As of now you can truly “pick your weapon” – character select has been added to the game. You can now chose your character from the title screen and get to know them a little bit before you launch a match. As there are no mirror matches in Gemwielders, the second player will have priority in case of a conflict. Another big change this patch is the way Sokras scales and works. To make playing against them a relaxing and positive experience while waiting for a match or to simply pass some time, I made it so Sokras does not scale beyond Student Rank 10. Additionally, you won’t lose Student Rank anymore upon defeat, meaning you can keep climbing as long as you want. This means playing more is always rewarding and feels meaningful.

• You can now select a character from the main menu or chose to play random. This will determine the Gembearer you get to play for matches in online multiplayer games as well as against Sokras. If you are first to draft in an online game and your opponent choses to play your selected character, they get priority and you will be assigned a random Gembearer.
  
• Sokras will tell you a about each character and the history of New Linden when browsing through the characters.

• Sokras scales more slowly, stops scaling after Student Rank 10 and you don’t lose Student Rank upon losing anymore. This makes playing against Sokras challenging and rewarding but prevents the frustration of being stuck on a given Student Rank.
  
• The timer reacts dynamically to turn count: The increment increases by five seconds every ten turns, and the second player gets a bonus of thirty seconds to make their mulligan decision.

• The description text of Be Water is now correct.
  
• The description text of Coral Reef is now correct.
  
• Drain handles invalid target selection more gracefully.
  
• Fixed a potential problem with the submitting of ladder ratings.
  
• The leaderboard displays entries with double digit win and loss counts correctly.
  
• When ending the first turn without drafting any card in online multiplayer, the other player will not see an out of place discard animation anymore.

• The hand display now handles very high hand sizes efficiently.
  
• A glimmering sound effect is played, once an online opponent is found.
  
• When getting matched with an online opponent while playing in single player, a notification message is displayed.
  
• When the gem card deck gets low on cards (under 10) a counter appears on the “show draft row” button. When it gets to 3 and lower, a log entry is created and a notification sound played.
  
• Additional failsafe syncing in online multiplayer. Each desync will be corrected and documented in the game log so the root cause can be determined. A notification sound will be played.
  
• The status effect represents each five attack bonus as one red sword, similar to how power is displayed. This is to better handle high attack bonuses that can come up in certain infinite combinations.

• When winning or losing online or against Sokras, you will now be presented with a “Victory” or “Defeat” announcement and a matching sound effect.
  
• In online games it will now say “Your Turn” and “Opponent’s Turn”. The communication of the game flow has been optimized for more clarity overall.
  
• The result of the mulligan decision is announced in multiplayer games.
  
• The Aquamarine gem image is now more easily distinguishable from Sapphire.
  
• A very subtle chime sound effect is played, when starting to look for an opponent.
  
• When an online opponent is found via the “Play Online” function, the button will be uninteractable and the match will start after a short delay.
  
• Added sound effects to Sokras using Mnemosyne.
  
• Gem card skills played will always be tracked by the status effect display once you socket an Aquamarine.

* Enemies will now engage the player when receiving damage

Thank you to all those who’ve been playing GORN 2 so far! We’re excited to unleash the Bekivu update today!

BEKIVU mode is a variant of endless - here, you never regain health after taking damage. It's hard. Good luck.

We've added random bonus objectives in endless to help deal with the new challenge

• In Custom Mode, you can change settings via the menu IN THE ARENA, and can also SPAWN ANY WEAPON you have unlocked
  
• There are 5 new gold weapons to unlock by reaching certain kill count milestones in BEKIVU mode

Also in this patch:

• Increased maximum number of enemies in Custom
  
• Increased maximum number of enemies in Endless
  
• Reduced number of shield-wielding enemies in Endless
  
• Added the tougher glasses-wearing enemies to Endless
  
• Fixed and improved mosquito spawning in Blood Endless
  
• Added more weapon type variety to Flesh, Blood, and Bone Endless,
  
• Improved Endless banner and UI readability
  
• Made arrow damage to the player more fair
  
• Added delays between enemy's Nail Gun fire
  
• Made enemy's Nail Gun aim more accurate so you can block it more reliably
  
• Made slicing even easier
  
• Give you 1 second of invulnerability after a successful parry
  
• You can toggle your grip on and off instead of having to hold down the button
  
• As an EXTRA BONUS the game now runs on 90 Hz on Quest 3

So you think our game is too easy? Well taste Bekivu. Satisfaction unguaranteed.
/Love Cortopia

Hiya folks,

I'm so happy to share that John Konsolakis took home the Best Video Game Soundtrack award for Farewell North last night at the Ivor Novello Awards! It was a truly special evening getting to celebrate his incredible work on such a grand stage and with such a prolific group of artists, from rock legends to pop icons, and I just continue to be blown away by the places Farewell North has taken us over this journey.

Thank you so much for all your support, and if you haven't given the soundtrack a listen then here's your reminder! John's work crafting the soundscape of Farewell North is truly special, and we're also tremendously grateful to Siobhan Miller and all the talented musicians, sound engineers and sound designers we had the pleasure of working with.



Happy adventuring,
Kyle

Pilots! This update has minor changes and bug fixes. Also, it launches the first of the experiments we have planned for the game this year.

---

In this update, we are beginning to explore ways to transform the game experience in the “PvP Arena” mode.

As a temporary experiment, the set of available maps and modes for high ranked ships will be somewhat limited: approximately 30% less than was previously available. In the list below you can familiarize yourself with the maps and modes that will be available in the “PvP Arena” mode:


The regular rotation of maps and modes is the point of this experiment. The list of combinations is planned to be updated monthly, offering players new conditions on a regular basis.

Why are such restrictions necessary? At the moment, there is quite a large number of maps and modes combinations available in the “PvP Arena”, and you can often get the same map with a different mode in a row. This could make the game feel like it didn’t have as large a selection of locations, and playing different modes at the same map could get boring. Maps and mode rotation reduces the total number of combinations, which promises players a more varied experience by curating the combinations more carefully.

Within the rotation, the combinations of maps and modes will vary: for some maps, the number of modes may be reduced or increased, and some will be removed from the rotation altogether. This approach will effectively adapt the PvP game environment to new gameplay content such as ships and equipment, eliminating maps and modes combinations that may not seem to fit the current environment.

The rotation is designed to solidify the balance of power, offering a more challenging environment for powerful new ships, while still leaving room for less relevant ones.

The “Artuga” sector locations have received a significant reduction in the available game modes, but the possible combinations should provide the best gameplay on these maps. For example, the “Captain Kidd’s anchorage” map used to appear in “Team battle” mode, but this mode did not offer the best gameplay for this rather open map, placing players from opposing teams quite close to each other, so battles took place more on the outskirts of the map. The “Beacon hunt” mode was chosen as the most suitable for this map, offering fights for points of interest deep within the location.

In addition, the current rotation will bring back such combinations of maps and modes as:

• “Beacon hunt” at the “Northern mining station”;
  
• “Domination” at the “Derelict Stronghold”;
  
• “Domination” at the “Iridium Strand”.

We will keep track of the balance of power in the game and your feedback, and will try to provide the most up-to-date list of maps and modes as part of the next rotation.

---

Attention, pilots!

We are pleased to inform you that a change of teams has been made to the “Survival” mode! Starting from May 23, all pilots will have the opportunity to try out the newest ships and their unique mechanics.

The ships available in “Survival” mode for the upcoming season:

• Guard frigate “Drag'Thir”
  
• Engineering frigate “Hellas”
  
• Gunship “Bark-2”
  
• ECM interceptor “Cor Vulnus”

Customize your ships systems, recruit your crew, and prepare to take on your opponents.

---

After a long wait and intensive work, we have finally released a new update. It is smaller in scope than previously promised, but includes all the key fixes and additions you’ve been waiting for.

### 🔹 What’s New and Changes

New map “For testing the new unit – BTR‑80”

• * Test version, not yet optimized for RTX.

New unit – BTR‑80 with cannon

[] Realistic model.

Translation fixes

[] Removed localization inaccuracies.

Optimization improvements

[] * Real‑time texture streaming.[] * Pre‑baking of key elements.[] * Updated rendering and animation processing.[] * Faster virtual texture loading.

Startup splash + age restriction warning

Steam achievements (testing mode)

Stabilized Steam connection

Updated vegetation rendering on all maps

### ⚠️ Potential Issues and Solutions

Green‑yellow‑blue artifacts
May appear instead of UI textures or the “mini‑map.”

Restart your PC or the game.

Switch to SSR lighting.

Upgrade your video chip if necessary.

Duplicate objects in the main menu
Related to CPU multithreading.

Restart the game when it first occurs.

If it happens again, let us know in the comments.

Low FPS

Weak CPU + powerful GPU: enable RTX or SSR. Lumen is not recommended.

Weak GPU + strong CPU: set Intel XeSS to “Performance” mode. Disable V‑sync.

You can reduce the draw distance.

Missing map
Legacy bug from incorrect draw‑distance calculations.

Increase draw distance by one notch in settings.

Thank you for your support and patience. Enjoy the game — we’re glad you’re with us! 😊

"P.S. We are currently working on a new multiplayer game. Thank you for understanding the delays in this update."

New Skills, Weapons, and Items added
Adjustments to Weapons and Genetic Enhancements
Default weapon Selection feature added

New Skill
[Interceptor Launch]
Deploy small interceptors that swiftly fly around, attacking enemies.
Unlock Condition: Defeat bosses 32 times


New Weapons
[Riff Breaker]
An electric guitar-shaped weapon that attacks enemies by firing sonic waves.
Unlock Condition: Defeat bosses 35 times

[Bluewing Hatcher]
A weapon that hatches flying variants and launches them at enemies.
Unlock Condition: Achieve Security Level 3


New Items
Five new items will be introduced.
The following items unlock at Security Level 15:

[Aircraft Carrier Toy]
[Bluewing Nest Seeds]
[Lightning Warhead]
[Recycling Bin]
[Flag Of Courage]

Additionally, item unlock conditions based on security levels will change from levels 3 to levels 2.


New Combat zone
A new type of terrain combat zone will be added to the [Fusion Reactor] area

Weapons
[Missile Launcher]
-Rate of fire increased from 0.65 to 0.6.

[Flamethrower]
-Burn Accumulation Rate of basic attacks increased from 5 to 6.
-Burn Accumulation Rate of secondary attacks increased from 5 to 7.

[Electric Welder]
-Normal attack range increased from 6 to 7.
-Secondary attack charge speed increased from 2s to 1.5s.
-Secondary attack damage now increases per charge level.

Genetic Enhancements
Combat Genes
-[Fighting Power] and [Guts]: Melee attack damage increased by +10% each.
-[Extortion]: Credit acquisition effect increased by +20%.
-[Rupture]: Probability increased from 30% to 50%.。


Boost Genes
-[Electric Eel Scales]: Effect range increased from 4 to 4.5, damage increased from 10 to 16.
-[Endemic]: Debuff removal speed increased from -30% to -40%.

Technique Genes
-[Sleight of Hand]: Quick reload area increased by +10%.
-[Dual Sense]: Added +20% cooldown recovery when switching weapons。

Enemy Balancing
-Slightly reduced the magazine size for [MK1 Drone] and [Scrap Metal Guard].

-Workbench now includes a [Set As Default Weapon] function.
-Set your primary weapon and melee weapons as default, allowing you to start missions with your chosen loadout.


-Fixed an issue where jumping from time to time became impossible when using the Minigun.
-Added an automatic pause and menu screen pop-up when a controller is disconnected during gameplay.
-Other bug fixes

• 修复了战斗胜利时，战斗结算界面中升级属性变化值有时候显示不正确的问题。

• 突破金丹期所需物品“妖兽的内丹”的掉落概率从20%上调至40%。
  
• 优化物品“五色丹”的描述文字。

Fixed a bug where applying settings would activate developer mode.
Sorry for the oversight everybody!

Fixed issues with the party feature, such as being unable to join a party.