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Hey everyone! It's been a week since DINO MERCS exited early access. It's been an exciting time and there's still more to come! If you've played the game, thank you so much! It means a lot to me (Tim, the dev) that you would spend your time playing my game. In this post, I'd like to give everyone an update about what's upcoming:

Balancing the Game

Improving Events

New Cards

Attention all mercenaries! The long-awaited release of DINO MERCS is finally here, unleashing its full glory on Steam! Strap into your boots and join the ranks of Dark Solar Defense to unleash your inner DINO MERC a battle-hardened veteran ready for action. With four unique characters, each boasting their own skill set, you'll be equipped to wreak havoc on fascist forces like never before. But here's the twist: victory isn't just about brute strength. Master the Card Positioning System to outmaneuver your foes and strategically play your cards to evade chaos. As you build a deck that strikes terror into the hearts of rival mercenaries, remember: you don't just play your cards but the enemies as well. Be careful not to sabotage yourself in the heat of battle! So grab your gear, rally your comrades, and remember: In the chaotic dance of battle it's not just survival, but domination, that defines a true mercenary.

I've got some fixes, adjustments, balancing, etc.! Hopefully these tweaks all improve the gameplay experience. There are still a number of things I'm experimenting with, and should be able to release those soon! - Smaller band of effect levels: +3x <-> -2x - Add "none" slot in the middle - Modified damage profiles, but I will likely continue to revisit these - Fixes for Armor Bash & Energy Lash cards - Greatly increase bleeding and toxic gas damage - Increase (double) the effects of all status cards (panicked, dazed, etc.) - Lower all max stats, give characters and enemies lower max defensive stats overall - You now start runs with only 250 supplies to spend - Double cost of removing cards from deck, cost increases by +500 supplies each time to remove a card - Increase the cost of all cards (+250), and fix some card costs that didn't match rarities

Get ready for the BIG BANG! Were transitioning from early access to full release on 12th of March, 2024! Whether you're a battle-hardened mercenary or a green bean recruit, DINO MERCS is sure to leave you in awe! But before we unleash the mayhem, we've got some bug stomping and meat munching to do. Gotta get that primal vibe going, right? Ha! So sharpen those claws and chomp on that raw meatit's gonna be a wild ride! Now, let's talk about what's crackin':

• Strategic deckbuilding: Beef up your deck after each round to outsmart rival mercs.
• Tactical card play: Utilize your and opponent's cards for maximum impact and tactical terror.
• Four unique characters: Each with their own special skills, strengths, and weaknesses for diverse gameplay.
• Multiple runs: Test your mercenary skills against various difficulties and enemies.
• Highscore chase: Dive into an arcade-style, endless mode with escalating levels of challenge where the stakes are high and glory is eternal.

I've fixed another handful of things! - Changed Armored Division card to buff character's Max Armor instead of Aim - Fixed Tank Boss title (had wrong affiliation) - Fixed a Hot Zone description that was messing up the typing effect - Dramatically increased the speed text is typed out, sorry it was so slow before! - Fix the render order of the menu on the combat rewards store, so you can actually use it now Next up: I'm going to be doing quite a bit of balance changes. In particular, the power level of enemies and cards will increase at a slower rate, so things don't get so wild so quickly. If you have any thoughts on anything that seems out of balance, please let me know! -Tim, the Dev

Various players were experiencing some issues that I've now fixed! If you come across anything else, please let me know and I'll fix it asap. If you haven't played the game in a long time (several months or more), your save file may be incompatible. I had to make some breaking changes to save files a while back. So if you are playing for the first time in a long time, and get stuck on the "Unnusual Undertaking" splash screen, you may need to delete your save file or reinstall the game. I'm very sorry about that! I try to avoid this kind of thing but at a couple points during Early Access, the game data changed dramatically, meaning old save data was simply incompatible. Anyways, here's what I fixed:

• Sometimes the Utahraptor character loaded in, but was really tiny. It's normal sized now.
• The BSC Trooper enemy was invisible. It wasn't suppose to have those powers. It doesn't anymore.
• On some save files, clicking on operation event nodes didn't work. It should work now.
• For some players, Hot Zones that triggered combat events loaded you into combat encounters where the cards were never dealt. This is fixed too!
• There were some issues with achievements unlocking even if you didn't accomplish what was required. Now achievements should only unlock if you earn them. (if this doesn't happen, let me know exxactly what achievement unlocked incorrectly)

I know it's been a long time since I've given an update, sorry about that! Well, today I have big news: all the changes, fixes, and polish that have been simmering on the beta/test branch of DINO MERCS are now fully available to all players! This is the last *big* update before leaving early access. So there will be bugs, balance issues, and lack of polish in some areas. Please be patient with me while I clean everything up! From here on, you can expect a number of small patches and improvements. There are a ton of changes in this update. Like, I lost track of all of them. Here's a bunch of them:

• Combat encounter modifiers to make battles more interesting. Extra cover, sandstorms, sweltering heat, and more!
• Curated card pools for each playable character.
• Enhanced and refined status cards.
• Card art for just about every single card in the game!
• Attack animations for most characters (more on the way!)
• Controller support is almost 100% there, just a few bugs and inconveniences to fix.
• Attack and defense cards, cover, dodge, stealth all scale up in power as you survive more sectors.
• Lots more achievements to unlock!
• More Hot Zone and Scavenger events.
• UI improvements and reskin
• Some powerful attack cards now also impart status effects
• And a lot more that I can't remember right now...

Got a patch for the latest version of DINO MERCS! Includes these fixes and polishing:

• Fixed an issue where some common cards weren't unlocked by default, causing a bug on the unlocks screen.
• Fixed an issue where some stat cards were not being included in Simulated Combat, resulting in some cases where card descriptions were not 100% accurate.
• Fixed an issue where card descriptions sometimes had wording like "Aim + -12". Now it will be "Aim - 12".
• Massively buffed Support card passive effects since max stats are so much higher now.
• When you remove a Support card from your deck, the passive effect is now disabled.
• Adjusted and balanced the ramping up of Card Slot Effect Levels.
• Fixed broken Mecha-Styracosaurus character asset.
• Fixed a case of broken art on an enemy card.
• Fixed an issue with bonuses to Enemy HP/Shield/Armor not being applied as a run progressed.
• Fixed some UI issues with stat modules.

Early Access Release v4.1.0 is live on Steam!

Notable changes:

Simulated Combat!

Combat Log

Lots of Balancing

A Bunch of Bug Fixes

Upcoming

• Add in backgrounds variants
• Another slight UI overhaul
• Controller support
• Leaderboard
• Finish all card art
• More balance fixes
• Add the rest of the achievements
• Add that one boss that's missing
• Add attack animations

New patch out! - There were some issues with how stat bars for the player and enemy were being initialized and/or updated at the beginning of combat encounters, leading to occasional situations where cards wouldn't be drawn. A few players reported this issue to me, and after this fix, I haven't experienced it again. But, please let me know if it reappears! - Ensure that enemy cards aren't added to the player deck in instances where you might retreat during the enemy turn or the enemy dies during their turn (e.g. bleeding damage). - Some minor UI polish for stat bars Next up, I'm working on a big balance patch that should make playing the game more enjoyable and smoother overall. Thanks everyone for being patient with me as I fix these various issues and work on polishing the game! -Tim (the dev)

2 patches in 1 day! Around 10 bugs down, probably around 200 more bugs to go... This month you'll see a lot of these patches. Again, a big thank you to anyone who finds a bug and reports it via Steam or Discord. It helps me a ton! Working solo on this project means that even if I do a ton of play-testing, I'll likely miss at least a few bugs every time. Here's what I fixed in this patch: - Potential fix for an issue where status cards persist in your deck after a combat encounter, leading to strange bugs and possible soft-locking. I say "potential" because I personally haven't encountered this bug (it was reported by a player), but I did see a possible issue in the code that I patched. - Red Geyser, Scare to Death, and Blindsided cards now add 2 status cards to enemy deck, instead of 1. - Made Primal Regeneration card description a bit easier to understand, it was kinda confusing. - Panicked tooltip text mentioned Enraged status instead of Panicked status. - Add back in tooltips for static cards (cards in card reward store, view deck overlay, etc.) - More fixes for Smoke status card descriptions - Some players have reported issues with tabbing out of the game and tabbing back in causing soft-locking. I added a potential fix that allows the game to continue running in the background. I'll need to do more testing to ensure that this has actually been fixed. - Fix a bug where you could keep removing cards from your deck even though you couldn't afford it. - Flush Out card had a white box where the art should be. I added a placeholder image for now (still need to finish all the card art!). - Unlocks page pagination had an incorrect pagination label, was showing an incorrect total page count. That's it for now! - Tim (the dev)

Got a few fixes for some things! You can expect quite a few patches over the next few weeks as I fix and clean up things and work on balancing the game. - Potential fix for a soft-locking bug that occurs after status cards are played - Fix bug where the code was trying to remove cards from card pool twice upon purchase - Fix incorrect description on enemy smoke grenade status card - Updated credits, was missing someone

Early Access release version 4.0.0 is live for all players on Steam! This is another HUGE update. As always with updates this size, there will be bugs, balance issues, and broken things. If you have any issues, please let me know here on Steam or, even better, on the DINO MERCS discord. This update introduces a brand-new character: EPHEMERYS!
Ephemerys is a stealthy close quarters assassin who prefers to strike from the shadows. She utilizes the new Stealth stat to quickly dispatch enemies. A number of brand-new cards have been added that give you Stealth, and use Stealth to land deadly blows. BOSSES have also been added!
Bosses are encountered every 20 sectors and will seriously test your survivability. They get access to some of the most deadly cards in the game and provide a hefty challenge to various play styles. Currently, there are two bosses, with more coming soon! Here's a full list of everything that's been added, changed, and/or fixed in this update: - New: a brand new playable character - Ephemerys. She uses Stealth to avoid damage and land lethal blows on her enemies. - New: Stealth - this stat reduces damage taken (prevents most damage if playing as Ephemerys), but once you attack, you lose all your stealth points. Use Stealth points to power up deadly Stealth attack cards. - New: Stealth cards! - New: new faction of enemies - Fascists! The Fascists field mechanical units and heavily armored vehicles to deadly effect. Try not to die. - New: Bosses - extra-deadly enemies that will test your deck and skills to the max. They appear every 20 Sectors, so be prepared! - New: Card Slots have been totally reworked. Instead of Weak/Average/Deadly and Positive/Negative, slots are assigned a multiplier based on how far into a run youve progressed. For example, a slot might power up (or power down) the effects of a card by 2x or by -2x. This should help remove some of the guesswork involved in positioning cards and make things simply easier to reason about in general. A big thank you to DINO MERCs community manager, Strateture, for the inspiration behind this change. - New: Since Card Slots work differently now, I reworked every card in the game again. Expect a lot of upcoming balancing fixes. Things might be a little rough around the edges for a number of cards. - Change: environmental damage from Operation Events is significantly reduced and is handled like combat damage (i.e. affects shield, then armor, then HP) - Change: increase every playable character's starting Shield/Armor/HP - Change: I thought have smaller numbers would help make things more strategic. Instead, it (personally) feels like small numbers are less fun, more difficult to balance, and appear to be less powerful. So Im basically doubling every number (damage, stats, etc.) - Change: cost of unlocking a new character is now 7, instead of 5. - Change: player is rewarded 1 unlock point for every 2 sectors completed (rounded up, increased from every 3 sectors completed) - Change: increase width of tooltips to prevent tooltips that are way too tall - Bugfix: add in score details to Mission Complete screen What's next? I'm getting close to the end of Early Access - I'm specifically aiming to have the game finished before Christmas-time/late December. I'm focusing on lots of balance fixes, getting rid of all the bugs, and introducing various quality-of-life changes. There won't be much more new content at this point before the game leaves early access (you can expect another character, another boss, and some new cards at the very least!) since I want to focus on getting the game really polished. I'll have more updates to share soon. In the meantime, have a spooky October! - Tim (the dev)

Got a handful of fixes! Thanks for reporting fixes on the discord server and here on Steam, it's been super helpful. I've got a bunch of other fixes in the works as well. I'm in the process of reworking card slot effect modifiers, a change that should help simplify everything and improve the gameplay experience. In addition to that, I'll be improving status cards. Some cards produce way too many of them, and they can have an outsized impact (negatively) sometimes. Here's what this patch includes: - UI: add a note on unlocks page explaining how unlock points are gained - Bugfix: fix Enemy Headshot, Cruel Blade cards, they dealt damage to enemy instead of player - Bugfix: fix enemy and player Blazing Sun cards, in weak slots they imparted Enraged status cards instead of Overheated status cards - Bugfix: game could soft-lock around combat encounter three, due to some average/deadly enemies lacking an attribute needed for combat encounters - Bugfix: the last screen of the tutorial disappeared again. I dont know why. I added it back in. Hopefully it stays this time.

Got another patch released for v3! I'm still hunting down some hard-to-reproduce bugs. If you happen to encounter anything that doesn't seem right, please let me know here on Steam or even better, on the DINO MERCS discord server! The more details you can share, the better! Thanks in advance :) Here's what was changed and fixed: - New: Add option to Retreat from standard (non-Merc Killer) combat encounters - no rewards gained if you retreat - Bugfix: Fix Character Unlocks - T.Rex/Triceratops - Bugfix: Fix issue where if enemy has the first turn due to higher speed, the round would end after their turn finishes. Now rounds are always 2 turns - Bugfix: Hide "unreleased" stat STL from stat section - Bugfix: fix enemy CHOMP card, card effects were reversed - Bugfix: fix uncommon attack card negative effect modifiers Upcoming: - I'm going to be reworking how Card Slots work - More bug fixes - Thinking through a better way to do events/lore/narrative Thanks everyone for playing DINO MERCS and being a part of this Early Access journey. I've got lots of things in the works, excited to share it with y'all. - Tim, the dev

Hey everyone - got a small patch to address some bugs: - Fixes broken tutorial screen - Fixes Auto Pistols - had Rare styling / cost, but it's a common card - Fix "View Deck" functionality on Combat Rewards Store I'll be continuing to make some fixes to cards that don't have correct effects in some card positions, plus I'm working on some balance fixes. I just got home from some traveling, so will be fully back to working on fixes and new content in the next couple of days. Thanks and hope you enjoy the new update! -Tim, the dev

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Today is the day for releasing v3.0.0!
It's a huge update, so first off: There are an enormous amount of changes in this update, so you should expect some bugs, balance issues, and various rough edges. If you encounter anything that doesn't seem right or anything that doesn't feel well-balanced, please join the discord server and tell me or leave a comment here on Steam! Also - since there were so many changes, save files had to be wiped. All the cards are brand new and/or reworked, plus there's a new unlock system. So, overall, it made sense to have save files reset and wiped clean. I know it's a bummer to lose all your progress, so I'll do my absolute best to make this a one-time thing. I was able to do some upgrades to the save system, so this won't have to happen again. Anyways, here's the actual notes on the release! - New: New Stats! Aim, Strength, Speed, Cover, Dodge, and one more that will be revealed in the near future. - New: No more Statuses! They have been cut for more focused, dynamic gameplay. - New: Status cards. So, I kinda lied. Statuses are still in the game. But now they exist as cards. Now that they are cards, they will have more immediate effects as opposed to imparting passive modifiers. - New: Simplified damage types. No more Plus damage types. Basic damage types now have a damage profile of 2x damage against the defense stat they are effective against, 1x against everything else. Special damage types have a damage profile of 3x damage/1x damage. The goal is to make attack cards more "situational". Some powerful attack cards were far too powerful in all situations. - New: Explosive damage has a profile of 1.5x against everything, but cards that deal explosive damage are less common. - New: enemies now have decks of cards that they draw from. This should hopefully result in slightly less predicable enemy turns. - New: enemy stats and cards have been totally reworked. - New: Support cards have been reworked from the ground up. They no longer have any effect when played. Instead, they impart passive effects, such as boosting all max stat values. - New: Battery now gains double the passive bonuses of Support cards. - New: Birtie-Rae (T. Rex) no longer has Primal Fury cards. Now, she gains additional bonuses from Enraged status cards. - New: lots of new cards, plus more Legend cards. - New: totally new card unlock system that allows for more freedom to unlock exactly the cards you want. - Balance: Defense maximum stats (Shield, Armor, HP) have all been lowered. The goal is to make enemies/player feel less like damage sponges and to make battles feel more decisive and strategic. - Balance: nerf Hyper Death Spine Blade legend card, now imparts a flat +7 damage increase instead of +300% Expect plenty more patches, updates, and more over the next week or so! And, I'll also be posting more about what's upcoming soon!

Hey everyone, got a couple of news items to share: First off, a playable Beta for upcoming release v3.0.0 is available to playtest! This is a huge update that includes a rework of every single card in the game, new cards, new Legends, new enemy decks, new Stats system, and more. I plan to release it to everyone during the Strategy Fest, but I want the Beta to get a little bit more testing before that happens. Since I'm a solo developer, it helps to get some extra eyes on a release before I make it live to the public, so all (or at least, most) of those pesky bugs can be put down. Fair warning: there will be a number of bugs and balance issues. I'm actively working on fixing them, but any additional help finding issues is deeply appreciated.
If you don't know how to access a beta on Steam: right-click on the game, go to "Properties", then "Betas", and then select "testing" from the list of branches/betas to play. That will allow you to launch the game with the correct version. You'll know it worked because the title of the game in your steam library will look like "DINO MERCS [testing]". If you do any play-testing, thank you! It means a lot to me. Please feel free to report any bugs, balance issues, and any feedback you have here on Steam (discussions or on this post), or even better, join the discord server! (a link can be found on the Start screen of the game) Second, DINO MERCS is a part of Steam's Strategy Fest, as mentioned above. It's 25% off too! That's it for now. I'll have a lot more to share when I do the full release of v3.0.0.

DINO MERCS will be part of Steam's Strategy Fest! Check out the game, along with a number of incredible games, including some friends of DINO MERCS.
I'm working really hard on Early Access update v3.0.0 and plan to release that in the next couple of days, assuming I can get everything at least slightly smoothed out by then. I've reworked every single card in the game, added a new stats system, given enemies their own unique decks of cards, a new unlock system, and lots more. There's now over 150 cards in the game! All of this also means that I have to do a ton of work to make sure everything is balanced and playable. Possibly tomorrow or the day after that, I'll be releasing a playable beta via Steam. So if you'd like to help with playtesting, keep an eye out for that!

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Hey everyone! A new update is long overdue, so Im very pleased to announce that Im releasing v2.0.0 of DINO MERCS today.
This new release has a ton packed into it. Lets do a tour of the new features: NEW UI The UI has been refreshed to better match the overall art direction of the game and to help improve the experience of Operations and Combat. Also, I was able to make all the Dinosaur characters larger, something that I get requests for often!
Operations now function differently - theres no longer a StS-style map to traverse. Hopefully, the new way Operations work feels fresh and dynamic (let me know your thoughts!). New Game Mode - MISSIONS Theres now a new way to play DINO MERCS. Previously, the only way you could play was endless, arcade-style runs. Now, you can play through objective-based runs called Missions! Missions allow for shorter, more focused play-throughs of the game with a goal in mind. Right now, there are three types of missions: Scavenge Missions (collect supplies), Slayer Missions (defeat a certain number of enemies), and Merc Killer Missions (hunt down a certain Merc Killer).
Each Mission has five levels to beat. As you complete levels and replay the Mission, modifiers are applied to you or the enemy, making the Mission either easier or harder to beat. Over the next week or two, Ill release new Steam Achievements corresponding to each Mission and their levels. Get ready to unlock those!
No More Base Defense I also took something out of the game - Base Defense. Base Defense instances have, for a long time, been the weakest area of the game. I tried really hard to improve them, but the more I tried the more I realized that it was a big time sink with a poor return on investment. Which means no more Base Defense. Who knows, maybe Ill revisit this aspect of the game later down the road and add it back into the game. But for now, the removal of Base Defense has improved the flow of the game and has made it overall more fun (in my personal opinion). Now, Ill be able to spend more of my time making the stronger aspects of the game even better! Let Me Know What You Think! As you play the new release, please let me know your thoughts. I would love to hear from players what works and what doesnt work so I can make the game even better. If you encounter any bugs, also let me know so I can fix them ASAP. To give me feedback or bug reports, please join the Discord Server or post in the game discussions here on Steam. Thank you for playing DINO MERCS! It means so much to me. A Sneak Peek If youre still reading this, you get to hear a little bit about what Im working on next. There will be a lot of changes coming. In particular Ill be working on three big things:

• Overhauling nearly every card in the game (and adding new ones!)
• Introducing Stats v2
• Introducing Card Mutations

Fixes a game-breaking bug encountered when facing the Berserker Commander Merc Killer (cards wouldn't be dealt, and the game would soft-lock). Sorry I let that one slip through!

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Hi everyone! I thought I would post an update to give everyone an idea of how development is continuing along. Life has been on the wild side for me (Tim, the dev). I got very sick a few weeks ago, had family and friends visit from out of the country, and multiple family members are experiencing serious health issues. So long story short, I've been far less productive than usual. I've decided to delay the release of the new UI updates to June instead of releasing those changes last month (May, when they were planned). It turns out the UI updates and the new Game Mode that is planned for release in June are very tightly linked together, and it would be somewhat difficult to release one without the other. So by the end of June, I'll release both together! Thanks, everyone, for being patient with me, as life has been more difficult than normal. Soon I'll be back to normal productivity levels, and you'll be able to try out some updates to the game! In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks of the new look and the new game mode:
Why does the game need a revised UI? Well, one thing I've found is that the art direction of the game UI looks very different from the art direction of the card art. One of the goals of revamping the UI is to make the overall art direction of the game much more cohesive.
Above is some concept art of the new "Mission Overview" screen, the general hub for choosing encounters. With the new UI and Game Mode, the various enemy merc factions play a much bigger role. Whether or not your base is attacked is determined by how much you've pissed off a particular enemy PMC. This should make runs feel more dynamic and add an extra level of strategy.
The new game mode is based on shorter "Missions". They are objective-based runs that end once you reach the mission goal or are defeated by your enemies. Missions will allow players to play the game in more "bite-sized" chunks, as opposed to the longer Endless mode (which will still be playable!)
Each Mission will have 5 stages that get increasingly more challenging. Enemies and cards will increase in power, and modifiers will change how certain stats and statuses work. The aim is for each mission to feel unique and challenging in interesting ways. That's it for now, I can't wait to share with you all more about these upcoming changes!

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Hello everyone! I want to give everyone following the game here on Steam an overview of the development plan for Early Access. During each month of Early Access, I'll be actively fixing bugs, fine-tuning the game's balance, generally polishing everything up, and addressing player feedback. But, each month, I'll be focused on one particular thing: May - I'll be working on a totally new version of Operations/Sectors. I'll focus on improving the game's flow, pacing, and better meta-progression. Along with this, I'll be updating the UI in various places. June - After Operations and Sectors have been overhauled, I'll introduce a new way to play the game. This new game mode will allow players to play the game in shorter sessions (30 mins to 1 hour) that link together into one longer "run." This new game mode will exist alongside the current "endless" style mode. July - I'll introduce the concept of Card Mutations! This new mechanic will allow players to upgrade and/or modify cards to better suit their decks. Want to make a card more powerful? You can do that with mutations. Want to make a card something totally different? You can also do that with mutations! In addition to mutations, I'll also be adding new cards to the game, including more Legend cards! August - I'll introduce a new type of enemy: BOSSES! These Mercs will be even more powerful than Merc Killers and will be encountered only after you have had a good chance to level up your deck. In addition, I'll add in more regular enemies and Merc Killers to fight along the way. September - To compete against these new enemies, two new playable characters will be introduced. Their identities and unique abilities will be kept secret for now. I'm excited to see what players think of them! October - During this month, I'll be working on making the game more available to a wider range of players (more languages) and making it more playable on more devices (Steam deck support!). November - Finally, I'll add Leaderboards for the endless mode so players can compete to see who can get the highest score in the world! Along with this, I'll be doing a lot of final fine-tuning and general game polish. December - DINO MERCS will exit Early Access with version 2.0.0! Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this epic game dev journey called Early Access. I hope to see you more along the way!

Here are the patch notes for version 1.2.0! This update should help fix a number of bugs and it should also help speed up base defense and make it more of an interesting challenge overall. Also, a few balance fixes have been introduced for overpowered and underpowered elements of the game. Game Balance - Buff Nearly Overrun, nerf Rally - Decrease the number of rounds a Base Defense instance lasts - Increase Base Attacker damage - Primal Fury decreases by 75% after Combat Encounters finish (this will change if it's too big of a nerf, right now, Primal Fury is far too broken/OP in the mid-late game) - Buff Laser Array and Automated Turrets base defender cards (they now grant more max anti-air/ground) Bug Squashing - Potential fix for soft locking that *sometimes* happens after a base defense instance (I personally can't reproduce this bug, but 2 players have reported it. I'm still investigating this one) - Improve logic and saving of total sectors complete to avoid bugs related to unlocking cards based on sectors completed - Fix formatting of Rally generic tooltip info text - Fix formatting of damage type on Tail Lash weak negative slot description - Fix Slice and Dice card tooltip (was showing In Cover instead of Bleeding in info text) - Fix an issue where cards that used a method that decremented active statuses could decrease stats below 0 - Fix formatting of Laser Array card tooltip info text - Check for unlocks on unlocks page

Hi everyone! It's been a very busy and exciting past several days with the Early Access release. First, a big thank you to everyone who bought and played the game! As a first-time game dev building the game solo, I appreciate it very much. I've been hard at work improving the game and making it more fun to play. This update should fix a number of things, but the two most important are: - TOOLTIPS! They should be way less annoying now. - Enemy balance - enemies are less of damage sponges/tanks now, so combat encounters should move along a bit quicker. There's still a lot to do in the area of game balance, so I'll keep working on improving this! Also - thank you to everyone who has reported bugs and given feedback. If you'd like to talk to me directly about the game, please feel free to join the discord community! There's still much more to do during Early Access, so thank you in advance for your patience as I keep working on improving the game. I'll be posting some information about the upcoming dev schedule for Early Access, so keep an eye out for that. There's a lot more, here are all the patch notes: General Game Improvements - Improve logic around setting slot effect levels/headers Game Balance - Change T-rex/Allosaurus/Triceratops playable character initial stats for more variety and balance - Carnotaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (lower defense stats, raise attack) - Corythosaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (lower defense stats, raise attack) - Protoceratops: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (lower defense stats, raise attack) - Pachycephalosaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (lower defense stats, raise attack) - Velociraptor: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (lower defense stats, raise attack) - Rapid Assault now deals moderate Kinetic Plus damage - Cryolophosaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack - Gallimimus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (increase shield, decrease armored/HP) - Styracosaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (HP/armored increase, shield decrease, more attack) - Camarasaurus: balancing changes to defense, stats, and attack (HP/armored increase, shield decrease, more attack options) - Carcharodontosaurus balancing and card changes (mostly buffs) - Diabloceratops balancing (lower shield/armored, raise HP/attack) - Dilophosaurus balancing (lower defense stats, increase damage dealing options) - Gigantoraptor balancing (lower shield/armored, increase HP/attack) - Kentrosaurus balancing (lower attack a bit, remove initial killing machine, improve attack options) - Minotaurasaurus balancing (lower shield, raise armored/HP, lower max armored, improve attack/attack options) - Nerf BATTERY's max armored (250 -> 150), was resulting in massively OP armored crush attacks - Nerf Negative Base Status attack cards, reduce the quantity encountered per wave of attackers UI Improvements - Totally new tooltip system, should be much better than previous tooltip system - Improve messaging regarding starting character stats on the character select screen Bug Squashing - Fix typo on Danger Warning - Fix non-integers on Biological Escalation card description - Fix soft-locking Sector map bugs when exiting out of a combat encounter or base defense instance before it ends - Fix incorrect calculations happening when applying status effects to attack damage (panicked, dazed) - Fix some possible bugs with challenges not unlocking when enemy has x of certain statuses

Just one small thing: - Fix Discord link on start screen Now you can join the DINO MERCS discord server to report bugs (there are probably at least a few), discuss the game, and give feedback!

It's Early Access Release day for DINO MERCS! While it's an exciting day, I'm not celebrating quite yet - still have a lot of work to do. I'm currently cleaning up bugs and rough patches. Also, I'll be starting on a patch to address some game balance issues. Here's what I've fixed so far today: v1.0.0 - Lower requirements for unlocking the other two characters - Fix issue where transitioning between scenes with either music or SFX muted caused unmute button to not be interactable - Overhaul tooltips ... again. Too many issues with previous implementation - Fix issues with UI/SFX audio not being on the right mixer channel in some cases, causing SFX to trigger even when SFX was muted - Reduce damage reduction from Smoked/Overheated/Suppressed (50/75% -> 25/50%) - Fix Battery shield blocking the first status in status grid v1.0.1 - Fix rewards store (missing new tooltips and had some issues with non-card challenges breaking the page) v1.0.2 - Fix title track not persisting to achievements/unlocks/intro/character-selection screens - Fix enemy statuses not having working info text tooltips

Greetings fellow gamers! We are thrilled to announce that DINO MERCS, has officially launched on Steam Early Access! As a small indie studio, we poured our hearts and souls into creating a game that we believe captures the thrill of battling fierce enemies with a squad of powerful dinosaurs. With unique card-playing mechanics and infinite arcade-style gameplay, DINO MERCS offers an experience that is both challenging and rewarding. And let's not forget about the dinosaurs themselves! We worked tirelessly to create characters that have own unique abilities and skills. But don't just take our word for it. We invite you to join the ranks of the Dark Solar Defense, a shadowy private military corporation run by dinosaur mercenaries, and embark on an adventure unlike any other. Whether you're looking for a challenge or a more laid-back run, DINO MERCS has something for everyone. Thank you for supporting our small indie studio and we can't wait to hear your thoughts on our game. Best regards, Tim https://store.steampowered.com/app/1827640/DINO_MERCS/

Just one more day until the EA release! I've been hard at work balancing the game (still more to do, but getting closer!), fixing bugs, and applying polish. You'll continue to hear a lot more from me (Tim, the dev) on here, Discord, and Twitter. But for now, I've got to get back to work for the big release tomorrow! 0.22.0 - Add lots of card art UI Improvements - More refinements to attack card tooltips - reduce delay on card hover by half Cards - Fix Machine Gun Nest & Flak Cannons - Fix issues with "Look The Other Way" card, change card effect and fix description Bug Squashing - Fixed some issues with stat/status tooltips - Fixed toxic gas is showing the smoked tooltip 0.23.0 - Wire up initial EA achievements to Steam Game Balance - Lower requirements for unlocking most of the cards in game - Burning status reduces repairs by 50% instead of 100% - Increase initial Base Repairs to 25 - Rework Utter Carnage card (too underpowered compared to Primal Instincts as game progresses) Bug Squashing - Revert change where Merc Killer rewards were granted after the fight, now they are granted at beginning of encounter again - Fix some bugs regarding base repairs - Fix some SFX issues with base attackers/defenders

Early Access release is coming soon! I'm hard at work polishing the game leading up to the release happening this Thursday (April 20th). DINO MERCS is my very first game as a new game developer, so being so close to release has brought up a lot of emotions. Equal parts excitement and nervousness, mostly! You'll probably see one more release on here before v1.0.0 (EA) releases. I need to finish some art, add more Steam achievements, and, as always, do a ton of playtesting to continue ironing out balance and more. If you'd like to join in the discussions about the game and see some of the details of the playtesting taking place, join the DINO MERCS discord: https://discord.gg/sTKZgkjr , we'd love to have you there. Here are the v0.21.0 patch notes: - Add mastered soundtrack! - Add lots of card art Game Balance - More variety between enemies - some have high shields/low armor and vice versa - Switch Killing Machine to Operation duration - Nerf some exceptionally high damage types (warhead: 200% -> 120%, explosive++: 100% -> 75%, Armor Piercing++/EMP++/Necrotic++: 200% -> 120%) - Buff enemy sector bonuses (enemy base HP/Shield/Armored/Attack increase with each sector) UI Improvements - Clean up Attack card tooltips - Add View Legends button to combat/base defense header - General UI polish - Add more information about current supplies/money to operation nodes Bug Squashing - Temporary fix for overlapping ultra-status pills - Hide flashing "exfill" options when an enemy is defeated - Fix Ravaged status was using Burning icon/info text - Fix the wording of Scavenger operation node choices - Ensure that Base Defense ends at the set number of rounds, and it's the enemy's turn - Fixes for edge cases with completed sectors and challenges - Fix logic determining whether Base Repair options are available for selection or not - Ensure that if cards in discard pile + deck + "to drain" is less than or equal to 5, you don't end up with less than 5 cards after draining (discard instead as a temp solution) - Fix some issues with sector progression

We're happy to announce the wait is soon over: DINO MERCS is coming out on Thursday, the April 20th.

About the Early Access

Feedback & Community

Wishlist now

0.20.0 update is now live.

Another update is live on steam for playtesters. A lot of stuff here: v0.19.0 General Game Improvements - Add unique challenges for card unlocks - Update all achievements with unique challenges (no more score X points in a single run!) - Make some improvements to tutorial, more simple/clear Game Balance - Up card damage by 50% to help speed up combat encounters - Standardize buff/debuff gains from buff/debuff cards (make more consistent across different cards) - make average/deadly negative effects on buff/debuff cards less drastic - Improve and simplify T-rex/Triceratops starting decks - Nerf Expert Contractor card (less +Repairs, card drains in positive slots) - Toxic Gas cards work like Smoke Grenade card now, Toxic Gas status is imparted to both player/enemy - Decrease Snap Out Of It buffs/debuffs, way less dramatic now - Mutilated/Ravaged can no longer bring Max HP below 1, even if greater than Max HP - Remove status/stat debuffs from Anti-Matter Cannon. Remove drain. Add Ignores In Cover. Cards - Add Base status cards to enemy waves: - Set Aflame (Burning status Enemy card) - Severe Damage (Ravaged status Enemy card) - Too Many Of Them! (Surrounded status Enemy card) - Blindsided (increases dazed by %) Enemies - Add Average Carnotaurus (BSC TROOPER) variant - Add Deadly Carnotaurus (BSC TROOPER) variant - Add Average Corythosaurus (HNG TROOPER) variant - Add Deadly Cryolophosaurus (RPL SHOCK TROOPER) variant - Add Deadly Gallimimus (HNG SNIPER) variant - Add Average Pachycephalosaurus (BSC BRAWLER) variant - Add Average Protoceratops (RPL SCOUT) variant - Add Deadly Styracosaurus (RPL HEAVY TROOPER) variant - Add Average Velicoraptor (BSC RECON) variant UI Improvements - Enemy / Player drops down off the screen when dead, instead of to the side - Add headers to damage dealt/modifiers sections on attack card tooltips - Increase scroll speed on unlocks and achievement screens - Show Achievements/challenges completed as a popup in the top left corner - Scale cards up and down on hover in static views (stores, unlocks, etc.) Bug Squashing - SAM defender had wrong card identity - Improve tooltips on Mission Overview - Fix statuses on Mission Overview - Fix some more lingering issues with loading the game with correct fullscreen mode - Fix Achievements grid covering up Back button on very wide dimensions (referrence: 1200x600) - Fix broken Enemy Armor Crush generic description - Ensure that players can't make their deck smaller than 5 cards (at least 5 cards needed for the game to run) - Fix issue with locked cards showing up in card reward stores

Greetings mercenaries, to our first Feature Reveal! From now on we are going to reveal all the biggest features, and cards one by one. Starting this series of reveals on the cards of DINO MERCS. First off, a basic card you'll be playing the most right off the bat:

S.I.R. (Standard Issue Rifle)

0.18.0

General Game Improvements

Game Balance

Cards

UI Improvements

Bug Squashing

Attention all DINO MERCS players! We have some exciting news about recent updates to the game. Thanks to the feedback and bug reports from our amazing playtesters, we have been able to make significant improvements and bug fixes to the game. The latest updates include:

• Alternating between player and enemy turns
• Defining one round as one player turn and one enemy turn
• Nerfing some weak enemy defense card options
• Reverting back to 3 positive slots and 2 negative slots for enemy turns
• Increasing Strykr regen from 7 to 10
• Removing Armored from Enemy Bull Rush card
• Decreasing initial repairs stat
• Adding more art assets
• Making Ambush a rare card and giving it Kinetic++ damage
• Adding Shallow Wounds card to make BLOODLESS more viable
• Improving descriptions on cards
• Decrementing round-duration statuses on player turn
• Scaling up cards in unlocks screen and showing only 4 per row
• Allowing you to view possible enemy cards during a combat encounter
• Having 50% of money/supplies carry over to the next run
• Making cards available for purchase on reward screens no longer restricted by current sector or by rarity

Greetings, mercenaries! This is Dude, Community person from Bonus Stage Publishing, and I have some news for you. We start closed playtest on 6th of the March 2023. It's like already next Monday. Join here, and we send you a Steam key: https://forms.gle/Yhi2sWoQTjY9WH2HA We have done lot's of improvements since last version. This new version brings number of enemies in the enemy pool to 15 5 Merc Killers, and 10 standard enemies. Latest version also introduces a number of fixes to how runs are saved/loaded. It won't be perfect yet, but should be better than ever before. WARNING: in general this release will be somewhat buggy/unbalanced, so only play if you're willing to deal with that. We did some playtesting ourselves and fixed a few game-breaking bugs, but there might be more. And that's why we need more people to give this game a shot. The good news is that this is the last large release before v1.0.0 (public release). Now, the only updates we'll be pushing are bug fixes, balance fixes, and adding in missing art assets. So instead of introducing more new stuff, it'll all be about polishing and fixing what already exists. "If you try out this release, thank you in advance! It means a lot to me." -Tim the Developer Any feedback would be much appreciated! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1827640/DINO_MERCS/

DINO MERCS was selected to be a part of TurnBasedFest, so for a limited time I've made a new demo available for the duration of the festival. Be sure to try it out to see what I've been hard at work on! A lot has changed recently, I switched game engines, revamped a lot of the game concepts, added new characters and cards, and more. If you check out the demo and have feedback, please join the discord server so I can take your feedback and make the game better! A big thank you to anyone who checks out the demo! I'll be posting more frequently on steam about updates to the game and general development news. -Tim (DINO MERCS dev)

Enter here the ultimate SFXs of explosions and dinosaur growls as in 2022 you will be able to beat the baddies as dinosaur mercenaries and make your teenage dreams come true! Bonus Stage Publishing is set to release DINO MERCS, a roguelite deckbuilder by Unusual Undertaking. DINO MERCS is a roguelike deckbuilding game where you play the role of a veteran member of Dark Solar Defense, a shadowy private military corporation run by dinosaur mercenaries. You've just been assigned a straightforward mission on a newly found planet, but quickly discover that the planet holds a dark secret and multiple forces fighting for control of it. To survive, you will go on operations, engage in fierce combat, and defend your forward operating base from attackers. DINO MERCS is coming out in autumn 2022 on PC, and it has a demo out now on Steam Next Fest for you to try out immediately! About the developer: Unusual Undertaking is a one-person game dev studio currently located in Seattle, Washington (soon to be Glasgow, Scotland!). Tim, the studio head/president/CEO, has wanted to draw pictures of dinosaurs for a job since he was five. So, naturally, he founded a studio that makes dinosaur-themed indie games. About the Publisher: Bonus Stage Publishing was established in 2019 in Finland. They have published games like Sunblaze, Warshmallows, and JANITOR BLEEDS. The company is publishing ten indie games every year.

Thanks for checking out DINO MERCS during Next Fest! I'm glad you're here. DINO MERCS is a roguelike deckbuilder featuring mercenary dinosaurs and brutal gameplay. The game will be live-streamed by the solo indie dev building the game!

Thanks for checking out DINO MERCS during Next Fest! I'm glad you're here. DINO MERCS is a roguelike deckbuilder featuring mercenary dinosaurs and brutal gameplay. The game will be live-streamed by the solo indie dev building the game!