While the period of rocket domination was fun in its own regard, that meant many builds people used to commit for became much less useful. We don’t want you to throw away something you spent so much time on, so we’re giving the balance another push. 

Previous patch notes.

So does it all mean we nerfed the hell out of everything? No, of course not. Instead the goal was to nudge forward some energy and projectile weapons to make them more appealing among other choices.

But first…

 

New weapon: Tempest

Available during the event

Tempest is a long-range revolver cannon similar to Molot and Molot mk. 2, but built for heavy equipment slots. It has the same 800 meters range but deals damage that is expected from heavy weapon. 

Note that Tempest damage is increased by 20% compared to its 2.9.1 version. First trials showed that it is slightly underwhelming — again, compared to other heavies and even if we take “the new gun honeymoon period” (i.e. people aren’t used to this weapon yet) into account. So we’re bumping the Tempest up a notch. 

Currently you can get Tempest exclusively through event activities. We’ll inform you on its further availability later on.

 

Long-range lasers changes

Didn’t feel good enough. Now better

• Gekko. Damage: +25%
• Trebuchet. Damage: +5%

We increased Gekko’s damage twice recently, but that still wasn’t quite enough to ensure it being used among other long-range options. It was never supposed to be as strong as heavier guns, however we want robots like Natasha, Patton and Leo to have something to play with on longer range.

Trebuchet required a lesser tweak. Its performance was only slightly off in our stats, so it gets only a 5 percent damage buff. But even these 5 percents can make a difference between life and death for your opponent.

 

Homing missiles changes

Let’s give them another shot

• Spiral. Damage: +15%
• Aphid. Damage: +5%
• Hydra. Damage: +15%

Homing missiles are different to other weapons in many ways. Faster robots can easily dodge or bait them so the whole salvo hits the wall. Slower robots? It’s much harder to impress them with such damage.

So we’re amping the damage of the whole family up — just so you can annoy the juggernauts much more reliably.

 

Medium-range rockets changes

Not as overwhelming as before

• Pin. Slower shooting speed (shot interval +25%)
• Tulumbas. Slower shooting speed (shot interval +10%)

In 2.9.0 with some rocket launchers we went tad overboard (and detonation bug fix emphasized that pretty well). Pins and Tulumbas, while allowing you to stay out of range of most close-combat weapons, did almost as much damage as knife-fighters could. We’re alleviating this by increasing shooting interval. While higher range will remain Pin and Tulumbas core strength (and RDB Griffins are still far from being dead), there should be a slight opening allowing other robots to go past their oppressiveness.

 

Close-range rockets and plasma changes

If these reach you, you’re cooked

• Orkan. Damage: +15%
• Pinata. Damage: +5%
• Magnum. Damage: +5%
• Taran. Damage: +15%

With bigger presence of long range weapons, using close-combat builds efficiently became way harder. And when you actually manage to get in an attack range, it often didn’t bring results that are naturally expected.

Now knife-fighters should have much better time plummeting campers into the ground.

 

Autocannons changes

Still not enough love for these

• Punisher. Damage: +15%
• Molot. Damage: +15%
• Molot Mk2. Damage: +20%
• Punisher Mk2. Damage: +25%

We keep buffing kinetic weapons to help these perform on par with trendier guns.

The next step will be making them deal increased damage to shields. Most likely, this will happen with 3.0 update. We’ll see how it goes.