Goodness, it's been quite a while since the last time I shared an update, hasn't it? Don't worry, because I've got a real juicy update this time around; Armored Arachnid is chock-full of new content, with a doubled level count, shiny new weapons and augments, and ferocious monsters to battle against! There's quite a bit of stuff to talk about, and even Jifu and the bosses seem to agree, because there's now plenty of in-game dialogue from them to give some context to your intergalactic adventure!

Alongside the fancier updates, I've also done plenty of tuning and balancing for the game's core systems. Health pick-ups have been doubled in frequency, and the value of energy pick-ups from enemies has been increased as well. Speaking of enemies, I've done a little work to bring them in line; the damage they deal increases more slowly than before as you progress through the waves, and a new algorithm is in charge of the enemy spawn timer, fixing and slightly reducing the rate at which enemies will appear. Now that a single run of the game lasts longer and stretches into a second planet, these were some pretty necessary changes to prevent the game from becoming ridiculously hard (but if that's something you're into, I recommend that you check out Deadly Mode).

Some balancing adjustments have been made to the previously existing augments. A handful of them felt a little weak, and one in particular was a little overpowered, especially in conjunction with the augments new to this update. Poison Trail felt like a pretty ineffectual augment that was mostly interesting for the +10% movement speed bonus it had, so I've taken some power out of the bonus stat in exchange for making the actual projectiles more potent. Rage has been a very popular choice among players for the large potential damage bonus it can give, especially for an augment that only costs 2 capacity points to put on, so it's received a small hit to its maximum boost, but don't worry, because it's still a very powerful pick!

Oh yeah, the changelog ended up being particularly massive, so there's no obligation to read through all of it... In any case, for the sake of posterity, here it is:

== VERSION 1.1 CHANGES ==

• Ten waves have been added for the "difficulty 2" versions of each planet! As before, the first nine waves pit you against hordes of enemies and minibosses, eventually leading up to a big boss on the tenth wave. This new demo will end after you defeat the boss of the second planet of your choosing.
• One weapon, two subweapons, and six augments have been added to the game; they'll need to be wrestled off of your ferocious new foes before you'll be able to use them!
• Since the scoring system is still absent from the game, the augment capacity point cap has been set to 8 for this demo. Have fun experimenting with bigger combinations of new and old augments!
• New transitional screens, which now appear after selecting a planet and after defeating a planet boss, have been added.
• Dialogue is now present at the beginning of certain waves! Now you have a new reason to defeat the chatty bosses...
• Alongside the dialogue update, Jifu now has more facial expressions that she uses for her various dialogues.
• The current danger level of your selected planet is now displayed on the planet selection screen.
• The grenade weapon's projectile was actually landing and detonating at a location slightly above the target indicator; this has been fixed.
• A cooldown on the use of subweapons has been added.
• The enemy spawn rate is no longer directly modified by the current wave number; it now increases at a fixed (and overall lower) rate after every 10 waves.
• In addition, the scaling on enemy damage based on the wave number has been halved. Who knew that simultaneously raising the spawn rate, spawn cap, health, damage, and miscellaneous stats of enemies over time might cause the game to get difficult relatively quickly?
• The overall frequency and value of health and energy pick-ups have been significantly increased.
• The "magnet" radius for health pick-ups to begin moving toward you has been increased.
• It is now possible to return to the menu from the planet selection screen if you have not chosen your first planet yet.
• The training room's wave number can now be set as high as 100, in case you want to practice against the souped-up enemies from Deadly Mode (waves 51 to 100).
• As in the standard game, you can now practice fighting against up to five enemies at a time in the training room by raising the wave number.
• The tileset for the jungle canopy environment on planet Fabor has been expanded and hopefully looks a little less terrible now!
• The hypershot augment gives a bigger projectile speed bonus.
• The poison trail augment now deals increased damage but gives less bonus movement speed on equip.
• The hazard zone augment's modified projectiles now benefit from the attack rate stat.
• The rage augment's maximum damage bonus has been reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent.
• The boss Mizerantha now plays a sound effect when shooting projectiles.