While these are patch notes like any other, this patch marks the Early Access release of Battle Squares on Steam! So firstly, a huge thank you to all the people who’ve assisted in bringing the game up to this point. Your feedback, comments, play-testing, and occasional death threats all helped to shape the game for the better!

Interested in picking up the game? Visit the store page.

Obligatory gratitude and shameless plugs aside, below you can find the latest set of changes which will mark the beginning of Early Access. Enjoy!

GENERAL:

LEVELING SCALING:

Players now gain +5 max HP per level, rather than +1 Attack and Defense.

Experience snowballing was starting to become an issue– with players that level quickly gaining access to huge power-spikes before others could even choose their first ability. This change seeks to “compress” the earlier levels so that the benefits of leveling quickly don’t persist throughout the entire game.

PACING CHANGES: Earning levels 2 and 3 should happen about 30% faster. However earning levels 4 and 5 should take proportionately longer.

BOARD ZONES:

Changes to make Board Zones more consistent, and overall more impactful.

Blue Zone

Bonus AP ratio increased from 15% –> 20%.

Green Zone

Green Zone healing bonus reduced from (+100%, 50% in combat) –> (+50% at all times).
Green Zones have a new effect: At the end of your turn, heal for 12.

Red Zone

Bonus stats changed from (+1 Attack & Defense , +5% Crit chance) –> (+2 Attack & Defense, +8% Crit Chance).

Yellow Zone

Item discount bonus increased from 10% –> 15%.

ALL ZONES: Board Zone bonuses are no longer doubled after halftime.

Roll Modifiers:

Recently, the pot has seen a dominant role in determining the winner of games, mostly because of roll modifiers generating large sums of AP for it.

CHANGED – Moneybags

Now only adds 20 AP into the pot. (Down from 30).

CHANGED – High Stakes

Now only adds 60 AP into the pot. (Down from 100).

YOU ASKED FOR WASD – The camera can now be panned using the WASD keys when not typing in chat.

BECAUSE ITS NOT LUCK – The “Never Lucky” End-of-Game Award has been removed.

CHARACTERS:

NURSE ANN:

“EMERGENCY” energy cost reduced from 6 –> 5.
Movement from “EMERGENCY” will now count toward the end-of-game reward, Track Star.

COMBAT:

There’s a lot of damage going around, so these changes are mostly to address that.

EXHAUSTION CHANGES:

Exhaustion no longer increases damage taken in combat by 20%.
Exhaustion now carries a damage penalty of 40%, which now applies to all damage dealt. (Previously only applied to standard attack damage).

BREAK THE COMBO – Combo Attacks now deal 3+115% Attack damage. (Down from 3+130% Attack damage).

YOU MISSED. – Abilities that apply buffs or debuffs to a target will no longer apply them if the ability misses its target.

ITEMS:

NERF INCOMING – Bloodborne Sabre

Now heals for 8% of damage dealt. (Down from 15%).
Cost decreased from 115 AP –> 110 AP.

BUFF INCOMING – Duelist’s Longsword

Healing (After receiving a stun or crit) increased from 10 –> 20.

ITEM SHOP:

Quality-of-Life +++.

RE-RE-ROLL – Players now get 2 re-rolls in the shop. (Up from 1).

RE-ROLL ANYTIME BBY – You no longer need to be level 3 to re-roll items in the shop.

SPELLS:

CURSE

Damage per turn reduced from 21 –> 17.

TIME WARP

Spell energy cost reduced from 4 –> 3.

UI:

HALFTIME – The Halftime UI has been updated.

MISC:

LESS HASSLE – You’ll no longer need to login to play the game! (As long as you have Steam open).

BUG FIXES:

Fixed an issue where status effects like un-targetability and immunity lasted one turn too long.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to select a null character after the game restarted.

0.4.7 — Early Access Release!