[p][/p][p]Knights and mercs, we're rolling out an upgrade to the smoke system that has been a long time coming. With a change to an important system like this, we took our time, worked with the community to discuss the exact rules update on Steam and on our DIscord to ensure that we kept the intention and soul of Smoke Grenades and Smokescreen Talent while balancing out the parts that could be used to make this fun heisting tool broken. We've also improved and clarified a number of other Agent EX Talents, fixed some map bugs, improved hit reactions to Shock Mines, fixed a bug with late stage Jupiter Decks Power Play and more.[/p][p] [/p][p]From here, we are turning a corner from features and balance and going on a mad content rip. Let's go![/p][p]Thanks to everyone leaving a review this week! We're a tiny team of 3 game dev working hard to get you as many updates as possible and we need you to help us spread the word, so please take a moment and leave a review and tell a friend![/p][p][/p]

Smoke Grenades and EX's Smokescreen

[p][/p][p]Heisting is most fun when you have a lot of tools in your toolkit, giving your team lots of ways to approach challenges at different points throughout the level's flow. [/p][p]Smoke Grenades and Agent EX's Smokescreen were added as powerful tools for obfuscating your movements, delaying your enemy and covering your maneuvers (retreat, charge, etc). Due to some of the "absolutes" in their rule implementation, they became easy to abuse in different ways, and they could often become a kind of "temporary fortress" from which your team could fight, kite and exploit the enemy to death. [/p][p]The following adjustments to Smoke rules remove the absolutes and angles for abuse while keeping Smoke valuable and exciting for its original purpose - confusion, delay and temporarily covering movements. [/p]

• [p]Smoke no longer absolutely prevents being Spotted. If an enemy gets within 5m of a character will Spot them in or through smoke.[/p]
• [p]Smoke no longer absolutely prevents ranged attacks. Any ranged attack originating in, passing through or into smoke suffers a Smoke Accuracy Penalty based on the distance (sliding from 25% at 5m up to 60% at 25m or higher).[/p]
• [p]A character who is Spotted can be targeted by an combat-active enemy in, through or out of Smoke. If a character has not been Spotted, enemy agents do not know they are there and therefore cannot attack them.[/p]
• [p]Enemy reaction to Smoke has been improved, they will report it to the Sec AI and then often be assigned to go close, seeking to discover or flush out anyone hiding inside.[/p]
• [p]The duration of all Smoke Grenades has been reduced by 1 Turn.[/p]
• [p]Melee attacks in Smoke are unchanged.[/p]
• [p]Agent EX continue to not suffer any Accuracy penalty from their own Smokescreen.[/p]
• [p]Smokes interaction with security devices like Cameras is unchanged - Smoke block security devices absolutely,[/p]

[p]For a small slice of players who use smoke liberally, this might mean some strategy adjustments. But most of the advantages are the same, but they are less absolute. [/p][p]A merc can still use Smoke to hide their movements, but more momentarily, as enemies are likely to approach and Spot them through the smoke. [/p][p]A merc can still use Smoke to disrupt or slow down a firefight, but once they are Spotted any combat active enemies will fire on them. This means relying on the Smoke Accuracy Penalty instead of the absolute blocking of sight.[/p][p]Remember that at 5m, regardless of Smoke or Accuracy, any attack is guaranteed a Glancing Hit at least.[/p][p]A big thanks to all the community members here on Steam and on Discord who helped review and shape these exciting rules updates.[/p][p][/p][p]Agent EX Smokescreen Talent has kept its special ability - the EX can shoot through, into or out of their own Smokescreen without suffering any Smoke Accuracy Penalty. As this is not as powerful / absolute as it was before, we've added a minor buff to anyone standing inside the Smokescreen area, with a +10% Built-In Armor to help soak damage and a +10% Damage buff to help anyone attacking out of it.[/p][p]Agent EX Smokescreen has also gained a new color tint to help is stand out if it is used alongside regular Smoke Grenades.[/p]

Agent EX Rebalances

[p]With Update #35, we've made some clarifications and improvements to Agent EX Talents.[/p]

• [p]We have updated the language for Aimlock and Dual Reload to be clear that you are firing a single SMG at a time, but these talents require that you are carrying 2 SMGs. [/p]
• [p]For Line Crawler, we have rebalanced and improved the % chance that an additional device is knocked out the next turn. The base chance has raised from 40% to 50% and now the 4 level point upgrade chain adds +10%, +10% and finally +30% (for 2 pts) giving you a guaranteed additional device per Turn. It is an expensive set of upgrades, but very worth it![/p]
• [p]For Shuriken Wave, we have increased the power of the Damage upgrade node so that it adds +25 Pure Dmg instead of +12. Also, we've pushed the area of effect bonus out by +1m so it is +3m total instead of +2m.[/p]

[p][/p]

Shock Mines Flinch

[p][/p][p]It was always disconcerting when the enemy agent who got Stunned by the Shock Mine didn't react. Especially if there is a crowd in the zone, the visual flinch of getting hit is super useful. Now - when they get electrocuted, you know it![/p][p][/p]

Map and Story Fixes

[p][/p][p]A few salient map and story fixes are worth nothing:[/p]

• [p]If you got stuck on the last level of the Jupiter Decks Power Play, try to restart before the level or reach out to us. This is now fixed but for a minute, it was broken.[/p]
• [p]One level that required Blue Keys for exit has had a few of its proc-gen objectives adjusted to ensure that the Blue Key is present and/or there are other options available for extraction.[/p]
• [p]We've fixed a few cases where multiple victory or defeat conditions could all fire at the same time within the game and cause the game to kind of hang on your final extraction / defeat.[/p]

[p][/p]

v2.2.17 - #35: Cloud of Smoke - 9/25/2025

[p] - Updated Smoke Grenade and Smokescreen rules - smoke continues to be a tactic for delay, hiding movements and providing cover[/p][p] - Agent EX Smokescreen how provides a buff to any teammate inside it's area[/p][p] - Improved Agent EX Line Crawler - starts at 50% chance to disable nearby, upgrades to 100%[/p][p] - Improved Agent EX Shuriken Wave - upgrades for more Dmg (+25 instead of +12) and more range (+3m instead of +2m)[/p][p] - Improved Agent EX Aimlock and Dual Reload rules description to be clear - Requires you to carry 2 SMGs.[/p][p]- Fixed bug where enemy agents do not react correctly (flinch) sometimes to Shock Mines[/p][p]- Fixed issue with prisoner proc-gen combo in certain levels not having a Blue Key[/p][p] - Fixed some issues with hanging victory or defeat where game gets stuck instead of changing screens[/p][p] - Renamed "Surrender" to "Abandon Mission" for clarity[/p][p] - Fixed bugs with 3rd mission in Jupiter Decks Power Play[/p][p][/p]