[ Mass Testing ] Planned balance changes, January 2026

Discussion
1

Planned balance changes, January 2026

Hello, survivors!

The first balance changes of 2026 are just around the corner! Today we would like to share all the changes planned for the next update, and this weekend you are welcome to the first testing of this year!

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.

Weld points

Updated the weld points for the following parts:

  • ML 200
  • Oppressor
  • Blastoff
  • Golden Eagle
  • Oculus VI
  • Lacerator
  • Hippogriff
  • Prosecutor 76mm
  • Harvester
  • Porcupine

Aims

Implemented translucency for the aims of the following weapons:

  • Jotun
  • Incinerator
  • Mandrake
  • RA-1 Heather
  • Jubokko
  • SD-15 Vulture
  • Yaoguai
  • Compiler
  • B12 Dove
  • Swarm

Comment: this small change will improve the gaming experience and make enemies within the area of effect more noticeable when aiming.

Parts

B-1 Aviator

  • Durability increased from 23 to 51 pts.
  • Heating rate reduced by 39% (to the level of “Hermes”).
  • Fuel reserves increased from 50 to 80 (as that of “Hermes”).
  • Acceleration increased by 10%.

Blastoff

  • Durability increased from 48 to 87 pts.
  • Heating rate reduced by 21% (to the level of “Hermes”).
  • Fuel reserves increased from 65 to 80 (as that of “Hermes”).
  • Acceleration increased by 15%.

Hermes

  • Durability increased from 172 to 216 pts.
  • Acceleration increased by 20%.

Comment on boosters: boosters in their current form have too low durability. We have increased it to the maximum possible for modules of this level without additionally increasing their mass. Changes to heating speed and fuel reserves will allow the player to comfortably combine boosters of different rarities. Additional acceleration will also increase the relevance of these modules.

“Trigger” and “Destructor”

Increased parts heating rate by 2 times.

Comment: an unpopular line of weapons. Increased heating speed will improve the efficiency of targeting a single part.

Growl

  • Maximum speed reduced from 101 to 98 km/h.
  • Tonnage reduced from 3000 to 2700 kg.
  • Increased the effect of mass on acceleration.

Comment: the cabin stands out significantly for its efficiency compared to all cabins below epic rarity.

Enlightenment

  • The beacon now affects not only the targeted enemy, but also other opponents within a 60 m radius.
  • Durability increased from 112 to 173 pts.
  • Increased the projectile’s maneuverability.
  • Increased the mounting limit from 1 to 2 pcs.
  • Increased the beacon’s lifetime from 8 to 12 sec.

Comment: an unpopular weapon. Making it affect an area will help raise its tactical potential, while the other changes are aimed at improving its overall efficiency.

Snowfall

Changed perk: “If there are 2 or more enemy armoured cars within a 40 m radius, the damage of the rocket launcher increases by 50%”.

Comment: low efficiency of the rocket launcher and its perk.

Blight

Bonus to heating from flamethrowers and fire puddles increased from 0.5% to 1%.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk.

Meat Grinder

  • Speed increased from 60 to 70 km/h.
  • PS reduced from 850 to 720.
  • Maximum perk bonuses are now gained at a mass of 20,000 kg.
  • Maximum bonus to stability reduced from 125% to 100%.

Comment: in its current form, the movement part is only used with heavy cabins and in high PS builds. These changes should make the “Meat Grinder” more popular with medium cabins and at lower PS levels.

MVP Torpedo

  • Damage resistance to ram damage increased from 20% to 35%.
  • Damage that is let through increased from 35% to 50%.

Comment: low survivability of the movement part in combat.

Starter

  • Energy drain reduced from 2 to 1.
  • PS reduced from 270 to 135.

Comment: low influence of the module on weapon efficiency. The change will make the module’s energy drain more reasonable.

Shredder

  • Energy drain reduced from 12 to 11.
  • PS reduced from 2400 to 2200.
  • Penetration ability increased from 60% to 100%.

Comment: low efficiency of the shotgun. Reduced energy drain will allow for more modules that significantly boost the efficiency of shotguns. One hundred percent penetration ability will eliminate unnecessary damage loss when playing around the perk.

RA-1 Heather

  • Maximum reload speed perk bonus increased from 30% to 65%.
  • Mass reduced from 2070 to 1656 kg.
  • Turning speed increased by 33%.

Mandrake

Durability increased from 689 to 918 pts.

Сomment on artillery: the changes are aimed at increasing the difference in the parameters and gameplay of these weapons.

BC-17 Tsunami

  • The perk now increases damage by 15% (instead of 30% previously), but stacks up to three times.
  • Bonus accumulation time reduced from 2 to 1 sec.
  • Perk’s cooldown reduced from 12 to 8 sec.
  • The speed limit at which the perk stops accumulating increased from 15 to 25 km/h.

Comment: the perk’s rebalance should make the weapon more relevant due to more frequent activation and a larger maximum bonus.

Squall

  • Reload time increased from 16 to 20 sec.
  • Reload time perk bonus reduced from 50% to 40%.

Comment: increased reload time will reduce the frequency of “Squall” use, keeping it relevant as a secondary weapon.

Mars

  • Weapons damage bonus for the player’s armoured car when the perk is active increased from 20% to 40%.
  • The perk now increases the damage that the armoured car takes by 20%.

Yokozuna

  • Power bonus for the player’s armoured car when the perk is active increased from 135% to 200%.
  • Maximum speed bonus for the player’s armoured car when the perk is active increased from 15% to 40%.
  • The perk now reduces the damage that the player deals by 25%

Cohort

  • Damage protection bonus for the player’s armoured car when the perk is active increased from 30% to 70%.
  • The perk now decreases the power and maximum speed of the armoured car by 40%.

Comment on cabins: the changes to the perks of “Cohort”, “Mars” and “Yokozuna” are aimed to highlight the intended gameplay of these cabins and raise their efficiency. It is important to note that only the player receives the aforementioned bonuses, while the effects for allies stayed the same.

Machinist

Maximum bonus to weapon durability increased from 40% to 60%.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk.

BWC Warrior

  • Permanent speed bonus in the first mode increased from 5% to 10%, and the additional speed bonus reduced from 15% to 10%.
  • Permanent power bonus in the first mode increased from 10% to 20%, and the additional power bonus reduced from 30% to 20%.
  • Permanent damage bonus in the second mode increased from 5% to 10%, and the additional damage bonus reduced from 15% to 10%.
  • Additional bonuses’ duration reduced from 10 to 8 sec.

Comment: low efficiency of the cabin. The change reverses the latest changes to the perk, which are irrelevant in the current situation. A slight reduction in duration is necessary to keep the perk’s efficiency within acceptable limits.

Master

The effect of mass on acceleration significantly reduced.

Comment: the speed of the cabin (relative to other medium cabins) is significantly reduced as the mass of the armoured car increases.

Kronos

  • The perk charge now restores 50% durability (instead of 30% previously).
  • The time required to accumulate a full charge remains unchanged.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk for a legendary cabin.

Nox

The decrease to the rate at which the “Scorpion” projectiles lose damage when the perk is activated reduced from 35% to 25%.

Comment: too high efficiency when combined with the “Scorpion”.

Pegasus

The perk now reduces the total power penalty more significantly.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk on armoured cars with a high power penalty.

“Falcon” co-driver

  • The talent now charges in 2 sec. (instead of 3 sec. previously).
  • The talent now increases damage by 20% (instead of 15% previously).
  • The passive bonus to enemy detection radius increased from 10% to 25%.

Comment: an unpopular co-driver whose talent is activated less often than others’.

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, January 16, 2026: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Saturday, January 17, 2026: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Sunday, January 18, 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.

2 Likes
2

I like alot of these changes.

Excellent! Destructors were my first “serious” weapon and I still love using them.

The only people who use this seem to be myself and another Bedlam regular. They’re great for shooting at people when you don’t really want to cause damage. Can’t wait to be able to mount a second one!

My incinerator copter will be even better!

My Battle Owl walker will love this! I can add another Seal so the guns shoot for a longer time.

Regardless of the buff(s), it’s very difficult to use a Heather in any mode except Bedlam. I haven’t encountered it being used anywhere else, except for the drone apocalypse. If your enemy refuses to sit still while you’re aiming, it’s useless.

Not sure if this is a buff or a nerf until I try it out.

3

A lot of nothingburger changes for the most part, and reading every change supposed to make a part more popular/used does not really make me feel like suddenly starting to use them

Probably most to look forward to in this balance thingy is the welding points and hope that not too many of your builds get broken if the points are moved around too much

Snowfall change, I would be pissed if I owned/used any. Possibly most excited about Heather and Pegasus changes. Toning down NoxScorphovers, meh at this point every noxscorphover player is already running Thoraxhovers. Trigger and destructor, I don’t think it’s unpopular because it’s bad, they’re still quite good on the few players I see playing with them, people just have newer shinier toy to play with, which are also easier to use. But I could probably name A LOT of more unpopular weapons than the Trigger/Destructor line

That whole Mars/Cohort/Yokozuna stuff isn’t really speaking to me, not running these parts now and most likely won’t after the change. The Mars and Cohort kinda make more sense, but the whole Yokozuna thing, less damage when you most need it, only times I make use of the Yokozuna perk is when I am trying to chase after fast(hover) builds so I can hit them with my guns, not when running away (too slow to do that) and then I just switch to a better(faster) cabin and also gain extra energy to use.

falcon unpopular
lol, lmao even

4

ummm are you joking?
its bad enough that bots can easily melt you with these and now they are making it easier for them to melt you even more.
also unpopular? goes to show the devs dont play BFU or clan wars…

well there goes my fast growl trigger build… :roll_eyes:

OOF!! thats a huge loss to every yokozuna build out there. a 25% damage reduction is really hefty…

the problem with this weapon in particular is that you need to hit the opponent dead on to do any significant damage where as with the mandrake you dont NEED to land a direct hit. i think this weapon should have a large aoe much like the mandrake does. its a fricken silo of missiles that explode violently upon impact! why wouldnt they have an aoe?

im surprised they didnt give the athena more damage, a shiny coat of paint and a 10 drum magazine because its “unpopular”. :rofl:

1 Like
5

Huge Difference from Trigger to Destructor…
Triggers I found very bad, so a buff is good.
But Destructors?? One of the most op weapons I’ve had to deal with since i started playing lol… But idc, it doesn’t seem like a big buff.
But it wasn’t unpopular. I saw them used every week.

My Boy! :tired_face::tired_face:
Growl had it coming, but it’s gonna be annoying fixing or rebuilding my few low ps builds…

More damage is great? But tbh I just wanted them to have less drop, so it could be used easier at ranges above 40m :sweat_smile:
Potentially gonna be op as heck tho? Either way i’ll probably use mine again.

happy about this.
Meatgrinders do damage yes, but are soo slow and weak lol… I stopped using them in pvp long ago.
More speed is actually a pretty good change.

such a small buff, hard to even call it a buff really.
Getting rammed is rarely the issue, but i’ll take 35%
As for… Damage let through… Personally I don’t like that. Because your ammo, generator etc are usually under there lol. But it’s not a problem, i’m not upset.
I’d just have preferred more Durability. Like 200 .

Now I can actually try to use the Darn thing lol :crazy_face:

Hopefully this buff will help.
But i never really understood the penetration from shotguns, or even mg’s. The dmg is so low, it’ll only do a tiny bit of damage if it breaks a part and the shot continues. My understanding.

I’m kinda upset about both of these NERFS.
Mars, take more damage. Yes the extra percentage in damage is nice but i don’t want to take extra damage.
Yokozuna might be worse tho… I already stopped using my yokozuna cab, but now??? Do less damage seems like a turn off…
I’ll of course try it out when we can.

I kinda expected a longer list of Balance changes.
Seems short idk.

6

right?
25% damage nerf is a huge nerf just to gain some speed and power. that being said to, its a HEAVY CABIN… they arent meant to go very fast so whats the speed and power boost going to do to you? fast, lightweight builds and cabins will still dance around you like a ballerina shooting off your guns. meanwhile your doing 25% less damage over a tiny boost.