Hello Drifters!

We have another group of exciting updates to share with everyone, shortly after last month's update. Here is what just went live:

Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Polish languages are now supported.



Over the last few months, we've been working on the exciting tech needed for Enemies 2.0, which includes enemy behaviors and formations. While the tech is finished, we haven't had the time to implement it yet. This will be a big design challenge, and any change to enemies this large is certain to incur a lot of rebalance needs. Additionally, it'd be nice to have new enemies and bosses ready to take full advantage of the tech. For these reasons, this will be included in a later update. That said, there are plenty of improvements in this update that are ready for you!






Enemy Entrances
Certain enemies can now enter anywhere on the battlefield via emerging from the background or utilizing portal technology.


Enemy Overhaul: Celestials
These feared creatures now boast improved visuals and revamped attacks to match their ferocity!


Construct Improvements
Allies can now utilize Charged Shot and Siege Weaponry. Additionally, several constructs have refined movement.


BOOOOST!
Rainbow cycling improves everything, right? Added about a dozen new instances of rainbow cycling for the BOOST power up and improved existing effects.



For the full list of improvements and fixes, check out the development blog: https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/


If you missed it, we made another major update just a month ago, including new gear and wild mods: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/858210/view/2779241325218318720

Hello Drifters old and new,

We know it's been a while since the last new content, so we are extra excited to announce the OUROBOROS Update, live as of today!




Yes, that's the player in the middle of the screen













In the past, Steam Proton ran the game just fine, but for unknown reasons this is no longer the case. In light of that, we will be working on an official Linux port, that is planned to be ready by November. Linux users can play on the Proton branch for now, which contains the last major update (0.28.13) that worked.



Simplified Chinese and Russian are currently not 100% supported in this latest update, but will be soon. English phrases will appear where translations are not yet implemented. We are also working on adding Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Polish by Mid-November.



A good deal of progress has been made for the first wave of Enemies 2.0, but it isn't ready yet. We expect this content to be available by Mid-November.


Something is coming...





Major Features

• Added a new Body Gear: Leviathan (Nova Drift's most requested feature!)
  
• Major rework: Helix Shield has been replaced with Orbital Shield, and has been given entirely new mechanics and visuals (Nova Drift's second most requested feature!)
  
• Rework: Assault Body has been granted new power: There is an 8% chance for weapons fired by you to be "empowered", greatly increasing the stats of the attack. As with all unique body powers, certain mods can scale this power
  
• Rework: Assault Body now resists mobility-reducing effects from weaponry by 15%
  
• You gain additional gear choices at account level 25 and 50, to a maximum of 7. This means that with 7 choices, it will never cost more than 1 reroll to get the gear you want
  
• Added the above "Empower" mechanic to a few Wild Mods: Outrage Module & Phantom Strike. More mods will gain this keyword later
  
• Added a new BGM, "Recursor", to both Standard and Wild Metamorphosis modes
  
• Added the game credits to the main menu. If I missed anyone, please don't hesitate to mention it

Wild Metamorphosis Adjusments

• Added a new Wild Mod: Evolutionary Niche
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Grandeur
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Maelstrom
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Quantum Decoherence
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Spontaneous Generation
  
• Rare Wild Mods are now slightly more common (1 in 4 -> 1 in 3.5)
  
• If Chaotic Ambition increases your maximum Wild Mods per level by more than 7 it will begin to increase your minimum Wild Mods per level instead
  
• Transmogrification now grants +1 level
  
• Obsession penalties -1.25% / level -> -1% / level
  
• Phantom Strike is now an empowered attack
  
• Outrage Module is now an empowered attack

Improvements & Balance

• Research hull 90 -> 85
  
• Research shields -10% -> -15%
  
• Research can no longer banish THE VOID (Void banishes you)
  
• Research must now pay 2 rerolls in order to banish a rare Wild Mod
  
• Rare Wild Mods now say "RARE" in their titles
  
• Added shake and sound feedback for failing a Banish
  
• 110 -> 115 shields for Reflect Shield
  
• There is now a hard level cap of 100. If you manage to somehow reach this, we've got a problem, please report it
  
• Homing projectiles now seek enemies and targets equally
  
• You can now toggle healing numbers in settings for you and your constructs, off by default
  
• You can now toggle self-damage numbers in settings for you and your constructs, off by default
  
• Drones now spread out their firing sequence evenly
  
• If you have an old corrupted save file, the game will attempt to fix it
  
• Experience orbs now scatter a bit from enemies
  
• Experience orb probabilities change as waves progress, resulting in less but more valuable orbs for the same value. This reduces visual clutter
  
• Increased base exp needed per level a touch. This only really impacts the first dozen waves or so
  
• Increasing your level by a mod no longer affects the EXP curve at all. You will be treated as though you are your base level
  
• Added a border and some breathing room to owned mod displays
  
• Retribution gained a new rule: If Retribution causes your mines to exceed your mine construct limit, an existing mine is detonated
  
• Charged Mines gained a new rule: -1 to mine construct limit
  
• Antimatter Rounds is now stronger but only affects weapons fired by you. This change was made because it enabled insane shenanigans with mines, especially when charged. Additionally, the game could use more incentives for self-firing builds
  
• Since it is now possible to achieve +50%, or even +100%, for unique body powers, Engineer's added construct limits now respects this modifier (rounded down)
  
• Courser & Battery now scale their added projectiles with modifiers to body unique powers (rounded down)
  
• Warp Strike total damage -35% -> -30%
  
• Homing Strike has been given a more informative description
  
• Homing Strike total projectile damage -80% -> -70%
  
• Homing Strike total blast, velocity & size modifiers -70% -> -60%
  
• Homing Strike grace degeneration time extended from .6667 -> 1 seconds
  
• Changed how targeting affects various weapons. Most notably, very fast projectiles are now better at targeting
  
• Modifiers to thrust now have a minimum value of 0%
  
• Rampage now scales with modifiers to thrust, and the text has been changed to "You gain constant added thrust power"
  
• The pause menu now reports your size modifier
  
• The pause menu now reports your plating

Construct Improvements:

• Interceptor allies with Salvo now build up stockpile count and fire a spray of missiles of at least 10
  
• Improved construct targeting behavior, especially for Guardian Allies:
  
• Guardian targets the objects closest to the player
  
• Guardian tries to stay between the player and its combat target
  
• Turret with Counter-Artillery tries to shoot down projectiles heading toward the player
  
• Construct aiming rotation now has more damping so they don't overshoot
  
• Swarm Constructs now deal 6 -> 7 damage
  
• Swarm Constructs cap their firing range at 240 units so they don't fire out of range
  
• Swarm Construct attack scaling based on their target's distance is now more likely to hit
  
• Swarm Constructs consider the average of sprite width and height for the purpose of range, instead of the larger
  
• Swarm Constructs are allowed to clump up a bit closer
  
• Swarm Construct target range is now slightly shorter

Enemy Changes

• Triangle mines, from Pulsars, now spray projectiles 3 at a time with wider spacing (Because triangles)
  
• Enemy serpents use degrees for sinusoidal movement and reduce sinusoidal movement when near a screen edge to avoid leaving the screen. If they do leave the screen, they now wrap
  
• Bolt-Throwers linger a bit longer after firing
  
• Interceptor Champion charge speed ramps up more slowly, and they spend more time "charging". They drop mines less frequently for longer. As a result, mines are dropped farther apart, and you have more time to react to the charge
  
• Saucers now require wave 10 to be elite and wave 15 to be champion
  
• Saucers now screen-wrap more tightly
  
• Spitfire grants you an extra half-second to react to its arrival and deal with other waves before charging its orb
  
• Saucers give +25% orbs

Fixes

• Fixed a silly bug where enemy knockback would apply twice from collisions, resulting in about +25% more effective knockback from all crashes than intended (I'm so sorry)
  
• Interceptor Ally aim now takes firing direction modifier from Propulsive Munitions into account
  
• Fixed a crash with Ally
  
• Overseer's movement penalty now works properly
  
• Blades created by allies can no longer take blast or beam damage to their non-existent shields
  
• Made global damage calculations more sensible
  
• Fixed a bug where Scion wouldn't drop its rewards
  
• Fixed a bug where Settings would become stuck if you tried to go to the online leaderboards, but they aren't available on that game version
  
• Having both Overseer, a construct that can use your weapon, and Rapid Reconstruction no longer results in no Weapon Gear being offered
  
• Removed an exploit where you could enable Mayhem mode and disable the other modes by editing your save file
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain effects and objects to be deleted if you pause while the player is in a black hole
  
• Various performance optimizations

Jeffrey has created a large and detailed blog post about major upcoming changes and additions to Nova Drift, and you can read it here. Highlights include Enemies 2.0, the new Serpent Body Gear, the Bestiary and thoughts on the upcoming narrative / story.




We're incredibly close to finalizing Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and German. While we have 100% of these strings translated, we need more eyeballs on them to have full confidence in their quality, consistency, and correct use of game terminology. Please visit https://www.localizor.com/nova-drift if you can help with these languages!




If you didn't know, Nova Drift is created using Gamemaker Studio 2.0 and we've recently found out that we're one of the top 5 finalists for their Game Of The Year Award! Voting has opened up today so please help us out by {LINK REMOVED}CLICKING RIGHT HERE TO VOTE!

{LINK REMOVED}


Jeffrey, the lead developer, is going to become a new father any day now! If you don't see him around the Discord Server or as active on the forums, just know that he is probably attending to the baby drifter who just entered the world or catching up on sleep :)


Thanks for the continued support!

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello Drifters,

Today we launch 0.28.12, which includes many interface and quality of life improvements as well as full support for French, Russian, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese!

View the full patch notes here: https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/

Also, we just launched a 35% discount for the next week - this is a great time to get your friends on board! :)

Our upcoming major update, Enemies 2.0, includes a sweeping overhaul to the wave system and existing foes, many new bosses and enemies, all new game modes, and a new array of powers. We're excited to share with you what's in the works, so please join the Discord group to hang out with the Nova Drift community and to see previews from the developers: https://discord.gg/Zp2MkPJ

Finally, please leave a review for the game if you have not yet! This really helps the game reach new players.

Thanks,

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello players,

In the experimental branch, you will find the following changes:

- Traditional Chinese translation, accessible from the settings menu. Simplified Chinese is almost ready, and will be available in the next few weeks. Russian and French are also available!
- Improvements to the menus, settings and general interface of the game
- Better controls customization

To access the experimental branch:

1) Right-click on Nova Drift in your library and select "Properties"
2) Go to the tab marked "Betas"
3) In the drop-down box, select "experimental-internal alpha testing"

Since this is an alpha test, be aware that things might break! We will be continuing to iterate on the menus throughout the week.

Please report anything you find to the Steam forums or our Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/Zp2MkPJ

Thanks again for the support!

Hello all,

A great deal of this month's work is not featured in this update, as it is part of a larger update coming in May, focusing on menu overhauls, better settings, quality of life, controls, and localization. Thank you for your patience! Let's go over what WAS changed though...

• Started improving the pause menu. It has a bit more info, and it is partially dynamic to your loadout
  
• Asteroids now have a slight outline to differentiate them more from the background
  
• Added a finder circle and a finder pointer for when you're near the edges of the screen
  
• Grenade explosion artwork has been made less occlusive
  
• Salvo explosion effects have been made smaller (the blast radius is the same)
  
• When you screen wrap, the pulsing effect now moves with you, making the player object easier to locate
  
• The volume and pitch of the crash sfx now changes depending on how hard you are knocked back
  
• Added some pitch randomization to a few other sfx to try it out
  
• More fonts are now retina friendly. All fonts now scale at 50% for non-retina to reduce distortion
  
• Enemy missiles no longer screen flash if fired rapidly
  
• Firing direction no longer modifies your forward-facing aim scope

• Made the wave speed modifier from Danger Zone and Mayhem a little less crazy compared to the previous adjustment
  
• Added considerably more wave time padding for early waves, before wave 30 (was 20), up to 8 seconds
  
• Enemies now start becoming stronger at wave 100 instead of 120
  
• Reduced the scaling value, and the maximum value, of enemy knockback dealt to the player based on their hull
  
• Serpent Elites fire their spines a little less frequently
  
• Serpent Elites won't appear in the wild before wave 25 now, up from 20
  
• Wardens and Interceptors now allow a little more time to defeat them
  
• Pulsars now chase you somewhat less quickly
  
• Normal and elite Pulsar shots have a little less targeting
  
• Spitfires now won't introduce more Pulsars if there are already 2 or more
  
• Spitfire is now a little harder to trick into not firing
  
• Eclipse champions won't spawn randomly before wave 45 (was 40)
  
• Eclipse shield retaliation cooldown 2 frames -> 3 frames
  
• Small asteroids now push less hard
  
• Small asteroids are more likely to contain orbs
  
• Small Asteroids deal 10 -> 5 damage

• Grenade's knockback has been halved, making it easier to hit with clusters
  
• Grenade base damage: 75 -> 85
  
• Salvo base damage: 50 -> 60
  
• Salvo's stockpile rate from projectile count now works consistently with other sources of rate of fire, and also has been improved from 5% -> 15% per projectile (If you go this route, I recommend Convergence over Fusillade)
  
• A previous buff to Salvo's stockpile diminishing returns was accidentally a nerf. I have inverted this and buffed it further
  
• Barrage now properly affects projectile count for the purposes of Loaded Mines (with all projectile-based weapons) and Stockpile
  
• Mine hull 30 -> 25
  
• Charged Mines now prevents mines from using a trigger radius. They will still detonate on impact (This is a huge buff for this mod in most set ups)
  
• Mine trigger radius decreased by 25%
  
• Loaded mines now take 2 -> 4 damage for innately charging weapons
  
• Swarm Construct damage 5 -> 6
  
• Interceptor Ally now uses a larger cone angle for targeting integrated weaponry. It is now more likely to start charging Vortex, more likely to start or keep firing Thermal Lance, and more likely to fire other weapons near enemies
  
• Vortex base damage 4 -> 3.4 (-15% base damage)
  
• Loaded Mines last rule has been modified: "For weapons that charge innately, your mines charge your weapon at 75% of your charge rate. Additionally, they constantly take 4 damage /s and pay +100% charge costs" (Note that Thermal Lance does not have a "charge cost", only Vortex does)
  
• Mine effect, for innately charging weapons, has been made consistent with other forms of charge rate scaling instead of being multiplicative

Explanation: Vortex is most fun when it has a high risk vs reward element. Recent changes to its scaling allowed it to become monstrous without ever really putting you at much risk, due to increased levels of crowd control and charge rate. This reduction in damage will require that you spend longer charging and taking damage to reach those huge damage numbers from huge vortexes. As for the mine changes, Architect was on another level, with Vortex Mines being substantially better than any other kind of mine (or maybe even any other Architect choice). This was because of both mine hull being disposable, unlike the hull of the player or allies, as well as some explosive scaling with Architect's mine effect. Combined, these changes affect Vortex considerably, and Thermal Lance mines only a little.

• Fixed Adrenal Module setting a value where it should be adding a value, overwriting the global damage gained from Masochism
  
• Homing Strike now works properly with Burst Fire for Allies
  
• Construct formations no longer flip out if the player teleports or is schlorped into a singularity
  
• The finder no longer activates if the player does the above
  
• Fixed some description formatting
  
• Gemini + Shielded Drones + Discharge now properly ignores Gemini
  
• Architect charging a blade doesn't detonate other constructs until it actually fires
  
• Prevented the Ludicrous Speed achievement from being earned in debug mode
  
• Phantom Strike and Outrage module now work with Homing Strike
  
• Fixed a crash with Outrage module
  
• Square Drift no longer crashes (perfectly square aspect ratios)
  
• Grenades with Hyperboost are now less occlusive
  
• Fixed Grenade's damage being misreported
  
• Gemini Protocol now indicates that your shield must protect you, as was the case
  
• Allies using Thermal Lance no longer discontinue the charge if a valid target exists
  
• Ally burst fire homing strike no longer breaks projectile count
  
• Halo + Gemini no longer works with Shielded Constructs, as intended
  
• Prevented Bastion + Architect from detonating mines when it is assembled but not deployed (using Shielded Constructs)
  
• Fixed Shockwave not creating a shockwave when your shield cooldown completes, but your shield capacity is full
  
• Fixed Echo Strike misreporting that it hits twice
  
• Fixed Carrier text colors
  
• Blade now informs you that its construct limit is equal to your projectile count
  
• Fixed Shockwave depth sorting
  
• Stabilize now works while thrusting if Thrust and Up are bound to the same input
  
• Defensive Drones prioritize hazards in Orbit formation
  
• Orbit and Rampart formations prefer targets in the direction they're facing
  
• Vortex charge and Thermal Lance beam now take directional offset from Propulsive Munitions into account
  
• Antimatter Rounds proced with Salvo's stockpile now divides its added self-damage by your burst fire count, preventing unintentional massive self-damage from burst fire
  
• Antimatter rounds with Salvo's Stockpile was additionally being applied a second time at a value far greater than intended. This has been removed
  
• Clamped Bastion Shield's sprite index to prevent a crash when it gets too high
  
• Prevented a crash involving enemy beam charges being unable to find their leader (when its cleaned up for being off-screen for too long)
  
• Prevented Sanctuary from (improperly) working with Shielded Constructs
  
• Fixed cases of Gemini Protocol (improperly) working with Bastion Shield when you have Shielded Constructs
  
• Fixed some cases of Bastion using base damage instead of current damage to trigger hull-threshold-based mods
  
• Prevented hull-damage-threshold-triggered mods (that they themselves trigger self-damage) from overwriting the original hull damage you were intended to take (?!)
  
• Siege Weaponry self-damage now reports in the combat log
  
• Outrage Module trigger now reports in the proper place in the combat log
  
• Architect now properly triggers detonate on your constructs when a blade is produced by Phantom Strike or Outrage Module
  
• The pause menu now properly reports ignite duration modifiers from body gear
  
• The singularity doesn't blot out the pause menu anymore
  
• The singularity doesn't draw in front of the darkness anymore
  
• Fixed excessive Volatile Shield / Tempest Break with Blade + Bastion + Shielded Constructs + Burnout Reactors
  
• Blade + Burst Fire + Courser / Battery can no longer cheat blade count and fire extra projectiles
  
• Blades with Shielded Constructs no longer do less damage after taking damage
  
• Visual Warp Shield radius now works with shield radius modifiers
  
• Essense Sap can no longer leech from Asteroids and such using Force Armor's blast
  
• Thermal Lance beam now resets its color after Hyperboost ends
  
• The Blink reticle no longer disappears if you pause during a blink
  
• Champion Juggernaut displays its hull bar
  
• Fixed cargo train box hull bars
  
• Hidden Power now prevents Mortar
  
• Rancor charge slow down no longer persists with Mortar
  
• Swarm Constructs will now attack Eclipses properly. When targeting, they have more accurate ranging (it was using square hitboxes, so oddly shaped enemies were an issue)

From lead dev Jeffrey Nielson (Chimeric):

For the past year, updates have focused on increasing build versatility (and as a result, replayability). I'm proud of what was built, and we've got nearly 200 upgrades to play with now. Not bad for early access! However, along the way, I learned that there's a limit to how much you can add by piling on upgrades alone. I've spoken about Enemies 2.0, which focuses on the other half of that equation. More on that later in this update.

I've also learned that this rapid-fire schedule for releases leaves little room for improving the core experience. I think we've all seen other games fall into this trap, and I don't want to do the same. It's an easy mistake to make because nearly all of the data a developer has access to points to "more content = more users = more money". What this does not indicate is more abstract issues such as long term health of the game, the rate of player burnout, or the way your game is perceived by the public.

What I'm trying to say is...

With the Genesis update released, you can build a ton of things, and the bar has been raised really high for certain aspects. However, other things feel rough around the edges by comparison. I hear this line all the time from new players: "Wow! I didn't expect this game to be so fun!" Nova Drift should look and feel as good as it actually is. It has hundreds of hours of stuff to do, but sometimes it still feels like early access. Some of this is going to be the natural limitation of a mosty-one-person project, but I think there's plenty that can be done. So, I feel like its a good time to shift focus on improving the core experience.


Visibility:

- I have plans for a new finder when you're near the edges of the screen or you've just wrapped. There's no reason this can't be made obvious and clear.

- I will increase the contrast between the backgrounds and the edges of asteroids.

- Occlusive effects, such as Grenade explosions, won't hide the player or objects as much.

- More intelligent and cooperative enemies should reduce the need for so many of them to be present and, as a result, reduce the visual chaos.

Physics and Feedback:

- The way the player collides with enemies and is moved around by them will be improved.

- Better collision damage: Damage will no longer be the same between a head-on collision and a love tap. Mass and velocity will be considered.

- Enemies 2.0 will iterate on the way that enemies enter the battlefield, and ensure that you have time to react to them.

Settings:

- The Settings menu will be made accessible during a run.

- The Settings menu will be modernized and made prettier.

- Mouse and Keyboard setups will be folded into a single setting and will work as expected regardless of which a player decides to start playing with.

- The pause menu will include a more useful data and will be made dynamic.

Clarity of Information:

- The game will receive a Glossary, accessible from the menu, which will clearly explain many of the game's mechanics and terms.

- The UI will be overhauled.

All of this happens in tandem with Enemies 2.0 as well as localizing the game to several languages at a time. These are all things I've known needed doing, but there's only so much time in the day. New mods will still be released, but please bear with a somewhat slower content schedule while we address these important issues!

And now.... ENEMIES 2.0

The player character has outgrown its opponents. With nearly 200 upgrades in the game, it's time to turn the focus of development to the enemies we face. It's time to bring enemies and their capabilities up to the standard of quality that has been given to the player character.

Enemies, and the ways they spawn are some of the oldest and most outdated systems in the game (Nova Drift is 5 years old and grew from a small hobby project.) Many players have voiced concerns about enemy spawns, diversity, bullet-hellishness, and the relatively narrow build options for surviving past wave 200. With Draft Mode and Boss Rush coming up on the roadmap, I see this as an opportunity for a rework that satisfies these issues while also improving fun and choice.

I'll break it down:

• Older enemies will get a new coat of paint, while new enemies will be introduced to the game, both early game and late game. The quality bar for how an enemy looks and behaves will be raised.
  
• Enemies will spawn with "roles" within formations, such as a protector or support of another unit.
  
• Steps will be taken toward removing the need for a "spammy" late game. Enemies will trend toward tactical, dangerous, and diverse instead of numerous. In other words, encounters will be deadly for reasons which are better than "there were too many mines and bullets on the screen." As a result, the rate of spawns and the speed scaling of enemies at high waves can be reduced without being made easier.
  
• The above fits better with Nova Drift's upgrade system, which incentives builds that require set up and timing. Right now, "area clear" strategies are overwhelmingly more important than intended, while dealing single target damage isn't as viable.
  
• Enemy spawns will be revised. Instead of always entering from the edges without warning, enemies might fade in from the depths of space, warp in from a portal, or enter via the borders with a HUD warning.
  
• The wave spawning system will become more dynamic and procedural, allowing greater variance while being easier for me to tweak.
  
• Rather than one big update that attempts to fix all these issues at once, these changes will be rolled out over a series of updates, mixed in with the usual content updates (albeit less of them).

An Example of Enemies 2.0


A Peek At An Upcoming Enemy

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