[ Mass Testing ] Planned balance changes for the March 2026 update

Discussion
1

Planned balance changes for the March 2026 update

Hello!

In the upcoming March update, we plan to introduce some balance changes. It’s time to test them on a special server and share your feedback and comments with us. The test server will only be available this weekend. Let’s dive in!

We remind you that all the new features described in this news are not final and may be changed before they are introduced into the game or may not make it into the game at all. You can see all the planned changes in more detail on the special testing server.

Frontal shotguns and machine guns

  • Added 25% damage resistance to bullet damage.
  • Added 25% damage resistance to blast damage.

These changes apply to the following weapons:

  • ST-M23 Defender;
  • Spitfire;
  • M-25 Guardian;
  • Leech;
  • ST-M26 Tackler;
  • M-29 Protector;
  • Rupture;
  • M-32 Vindicator.

Comment on frontal shotguns and machine guns: unpopular weapon types. The changes emphasize the original design feature of high protection and survivability.

R-1 Breeze

Bonus to time to overheat for shotguns increased from 15% to 19%.

R-2 Chill

Bonus to time to overheat for shotguns increased from 23% to 30%.

RN Seal

Bonus to time to overheat for shotguns increased from 44% to 60%.

Aquilo

Bonus to time to overheat for shotguns increased from 49% to 67%.

Comment on radiators: insufficient impact of modules on the efficiency of shotguns relative to their energy drain.

Gungnir

  • Damage increased by 10%.
  • Maximum effect of the perk is now achieved at 50% overheat.

Comment: low efficiency of the machine gun.

Nagual

  • Bonus damage to weapons, movement parts, and hardware increased from 20% to 30%.
  • Penetration ability increased from 80% to 100%.

Comment: low efficiency compared to other “epic” parts.

Cricket

  • Number of rockets in a volley increased from 5 to 10.
  • Rate of fire increased by 39%.
  • Damage reduced by 26%.

Comment: the number of rockets in a volley now corresponds to the number of barrels in the model, which significantly increases the fire density. The changes to the rate of fire and damage complement this change. The total damage per minute has increased (provided that all rockets hit the target), despite a reduction in damage from a single rocket.

Elephant

Perk bonus to the protection increased from 20% to 35%

Comment: low survivability of the cannon in battle.

Elephant (cust.)

Perk no longer increases the blast radius.

Comment: the cannon’s efficiency is too high when hitting clusters of parts.

Ermak

Perk bonus to the armoured car’s protection increased from 7% to 10%.

Comment: an unpopular cabin compared to other heavy “epic” counterparts.

Outcast

Maximum effect of the perk is now achieved when there are no enemies within a radius of 110 m (instead of 80 m previously).

Comment: the change will reduce the excessive efficiency of the wheel when playing at close range.

Sabbath

  • Perk bonus lasts for 4 sec. (instead of 3 sec. previously) upon taking damage.
  • Power bonus increased from 15% to 25%.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk.

Myriad

Now the leg is disabled after losing 30% of its durability (instead of 40% previously).

Comment: high efficiency of the movement part. The change should have a positive effect on gameplay against “Myriad” by immobilizing enemies more quickly.

Cheetah

Perk bonus increased from 15% to 20%.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk.

AR-27 Morgan

  • Durability increased from 370 to 425 pts.
  • Penetration ability increased from 75% to 90%.

Comment: low survivability in combat. Increased penetration ability will improve efficiency when firing at clusters of parts.

Compiler

  • Energy drain reduced from 12 to 11 pts.
  • PS reduced from 2400 to 2200.
  • Rate of fire increased by 20%.

Comment: low efficiency of the weapon. Reduced energy drain should increase the variety of builds by allowing the use of additional modules. Increased rate of fire will improve overall damage.

Thrust

  • Periodic damage increased by 25%.
  • Damage resistance to ram damage increased from 75% to 85%.
  • Damage resistance to melee damage increased from 50% to 70%.

Comment: low efficiency as a melee weapon.

Nothung

  • Now the perk bonus damage is applied to the first 8 shots (instead of 5 shots previously).
  • Perk bonus damage increased from 80% to 100%.

Comment: unpopular weapon. The change increases the efficiency of playing around the perk.

M-39 Imp

Perk bonus increased from 5% to 8%.

Comment: an unpopular machine gun in comparison with “M-37 Piercer” and “M-38 Fidget”.

Lucifer

  • Energy drain reduced from 13 to 12 pts.
  • PS reduced from 2600 to 2400.

Comment: “Lucifer’s” energy drain does not correspond to its overall efficiency. The change allows you to lower the PS of an armoured car equipped with it or install additional modules.

ZS-46 Mammoth

Durability increased from 1284 to 1477 pts.

Comment: low survivability of the weapon.

Corax

  • Penetration ability reduced from 125% to 110%.
  • Explosive projectiles are now fired immediately after the shot is fully charged.

Comment: high efficiency of the weapon when using explosive projectiles only. The inability to hold the shot will make the explosive projectile more of an addition to the main shot rather than an alternative to it.

Squall

  • Energy drain increased from 4 to 5 pts.
  • PS increased from 800 to 1000.

Comment: the weapon has excessive efficiency at low PS (5000–7000).

Satori

Initial perk bonus to weapon damage reduced from 20% to 15%.

Comment: the perk has high efficiency. Now its implementation depends more on the player’s skills. The speed of gaining and losing the bonus (%/sec.) has remained the same.

Fin whale

  • Maximum perk bonus to weapon damage protection reduced from 50% to 30%.
  • Maximum effect is now achieved at a speed of 100 km/h (instead of 110 km/h previously).

Comment: the engine has high efficiency on the vast majority of builds and excessively increases the survivability of weapons.

Aegis-Prime

Recharge time increased from 20 to 28 sec.

Comment: the module is activated too frequently in battles with armoured cars without reload bonuses. With this change, we want to ensure that “Aegis” remains effective in combination with “Cheetah” and “Jaguar”, but has a significantly reduced frequency of activation without them.

Porcupine

  • Projectile speed increased by 25%.
  • Heating rate of the fire puddle increased by 25%.

Comment: low efficiency of the weapon.

ZS-52 Mastodon

Durability increased from 1505 to 1731 pts.

Comment: similar to the changes to the “ZS-46 Mammoth”.

“CR-1 Seagull”, “Falco”, and “CR-2 Petrel” rotors

  • Added a maximum speed limit of 100 km/h.
  • Vertical takeoff speed reduced from 85% to 75% of the maximum speed.

Comment: compared to main rotors, coaxial rotors had no obvious disadvantages. After the change, their disadvantage will be limited flight speed.

Flamingo

Maximum speed reduced from 80 to 70 km/h.

Comment: armoured cars with this movement part are notable for their high durability combined with excessive speed. This change corrects the “imbalance” in speed.

Tengu

  • Tonnage reduced from 4700 to 4000 kg.
  • Durability reduced from 1070 to 890 pts.

Comment: the durability of armoured vehicles with this movement part is practically no different from vehicles with heavier legs.

Modifiers for PvP missions with robotic legs and armoured aircraft

Made adjustments to the special settings for these missions:

  • Armoured aircraft no longer receive a damage bonus, unlike armoured cars.
  • Removed the ammo reserve bonus.
  • Added a bonus to weapon rotation speed (30%) for armoured cars.

Comment: adjusting the damage of armoured aircraft should reduce their overall overpowered efficiency without directly affecting the parts. The ammo reserve bonus in a mode with respawns that replenish ammo was excessive and devalued the use of ammo modules in builds. The increased weapon rotation speed should make shooting more comfortable in a mode with increased vehicle dynamics.

How to get to the test server?

If you have already participated in testing on a special server, then it will be enough to start the Launcher from the folder with the test client and wait for the update to complete.

  • Download the launcher using this link. Running this launcher will automatically start the installation of the version of the game client used for mass testing.
  • Choose a folder to install the testing game client and decide if you wish to create a desktop icon for it.
  • After the installation is complete and all files are downloaded, run the game client using either the desktop icon or launcher.exe in the test game client folder, and then log into the game using your username and password.
  • The whole progress of your main account will be transferred to the test server (including parts in storage and levels of reputation in factions).
  • If you had not already done it before, you will need to transfer progress from your account after logging into the test server: press the “Esc” key and select “Copy account data”.
  • Please note the schedule of the test server:
    • Friday, March 6, 2026: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Saturday, March 7, 2026: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Sunday, March 8, 2026: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
  • Any progress you make on the test server will not be transferred to the live game servers (INCLUDING ATTEMPTS TO BUY PACKS).

The public test server is intended only for testing of the upcoming update and may not accommodate all players without exception. However, absolutely anyone can join the server, as long as there are free spots.

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Well, sadly none of the guns or cabs I’d wish got some buffing are really getting much anything. Excitement level about these balance changes are 0/10 for buffs maybe 4/10 for nerfs. An balance change/10 would have loved some more unloved parts

I really hope the maximum effect of the perk means freezing and not the slowed rate of fire but higher accuracy, the main thing making this gun bad is the slowed down rate of fire. If it slows down faster than before, absolutely useless. I already struggle to make use of this thing as is

More missiles sounds nice and flashy but with the lessened damage I wonder if it’ll make a huge difference in the end to performance. And other guns that are explosives and very flashy? Lucifers and Threshers, and while they have cool visual effects where is the damage?

haha lol lmao get fugd cust. users rest in piss. Won’t make it that bad but feels good to hate on the paypiggies and their paypiggie parts

Cheetah now way more superior than Jaguar, even better than before

Surprised they’re only buffing one of the currentpass weapons but eh honestly if I were to buff any only 1 of them, it’d be the Thrust

Ah yes, the super unpopular rapid fire machinegun that is about the only machinegun you see past 11k PS, and that still to this day hits super hard. Truly so unpopular indeed mmm yes such unpopularity mmm wow quite unpopular mmmmm

Nice, yeah this thing isn’t a 13 energy weapon in any dimension. Though I don’t see this making it that much better either, Most times I am using it I am already fully invested in reloads and protection, and I am not gonna purchase a Jackie. Honestly you want to make it better, give it faster reload, even at 13 energy faster reload would make this thing way better. Don’t see myself using Lucifers any more after this change than before it

lol lmao haha get fugd coraxvaginas. This is all you will ever deserve

Well there goes putting one of these onto a build as a support weapon, with 4 it could be done with 5 I am not gonna get the relic generator fug off. Rip support role

They just keep nerfing it huh, wonder which developers waifu did this cabin fornicate with to deserve such hate. While good there’s way more op stuff out there

lol lmao get fugd finwhaleusers

Pls pls buy pass and Jaguar to use this part pls

Relics, legs, copters, who cares

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What i’ve noticed is that devs listen to braindead hamsters and instead of nerfing 10-15 out of ~180 guns that hog 90% of the winrate in the entire game, they instead buff the balanced guns so they wouldn’t seem weak in comparison… Sadge

4

uhhhh… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
low efficiency? i use naguals quite alot and i see them perform quite well, incredibly good at stripping weapons to. i mean… ill take the extra 10% damage boost though! not sure how i feel about the 100% penetration though… mean i have a nagual with 100% pen and its brutal. but wouldnt this mean that they would need to remove the penetration ability it currently has and replace it with another?

:flushed: uhh… what?

its because the morgan sucks. giving it more pen and hp wont change that.

ill take it.

GEE YA THINK DEVS?!!?!? :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

image

this is a seal club weapon dont beat around the bush, call it what it is.

5

Imma have to change a bunch of builds because of this, but I understand it was a little OP.

What did I do?? :sob:

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7

Not you lol, i was talking about guys that since 2020 said something along the lines of “don’t nerf my fav meta, please buff the other weapons!!” which is a BS claim on its own

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I use to compare it to old BBS RPG games saying that. It is difficult to make it fair though even from a coding background take a little and move it around to get the equal amount.

9

I’m ok with these changes, nothing stands out as particularly bad

10

We have a lot of good changes here. I would still like to gives a piece of my thoughts, mostly only cover the changes that I think it should be tweaked or require a straight up overhaul.

Frontal shotguns and machine guns

The added 25% damage resistance is good, but i think Spitfire and Leech needs to have their energy consumption reduced as well. Both shotguns being frontal yet cost more energy than turret counterpart is illogical.

Radiator buff for shotguns

I think we should simply skip Aquilo’s bonus buff. It easily makes shiver redundant already.

Gungnir

while I don’t own the gun itself, i’ve did a lot of exhibition test ride about it, and the perk is just stupid when the base spread is pretty low already. The current perk essentially makes the gun perform worse for minimal benefits. What it really needs is a diet perk of Nothung.

Morgan

I still believes it should be classified as Large Caliber Revolver and be put under the Cannon category.

Compiler

Reducing energy and increasing RoF is good, but isn’t the main problem of the cannon being the goofy ass spread? Unless your goal is to free up energy for 2 pieces of Harmonizers, but then you’re still selling a solution to a problem you created.

Lucifer

The change is good, but it should have its clip amount increased. a base clip of 5 is choking its potential synergy with Manitou cabin, which is a huge miss if you ask me. It should stand out more compared to Inquisitor, a overheat variant of the similar rocket launcher that also have flame damage.

Corax

Honestly the base damage penetration should be 100% instead. I understand we should have a weapon that could potentially compete with Scorp, but given scorpion itself is frame-deleting powerful, it’s Scorpion that needs to be nerfed, instead of making a weapon that’s just as busted and sell it in Battle Pass.

Squall

Another weapon being nerfed because average Crossout player has a average IQ of room temperature, in Celsius. A secondary weapon that relies on enemy being stupid enough to get rekt shouldn’t be nerfed to begin with.

Epic rarity Walker legs, not just Tengu

While i still believe it’s a logical step (ba dum tiss) to bring walkers into regular match, they’re currently just way too strong, due to their sheer size allowing them to abuse anti-wedge mechanism. All of them needs to have a extremely low limited active count that would requires a Rune module to increase the amount of times their perk can be used.

Extra notes:

Please remove every form of aim assist, and “bind steering to camera”. Walker and Hover players should learn to drive like every other player does.

Also, remove the “anti-wedge” mechanism, since dog builds and walkers are clearly abusing it, and we all know you don’t know how to fix it.

11

Game needs PS match balance when I am 12k should be restricted play with 14k+ happens I am in match with 18-20k WTF!

Nexttime game needs PVE bots have normal epic max legendary weapons to 15k builds. Relic weapons bots should 16k+. Reason? Yeah we look that bots have 200% dmg+. Next problem Retcher bots kill everything on 2 shots delete them that builds are so annoying when player take retcher must shoot 10-12 shots than break the bots weapons. But of course greedy marketing want that players see these weapons and buy it for money and than they find out that have damage like epics or legendary weapons.

Next step should be delete invisibility generators so many cowards use it in game and happens bots immidiately shot other players too sometimes through the walls or hills. Next step what should be step in forward is stop making op sniper and meele weapons in normal world if you crash with car its tottaly end and you are dead or car is totally immobile, sniper weapons in real I have poor relay accuracy at long distances because the wind carries the bullets to other targets and you end up shooting innocently.

Next helicopters need takeoff height restrictions happens bots can´t attack on space objects and surely the real poor are with shotguns against this injustice.

Next step Machine guns, Energy weapons, Autocannons needs more durability happens in pvp confrontation are immidiately destroyed by cannons, snipers or crossbows aimbot players.

Ok i think i write it again what PVE players needs. I have been pointing out these problems for at least 3 years now. If you want more players focus on these problems and make PVE confrontation and separate mods for helicopters and mechs.

12

Game, Game never changes.

13

we just need to revert the matchmaking back to pre-Supercharged era where the lobby actively uses bots to flatten the PS slope into △1000PS per lobby.

1 Like
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Now that we’re discussing balancing patch, I would like to present this case as an addition:
Hammerfall’s perk is garbage in the current meta, even when it sort of favours CQC dog/melee.

What does Hammerfall even do?
What does Hammerfall even do?1920×1074 145 KB

You see, Hammerfall’s perk “disable the enemy’s weapon rotation for 0.5 seconds”, which sounds useful in CQC, right?

inhales

Wrong.

Why would hovers (and other strafing movement parts) require any of the weapon rotation speed when “bind steering to camera” (a.k.a. computer assisted gyro stabilizer) literally turns their entire vehicle including the equipped fixed/frontal/angle-locked guns for them???

Not to mention 0.5 seconds is literally just the average reaction time of a human, by the time the perk wears off, the cannon user can simply resume leading his shorts, while Machine Guns and Autocannons literally couldn’t care less of wasting 0.5 second worth of ammo.

And no, reducing its energy consumption to what it currently is doesn’t help one bit. It will continue to be overshadowed by Split.

What it needs is a steroid level buff on its perk, if not a straight up new perk.

Here’s my proposal:
Hammerfall’s active perk should straight up disable enemy’s weapon by 2 seconds. While it’s more than a single pulse of Daze modules, it needs 100m of movement to charge, and it’s a one-off effect, so the requirement justifies the intensity.
Alternatively, give it the old perk of Typhoon which straight up stun the entire vehicle build by 1 second, which, its charging requirement justifies the strength of this perk.

15

HELL NAW
This perk is busted tbh, combine Cheetah and Bigfoots and you get a stun every 2 seconds, bind your Hammerfalls to RMB and LMB and you’ll really infuriate your opponent as their guns would just not rotate 50% of the time.

Also it throws their aim off. So yeah the perk is insanely good, sheepies just can’t utilize something that isn’t goliath averter avalanche that can eat up 12k damage in CC and still live

1 Like
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This perk is busted tbh, combine Cheetah and Bigfoots and you get a stun every 2 seconds

No lmao, Cheetah only reduce activation time of modules, at least up to before how Targem changed how distance related perks are accumulated (i.e. killing the aggressor cheese, but allow it to earn bonus with active rotors).

Also it throws their aim off. So yeah the perk is insanely good, sheepies just can’t utilize something that isn’t goliath averter avalanche that can eat up 12k damage in CC and still live

So you literally did not read any of the part where I pointed out how 0.5 sec of only disabling weapon rotation is a joke, fantastic. By the time the perk wears off, the cannon user can simply resume leading his shorts, while Machine Guns and Autocannons literally couldn’t care less of wasting 0.5 second worth of ammo.

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Right, i’ve forgot. Even better - i don’t need Cheetah to get 2s perk cooldown and can place something better, like Oyabun or Fin whale.

How?
2s cooldown, 2 Hammerfalls with 0.5s stun = literally 50% of no weapon rotation.

Are you “trolling with stupidity” rn?
You aren’t a robot, so you wouldn’t be able to react on the same frame the perk wears off, you also wouldn’t be able to instantly re-calculate how much you need to turn or when you need to shoot.
Your guns literally stop moving for 0.5s every second, resulting in a jerky movement, you just can’t adapt to that as the perk wouldn’t be at perfect intervals.

18

You know what? Let’s just go to a 1v1 brawl, you pick something like tracked mammoth and i pick something like double satori hammerfalls, i’d want to see how quickly you change your mind on that perk once you actually find someone competent using it and not a random sheepie

19

lmao for real? i’ve been using Hammerfall on my shotgun banana since their energy reduction, and I can tell you that it takes way more than 2 second to recharge. Most of the time you only get it by using light cabin and/or with boosters.

except computer assistance is already a thing and will simply let the gun resume its initial leading speed.

“Hammerfall’s perk is trash” is not some random statement, but my personal field record for months. Only blocking weapon rotation for 0.5 sec does jack shit.

Friendly reminder that Shotgun was giga nerfed by its range long before hit-scan nuke, so the range of Hammerfall still fells within face-hugging range, and that 0.5 sec of blocking weapon rotation ain’t making the enemy miss the target when you’re forced to face-hug your enemy to deal damage anyway.

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Well, i’ve just checked in-game. Pick a light cab (satori in my case) and bigfoots. Circling the enemy reliably produced about 2s of cooldown, if you rebind 1 hammerfall to RMB and 1 hammerfall to LMB you can literally stun once every second. You don’t even have to go in a straight line with thrusters for that

But you need to react to your reticle moving. Still, just making enemy weapons not move at random intervals is extremely annoying and confusing.