This update marks a 20th week anniversary to ICARUS’s highly devoted dev team and, yes, there is something special in store this time around: literally! Starting with this update, you will be able to purchase several new Orbital items from the Workshop — all with an eye towards greater prospector customization. Alongside this comes a new mission, FORSAKEN, with a new “Hard-Fail” objective that can mean you have to return to orbit unsuccessful and will have to try again…
New Workshop Equipment
The new Workshop equipment offers some of the strongest ways to modify your character. According to RocketWerkz Tech Lead Jak Dodunski, “You may see us from time to time add items in the game that provide both benefits and deficits”. We already see this in the mid-tier tools and weapons with an array of positive and negative effects. Likewise, the new workshop pieces in the Week 20 update expand the ways you can prioritize and sacrifice different traits in your prospector, e.g. armor sets which grant new abilities and buffs at the cost of temperature and physical resistance compared to Naneo.
While the new equipment is advertised as new ways to spend your Ren, in fact the lion’s share of the cost of each item is in Exotics. This certainly will motivate missions with exotic rewards, as well as the opportunistic extraction of exotic veins you stumble upon as you explore Icarus.
Specialized Armor Sets
To provide more ways to tailor your equipment to your playstyle, two new customized armor sets have been added to the Workshop this week. The main purpose is to enable prospectors to to spend more time in the field doing what they are specialized to do.
The ST-700 set is geared toward the stealthy hunter with, with boosts in damage, speed, and detection resistance. On the other hand, the CX-400 set benefits the gatherer, with reduced tool wear rates and boosts in ore and wood yield. It also gives you default access to those entertaining talents “Peerless Lumberjack” and “Lucky Strike” that provide a small chance to instantly break up a tree or a mining node. This does not come for free, however. Compared to Naneo, you sacrifice physical and temperature resistance.
Team-Focused Modules and an Envirosuit
In the vein of specialization, a new envirosuit was added to the Workshop inventory. You will have to research this envirosuit to unlock the new armor sets, and at 750 Ren and 100 Exotics it is not exactly cheap. The Inaris ‘Lua’ Envirosuit grants you an extra module slot for specialization at the cost of 5 inventory slots, along with the usual oxygen and water slots.
The Lua envirosuit is a gatekeeper to the new ST-700 armor set on the left and the CX-400 armor set on the right.
Why sacrifice inventory space for module slots? To support your team, of course! Two new team-focused modules are now available to be researched. These are the first in what RocketWerkz says may be a class of “aura”-granting equipment. Note that these only affect nearby prospectors, not the wearer.
On one hand, this motivates everyone to get them. On the other hand, team members might specialize instead and use the modules to help share these specialties. The Strength Boost Module increases your friends’ carrying capacity, while the Health Boost Module accelerates recovery from damage and ailments like infections, poison, and pneumonia.
Specialized Larkwell Martinez Backpacks
Suppose you wanted to recover some of the inventory slots lost with the new Lua envirosuit; then, the new Larkwell backpacks that just arrived in the workshop are worth your attention. The Tactical Backpack provides a mammoth-sized boost of 12 inventory slots. If, instead, you are the enforcer for your prospecting team, the Mercenary Backpack promotes shotgun stopping power, with 25% boosts to ammo capacity, reload speed, and damage.
Workshop Repair Kits, Finally!
Now that armor has durability, the pressure was on for an ability to repair workshop equipment. This week, RocketWerkz finally implemented it with the Workshop Repair Kit Bundle. One kit will repair one piece of workshop equipment, but you will need to be in range of a Machining Bench or Fabricator to use them.
However, they are not cheap at a per-unit cost of 10 exotics per kit. You can bring them down to the planet in stacks of 10, but it may be best to use them strategically (perhaps on high-performance equipment or armor before the new Scorpion boss).
Forsaken, A Mission With Stakes
A new mission brings new challenges, and FORSAKEN is the first with a so-called “Hard Fail State”. This means one of the objectives can be failed and force the unlucky prospectors to extract and try the mission again from the start. Like VOYAGER, your mission is to recover lost cargo for ACS and repair a Dropship so it can be returned to earth. The new twist is that if you fail to protect the Dropship, it will explode and cause the entire mission to fail. Make sure you’re ready for a defensive fight!
Interesting Updates
There were several tweaks and bug fixes that players might notice and appreciate. Those who noticed after the Week 19 update that animal attacks had the annoying ability to make your weapon and aiming dot disappear should notice the bug has been patched. It is unclear whether this means there has been a fix for exposure damage de-equipping tools and weapons.
With so many recent sources of modifiers (from temperature, armor, talents, and now team-focused envirosuit modules), the fix to ensure these stats stack correctly is timely. For those who use the health bar skill as “animal radar” might appreciate fixes that help ensure the health bars appear at the correct distance. The clarification to the Wound Resistance trait finally clarifies that the Inaris ‘Ventura’ Knife is not supposed to help with bears and polar bears.
Check out the rest of the details from the Week 20 patch in the full change log, below!
Full Week Twenty Change Log
New Mission: FORSAKEN: Recovery. The operator has lost a valuable asset on the surface and cannot abandon it for fear it may be discovered by other teams. Locate and repair the damaged dropship and ensure its safe return to orbit.
Added ST-400 Armor set – Physical defense, with a boost to base melee and projectile damage. Also gives you bonuses for hunting stats, like stealth and faster movement when crouched/sneaking.
Added CX-700 Armor set – For miners/resource gatherers, provides bonuses that let you stay out in the field longer reducing wear-and-tear on pickaxes and axes, as well as increasing yields.
Added Inaris Lua Envirosuit – Less inventory slots, but with 3 module slots allows for the most customization of any of our existing Envirosuit options.
Added Larkwell Martinez Tactical Backpack – For when you’ve got a lot to carry, our biggest storage option available at the moment.
Added Larkwell Martinez Mercenary Backpack – For when you’ve got a lot to kill, Increased shotgun ammo capacity and reload speed.
Strength Boost Module – Improves the carrying capacity of nearby allies.
Added the ability to repair workshop items (‘Workshop Repair Kit’ & ‘Workshop Repair Kit Bundle’). These can only be used within range of a Machining Bench or Fabricator.
Fixed some cases of the error 050 message prompt that displayed while trying to play with a character that has previously been left on prospect, then returned to the station using the debug “Remove From Prospect” button.
Added functionality of locally saved Fog of War to persist between prospects and characters for each terrain
Fixed an issue where stats were not being displayed correctly for Caveworm Knives, Spears, Arrows or Bows
Fixed an issue where some landscape textures were being displayed at the incorrect distance
Fixed an issue where some buffs were not working as intended if overlapping with another buff provider within a certain radius
Fixed an issue where Boar didn’t have health bars until too late with the health bar talent
Fixed an issue where you couldn’t see some health bars until they were too close to you
Fixed an issue where the Icebox and Refrigerator would not receive the extra storage space stat with Extra Space I or II Talents
Fixed stat description for Wound Resistance to differentiate between Basic Wound Resistance and Deep Wound
Fixed issue where backpacks and envirosuits could take damage
Fixed issue where weapons in your right hand would be displaced in your wrist when you are attacked
Fixed issue where weapons would disappear when you are attacked
Fixed typo in mission briefing under modifiers on Dry Run: Expedition
Fixed issue where placeholder text would appear above their head when the host used photo mode
Fixed issue where backpacks wouldn’t remove their stats when unequipped so extra slots don’t persist after taking backpack off
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SurvivalSherpa
SurvivalSherpa is an avid gamer spending most of his time at the nexus of the survival, crafting, building, and role playing genres on any platform, especially to test indie titles in EA. AFK, life is about work and education in STEM fields, reading fantasy, and sipping great coffee in the Pacific Northwest.
