Posted November 07, 2025 by CausticWarden
===== BALANCE CHANGES =====
Berserker Axe Nerf
The Berserker's Axe was creating a broken synergy with the Berserker class passive. Both abilities give bonus damage based on missing HP, and they were stacking multiplicatively to create absurd damage numbers.
What was happening:
- Berserker class passive: 5% damage per 10% missing HP
- Berserker's Axe: 8% damage per 10% missing HP
- At 50% HP: Total 65% bonus damage (25% + 40%)
- Combined with STR scaling and crits: 400+ damage one-shots at wave 56
The fix:
- Berserker's Axe reduced from 8% to 4% per 10% missing HP
- At 50% HP now: Total 45% bonus damage (25% + 20%)
- Still the best weapon for Berserkers, just not gamebreaking
- Makes the axe viable for other classes too
Enemy Difficulty Scaling Increased
Enemies now scale 1.8% per wave instead of 1.5%. This creates a steeper difficulty curve:
- Wave 30: Enemies are 18% tougher than before
- Wave 50: Enemies are 32% tougher
- Wave 100: Enemies are 61% tougher
This ensures players can't outpace the difficulty curve as easily.
Compressed Enemy Unlock Timeline
Late-game enemies now appear much earlier. The old system had huge gaps where nothing new unlocked for 10-15 waves.
New unlock schedule:
- Wave 8: Troll, Wolf (was wave 10, 7)
- Wave 12: Dark Mage, Orc Warlord (was wave 12, 15)
- Wave 15: Vampire, Demon (was wave 18, 20)
- Wave 20: Gargoyle, Lich (was wave 25, 30)
- Wave 25: Titan (was wave 35)
- Wave 30: Dragon (was wave 40)
- Wave 35: Demon Lord (was wave 45)
- Wave 40: Ancient Dragon (was wave 60)
Players will now face the Ancient Dragon at wave 40 instead of wave 60. This fills the mid-to-late game progression with more variety and challenge.
===== IMPACT =====
These changes work together to create a much more balanced difficulty curve:
1. Player damage reduced by approximately 14% for Berserkers using the axe
2. Enemy stats scale 20% faster throughout progression
3. Tougher enemies with more abilities appear earlier
If you were finding the game too easy (especially as Berserker), this patch should provide significantly more challenge. If you had a save at high waves, expect things to get much harder!