This is a list of changes for the Balance and Rework Update Beta. More changes are planned, but the update is almost complete.

You can access the beta the following way: Right-click the game in your Steam Library -> Properties -> Betas, and then write 4gnorplovers in the private beta field.

Notes for 6th March 2025

Units Drones — Drone murdering is now half the price
— Fixed a bug where the price of drones was not correctly updated when saving and reloading during a compression event
— Drones now regurgitate 50% of what they ate when unable to spawn a baby drone, down from 100%
— Drones now have a bit of animation to their thrusters

Baby drones — Now has a better, cuter attack animation
— Baby drones now shatter ice, but gain attack charges when doing so

Talents SUPERSHATTER — Now called MINISHATTER, with the following effects:
— Frozen and immunity duration increased to 30 and 25 seconds respectively
— Ice arrows now trigger weaks pots when the rock is not frozen, which triggers a minishatter
— Minishatter deals 300 damage, doubling with every tier, with random range

THE FLOW — Bonus is now based on the slammer with the highest current combo
— Bonus is quadrupled if combo > 100
— Now shows text showing the current combo above the gnorp with the highest current combo
— Current damage bonus can be seen in the tooltip in the talent sidebar

SLAM 2: RE-ROCKENING — Instead of causing baby drones to explode, now grants an additonal 2% chance to combo if there are any baby drones alive while comboing

MELTY BULLETS — Bullets now only deal 50% of their damage as fire damage. This may be reduced further.
— Tooltip now highlights that the effect also extends the current fire duration
— Melty bullets when combined with FFTB makes it so that only 50% of bullets are converted to arrows
— Now has a particle effect

BABIES TOGETHER STRONG — Now spawns zybellium arrows on drone hit
— Removed the area limit for zygnorps

POPCORN — Range is now 7-10

REMEBRANCE OF THE KING — Slammer damage increase is now 10 shards per minute, up from 3

Upgrades — Don't touch my pile! no longer shifts shards backwards, instead keeping them in their place
— Runner Teleportation now picks a random target
— G.E.E.T Protocol now has a zybellium cost of 1 for the first upgrade
— Reduced gnorp cost for the mountaineer digging amount upgrade, but gave it a shard cost
— Dirty thrusters now gives drones a different color to their thrusters when doing their dirty thrusting

Inspirations — Runner->Mountaineer now shows bonus in tooltip
— Slammer->Drone requirement 10->7
— Zygnorp->Drone requirement 10->7

Miscellaneous — Added a new menu that allows you access the update notes — The talent tree now has a clear button, allowing you to clear your current selection in one click
— The rock can no longer dip below the ground
— Clarified that ice range is unaffected by range modifiers
— Fixed a bug with Sacred Mountain where mountaineers would visit the mountain when they shouldn't
— Hats can be disabled if you are not connected to steam
— Removed pointer when hovering over drones
— Ice arrow SFX now only plays when building towards the rock being frozen
— Ice now shakes when about to shatter
— Roboticide notification now longer shows up
— Ice shattering SFX now has better timing, having the cracking noise occur a bit before the actual shatter
— An icon showing when the rock is immune to is now displayed. Hovering over the icon also shows the duration of the immunity
— Baby drones now die independently and not all at once

Notes for 3rd Februrary 2025

Units Drones Drones have been modified to no longer eat shards for no gain. Instead they spend some time eating, then spawn a baby drone.
Get yourself a drone, but be careful — they're hungry! Drones are auxiliary units that need some help to succeed.
— Drones pick up a fixed amount of shards, based on the current tier
— Drones consume 70% of their capacity over 3.5 seconds. If Drones finish eating, they spawn a Baby Drone
— Baby drones deal damage equal to the consumed amount, with a range of 7-10, then die
— Drones die during compression events

Talents SACRED MOUNTAIN This talent replaces the talent The higher the pile.
The gnorps bless the pile, for it represents the fruit of their labor.
— Mountaineers now consider the rightmost area of the pile sacred, and attempt to build a large mountain of shards there
— Mountaineers do not dig the sacred area

MELTY BULLETS This new talent replaces the talent Drone targeting. It gives bullets an interesting effect.
Perpetuate that fire with some melty bullets! How does it work? Really well! Pyromaniacs pick this.
— Bullets that hit the rock while it is on fire deal their damage as fire damage

DESCENT OF THE KING -> REMEMBRANCE OF THE KING Descent of the king has been redesigned to empower the king when he is present and to also empower slammers when he is not.
When will He return?
— The King of the Pile will always dig an additional 2ø of the current tier
— Slammers gain a bonus to their damage when the king is gone
— Bonus starts as +10, increasing by +2ø every minute
— To facilitate The Return, slammers halve their range when Remembrance is active

THE FLOW The flow has been modified to give slammers a bit of extra damage and now they only fly farther when they actually combo
Allow slammers to unlock their latent power, displaying the power of dumb determination.
— After having meditated, slammers deal +3ø damage, plus an additional +3ø damage for every slam in their current combo
— Slammers fly much, much farther away after a combo

SUPERSHATTER Supershatter has been modified and moved in the talent tree! Old supershatter took away the ice multiplier, but this version does not
Let's put this rock on ice.
— Ice arrows immediately freeze the rock
— When ice shatters, an additional 60 shards, doubling with every tier, is dealt. This additional damage has a range of 0-6 or 4-10, picked randomly with every occurrence.
— Ice arrows striking the rock when frozen deal 4x damage, up from 2x
— Frozen duration increased to 20 seconds, up from 4
— Shattering the ice with fire effects allows the rock to be frozen again immediately

DON'T EAT THAT -> BABIES TOGETHER STRONG A redesign to fit with the new drones, and a name to highlight potential synergies with zygnorps and baby drones.
United by the power of shared suffering!
— When drones spawn a baby drone, zygnorps gain energy equivalent to the consumed amount
— Zygnorps never collect from the left side of the pile

COMBO POWER -> SLAM 2: RE-ROCKENING Combo power has been renamed and turned into a talent, and now has an additional benefit when combined with baby drones
Starring: The slammers, and the baby drones in a guest appearance.
— Slammers gain an additional 1% chance to combo every time they do a preparation jump
— When triggering Combo Power, slammers cause baby drones that are attached to the rock to explode for 2x their total damage

Upgrades Don't touch my pile! Reclamation Nullification has been replaced by something better. The something better is intended to allow for a more interesting way to work around reclamation.
The rock might be fighting back, but the mountaineers (and drones) resist. — Prevents reclamation where mountaineers (and drones) are planning to go
— When told to rest, Mountaineers now rest on the pile, as long as there is space and the pile is worthy of climbing

Roboticide A replacement to clicking on drones
Would be a shame if anything happened to one of these drones.
— Murder a random drone

Drone Capacity Drone capacity is adapted to fit the new drone behavior
Drones get more capacity and they spawn more baby drones, but at a cost.
— 2x capacity to drones
— Drones eat twice as much and now spawn 2 baby drones
— Descent speed reduced by 50%

Drone Targeting This used to be a talent. Now it's an upgrade that costs gnorps.
By default, drones are directed to target the highest points on the pile. With some additional gnorp-power, additional targeting modes can be unlocked.
— Drones unlock the FAR and NEAR targeting modes

King of the Pile
King of the pile has been modified to give the king some additional power and now also affects his mobility.
A zybellium crown with powerful effects is granted to a single mountaineer: The King of the Pile.
— The King digs 10x faster
— The King digs twice as much
— The King has significantly increased mobility
— The King will not rest

Inspirations Inspiration: Drone-Bomber
Redesigned to fit with new drones
Drones enter efficiency mode, reducing their overall movement speed and consumption.
— Descent rate is halved
— Consumption reduced by 30%, without affecting baby drone damage

Inspiration: Drone-Rocket
Redesigned to fit with new drones
Drones enter burn mode, increasing their overall movement speed.
— Descent rate is doubled
— Acceleration is doubled

Miscellaneous Acid
Acid has been modified slightly to avoid instances of it being doubly good for both damage and compression.
Puke flowers create Spewers. Spewers explode on the rock, leaving Acid. While acid is present on the rock, it has the following effects:
— 1.5x increase to all damage
— The minimum range of damage is reduced by 3, ex: 7-10 -> 4-10

Rest in piece: Adaptive Learning
Rest in piece: Terathrusters
Rest in piece: DRONE.TARGET = FAR |DRONE:TARGET = CLOSE