Starting Note

Welcome to the first dev log for v0.3, this time it's going to be all about Aura Booster. It's been a few months since the update plans for v0.3 were released, I've gotten some stuff done, but a lot less than I would've liked in that time.

With the game's first anniversary being today, I felt it was a good starting point for the v0.3 dev logs. So let's dive right into it!

Base, Up To Tier 2 Upgrades and The Ability

Aura Booster's base upgrades got shuffled around a lot, primarily to give each path an actual theme to build into.

Similarly to the Power Charger dev log, base upgrades from now on are only going to mention the new upgrades instead of comparing to the original upgrades.

• Base - $1250

  • Increases range for all nearby towers by 15%.

• Sharpshooter (1/x/x) - $300

  • Increases projectile speed for all nearby towers by 15%.

• Pace Up (2/x/x) - $1000

  • Reduces attack cooldown for all nearby towers by 15%.

• Larger Aura (x/1/x) - $300

  • Increases boost range by 20%.

• Hollow Aura (x/2/x) - $2000

  • Grants hollow detection to all nearby towers.

• Initial Discount (x/x/1) - $500

  • Towers placed within range are 20% cheaper.

• Boosted Sale (x/x/2) - $1000

  • Grants a 15% discount on tier 1 and 2 upgrades for all nearby towers.

• Superspeed Ability (2/2/2) - 60s cooldown

  • Reduces attack cooldown for all nearby towers by 33%.

  • Ability lasts for 10 seconds.

As you may have noticed, a large chunk of Aura Booster's base will stay consistent with the original. I wanted it to keep a similar feel, just shuffle some things around so they fit better with where the Tier 3 and Ultimate upgrades went.

Overall the bonuses are slightly worse, but it ultimately shouldn't be that much of an issue with Tier 3 upgrades being an important factor for every tower, as those will, more often than not, do a better job at saving up to Ultimate upgrades than the 2/2/2 towers in the original did.

One very important thing you likely noticed with the upgrades above is that Recharger is no longer a part of the base upgrades. As I mentioned back in the v0.3 update plans, I felt that it was too good for a Tier 2 upgrade, so I decided to shift it to a Tier 3 upgrade.

The ability, Superspeed, saw a ton of nerfs in comparison to its original game counterpart, Megaspeed. The main reason I nerfed it so much is because it's now significantly cheaper than it was before, with the total cost to unlock it dropping from $13,100 to $6,350, a massive ~52% price reduction. I also just felt that the original ability was a little too strong in the first place, so I was planning on nerfing it here regardless of if Tier 3 upgrades were implemented in the first place.

Top Path - Energy Overload

Top path focuses on the stat buffs to nearby towers.

• Recharger (3/x/x) - $8000

  • Reduces the ability cooldown of nearby towers by 15%.

• High Energy (4/x/x) - $30000

  • Increases the range, projectile speed, attack cooldown, and ability cooldown bonuses to 25%.

  • Increases the ability attack cooldown bonus to 50%.

This upgrade path is the way to go for pretty much any use case, as it provides the most versatile buffs of the 3 paths.

Recharger does exactly what it did in the original, albeit slightly worse. It'll still be a really powerful upgrade given the game's focus on abilities, so it's best to try to get this as often as you can. Do note that the recharge boost from this upgrade does not apply to Aura Booster unless boosted by another 3/x/x Aura Booster.

High Energy is different from what it was in the original, as I felt it would be more fitting towards the theme of top path. It functions very similar to the original 3/x/x, Superspeed, as it increases the range and attack speed bonuses. However, it also takes the Mega-Recharger recharge boost and High Energy projectile speed boost as well, combining all of them together for a powerful ultimate buff.

The ultimate ability, Hyperspeed, provides double attack speed to towers within range, much like the original's Megaspeed. The ability duration stays at 10 seconds and cooldown stays at 60 seconds, however.

Middle Path - Counter Attack

Middle path focuses on bypassing and using enemy immunities against them.

• Bypasser (x/3/x) - $6500

  • All nearby towers can damage all enemy types.

• Immune System (x/4/x) - $25000

  • Ability causes all towers in range to deal increased damage towards enemies that normally resist or are immune to them.

This upgrade path is going to be more niche than the top path, but I think it could be useful in a few situations.

Bypasser takes the original's High Energy damage immunity effect, allowing all towers within its range to damage any enemy. There likely won't be too many uses of this upgrade, as a massive portion of the towers in the game can already damage all enemy types, or aren't held back hard enough by Hollow Crushers to warrant using it.

Immune System expands on the Bypasser effect, providing a counterattack bonus to all towers in range during its ability, aptly named Counterattack. To explain what this does, let's say you have a tower that shoots a single projectile that does 5 damage, but can't damage Metal enemies. Without the Counterattack buff, the tower would just deal 5 damage, or no damage if it wasn't buffed by Bypasser. However, while Counterattack is active, that tower would deal 10 damage to Metal enemies, while dealing 5 damage to everything else.

Immune System is bound to be one of the most niche Ultimate upgrades in the game, but I think it could see some use in very specific scenarios, more so for strategies that suffer to Hollow Crushers hard enough that Bypasser isn't enough.

Bottom Path - Spend Less, Make More

Bottom path focuses on discounts and improving income.

• Gold Aura (x/3/x) - $8500

  • Grants a 15% discount on tier 3 upgrades for all nearby towers.

  • Grants a 50% cash bonus to enemies destroyed by nearby towers.

• Network Booster (x/4/x) - $30000

  • Increases the placement discount to 40% and tier 1, 2, and 3 discounts to 25%.

  • Grants a 15% discount on Ultimate upgrades for all nearby towers.

  • Grants a 20% bonus to cash produced by nearby towers.

This upgrade path is useful outside of income-restrictive gamemodes, or could be useful in spam strategies if they cost enough.

Gold Aura expands on the discount effect, providing the bonus to Tier 3 upgrades. Additionally, it provides a secondary effect that causes enemies to give 50% more cash if destroyed by any towers within range. The discount will be useful for more spam-heavy strategies, while the income boost will be super helpful in a majority of gamemodes when it comes to building up your money through more means than just Cash Producers.

Network Booster builds even further into both discounts and income. The discount effect grows to a huge 40% placement discount and 25% discount for all non-Ultimate upgrades, being a huge cash saver for spam strategies. Additionally, Ultimate upgrades get the 15% discount effect, while not as important as the rest of the discounts, it'll still save a noticeable amount of money on super expensive Ultimates. The 20% income boost applies to stuff like Drill Sniper's ability and most of Cash Producer's income, the primary exception being its abilities.

Ending Note

As mentioned at the start of the dev log, it's been a few months and I've gotten less than I would've liked done, so I greatly apologize for that. College and other things have gotten a hold of me, so I needed to take a while to deal with those. As my current semester is coming to a close in a few weeks, I'll have way more time on my hands to get development done with the game.

While I would love to have something more for the game's first year anniversary, unfortunately I didn't get the chance to do too much in celebration. A little upsetting, but not heartbreaking at the end of the day.

With that, I'll see you all for the next dev log at some point, hopefully soon!