Crab Champions, the action-packed looter shooter with roguelike elements, has just released its Early Access Update 3 patch notes. Developed by the creator of Crab Rave, the game has become popular for its intense gameplay and captivating visuals. The latest patch introduces several significant changes, such as chance-based elemental weapon mods, an overhauled save system, new weapon mods and perks, as well as balance adjustments and bug fixes.
The new patch introduces a highly requested feature: chance-based elemental weapon mods. This update aims to create more dynamic build scaling and improve the overall player experience. To maintain balance, the base trigger chance for certain perks will vary depending on the weapon used. The Ice Shot, Fire Shot, Poison Shot, Lightning Shot, Random Shot, Ultra Shot, Time Bolt, Triple Shot, Arc Shot, X Shot, Square Shot, Mega Crit, Split Shot, Scatter Shot, and Homing Shot mods are the first to adopt this new system.
Update 3 also overhauls the save system, reducing the chances of save file corruption. This is achieved by using multiple save backups and a separate save for user settings. In addition, the maximum projectile limit has been increased from 300 to 400, and new weapon mods, Ultra Shot and Time Bolt, have been added to the game.
The patch introduces two new perks: Rigged Totems, which increases the likelihood of chance-based totems rolling in the player’s favor, and Streamer Loot, which boosts the probability of higher rarity loot spawning from chests. Meanwhile, the Green Dice perk has been renamed Gold Dice and received a buff to Legendary rarity. It now has a more potent effect on chance-based mods and perks, but no longer provides the higher rarity loot benefit.
The Tropical biome parkour island layout has been improved for better flow, and six new skins – Emerald, Glimmer, Jet Black, Ruby, Sapphire, and Silver – have replaced existing placeholders. Balance changes in the patch include a reduction in enemy damage scaling on Nightmare difficulty, a 25% reduction in Blocker Skull movement speed, and a decrease in the elimination requirement for the Unstoppable challenge.
Lastly, Update 3 addresses several quality of life improvements and bug fixes, such as preventing enemies from shooting through walls on elite and boss islands, toning down some overtuned FX, and updating inaccurate mod and perk descriptions. The patch also fixes instances of enemies getting stuck under the map and resolves an issue causing the settings menu to remain active and hidden, resulting in frequent stutters as the game saved constantly.
Here are all the changes that were made in the Early Access Update 3 Patch:
GENERAL
- Elemental weapon mods are now chance based instead of cooldown based. This has been a heavily requested feature and I will be moving from cooldowns to chance based on many other mods in upcoming updates to allow for even more insane build scaling! The general idea is that it’s boring for a powerful thing to fire only once every 5 seconds max and it’s much more fun for a weaker thing to fire potentially multiple times a second (scaling nicely with fire rate and chance build options).
- In order for this to be balanced and considering that a 20% chance to burn enemies would be constantly applied from the minigun (due to the fast fire rate) and would barely be applied at all from the sniper (due to the slow fire rate), the base trigger chance for the certain perks will change depending on the weapon used (with fast firing weapons having a lower base chance and slow firing weapons having a higher base chance).
- The following mods use this system and more will follow in the future:
- Ice Shot
- Fire Shot
- Poison Shot
- Lightning Shot
- Random Shot
- Ultra Shot
- Time Bolt
- Triple Shot
- Arc Shot
- X Shot
- Square Shot
- Mega Crit
- Split Shot
- Scatter Shot
- Targeting Shot
- Homing Shot
- Overhauled the save system- there are now multiple save backups and a separate save for user settings. This greatly reduces the chance of your save file becoming corrupt (some players were experiencing a NULL bug where they couldn’t move after their PC lost power while an autosave was saving) as there are now 2 extra backup saves to try and prevent that from ever occurring
- Increased the maximum projectile limit from 300 to 400
- Time Shot can now crit which should make it much more interesting and useful
- Added new weapon mod: Ultra Shot: Chance to fire high damage bullets along with your shots
- Added new weapon mod: Time Bolt: Chance to fire bolts that deal damage over time
- Added new perk: Rigged Totems: Chance based totems are more likely to roll in your favor
- Added new perk: Streamer Loot: Higher rarity loot has a greater chance to spawn from chests
- Changed Green Dice: renamed to Gold Dice, buffed to Legendary rarity and has a more potent effect on chance based mods and perks but no longer provides the higher rarity loot benefit that it had before. A note about wording that may be confusing: it says +50% chance for chance based mods and perks to trigger- this does not mean adding a flat 50% to all chance based things (as this would quickly break many perks), it insteads multiplies the chance by 150%. So a base chance of 20% will be 30% with the 50% extra chance buff that Gold Dice provides
- Improved the Tropical biome parkour island layout to have a better and easier flow
- Replaced 6 placeholder skins with fresh new ones: Emerald, Glimmer, Jet Black, Ruby, Sapphire and Silver
BALANCE CHANGES
- Reduced enemy damage scaling a bit on Nightmare difficulty especially when looping as it quickly turns into a “lose all your health on one hit” type of situation which I’m not a fan of. Don’t get me wrong- I still want enemies to be extremely damaging when looping on Nightmare but this should just make it feel like you can take an extra hit or two before the run is over
- Blocker Skull movement speed reduced by 25%
- The Unstoppable challenge (Get a win with over 10000 eliminations) elimination requirement has been reduced down to 7500 eliminations
- Regular melee crabs, ants and slugs are slightly larger to make them easier to hit
- Ice Shot is now unlocked by default
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Improved cases where enemies could shoot through walls on elite and boss islands
- Toned back some more overtuned FX such as on daggers
BUG FIXES
- Fixed many places where enemies could get stuck under the map. Any remaining enemies that do happen to spawn under the map should get picked up by the new anti-softlock mechanics and will get auto eliminated after a short period of time
- Fixed a bug that was causing the settings menu to stay active in a hidden state while the game was playing, resulting in frequent stutters as the game saved constantly
- Some mod and perk descriptions that were inaccurate have been updated (such as Money Is Power displaying a 1% increased in damage when it is actually a 10% increase)
- Fixed issue where enemies would stop spawning if players were far away from any spawn points
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