UPDATE - the contest is over - see the winners here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NovaDrift/comments/fub2ss/nova_drift_high_score_challenge_results/

As part of our 1 year anniversary celebration, we are running a high score contest for the next 3 days. There are 8 categories, and players can enter all 8 if they want. Here are the prizes for each category:

- 3 Nova Drift Steam Keys for friends
- The Nova Drift OST
- Last Horizon & OST (an older game by Pixeljam & Chimeric)

Rules For All Challenges:

• 8 challenges will be revealed (below), each with its own unique ruleset. You may submit scores to any number of them.
  
• No cheats are allowed for any challenges and practice mode cannot be enabled.
  
• Any challenge modes, on or off, are acceptable.
  
• Unless otherwise stated, the highest score in each category wins.
  
• You must play on version 0.27.12, the Genesis update.
  
• Scores must be submitted to Chimeric via a game-over screenshot. You may submit scores via email to chimericgames@gmail.com. Please tell us which category the screenshot is for, and provide your handle so we can give a shoutout if you win.
  
• The contest will begin today at 10am EST and end on Friday, April 3rd, at 10am EST when we begin our Art Jam stream (https://www.twitch.tv/chimeric_).
  
• We will announce the winners and discuss the builds used during the Art Jam stream, and share the results to Discord and Reddit shortly after the stream.
  
• Prizes will be granted to winners on Monday, April 6th.
  
• If someone wins multiple categories, they will only receive 1 prize package (in the category they submitted to first) and the other category they won will be awarded to second place.

PURITY Challenge:
* Must take Ataraxia as your first mod (gear upgrades are not mods.)
* You cannot exceed 10 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

CURSED Challenge:
* Must include Omnishield + Shielded Constructs within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

WILDERNESS Challenge:
* After you have selected your gear, you may only spend rerolls if no wild mods are offered to you.
* Must use only wild mods, unless none are available or you have zero rerolls (Any gear is okay.)
* You're on the honor system with this one.

THICCNESS Challenge:
* Score doesn't matter.
* The build which has taken the most damage according to the game-over readout wins.

ONE PUNCH Challenge:
* Score doesn't matter.
* The build which has dealt the highest damage in one hit according to the game-over readout wins (burn damage doesn't hit.)
* You cannot take Last Stand.

MY CHILD Challenge:
* Must include Architect + Overseer within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)
* Either Apex Machinery or Vital Bond must be used.
* You must use only one type of construct.

SWARM Challenge:
* You must use Carrier + Overseer.
* Either Shielded Constructs or Rapid Reconstruction must be used.
* You cannot have an assembly limit above zero for any construct apart from swarm constructs.

AU NATURAL Challenge:
* Must include Hidden Power + Rapid Reconstruction within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

-----------------------------------

While we have your attention:

- Thursday April 2 is MUSIC DAY - Miles @ Pixeljam will be streaming music creation and analysis at https://twitch.tv/pixeljamgames around 11 AM EST

- Join the Discord Server for the most direct & immediate way to interact with the community and devs

- Please leave a review for Nova Drift if you haven't already!

Hello all,

The GENESIS update adds long awaited gear and mods to the game, many of which were suggested by our community. As always, a bunch of bug fixes and balance changes are included. Here are the highlights:



Changelog Updated : Click here for the full patch notes.

• Charge up and sustain a focused lance of heat to burn targets and make them vulnerable to further damage
  
• While sustaining Thermal Lance, you also fire twisting sparks that are affected by your projectile mods
  
• Thermal Lance and its sparks ignite targets for 120 burning damage /s
  
• Damage from Thermal Lance and its sparks apply vulnerability to targets
  
• Vulnerability increases the damage targets take from all sources. After targets stop receiving vulnerability for one second, the effect falls off over time
  
• -35% thrust and -50% rotation speed while charging
  
• Damage: Thermal Lance damage scales with its charge level
  
• Spark damage: 8
  
• Spark count: 1
  
• Spark rate of fire: 7.5 /s

• Shockwave releases waves that ebb and flow, pushing targets and projectiles around it
  
• When your shields reset after its cooldown, Shockwave releases a forceful wave which deals 120 damage and applies +20% vulnerability to targets it hits
  
• Shields: 60
  
• Cooldown: 7 seconds

• You automatically assemble and deploy Swarm Constructs, which apply vulnerability to targets
  
• While a damaged shield protects you, a portion of your Swarm Constructs are assigned to recover your shields
  
• While your shield is down or you have no shield, Swarm Constructs gain increased movement speed and rate of fire
  
• -10% rate of fire
  
• Hull: 110
  
• Thrust: 75
  
• Swarm Constructs: Type: Basic construct. Rarely created as standard or advanced constructs with improved abilities
  
• Construct limit: 4 + 1 for every 2 of your levels
  
• Hull: 8 Damage: 5. Applies 0.25% vulnerability
  
• Rate of fire: 1.5 /s Assembly time: 1 second

• Your mines charge your weapon at 100% of your charge rate
  
• Charged Shot no longer applies to you
  
• -25% mine trigger radius
  
• Your mines constantly take 2 damage /s

• Your mines are deployed at high velocity, in your firing direction(s), when you fire
  
• Your mines detonate at low velocity instead of detonating within a trigger radius
  -20% mine damage and mine effect
  
• If you fire with no mines assembled, a mine is deployed and 15% + 5 of your current hull and shields are removed. This removal cannot be mitigated, but also can not reduce hull or shields below 1

• On detonation, your mines fire your weapon in a radial spread
  
• The number of weapon instances produced by Loaded Mines is determined by your rate of fire and projectile count
  
• For weapons that charge innately, your mines charge your weapon at 75% of your charge rate. Additionally, they constantly take 2 damage /s

• Your mines are deployed all at once in a cluster
  
• +3 mine construct limit
  
• +50% mine assembly speed
  
• -50% mine maximum hull
  
• -25% mine damage, total mine effect, and mine trigger radius
  
• Your mines cause a chain reaction when they detonate

• Loaded Mines and Retribution have switched places on the tree, allowing mine builds to have access to this key mod earlier
  
• Auto Mines has been replaced by Minefield
  
• Interceptor Allies can now properly utilize innately charging weapons (Vortex and Thermal Lance)
  
• New battle BGM added: Superlumen and Superlumen (Warped), for Endless and Wild Metamorphosis, respectively
  
• Rancor has been reworked. It now has quite an explosive effect when triggered (roughly 5 times its previous magnitude), but wears off over time
  
• Dozens of bug fixes and minor adjustments

We hope everyone enjoys the new features! Much more on the way. In the meantime, keep on drifting and stay safe & sane! :)

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello all!

We just added 2 new tracks to the Nova Drift OST: Superlumen + Superlumen (Warped).

Also, the entire OST is 30% for the next few days, as part of the Steam Soundtrack Sale. Check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156340/Nova_Drift_OST/

These tracks will be added to the actual in-game music in March, when we roll out some major updates as part of our 1-year anniversary celebration. Excite!

If you want first access to the upcoming updates, keep an eye on the announcements in our Discord Server... juicy new stuff always goes there first!

Keep on driftin',

-Miles @ Pixeljam

This message is from V2Blast, our localization manager:

Bonjour, привет, guten Tag!

As localization manager, I'm excited to announce that Nova Drift's first two translations are almost ready. The March 27th update is planned to include support for Russian and French - but we need your help!

As many of you already know, we use a tool called Localizor to crowd-source the translation of the game. You can earn prestige points by suggesting correct translations of strings into other languages, and spend that prestige to unlock games as rewards. (But even more importantly, you earn our undying love and appreciation!) For Nova Drift, we need to translate everything into the target language in a way that makes sense. That's where you come in. Those of you who know these languages and play the game are in the best position to figure out how to localize the text in a way that gets the meaning across. We also need your help to figure out which fonts look the best in the game.

If you're not already part of Nova Drift's localization effort, you can get involved by going to https://www.localizor.io/game/15/translations and creating an account. There are translation efforts going in a lot of languages thanks to our hardworking community, and many suggested translations already - but we need people to vote on those suggestions to verify that they're accurate! We're making a particular push to have the Russian and French translations ready to go in time for the March 27th update, and we'd like to get the ball rolling on German as well.

If you know someone who might be able to suggest/verify translations, invite them to join the effort! We may be able to provide some extra rewards for our best translators too - stay tuned for more details... If you have any questions about how to get involved or about the localization effort itself, feel free to ask them in the #localization channel in the Discord Server! We wouldn't be able to do this without your dedication and support.

We're excited to announce the latest major update, entitled APEX.

Check the Steam store page for the latest trailer - it's right after the first (default) Early Access launch one.

Highlights from this update:

• Turret receives a full mod tree
  
• Ally, Interceptor, and Guardian overhauled & gain new mods
  
• Dozens of balances changes and fixes. DOZENS!
  
• Overhauled controls customization

Click here for the full patch notes

APEX sets the stage for the next big(ger) content update, hitting March 27th. Some upcoming highlights:

• New Gear: Carrier, Thermal Lance, & Shockwave Shield
  
• More Wild Mods
  
• Progress on Enemies 2.0
  
• Some surprises...

A signal boost is always appreciated, if you are feeling retweety:
https://twitter.com/NovaDriftGame/status/1224393352851771392

Thanks for the ongoing support!

-Miles @ Pixeljam

The next major update is coming, and it includes some hefty changes to the turret. If you'd like to help us test it, join the discord server and check the patch-notes channel for the password to the experimental branch...

Full update coming in early February!

Even bigger update (new weapons, body & shields) coming in March...

Hello all,

Version 0.25.3 is now live! Here is what's new:

• The XP curve has been smoothed out. The climb to level 20 is a bit slower, and the average player should be able to reach a maximum of about 5 levels higher than before.
  
• The game text was given a sweeping overhaul, adjusting grammar, readability, spelling, and consistency. Localization efforts can now ramp up!
  
• Changed many game terms in minor ways. For instance, Hull Strength is now Hull, Shield Durability is now Shields
  
• Improved directional steering behavior for game pad
  
• Dozens of balance changes and bug fixes, with full details HERE.

A few other things:

- Join Our Discord Server, where we share updates and experimental builds before anywhere else (also lots of juicy drift chat).

- Want to help with localization? CLICK HERE to join the crowdsourcing effort on Localizor.

Enjoy!

-Miles @ Pixeljam

NOVA DRIFT: FISSION
v0.24.4
November 16, 2019

Nova Drift FISSION brings additional polish, balance, and quality-of-life changes to Nova Drift, along with introducing some new Body Gear and build archetypes. Older, underutilized upgrades have been given new artwork and overhauls. FISSION also introduces some wave and scaling changes which set the stage for the upcoming enemy and boss rework.

Highlights:

Harnessing mysterious cosmic powers, the Stealth body gear has been divided into two separate bodies: The Spectre and the Firefly.

The Spectre body gear represents the stealth aspect of the original Stealth body. It is able to cloak faster and enjoys up to a +200% weapon damage buff when fully cloaked. It is able to move at low speeds without breaking cloak and can apply a partial damage buff while partially cloaked. Additionally, enemies have been given more intelligent reactions to a stealthed target...

The Firefly body gear represents the speed, thruster burn, and self-damage resistant aspects of the original Stealth body. Its thrusters are now larger, deal more damage, are more wide-spread, and have unique artwork.

The Split Shot weapon has been reworked. It has been given new visual effects and animations and its damage and spread has been increased. Additionally, the weapon now innately deals 50% splash damage on hit to targets behind its point of impact.

Added a new recursive common Wild Mod: Masochism. Masochism grants +8% self-damage resistance, but increases damage taken from enemies by 4%. It also provides a stackable "Adrenal Module-like effect", providing up to +15% increased global damage while at death's door.

Reflexive Shields, Defiance, Hypermetabolism, Regenerative Shields, and Celestial Lance have been reworked or upgraded. Myriad other balance adjustments and minor features have been added!

Introduced the Combat Log to the game!

Added support for directional steering!

Waves and enemy scaling have been reworked. Progression is smoother now, with very high waves being far less chaotic (but still difficult!) Enemies are more powerful, but less numerous, allowing more strategic builds to compete in the late-game alongside the usual contenders.

Full details on the update are available here:
https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/

Hello Drifters,

Today we launch the biggest update to Nova Drift yet: WILD METAMORPHOSIS. 24 new mods that enhance the game's rogue-like and deck-building aspects.



Read more about it here: https://blog.novadrift.io/wild-metamorphosis-launch.

Please help us spread the word here if you like to tweet stuff -> https://twitter.com/NovaDriftGame/status/1178717811767513088

We also released the Soundtrack today! 21 tracks by Miles Tilmann, with more to come: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156340/Nova_Drift_OST.

As we get ready for the official launch of Wild Metamorphosis on Sept 30th, we need some help making sure it's squeaky clean and ready to go. Hop on over to the BETA BRANCH of the game and try out the new mods (all 24 of them!). You can enable this mode just like any other challenge mode, before the game begins.

If you leave feedback or bug reports for Wild Mods on the forums - please make sure you specify that you have the Wild Metamorphosis beta branch enabled.

Here's another preview of one of the Wild Mods - Phantom Strike. When you deal crash damage to an enemy, you warp behind it, aim towards it and auto-fire:



Also don't forget that the Nova Drift OST launches on Sept 30th as well! Have a listen and wishlist it if you plan to pick it up:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156340/Nova_Drift_OST/

-Miles @ Pixeljam