Neon Striker — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| Update 0.15.8 | 2026-10-02 | Orbit is now available and is temporarily unlocked by default. (Next patch, it will be unlocked by destroying the Prison)FeaturesAchievements have been added for beating the game on Orbit and for destroying the Prison.Added a factions codex which contains lore and detailed information about enemies. Each Faction can be unlocked by encountering it for the first time.Added a custom cursor for the game.Added an animation that plays for the victory screen (music still pending)BugfixesNitro and Momentum should now correctly affect the fire rate of Mine LauncherMine Launcher now always counts as facing backwardsFixed a visual bug where Mine Drones |
| Orbit is arriving on October 2nd! | 2026-09-25 | Center of MassOrbit's gameplay revolves around generating Spheres, which are simple drones that orbit you. Spheres are useful for blocking bullets, but Orbit can also launch them at enemies to deal heavy collision damage.Cosmic DensityWhile Orbit may be a slow ship, it can also make enemy bullets slow as well, ensuring ample protection to solve its main weakness.Faction CodexIn addition to our new ship, we've added a new section of the codex containing information about the various enemies you'll face in-game. Each entry in the codex is unlocked the first time you encounter that faction.Orbit will be available on October 2nd! |
| 0.14.9 | 2026-09-04 | Hunger is now available and can be unlocked by beating the game on Knight.Neutral Item Pool AdjustmentsThe neutral items that every ship has access to have fallen behind the class-specific items. These changes aim to clean up undesirable items, either by removing them or buffing them. The removed items may make a return, but only if they can find a good niche to stand out in.Magnifier changed: The item on the opposite side of this gains +32% Range and Damage.Cannon (NEW): Long range with slow bullets. Add your Health and Turn Rate bonuses to this gun's fire rate.Mine Launcher now has an additional effect: Add your Shield and Speed bonuses to |
| Hunger Arrives on September 4th | 2026-08-28 | Not Dead YetHunger is our vampirism ship, which utilizes a lot of lifesteal and healing. Because of this, we've introduced a new mechanic to the game: Lifeline! Lifeline delays the damage you've taken, turning it into a damage over time and giving you the time you need to heal back up. Close and PersonalHunger wields a new type of Melee weapon which attacks continuously and has its own attack speed. If it ever gets close to an enemy, it will tear them to shreds.Your Worst NightmareHunger also has the ability to turn the battlefield into a horrifying landscape by creating Nightmares. Nightmares are zones that damage enemies but can also damage |
| Update 0.13.4 | 2026-08-21 | Arsenal is now available and can be unlocked by beating the game on Firestorm.BalanceSeveral enemies that were equipped with Plasma Cannons have their Plasma Cannons replaced with different weapons.Various enemies with hangars have their deploy limits reduced 3 -> 1Reduced the Jamming inflicted by the Police faction's missiles.Enemy Zap snipers have their Superconductors replaced with High Voltage instead.Repair Drones should now stay near the ship that spawned them.Blade Dance damage increased 50 -> 80Paper Storm now records damage taken before it is reduced by armor.Aura of Stone armor buffed 20% -> 30%Purity changed: Fires bullets that blo |
| Arsenal is arriving on August 21st | 2026-08-14 | With the release of the optimization update, we can now get back to our regular schedule of releasing new ships/content every two weeks. Our next upcoming ship is the Arsenal, a heavy ship that wields an enormous array of lead and steel weapons.Quality AmmunitionArsenal's weapons are stronger than average, but that comes with a cost. Its guns have limited ammo. You will have to plan fights accordingly and make sure you bring enough guns to each fight!Running out of ammo is not necessarily a bad thing, but this ship also comes with a variety of tools to replenish its ammo as well. Arsenal is arriving on August 21st! |
| The Optimization Update Is Here | 2026-08-07 | We are proud to finally release our massive optimization update that includes much needed improvements to the game's performance as well as tons of new features.OptimizationsWith our plethora of changes including switching languages, object pooling, rendering improvements, collision detection improvements, and more, we've successfully optimized the game by leaps and bounds. Expect the game to run buttery smooth even as thousands of projectiles fill the screen.Quality of LifeWe have been going through our checklist of QoL changes throughout the past months. Below are the changes we've managed to get to.In the workshop, you can now send an item |
| Neon Striker 1 Year Anniversary | 2026-06-20 | Happy Birthday Neon Striker!One year ago today, Neon Striker released into Early Access on Steam, and it has come a long way from then, all thanks to the feedback and support of our players. While our next update isn't ready yet, here's a sneak peak at what's to come. Don't worry, we're still steadily working on the game!OptimizationsOver the last few months, we have been hard at work rewriting the game to improve its performance. We've migrated off of gdscript to the much faster C#, ditched Godot's Node system to optimize rendering, added parallel processing, wrote a much more customized collision algorithm, added object pooling, and more! E |
| Update 0.11 | 2026-02-13 | New ShipPhantom is now available and can be unlocked by beating the game on SkypiercerOptimizationsOptimized piercing beam code to not check for collisions while the beam was off.Status Effect animations no longer play for ships off-screen.Optimized the Scramble Bullet animation.Reduced some unnecessary keyframe data calculation in multiplayer.In multiplayer, when one player wins, all players will win.Cleared out some unused items and resources.BugfixesSupernova now properly stacks with other equipped Supernovas.Fixed a bug with weapon arcs not displaying properly after dying in multiplayer.Fixed a bug where Command Shot did not trigger on bu |
| Phantom is arriving on February 13th! | 2026-02-06 | From The ShadowsThe Phantom is our assassin ship, wielding the power of Dodge and Marks to hunt its prey. It has the lowest defenses in the game, but who needs defenses when you can sneak your way into the enemy fleet to wreak havoc from within?Critical StrikesPhantom also introduces our new Critical mechanic. Unlike in other games, Critical strikes in Neon Striker do not rely on chance. Each attack grants your weapon Crit Points, and it automatically spends 100 to perform a crit. In the end, the number of crits is still the same as a percentage based crit system, but there's no chance involved, helping you plan your fight better.Pet SharkHis |
| Update 0.10.24 | 2026-02-03 | BugfixesMultiplayer netcode is now disabled while you play the game in singleplayer.Fixed a desync caused by pathfinding in long rollbacks.Fixed a desync caused by Swarm bubble carriers.Fixed a desync caused by dying ships and weapon targeting in long rollbacks.Fixed a desync caused by Marks.Fixed a bug where being slowed while you had Nitro would cause your turn rate to be abnormally reduced.Fixed a bug where a player could pick up an item while it was in its upgrade animation.BalanceWhen you apply Moonfire to a weapon that inflicts Sunspark (i.e. using Luminance on a Sunbow), that weapon will now apply both effects instead of switching to M |
| Update 0.10 | 2026-01-30 | Update 0.10 is finally here. This update overhauls a lot of underlying systems to make multiplayer synchronized. No more desync between bullets on your screen and your friend's, and no more ships dying for no reason out of the blue. However, this does make the game run slower. We appreciate your patience as we sort things out. We have plans to make the game run faster, but those plans would make it harder to debug, so we want to prioritize fixing bugs first.EclipseEclipse is now available and can be unlocked by beating the game on Firestorm. KeepKeep has received a sizable rework, with many items getting replaced in favor of a new subset of i |
| Eclipse is arriving on January 30th! | 2026-01-23 | Multiplayer ImprovementsOver the past four months, we have been hard at work upgrading the multiplayer for our game, overhauling many systems to get to where we are today. With this new system, we aim to solve desync issues. No more bullets appearing for one player but not the other, and no more ships dying randomly because they were killed on your teammate's screen.However, these changes do decrease the performance of the game. We are still actively working to improve this, but we wanted to first prioritize functionality. Expect a performance upgrade after we resolve any remaining bugs with multiplayer.EclipseIt would be a pretty boring upda |
| Patch 0.9.6 | 2025-10-12 | BugfixesFixed a bug with the ready up button in the multiplayer causing a soft lock in the lobby.Potentially fixed a bug with the ready up button causing a soft lock in the multiplayer workshop.Fixed a bug where players in the same lobby would encounter different enemies if one of the players previously started a run in the same game session.Drones deployed by Divide and Conquer now remember their modifiers.Fixed a bug where Omni Hangars would remember their previous items if placed with no slot in front of them. |
| Update 0.9 | 2025-10-10 | FeaturesMany new Modifiers have now been added to the Modifier reward pool.You can now choose from 3 Modifiers instead of getting one randomly.Gift rewards now tell you in the text which ship you will be getting the items from.Modifiers will now reject items that cannot receive that modifier (no more multishot on your melee weapons)The Multiplayer lobby now displays the selected danger level.When playing in multiplayer, you can now un-ready in the workshop.If you play in windowed mode, the game should now remember your window size and placement.Balance ChangesBlade Dance changed: Duplicate adjacent Melee Weapons. The Duplicates have -1 rarity |
| Modifiers are expanding on October 10th! | 2025-10-03 | We've been hard at work upgrading our multiplayer architecture, but it still isn't ready yet. So this week is a lighter update, which includes a lot of improvements for Modifiers! Many new modifiers have been added to the reward pool. In addition, you will be able to choose a modifier from 3 options instead of randomly receiving 1. There are additional improvements as well, such as modifiers no longer accepting items that aren't eligible to receive that modifier. You can see the list of tags that are eligible for a modifier by hovering it. |
| Update 0.8 | 2025-09-26 | FeaturesKnight has been added to the roster and can be unlocked by destroying the Celestial Angel.Rewards can now sometimes show up already upgraded. The chances of an upgraded reward increase with act number.BugfixesFixed some positive status effects counting as debuffs.The Workshop no longer incorrectly displays a Wanted Level > 10Fixed a bug where a Universe Seed equipped to something other than a player would contribute to the battle reward count.Fixed a bug where a Mirror's Edge clone that dies while equipped with Divide and Conquer would transfer the player's control over to the Divide and Conquer drone even though the player hasn't die |
| Knight is arriving on September 26th! | 2025-09-19 | Wield Your BladeThe Knight is our premier melee ship, boasting a large arsenal of melee weapons, as well as the powerful Stances. You can only equip one Stance at a time, but each one transforms your gameplay in completely new ways.Blazing CometIn order to get close and deal damage, the Knight needs ways to survive hits. Thankfully, it has plenty of options, such as the Momentum mechanic, which allows you to charge into enemies while tanking hits.Unstoppable LightDamage isn't the only thing to watch out for. With the new Light resource, Knight can even shrug off incoming status effects as well, allowing it to charge undeterred into enemies. |
| Patch 0.7.7 | 2025-09-15 | Improved the game's startup time. Fixed a bug where the game would sometimes not detect when a teammate switches their ship. Fixed Honed not actually preventing the gun from gaining fire rate. Acceleration Core no longer has Honed. |
| Patch 0.7.6 | 2025-09-12 | Re-enabled a previously disabled faction Fixed a bug that was preventing players from seeing their teammates' Modifiers in multiplayer Fixed a bug where Wanted Level would activate reinforcements on lower difficulty levels. |
| Patch 0.7.5 | 2025-09-12 | Removed some tags that appeared in the text of certain items instead of as tags attached to the item. Fixed a crash preventing the players from beating the game. |
| Update 0.7 | 2025-09-12 | FeaturesWe have now added visible tags to the game! Tags were already in use for various interactions, but they are now displayed on items for full clarity. There might still be some missing or unusual tags though, as we're still cleaning things up.Vulture has been added to the game and can be unlocked by beating the game on Ace.BalanceThe Virtual Reaper's minimum distance has been increased. It should no longer be able to touch the player, and thus correctly prevents the bullets inside from hitting the player.The enemy hangars that deploy Reflection Drones now have a deploy limit of 1.Enemy Repair Beams can no longer target ships with Healer |
| Vulture is arriving on September 12th! | 2025-09-05 | Loot and PlunderGet ready to pirate with Vulture, a ship designed to loot and destroy items with its unique Junk mechanic. Junk items are broken parts that you can acquire from multiple sources, like the Buzzsaw, which destroys enemy items that it touches and gives you a Junk item when it does.Junk items have several uses. On their own Junk items provide only small bonuses. However, they can also be combined with fearsome Unstable items, which destroy their adjacent items to boost their power.But powerful weapons also come with their own notoriety. Some items grant great power at the cost of increasing your Wanted Level, which increases the d |
| Update 0.6.8 | 2025-08-31 | Balance ChangesGuns will prioritize ships that have Healer AIThe Nameless fight has been made easier by reducing laser prism count. It also has a new attack pattern.Upgrading Zapwave now increases the number of bullets it releases.BugfixesFixed a reconnection bug in multiplayer.Fixed a bug where the game wouldn't detect when another player used a modifier in multiplayer.Fixed a softlock with the ship unlock screen.Fixed a bug where the Nameless had 0 health on its extensions. |
| Update 0.6 | 2025-08-29 | FeaturesThe Forge is now available and can be unlocked by destroying the Coalition Flagship.Counter Assembly now turns red in the workshop when the two weapons are not of the same rarity.We're adding an experimental change under the hood that makes players attempt to reconnect if they disconnected in multiplayer sessions.Balance ChangesThe Anti-Regen status effect now reduces regeneration by 50% instead of 100%All ship deployers now have a limit to how many ships they can deploy. Most enemies will have a limit of 2-3, while bosses will have more.The instance of damage that breaks your shield will not carry over to your health.The Nameless has |
| Neon Striker is attending Dreamhack Atlanta! | 2025-08-27 | We're excited to announce that Neon Striker will be attending Dreamhack Atlanta as a part of the indie section! The event will be taking place from October 31 to November 2 at the Georgia World Congress Center. You can come chat with us in person and tell us how much we need to add rerolls to the game directly to our faces.You can also use our discount code: NEON for 15% off on tickets!https://dreamhack.com/atlanta/ |
| Forge is arriving on August 29th! | 2025-08-22 | Command your FleetThe Forge is our drone ship, leading a large army of drones to destroy your enemies. It has access to a wide variety of drone types, like the Repair Drone, which can keep your fleet healthy, or the Omni Drone, which can equip any item you give it.Heavy Arsenal, Heavy PriceHowever, Hangars are Heavy items, which reduce your ship's speed by 10% for each one equipped. Equip too many and you won't be able to dodge incoming bullets! Fortunately, this ship comes with several ways to solve this weakness, like the Chronofield, which reduces the speed of incoming enemy bullets!Unrivaled FirepowerYou may think this ship only utilizes |
| Update 0.5 | 2025-08-15 | FeaturesGlitch has been added to the game and can be unlocked by destroying the World Eater.The fourth difficulty level has been added to the game.Items with specific conditions will turn red when those conditions are not met.More Modifiers have been added to the Modifier Pool:Legendary Gift: Get a random Legendary item from another ship.Epic Gift: Get 2 random Epic items from another ship.Rare Gift: Get 3 random Rare items from another ship.Your mouse is now locked to the screen during combat.The mouse should not take over controls while you have arrowkeys pressed during combat.The game now runs in debug mode. If you experience a crash, plea |
| Glitch arrives on August 15th! | 2025-08-08 | Our next playable ship is set to be released on August 15th!Glitch is a rule-bending hacker ship that sabotages enemies with debuffs and can even turn their own bullets against them. For example, the Override item will allow nearby enemies to be hit by their own bullets, but only if your ship has no guns equipped.But you know what doesn't count as a gun? Beam weapons! The Glitch has a variety of Beam weapons to help it annihilate foes while still enjoying the benefits of various items.But Beam weapons aren't your only option. The Glitch can even make use of enemy weapons in various unique ways, and has its own arsenal of missile weapons as we |
| Update 0.4.0 | 2025-08-01 | FeaturesTwo new difficulty levels have been added to the game.Modifiers have been added to the game. Modifiers are single-use buffs that are awarded for beating bosses.You can now shift an item in the ship customization screen by dragging another item over it.You can now view your ship while selecting a reward.You can now see what your next fight will be while customizing your ship or selecting a reward.BugfixesFixed a bug where Shield Shrapnel did nothing when upgraded.Fixed a bug where enemy Triangle missiles were exploding on-fire.Multiplayer battles should no longer spawn a massive fleet of enemies and instead spawns them as reinforcement |