Get ready for an improved arena experience and some sweet bundle packages to keep you at the top of your game!

The time has come again for improvements, balances, and other general awesomeness to come to the arena! This patch is already live, and you can find all the details about it below!

Drop Pods v2

Drop Pods are better than ever now, with added options for Captains that will help add up to a smoother experience for Pilots.

Captains may now “redeploy” one or all Drop Pods using the previous build in the Drop Pod. For owners of multiple Drop Pods and those that work with long-term Pilots, we hope this is a welcome quality of life addition!

Captains will also now notice an “Unpack” or “Unpack All” option available to them. From now on, when a Pilot is done with your Tank it will now stay in the Drop Pod until unpacked after it is returned to you. This will allow Captains a chance to view their Pilot’s progress from the previous day if they want before collecting their Tank parts.

Deployed Drop Pods now have an “Unlock” option, which will instantly return the contained Tank to you from the Pilot it has been sent to. This option will carry an Arachnium cost, but will be free for the first 10 minutes of deployment, just in case you make a mistake.

The cost to unlock a Drop Pod after the 10 minute grace period will be .5 Arachnium per 12 hours that remain on deployment.

Drop Pods may also be deployed for a variety of time periods now, depending on the rarity of your Drop Pod.

P&E View v2

The Play and Earn menu now shows far more statistics about your activity than it previously did.

This page will display the current market price of SILK, as well as the most recent VP/SILK ratio. You’ll also be able to track lifetime stats now for your account on this dashboard.

This feature is under maintenance at the moment, and has been pulled out of the build until it can work as intended. Hopefully there will be a solution shortly.

It’s not just this main dashboard though! Each Weapon, Body, Map, Node or Drop Pod now shows more statistics about the rewards you’ve accumulated.

Report v2

The mute button on the in-game scoreboard is now a “mute and report” button. Muting a player will stop you from receiving communications from them, and will also report them for in-game communication abuse.

Any reports for communications abuse will now no longer be punished with game bans, but instead with a global mute.

Every player now has a maximum of three reports to spend daily. It’s important to note that the above “mute and report” action will never count as one of these three reports.

If you report a player and that player is found guilty of abuse and is punished, you will receive an in-game notification and receive an extra report that you can use whenever you need it.

Killfeed v2

Get ready to get vicious out there Pilots!

The in-game killfeed UI has been overhauled, and tons of new ways to stand out from the crowd in battle have been added.

• Domination: Destroying the same player two times in a match before they destroy you sends a notification that you are dominating them! This gives extra points at the end of the match.
• Revenge: Destroy a player Dominating you to get a Revenge notification and your own extra points.
• First Blood: A shoutout and extra points granted to the first player to destroy another.
• Multikills: You’ll now see info about multikills broadcast to the entire match!

Introducing: Freecam

You’ve all been waiting for it… and the time is now!

Spectators in Exhibition matches will now be able to freely move their camera about the arena, rather than having to follow the point of view of one specific player.

Use this power wisely Pilots. Explore the arenas, get into the action, record epic battles!

Hidden Ranks

The overall goal of Spider Tanks as a gaming experience is to create a competitive and rewarding experience, but also for players to just have some good old fashioned fun.

Testing has shown that ranks being visible before a match has a negative effect on players’ enjoyment of the game and perception of matchmaking, while offering no meaningful strategic benefit. It arguably could also detract from the time that they devote to thinking about team composition and strategy in the limited window before Ability selection.

We want players to enjoy the game as much as possible, so now players will no longer see the rank of other players before a match.

Players will, however, still be able to see ranking info after a match. This change will not affect matchmaking, but only change what is displayed and when.

Improvements

• A player that manually leaves a match will now be counted as abandoning. Players who manually leave a match can no longer re-join this match.

This should make sure players won’t be able to quit and rejoin on purpose to prevent death, while still keeping the possibility to rejoin for players whose game has crashed or got disconnected.

• The Select Region popup is now much more descriptive about which region will be chosen for “Use Best Region”.
• [BOT] Players on your team will no longer callously ignore the flag! Rejoice!
• Weapon and Body properties in the Garage now show a lot more information about each.
  This feature is under maintenance at the moment, and has been pulled out of the build until it can work as intended. Hopefully there will be a solution shortly.
• The match placement UI is more clear overall.
• Players affected by the “Jammed” status effect (applied when being hit by the Stun Grenade, Grapple or when using the Shield Drone) can now no longer Deliver Chickens in Chicken Chaser, Contest or push the Payload in Poultry Pusher, Capture or contest hills in KotH, or carry the Chicken in CtF.

Survey Says…

The results of the community survey on everyone’s favorite game modes are in, and the distribution of modes randomly chosen in matchmaking has been adjusted accordingly.

While the results of this survey were certainly tilted towards certain game modes, it’s also obvious that the community is somewhat divided in the games they enjoy most. Everyone enjoys the arena how they enjoy it, and that is perfectly fine!

To help accommodate all Pilots, no matter how they enjoy playing, game modes have been weighted at the following levels for every match:

Team Deathmatch:

16.66% ⭆ 24% chance

King of the Hill:

16.66% ⭆ 22% chance

Kill Confirmed:

16.66% ⭆ 18% chance

Hold the Flag:

16.66% ⭆ 17% chance

Poultry Pusher:

16.66% ⭆ 11% chance

Chicken Chaser:

16.66% ⭆ 8% chance

Balance Adjustments

-The Good News!-

All Bodies

Changed Speed/Armor distribution to generally give lighter bodies a little more health.

Sniper Rifle

Damage at max range: 4000 ⭆ 4400

Reload Time: 2.1 ⭆ 1.8

Fire Artillery

Explosion Damage: 1320 ⭆1450

Rocket Artillery

Explosion Damage: 630 ⭆ 666

Laser Blaster

Projectile speed: 17 ⭆ 18

Base projectile damage: 500 ⭆ 550

Brambler

Explosion Damage: 1200 ⭆ 1300

Bladespinner

Projectile damage: 2000 ⭆ 2150

Crossbow

Self slow while charging: 25% ⭆ 15%

Flamethrower

Self slow on use: 40% ⭆ 30%

Eggxecutioner

Projectile speed: 17.2 ⭆ 18.5

Explosion damage: 1250 ⭆ 1350

Grapnel Launcher

Self slow: 50% ⭆ 45%

Pull force: 0.75 ⭆ 0.8

Stun Grenade

Explosion Radius: 4 ⭆ 5

-The Less Good News!-

(Just a few though)

Triple Threat

Projectile Damage: 550 ⭆ 525

Reactive Plating

Self slow: ⊘ ⭆ 15%

Energy cost: 6 ⭆ 7

Repair Zone

Repair amount per tick: 500 ⭆ 450

Pest Control

As usual, the bug assassins have been working behind the scenes to root out problems.

Fixed:

• Ripper range not properly being increased when upgrading the weapon.
• Bouncer Gun bounced projectiles going through walls and barriers.
• Shield Projector being able to push players out of bounds.
• Poultry Pusher chicken sometimes being the wrong teamcolor.
• Upgrade UI elements sometimes being in the wrong positions.
• [BOT] players with healing weapons to sometimes try and heal full-health players.
• Shield Drone flying too far for its user sometimes.
• Artillery Turrets shooting past targets when having a weapon equipped with upgraded projectile speed.
• Several localization fixes.
• Various small fixes.

Arena Bundles of Joy

Do you think that’s all!? Of course not, Pilots!

We’re introducing a series of new products in the Spider Tanks Store designed to give people a one-stop shop for improving their Tanks… as well as giving those that may be grabbing their first Tank an easy way to get started!

Component Bundles have now been introduced to the store. These bundles come in a variety for each rarity, and have been priced at an introductory discount of 50% off the overall cost of all Components contained within!

Purchase Component Bundles with $GALA or ETH and receive an additional 5% off!

Have you been Piloting other people’s Tanks and are ready to strike out on your own? Have some friends that want to get into the arena and don’t know where to start? Well then, get excited about our new Starter Bundles!

Starter Bundles come in four varieties currently. Each contains a Common Body, Common Weapon, 15 Arachnium and 1500 Bolts!

Note that these bundles cannot be bought in bulk and the store will only allow one per transaction.

Any of these new bundles give you tons of extra components compared to buying a la carte from the store. Now is a great time to trick out your ride!

Experience the New and Improved Arena!

Wow, that was a mouthful!

Oh, are you still here? That means all the other Pilots probably have a destructive head start on you. You better hurry over to the Spider Tanks Store and load up on these discounted components so you can get to the arena!

We hope you really love this new build… but for chicken’s sake — Get out there and blow some stuff up already!

The new red Hero Yamari is coming through the Summoning Portal just in time for this weekend’s Tournament!

Yamari blinked as a bead of sweat slid down his brow into his eye. He glanced around him at the desert. How long had he been waiting? He was so thirsty, but he must keep up his concentration. The ritual wasn’t yet complete.

In front of him, the great stone spire rose from the barren sand. Yamari had performed the annual dedication at this altar since he was a small boy. He’d never thought himself very important, but he knew this time the ritual was different.

This altar belonged to Haaratta — the goddess of the earth and all that burns. The beacon ceremony had been his family’s responsibility for centuries. Each year, the ritual ensured that the magic granted to the Cult of Harratta continued to flow through them. Usually this was formality. He shuddered to think about the consequences if the holy fire suddenly left the world.

“Monk! Stop!” A voice beyond the tower rang out in the empty desert. Yamari’s tired eyes struggled against the sun. There. To the west. A heavily armored fighter was approaching. A helmet of polished obsidian sat atop his head, and he pointed a deadly 5-pronged Spear. Yamari’s heart sank. One of Malum’s honor guard.

“Stay demon!” Yamari stiffened his shoulders and puffed his chest. Exhausted though he may be, he was an Archon of Haaratta and he would stand tall. “It is my holy duty to light this beacon as my father did. Woe betide any who stand in my way.”

The warrior stopped a wyrmlength from Yamari. “My people suffer. Their flesh burns. You will not light this beacon.”

Yamari sized his opponent up. He was outmatched. His humble robes couldn’t compare to full armor and weaponry, but this beacon must be lit. Millions of lives could depend on it.

“Walk away holy man. You don’t need to die here today.”

Still a few minutes left, but it would have to do — may Harratta forgive him. “I am Yamari, son of Yuri. This beacon shall light, and none shall stand in my way.”

The warrior grinned and began to charge. Yamari fixed his eyes on the beacon far above the desert. One chance. He began to chant under his breath, beginning the last step of the ritual.

“For the glory of Malum!” shouted the villain as he charged with spear brandishing. Yamari paid no attention. His thoughts were on the beacon above him, the fire within him, and his darling son he was certain he wouldn’t see again.

Yamari’s eyes snapped back to the oncoming spear. Timing would be paramount. He was ready. Harratta was ready.

The vicious tip of the spear lunged towards him. Encountering no armor, the multiple flailed points bit deep into his gut. Yamari struggled to keep his wits… such pain. Harratta grant him strength.

Yamari cocked back his hand with great effort. The warrior twisted the blade to finish the kill, but Yamari was strong. He stared into the eyes of his attacker and uttered one phrase that he’d said dozens of times before, but never felt it like today, “Let Harrata’s purifying light fill me, that all the world may burn with her love.”

The last line spoken, he raised his hand toward the beacon.

A beam of the purest light shot from his bloody and clenched fist. The blast shot towards the beacon. Its light would be blocked by nothing, and Yamari’s attacker was instantly reduced to ash in the wind. The beacon burst into flame. It was done.

Yamari crumpled to the desert ground. His work done, he thought of his family. Of his son who would fill this sacred role next year. Just as he expected the darkness to come though, a gentle blue light appeared in his wound, spreading gradually.

The pain began to subside. “The Summoning Portal? Am I truly worthy?” His eyes fixed on the beacon’s fire. “Thank you my goddess. I continue to serve you, even after death.” Yamari stood up and walked towards the portal.

Red Tournament Champion: Yamari

Yamari long left the roar of the Tournament crowd behind for a life of simple monastic reverence. Once a champion though… always a champion. Hiding under Yamari’s simple and compassionate exterior is a man with unending resolve. He enters battle without fear, and wields the divine power of his goddess with deadly aptitude.

Yamari is a master of the Blinding Light. Calling down Harratta’s purification on his opponent, he is able to deal tremendous damage to a single enemy, also dazing it and its allies to limit their ability use. Yamari fears no counterattack from any opponent.

Yamari will arrive on Thursday, September 14th in time for the next Tournament! Are you ready?

Tournament Champions at the Ready!

As usual with a new Hero, Yamari will have a 10x modifier to all Tournament and Dragon Strike damage that will scale down gradually to a 5x modifier for the Legendary version.

The Rare Yamari will have a 5x modifier for all Tournament and Dragon Strike damage that will scale down gradually to a 2x modifier, where it will eventually remain permanently.

Like other Heroes before, Yamari is available all week as a possible bonus summon and will enter the permanent summoning pool.

Yamari will be a great help in this weekend’s Green Tournament. Don’t miss out on this new hero!

Coming up next week is a Purple Dragon Strike… What hero will be unveiled then?

The extraction FPS powered by player-owned Operator’s Nodes is now live in Early Access to anyone with an Early Access Token.

The Last Expedition team is thrilled to release the highly anticipated new build! Even more importantly, this is the first chance Early Access Token holders will have to get in on the action. Until now, only Last Expedition Node Operators (OPs) could play, but with thousands and thousands of Early Access Tokens now active out there in the wild, this is a new era of Last Expedition Early Access.

Remember–Early Access Tokens will grant the owner access to all Early Access playtest builds up until the Beta launch of Last Expedition (date TBA).

The Early Access Token

In the monumental shift to GalaChain operations for everything in our games, some adjustments were required to make the original Early Access Token concept a success. A new version of the Early Access token has now been minted on GalaChain and distributed to everyone who purchased Operators’ License Bundles in the earlier sales.

Please note that the original Early Access Token NFT is now completely devoid of utility and should not be bought, sold or transferred.

Now, each Early Access Token is a unique GalaChain minted item complete with an ID number. Operators may now distribute these tokens to anyone they’d like to have early access to this amazing game.

Get in the Game

If you’re ready to play right now, we’ll help you get started! Look for a more detailed guide on securing your Early Access, downloading the game and logging in with your Epic Games account in an upcoming Support article.

Download and Play Here

Get an Early Access Token

For everyone who’s not operating their own Last Expedition Node and toting a nice bag of Early Access tokens to show for their subscription: You’ll find a shiny token of your own (among other goodies) in the Hunter’s Early Access Pass, available now for $50 in the Gala Games store.

Create an Epic Games account

While you’ll launch the game from the Gala Games platform, this build is hosted by Epic Games, so before playing you’ll need to ensure your account is in order.

Prepare to Get Killed and Eaten

You’ll see.

Operating a Node

The powered by player-owned Nodes feature is one of our favorites. It reminds us of the old days of garage LAN parties where everyone drank yellow soda all night long… The glory days.

Anyway, if you’re a Last Expedition OP, then you’ll be interested in knowing that you can start running your own server now. Check your email for all the specifics so we don’t have to bore the non-OPs.

If you’re interested in becoming an OP by grabbing a Summer Operator’s License Bundle, they’re still available (limited time only) in the Gala Games store. This one comes with 4 Early Access Tokens, a Forest Snapper OP Mod predator, and subscription to the OP Mod club so you’ll get the new OP Mod every time!

The Harvest Awaits

There are tons of precious minerals and resources out there among the terrifying predators that all want to kill you and your team. Survive, extract and get out.

We all hope you enjoy this new Early Access playtest build, and we can hardly wait to bring you the next round of juicy updates. For now, secure your Early Access and start enjoying the game!

Gala Games store