GRIDNOVA — 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 1.6: Free Run and 8 modules | 2026-10-21 | A new mode where every run plays out differently, and modules that change the rules mid-run. The weekly run and the leaderboard stay as they were. Free run- After Play you now choose a mode: the weekly run or a free run - A free run has a new layout every time and no mutator. The result counts neither for the leaderboard nor for the weekly challenge, and the mode keeps its own best score - Shards, the daily goal and achievements count as usual - A free run can be saved and continued even after the week changes Modules- In a free run, after bosses 1, 3, 5 and 7 you pick one module out of three, up to four per run. A module changes a rule until |
| GRIDNOVA 1.6.0 — Free run | 2026-10-21 | A new mode where every run plays out differently, and modules that change the rules mid-run. The weekly run and the leaderboard stay as they were. Free run - After Play you now choose a mode: the weekly run or a free run - A free run has a new layout every time and no mutator. The result counts neither for the leaderboard nor for the weekly challenge, and the mode keeps its own best score - Shards, the daily goal and achievements count as usual - A free run can be saved and continued even after the week changes Modules - In a free run, after bosses 1, 3, 5 and 7 you pick one module out of three, up to four per run. A module changes a rule unt |
| GRIDNOVA 1.5.3 — Endless mode | 2026-09-13 | After a victory the run no longer hits a wall of unkillable enemies. And the leaderboard no longer loses runs and shows when the new week starts. Endless mode - Enemy health grew geometrically past minute 20 and outran any build: by minute 35 a basic enemy survived two seconds under your full damage, by minute 40 almost six. The growth is linear now: half a second at minute 35, under a second at minute 40 - The limit is still there, just moved: play used to become pointless around minute 22, now around minute 58 - A normal run up to the victory is unchanged to the last digit: the first twenty minutes are exactly as before Leaderboard - The le |
| GRIDNOVA 1.5.2 — Leaderboard | 2026-09-07 | An online leaderboard, a hint for beginners on the upgrade screen, a denser start and protected saves. Leaderboard - The main menu now has a Leaderboard: four tables — by score, by time, by kills and by level, each with a weekly and an all-time view - Ten places per table. Your row is highlighted, and if you are outside the ten your place is shown on a separate line below - Solo runs on Steam only. Every result is verified by the server: the Steam ticket, the run's progression and its duration; tampered results never reach the table - Time, kills and level are your own bests for the week, not the figures from your highest-scoring run - A run |
| GRIDNOVA 1.5.1 — Statistics | 2026-09-05 | A small update driven by your feedback: a statistics screen, damage by weapon right in the pause menu, and a fix for frame drops with strong drone builds. Statistics - A new Stats screen on the main menu: runs, total kills, longest run, victories and which characters won them, evolutions found, best this week, all-time best, achievements - The pause menu now shows a Damage line: each weapon's share for the current run. It used to be visible only on the end screen Fixes - Frame drops with drone + chain lightning builds on maxed drones: every pierce spawned two lightning effects and rescanned every enemy. Damage is unchanged; only the rendering |
| GRIDNOVA 1.5.0 — The Deep | 2026-08-28 | Reaching 20:00 is no longer the end. After the credits you can stay in the grid: the overload grows without limit, and the only question is how deep you go. The Deep - A choice after the credits: finish the run or go back into the grid. The victory is credited at 20:00 either way, and dying in the deep does not undo it - Enemy health and numbers grow without limit; contact damage is capped. Ordinary dives end around 23:00-25:00, good ones around 27:00 - The clock and the score keep running: the weekly record now measures depth - The death screen in the deep is a victory screen, with your dive time and what killed you - Your Discord status sho |
| GRIDNOVA 1.4.0 — Late game rework | 2026-08-25 | The stats showed 0.64% of runs ended in victory. The cause was in the numbers: everything a player can stack is capped, enemy growth is not, and by the endgame it outran the player no matter how well they played. 1.4.0 recalculates the late game; the early game is unchanged. Balance - Enemy health grows more slowly after minute four. The ramp is still there — twice as steep as the opening minutes — but it no longer outruns the upgrade cap - The XP curve softens past level 25: level 40 used to cost 6,963 XP, now 1,986. You reach level 64 by minute twenty instead of 48 — the endgame has choices again - Below level 25 and in the first four minut |
| GRIDNOVA 1.3.3 — The wall at minute thirteen | 2026-08-24 | Telemetry showed most runs ending in two places: the first minutes, and a second cluster at thirteen to fifteen. The second one had a cause. Out-of-combat recovery faded to exactly zero at minute twelve, and the deaths began right after — the only way to heal simply stopped existing. It now settles at a small trickle instead of nothing, so the endgame stays a war of attrition rather than a countdown. Combat - Rushers wind up before they charge: four tenths of a second, slowed, with a ring drawn around them. They were half of all deaths, and most of that was never seeing it coming - The destructor beam turns toward your aim instead of snapping |
| GRIDNOVA 1.3.2 — Achievements and off-screen kills | 2026-08-24 | Achievements - Six achievements could never be unlocked by anyone. First Upgrade, Fully Upgraded, New Core, Every Core, Hunter and Weekly Challenge all work now - What you already own counts: they unlock the first time you start this build Combat - Nothing dies off screen any more. Shots and target selection are bounded by what you can actually see, at any aspect ratio - The evolved Pulse Bolt is weaker as a result — it used to sweep a ring far past the edges of the screen Accessibility - A photosensitivity notice on first launch - New setting, Reduce flashing: removes the full-screen flash when you take damage and softens the hit highlight o |
| GRIDNOVA 1.3.0 — Achievements and daily goal | 2026-08-23 | Achievements - 26 Steam achievements, from your first run to winning with every character - Names and descriptions translated into six languages Daily goal - The first run of each day pays double shards - Every day brings its own goal — survive, rack up kills, take down bosses, hold a streak or carry several weapons — and completing it pays a separate reward Languages - Interface in Russian, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Simplified Chinese - Picked from your Steam language on first launch, changeable in settings Accessibility - Colourblind mode: enemies and projectiles differ by shape, not only by colour What's next - New weapons and new c |
| GRIDNOVA 1.2.0 — Discord Rich Presence | 2026-08-19 | Discord Rich Presence - Your Discord profile now shows the game icon, what you are doing right now, your level and kills, and a session timer - Quick links on your profile take friends straight to the game and to our community server Fixes - An announcement could pop up over the main menu after leaving a run |
| GRIDNOVA 1.1.1 — On-screen combat | 2026-08-18 | This patch is built on the second round of player feedback. Combat happens on screen now - Weapon targeting, bolt flight, drone homing and beam length are all bounded to roughly the visible area — no more clearing the map far offscreen, no more kills you never see - Bosses announce their arrival by name, have more health, and the arrow at the screen edge leads you to them; the laser boss no longer stalls out of view - Minibosses are tougher and live long enough to actually meet you Recovery - Out-of-combat recovery: regeneration speeds up after 5 seconds without taking damage, and fades out as System Overload approaches — the endgame remains |
| GRIDNOVA 1.1.0 — Balance rework | 2026-08-18 | This update is built almost entirely on player feedback. Density - Enemy spawn rate reduced several times over — the field no longer saturates within seconds - On-screen enemy limit lowered from 260 to 150 - Enemies no longer teleport back to you when you outrun them, so you can create space and thin out a crowd again - Enemy bullets expire sooner Early game - Enemy health grows far more gently over the first four minutes, and the first boss is roughly half as tough - Runs now start with a small health regeneration - The starting weapon pierces from level one, and each bolt of a volley picks its own target — an even number of bolts used to fa |
| Display and controller improvements | 2026-08-14 | - Resolution list now adapts to your monitor, including 1440p and 4K - The game starts in fullscreen on first launch - Window size is remembered when you resize it manually - Mouse cursor now hides while playing with a controller - The game pauses automatically if the controller is disconnected |