[Game Update] - 725134

[V2C]

Changes

• Auto-Grabber and Exploiterator drones will no longer expire over time or from usage.
• Increased Exploiterator limit for Shadow Atrium to 3. (Limit for Possessed Shadow Atrium is 4.)
• Increased Exploiterator damage bonus to 6% per drone.
• Exploiterator no longer disengages as easily while the target is still in combat with you.
• Auto-Grabbers will continue to do work for a Backup Chassis off-screen.
• Backup Chassis will no longer be targeted by action button (Spacebar)

 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Auto-Grabbers and Exploiterator being slowed down by things like spider webs.
• Fixed Auto-Grabber not using the increased range from circuits and Signal Booster when staying with a Backup Chassis.
• Fixed crash sometimes when attacking with a Zaptrocuter.
• Fixed Wonky feet or tail not staying around when Transferring Consciousness.
• Fixed Weather Pain Tornadoes damaging Possessed Chassis.
• Fixed Mimicked items sometimes reverting to Mimicreeps when reloading a world or going into or out of the Caves.
• Fixed freezing overlay disappearing forever if a Thermal Circuit activates then deactivates.
• Fixed Inhabited Machine III not working properly.
• Fixed WX-78’s charge bar not gaining charge while it’s overridden by shadow energy.
• Fixed Possessed Chassis spawning with 100 of each stat instead of full stats.
• Fixed Possessed Chassis having non-full charge.
• Fixed Possessed Chassis being left at 1 health when deactivated by its leader.
• Fixed Possessed Chassis continuously trying to use a depleted Zaptrocuter Remote.
• Fixed Optoelectronics Night vision effect not properly working when activated by the overridden shadow charge.
• Fixed Expansive Storage Units being inaccessible in Possessed Chassis.
• Fixed the Shadow Mauler being invisible to clients when held by a Possessed Chassis.
• Fixed Nutribrick perishing in Icker Preserves when it becomes wet.
• Fixed WX-78 trying to eat when implanting fuel into another Backup Chassis.
• Fixed being unable to transfer consciousness in the map on controller when a Sonic-Invoker or Blocking Circuit is active.

View full update

[doritosdamafia]

wow

[VaskalRascal]

• Auto-Grabbers will continue to do work for a Backup Chassis off-screen.

Holy smokes that's good. :0

[beyond human]

9 minutes ago, V2C said:

Changes

• Auto-Grabber and Exploiterator drones will no longer expire over time or from usage.
• Increased Exploiterator limit for Shadow Atrium to 3. (Limit for Possessed Shadow Atrium is 4.)
• Increased Exploiterator damage bonus to 6% per drone.
• Exploiterator no longer disengages as easily while the target is still in combat with you.
• Auto-Grabbers will continue to do work for a Backup Chassis off-screen.

 

Great work! Thank you!

[NotGabriel]

Okay we got some good changes here. The timer and silliness of the drone targeting were easily the biggest letdowns. We’ll see if the targeting mechanic works out and makes the combat drones more practical. 

I’m also quite pleased seeing the Auto-Grabbers working off screen for your Chassis. That was the most underrated quality of the shadow affinity initially was the auto farming potential. 
 

Overall I’m a little bummed to see the drones staying but I can understand the work that’s going into them. As long as they can perform as well as the 1.0 mechanics I’d be happy, and these changes are heading that direction.

[Shadow06565]

Speed should probably be still buffed for the exploiter, because switching targets might be a bit of a drag though don't know if it is still or not. Will test soon.

Still a little upset grabbers and exploiters are separate, but I can live with it if that's what the team thinks is best.

[OrangeNibble]

Sounds like good progress, but I still think the original design would be better. At the time of this comment the community poll is over 2:1 in favor of the original design. Wouldn't it be better to abandon the small sunk cost of 2.0, and return to the better more cohesive 1.0 design?

I also preferred the grabbers and exploiters being shared / having one simple progression, rather than two.

I guess we as a community are quite confused by the intention behind the design changes. Ultimately, it is Klei's game, and they can do what they want with it, but in it feels like more communications could enable better feedback / input from the community.

Why was the design changed? What is the rational / advantage / thought process behind the changes? Etc...

Ultimately, however polished the balance and visuals, it will still feel strange to be unlocking crafting drones by socketing in an item to a body: too much indirection.

Also, not to be too negative, I really like the new chessmaster circuit, and regardless of the shadow affinity, I think WX's skill tree is excellent. 

Edited yesterday at 02:18 AM by OrangeNibble

[V2C]

We're still working on improving the responsiveness of the Exploiters a bit more.

[OrangeNibble]

Presumably exploiter are still single target as well? (with the associated anti-synergy with the spin circuit?)

[Danath]

This seems like a good improvement I just wish Klei would give Wx the power when embracing the shadow instead of Wx learning how to make more drones.  I thought the shadow affinity was good before and that Klei was just going to add another power to the affinity to make it more fun. 

[-Nick-]

2 minutes ago, V2C said:

We're still working on improving the responsiveness of the Exploiters a bit more.

Would be a nice mechanic if eating nightmare fuel/pure horror temporarily buffed the drones. Gives more reason to use that mechanic if both perks synergized in some way!

The mechanic of boosting yourself by eating both items has lots of potential.

Maybe could bring back the ability to use mimicked items if under the effects of eating fuel? 

[Coski25]

It’s disappointing that it seems like you’re sticking with the new and worse shadow affinity than the old one.

It just doesn’t fit thematically why does implanting a nightmare fuel or shadow atrium in Wx-78’s chassis allow him to craft drones when before it showed the shadows coming out of them.

The damage is worse than before 18% with 3 drones and 24% at 4 drones instead of a flat 25% which makes it still vastly weaker than the lunar affinity.

The new drones don’t target in an area like the old shadow affinity so lost synergy with spin cycle circuit.

The old system with tweaks could work so much better I like what you did where the shadow atrium and possed shadow atrium are for damage and shadow fuel and pure horror are for collecting, a couple visual tweaks and the old version would be perfect idk why you massively changed it.

[Danath]

10 minutes ago, -Nick- said:

Would be a nice mechanic if eating nightmare fuel/pure horror temporarily buffed the drones. Gives more reason to use that mechanic if both perks synergized in some way!

The mechanic of boosting yourself by eating both items has lots of potential.

Maybe could bring back the ability to use mimicked items if under the effects of eating fuel? 

Yeah I would like that mechanic as well.  I feel like I would never consume nightmare fuel right now, but if this was implemented or some additional effect that would make the mechanic way better.

[Jppacs]

Really nice changes! Bumps the shadow affinity back up quite a lot, once the exploiters are responsive we'll have something quite special

[Coski25]

5 minutes ago, Coski25 said:

It’s disappointing that it seems like you’re sticking with the new and worse shadow affinity than the old one.

It just doesn’t fit thematically why does implanting a nightmare fuel or shadow atrium in Wx-78’s chassis allow him to craft drones when before it showed the shadows coming out of them.

The damage is worse than before 18% with 3 drones and 24% at 4 drones instead of a flat 25% which makes it still vastly weaker than the lunar affinity.

The new drones don’t target in an area like the old shadow affinity so lost synergy with spin cycle circuit.

The old system with tweaks could work so much better I like what you did where the shadow atrium and possed shadow atrium are for damage and shadow fuel and pure horror are for collecting, a couple visual tweaks and the old version would be perfect idk why you massively changed it.

A couple other thoughts I had, the 4 drones clutter the screen too much when fighting a boss a compromise could be to reduce it to one drone only like jimmy. You could also make it an aoe scan like jimmy so it works more like v1 shadow affinity if you don’t revert it. I would keep the 25% damage boost from shadow atrium and then for possed shadow atrium add a small planar damage buff. I really hope you revert the changes but if not it could be changed into something good.

[nicholasdamian]

Great change

 

Edited yesterday at 12:15 AM by nicholasdamian

[Ugur01]

Shadow affinity will remain a failure in my eyes until these two issues are addressed:

- Revert the drones back to shadow hands and the whip effect.

- Make the Vex effect Area of Effect (AoE) so that its synergy with the Spin Circuit is restored.

On 4/27/2026 at 2:21 AM, Ugur01 said:

This definitely needs more visibility. Unlike the previous iteration, the new design has absolutely nothing to do with the shadow theme. Drones feel completely out of place compared to other shadow-related abilities. Next to the Boulderbough branches emerging from the ground or the Mimics coming out of the chassis, the drones feel entirely disconnected. I’m deeply disappointed that they made this change; the shadow hands that used to crawl on the ground and gather items were incredibly cool.

Here is a video showcasing how they looked in the previous version:

 

 

Edited yesterday at 12:19 AM by Ugur01

[NotGabriel]

38 minutes ago, -Nick- said:

Would be a nice mechanic if eating nightmare fuel/pure horror temporarily buffed the drones. Gives more reason to use that mechanic if both perks synergized in some way!

The mechanic of boosting yourself by eating both items has lots of potential.

Maybe could bring back the ability to use mimicked items if under the effects of eating fuel? 

This would be such a game changer, I would literally never use the fuel eating mechanic otherwise. Something like eating nightmare fuel speeds up the grabber drones and increases the damage of exploiters, and then pure horror makes exploiters add planar damage instead of physical damage which would make them viable in endgame?? This idea has sauce.

[edulopes]

i still think possessed shadow atrium should be able to get all effects like first shadow serventior skills itteration.... at least 2 shadow Auto-Grabbers

[namhai]

1 hour ago, V2C said:

Backup Chassis will no longer be targeted by action button (Spacebar)

Can I get this for winbots and wobot too? 

[JazzyGames]

Thank for the drone durability changes. Truly appreciated.

Not a huge priority but are we like, totally against possessed atrium drones getting some planar damage?

[Maxil20]

2 minutes ago, namhai said:

wobot

Wobot already has it, actually! It works perfectly fine off screen (it even has mechanics to calculate the distance an item is from the offloaded wobot to simulate the speed it normally takes for it to move to the item and slot it in the chest). It would be incredible to have it for winbot, though, even if they reused the code from wobot (and adding a check for a powered gen/gemerator to be nearby).

Edited yesterday at 12:30 AM by Maxil20

[Jppacs]

Don't know if it's a bug or removed feature, but the mimicreep items are no longer usable with the possessed heart implanted, they are reverting to their mob form when I use them. Is it like this for anyone else?

Edit: Might be just deconstruction staves to match construction amulets, from what I've tested. Didn't see it in patch notes.

Edited yesterday at 12:54 AM by Jppacs

[Tired_Awaii]

47 minutes ago, Ugur01 said:

The poll results clearly show that the majority is far more satisfied with the old design; I strongly suggest you take a look at it. If you're going to stick with the current iteration, at least make the Vex effect Area of Effect (AoE) to make it viable.

I think this survey is a little biased since the options are somewhat limited. There is more to this than which one looks better, this is also taking into account which one people think worked better mechanically which power wise the old version just was out right. This should be asking between gameplay and visuals instead of just being a simple two answers with no indication on what is being graded.

[NotGabriel]

25 minutes ago, Coski25 said:

A couple other thoughts I had, the 4 drones clutter the screen too much when fighting a boss a compromise could be to reduce it to one drone only like jimmy. You could also make it an aoe scan like jimmy so it works more like v1 shadow affinity if you don’t revert it. I would keep the 25% damage boost from shadow atrium and then for possed shadow atrium add a small planar damage buff. I really hope you revert the changes but if not it could be changed into something good.

I think the best compromise would have one AoE drone but I’m keeping my eyes on the current iteration. Tbh if the scanners end up smart enough to target hordes with small multipliers I wouldn’t be too upset because Spin Cycle is already incredibly powerful, perhaps a flat multiplier to every enemy in a horde is too powerful lol. I just hope the scanners end up smart enough to always stay targeting who you’re targeting in combat, because that’s what was amazing about 1.0 Servitor was the consistency. 

1 minute ago, Tired_Awaii said:

I think this survey is a little biased since the options are somewhat limited. There is more to this than which one looks better, this is also taking into account which one people think worked better mechanically which power wise the old version just was out right. This should be asking between gameplay and visuals instead of just being a simple two answers with no indication on what is being graded.

As the person who made the poll I agree, I should’ve had two votes for aesthetics and gameplay. Because while on gameplay I’m 1.0 all the way I’m a little more back and forth on aesthetics and I know for MANY of the 1.0 voters it’s purely on gameplay.