on one of these 2 classes for a couple of days to get an edge! These change every Friday and Monday morning.


This version takes GSA one step closer to GTA with the addition of Gangsters!

You'll sometimes find a gang of 4 gangsters guarding some loot. If you capture the loot by standing inside the yellow circle for 5 seconds you will gain +$5000. Unless of course the "Thug Drops" modifier mentioned above is in play, in which case a far more valuable supply drop will land instead.



However, these gangsters are tough, and will kill you fast. You normally need to kill all 4 gangsters before trying to capture their loot. They have 200 health each and high damage. You can't just run in blind or you'll die. You need to actually think about how you take them out, ideally smart and one at a time. You might even want to take some AoE skills like Radiate or use Molotovs to take them out faster.

One of the gangsters will have a red backpack that is emitting smoke. When this gangster is killed he will explode, dealing 100hp damage to nearby enemies. This might be a good way to kill the other gangsters fast, if you can line them up just right.

But it's risky. The risk is that this explosion will also aggro the remaining gangsters permanently. This makes them chase you forever across the map and gain infinite vision of you too. This is a huge risk, because gangsters hurt and the last thing you need in this city is to make more enemies. So if you go for the backpack guy, make sure you take the rest out at the same time! Otherwise, maybe save that guy for last.



- Skill builds now only have 8 slots instead of 12. The middle 4 slots (for Epic and higher) have been removed for simplicity. The old system was too complex, and with round modifiers now ALSO getting their own builds, it was too much.

- The first active skill gives +30 max hp when you claim it. This rewards players who take at least one active skill, which ultimately makes the game more fun and varied for everyone.

- Brought back the mission arrow that shows the nearest mission civ. This helps new players always find something to do. Don't know how to farm? Just follow the arrow, do a mission and repeat. Just like in GTA2.

- Reworked the real-money prices of Uranium, Starter Packs and Legendary Packs. Also changed what's in them. They have the same general value as before, but the Starter pack now gives Epic flasks instead of XP Flasks, and the Legendary Packs cost $10, but gives more uranium than before. The Deluxe DLC is unaffected.

- You can now auto-open flasks to drastically reduce clicks. Right click flasks to queue them up, then click open. The game will go through all the flasks in the queue, spending ACID, shards and magnets as needed. This is useful for players who have stockpiled a lot of ACID and flasks and can't be bothered to click a bunch of times. Now you can queue them up and let it run while you go get a cup of coffee. Any new round modifiers or legendary drops will be indicated for you when it's done.

- Added a feature that lets you spend uranium to entirely swap all the DNA from one class to another. View it in the skills page. This helps players who invested all of their ACID and flasks into a single class (usually Assault as that's the starting one), but then feel trapped. You can now shift all of that data onto another class to try something new.

- Added some sick new menu music!




[MINOR GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- We only lose half our XP instead of all of it on death.

- We get just +1 score for overtime kills instead of +2 score. The focus is now more on your level.

- Players in general move, shoot and reload very slightly faster.

- Bullets now "attach" to the ground so you can shoot enemies behind slopes.

- Random skills mode now gives +10% instead of +20% cash and XP.

- The requirements for the "earn trophies" daily challenge is doubled. But the 4th daily requirements is halved.

- Vendor upgrade costs now increase by $3000 instead of $2000 per purchase.

- Civs and cops no longer use pistols against you at wanted level 1, even if you shoot them.

- Level ups only give +5 instead of +10 max hp.

- Everyone spawns with 20% shield, which goes up to 60% after 4 kills.

- Improved bot pathfinding and difficulty.

- Added new civilian missions.

- We can now carry up to 5 nades instead of 4 at a time.

- Chemicals restore charges every 40s instead of 60s.


[CLASS CHANGES]

- Heavy's ROF perk now gives 1.0% ROF per level, but +3.5% when below 50% health (instead of a flat 2.5% all the time).

- Caster's active cooldowns restore +50% instead of +40% faster.

- Criminal no longer goes undercover and looks like a cop. That perk is replaced. Criminal's new perk is called "Shifty Civilians" and will cause the nearest civilian to teleport to your location when you shift (25% of the time).

- Scientist's gain +$500 instead of +$1000 for deaths nearby chemicals.


[SKILL CHANGES]

- Backtrack healing now ranges from 20% to 50% instead of 20% to 80%

- Blade Mail protection now ranges from 9 to 27% instead of 10 to 40%, but it begins at 40% health instead of 30%

- Medical Supplies nerfed to have healing and throw go from 6 to 24 instead of 8 to 32

- Mana Shield protection now ranges from 8 to 32% instead of 10 to 40%

- Boots of Travel now kicks in after 0.7 instead of 0.8s

- Shrapnel damage now ranges from 24% to 96% instead of 20% to 80%

- Venom Shot seeking speed is now 70 instead of 50

- Illicit Income gives 2x cash and XP for all levels

- XRay Vision now reveals slightly more players

- Blade Fury now does 2x damage vis civs/cops/gangsters

- Shockwave heals 1 less health per bullet for all levels

- Bullet Time seeking now ranges from 10 to 70 instead of 10 to 40 degrees/s

- Flying Dagger damage is now 85% to 115% instead of 70% to 100%

- Mirror Image gets +10 health


The next major feature will be a monthly battle pass. It will include a bunch of shards, ACID and other goodies in both the free and paid tracks. It will have fun weekly missions, and make it easier to unlock more round modifiers (and there will be a LOT more coming!).

I'm not sure exactly on the design of the battle pass yet, but I am sure that I don't want it to expire. If you buy it, you won't need to rush to complete it. You should be able to progress at your own pace.

Anyway, that will be a while away. And there are a lot more modifiers to create in the meantime.

Cheers and happy new year!
Ben (bencelot).

This is a summary of the biggest changes over the last few months. A few of these features have been live for a while, but I hadn't made a Steam announcement for them yet. If you've played the game recently you might have seen some of these, but if not, here's what's new in the world of GSA!



Explosive Boxes
There are fun new ways to kill people.

Some of the loot crates are now shown in red. These are explosive and will deal 60hp damage to anyone nearby, including yourself! If you want to claim the loot inside them you should shoot them from afar first, as running into them to open the crate will hurt. They crates also deal extra damage vs vehicles and are a great way to initiate a fight!






Car Physics Kills
Even cooler, when cars explode the car body will now blast forwards out of the explosion.

The car will deal huge roadkill damage as it slides across the ground, killing anyone caught in it's path. So now you can set traps by parking cars in chokepoints. I like to drive a car up to an incoming supply drop where I know a lot of enemies will be, and then pull off trick shots like these.



Pretty Graphics
Various parts of the game look better. The lighting is more vibrant and colourful. The circle of death is easier to see as it now has a little row of dots showing its edge.





The Uranium Shop
Players can now finally spend their Uranium! If you have or buy the Deluxe Edition DLC, you will get a bonus 3000 uranium, but everyone can also earn uranium for free. Daily challenges, leveling up, and opening flasks all give uranium, which you can spend in the new shop.

The shop displays new offers every day, selling things like ACID, Magnets, direct DNA purchases and various Flasks. Most popular are the class-specific flasks, which guarantee Epic or Legendary drops for your favourite classes.

Uranium makes account progression more strategic and gives you more control over how your account progresses. You can even wishlist your favorite skills by right clicking on them, and they will appear in the shop more often, allowing you to buy DNA directly on your favorite skills and classes.



Progression & Flasks Streamlined
The new progression system has seen many improvements since it was released 5 months ago. Huge thanks to all the Early Access testers who gave feedback on this!

Flasks are more convenient to claim as there are no longer any inventory limits. You can stack flasks infinitely.

You have the option to convert regular class flasks into Epic flasks. This means that flasks for the classes you don't play are no longer useless. You can turn them into Epics which are always useful.

The flask animation got a lot of criticism for being too slow, so that has been sped up 2x faster. And there is also a new "QUICK MIX" option that removes the animation entirely (except for when an Epic or Legendary is about to pop out).



Automatic Skill Builds
The recently added skill builds got a huge improvement due to the new "Auto Build" feature.

By clicking the AUTO button the game will automatically assign 12 skills to your build for you. It chooses these skills based on 3 factors. The rarity of the skill, hardcoded synergies that I know work well with that specific class, and most importantly, your personal skill usage.

The game will track how much you use each skill based on your "votes" when you click the skills during drafting in-game. Then based on this information it creates a build that prioritizes your favourite skills. It works pretty well, and is convenient for new players who aren't sure what skills they like yet.



New Survivor Income Loot Drops
The survivor income is the biggest source of XP in the game. This is a battle royale after all, and survival needs to matter. But it used to work in a fairly confusing way. Now it works like this:

Roughly once per minute, every survivor in the game will receive a special supply crate that lands right next to them. This contains a huge amount of XP, far more than you will get from other sources like cops, missions or kills. Only survivors get this though, not zombies. So if you want to farm up and become as strong as possible for the round 3 showdown, you need to stay alive!

This mechanic is more visual and intutive to new players. But it also adds interesting gameplay considerations for veterans. You get a 3 second warning before your box drops, which gives you just enough time to get to safety to claim it. You can also claim other player's income boxes, if you can somehow kill them before they claim it. The semi-random nature of the drops means you never know when it will come, and so when you hear the warning beeps you have to think fast to ensure you successfully claim this huge source of farm.



Random Class Options
You can now select a random class before you join a match. This gives you a subtle +10% XP boost, to compensate for the fact that you aren't able to counter of use your best class. This is in the rougelitey spirit of the game, and rewards players who have mastered every class. There's also a "Random Everything" mode, which also will not only randomise your class, but also your skill build too. Since this feature was added about 25% of players have been using it, from the looks of the leaderboards.



Hundreds of Tweaks to Skills, Classes and Mechanics
There are too many micro tweaks to list here, but they're all listed in the changelogs in game. Here are some of the highlights though:

- Added a new Kill Frenzy loot pickup, inspired by GTA2. This triggers a mission where you have 30s to kill 5 enemies.
- Added a new DOUBLE DAMAGE loot pickup, also inspired by GTA2. Collecting this gives you double damage for the next 3 seconds. It's good to camp one of these and wait for an unsuspecting victim to come nearby.
- New loot crates are randomly hidden on rooftops, encouraging exploration and rewarding players who know how to do parkour.
- Killing enemies now gives cash and XP based on your kill streak. $100 and 10xp per streak. So if you kill your 8th player without dying, it gives $800 and 80xp. This rewards survival, and puts a big focus on quality instead of quantity kills.
- Added a camera zoom option, which lets you zoom the camera out to see your surroundings better.
- Scoring is reworked. It is now based entirely on placement of each round, with later rounds giving more score. Your level or kills now have no impact on your score. This is important as it frees you up to just focus on the survival and build optimisation, instead of feeling the need to constantly grind kills to keep up.
- Free to Play players can now play all the survival mode difficulty modifiers. This allows them to compete with Deluxe DLC players on the daily leaderboards for top score.
- Boxes cast line of sight shadows more aggressively, creating more line of sight blockers in the map. We used to be able to see over a 5m tall box, but now we can't. Creating more interesting gameplay fighting around these.
- Too many class and skill balances to list here. Check the changelog in game!



The next major feature will be a literal game-changing new "round modifiers" system. How will it work?

In a match of Gene Shift Auto, there are 3 rounds, lasting 5 minutes each. Soon, each of these rounds will have a special modifier or minigame activated during it. I will create a bunch of these modifiers, but only one will be active at a time. Some ideas I'm thinking of are:

- The Floor is Lava! Areas of the map turn to fire, changing how we move about.
- Meteor Strike! Meteors will randomly fall from the sky, giving 2s warning before hitting the ground.
- Turbo Guns! Everyone will fire bullets +50% faster.
- Spinning Saws! Giant saws will spin at various chokepoints in the map, requiring timing to get through. Just like dungeon crawling in Skyrim.



Each round, a new random modifier will be chosen. This will add huge amounts of variety and replayability, and really lean into the roguelitey vibes too. Players will need to adapt to the changing situation if they want to survive and farm as well as possible.

Even cooler is how these modifiers are chosen. They are chosen semi-randomly, but importantly they will ultimately be decided by the winner of the previous round. If you win round 1, then you'll be the one who decides what modifier is active in round 2! This seems super fun to me. The stakes for winning rounds 1 and 2 will become huge, knowing that you'll be deciding the gameplay for everyone else in the server next round. Getting to choose also will have subtle gameplay advantages, as you might be able to choose a modifier that you are especially good at, or that synergises nicely with your build.

Anyway, this will be released in a couple of months, so stay tuned!

Cheers,
Ben (bencelot).

Heyo! Just a small patch today. There are some balance changes and a rework to how we earn Shards.

Shards still don't do anything, so this rework doesn't really matter yet. But we now earn them from leveling up our classes. We also need a certain number of Legendary skills in a class to reach the next level.

To make sure we all get the right class level and get the correct amount of Shards, I've had to roll back everyone's class levels a bit. This will let you reclaim up to the new right class level, get the right amount of shards, and also get a free +300 ACID for each class level up. Woo!

This version also now has a RANDOM CLASS BUTTON. This is to encourage players to experiment and get more variety in their gameplay. You will gain a slight +15% cash and XP boost to compensate for the lack of reliability. Or randomize your skills too for +30%!

Enjoy!

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[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Made the chat log bigger and integrated Discord.

- Daily challenges must now be claimed from the main menu.

- Added pretty visual effects whenever you claim resources in the menu.

- Added a coming soon button for the shop.



[SHARD & CLASS LEVEL CHANGES]

- Shards are no longer earned from earning excess DNA on your legendary skills, nor are they earned from leveling up.

- Shards are instead earned by levelling up your classes. You get +30 shards and +300 ACID per class level up.

- Class levels now have 2 requirements. You need X amount of trophies like before, but now you also require a certain number of legendary skills on that class.

- This makes higher class levels harder to reach, so to compensate, gun skin cosmetics are now unlocked at earlier combined class levels.

- Everyone's shards have been reset and class levels rolled back, so you can re-level your classes to get up to the new amount, and get the right amount of shards.

- FYI, Shards will eventually be used to unlock alternative class perks, letting us swap existing perks out for new ones. Coming soon!



[EXCESS DNA CHANGES]

- Excess DNA that you earn when a skill reaches Legendary is no longer turned into shards. Instead it is stored on the skill itself.

- For every 5000 excess DNA that you earn, your skill will gain +1 medal level (the old way of earning skill medals is removed).

- These medal levels contribute towards your total class medal count, which is a new requirement used to unlock higher class levels.

- It now takes 5000 instead of 4500 DNA for a skill to reach legendary status. All players have their existing epic and legendary skills boosted by +500 DNA to compensate.

- You can now make progress towards your next magnet from earning excess DNA (previously excess DNA didn't count and was "wasted").



[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Shotguns have 35 instead of 30m range and slightly better accuracy.

- Rare loot crates spawn more frequently in the map.

- Vendor skill duration upgrades are now +25/50/75% instead of +30/60/90%.

- Vendor skill speed upgrades are now +30/60/90% instead of +20/40/60%.

- Added 2 new "random class" options that become available when you hit level 100.

- Random Class: Play a random class, prioritizing daily challenges if available. Your skill build will match the selected build on that class. You earn +15% cash and XP from all sources in-game, and get +15% XP at the end of the match.

- Random Class & Skills: Play a random class, prioritizing daily challenges if available. You'll use a random skill build, but get +1 extra reroll.. You earn +30% cash and XP from all sources in-game, and get +30% XP at the end of the match.

- Vendors are more likely to carry chemicals, especially during round 1 (buffing Scientist).



[CLASS CHANGES]

- Criminal's gang now fires at enemy cops and civs who are attacking and hunting you.



[SKILL NERFS]

- Charged Shot now only gives half as much damage after throwing a grenade

- Shrapnel chance of free nade now ranges from 40% to 160% instead of 100% to 400%

- Mirror Image clone damage is now 12% to 30% instead of 10% to 40%

- Radiate initial impact damage is now 10 to 70hp instead of 20 to 80hp

- Falling Inferno duration is now +2 to +5s instead of +2 to +8s

- Toxic Blood duration is now +4 to + 7s instead of +4 to +10s



[SKILL BUFFS]

- Automatic Armor protection time is now 1.5s instead of 1s

- Blade Mail has more protection, ranging from -14% to -56% instead of -10% to -40%

- Combo Killer now drops more loot per multi kill level, ranging from 40% to 160% instead of 30% to 120%

- Armed Robbery's chance of a free upgrade now ranges from 8% to 32% instead of 6% to 24%

- Firestorm's cooldown now ranges from 16s to 10s instead of 20s to 14s

- Spike Trap's cooldown now ranges from 18s to 12s instead of 20s to 14s

Oops, I fucked up.

I accidentally wiped everyone's DNA while working in the database. This is super embarrassing and I'm really sorry! The backups were also too old to use (though I've now made sure this can never happen again).

Here's the plan to fix this. We're going to RESPEC our builds:

1) First of all, everyone over level 10 gets +1000 free uranium as an apology (equal to $10 USD, usable in the shop next version).

2) Everyone's ACID has been refunded.

3) Everyone's level is back to 0 (but XP is NOT reset). This allows us to very quickly reclaim all the flasks and get back to where we were before.

4) Flasks and shards are reset (as you'll re-earn all of these as you open the flasks again). Magnets earned from DNA are reset for same reason.

Overall, we will all have roughly as much DNA as before. The big downside is that it will be a pain to open all those flasks in a row. To open them faster, hold SHIFT when you click the MIX FLASK button!

The upside is that we'll all be a bit richer than before, as you get to keep the ACID, uranium, new skills, and magnets you previously unlocked from non-DNA sources, as well as the +1000 free uranium. Also, this is an opportunity to reuse your magnets to perfectly craft your builds.

I'm really sorry about this, I screwed up hard! Please send me a message on Steam if you have any problems.

In other news, there are some fun things in this version! Progression is way smoother now, with the ability to infinitely stack flasks. Scoring in PvP is now based entirely on placement, and F2P players can now attempt ALL survival challenges. Let's see who gets the top score!

Enjoy! (and again, sorry for the fuckup.)

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[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Each class now has 3 builds slots, so you can create multiple skill builds per class.

- Right clicking on skills will wishlist them, which will make them appear more often in the shop. You can do this from leaderboards, the skill tree, or when opening flasks.



[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Scoring in BR is completely reworked! We no longer get score for levels or kills. This removes the need to grind non-stop to keep up. Instead, we receive score based ONLY on our placement each round.

- The scores for placement are awarded to the final 10 players of each round: + 1/2/3/4/5/6/8/10/15/20 score (these values are for round 1. Rounds 2 and 3 are bigger).

- We no longer earn bonus health based on round placement, as we earn score instead. More health kits spawn in the map to compensate.

- If you damage a player but then within the next 10s they die to cops, then you are given the kill.

- The player hitbox is now slightly smaller, and all guns deal 10% less damage.

- The amount of XP you can get from ingame farming is capped at 6000 instead of 8000.

- Winning a BR match now gives much more XP. XP rewards range from 6000 to 2000xp, instead of 2000xp to 100xp.

- In warmups, instead of the circle closing in super tight which looks quite ugly, everyone just dies when the timer hits 0:00.



[FLASK & PROGRESSION CHANGES]

- All flask types can now be stacked up to 999 each per slot.

- Flask inventory size is 24 for all players, F2P and Deluxe.

- Sped up the flask animation 2x. You can hold SHIFT when opening flasks to make it even faster.

- Class flasks once again only give 2 instead of 3 drops for that class.

- Class flasks can now only be sold in batches of 3 at a time. However they give 100 ACID each instead of 50 each (so 300 for a batch of 3).

- The Epic Skill Flask is now called "Epic Class Flask" and gives a random class instead.

- XP flasks now cost 2000 instead of 3000 ACID.

- Chance of unlocking a ring 4 skill is now 10% instead of 5%.



[SURVIVAL CHANGES]

- F2P players can now complete all survival challenges, and not just the first row. This allows all players to compete on the daily leaderboards for top score.

- Removed the bonus XP from win streaks in survival mode. It's better for people to be able to take risks and experiment with harder survival modifers, without fear of losing the streak.

- The bonus XP from difficulty modifiers in survival mode now only apply when you win the run, in the same way the bonus score works.

- The "Adaptation" survival difficulty modifer is changed. It used to only show you 1 skill option instead of 2. Now it gives you 1 less reroll.

- The final round of survival now also has a zombie swarm.



[CLASS CHANGES]

- Criminal's gang members will no longer trigger fission mine.

- Scientist's Alchemic Network no longer restores your health when enemies are nearby. However it gives $1000 instead of $500 per enemy death, and the range is much larger.

- Scientist's Potent Chemicals perk now additionally makes chemicals be on discount from vendors.

- Sniper's bonus range is now +15% instead of +20%.



[SKILL CHANGES]

- Killer Cooldowns now also restores the cooldowns of your chemicals, by 5% to 35% restored per kill.

- Falling Inferno no longer throws another molotov when you toggle off certain skills (like Invis or Bullet Time).

- Critical Rage duration now ranges from +40% to +160% instead of +50% to +200%.

- Invis duration now ranges from 6 to 24s instead of 10 to 40s.

- Clip Magnet's charge time now ranges from 24 to 18s instead of 24 to 12s.

- Cluster Bomb cooldown is now 18 instead of 20s.

- Fire Storm now does 5x instead of 2x damage vs cars.

- Smoke Bomb now fades into invis 50% faster than before.

Spicy changes this version!

1) All classes can now shoot while shifting. Instead of your gun being disabled, it will shoot with worse accuracy instead. This used to be Assault's perk, which now gets +15% bullet speed instead.

2) The skill build system has been restructured a bit. We can now equip Legendary skills into the Epic and Rare slots. This solves a problem where once you got 2 Legendary skills on a class, any new Leges felt kind of useless.

3) The game will now Auto-Level your skills if you join a game mid-match in rounds 2 or 3. This way we can just start playing, and not have to click 10+ times. The auto-leveling takes skills from your build and still gives Leges etc.

There are also a few changes to Flask types, making them more powerful and interesting. Read on below!

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[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Daily challenges for playing specific classes now work in the Conquest game mode.

- Sped up ranked mode slightly, making it so players don't have to grind as much to reach higher ranks.

- Made some UI improvements to the Flask inventory. Also added a new PURCHASED tab, which doesn't do anything yet, but will become a place to store flasks that you buy with Uranium.



[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Changed bot behaviour to no longer priortize attacking the winning player in the server. This is usually a human and felt unfair.

- Jumping on flat ground no longer makes your accuracy worse. Only if you jump really high in the air.

- We can now shoot while shifting on all classes! However your accuracy is worse due to the movement. Machine guns and Rifles have a lot of inaccuracy, while SMGS and pistols have less.

- When players join mid-match, they start with the average number of extra damage and health kits collected so far in the server. This is how XP and cash already worked.

- When players join mid-match, the game will auto level skills for them. This simulates a player just spamming the right-hand side skill draft button (where your build appears).

- The skill build system now allows Legendaries and Epics to show up at lower rarities.

- The skill build is now split into 3 sections, clearly indicated in the menu. There is a new rule that you are guaranteed to see a skill from each of the 3 sections once per match. This helps you create synergies and combos. If you have a combo of 3 skills, put 1 in each section for a chance to play all 3 in a match.

- Added a bounty system (patched live a week ago). When you get 4 kills in a row (OWNAGE!), $2000 appears above your head. Enemies who kill you get this reward. This grows up to $6000 if you get 12 kills in a row.



[FLASK CHANGES]

- Magnetic Flasks now only require 1 magnet to use, but they cost 3000 instead of 1500 ACID.

- XP Flasks now give +50xp instead of +20xp per DNA earned, but they cost 3000 instead of 1000 ACID.

- Catchup flask is improved. Instead of only giving DNA to your least played class, it gives it to all classes except your 2 most played classes. It still only costs 500 ACID to open.

- Created a new flask type called "Legendary Class Flask". This is a legendary flask with a twist! It tells you what class the Legendary will be for. This changes every day at 0:00 UTC, and also whenever you open a flask.

- Mystery flasks no longer give class specific Legendary flasks (as you might get stuck with a class you don't like). Instead they give the new "Legendary Class Flask" which gives more control over what class you get.



[CLASS CHANGES]

- Assault's first perk is now "You will move +10% faster, and your bullets travel +15% faster." It no longer lets you shoot while shifting, as ALL classes get that now.

- Caster's skill cooldowns are now +50% instead of +60% faster.

- When Criminals are undercover they no longer appear to enemies in the minimap. Your gang now does 70% instead of +65% regular cop damage.

- Scientist's bombs will appear more frequently at vendors (50% instead of 33% of the time).

- Assassin's bullets seek slightly faster during the 2s kill window.



[SKILL CHANGES]

- Blade Mail's max bonus damage cap is now 100 instead of 50.

- Shift Attack's bonus damage now lasts for 0.8 instead of 1.0s after shifting.

- Firestorm flies 10% faster through the air.

- Firestorm cooldown is now 20/19/18/17/16/15/14 instead of a flat 20s.

- Radiate's explosion area is reduced by 10%.

- Laser Scope's bullet speed and range is reduced by 20%.

- Cluster Bomb takes 0.2s longer to throw grenades for all levels.

- Stimpacks heals 1 less hitpoint per shift for all levels.

- Mirror Image health now ranges from 20 to 80 instead of 30 to 120.

- Venom Shot seeking is now 40 instead of 50 degrees per second.

- Charged Shot damage now ranges from 16 to 64 instead of 12 to 48.

- Medical Supplies now pulls loot from big supply crates at 50% instead of 35% the distance.

- Phase Drifting speed is now +40 to +160% instead of +50 to +200%.

- Xray Vision has a higher range and reveals more enemies at higher levels. This range now also reveals rare loot crates further in the minimap.

- Rambulance healing linger duration is 6 instead of 5s after you exit a car.

- Backtrack cooldown now ranges from 20 to 14s, but the duration is massviely buffed to 5s to 35s (instead of 4s to 16s).