Hyper Light Breaker Adds Its First New Character

Open-world roguelite Hyper Light Breaker released a new update for February 2025, introducing its first post-launch character. The patch also debuts additional enemy types, various balancing tweaks, and dozens of Hyper Light Breaker bug fixes, among plenty of other novelties.

The latest title from American indie developer Heart Machine debuted as part of the Steam Early Access program in mid-January 2025. The current plan is for Hyper Light Breaker to stay in early access for approximately one year, with Heart Machine planning to keep revising it based on player feedback throughout this period.

As part of these ongoing efforts, the developer recently rolled out a new update for February 2025. Identified by version number 0.5.2.110690, this release expands Hyper Light Breaker‘s character pool with the addition of Ravona, who can be unlocked from the loadout screen’s character selection menu. Ravona was envisioned as an exceedingly offensive-minded character specializing in unleashing massive amounts of damage in brief bursts. Her two SyComs—Reaper and Ranger—are entirely dedicated to this purpose, allowing her to boost her critical hit chance and fire rate.

The 0.5.2.110690 update also brings three new types of Holobytes, the central component of any Hyper Light Breaker loadout. One of them is Hunter’s Mark, which makes any enemy shot with a Rail take 20% more melee damage. There’s also Spark Seeker, which gives a 25% chance to fire a heat-seeking bullet alongside every Rail. The final new Holobyte is Impact Implosion, an aptly-called bonus that makes charged attacks emit an energy pulse, which applies the weapon’s status effect to enemies while dealing 25 points of damage in the process.

The new patch also introduces three more affixes—unique passive bonuses that have a chance of being found on Hyper Light Breaker weapons. These additions comprise Necrotic Cutter, Plasma Heater, and Anemic Edge, each of which raises one type of status effect-inflicted damage on targets. Other novelties bundled with the 0.5.2.110690 update include a rebalanced Danger Meter, enhanced VFX, and various quality-of-life improvements, such as automatic disabling of looting and the hoverboard during active combat. Gear balancing tweaks are also part of the package, together with two new enemy types: Croc Brute Elite and Bullet Leaper.

As for what’s next for the early access roguelite, the latest Hyper Light Breaker content roadmap promises another update for March 2025. The upcoming patch will introduce a new Assassin and even more enemies, weapon affixes, and Holobytes. Additional balancing tweaks and bug fixes are also promised to arrive as part of the March patch.

Hyper Light Breaker Update 0.5.2.110690 Patch Notes

Gameplay Updates:

COMMUNITY DEMAND: Added Player Character “Ravona”

• Ravona can be unlocked from the character selection in the loadout screen.
• Ravona’s Reaper SyCom
  • A high risk, high reward SyCom that has high damage potential for both Rails and Blades and high mobility but low health and armor. Synergizes well with holobytes that increase invincibility frames on dashes like (Flicker Burst and Flicker Shadow) and damage.
  • Perk: 25% higher crit chance on low-health enemies.
• Ravona’s Ranger SyCom
  • For Breakers who want to shoot fast and shoot a lot with their Rails. This perk synergizes well with Rails with high fire rate and ammo capacity like the SR2 Radiant and the Magrex.
  • Perk: Rails gain 5% fire rate for every 10 points of Battery.
• Community member Eska spent 133 days of requesting Crow Gameplay in our discord!

• Added new Holobytes:
  • Hunter’s Mark – Shooting an enemy with a Rail Marks it. Marked enemies take +20% Melee DMG.
  • Spark Seeker – 25% chance to fire a heat-seeking bullet any time you shoot your Rail.
  • Impact Implosion – Charged Attacks release an energy pulse around the player dealing 25 DMG and afflicts your Blade’s Status Effect on enemies.
• Added new Weapon Affixes:
  • Necrotic Cutter
    • Rare Blade Affix
    • Increases DMG to Rot afflicted targets by 10%/15%/20%/25%/30%.
  • Plasma Heater
    • Rare Blade Affix
    • Increases DMG to Burn afflicted targets by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
  • Anemic Edge
    • Uncommon Blade Affix
    • Increases Stagger DMG to targets afflicted with Bleed by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
• Added New Enemies:
  • Bullet Leaper variant.
  • Croc Brute Elite.
• Rebalanced the Danger Meter:
  • The Danger Meter now triggers less regularly but drops more powerful compositions with more waves.
• Added New Crystal Beach Research Pods POI.
• Improved VFX for Shrines, Jump Pads, interactables and breakables.
• Improved VFXs on executions to make it more rewarding.
• Tuned Attack Magnetism to more often choose enemies in front of you, rather than enemies that are much closer but behind you.
• Executes are now input-buffered to improve combat flow.
• Updated the Parry
  • New VFX to make it clearer that the parry is omni-directional (it will parry attacks coming from all directions).
  • Fixed wrong rotation on successful parry VFXs to match where the hit happened.
  • Parrying an enemy will now flinch/interrupt the other nearby enemies.
    • Perfect parries will flinch/interrupt nearby enemies harder.
  • Adjusting parry timing windows and cancel-into-parry timing windows.
• In-Combat Status
  • Looting, using keys, and using your hoverboard are now disabled if you are in active combat.
• Changed the Golden Rations calculations at the end of Cycle.
  • Golden Ration meter progress will now carry over to the next Cycle.
  • Added diminishing returns to meter progress after earning the first three Rations in a Cycle.
• Gear economy overhaul:
  • Reduced the chance for rare items in Outpost (Hub) vendors.
  • Increased the chance for rare items in Overgrowth (Run) vendors.
  • Increased the chance for rare items in Overgrowth chests and corpses.
  • Added ability to unequip gear in loadout.
• Gear balance overhaul:
  • Nerfed the Breaker Buster’s Blade Special.
  • Buffed the Radiant SG2 Rail to have longer range and more damage.
  • Buffed the Magrex Rail to have longer range.
  • Increased the charge time for the Solar Bolter’s charge attack.
  • Warrior SyCom perk changed to “Deal 25% more DMG when your HP is above 75%.”
  • Warrior SyCom stats re-balanced.
    • Note – if you had previously maxed out the Warrior SyCom, you will still have it maxed out, but you will not be refunded any “over-spend”.
  • Nerfed Blitz Blade’s bonus damage to 150% from 200%.
  • Critical Cuffs now are a chance to heal on crit, rather than always healing.
    • Note – due to localization deadlines, the in-game text does not mention the 25% chance. This text will be updated in our March monthly update.
  • Maximum armor capped at 150, from 200.
  • Capped bonus damage for Materials Processor, Plasma Edge and Plasma Powered to 40%.
  • Nerfed the Corundum Holobyte armor bonus.
  • Nerfed the Crude Whetstone Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed Barrel Vents Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed Tracker Shot Affix’s chance to trigger.
  • Reduced the cooldown on all shot triggers from 3 seconds to one second.
  • Nerfed the Charged Ammo Affix’s crit chance bonus.
  • Nerfed the Overvoltage Affix’s damage bonus.
  • Rebalanced the Thrombosis Injector Affix.
  • Buffed Executions for most Blades.
• Enemy balance overhaul:
  • Changed AI Choreographer to reduce enemy collaboration/coordination at the beginning of a Cycle.
  • Melee Dirks taunt less.
  • Wheel Snail dash attacks are shorter, no longer re-orient to the player midway through the dash, and have a longer cooldown between attacks.
  • Albino Wolf projectiles move slower but now have modest homing ability.
  • Reduced AI sensing range.
  • Improved Croc Brute’s hitboxes.
  • Wolves now have a taunt / alert animation and sound when aggro’d by the player.
  • Improved Adept’s hitboxes.
  • Leapers no longer attempt to intercept aerial players.
  • Added an arming delay to the Rifle Dirk’s mines.
• Players now always face Dro upon the start of battle when fighting her in Arenas where her cutscene does not play.
• Changed Dro’s leap target VFX to make it more distinct from Leaper’s one.
• Replaced all wolf boss minions with melee dirk boss minions.
• Reduced attack types for melee dirk boss minions (Dirks elsewhere retain their full attack set).
• Improved hoverboard VFX while hoverboarding over water.
• The collision trap failsafe now accelerates over time to push players out of world geometry more quickly.
• Sped up the equipment loss portion of the Death/Rez screen.
• Cutscenes can now be skipped.
• Expanded Key bindings – All keyboard keys EXCEPT Print Screen and Menu can be bound.
• Updated text localization.
• Regional pricing updated in some regions to better match current markets.

  Bug Fixes:
  

  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed several loot spawns in various POIs that were inaccessible.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where getting interrupted while hitting enemies with the Force Gauntlet Amp could cause you to continuously drag them along with the gauntlet.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed a Multiplayer sync issue that caused a variety of subsequent multiplayer issues.
    • This bug had a large number of symptoms within runs, but in the Outpost, you would see a player count mismatch (i.e., votes would show only requiring 2 players when 3 players were in, etc.).
    • Most community reports of abnormal gameplay in multiplayer are tied to this global fix.
  • Enemies now always wait to attack the player until the enemy has fully spawned in.
  • Fixed a bug where the player could shift through extraction walls when attacking enemies outside / nearby.
  • Fixed some prism spawns that could be acquired without unlocking their door first.
  • Fixed several issues with the Radiant SG2 Rail not displaying the correct animation or VFX for clients in multiplayer.
  • Fixed an issue where swapping Holobytes with a full vault would cause them to be destroyed instead.
  • Fixed an issue where the Leaper’s ground slam attack could damage players outside of the VFX indicator.
  • Fixed an issue where switching characters using a combination of keyboard controls and mouse hover could cause weapons to become unequipped.
  • Fixed an issue where the HUD wouldn’t fade out correctly when transitioning to the death screen.
  • Fixed a number of crystal and tree clipping issues in the Jeweled Spire (purple/crystal) biome.
  • Fixed explosion VFX not working on some projectiles for clients in multiplayer.
  • Fixed the loading screen background for ultrawide resolutions.
  • Other players are now hidden in the loadout menu to avoid blocking your view of your character.
  • Minor updates to terrain generation to fix irregularities that could trap players.
  • Fixed mouse controls being impacted by framerate.
  • Fixed an issue where the Stun Recharger holobyte would not restore battery if you staggered an enemy in a single hit.
  • Low health screen effects now play when spectating a player at low health.
  • Improved Point of Interest detection for the Point of Interest highlight function.
  • Disabled the resolution setting when running the game in fullscreen-windowed (your windows resolution overrides this setting).
  • Fixed an issue with the background blur on the loadout screen.
  • Fixed an issue where the map preview at the beginning of a Cycle would not show for subsequent cycles in the same session.
  • Stat adjusting gear now properly displays adjusted stats in the Outpost.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes Elites could die in/over water and drop their Prisms into the water rather than spawning the prism at the nearest shore location.
  • Fixed a potential item duplication exploit.
  • Fixed an issue with Marathon Pin’s stacking buff that was causing it to not stack properly.
  • Fixed an issue where radiation meteors could land on the extraction pad.
  • Improved aim assist, particularly when aiming down towards enemies.
  • Mouse Wheel now works in Shrine menus (previously only controller or keyboard could control this menu).
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes locked POIs would not have any loot behind the locked door.
  • Improved Elite Bat behavior when grounded (attacking flying enemies will ground them briefly).
  • Improved a variety of music transitions for our dynamic music system.
  • Fixed an issue where the Elite Ranged Dirk couldn’t hit players that were pressing up against it consistently.
  • Fixed an issue where your hoverboard jump would not be counted against your number of jumps, allowing you to triple jump.
  • Fixed an issue where dying would apply your Blade’s status effect to your character.
  • Fixed an issue where Lapis’ Warrior SyCom Blast stat could not be maxed.
  • Fixed an issue where Lapis’ Lightweaver SyCom Armor stat could not be maxed.
  • Fixed an issue where resurrections would not always play the resurrection VFX or animation.
  • Fixed an issue where resetting controls to default could cause you to lose mouse input.
  • Fixed an issue where meteor warning audio would not play.
  • Fixed an issue where swapping characters in the loadout would not refresh all panels correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood Battery was not providing the correct amount of Battery.
  • Fixed an issue where the Chrome Golem would walk in place instead of idling.
  • Updated collision across a large number of environmental assets.
  • Fixed shell meshes not working properly on skeletal meshes with physics on them.
  • Fixed an issue where Dro’s slam attack was placing the AoE VFXs wrongly (if spawned on debris placed around the map).
  • Fixed status effect shells on Slimes. These have translucent material, and it caused sorting issue with translucent shell meshes.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed many crashes reported by our community members.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed the “Error: Line 729” Crash and added additional safeguards to save data protection and corrupt save data handling.
  • Flash Step’s magnetism no longer locks onto Engineer mines.
  • Flash Step’s magnetism no longer locks onto enemies that are actively teleporting.
  • Player icons should now correctly show in the Overgrowth.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where multiple players using the same SyCom would be missing the Blade Special on their default Blade.
  • Blade Specials no longer trigger their cool down if they’re interrupted during charge.
  • Blade Specials no longer trigger their cooldown if the player attempts to use them in the air.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Elite Bat no longer gets stuck moving backwards if hit by a specific sequence (2 basic combo hits cancelled into Flash Step).
  • When selling gear, ALL equipped gear, not just equipped gear for the current character, is marked as equipped.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where the first client’s health bar would stick around after they disconnected.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where in-run vendors would not be synced between players.
  • Fixed a multiplayer issue where being revived would cause your SyCom to vanish.
  • Fixed an issue with the Flaming Cascade Affix not functioning correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes slimes would not appear on the minimap/radar.

  Known Issues:
  

  • In multiplayer, clients may see hosts A-posing when aiming a rail if the host has not equipped a new rail during that session. Hosts may see clients aiming an invisible rail until the client equips a new rail in that session. This is a visual issue only.
  • In few random seeds, Drop Down Labs may be incorrectly scaled.
  • In multiplayer, sometimes glider or hoverboard vfx will not display correctly for players.
  • We expect to hotfix these later this week, but wanted to get this major update in front of players today to start collecting feedback on this update and the Experimental Beta mentioned below.

  Performance Improvements:
  

  • Capped the global number of enemy spawns.
  • Fixed a number of camera and character hitches, pops, etc. that could feel like low framerate gameplay even when framerate was high.
  • Fixed a major hitch when the Engineer would use its mine attack.
  • Fixed a large number of hitches related to the spawning/streaming of assets.
  • Improved LODs for a large number of environmental assets, to improve performance and reduce pop-in.
  • COMMUNITY ASSIST: Fixed an issue where some players were experiencing extreme hitching when picking up Bright Blood.
    • COMMUNITY CHAMPION: This bug could not be reproduced internally, even after receiving detailed information from our community. Thank you to everyone who provided detailed information, and special thanks to community member Starbos for working with one of our engineers and even testing a special build to confirm we fixed the issue.

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