Hey alien exterminators! We’re really excited to announce the next update for Rogue Continuum. This is a pretty big update that has taken a little longer than expected, but we’ve been hard at work adding a lot to the game, and feel the extra time taken was well worth it (we hope you agree too!)
In this Conquer the Galaxy update, we have a new Conquest Mode that goes alongside the original Rogue Mode. We’ve also added new weapons for all characters as well as continual bug fixes and balancing tweaks.

CONQUEST MODE
Conquest Mode came out of player requests to have an arena-like level where hero upgrades happen more frequently, with more enemies on the battlefield too. Well, we’ve taken that concept and added quite a bit more to it. Conquest Mode puts your heroes in a battlefield where you get the activate turrets and barracks, call down dropships of reinforcements, and upgrade base defenses, all while pushing out to destroy the enemies’ encampments.

As the name suggests, we hope that Conquest Mode gives players the feeling of being part of a battlefield, fighting alongside your fellow soldiers and taking on scores of enemies. So, while Rogue Mode feels like you’re part of a surgical strike team, Conquest Mode feels like you’re fighting big battles with heavy artillery and reinforcements.
It’s still at a relatively early stage so we’d love to hear your feedback on this new gameplay style. We’ll be adding more conquest mode levels for launch and making changes to the existing levels throughout early access.

NEW WEAPONS
In addition to conquest mode, we’ve promised players new weapons (hence the many weapon crates that have been lying around the map, if you all are wondering). So, in this build we have 2 additional weapons for each hero. Each weapon still has to be unlocked by finding its blueprint, but we’ve set it up such that you should be able to find a new blueprint with each 1-2 runs or so.

Smackdown Sam

• The Freedom-X Grenadier has a slow rate of fire but spits out a powerful grenade that splinters into multiple shots on impact, making it ideal for taking down groups of aliens who get in Sam’s way.
  
• The IronMaiden Rapidstrike has reduced firepower but a more rapid fire rate and greater range and accuracy than Sam’s standard issue Assault Rifle.

Ownage Olga

• Olga’s EAFL Particle Accelerator emits a powerful laser beam that focus fires on enemies whilst cooking them from the inside out. Its only limitation is the rapid drain of its batteries, with the risk of leaving Olga vulnerable whilst it recharges.
  
• The Freedom-X 360 No-Scope was created to showcase Olga’s awesome shooting skills. No sniper scope/laser sight on this rifle, but it makes up for that with more damage and range.

Rampage Rufus

• The Smithton FT-02 Napalm Cannon and the Freedom-B Fire Spitter are two different flamethrowers, giving Rufus a semi-ranged option and have the benefit of setting targeted enemies on fire, dealing continuous damage. They lack the bullet-stopping power of Rufus’ melee weapons and suffer from the same over-heating issues as the chainsaw, though.

Destructobot

• Ironmaiden Twinlasers trade reduced damage for the ability to shoot right through the alien scum.
  
• The Armes S20 Buccaneer shoots out explosive cannonballs that have limited range but do tons of damage to aliens (and miraculously, like all other weapons, leave humans unscathed)

ROGUE MODE INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL
For those of you who had been asking “why do I always have to start from New Philadelphia”, well, we felt that way too. So, with this new build, once a new planet is unlocked (e.g. the Thorium Mines), you can choose to start your Rogue Mode run from that planet. You’ll still have to complete New Philadelphia, and the enemies there will be a bit tougher since it’s further in the Rogue Run. New planets get unlocked after you beat all existing unlocked planets.

WHAT’S NEXT
We know that online multiplayer is still everyone’s number one request and is currently our top priority. We’d have loved to have added online to this update, but will need more work before it’s released. We’re already progressing on online multiplayer; it’ll be the focus of the next major update to the game, which we hope to drop in mid-December.

COME MEET US AT PSX - 5 & 6 DECEMBER
We’ve also started initial work on the console versions of the game and will be showing off the PS4 version at PSX in San Francisco from 5-6 December. We’ll be sharing the Surprise Attack Games booth alongside Samurai Punk with their game, Screencheat (published by Surprise Attack Games too). We’d love to meet you in person if you’re in town, so please drop by to meet the team, as well as our friends at Surprise Attack and Samurai Punk!

-William Tan, Rocktastic Games

FULL CHANGELOG

Conquest Mode

• Introduced new “Conquest Mode” (details in main update post above)
  
• There are 4 kinds of intergalactic merchants in Conquest Mode: (1) The General merchant sells all items randomly. (2) The Basic Hero Upgrades merchant sells upgrades such as damage+, defense+, speed+ etc. (3) The Drones and Healthkits merchant sells the Laser Drone, Attack Orb and healthkits. (4) The Base Upgrades merchant sells upgrades for turrets and infantry.

Planet selection for Rogue Mode\

• The player can now choose the order of planets to run through, in Rogue Mode

Hero Weapons

• 2 new weapons for each Hero (details in main update post above)
  Hero Balancing
  
• Increased Rampage Rufus’ “Combust” special ability’s AOE radius by about 200%. Also included an indicator to show what the AOE radius will be
  
• Increased Smackdown Sam’s machine gun and shotgun base damage by about 20%
  
• Reduced Rampage Rufus’s Chainsaw damage by about 10% (from 50 to 45)
  
• Reduced Rampage Rufus’ Brosword damage by about 35% (from 350 to 228)
  
• Reduced Rufus' chance for auto-block from 20% to 5%

Rogue Mode levels

• Intergalactic Merchants in Rogue Mode will now replenish their inventory as the player buys items.
  
• Thorium Mines of Varda Prime: The cave roof is now unstable and will drop pieces of rock from time to time. Well, *sometimes* it will drop pieces of rock from time to time (it’s a roguelike, after all). The pieces of rocks will hurt both heroes and enemies.
  
• Kepler-B Arcturan Training Jungle: Now has land mines on the map, which trigger when heroes get too close. When they detonate, they hurt heroes as well as enemies.
  
• New Philadelphia on Korus-III: The Arcturan Bomber’s bombs now hurt both enemies as well as heroes.

Graphics and Sound

• All sound is now positional sound (so you’ll hear where the enemy shots and hits are coming from)
  
• Graphics upgrades for bullets, missiles textures
  
• Korus-III planet has new graphic.
  
• Smackdown Sam has a new voiceover.

Item Selection

• Health replenishment now comes in two flavors: The regular HealthKit (replenishes 40% of max HP) and the Health Patch (replenishes 25% of max HP)

Bug fixes and Game Balancing
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• Various smaller bug fixes and game balancing changes implemented in this release